1/6th the way through 2007

Alright beautiful people, here's how this post is going to work. I'm not nearly as organized about this as Emily, so the following body of text will be a barrage of noteworthy things that have happened since the last post, along with tentative future plans.

Most importantly, Emily took her nursing board exam on Tuesday. The test is in a rather confusing format, in that after 75 questions, it evaluates the test taker's performance, and either fails the taker, passes the taker, or administers more questions in order to further evaluate the taker's knowledge. Oh yeah, and every once in a while the test will make the taker answer all 265 questions even though it already has passed or failed the taker, just for laughs. Emily only answered 75 questions - and the screen went blank. Now to me, this was great news, because I know Emily is an elephant brained genius. But she has been very worried the past two days that she may have failed the test. The results are due back today, but they have not arrived yet, so I'll just continue writing this post, when I find out, I'll drop in the results.

In the same vein, I was just promoted to a new level, given a new role, and pay raise. All this officially takes effect on March 1, and should be announced to the rest of my office sometime shortly before. I'm actually already knee deep in the role transition and it should be 100% sometime in May. I will eventually become an expert in the art of application development and am excited, though I know the learning curve is steep. Nerd-dom, here I come!

Emily and I went down to Orange Beach to my grandparent's condos a couple weeks ago. My parents went down Wednesday, and we arrived Thursday evening. It was the first time I'd seen the beach since hurricane Ivan "Sherman Marched" its way through the Alabama coast. The businesses had already returned - perhaps even two fold. And there are a whole slew of new condos that seem to be going up almost as fast as the hurricane took the old ones down. However, the sand dunes and sea oats and the forests of trees that used to stand behind the coast are all gone. It allows you too see much further in all directions and gives the area an eerie flat feel, like a dessert or a snow covered tundra. Enough of observations though, we had gone down to lend the grandparents a hand in their two condos, which seemed to be the least we could do. Things done while there: Fixing broken furniture, hanging protective Plexiglas under the bar, fixing sliding closet doors, fixing ice machines, removing a coating of dust similar to the blanket that coated NYC after September 11 from approximately 1,000,000 silk plant leaves as well as many other items, random electrical work like replacing plug ends, hanging chandeliers and wiring together TVs VCRs DVD Players and Stereos, vacuuming everything, including mini-shutter blinds. The list goes on..... but I have new information you'd much rather hear about:

EMILY PASSED HER EXAM!!!!!!!!!!!!
No big surprise right? But surely a reason to celebrate!

Back to the beach condos, by the time Emily and I left on Monday, 1001W looked just about perfect, and though 903W still looked a bit wrecked, it was only because the cabinets were still being replaced and the appliances had been removed and were about to be replaced. From the report, everything is now finished in 903 as well. This is good news as it's the rental unit. Of course there are a number of loose ends, but - c'est la vie! It was good to help out, especially as much as we've taken advantage of the condo in the past. I can’t wait to return under warmer and more leisurely conditions. Of course, the delicious food and family time was more than enough compensation. Oh yeah, and both my parents' cat and Marble stayed in the condo all weekend, they don’t' like each other yet.

Speaking of cats, Marble is now becoming a bit more emboldened. She has an innate desire to find water and knock it over when she's running her rampages. She'll hook her paw into any glass or cup she can find and pull it over or off any counter or table it may be sitting on. It's at least a little funny.

And while I'm on the subject of things falling, I guess I should mention the first accident in our new house. We had guests over, I don't even recall why, I don't think it was a 24 night, maybe just because we could. But to make a long story short, Dellaina our niece, marched herself right off the end of our couch and into our coffee table... don't worry, it didn't hurt the pressboard coffee table. Dellaina had a half inch cut on her forehead, which bled until we got some ice on it. I went out and picked up some liquid bandage and makeshift butterfly band aids. It was unanimously agreed that stitches were not necessary, especially considering how fast baby skin heals.

Moving on to future events, this Friday is Martini's at IMAX, an annual office event where we all go watch a 3D movie about space or the bottom of an ocean, or the rain forest, etc. Also, March 3rd is another swank evening office event at the Atlanta High Museum of Art; they are hosting work from the Louvre in France.

There is a weak push for the next "Man Camping" trip to occur some time in March. It was initially supposed to be an overnight caving trip, though that may take some extra time to plan. We'll see. Any one who fills all the criteria (man) and is interested, let me know, they are a great time.

Finally, this Saturday we are heading over to Athens. It's a three fold event: 1)Katie's birthday, my brother's lovely lady (his better half no doubt), 2)Morgan's birthday (yes, the same thing about halves applies to Morgan and Doug) and of course, 3) UGA vs. MSU, go dogs, or, dawgs....... which ever is your fancy.