A better song

  Yet another song today since I'm just in that kind of mood, something from the younger days of my wife and I. This one that was popular when we were much younger. Lyrics for it are:-

Look into my eyes - you will see
What you mean to me
Search your heart, search your soul
And when you find me there you'll search no more

Don't tell me it's not worth tryin' for
You can't tell me it's not worth dyin' for
You know it's true
Everything I do - I do it for you

Look into your heart - you will find
There's nothin' there to hide
Take me as I am, take my life
I would give it all, I would sacrifice

Don't tell me it's not worth fightin' for
I can't help it, there's nothin' I want more
You know it's true
Everything I do - I do it for you

There's no love like your love
And no other could give more love
There's nowhere unless you're there
All the time, all the way, yeah

Look into your heart, baby...

Your can't tell me it's not worth tryin' for
I can't help it there's nothin' I want more
Yeah, I would fight for you, I'd lie for you
Walk the wire for you, yeah, I'd die for you

You know it's true
Everything I do - I do it for you

Another song

  Only one of the three podcasts I get on Friday released an episode last week so I've run out of podcasts again for the commute. Therefore I'm listening to music on my iPod again. Another song came up today that made me think about my wife. Queen again I'm afraid dear.

I was born to love you
With every single beat of my heart
Yes, I was born to take care of you
Every single day...

chorus:
I was born to love you
With every single beat of my heart
Yes, I was born to take care of you
Every single day of my life

You are the one for me
I am the man for you
You were made for me
You're my ecstasy
If I was given every opportunity
I'd kill for your love

So take a chance with me
Let me romance with you
I'm caught in a dream
And my dream's come true
It's so hard to believe
This is happening to me
An amazing feeling
Comin' through

chorus

I wanna love you
I love every little thing about you
I wanna love you, love you, love you
Born - to love you
Born - to love you
Yes I was born to love you
Born - to love you
Born - to love you
Every single day - of my life

Enthusiasm

  Just saw this and thought that this polar bear has way more enthusiasm in what he/she is doing than me.

Here we go again

  Another day at work and already I'm feeling the urge to ditch it and go play games. This is especially true since it is coming up to the time of year when several good games get released close together. I'm tired of what I do and can't wait for a change to come. Sitting around here while other people get their arse in gear is exhausting mentally.

  I think it is becoming a bit of an obsession with me. I just want to sit and play games and it is gnawing at me that I don't have time to do so. I played a little this weekend after my wife went to bed but not the whole day going by type of playing that I have done before.

  Even though I love spending time with my wife I just get this itch and it is bugging the hell out of me.

  So there we go it seems I'm just a neurotic game playing withdrawal layabout at the moment. Sigh.

Waste of time

  Sometimes I feel working is a waste of my time. Sure I get stuff done but it doesn't ever seem to achieve much for me other than allow me to earn money. I would much rather be playing a game or something fun. Today I've really got that feeling. I just want to go home, sit down and play a game for hours on end. Not sure why I have the urge but I do and I would feel accomplished at the end of it.

  Strange how working on what I do, which helps untold number of people communicate with each other, is not really giving me a feeling of accomplishment. True I rarely see the end product of what I do in use but even knowing how and where it is used doesn't give it to me. Yet some form of electronic game that has a form of progression in it gives me a sense of getting somewhere. Kind of speaks to how I feel about my job at the moment doesn't it?

Sod it more Pingu

  Post title says it all really. More Pingu because Pingu fucking rocks.

With my wife

  Got home a little early yesterday since nothing was happening at work so I decided the better place to be would be home with the woman I love. It was definitely worth it in the end since I found my wife in her usual sexy self reclining on the bed. A little while later I found myself tired and almost falling asleep. Strange how some time with my wife in bed leaves me like that. I can feel my body literally telling my to rest and sleep.

  And because I just randomly came across this I had to put this animated gif in my blog. Yay Pingu.

  So where was I? Oh right, loving my wife. Being with her is what makes my life, that is all there is to it. Now if only I could do just that life would be perfect. Well, be with her and play games and eat chocolate and do cool stuff but mainly be with my wife.

Rich old white men

  Sometimes I think a lot of the problems in the world come from rich old white men. They have only ever known their own little world and since they did well in it the rest of the world must be forced to conform to how they lived. Never mind that they are usually contemptible people. Take this idiot for example. He is so used to living in his world he doesn't think about what he says or believes affects other people. To think that something like rape is intended to happen and should be left as is if the woman becomes pregnant is a totally repugnant thing to think. Thankfully I didn't vote for any idiots like that recently.

  I do know the irony here as well, I'm almost an old white man. Maybe not rich but still :| .

Not up to much

  Another normal day today. Nothing really different happening other than a bit of rain which is finally here after months of nothing. It's weird thinking about it that so many days like this one go by and nothing of note happens other than the normal routine. Days like this I really get the urge to play a game for some reason. Do something to entertain myself and not have to do what I've done for so many days in my life.

