I cannot believe it’s Thursday already. Four day weekends rule!

I survived spinning class last night, it was actually easier than I remember but still a great workout. Our favorite instructor Jeff was happy to see “The Buckeyes” again as he calls us. He too is from the great state of Ohio. Kim is trying to convince me that we should go back every Wednesday now that hockey is over.

Later in the night I worked on setting up a computer that Phil gave me to use as a webserver. I got my old computer and this one setup on a KVM switch so I could control both of them with just one keyboard, mouse and monitor. I then set them both up on the same network so I could do some file sharing. Now I need to get an internet connection to it and staring installing the software I need for the server. Thanks Phil!

Sorry about the downtime today, apache crashed for some reason and I had no way to restart it while stuck at work. I’m trying to track down the reason for the error but the apache error logs can be a little over my head at times. All the more reason to get a dedicated server with fewer applications running on it. Perhaps some day…

Last night I went and saw Star Wars with Mike. I didn’t go to one of the opening midnight showings like I had done for at least one if not both of the prequels. I won’t say too much about it here, but if you enjoy the Star Wars movies at all, this is a must see. Mike never saw episodes 1 or 2 and I don’t think he was ever lost in the plot of this one. Go see this one ASAP!

Alright so first thing I did on our busy Saturday was replace a temperature sender on the Jetta. You may remember talk of a check engine light from over a month ago. Well I though it was just a loose gas cap, but that was not the problem. A few weeks ago I took the car to a car parts store and had them pull the error codes. I then googled the error codes and found a message board thread describing how to fix the problem. I bought the parts last week and then pretended to be a mechanic. Today the check engine light is no longer on! Looks like that problem is finally fixed.

From there we took the car to Tires Plus to get the tires rotated and balanced as well as have a brake inspection performed. For a week or so there had been an occasional squeak coming from one of the wheels. In the end we got a call saying the car was ready and the brakes are fine. Guess I’ll just keep my ears open for any other sounds and take it from there.

While the car was in the shop we headed to a couple of PETCO stores since they were the only ones in town to have the tank stand I wanted and the turtle dock I wanted. After we bought the necessary pieces we went home and I put the whole thing together. I took some pictures of the process and also have a webcam up and running. It should take a picture every 2 seconds or so. This is quite a strain on my PC though, so we’ll see how long it lasts. I think it is pretty neat though.

Mike came over during the setup and after it was all done we walked down to a newer pizza place near UMKC‘s campus called Pizza 51. They have huge slices of pizza, along with good calzones and sandwiches. Oh yeah, they have beer and Saturday night entertainment as well. We stayed there for awhile and that pretty much ended the night.

Sunday we went to the grocery and then picked up the car. My mom told me earlier in the day about a scanner at OfficeMax for $5 after rebates. So I picked one of those up and started scanning ticket stubs again. Right now I’m just re-scanning the old ones so that they will all be of the same quality. I have hundreds of stubs though so this will definitely take some time. We also fit in a round of golf with Mike during the day. Toward the end of it I really started to hate the game, but hopefully we’ll get out again next weekend.

We did go to Mike’s roof on Friday and we did drink some beers. When it got a little cold out, we moved down to his apartment and watched Groundhog Day. Nothing else too exciting for Friday night.

Saturday we cooked up some breakfast and then got to work. Kim had some studying to do while I installed the new wireless router. It was really easy to setup and we can now access the internet from anywhere in our apartment. Also the webserver should be much more stable and the site should have very little downtime if any at all. Later on Kim cleaned out the new tank, and I made some minor repairs to it. It should be ready to go after work today, but I think we’ll wait until next weekend to get a stand and a few other supplies before we make the move. That didn’t stop us from going out and shopping though. I think we are going to try using a Turtle Dock in the new tank. We’ll have to use the large size though since the turtles keep growing. Kim noticed that they are building a Coldstone on the plaza, but since they are not quite open we headed out to Overland Park to visit that location. I think the construction of this is the worst thing to happen to us since they built the Chipotle just a few blocks away. Speaking of which, we did have some Chipotle over the weekend! While we were out shopping we picked up a few DVD’s from Doni. That night we watched War Games and then The Incredibles. Mike came over to watch the movies as well. We watched War Games because Doni and Phil quote it from time to time and we never have any clue what they are talking about. I figured out why though, the movie was released when I was 3 years old. Kim fell asleep during The Incredibles and I think I dozed of a time or two as well, so we’ll have to watch that one again. From what I saw though, it was a good movie. It was the end of this Saturday night however.

Sunday we did some cleaning and stuff around the apartment and then met up with Doni for lunch at Mr. Goodcents. From there we hit up the grocery and then played a few games of darts. Before too long it was dinner time. We grilled out some chicken and made some fresh stir fried green beans and potatoes with a little rice. It was very yummy. Afterward, it was back to the TV to finish out the night.

This morning was pretty warm out, so we got to run outside again. I think this week is supposed to be warmer and warmer each day with the possibility of hitting 90 degrees!

I took the router in and showed them the Radio Shack ad. They honored the pricematch, so I was credited $22 although it has not yet been put back into my bank account. The manager on duty said that the $20 best buy rebate will no longer work, but I’m gonna send it in and try anyway. If it does not work, I still have the $10 rebate from Linksys so the total then will be 37.99 plus the tax. If I do slip the $20 rebate through the cracks then the total will only be 17.99 plus tax. Either way, I think it is a heck of a deal for a top of the line wireless G router that retails for $70 usually.

