Wow, we're finally back. I've got a lot to document now.

Let's start with the wedding.

It was great. Really, it went smooth (I thought) and even if there were little things that didn't go as planned, I didn't even notice it. Thanks to everyone who made it happen, especially Laura and her Mom. I know they worked on it pretty much everyday for the last few months.

Pictures are up at the photographer's website. We went down to pick photos for our album, and he did a great job with the pictures as well. Lots of great ones, candid, people having fun, etc. Now I just need those photos on disc. :)

I want to see the videographer's stuff too. As much as I like photos, it can't quite tell the story like video can.

I know that was a short explanation for everything and I know I left out everything, pretty much, but overall it was a great time and I will remember it until I die. I'm happy to be married to Laura and I know she feels the same.

The honeymoon, leaving 2 days after the wedding, was also fun. We had the best room, great service, and apart from a couple of dozen sandfly bites (more later) that I took home and a little fight we had on our kayaking adventure, it was great. I've posted pictures on my Flickr. Wasn't crowded at all, either. Maybe 50-60 people max at the entire resort and at any given time, we didn't see more than 20 people probably walking around, eating, etc.

Sandflies...man...my arms are tore up still from these silent strikers. It's sooo itchy and it's nothing compared to a mosquito bites that itches a little, then goes away in a day or two. It's been a week, and it's finally starting to show some kind of healing effect, but man, I'm glad we don't have those here in Wyoming. I did read there are some around the states, though.

What else...school is starting, which means it's about time for me to start bitching at the neighbors when they start to get loud...hopefully it's our last year here...I have faith in Laura's passing of the comps. Work is good. We're all supposed to get raises going effective the first paycheck of September, but we'll see about that.

Hm...I have more to say, but I'll end it here. My blog isn't dead yet!!!!

-James

I'm off to Longmont/Denver, but not before dropping the dogs off at the kennel. I hope I've got all the stuff that I need packed.

Most importantly:

Dog food, toys, essentials...check!
Passport...check!
Rings...check!
Clothes...check!
Projector/laptop for rehearsal dinner...check!
Wallet with ID, money...check!

I think that's the bare minimum that I need to get by, and I have much more than that in my car, so that's a good start.

See y'all.

Well...last day in Laramie for the next week and a half. I'm almost done packing and doing laundry stuff. I hope I didn't forget anything!

Tomorrow morning I'm dropping the dogs off for the week and a half at a kennel.

But...I better get going.

Be back with some pictures in a couple of weeks!!

9 days!!

I'm still alive. Not much to write, except that things have been steadily busy and stuff, both work and outside of work.

Laura and I + the dogs went on an EARLY morning (basically sunrise) walk/hike around the Snowy Mountains yesterday. It was a fun time, despite getting up at 4 o'clock, but it was worth it. I got a lot of nice photos from the sunset and I'm actually thinking about framing one of the panoramas that I did (FINALLY tried the new way of taking photos which will be stitched together, and it worked beautifully). I'll try to make the frame and all, too. We'll see how it turns out.

Here's a few of the latest shots on Flickr.

See ya soon.

P.S> A month and a half left! :)

May 14th...wow.

Suppose I better do an update.

The big thing, of course, is TJ's marriage to Ashley. I hope they live together a long time. I was given the honor of taping their wedding, from rehearsal to reception. I learned a lot, and that my taping was pretty shaky, but I think I did an ok job considering I didn't know what to expect. I'm in the process of clipping the footage and making a video for them. Hopefully they'll like it.

This weekend is Laura's wedding shower. It's going to be at Chris' house, so I'm going down to keep him company while it's going on. I think we're going to hit the driving range and doing some other things.

I also got my economic stimulus direct deposit last week. I was psyched for that. It's all going in PayPal so I can pay off my wisdom teeth come August.

Other than that, I've just been working. Playing A LOT less WoW these days. I'm actually bored of it and the content is stupid. I've been playing here and there the last few days, because I've been bored, but whatever.

I'm along for the next couple of days. Laura's down in Denver with her family doing stuff, so.

I've been fiddling with my new found fun, bit torrent via ThePirateBay.org...lots of cool stuff and it's quite fast once you figure it all out. :)

Tomorrow is the reception for the photo contest for this year. I actually won the category for winter activities! Thanks to my coworker's son whom I photographed this past winter when we went ice fishing. I'm going to attend with a couple of coworkers for a little bit to see the other pictures and winners, but dunno how long I'll stay. I don't want to stay long, but I would want to get my prize if we get them this year.

We'll I'm about to watch bits and pieces of Cloverfield when it finishes downloading, lol, and then I'm off to bed.

