We slept in a bit this morning because we got in so late last night.  We both showered and then headed downstairs for breakfast.  Arnie and Nancy were up and we chatted with them while we ate breakfast.  Sarah got up just before we headed out.

We borrowed Sarah’s car and drove for about an hour to meet Jon and Angie, and their new baby.  It was a nice visit.  We got to their house just before 11 and we were there until about 1:30 pm.  Jon made us an excellent lunch consisting of spinach quiche, warm fresh bread, fruit, juice.  Yum!  I even had seconds.  After lunch the baby (who was sleeping quite soundly) woke up and Kelly helped feed her.

At 1:30 we got back in the car and headed back Sarah’s parent’s.  We stopped to fill the car up with gas and when we got back, Arnie and Michael were doing some work cleaning out the “barn” garage.  I offered to help and Michael, Arnie and I ended up washing the cars (inside and out) as well as cutting the tall grass and dumping it in the woods (easier than it sounds).

The rest of the day was restful.  We all sat around in the sunroom, talking and napping.  We had a late dinner of BBQ’d chicken, asparagus and an excellent noodle pudding.  After dinner, Michael built a big fire in the fireplace and we all sat around chatting some more.  Sarah had made an ice cream cake for Arnie’s birthday and we ate that.  Around 10:30, I was pretty beat and Kelly and I headed up to bed.

Originally published at From the Desk of Jamie Todd Rubin. You can comment here or there.

I slept great last night and we were up around 7:30 AM and stayed in bed until the Little Dude came a-pounding at our door.  We had a light breakfast and then spent the morning lazing about, chatting.  Later in the morning, we headed downtown to have brunch.  The place we went (I can't recall the name, but I'm sure strausmouse will remind me) was full for Valentines Day brunches, but we nevertheless managed to get a table in the bar section and that suited us just fine.  It was an excellent brunch.  I ate mine and whatever was left of Kelly's.

After brunch, we dropped rmstraus and the dude off at home and then Eric took us on a tour of Albany.  Some of the sites were similar to the tour he gave me more than three years ago.  It was a little warmer today however.  (Click the picture to see more of my photos.  You can also find some of Eric's photos from the weekend here.)

We toured a marvelous Catholic Church, as well as the very Gothic capital building.  We couldn't go up to the top of the 42 story building, but we did manage to get a good view of the Egg.  We drove through the park, whose lake was iced over, and stopped in front of the giant statue of Moses.  And we drove past the Addams Family-looking house that doubles as a law office.  We tried to cross the bridge over the Hudson, but all roads seemed to lead us back into Albany.  Strange.

For dinner, Eric made an outstanding tofu lettuce wrap dish that included fried rice and hoison sauce that was so good.  Just thinking about it makes me hungry.  We didn't risk any games late in the evening.  Instead, we watched an episode of Dexter before heading off to bed for the evening.

I gave Kelly her Valentine's gift yesterday, since we had a busy day today, and she gave me not one but two cards this morning, which made me realize that I hadn't gotten her any cards.  Nevertheless, we had a very nice Valentine's day--our first as a married couple.  I was up at 6 AM to feed the cats, came back upstairs and told Kelly that I was probably just going to get up, since I was already awake.  I then promptly fell back asleep for another hour or so, which she found very amusing.

We flew out of Reagan/National and once again, it's great living so close to that airport.  The flight to Albany was less than 1/4 full.  In fact, there were 19 people on a plane that holds 80.  It was quite possibly the emptiest flight I've ever been on.  We left the gate 10 minutes early and arrived in Albany nearly half an hour early.  strausmouse  was there to meet us, and we piled into his car and headed to a nearby mall where we met rmstraus  and their little dude for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory.  Then it was back to their house to hang out, and where lots of talk about babies took place.

Eric made an excellent dinner that consisted of pasta with sweet potatoes, to say nothing of a side salad with some homemade dressing.  And there was some pumpkin ale to go along with it.  Yum!  For dessert, there were chocolate-filled strawberries and ice cream.  We ate dessert while playing a few games of Apples to Apples.  Ryane won the first game and Eric somehow managed to win the second game.  It's hilarious to watch those two play any game together.  Around 10 PM, Kelly and I called it a night.

