July 12, 2000

One year ago: I had just returned from vacation (deja vu?) and I met Wing and Glark in person for the first time. Also, I talk shit about nerdy role-playing boys.

So, I'm back! Pamie wrote to me and told me to freaking update already. She is merciless, that Pamie. So here I am. Wow, it has been a while though, huh? I had to do a whole new month's design and everything. Of course, that required a new color scheme and a new graphic for the top bar, which meant downloading a new free font and installing it, so you can see how complicated the whole thing is. Plus, after spending about an hour figuring it all out, I hate this color scheme anyway. I was trying to be all trendy with the blue and the orange, but it all went wrong somewhere. Oh well, it's only for two weeks. Anyway, that picture is where I spent my vacation. Pretty, huh?

Eric came to visit before we even went on vacation. We have had a lot of visitors this summer, and I am loving it. Anyway, there was a cheap flight from Detroit, so Eric decided to take advantage since we had been nagging him to come home and see us, and he finally did. He and Jim hung around and played golf and such while I worked feverishly to finish all my work before leaving for vacation. We all went to the zoo, which was really great! Aw, I have some great pictures from the zoo, but I haven't prepared them for this entry. Maybe later. Anyway, we got to see the baby elephant and the tigers and everything. I even saw the wolves for the first time ever. It was a very successful trip to the zoo, all told. I think the Syracuse Zoo is great. It's not so big that you are completely overwhelmed and exhausted when you finish. Jim said San Diego was like that. You can do the Syracuse Zoo in about 2 hours, and they still have all the animals you could want. Lion? Check. Tigers? Check. Monkeys? Of course. Baby elephants? Yes, please. The only animals it doesn't have are a nice assortment of bears, and penguins. And they're raising money right now for a penguin/sea lion exhibit! Now we just need some polar bears or panda bears, and we'd be all set. Anyway, the zoo was fun.

Monday morning, Jim and I headed to the mountains. Of course, it was pouring after a fairly hot weekend. We had to stop at Wal-Mart and buy some beach towels, but our trip was fairly uneventful. The picture of the dog is Jim's sister's dog, Pocket. You may remember Pocket from last year, but if not, click here for a picture. What a difference a year makes, huh?

That lovely young lady to the left is Jim's niece, Andrea, showing me her temporary tattoo. Isn't she a cutie? I have lots of pictures to share in the days ahead. So what did I do on vacation? Read a lot of books. Swam a little, although it was mostly too cold. Played a lot of gin with Jim. Gin with Jim sounds like a band name. Played with the kids. Went for walks. Took pictures. Didn't have access to the internet and only watched a little bit of television. It was a nice respite. Anyway, the reason I haven't done a journal entry is because I have work to do that unfortunately takes precedence. I have been updating the weblog because I use Blogger and that makes things a lot easier. No FTPing, no coding, just right click and boom! So you can always check there if you are jonesing for an update, because this is probably going to be the only one this week. As always, you can join the notify list if you get sick of checking back all the time. I would love to write more, but work beckons. Later, gators!

P.S. Reunion Countdown: 3 days away! I have to go shopping!