Dog days of Summer kickin it in

Hey all,

Its that time of year - 90s with that lovely humidity with thunderstorms every night! YEEPPIE! I cant wait for the daily power outage at 5pm later tonight! Usually what happens is that the power glitches and knocks off my router just enough for the vonage phone to get out of sync - then it cannot resync nicely and blinks all night long until someone calls the house and goes to my cell phone.. oh well.

As promised: THE GAMING TABLE OF YESTERDAYS!:

From left to right: Benji (?), Carlos M, Eric S (blue & white), then its Bruce (black shirt), Brian C, myself (in the red) then Dave C (hidden), Carlos Y(green shirt) and finally Joe D (blue/white plaid).

This is the dining room in my dads old house; the table is 4'x8' and the bench was on the left side. The chair at the hutch end was where the GM would sit - usually me or Joe D. The table was originally a train table for my trains when I was a kid, but since the 9th grade, i took it from the living room into the dining room - mainly because my dad wanted us to play in the non-TV room.. Least to say, it was used almost nightly and always on weekends. It was so busy there at times, I got a OPEN/ CLOSED sign for the bedroom window - that way people could drive by and see if things were going on or not...

This weekend was good: Saturday we got some paint for the baby's room and we painted some patches on the wall to see what we like and don't like.. Then decided on Green and Brown.. I'm not sold on the brown yet, but we will see- maybe a shade lighter than the poop brown that it is now (thou it might have advantages with new born babies and poop...EWW!) Saturday ended with a Star Wars Ep1 and Ep2 DVDs.

Sunday was good too- I was able to get garbage out of the file cabinet and now I'm down to the rest of the last drawer; Tonight I get to empty it out and move it into the truck. Then tomorrow Kent will take from me for some $$$ and its a gonner! The file cabinet in question is one of those 5 drawer monsters..It does fit into the back of my truck, so I hope it fits in Kents Jeep!

Anyways, After the cabinet, we had lunch and Dave and Allie came by along with Amy; We play some Puerto Rico and Pit, then grilled some burgers (Not Joe burgers, just regular ones..) Whats a Joe Burger?? Well, you gotta just try it. I basically take about 8 oz of the good beef, mix in some spices and grill it up to leave the middle cooked and the juices hot and fresh. Then put it on an Arnold's bun and BAM- Joe burger. My next burger batch will include pineapples and BBQ sauce.. anyways, we played PR where Dave won with his builder plan - I tried the shipper route, but that turned to crap.

STEELERS: Who else DID NOT get Steelers tickets this year!! (raises hand) I swear, the bes deal in town was the mail a way tickets; Most people didnt know about them and only the loyalist fans could remember when to send in their money and requests. It kept the scalpers at bay and I was able to at least get to some games; I would make the trip across the PA Turnpike and make a weekend out of visiting the best city in the US of A. Now that the box office moved the ticket sales to ticketmaster, its going to be IMPOSSIBLE to get a single game in, let alone find seats at a good price. I guess paying a few hundred for 2 nose bleeders might be worth it, but we will see with the new coach..

PAINTBALL: I ordered the new vest,
knowing that I got $30 for my old one. The new one is similar to the other one but a tad different..Its OD Green and has no tank holder on the back, but it does have a zipper in the front, which is sweet; easy off and on.. Also, it has all the pouches that I could use and has the bladder for the water bladder on the back :) Next up is better camo: MARPAT camo which the Marines use...

SCHOOL: Start tomorrow - I got ECE Lab 1; Not sure on the class stuff et, but I will check it out later today.. I'm glad to get into the class as its near impossible to get the night lab classes and they only start once a year..

XBOX: The CPers stopped playing the shooters and now moved onto Shadowrun and FM2; Every now and then I catch em on R6 Vegas, but everyone seems to be doing their thing. It's not a bad thing, as I know summertime is vacations, lazy days with family and house projects, so I'm not going to put too much into it. I just wish my CA buddies would get off their asses and get online so I can kick their butts at Catan or R6 Vegas..

BOARDGAMING: My buddy Dan is planning a game weekend in WI; The problem is that we are in the midst of a baby room renovation and my time is limited to getting stuff done. I think that by the time the end of July comes around we should be ready to go for carpet, so we will see about the trip. I would rather visit my sister and dad in CA, but the tickets are too much now! They cost almost $425 for a round trip..and up!

Anyways, I'm still waiting for some pics from the party last weekend, so I will put em up as soon as i get em. Also, look from some progress pics of the baby's room too!

Cheers - And enjoy the heat!
JS

Coming up to the Longest Day of the YEAR!

Hey gang... I'm back again :)

Its been a wild week since the Paintball NJ NAM game weekend.. I had finals, more baby room stuff, a trip to Wilwoods and more.

SCHOOL: Isnt great, but its done. I got a B in JAVA- I pretty much spent all weekend working on this project because of two reasons: 1) 2 of the other people in the group took off to visit home. Now Im all over going home, but when there is a FINAL PROJECT DUE before you leave, one might wanna.... FINISH IT! oh 2) since two of the 4 members could not figure it out, it was up to me and the 4th to finish it. ITs a good thing that the other guy in my group knew how to write code... Anyways, we got a 95 on it and I got a B in the class.. MAth- well, lets just say that I gotta retake that one too. Im not doing well in these high level math classes; at least this instructor was a good one; just the grading system.. tests only- kills me. I suck at tests, especially ones that involve memorizing complex math equations that I will be seeing used in software.. yea yea I shoudl know it because Im a 'great engineer..' but give me a break! Finding all the roots of e(sinx+cosX).. comeon...