The soreness has started and thus commences a week of "soreness" hell that everyone who starts back on a regular workout routine has to go through.  When I got home from work, I took some Advil to help with some of the soreness.  (I also took an antihistamine to  counteract an itchy eye that had snuck up on me.)  Right now, the worst of the soreness is in my ribs, and by my armpits.  Tomorrow will be the worst for that area and then each of the other areas (legs, arms, etc.) will follow after their respective first workouts.  Tomorrow morning is cardio, which at this point is a relief.

Kelly went to the gym after work and when she got back, we had a nice salad for dinner, with hard-boiled eggs, cheese, mushrooms, tomatoes, and cucumbers.  For the second night in a row I've avoided overeating and eating or drinking anything sugary like cookies or soda.  For two days now I've limited myself to a single 12-ounce can of soda each day.  It's tough but I'm sticking to it.

I finished reading Dick Winters' Beyond Band of Brothers, which was an outstanding book.  At lunch, I finally started in on mabfan 's I Remember the Future.  The first story in the book is one of the only stories that appears there that I've never read, so that alone is a treat.  I'm going to crawl into bed and read some more as soon as I wrap up this entry.

Spoke briefly with Dad today when he called me at the office.  Received the latest issues of ANALOG and F&SF in the mail today, as well as a bill from the doctor.

I'm calling it an early night tonight.  This aching body of mine could use a little extra sleep.

Went to bed shortly after getting back from happy hour last night.  I woke up sometime after midnight feeling a bit dizzy; this despite having chugged a liter and a half of water when I got home.  Fortunately, it passed and I slept through the rest of the night undisturbed.

Up this morning and we were both in moods to get things done.  We made good use of the time.  I finally cleaned off the kitchen counter, which was being used as a gigantic inbox.  Kelly cleaned things too.  We headed out to Potomac Yards to run errands:  returned some things to Sports Authority, picked up some books at Barnes & Noble, grabbed some cat litter from Pet Smart and then a few odds and ends from Target.  We were home by noon.  I cleaned out the cat litter and then we had lunch: grilled cheese  (Someone is bound to comment on the previous sentence, but believe me, it was all perfectly sanitary.)  At Target we picked up some containers for cereal so that the boxes are no longer taking up space in the cupboard.  We also got a nice little magnetic whiteboard for the fridge.

Kelly went out with Sarah all afternoon (scoping out houses for Sarah's sister) and I stayed home and relaxed.  I vacuumed and folded laundry.  I watched Jumper on HBO.  It was one of those movies where the book was so much better and so different that the two really didn't have anything to do with one another (except the teleportation).  Not a bad movie, just not nearly as good as Steven Gould's book.  I got some reading done too.  And even managed to sneak in a nap.

When Kelly and Sarah got back, we headed over to Shirlington and had dinner at Guapo's.  I had the bacon-wrapped shrimp dish again, which was just as good this time as the first time.  After dinner we headed over to the movie theater.  Kelly and Sarah went to see Slumdog Millionaire, while I went and saw The Wrestler, which turned out to be one of the best movies I've seen in a while.

We got all the chores and errands done today so tomorrow there's not much to do.  I plan on getting to work on the second draft of "Homecoming", now that I've gotten some good feedback.  Maybe get some more reading in, as well.

Today was a relaxing, lazy day.  First off, it was very hot out, well over 80 degrees, and that just made me feel sluggish throughout the day.  I didn't do much.  Kelly and I did head over to the nearby mall and wandered around in the heat until we couldn't take it anymore.  And although we wandered into Banana Republic twice, neither of us bought anything.

I should have gotten a lot of reading done today, but I've been obsessively watching episodes of Battlestar Galactica and that has consumed a lot of time.  That, and playing Sim City on my iPhone.  What time wasters!  I could be reading.  Or writing!  Oh well, I'm on vacation.

Kelly and I took a long walk today and saw a small snake cross the sidewalk in front of us.  I have no fear of snakes, but we gave it a wide berth anyway.  I didn't know if it was poisonous or not, but Kelly's mom later told us it probably wasn't.  Later, we went to the pool and I watched Kelly and Logan swim.  This time, I didn't go swimming (I was busy watching Galactica episodes).

