Things have been shaping up over the past few weeks, stability has returned to my job, at least a little bit, new hires are quickly getting the hang of things and progress is being made, and my time overall has been spent well between work and enjoying nights and weekends with Ashlynn. Last week we went to Red Lobster in what I called the “apology dinner”, much like when she took me to The Cheesecake Factory once to apologize for a bout of problems we had six months ago. It was to make up for time lost due to the many issues I faced with after-hours at work that took up the majority of my time off, as well as the “week from hell” a couple weeks ago. It’s important to me to have her support, especially considering without me holding her back, she’d probably beat the daylights out of several co-workers for the trouble. She tends to be protective over me sometimes, especially when others seek to use me beyond reasonable limits. There is probably also separation anxiety and jealousy in there too, but I digress. While I believe I continue to command my own way, I’d be wary if I were some of you. We’re a rather.. unconventional couple. I probably won’t stop her. It’d be the best “going out in style” job manuever of my career. =D

Unfortunately the weekend was dampened a bit by the news my grandmother, of my father’s side, passed away this morning. We used to joke that she would live forever, like the stubborn old woman she was, always sitting in the chair, reading books, watching FOX News so much the logo was burned into the TV. But to hear of her trials with cancer years ago, her hospitalization now, and her no longer with us, I feel the worst about being so far away from here that I couldn’t have even seen her at all as often as I should. We used to see my grandparents every year during the holidays or other times growing up, and ever since moving to Connecticut in 1999, I’ve only been able to see her a handful of times, the most recent in 2005 with my ex when we were out in LaPorte for the holidays. Ashlynn asked me if I was close to her, and I couldn’t help but say yes, in a way. Even though I did not see her as often as I would have liked over the years, they have done nothing but care for us in conventional and unconventional ways over the years. My grandfather before he passed away over a decade ago used to be up at 6am every morning with coffee and the newspaper in hand before golfing. They’d sit at the kitchen table, in the same two chairs, every morning, every day. In the evenings they’d sit in the same two chairs in the living room, every night. They listened to Rush Limbaugh at noon every day. Their pantry always had the cereals and snacks my parents wouldn’t really buy us. My grandfather would dish up ice cream on nights for me, my sister, and my cousins. Every candy holiday we got a box full of goodies from them, and a little money which probably went into my savings bonds as a child. My SNES and most of my games were Christmas presents from them each year, most of the games she bought were cheap ones in the discount bins, but some of them ended up being classic gems I play today. The Enterprise-D and Star Trek toys were from her, though kept in the basement before my interest in it. Countless number of other things. Easter egg hunts, Halloween, always the smell of cigarettes when you walk in the door. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I don’t recall ever being yelled at, or hit, or anything of the sort, unlike another grandparent of mine. That isn’t to say they were lacking in stern lectures once and awhile, I seem to recall a few. Most folks, especially the liberal friends, like to think I am very conservative, but it was my grandparents who really followed that line, I probably deviated greatly from that path, but it’s very much a part of who I am, both directly from them and from my father. It was a different time for them, as it is a different time for us. All I know is, life does move on, but it’s going to be hard to not feel a little guilty about not being there sooner, and I’ll certainly miss just her presence if I go out there at any point soon or in the future. May she rest in peace.

I’ve been trying to get some time in playing Mass Effect over the past couple weeks, not as much as I wanted to with other things going on. It’s certainly a fun game, like the controls and the setup, unlimited ammo is a pleasure, especially in a sci-fi series, but the overheat does dampen things some. My biggest frustration is not saving before something and then getting wiped in seconds. I haven’t quite gotten the hang of the powers and tactical commands, it seems too cumbersome to do in the middle of fights. My squad members aren’t so bright either, they either just stand and take hits until they die, or they just run around with me. Probably also the use of the tactics, but I’m just trying to shoot things, damn the tactics. Hopefully I can finish it up so I can play ME2 and be finished for ME3 in six months or more. Also waiting on that summer DLC Valve talked about for Portal 2. Needs me moar portals.

Technology-wise, I’m looking to probably buy a new laptop soon, likely the Lenovo I was looking at last week. I also want to buy a new motherboard for this machine and a case so I can reassemble the old machine. Then see how well it’d perform as a media box in the front room. Hopefully even with a Core2 1.6 it should be enough to render video, probably in XBMC again. After that, I plan to probably upgrade my phone next month or maybe sooner. Haven’t decided what yet, I had my eyes on the Epic 4G, but I might take a new look at whats out and see what is good. For birthdays this year we are buying each other consoles, I buying a 360+Kinect for Ashlynn and she buying a PS3+GT5 for me. Eventually I’d like to buying components to build a surround sound setup and start buying some movies on Bluray. Nanoha movie is on the top of my list, but also Back to the Future, and if any of the Trek movies are on it perhaps. There will be others, but those are for starters. HD Netflix will also be boss, as usual, I dropped my plan back to Streaming Only after they changed the rates for Streaming+DVD. We barely rent DVDs and it’d just be a waste of money.

Finally, I have a fierce addiction to Arizona Arnold Palmer Half&Half Iced Tea/Lemonade. It’s problematic, especially since the popular version found in most places is the Lite, which has Splenda in it. Not a fan of that shit, as I recall it’s not good, or maybe I am thinking of one of the other sugar subs. Eh well. On the flip side, their fruit punch and grape drinks are fantastic.