  Really a sign of getting bored with work I suppose. Not that this is news to me, I've become so good at what I do (brag brag) that I can do what I need to do without breaking a sweat too much. It is incredibly robotic in the actions I perform that it really doesn't challenge me. Even technically complicated or difficult issues bore me since I know if I just do the right things I'll be able to solve them. Yet to escape that I look to something like a game where I can do things I know and get no real achievement out of it other than my own enjoyment.

  Oh well, my brain seems to be in a funny place right now. This waiting to see what kind of deal work will give me and when we can get going on making the arrangements and things to actually happen has me in a restless mood. Even the new iPad mini (woo 8 inches instead of 10) is kind of boring. Still it does seem strange that the current iPhone and iPad are no more powerful than the computers my wife and I had 6 years ago. All that in a tiny form in your hand. Yay the future.

Literal brain hurts

  Had a literal brain hurting episode last night. After a nice easy day with my wife my head started throbbing like a mofo in the evening. I took some tablets and that didn't help so finally declared defeat and went to bed. At 7pm. A very early night for me but found that the cure for me of just sleeping through it got rid of it no problem.

  It's weird how that works for me, when I get a really bad headache if I go lay down and go to sleep it goes away. Not sure if it came from my childhood migraines where that was the only way to survive, shut away in a dark quiet bedroom until I could think again. Still I felt much better this morning and very well rested. I don't even remember my wife going to sleep after she had finished reading beside me in bed. As usual though as soon as she realised I wasn't feeling great she got me in bed and made sure I had what I needed. Feeling safe beside her in bed is a large part of the reason why I can fall asleep so quickly. Knowing she is there and we are both there for each other if need be is a great comfort.

  Still it would be nice if my method of recovering from headaches worked for my wife. It really is a simple case of sleep for me, something that is incredibly easy to prescribe.

Lots of sleep

  Had a really good nights sleep last night. None of that waking up in the middle of the night a couple of times that usually happens. This was go to bed, fall asleep and then wake up as my wife is making breakfast (pretty good timing on my part I thought). I don't feel completely worn out like I did yesterday. Even after staying up to the middle of the night (ok, 10pm) playing games.

  Not that I'm going to use my rested state to perform huge feats of physical activity this weekend that is. Given how much rest I seem to need maybe the back garden will get hacked at tomorrow but for the rest of it I think more relaxation is called for. It's strange how just sitting around using your brain leaves you so worn out. That and the various stresses going on at the moment with trying to get the best deal for moving and so on.

  Still at least there is a few worries going away. My wife won't need to see her surgeon any more, health insurance it cleared up for the change over in the new year and the people next door don't seem to be noisy chavs so far.

  So time to go lay around not doing much with my wife and ignore the outside world some more. Time for just me and her to be together seems to be the general master plan.

Strangely tired

  Had a good time eating out yesterday evening with my wife after going to the doctor with her for her final check up after her surgery. It was very enjoyable just being out with her as always and making a regular thing of having a meal out together as a date night kind of thing is good for us. Since we like staying in and doing things so much we don't go out that often so making it a regular event is fun.

  Today is another busy day at work for some reason. I'm not sure why but too many people are thinking about a lot of things, in the designing software kind of way, and that is leading to questions being fired all around. Therefore with what I do I end up discussing and answering quite a few of them. Kind of proves my point to management how vital I am around here even more I think.

  All this pushing on getting us moved, lots of work going on and just general time of year seems to be making me really tired. I'm not doing anything physically exhausting but my body just wants to rest and rest. Kind of weird. I even went to bed at 8:30 8:40 ish last night which is earlier than usual for me and had no real problems just falling asleep.

  Also another though. Watching TV with my wife last night and I realised she is right yet again. Time to stop watching one of the new TV shows we tried since if I spend more time doing Draw Something pictures than actually watching the program then it isn't interesting enough to watch. That makes another one down and a season pass to delete from the Tivo. Shame really as it is a super hero type program that might have gone somewhere but really doesn't have any story to tell episode to episode. You can't use the small tid bits of interesting over story to keep alive a program which in its meat is fundamentally dull.

Can I have my brain back?

  Not had much chance to use my brain for myself today. A lot of meetings and all of them have involved some form of using my brain for other people. I really like keeping my brain for myself and/or for things I have to do. Using it to tell other people how to do things really is annoying to me. I've no idea why thinking for other people annoys me so much in a work setting. Kind of sucks for a senior person I suppose since you have to guide others quite a bit.

  At least the new health insurance plan that was discussed yesterday seems to be pretty good. Cheaper in the long term as well than my current plan. That is one less worry off the list, having to switch to something that was unknown when I need good health coverage for me wife is vital. Making sure things are good for her is my highest priority.

  So any volunteers to do some of my pointless thinking for me so I can concentrate on the important thinking I need to do? I have some really important thoughts about my wife that I want to think about, generally involving staring adoringly at her.

Various things

  A few different things this morning. First is good news about my vitamin taking and that maybe I'm doing it right in what I take.

  Then we have the fact that this morning it was obvious that the petrol stations around here have switched to the winter blend. California uses special petrol blends during the summer and winter to reduce smog. The winter blend however is slightly more efficient and I can always notice the switch since my morning commute suddenly goes from an average of 22mpg to 23mpg and the switch happened this morning after filling up yesterday. Always a nice thing to see since it means I use slightly less petrol and spend less on it.