We had burgers for dinner and I managed to eat two of them.  I have been eating a lot more than I am used to eating.  I eat a meal and still feel hungry.  This has caused my weight to jump to nearly 158 pounds.  I've got to get back my good eating habits.  And I've got to get back to the gym regularly!

Tomorrow morning, we head home.  I've charged up the GPS using the charger that came with the GPS we gave to Kelly's parents for Christmas.  We are mostly packed.  Heading out around 8:30 or 9 AM.

Our only "full" day at Treasure Island.  It was gorgeous weather today.  We were up early, and around 9 AM, we headed out for what turned out to be a 3.5 mile walk on the beach.  We lazed around in the morning, and then headed to a local boardwalk at lunch time.  We at ate a local restaurant (the name of which I can't recall at the moment).  After, we walked around the boardwalk, walking in and out of shops, taking our time.  It was fun.

Back to the condo.  Kelly napped for a while, and I read.  I read about 50 pages of A Man on the Moon.  I then turned to The Hard SF Renaissance.  I may have even napped a little.  It was very comfortable.

We headed back out to Caddy's for dinner again.  Kelly watched a bunch of Christmas shows while I managed to get through nearly 100 pages of The Hard SF Renaissance.  ("Into the Miranda Rift" by G. David Nordley was another great story--one that I actually remember from when it first appeared, but which was a pleasure to read again.)

I felt much better when I woke up this morning and as a result, I had a productive day at work today and it felt good.  The day concluded with a two hour meeting.  Kelly was waiting for me at the mall when the meeting was over and we headed home together.  It was a quiet and relaxing evening.  We sat reading in the family room, with the fireplace going to keep us warm.  It was delightful.  I ran to the grocery store to pick up a few things and when I got home, I ended up making myself what I consider to be the best sandwich I ever made.  It consisted of a sandwich role with mustard and mayo, and then layered upon the roll, two slices of turkey, cheddar cheese, two slices of bologna, cheddar cheese, two slices of salami, freshly sliced parmesan cheese, and two slices of fresh tomato.  Boy was that sandwich good!

Upon arriving home, I eagerly rushed to the mailbox in hopes of getting the most recent issue of NEW SCIENTIST and it was to my great dismay that it didn't arrive today.  Maybe tomorrow?

Sent a rather long note to Barry Malzberg today on his recent Dialogs in SFWA Bulletin.  And I purchased a copy of mabfan 's new short story collection, I Remember the Future, for stubiebrother , who I know will enjoy it.

And if you haven't ordered your copy yet, you should really do so.  It belongs in the library of any science fiction fan, whether you are new to the genre or a seasoned fan.  Check out Michael's book website for details on how to order.

I'm close to finishing the Einstein book.  Up next I think I'll be reading a massive biography of Franklin Roosevelt.

Spoke with Dad briefly this afternoon.  He's on his way back from Seattle.

Flu shot scheduled for tomorrow.

It was a slow day today, but that was nice, especially since it's the last weekend before returning to work.  We lazed around for much of the day today, although we did manage to get in some Wii playing early this afternoon.  I did some chores at home, and started reading Walter Isaacson's Einstein.  I was looking for something to read and Kelly was watching the movie IQ, which reminded me that I had the book and I hadn't read it yet.

Spoke to Rich today, the first time I've had an extended conversation with him since he got back from Iraq.  He sounds good.  He is in Upland right now with Tricia and the kids, and he will be there until November 1st, when he heads back to Texas.

There was a pleasant breeze today and I had the screen door and front windows open to enjoy it.  As the breeze picked up, this created a wind tunnel and the house became a virtual disaster with paper flying about here and there, and a clock falling off the counter.  Much to my dismay, I had to close the screen door.

Sarah and Jim came over this evening and we headed to Alexandria (Old Town) for dinner.  We ate at a tiny place called Trattoria Da Franco and it was actually very good.  I had an excellent linguini al pesto dish, along with some wine.  It was a small place and we were placed at a small table, but I enjoyed the atmosphere of it.  Afterward, we went back to the house and the four of us played Wii for a few hours.

