Sheep Guarding Llama

Today, I decided, that I needed to take some time off and relax because life was just getting to be too stressful. So I worked in the morning and got done what I really needed to have gotten done and then decided to take it easy. I watched the last ten minutes or so of Anna and the King which I didn’t get to finish yesterday and then I watched the wacky Canadian comedy Men with Brooms. It was pretty good. Nothing classic but it was cute and had a pretty good story. But it is really weird (but what can you expect from a movie and ice sweepers 🙂 After that I watched one of my favorite television shows ever, Couping. Bob managed to come home and join me for the last half of episode three and he is hooked on it now. I had some wine from Casa Larga while I was watching. Min, Francesca and the girls got to the house just as the show was finished and we went to FedEx to send out some stuff that needed to be mailed and then we went out for dinner at Friendly’s.

After dinner, Min and I came home and just relaxed. Later on Bob, Min and I sat down and watched the same episodes of Coupling that I had just watched but that is okay because it is a great show.

I talked to the long lost Tim Stedman today and we are planning on doing lunch tomorrow. That will be good because we have a stack of his mail and none of us remember what he looks like anymore!

Finally, the Llama of the Month is Bob Winans

Bob wins our LoTM competition because he went back this month and read the entire archives while he was at school one day. And that is a lot of Llama News to be reading too. The archives are over two years old now and just packed full of all kinds of weird stuff.

Min and I went down to the Commons for lunch today and tried out the Veg Mex Cantina in the Atrium at the Centres Ithaca. We also picked up our wedding rings from Schooley’s while we were down there. So we are all prepared now!

While I was working on some PHP I watched Anna and the King which I have never seen before. It was pretty good. I really enjoy true stories so that makes it a lot better for me.

I had to take my car up to Syracuse for Roger Burdick to work on today. I am getting the brakes fixed, the headlight fixed and the 30,000 mile service done. The car should be running like a champ by the time they are done with it. It took me forever to get up to the city, though. I got stuck on 281 in Cortland in an accident for an hour. Traffic wasn’t moving at all. That was really a pain. Andy ended up waiting at Burdick to pick me up for more than half an hour. At least I got to listen to all of “Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance” while I was in the car. That is a really good book (i.e. Craig, you should borrow that one.)

After picking me up, Andy and I went down to Cortland and had dinner at Garcia’s Authentic Mexican Restaurant across from Walmart. I have been wanting to try that place out for a while but just haven’t gotten the chance to yet. The place was awesome. And the food isn’t expensive either. We both had a huge margaritta (at $8 each) and the total bill was still only $31 even after we both got huge meals and split an appetizer. I will going back to Garcia’s for sure. And the staff was really nice too.

Eric responds to the May 31 update: No we will NOT be getting a female to call her Cher! LOL, Although I should due to the fact that this seems to be the running joke. Yes, Amanda and I are in the house and you all are invited to come see it any time you like. We live at 4455 Shelly Road, Livonia NY, our phone is now (585)346-2102. We are both exhausted from all of the tremendous amount of work it takes to get a house in order, before a final move, but it will be well worth it. Rachel is very excited about the house and the puppy, but mostly the puppy. I do not have the funds for a riding lawn mower, so I had to buy a cheap push mower to hold me over, unfortunately it takes a tremendous amount of effort to mow because our lot is on the side of a hill. My father has purchased a “fixer upper” riding lawn mower but I have yet to see it. In all I am very thankful to be there and have a home. – Eric

Ah, Monday. Time to get back to the grind. Tomorrow my car is going to Syracuse for service and Min’s next week to Rochester. We are having caliper problems on the rear brakes (thank goodness for warranties.) I am going to get my 30,000 mile service as well. That isn’t cheap but it needs to be done. I have to take care of my baby.

Just for Craig, there is the addition of the Audio Books section of the SMML (Scott Miller Multimedia Library) Online. The online pages are far from being up to date but I will put a link for this one on here so that Emily can tell him what books on CD that I have (this is books on CD only, there are also three Dilbert books on tape.) So here it is, the Scott’s Audio Book Collection. Let me know if it works. This is one of my early attemps at my own programming of PHP with a MySQL database. I just got some Father Gilbert mysteries delivered to my parent’s house too. I have the entire Chronicles of Narnia on order and I just won Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone on eBay (that Philosopher’s Stone for the Canadians.)

Min and I had dinner with Kim from Advion right after work today to talk about her taking the pictures at the wedding. We met at Applebee’s in Lansing. After dinner, Min and I went to Hollywood Video and got Road to Perdition, The Four Feathers, Last Orders, Men with Brooms (the Canadians should be pretty happy there) and I Spy. So there are lots of new movies to borrow as well:)

The original plan was for me to go to Washington this morning after I did some work in town but with so many car problems recently, we decided that it would be best if I stayed in Ithaca this week.

After work, Min and I watched, I Spy with Owen Wilson and Eddie Murphy. It was okay but definitely not anything special. Kind of funny and a little bit of action but overall, nothing special.

This morning, Nate, Tammy, Min and I went out to look at Nate’s new house in Trumansburg. After looking at the house, we went to Little Venice downtown and had some pasta buffet for lunch. Then we went and got some warmer clothes, met Bob and Zach and went down to IthacaFest at Stewart Park. We got some good food but couldn’t stay long because it was really cold. IthacaFest wasn’t doing very well because of the weather. Almost no vendors showed up and the people were leaving in droves. At least parking was easy for a change. It is unfortunate, though, that it was doing so poorly.

After going down to IthacaFest, the whole house got together and watched Catch Me If You Can. Everyone really liked it. That is the best movie that I have seen in months. It is really cool because it is based on a true story and there is some good footage additional on the disc with interviews with Frank Abignale who the movie is about. It was really fascinating. The movie has some action and some drama and is pretty deep and times but not so much that it is hard to watch. I was very impressed.

Today was utility day for Min and I. We got up and ran out to Livonia to see Eric and Amanda’s new house (this is their first full day in the house and they are busy getting it ready to really live in.) We only had a few minutes there. It is pretty much right in Livonia, a raised ranch on the southeast side of town. They have a good sized lot too. And we got to play with the little puppy that they have now. Sonny, he is so cute! (I guess their next dog will be Cher? I will let Eric respond to that.) After stopping there, we went on to Geneseo and Min had to have pictures taken of her in the wedding dress that she likes so that she can email them to her family for their approval. While she did that, I made a trip to my parent’s house and dropped off a big load of stuff that we were moving out there. Then I headed back to Geneseo to pick her up. But, she was impatient and drove with my aunt to my parent’s house so they called me and had me turn around and go back. Then we drove up to Josh and Joanna’s in Rochester so that I could pick up a load of stuff that I have been storing up there for the last two years (ever since we first moved out of Sanctuary Drive.) It wasn’t a lot of stuff but it was three big items including the enormous Compaq Proliant 6500 server that we have been moving around for forever. I think that it has traveled more than any another piece of equipment that I have ever had which is really funny since it is the largest and heaviest and by far the hardest to move. All of that was then delivered to my parent’s house. After that, Min and I drove back to Ithaca. We had to drive seperately because we are borrowing my mom’s Buick Regal for the week because of my car’s condition.

While we were at Josh’s, I got Harry Potter: The Chamber of Secrets for Min and Catch Me If You Can for me.