James Doohan, of Star Trek fame, died today at the age of 85 battling Alzheimer’s disease and pneumonia. He will be missed, of course; the man did Star Trek conventions up until last August, which is crazy considering how old the man was. He was a testament to what Star Trek means to a lot of us fans out there, and to the rest of humanity.
…of tropical storms and homeless people…
I’ll try to make this mostly brief…but there is lots to tell… First of all, there are pictures posted in the Photos section now; click on “New Apartment” to see pictures of our mostly-set-up place and “New Orleans” for our trip down south… There are some pictures in “Hermann” of the B&B we stayed at a few weeks ago…
So yeah, we got down there in the middle of Tropical Storm Cindy…and needless to say, there was lots of water… There were over 250,000 people without power on Wednesday morning; thankfully we still had power, yet no cable…grrrrr… Anyway, the next day we walked around the French Quarter and explored a bit…went to a cafe, had some French food, etc… Essentially, we just explored a bit that first day…and it was gorgeous out, surprisingly… On Thursday morning, we went on the Nat’l Park Service historical tour, which was quite cool. We explored some more and then took the afternoon off (nice and humid), then went and got muffalettas (a New Orleans specialty…something like a Schlotsky’s sandwich, I think…but with lots of pickled olives)…which were also incredible… The cool thing about Thursday night was that we went to Preservation Hall and saw some really, really good jazz music…go buy a CD…it’s worth it… On Friday morning, we went on a cemetary tour, lectured by the guy who maintains the historic tombs. These tombs were above ground, so that was kinda cool…this is done for religious reasons, but also because the water table is very, very high in New Orleans. We also chilled Friday afternoon in the A/C and then went out to a nice place for dinner (mmmm…jambalaya…) and then walked around Bourbon Street for a bit…
Anyway, overall, the trip was good…the weather could have been a bit better, but I guess we did decide to go a). in hurricane season and b). when it’s really humid. It was certainly interesting to see people preparing for Hurricane Dennis; some people cared and others didn’t… The one thing I wasn’t expecting was all the homeless people. I mean, I’ve seen them before, but have never seen so many in a concentrated area and certainly had never walked by them before on the street…really kinda sad… Apparently, Louisiana has 1 in 4 people below the poverty line… Regardless, I guess it was a bit more shocking than I expected…
So yeah, check out the pictures…they’re online and all pretty-like… I’ll write more later…
…and then…there were two…
Yup, I’m married…crazy, eh? Brooke and I have moved into our new place in St. Louis and are almost done putting everything where it needs to go…by the end of tomorrow, we should be mostly done…until the next volley of wedding presents arrives this weekend… That, and I start at SLU for graduate school on Friday. I’m glad that things are starting to settle down a bit, since these last few weeks have been absolutely insane…but a good “insane,” I guess… 😛
Brooke and I went to Hermann, MO for Saturday night and Sunday night to stay at a B&B (…we hope to take a “real” honeymoon in mid-August, of course…suggestions as to where?), which was pretty cool…they upgraded our room to a suite for the two nights at no charge, so we actually had a living room, bedroom, bathroom and kitchen to ourselves; we’ll have pictures up eventually… We also toured the Stone Hill Winery and the Adam Puchta Winery (after sampling their excellent wines, we both had to take a nap…heh…). Overall, great wine, great food and a great time…nice and relaxing!
We just got DSL hooked up today after SBC got their act together… This $15/mo DSL service is great, though…moves a bit quicker than I expected, honestly…hopefully it keeps up… Therefore, we’ll hopefully both be online a bit more often now, although I’ll likely be somewhat busy at school…
Keep in touch, everyone!
Ouch…
So yeah, the so-called “bachelor party” was last night…and my head hurts tremendously now… We went to Flat Branch, but there was an hour wait (…and we went at 7:30 pm, mind you…on a Thursday night…), so we went to Grindstone Brewery instead… The food was pretty decent there, actually…maybe slightly expensive, but not by much… After that, we went to Harpo’s for the rest of the night…and thus, my headache may never go away… 😛
We’re about to leave for Hannibal, so I won’t get to make updates until June 28th now, since I won’t really have internet until then. The rehearsal and dinner are tonight, so the busy-ness continues…
Here we go!
Moved(?)
So yeah, we spent all day yesterday moving to St. Louis…the hard part’s done, I guess… Brooke and I didn’t stay up too terribly late last night unpacking, but got up relatively early this morning and moved most of the boxes out of what is to become “the office” (complete with 6′ table for the computers and a twin-size bed (i.e. “couch”). We walked around the complex and found the laundromat, exercise equipment and swimming pool, and there are quite a few trees around there, making it a very pretty place to be. The next hurdle involves learning all the roads in St. Louis, etc… I went by Missy/Sharon/Shannon’s place today and it took me a good 30 min…pretty sure I could have driven to their old places last year in Kirksville in under 3 min…but whatever… 😛
Anyway, I added a few pictures from the move to the Photos section of the site, listed under “New Apt”…check ’em out… After we get settled in St. Louis (after June 27th), we’ll take more pictures and post what the place is supposed to look like…
I’ll be in Columbia until Friday, and then I’ll be heading to Hannibal for the rehearsal and dinner…and getting married in T-minus 6 days… Married life, here I come… 😉 Regardless, gimme a call if you’re around Columbia and wanna hang out…
…what's worse than packing?