Up and into work this morning.  It was one of those days that seemed to grow steadily more hectic as the day progressed.  I kept an eye on Doug's flights, and I headed home around lunchtime to wait for him to arrive.  They got here shortly after noon, and it was really good to see them.  The kids had gotten sleep on the plane but Doug and Rachel hadn't gotten much sleep.  I gave them a quick tour of the house and then showed them their room.   Doug was very happy to see that the kids had their own place to sleep and that he wouldn't have to sleep on the floor.

I headed back to work for a couple more hours and then around 3 PM, after my last meetings were over, I headed home.  I stopped at the library to return my "overdue" book, but as it turns out, I had my dates mixed up and the book was not overdue after all.  I also found out that I could return the book to my local branch, which is very convenient.

Kelly's parents were out most of the day but were back before 4 PM.  Doug, Rachel and the kids were up shortly after 4 PM.  And were the kids ever hyper!  It was a lot of fun.  We gave them the gifts we got them.  Doug and I picked up Kelly from the metro station, stopped at Starbucks, and then headed back home.  We all walked up to Shirlington for dinner, where Kelly's parents treated us to a nice meal at Capital City Brewery.  Both Carson and Ruby fell asleep at dinner.  I carried Carson back home the entire mile-plus walk.

I got an invitation to join Will's writer's group today, which I accepted happily.  I can't do much there until I get back from vacation, but I'm looking forward to working with the group.

I got a card from a bunch of people at work today.  It was very nice and included an extremely generous gift.

We're on vacation!  I still feel so busy with wedding stuff that it hasn't sunk in yet.

stubiebrother  arrived tonight, as scheduled.  We picked him up around 10:15 PM.  Stopped at the grocery store on the way home.

Mom and Dad get into town tomorrow.

Yesterday was the last real crunch day at work.  Today and Friday will still be busy, but I think I got through my tough part yesterday.  I've been working steadily all morning, but the pressure feels somewhat off.  Two more days left in the fiscal year, and we may actually meet our project goal.

Kelly and I worked on the seating chart for the wedding yesterday.  We think we've got it more or less nailed down.

When I got home, I watched the most recent episode of The Shield, which was waiting for me on the DVR.  After Kelly went to the gym, we walked over to Shirlington for dinner.  We used part of our "date night" gift that he11o_sunshine  and stubiebrother  got for us.  We ate dinner at Guapo's, and I had an amazing, bacon-wrapped shrimp fajita dish.  The shrimp was stuffed with cheese and jalepenos, wrapped in bacon, and there was an excellent garlic butter sauce to go along with it.  It was the best meal I've had in a long time.

Issues with my old Credit Union account.  I no longer use the account; we have our accounts at a local bank now.  I thought I'd had all my automatic payments moved to the new account, but I apparently missed on.  The account was overdrawn yesterday.  Fortunately, as a member in good standing, the credit union covered it, but it was an annoyance that had unintended side-effects.  And to add to the misery, I found out that I owe about $35 on the water bill for the old house.  The final bill was never sent to me.  It was sent to the new tenants who were justifiably confused by the whole thing.  I had a similar problem early in the week.  When I switched the gas service from the old house to the new house, I was told that I would not be assigned a new account number.  My BillPay kept paying the bills, but I received a statement saying that I owed two months worth of gas service.  Guess what?  They changed the account number.  The payments on the old bills were going into the ether.  I guess that's the danger of automatic payments.  Nevertheless, I prefer these little snafus to having to remember to actually make the payments each month.

We're supposed to get some rain today.

I came in this morning with the intention of making four solid hours of progress on some very specific tasks, and I was successful.  I just wrapped up that phase of my day, and it looks like I can actually take a lunch break today.  However, I can spent that break writing since I already ate my lunch.

I had breakfast when I got up this morning, but got hungry again around 9:30 AM, so I pulled my sack lunch out of the fridge and ate the whole thing, sandwich, cookies, and banana.

Who knew coding worked up such an appetite.