Laters.

P.S. Love you and miss you already, Laura!

Just a quick update. I know I haven't kept up at all on my blog, but yeah, just wanted to say I thank and love Laura for taking care of me while I recovered from my wisdom teeth extraction. It went a lot better than I had expected - hearing people say "Oh, you're going to puff up so much." - "Man, it's going to hurt afterwards!" blah, blah.

It didn't hurt at all. Right now it's just sore from the recovery, if that makes sense. I think my teeth are finally "resettling" back into my gums. I do have 12 tablets of Vicodin if anyone needs. I didn't opt for the nitrous gas either: A) I didn't think I needed it B) It would have been an extra $150.

But yeah, apart from the dick ass neighbors (whom we called the cops on, but probably won't learn anyway) last night, it's going good.

TJ finished his race, so congrats to him. Ashley is doing well. Chris is as well (Ashley's). Chris B. is of course, doing fine. His silver platter is still shining bright and strong. :)

Well, time to go. I will, however, promise that I will have another of my "projects" soon. I miss doing it.

Okay, it's been too long and there hasn't been much of a "good" post lately. This is an attempt to make up for it. And also stay tuned for the yearly review post. :)

25 things to do before I die, in no particular order:

1. Visit every continent
2. Visit all 7 wonders of the ancient world
3. Be a good husband
4. Be a good father
5. Be a good son
6. Be a good friend
   
7. Buy or build a house with no help
8. Never fall behind on technology
9. Own a home theater
10. Own a 600+ hp Supra
11. Laura and I to 'travel the world' via cruise package
12. Skydive
13. Never lose touch with those you care about
14. To die knowing you lived your life fully
15. Win an award
16. Win a contest
17. Make 1 famous (...fairly) website
18. Never stop blogging
19. Speak to an audience of 500 or more people
20. Have a glass-blowing workshop at home
21. Make Cranes for a Wish be something
22. Never stop thinking outside the box
23. Be embarrassed in public
24. Take that one, awesome photograph
25. Be remembered for something cool

Okay, so I just finished up the continuation of this list...it was originally 50 things, but I couldn't (or rather, had a hard time trying) get 50 all that easy, so...it's 25 for now.

AND...since I probably won't be blogging over the holidays, I'll make this my yearly review as well.

Man, 6 years blogging and a lot has gone by. Cataloging these many years semi-consistently is kinda cool in that you can go back and read it all again. The most notable thing in recent times is TJ getting engaged and getting married this coming Spring. That was unexpected! But congratulations to them. Everyone else seems to be doing well in their own lives. Making decisions, having fun, having crises, etc. All part of life.

This year has gone by quick. Lots of wedding planning, getting Callie spontaneously, moving to the sales fulfillment position at work, Laura getting her masters, and much more little things made this another year to remember.

This coming year will be another big one in my life, most notably being Laura and I getting married. 9 more months! And then our honeymoon to Belize. That's going to be fun I think. It still hasn't hit yet that it's going to be on August 9th...but in due time. We can finally "start" our life. Seems like I've been bringing up the topic of our kids names more, for some reason. Haha.

Enough small talk to fill up my blog.

I guess I'll just end this blog, and probably my last blog for this year, by saying that it's been a great year once again and memories have been made. I hope that all my friends and family stay well through to the next year and beyond. I already have some new "projects" in mind for next year since my A Picture a Day officially finished on December 1st of this year. It was fun, and I'm surprised that I was able to complete it.

Well, I'm going to clean up a little bit in the study and head to bed. I leave on Friday for Oklahoma and I gotta do some cleaning before I leave...dunno why, but I don't want to leave the home a mess. All my Christmas presents are done and waiting to go to their respective persons. I'm looking forward to having almost 2 weeks off from work.

Happy holidays everyone and good-bye to 2007 in 12 days!

-James

Well, it's been a while and frankly I can't even remember where I left off. So, just an update of recent stuff.

The neighbors are stupid, music-listeners...they have no consideration and I want to move. It's going to be at least 2 more years but when that's over, I am not renting an apartment, townhouse, duplex, ANYTHING that requires sharing a wall anymore. I've had enough.

Work is good. Some days are super busy, some aren't. most are somewhere in between. Softball is finally done and while we sucked, I did leave with a nice scar mark from where I tripped on my FACE. Oh well.

The wedding stuff is going well too (I think!). We've registered for more stuff and I just have to get our registries updated on our website: http://www.james-laura.com

Not much else going on. Been doing some websites for clients and finishing them up lately. With Callie being new, though, things have been super hectic. Lately, though, Kip's been a dick about hopping up on the bed at like 4am in the morning. No idea, but tonight I think we're going to switch sides to see what he does.