I have not had time to play with it though since I had hockey last night. I’m hoping that the install is really easy and I can get everything up and running quickly. My only fear is the wireless side of things since I’ve never messed with it before. Good thing Phil has the same exact router and runs many of the same services that I do (webserver, ftp, etc). I’m not sure I will get to it tonight either. We have a bunch of TV shows to catch up on but Kim does need to study insurance stuff. Regardless of what we do I hope to have a margarita or three tonight in celebration of freedom and liberty, which is what Cinco de Mayo is about isn’t it?

Nothing exciting from last night, I guess it was sort of a getting back to normal day. However, tonight we do have plans to go out. We have excellent seats for the Widespread Panic show at Starlight thanks to my buddy Jonathan. It might be a little cold tonight, but I’m very excited to be going to this venue for the first time even if I’m not too familiar with the band.

As for the rest of this week, I’m sure I’ll be busy with the home network and the new turtle tank. Best Buy has the linksys WRT54G for $69 with $30 in rebates. I plan to pick one up tonight and then I’ll start using it tomorrow. The nice thing is that Best Buy has a price matching policy that I’m going to use to get $22 back after buying the router since Radio Shack has the same router advertised for $49 on sale. The problem with Radio Shack is that they are not offering the same rebates. I would just take the Radio Shack ad in tonight, but then my receipt would show the price matching and I would risk not getting the rebates. If this all works out, I’ll get the router for around $17! Scandalous, I know. :)

The other thing I have to work on is a 55 gallon tank that I brought back from my parents. The turtles are currently in a 20 gallon tank, so this will almost triple the size of their tank. First I’m going to clean it, repair it and then get it setup for the turtles. This will definitely take some time though, good thing Kim has another exam to study for.

Frondizi’s was pretty good. The menu was a little more adventurous than I tend to be. The special of the night was some sort of braised rabbit ravioli or something. The really cool part of the menu was the wine list that ranged from $20 up to $2000+ for a bottle. We stayed in the $20 to $30 range. :) Kim had some really good stuffed peppers and I had the simplest item on the menu which was pretty good as well. All in all it was good time, but definitely a little pricey. From there, we all went back to our apartment for a few more drinks and some darts.

Saturday was our errand day. I’m not sure if Time Warner has bumped up the speeds for everyone, but here in KC our roadrunner is now up to 5.0 Mbps. What they failed to tell us was that our modem would not be capable of these speeds and we would be stuck at the old 3.0 Mbps. So the first thing we did was take the modem in and exchange it for a new one. If you have not done this I recommend doing so ASAP, start here. From there we went to petsmart, a sporting goods store, a carwash, supercuts and the grocery store. We also made a stop at blockbuster and picked up Meet The Fockers and Sideways. That night we watched Meet The Fockers and ate pizza. It was a pretty funny movie, about as good as any sequel comedy can be.

Sunday was the big race. My legs cooperated very well and we had a great run. It was pretty cold out which may have helped us reach our personal bests. The first mile we ran in 8:50, the speed at which the fairly large pack seemed to be running at. It was a little faster than we usually run but we kept up with it just fine. In the end we ended up finishing the four miles in just under 34 minutes. The official times are not up on the site yet, but I’ll be sure to get those up as soon as they do. After the race we had a little party over at our place. Bloody Mary�s, screwdrivers and mimosas were the drinks of choice. We even had a few people from my work over for the party. Later on I had a hockey game which we won and are now in the championship game next Monday!

I guess I neglected to say that yesterday was the two year anniversary for me and Kim. Time flies eh?

I got a nice surprise towards the end of work yesterday, my free iPod shuffle! I’ve been following the shipping status on the FreeiPodShuffle.com website, but according to them the vendor was still waiting for more of the units to arrive. Now it is time to decide if it is worth keeping or not. I’m leaning towards keeping it since we are running outside more and more and it is always nice to have some sort of lightweight device to use. I guess time will tell.

If you didn’t already know, the conclave has been assembled to elect the next Pope. I really don’t know much about who the predict winners are and supposedly it’s anyone’s game, especially after seeing the brackets.

Stupid router did it again! If the site goes down while I’m gone that is why. Please call Netgear for me, thanks…

My router is really pissing me off lately. It keeps thinking that my computer has a virus when clearly it does not. Netgear support is worthless as well. Have I said this already? Well it is worth saying it again…

Vacation time has arrived! I’m leaving work at 4 today to head to the airport and then it’s off to San Diego. Kim has been there since Sunday, but I guess they have been doing a bunch of work stuff. Our itinerary as of now is this:

Wednesday (aka tomorrow) we are heading to Sea World. I was hoping to get in for free since I am baby shamu’s godparent and all, but I forgot that the real baby shamu resides in Florida not California. This may sound really funny to most of you, but it is a true story. When we were younger my mom would encourage us to enter tons of these contests and we won all the time. One time I made a birthday card for the first baby shamu’s birthday. The card I made won my entire family an all expense paid trip to Sea World Orlando. Mom, if you read this, have you ever seen the card online or any of the pictures???

Anyway, back to the plan. We are then going to the zoo on Thursday. It has been awhile since I’ve been here and I am really looking forward to it. I wanted to do the wild animal park as well, but I do not think we will have time…

Friday we plan to head to Tijuana Mexico. I’m excited to do this since I’ve never been to Mexico. I know this probably doesn’t even count, but it should be fun either way!

I’m sure we’ll throw dinners and bars into the mix late at night, but that is the plan as of now. We will be flying back sometime Saturday (unless we can get bumped). Have a good rest of the week…