Yeah, I’ve been packing up everything I own…and this is no small task… Bear in mind that I’ve lived here for 3 years now…and I’ve been collecting an insane amount of stuff throughout that time, most of which I’m throwing away (or giving to Nathan and Jerry for their new place…). I had to figure out how to take apart my desk again today, had to unplug all of the electronics in my room (a small fire hazard…), remove the stuff from my closet (I officially have too many clothes…), and am finding live dust bunnies under my bed (never seen one? they’re like jackalopes, but without horns and their made from dust…no…seriously…).
So yeah, the other part of this is that I’m going to have to disconnect the web server on Thursday morning and transport it to Columbia, where it will remain until after the wedding…whenever I can come pick it up… We won’t have DSL set up in St. Louis until after the wedding’s done, so we need an internet connection for the server to operate… Therefore, the server will be down for most of Thursday while I take it down there, set it up, etc….I’m sure you’re all worried…but you’ll live…
Oh…and Batman Begins starts tomorrow…and I’m ever so excited… 😉
…what’s worse than packing?
Yeah, I’ve been packing up everything I own…and this is no small task… Bear in mind that I’ve lived here for 3 years now…and I’ve been collecting an insane amount of stuff throughout that time, most of which I’m throwing away (or giving to Nathan and Jerry for their new place…). I had to figure out how to take apart my desk again today, had to unplug all of the electronics in my room (a small fire hazard…), remove the stuff from my closet (I officially have too many clothes…), and am finding live dust bunnies under my bed (never seen one? they’re like jackalopes, but without horns and their made from dust…no…seriously…).
So yeah, the other part of this is that I’m going to have to disconnect the web server on Thursday morning and transport it to Columbia, where it will remain until after the wedding…whenever I can come pick it up… We won’t have DSL set up in St. Louis until after the wedding’s done, so we need an internet connection for the server to operate… Therefore, the server will be down for most of Thursday while I take it down there, set it up, etc….I’m sure you’re all worried…but you’ll live…
Oh…and Batman Begins starts tomorrow…and I’m ever so excited… 😉
All Good Things…
That was the title of the final episode of Star Trek: TNG, widely regarded as the best of the Star Trek franchise television shows…and it is representative of where I sit today… As of 3:30 pm this afternoon, June 10, 2005, I will no longer be employed in the Truman ITS department… I think this is of significance for a few reasons. First of all, this is the longest amount of time I’ve ever worked at a job (4 years, almost entirely without stopping…there was one summer I didn’t work up here…). Secondly, this is the highest I’ve ever advanced in a job (…promoted to “lab manager” after my first year…worked in that role ever since…).
The third reason, however, is the clincher… This marks the cutting of my final umbilical connection to Truman State. After today, I will not attend class here, will not work here, will not need to be at Truman State for any reason (besides visiting folks, of course…). Today marks the first day in 5 years that I will never have to be here…ever…again… Today marks the end of an era of my life, the final chapter in perhaps the most exciting volume thus far… Subsequently, the next volume promises to encompass a much wider scope, including marriage, graduate school, and insurance in my own name…and it’s going to be weird…
…but in the end…it’ll still be a good read…
Moving on…
So I’ve been going through closets, etc. getting ready for moving in 2 weeks…kinda crazy the stuff I’m finding, honestly… For example, I was going through a box of old computer stuff from Freshman year and found my move-out clearance slip from the dorms (there wasn’t any damage, for the record…I was a good tenant…). I also ran across an old 4 MB video card and then an old (fried…) 16 MB card, too…the former was ISA (everything now is PCI or PCIe)…so yeah, old stuff that should have been cleaned out years and years ago…
It’s kinda weird moving out, honestly… I mean, I have lived in this apartment for 3 years (including summers) and have accumulated lots of crap… I can only imagine what it’ll be like when I eventually own a house and have even more stuff sitting around…guess I’ll have to be a bit more organized in the future… The really crazy thing is that it’s finally sinking in that I’m actually leaving… As early as July, I’ll be in a new apartment, a new city, a new school, and a new wife… Lots of stuff changing, so who knows how I’ll deal with all of it… “As according to one’s gifts” I guess, as Spock would say (Star Trek II)…
New Address
I got information on our new address in St. Louis, so beginning in late-June, our new mailing address with be:
Brooke and Andy
5524 Genesta Walk
St. Louis, MO 63123