So yeah, been a while since I wrote, but I don't think much is new. I got some hepatitus shots and a tetanus shot that had my arm sore for a while. The shots aren't done yet, but they cost a lot...I'm almost caught up on bills and debts though, so that's good.

We are *thinking* about heading camping on Saturday, but it's going to be so cold, I don't even want to think about it and not go. The majority is agreeing not to go, since there's a chance it's going to snow. I am looking at buying a propane heater. I figure it might come in useful other times than camping. Who knows.

TJ bought a new laptop and I've been wanting to get a new desktop for Laura, but that'll wait for a couple of months I think. I think Ashley's been while too. Something about wanting to sell banana bread on Craigslist was the latest thing I heard. Chris is same ol', living with Alicia in his huge ass house he's paying diddly squat for. Someday...he'll learn.

Laura's at her alcohol awareness thing tonight. She'll be back around 10pm I guess.

Well, until then, I'll probably surf...maybe take a bath.

Hello world!

I'm not dead.

Thought I'd update saying happy b-day to T.J.

So our vacation was fun! I'll write about it soon, but um, yeah, we got a new puppy/dog!!!!

Just a quick blog to say things are the same old. Ashley stayed a few days and that was fun. Here's a chorus snippet of one my of favorite songs this year:

" We live on front porches and swing life away
We get by just fine here on minimum wage
If love is a labor I'll slave till the end
I won't cross these streets until you hold my hand"

Wasting away life with friends is just fine by me!

The first day of Summer is coming to an end and it seemed like Summer. It was hot and all that jazz. It's cooled down now and the wind is kicking up.

I'll start off with a couple things that pissed me off today. Our next door neighbor is working on their siding the last few days. Today as I came home for lunch I saw that they were listening to the radio working on the front siding WITH THE CORD PLUGGED INTO OUR OUTLET...I mean wtf. I'm not here to pay for the damn electric bill. The last few days there's been window siding and panes leaned up against our garage in the back area between the fence door and trash cans...again, wtf. It's not like we use the area there, but that's not the point. Next week I'm trying to get Chris up here to power wash and paint the garage, so it better be gone by then or we're going to move it.
People are so inconsiderate sometimes I just can't believe it. Who the fuck raised them?

Anyway, tomorrow is a half day for me and I'll be putting Kip at the kennel and driving up to Sheridan. Should be fun with the Buffalo Bill show we're going to. I'll be taking my camera to take some pictures.

Summer is half gone or at least it seems like it. I know, Summer just started, but you know what I mean.

There was a little snafu with our mini vacation since Brian is going to be doing a wedding and he needed to take the same days we were going to take, but I think we've come up with a situation and gonna take Saturday > Tuesday off. Should work better this way and might be even cheaper in some ways.

But yeah, that's about it going on. Same ol' working and stuff.

Talk to you later.

I think it's time for a long one, but of course, it starts at 11pm. :P

Anyway, I'm driving up to Casper tomorrow to meet up with Laura and I'm excited! Yeah, driving up 3 hours to spend $60 and gas to stay at a Motel 6 just overnight might sound ridiculous, but I think it's not bad. At first did think that it might be a waste to drive almost as much as the time at the destination, but I miss Laura!

I'm listening to music again to help me fuel my boredom and I, again, can't emphasize enough how music gets into people's lives.

I mean, everyone can probably think of a time in their life and pick a song that perfectly illustrates that time, or vice versa. So, inspired by this thought, I was going to list some songs that ALWAYS reminds me of certain times. It's strange that these same moments always come up. I guess they're intertwined in my brain?


These are not in any certain order:

Sum 41 - Fat Lip: Man, this always reminds me of Fall 2001. Living at Chris' house, going to college (although not very well :) ), working at Steele's Drake store and heading over to Derek/Ashley's house almost nightly to, you know, visit the "shack". It was a time of no worries really, for some reason. I had debts, I had things to do, but for some reason each day went by and push things back and stuff. I can't explain it. I guess we were all immature back then.

Counting Crows - Hangin' Around: Always reminds me of when Chris, Amanda, her friend Ashley and I drove to Park Meadows (dunno why) to hang out. I remember the drive there and back.

Carbon Leaf - Any song from their latest album: Me driving to and from Cathedral Home and the first apartment that Laura and I lived in Laramie. This was the only time I had to listen to music really while not working or at home. I listened to these guys A LOT. Brings back the bad memories of working there, but hey, it's another part of my life.

