October 13, 2007 will forever be the favorite day of my life, followed very closely by April 14, 2014 (after all the latter couldn’t have happened without the former). Since Octoboer 13th was just this past Monday, this seemed the appropriate TBT post. I’ll admit it was a day I never thought would happen to me; not many of us with that “computer geek” label are credited with having much luck in the romance department; but for what its worth, we do have amazing “grep” patience 🙂
So, most of my friends and family I’m sure remember this day. We were married in the city we both loved for 4-6 years (i.e. West Lafayette on Purdue’s campus) and in a church we both loved (St. Thomas Aquinas). There are so many memories I could go into from that day. One memory, for example, was the morning of the wedding when I did not receive the groom’s complimentary bagel from Einstein’s Bagel’s because I was not present when a few of my groomsmen went to get some breakfast. Since the Best Man was dressed slightly differently than the others, the clerk thought he was the groom and he decided he wasn’t going to make the correction. I took no offense, but its a great story!
An example of “best made plans going awry”, which is a frequent theme for all weddings, was the night before the wedding. The church had made a mistake when booking the rehearsal. We were supposed to begin rehearsal at 7pm but we received a phone call about 5pm asking why nobody had arrived at the church. We had to call all the bridesmaids and groomsmen (that had managed to make it into town) to get to the church as quickly as possible. We ended up doing the rehearsal with about half the bridesmaids and a third of the groomsmen and the rehearsal dinner was still 2 hours away. Everything still worked out because all of our bridesmaids and groomsmen are awesome!
We were both so happy that so many of our friends could attend. Friends from high school, college, and friends we made while Beth was getting her MBA at Notre Dame.
So here’s to 7 years, to another 70 years and to the Best. Wife. Ever!
This week the 6.0.2 patch is released, which contains pretty much all the expansion changes except the new zones. We will essentially be bidding farewell to Pandaria as everyone prepares for Warlords of Draenor by grinding the three new instances (and acclimating to the item squish and class changes). So as we bid adieu to Pandaria I want to reflect on my likes and dislikes of this expansion.
Issue 109: Isn’t that an awesome lunar eclipse. The “Blood Moon”, such an iconic event to happen in the month of October. Yes, fall is upon us and so are many a content patches and expansions. Obviously the gaming companies are gearing up for the Christmas season and the winter months for those that will be sequestered in their homes in the colder regions of the world. Blizzard, Bioware and the other companies are preparing content for your enjoyment while you endure the frigid winter months. Also, 
This is a very fond memory. Pool Nights at Nick’s Pool Hall. It was so much fun just hanging out and shooting pool and having a couple of beers. This was a pastime Doug, Alan and I would partake in quite often during our latter years at Purdue. Everyone wanted to go to the Neon Cactus or Where Else, but I would have never chosen those places over Nick’s. I know one of the things that people will notice in this picture is my iconic Australian Fold-Up hat. I came back from a family vacation with that hat and it became something I was known for … although apparently I was the “creepy-guy-in-the-hat” according to my wife, whom I had barely known at the time (
So here is my chance to berate and belittle Apple and their latest foray into product stupidity. This is probably going to be a bit of a soapbox not only about how you screw something up like manufacturing a phone that has such weak physical integrity but also to those folks that think phones should be impervious no matter where you keep them on your body.
Issue 108: Well, summer is officially over and we welcome the fall of 2014; though it seems bizarre that fall is already upon us. The burning daystar will be in the sky for a shorter period of time over the next several months, however the temperatures will still keep us inside our various hovels. Granted, most of us don’t seem to mind our sequester as it just means “MOAR GAMING!!”