Yesterday evening (as I mentioned), Kelly and I headed up to New Jersey with Sarah and Jim.  It was a pleasant drive with almost no traffic, except for a bit outside of Philadelphia.  We got in pretty late, and within minutes of getting out of the car, I saw two shooting stars and one satellite.  It was amazingly clear and the town was far out in the country away from the haze of city lights.  We went to bed almost at once, and I was asleep as my head hit the pillow.  I slept wonderfully!

We were up at about 8 AM, ate breakfast, relaxed in the sunroom, and then took a walk around Sarah's neighborhood.  The air was cool was but it was really pleasant out.  Sometime after 10 AM, we headed to the city.  Originally the plan was to take the train in from Newark, but we decided instead to drive into the city and park at the garage near he11o_sunshine  and stubiebrother 's place.

Walking toward the subway, we stopped at the Starbucks on Lexington and 85th for a bathroom break.  We waited outside the restroom for the person inside to finish.  We waited.  And waited.  It was a three-flush visit, but the funniest part was when the guy came out, we discovered there was no toilet paper in there.  We assume he was in there air-drying or something.

We hopped on the 4 train and headed up to 161st Street and Yankee stadium.  We made our way to Gate 6 and then headed up to our seats.  We sat close to the right-field foul pole, up high above the field.  They were great seats.  The game was slow, and scoreless, but it ended in excitement with 2 outs and the bases loaded and the Yankees winning with a walk-off base hit.

It was the second-to-last game at the old Yankee stadium and it was our last game there.

After the game, we caught the 4 train back to the upper east side.  We headed up to Jen and Jason's, and spent the rest of the evening with them.  We headed to Mustang's for drinks, and then we headed over to 1st and 87th, to a Mexican-fusion type restaurant for dinner.  I had steak fajitas, which were excellent.

We left the restaurant around 9 PM and shortly thereafter, we got the car and started heading back out to NJ.  Kelly and Jim fell asleep in the car almost immediately, and I did my best to keep Sarah awake (she was driving) by talking.  We got back to the house around 11:30 PM.  Jim went to sleep but Kelly, Sarah and I headed out into the hot tub.  Even though it was cold out (I'd guess in the low 50s), the hot water was comfortable, and the cold air felt good on my skin afterward.  We spent about a half hour in the hot tub, and then headed upstairs to bed.

I actually had a good night's sleep last night.  There is justice in the universe!

Into work at 7:30 and didn't leave until 6:30.  It was an incredibly busy day.  I don't really even want to think about it anymore, other than to say that I kept myself entertained by finding my inner Puckishness.

Kelly got fitted in her wedding dress today.  After work we met her friend Becky again (as we did last Thursday) for dinner.  We had Thai food this time and I ordered what I thought was the spiciest thing on the menu, but it wasn't nearly as spicy as I thought it would be.  Still good though.

Home and watched the Tivo'd season premier of Smallville, which was a good one!

Today was the second day in a row that we received two packages.

No reading today, but I did manage to squeeze in some writing on the workshop story.  I did about 700 words on Part 3 of the story, and I'm happy with it so far.  Off to bed now.  I have another full today tomorrow and then tomorrow evening we are heading up to New Jersey.

We awoke this morning to bright, clear blue skies and sunshine.  It was absolutely gorgeous out and we threw open the windows and tried to absorb it all.  We lazed around for the early part of the morning, watching Charles Osgood on Sunday Morning.  But after that, we were busy for the rest of the day.

We decided we wanted to finish up the remainder of things on our various wedding lists so that we were done, done, done, and could spend the next 5 weeks or so relaxing.  We made heroic efforts, however, we've still got more stuff do to.

We started in earnest around 10:30 AM.  First, we headed over to the Mens Warehouse, where I got fitted for my tux, and where I also corrected the spelling of Dad's name on the list of people who are getting tuxes.  We also ordered the gifts we are giving to the groomsmen.  Next we headed over to Target, where we went straight for the toy section.  We bought a few things for Ruby and Carson for when they come to visit for the wedding.  (Ruby is our flower girl.  Carson is not in the wedding, but we felt we should get him something anyway so that he didn't feel left out.)  We were looking for a full-sized bike pump, but they didn't seem to have any.  We picked up some cat litter and then headed to our next destination, Old Town Alexandria.

