Soylent Blog

Day 2 : Monday, June 11th, 2007

7am - Wakeup!
7:30am - Breakfast!
8:00am - Complimentary shuttle, Discovery Cove

“All-Inclusive detail description

• 30 minute Dolphin-swim session
• Snorkeling with thousands of tropical fish in the Coral Reef.
• Wading with the rays in the Ray Lagoon.
• Hand-feeding birds in the free flight Aviary.
• Relaxing in the Resort Pool and swimming along the Tropical River.
• Continental breakfast, sumptuous lunch, plus all snacks and beverages throughout the day.
• Snorkel gear, swim vest or wet suit, towels, lockers, sunscreen, beach chairs.
• All day self-parking.
• Admission to either SeaWorld Orlando or Busch Gardens Tampa Bay for seven consecutive days. Or a combination pass with admission to both parks for 14 consecutive days for $30 more.”

Day 3 : Tuesday, June 12th, 2007

Free Day!

Activity Options:
- SeaWorld Orlando
- Universal Studios Florida
- Manatee Adventure Tour

Day 1 : Sunday, June 10th, 2007

7am - Wakeup!
7:30am - Leave for Dulles International Airport (IAD)

 Flight 1559
Depart: Washington, DC (IAD) 10:10am
Arrive: Orlando, FL (MCO) 12:14pm
Distance: 753 miles
Duration: 2hr 4mn
Seats: 14E, 14D

12:30pm - Complimentary shuttle to Universal Studios Orlando
1:00pm - Drop luggage at hotel, lunch
4:00pm - Check-in!

Portofino Bay Hotel
5601 Universal Blvd.
Orlando, FL 32819
Phone: 407-503-1000
Fax: 407-503-1010

Room Type: Club Level Deluxe
“All rooms with Club Lounge access are the Deluxe Room category at 490 square feet.

• Additional room amenities including cordless phone, evening turndown service, and cotton signature bathrobes
• Welcome amenity featuring a custom CD of Italian music
• Complimentary admission to health club at Mandara Spa®
• Access to our 3,500 square foot lounge located off the main lobby
• Personal concierge services to help with all your vacation needs
• Access to game tables, billiard table, computer access, TV viewing area, a lending library for books, CDs and videos
• Complimentary coffee, tea, and soft drinks throughout the day
• Continental breakfast served each morning (7:00 am - 10:00 am)
• Hot & cold hors d’oeuvres and complimentary beer and wine (5:00 pm - 7:00 pm)
• “Something Sweet” each night (9:00 pm - 10:00 pm)”

Activity Options:
- Universal CityWalk
- Universal Islands of Adventure

Dinner Options:
- Pirate’s Dinner Adventure
- Arabian Nights
- Margaritaville

So, I went another month wothout writing an update, despite the numerous amount of noteworthy things that went on:

• April 6th was the premiere of Grindhouse, a fine way to kill 3 hours or so. Saw it with Robert, Chris, Ben, Mike, and Mari. Afterwards we swung by Unos for a few drinks and lively film critique. Consider it a rehearsal for..
• April 7th, my 29th birthday! We celebrated with dinner at the Hula Inn, followed by drinks at Car Pool, both in Herndon. It was a great chance for my friends (Robert & Liza, Chris & Mandy) to meet Mari’s friends (Kenny, Tim) and for everybody to meet my lil sister Rachel and her beau Drew. Merriment was had by all.
• April 8th was Easter. Family gathered at my sister Paige’s house. Mom and Dad were there, and Rachel and Drew, and of course Paige, Jeff, and lil Luka. You could say this was the third day of my Birthstravaganza, as I got to open gifts and such, but I ended up sharing the spotlight with Paige who announced that her second baby is on the way!
• Skipping forwards to the end of the month, we moved out of the grubby little temporary apartment in Leesburg on the 19th. Yeah, that’s a Thursday, so I really didn’t get any sleep in after getting off work in the morning. From work I picked up Mari at the apt., then to Purcelville to pick up the rental truck, back to Leesburg to load up the truck, to Martinsburg to load the stuff we had in storage and Mari’s folks place, then to Lovettsville to unload everything. We wrapped sometime around 10pm I guess, followed by a last trip to Purcellville to return the truck and back to Leesburg for our last night in the apt. Mari’s folks were a huge help during the whole ordeal, as l was tripping over my eyelids once I got past 30 hours of being awake and working. They were lucky to get that much work out of me, as the next morning I left for…
• Vegas, baby! Bachelor partyin’ with my boys Robert, Chris, and Mike. As per Vegas rules, the only thing that didn’t “Stay In Vegas” was my copy of the room key for the MGM Grand. Somehow it ended up in my pockets, rather than at the front desk at checkout time. Maybe I’ll stick it in my scrapbook as a souvenier.
• While I was in Vegas, Mari settled on the house in Lovettsville. My family and hers pitched in to help her get settled in in my absence. They did a teriffic job hanging blinds and unpacking critical boxes, for which I can’t thank them enough.

