2008

January

On the first day of 2008 I had PRK preformed on both of my eyes.  I spent 3 years thinking seriously about having eye surgery.  My decision to have PRK instead of LASIK was made when I searched LASIK on youtube.  One of the first results was a LASIK flap amputation.  No thank you, not for me!  Also when I had gone to the first two consultations at two well known LASIK places in town, both because of recommendations, they both had me feeling like I was at a car lot.  They just did not make me feel good.  I decided to go to the Casey Eye Institute at OHSU.  It cost me $150 just for the consultation, but what a difference!  They totally made me feel comfortable and they were being honest with me and not avoiding answering some of my hard questions.

PRK has a longer recovery time than LASIK, but I was 100% aware of it so it did not concern me much.  All in all, it was a good decision, but I do not recommend it to anyone without them doing a lot of homework first them self.  Don't just listen to the marketing people, and don't assume that everyone has a good experience with eye surgeries.  I am happy to tell people all the details, if they want to listen, but they can be a little graphic.  ;)

February

I left the country for the first time (Canada does not count) in February, I went to Israel.  So many people thought I was crazy for going, they could not get that I wanted to just go.  I still can not sum up my feelings about going in less than 2 hours (sorry for anyone that had to listen to me before I could get it down to 2 hours) so I am not going to drag you though it.  You can take the picture tour.  Summed up, I loved it.

March and April

My search for a new job started picking up the pace.  I got an interview for a company that I would have loved to work for.  Just applying for the job was nerve racking, as I did not want to mess anything up.  Once I got past the first phone interview, it got a little easier.  Once I made it to the in person interviews, I was having so much fun, if I did not get the job I would not have cared, the interviews were fun.  The in person interviews were tough.  They seemed to be asking questions about things that were not on the job description.  When I left, I felt that I had done OK, but not great.  After what seemed like 2 months (in reality it was 2 weeks) I got my rejection phone call.  I still had fun during the process.  Looking back, I would have been a good idea to have had a couple of interviews under my belt before applying for this job, but oh well.

July

After 6+ months of looking, applying, and interviewing for new jobs I finally had a couple of offers.  One offer was for a company in Tigard, making what I was looking for as far as pay was concerned.  The other being in San Antonio, TX making just a little more than I was currently making.  I found out that the place in Tigard was not a good place to work, and the place in SA had an amazing reputation for being a great place to work.  I now had the hardest decision I had ever made in my life to make.  Take the job in SA, move away from everyone and everything I know or wait and see what other offers I could get.

August

I moved to San Antonio, TX in August.  I left Vancouver, with what fit in my car on July 28, I rivaled the Beverly Hillbillies with how funny my car looked.  I took 4 days to drive down.  It was a fun drive.  I wish I would have had a bit more time, and even more so wish I would have had someone with me to enjoy it with.  TX is like a foreign country.  Nothing was normal.  I could not figure out how to get anywhere. I wanted to just start driving back about 2 days after being here.

November

For Thanksgiving this year I went to Houston to visit Linda and David Ling.  I had been in TX 4 months and still had not found time to go over and visit.  They are the only people I knew in the whole state.  It was a fun weekend.  I had been told that Houston was not that great of a place, but I liked it.  It was a bit of a reminder when I got out of the car at how much closer to the ocean they are than SA, the humidity was gross.

December

I went home to Vancouver in December for Jason and Andrea's wedding.  The wedding went off great despite the snow and the 20 degree temperatures.  My plans to see a lot of people were thrown all out with the snow.  I was still able to see many people, and overall I had a great time visiting.  It just gives me more of a reason to come back sooner.

And that was 2008 in a nut shell.  Hello 2009.

Here today, gone tomorrow

So my brother sent me this picture of my deck.

It looked like this less than 4 days ago...

We were going to barbecue something just to say we did, I don't remember why we did not...

My bed is great

So I bought a new bed back in the beginning of November.  After spending a week sleeping on my old bed in Vancouver, never again will I buy a normal bed.  This thing lives up to all that it promises.  

When I got in bed last week, I felt like a was sleeping on a bed made of cotton balls, absolutely no support what so ever.  It really was weird feeling.  I got OK sleep last week, but I was rushing to so many places the first couple of days, that I blame the bad sleep on that. 

Now that I am back sleeping on my new bed, I don't know if I can blame my schedule at all.

10F

I have sat in seat 10F on all 5 of my flights.

Now that I am back in TX I have to remember to keep my oppinion about the place to my self. :)

Less than 24 hours left

Like Cinderella before midnight, I have less than 24 hours before I fly back to SA.  

I have not got to see people I would have liked to have seen.  I did not make it to Seattle to see my friends up there.  We were not able to get to our family Christmas gathering due to the snow, so I have not got to see my grandma, or any of my aunts or uncles.  A few of my friends in the Vancouver area, we just never were able to meet up... oh well I guess.  There is always next time.

Gingerbread house

So I put together my gingerbread house today.



The roof is covered in a mixture of peanut butter chips and cinnamon chips. The walls have some andes mints on them. The front walk is reeses pieces and the timber framing is cinnamon sticks.

I think my niece and nephew will like eating this.

Home covered in snow

So this snow is getting to be a pit of an inconvenience.  Some snow is fun, but I can not remember ever having this much snow for this long.  It normally is melting after a day or two.

This is what my deck looked like on Saturday, about 7".  Tonight it was 10" and going. 

--- Update ---

Woke up to 12" and the end of the ruler.  We tried to upgrade to a 15" ruler, but could only make it 4" in the snow till we hit ice.  So we can now measure up to 23" total.  Lets hope not.

This is my sisters front yard from today.

Jason's friend Mark, who was in from Chicago, was commenting on the way home from the wedding, that it was starting to look like Chicago.

Snow wedding

So Jason and Andrea's wedding went off great.  The snow was not going to stop this day.  The snow only added to the memory of the day.

There flight to Mexico was canceled, but they got another day at the Hilton downtown, and people are doing all they can to get them on a flight.

Home

I am home.  It is nice to be back.  To go to some place you are so familiar with is great.  As we were landing, I could recognise a bunch of places from the air.  When I got off the plane, there was no confusion as to where to go.  As we drove across the river, to my house, I knew all of the roads and exits.  It is great.

My house was bare looking because my brother moved some furniture around for the poker table.  I was told it needed more space than it really did.  Oh well.  I cleaned up and put stuff back this morning and it looks much closer to how I left it.

I could keep going on and on, but I won't.

It is good to be home.

Bachelor party

So Jason's party went well.  Everyone that said they would come, came.  We played poker with a professional poker dealer for 3 hours or so and then some of us went out and got a quick bite to eat.  In the end when we removed the limits, Jason ended up winning the last hand.  No one just gave it up by any means.

My flight coming in to PDX from SFO was delayed almost 2 hours, so they went without me to get there tuxes and then picked me up on there way back.  It worked out well.

I need to remember to never have a connecting flight at SFO aver again.  That airport sucks.  No signs, way too many people.  I had to exit the secure area and walk to another terminal for my flight.  So I had to go through security again.