We found a parking spot on the corner of Washington and Queen and walked through Old Town in gorgeous weather.  We did some more gift shopping and then ended up at an Irish bar/restaurant for brunch.  It was really good.  Kelly had french toast and I had this Irish omelette with bacon.  I had a mimosa as well.

After brunch (and by now, it was almost 2 PM), we walked back to the car.  Trader Joe's was next on our list, but as we were heading there, we got a call telling us that Kelly's wedding ring was in.  We diverted, therefore, to Tyson's Corner and made our way through its labyrinth to the jewelers.  Sure enough the ring was is, but it was still too big.  Long story short:  we sized it based on the size of her engagement ring.  But her engagement ring turned out to be 1/4 size smaller than what is on the paperwork.  So the re-sized ring will now be ready on Friday.

We stopped at Trader Joe's on the way back and did some very light grocery shopping.

We were back at the house sometime between 4 and 5 PM.  Having done the "errands", we could now finally focus on getting wedding stuff done.  And focus we did.  For the next four to five hours, that's all we did.  We put together a first and second draft wedding program.  We emailed various vendors, information that they requested.  We put together a master wedding day itinerary.  Finally, toward the end of the evening, we consolidated all of the various remaining lists onto one central list.  While there are still things to do, most of them are small and it looks as though most will be done this week.  That means by the end of this weekend, most wedding related tasks will be finished 4 weeks before the wedding.  That's not too bad, especially considering that we only had four months to plan this from the outset.

Around 9 PM, I went upstairs with the intention of reading, but I fell asleep pretty quickly.  Turned out to be a longer day than I realized, I guess.

Labor Day!

I slept in later this morning than I did any other day of the weekend.  I didn't get up until 8:20 AM.  Kelly had gotten up earlier, ate something, and then came back to bed for another 20 minutes.   Then we finally got up.  I had some toast and peanut butter for breakfast, and then did some reading until about 9:30.  Shortly thereafter, we headed out to Tyson's Corner to do our ring shopping.

For nearly everything we've done for the wedding, we've been very decisive and made our decisions in mere seconds.  With rings, it took longer.  In fact, we visited 4 different places before finally both finding rings that we liked.  Once we found them, though, we were our usual decisive selves.  We purchased them on the spot.  In an odd coincidence, the ring I chose for me fit perfectly and required no sizing, so we were able to take it with us.  Kelly's ring needed to be resized, and we should be able to pick it up on the 9th.

More relaxing when we got back from Tyson's.  We ate lunch and then sat around waiting for Sarah and Jim to arrive.  Sarah was originally coming to pick up her bridesmaid dress, but we invited them to come over and hang out by the pool.  So once they were both here, we headed to the pool.   I was worried it would be way crowded, but it wasn't.  Our pool has a lifeguard the entire time it is open.  Once an hour, for fifteen minutes, there is a break and everyone has to get out of the pool.  We stayed there for a little more than two full cycles.  The first cycle we spent sitting poolside and chatting.  The next cycle we spent entirely in the pool.  It was warm, 85 degrees in the water.  By the time the cycle was over, we were all wrinkled.

Back up to the house for drinks and snacks.  Sarah and Jim left shortly thereafter.  I grew sleepy.  Kelly kindly prepared dinner.  Scrambled eggs with peppers and mushrooms and cheese.  It was yummy.  We had Hersey's Kisses for dessert.

After dinner we sat out on our balcony and enjoyed the cooling evening air.

We both head back to work tomorrow.  I've got a bunch of writing workshop stuff to do (I didn't do any this weekend).  I'm about 100 pages through Rainbow's End, and I'm enjoying it at this point.  It's different.

I think our relaxing weekend was an overwhelming success!

Kelly and I planned for these to be a peaceful weekend--our first one in over a month, since moving to the new house.  And for the most part, today was very peaceful.  I went to bed early last night--by accident.  I got in bed to read, and before I knew it, I just couldn't focus on the page any longer.  Kelly came to bed later.  I managed to get 10-1/2 hours of sleep, which is remarkable for me.