Next quarter - LAB 1! nice 2 hour class; too bad this one will involve a partner once again...

BABY: WE are STILL trying to get the rest of the old stuff out.
The file cabinet and desk go this week- that leaves the closet, walls and floor to be done.. My plan: Get the old furniture out and rip apart the room - leave the closet for now. I can always take the stuff out and trash the carpet before we get new stuff. I got almost 6-8 weekends to work on it, plus weekdays we are not going out. There is a plan :)

We did find a good crib and furniture, so thats a good start..

PAINT BALL: Well, I sold my vest for a cool $31; so that goes into the new vest war chest fund. I found one I like so we will see what happens. The group I am trying to get into is in the midst of changing their team name and leadership, but its not a bad thing- they love to play, have fun and just wanna goto events and have a good time = my kind of group! Some practices might be coming up, but Id like to get to OTP with Dave and anyone else that wants to go... maybe in a few weeks! (1st of July??)

SHORE: YEP! The shore is now an official Strikers QD entry;
Whats da shore?? THIS IS THE SHORE. Its the Wildwoods, OceanCity and all the rest of the famous NJ shore locations. Also, Boardwalk fries, Kohr Bros Custard (Sprinkles!)and more. We are now contributing towards the shore house this year and probably will for years to come. Do I like the house?? its ok- but for the price its great. Id LOVE to own one down there and just rent it out to ourselves in the summer.. pics to follow!

This weekend we went down for the night with Amy; she was a Wildwood 1st timer (Virgin!) She liked it- very unique experience there... the TRAM CAR :) the people..everything. It was a nice break for Nicole and I to get out; I knew she wanted to go... so why not.

XBOX: got Forza Motorsport 2 and its a cool racing game. I made a Steeler car and its sweet. The racing is cool, but I hope to play some of the gang in CP; Last night we did more Rainbow 6 stuff - I really love that game.

BOARDGAMING: Well, Gaming weekend was a disaster- everyone but Amy backed out; Im really getting tired of these so called gamer friends I got... I need to pay them more!! No... I know everyone is busy doing summertime stuff and gaming is taking a slow down - simple as that. We will get one weekend in soon :)

MY old navy buddy Dan found me on boardgamegeek and sent me a note to say hi; we traded emails and just updated each other on our lives. I hope to get in some gaming soon! Hes doing a WEEKEND FULL OF GAMES.. wow.. just like the golden age of the Gaming table of Maiz house (WHICH SHALE RETURN!!) Whats the Gaming table of Maiz house?? picture a 4x8' table with an old bench on one side and chairs around the rest to seat 10. On the table is a hand painted map of Supremacy, thanks from my Sister - Supremacy's map is the World.. You could eat your dinner in Siberia - thats how big the map was.


Anyways.. Off to work! Look for more updates on the room; Pics from Evelyns first birthday in CA, and much more!

JS!

Summer time is here!

Hey gang

Just a quick note this week on some highlights of random events..

PAINTBALL was awesome. I met up with Chad and his team on saturday morning in the pre-Africa heat. Game time started at noon, so after the 1hr registration line and the 40 minute chrono line, game on eventually went on. We flanked far left and met up with the red team after about 10 minutes of walking. The first fight was a stalemate, with both sides taking alot of hits. The field was more square than I prefer, with alot of the trails running thru the thick brush. It was so thick, you could hardly move thru it without getting ticks or something else all over you. About 2pm, i headed back to refill the pods and also get some water/ snacks. By 2:30, the rest of the team was back at camp re-hydrating and no sooner than 3:15, we were ready to go, only to be told that the game was called off till 6pm - WHY!! Well, it seems that a few folks decided to go and get heat exhaustion because they didn't drink water in the 95 degree heat with 80% Humidity! Least to say, I went home about 4pm..

Sunday was better- game time started about 10am, and it was alot cooler out with a lite drizzle. WE played till about 12:30 when my batteries started to go on me. I left shortly after that because Nicole was feeling sick and she needed some TLC and medicine :)

SCHOOL- Finals are this coming week, so I will be doing my group project for JAVA and also some math studying. Im more worried about the JAVA stuff because: 1- I suck at Java and 2- its a team project= noone does anything and its hard to reach the other full time kids in my group. I will see what happens.. I just wanna pass this class...

HOME- Got a few projects done, BUT the PC is now in a new home and the corner desk is at Tonys house. I now need to remove the old desk, clean out the file cabinet and also get the room ready for minor demolition. Then remove the carpet once the closet is cleaned out some more... Lots to do and it will start once I get done with finals..

FAMILY- Nicole is doing well- she had a DR appointment last week and all is good. Dad is doing well; he sounds kinda bored, but he is doing well. My mom is coming down to visit this weekend with George and it should be nice to see them again. She is gonna help with the Kitchen and organize it with us while I install new tiles into the cabinets.. pics to follow soon.

XBOX- Same ol stuff here; I talked with carlos and NFL is now in the drive some more. I started a superstar QB- Joe Striker- hes now on the liones.. we will see whats up. I still play Vegas with CP and Saints when nothing is goin on- The yellow gang is almost done, making the city Purple!!

Oh well - Im off..

Look for a better post in a week when I got more time :)