Stroke 9 - Little Black Backpack: I happen to see this in the Napster list, but man, brings back freshman memories from CSU, hangin' out with Ben and Chris. Listening to music, playing StarCraft (man we played a lot) and eating in the cafeteria.

There are probably many more and I know there is, but I can't think of any right now that stand out.

The latest song that I like a lot is Rob Thomas' Little Wonders (I think that's the name). One line in that song: "Our lives are made, in these small hours, these little wonders, ..."

It just reiterates my thought that it is the little things that count in life.

I think Kip's been pretty lonely too since I have to work the majority of the day and Laura's gone. I come home for like 30-40 minutes and I go get lunch so. I could probably do better in hanging out with him more but you know.

Laura and I have been talking about getting a new dog so Kip has a playmate and isn't so lonely, but we can't come to a decision on when or what we want.

Well I should probably get to sleeping since I have a semi-long drive tomorrow and it's late.

Laters until next time...oh it's the 1st of the month!

Good luck on your 1st day at work Laura!

I'm sitting here, listening to some Eve 6 via Napster.com, it's pretty empty in this house. Not material wise, but without Laura being here, it's boring and I ended playing WoW for the majority of the day.

Anyway, I was going to make this one a long one, but I don't think tonight's going to be the one.

In other news, my camera is still going well and will HOPEFULLY be getting a zoom lens soon. :)

Other than our stupid neighbors setting up criss/crossing lights and tiki torches up in their backyard for a stupid tropical party (or so it seemed, I was able to leave before they started), I've confirmed they're gay...what else do you call 2 guys putting sunscreen on each other...

I want to move into a house with no neighbors sharing the same wall! Today was like house-working day or something. The neighbor next to the idiots were also doing house work and our other neighbor (whom left recently), I saw a couple of guys, father and son, doing work in the kitchen. I saw them take out the old kitchen cabinets and stuff.......ahhh, I can't wait for total isolation when we move into a house together.

Wow, so I'm not going to check out my other post to see what I've written, but I'll write some stuff about the last month.

The biggest thing would be that Laura has graduated with her Masters...that was last Friday. I'm really proud of her and we're nearly halfway to getting out of Laramie. (Although, it's not as bad as one might think, only sometimes). She's currently in Oklahoma for Mother's day. I don't think I'll be going down or anything. Well, maybe. I might go down Saturday night to Chris' to help move some stuff and possibly head down to Denver to meet up with Laura, but that's a lot of driving for a poor man with gas prices rising.

What other news...I guess Ashley has moved in with her parents for the time being during the transition to Colorado and waiting for Chris to come back. I think she's doing good, though.

Chris, well, he's still with Alicia and are going to be living together soon. He finally got a job in Boulder and will be moving closer to where his parents get him a house...yeah, yeah.

It's FINALLY Summer weather. Today was actually hot, and I didn't like it. It's never right in the middle where you like it.

The other big news and which took a big chunk out of my wallet was my new camera purchase. Yep, finally upgraded to a digital SLR. Here's my camera. I've been super into taking pictures lately, partly due to a friend of mine at work who also does pictures and into it. I haven't really gone at it with the new camera, but I hope to try it out this weekend. Here are some stuff that I've done with my old camera, which is still in play. I think I might buy a memory card and give it to Laura.

My Flickr gallery

Yeah, hopefully I could take some cool pictures when we go on our honeymoon. I don't think I've written that yet, but I think we've decided on Hamanasi, which is a tropical area in Belize. Looks fun and relaxing. Things to do like cave tubing, snorkeling/SCUBA, hiking, etc. It's over a year and a little bit, but I can't wait.

So with the wedding, we've got a lot taken care of, just now need to find the videographer, which I'm not too into and the DJ, which Laura has someone in mind. The food is ready and all, the reception, the rehearsal dinner, ceremony, etc.

I've found a new favorite band, although who haven't released anything new, I like their old stuff. Blue James Band is the name. And no, not because it has my name. I like "Come Away", "Remember Me", "Same Person", and "Falling Down". I found it through Pandora.com. I've been listening to more music at work too. Work is going good.

So, I'm debating whether to write a lot this blog or not. I don't have any deep thoughts I want to write down at the moment.

It's getting pretty late and tired, so I think I'll stop for now. But, I should get back to blogging soon. I miss it. I'm no "everyday" write anymore, but yeah.

I hope everyone's doing well in their own place in the world.

No, I'm not dead!!! Be back later.

Laura's coming home today!

Also, man oh man, found some ooolllddd pictures...should be interesting.