And that was pretty much April for me. It took Comcast the intervening two weeks to hook up our cable (despite calling them 2 weeks prior to the move). Mari had her bridal shower last weekend, and I’ve been living off the leftover hors d’ouvres ever since. Saw Spiderman 3 (disappointing) and Disturbia (pleasantly suprised). I think that brings us back to now. One of these days I’ll upload a few more pre-and-post move-in pictures of the house, stay tuned.

[ youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHC_Qyov2Xc]

Check this out:

It’s not a tattoo, it’s scar tissue. Gruesome photos of the process involved after the jump.

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Here’s three RPGs scheduled to be released in 2007 that I wouldn’t mind owning/reading/playing:

Reign - Projected Release Date: ??/2007

REIGN expands the frontiers of fantasy gaming by elevating the action to an international stage. Monarchs, mercenaries and merchant princes gamble armies and fortunes to win nations in a rich and vibrant fantasy setting. REIGN’s simple but complete rules model the triumphs and disasters of societies as small as a village or as large as a realm-spanning religion. With REIGN, your characters can defend threatened nations, bring prosperity to desperate provinces, make laws and perpetuate justice… or, if you prefer, loot conquer and pillage on a vast and awesome scale.

Similar to the old Birthright campaign setting for AD&D, Reign answers the question “What happens when my character takes over a kingdom?” It uses’ the ORE (One Roll Engine) system popularized in the Godlike, Wild Talents, and Nemesis games.

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We’ve got an contract on the condo! A fella about our age who works as a Associate Producer on America’s Most Wanted offerred us $218k. Yes, that’s $3k more than the asking price, but he asked for $6k worth of closing help, so we’re actually coming in at $212k. Not bad, all-in-all, and we should still end up netting about $45k when all is said and done.

 Here’s a timeline for the next couple months, as far as home-ownership goes:
Friday 1/26: Installers arrive at 08:00 to replace the old windows (to the tune of about $2k). This wraps up our investment in the condo as far as renovations go.
Saturday 1/27: Scout out short-term housing in Leesburg.
…
February 15: Contract on the condo closes. Not sure if we’ll be moving out that weekend, or the weekend prior.
Late February - Early April: Move out of short-term housing and into the new house. Boo-to-the-YAH.

Well, I finally got off my ass and did it. I went through my boxes and boxes (and boxes) of comics and picked out the few I’ll be keeping when I give the rest away. I tried to keep it to one short box, but my nostalgia and greed pushed it to three. For those that haven’t seen my collection, that’s about 300 comics out of a total of at least 3,000.

 What did I keep? And why did I keep it? Continue Reading »

The condo is on the market!

Now all we have to do is wait for the offers to roll in…

Waiting sucks.

Of course, the first open-house was only yesterday afternoon, and we’ve already had at least 4 couples and two realtors stop by. We’re optimistic about our place in the local market: Most other condos in the area at our price point haven’t had any remodeling done. In the last month we’ve;
- Added a second (master) bath. That’s a shower stall, toilet, pedestal sink, lighted vanity, storage cabinet, linen closet, and toilet. With tile floors and everything.
- Remodeled the main bath. That’s another pedestal sink, lighted vanity, storage cabinet, and new brushed nickle fixtures throughout. Also sporting new tile floors.
- New carpet!
- New doors (replacing the junky tin closet sliding-doors with actual wooden ones)!

That’s all on top of Mari’s kickass remodel of the kitchen (hickory cabinets, corian countertops, track lighting, all new appliances) and the new front loading washer and dryer. All in all, it wouldn’t be too out of line to suggest we put about $25k worth of cash and labor into this place. Now that we’ve got the place all fixed up, I’ll almost be sad to say goodbye.

What I won’t miss is this damn pulled muscle in my back that’s been nagging me since after Christmas. I still can’t sit for longer than an hour or two without it tightening up and turning me into a hunchbacked old man. Damn this frail mortal shell!

Anyways, my orders are now to try and make as little mess as possible until the place gets sold, which means no more projects taking up my time. I may get to blow the copious amounts of drywall dust off my Xbox 360 and finish Gears of War yet!

Particularly when you try to squeeze too much in. For example, Mari and I are breaking our backs to get our condo on the market by January 1st. We’ve got to get all the painting in the carpeted areas of the condo finished bt Friday so our carpet guy can come a lay out all new carpet. Then we’re booked all weekend with family Xmas stuff. The whole next week should be the final push to get the condo ready: We’re having one bathroom renovated and another installed in a period of three days, and hopefully we can get somebody out to replace the windows, too.

Of course, here’s what will make it all worth it:

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