We were still up before 8 AM.  We lazed around for the first two hours, watching some TV.  Kelly Tivo'd "Rock the Reception" on TLC, which was a lot of fun to watch, and really kind of addicting.  We set the DVR to record it some more whenever it comes on.  I worked on some wedding website stuff for a while.  Finally, just after 10 AM, we headed out for breakfast.  We walked a different route to Shirlington, through Park Fairfax.  It's a slightly longer walk but I like it much better.  We headed to the Luna Grill for breakfast, where Kelly had eggs Florentine, and I had a bagel and lox.  Then we walked back home.

We lazed around some more.  Later in the afternoon, Kelly and I put together the new "kitty bathroom" that she ordered.  I did a little reading and then we headed out to Pentagon City to do some shopping.  We got some groceries for the dinner I was planning to prepare.  We also got some bike stuff.  We got a new tube for Kelly's rear tire, and I got a new helmet and a mirror.

Back home and I started to prepare dinner.  I planned on making Chicken Marsala with a side of Italian Pasta Salad.  I prepared the pasta salad first, making the dressing, chopping up lots of veggies, and then refrigerating the whole thing.  Then I started on the chicken.  We used our new dishes and napkins and sat down to eat right around 7 PM.  And guess what?  For a wonder, it came out really good!  The chicken wasn't overcooked, the Marsala sauce was just right, and the pasta salad was great!  This time, I cooked the chicken on a lower flame, but for a longer time than the cookbook said.  I was pleasantly surprised by the whole thing!

After dinner, we booked the final excursion for our honeymoon cruise (this one, at Ocho Rios, Jamaica, takes us to some caverns and then some waterfalls), and then headed off to the gym.  I got in a decent lower body workout.

Got the most recent issue of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN in the mail today.  Actually, it was delivered to a neighbor, but they kindly brought it by.  It's a special issue on privacy and looks like a good one.  I'm somewhere around 220 pages through Old Man's War, and expect to finish tonight or tomorrow.

Spoke briefly with stubiebrother  today.  Also with Mom and Dad.

I do feel relaxed.

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I came across this list today. Of the ten places, I've only eaten at one of them,Cantler's near Annapolis, Maryland. I did eat in Naples, Italy, but never tried the pizza.

Why isn't In-n-Out on the list?

We were up around 8 AM and actually got to laze around for a while this morning. We watched most of Charles Osgood's Sunday morning show on CBS, which is one Sunday morning program that I enjoy. Around 10:45, Dad and I hopped in the car and headed up to Camden Yards for the Yankees/Orioles game. We got there at about 11:40 and we soon at our seats.

The game was fun, if not a little boring at times. I think it set the record as the longest 9-inning game that I have been to at Camden Yards, the full 9 innings lasting 4:01. Nevertheless, there were exciting moments, an enthusiastic crowd, and the Yanks won in the end, 8-7, so what more could you ask for.

Kelly spent the day shopping and doing errands. She got me some new shorts and gym clothes while she was out.

Because the game went on so long, we didn't get back home until about 7 PM, and that led to a late dinner at the Olive Garden. Kelly and I were supposed to finish up thank you notes, and I was supposed to do some writing, but by the time we got back from the Olive Garden, I was exhausted. We both headed off to bed. We read for a little while, but I was soon fast asleep.

Incidentally, while I am reading (and enjoying, Old Man's War, Kelly started reading The Door Into Summer by Robert Heinlein. Until this book, the only s.f. she's read is some Orson Scott Card, and of course, my stories. I'm eager to find out what she thinks of Heinlein, mid-1950s.

I killed four hours at work this morning trying to figure out why a report was not working on one of our SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) systems. I googled. I read blogs. I signed up for the free trial of Expert-Exchange. Finally, I pushed the report out to the test server and it worked just fine there. So it's not the report, it's the server, stupid!

I can't begin to tell you how frustrating this is.

However, we had our annual San Genero day, where the Rec Com folks cook up an awesome Italian lunch. And the meatballs. The meatballs are to die for. The gods on Mount Olympus can have their nectar. Just give me those meatballs. I had a plateful of them and had to forcible remove myself from the room, lest I do serious damage to my insides.

But yum!