  Today also I have the open enrollment meeting for the new health insurance we will be switching to next year. Hoping it is as good as the one I currently have which has pretty much covered everything reasonable to cover. I'm also hoping the costs of the new one aren't too extravagant since quite a bit of money can go towards that kind of thing. Kind of ridiculous when you think about it but totally necessary.

  Finally before I go off to that meeting send some more good thoughts to my wife. She is still feeling like crap and so clearly has come down with something. Wishing I knew what it was so we could try and cure it but for now she has to medicine up and try and get through it.

I'm not mad

  Saw this news story earlier and wondered if the fact that I'm not that creative is good for me. I suspect it is a case of correlation and not causation in what has been found but it could explain some of why people are like they are and why they can do what they do. What I do requires a very logical and methodical though process. Wandering off and just making things up generally doesn't work and leads to spectacular failures.

  But then you think, is it really that much of a surprise there is a rough connection. In order to think up something weird your brain has to be thinking about things unrelated to what you are doing there and then. Not sure that is the best way to describe it but when I think about something my brain works through it logically so trying to make something up I only use what I know of generally. Making something completely new usually completely escapes me.

  So the next time you get called a raving lunatic reply that you are simply a misunderstood creative genius.

Gentle hugs to my wife

 My wife is feeling really terrible at the moment. Something set off a huge headache all night and she has been feeling pukey as well. She got a bit of rest during the night but not much. Right now she is still feeling terrible as well. At least we got one bit of good news today, the guy with the most clout in charge around here is helping me with the move east now. I think it is much more likely to happen and for things to move.

  Today will be a day at work then zooming home to my wife to look after her. Getting dinner, making sure she has any medicine she needs and generally keeping the world at bay so she can recover. Send good vibes to her right now if you are reading this so she can get better soon.

The weekend

  Had a pretty usual weekend which was a little longer than normal due to working from home on Friday. Meant once I was done working at roughly 3pm the weekend started without the commute home etc. That meant lots of pretty much uninterrupted time with my wife. Lots of TV watching, one quick trip to the cinema to see Seven Psychopaths which wasn't bad, a little game playing and a fair amount of time watching how dangerous it is to live in Midsomer. Oh and a quick bit of gardening to remove some of the vegetation in the back garden before it completely goes back to nature.

  Then there was the space jump which my wife and I watched live on the internet. Us along with 8 million other people at least it seems. It is pretty cool that something like that could be streamed live over the internet for so many to watch. Not to mention the planning and so forth to pull something like that off. It's good that things like that are still happening, sometimes it would seem that people just aren't trying something so far out there to simply see if it can be done anymore.

  All in all how a weekend should be, resting and spending time with my wife. Makes being stressed out by this moving house stuff manageable, not sure if I would keep my sanity if I couldn't take some time to wind down. Living a life being stressed out all the time is not fun.

  Now I'm off to do more work and have a go at some people out east to get their arses in gear. I really need to get a final answer very soon on the how why when where etc of moving.

Stuffed and mind dead

  Had a huge breakfast this morning. A croissant with egg, maple sausage, turkey bacon and cheese. The thing was huge and neither of us could finish it. As a result my stomach is full and my mind seems to have emptied itself and gone blank. Seriously nothing is going on up there.

  It's weird when your mind doesn't want to do anything and trying to think is this massive feat that leaves you exhausted. Given that I think for a job you would think my brain could do it all the time but now it seems more often that it simply wants to shut down and find something simple to think about. Something with easily understood rules and systems that my brain can follow a few simple instructions and do what it needs to do. Hey, maybe thats why I like playing videogames or at least one of the reasons.

  So brain, get your arse in gear and think for me, I don't want to do any thinking right now.

Hurray for working at home

  Working from home has the huge advantage that I can be with my wife all day. This lunchtime is a prime example of that. I was really with her, something that could never happen while I'm at the office 52 or so miles away.

  Curses to the office that I have to be at. Being here at home is the best way to work, no traffic, no idiots around me, just me and my wife in a room together doing stuff :) .

Freeze dried husband

  My wife found a website today for freeze dry preserving pets after they die. One thing led to another and it turned in to a conversation about freeze drying me when I die. Can you imagine all the various poses I could be put in? Depends what you want out of a brittle preserved corpse of your partner I suppose. A bit of internal structural support in certain areas may be required but it could come in useful :| .

  So if I stop posting on this blog but pictures of me and my wife, where I seem suspiciously in the same pose every time, turn up on the internet you know what has happened.

Water

  From where I sit in my cube I work I can just about see outside. Only a tiny sliver over the top of all the cube walls but it is just there in the distance. From the looks of it there might actually be rain in a bit. It looks cloudy and gloomy enough to happen. This makes me happy. As someone who grew up in England that may sound strange but you miss the simple pleasure of water falling from the sky when you live in a place where from May through October not a drop falls. There may be the odd cloud in the sky sometimes but they burn away so quickly no moisture stands a chance.

  So lets celebrate the arrival of water. For someone who doesn't like getting wet, at least when it isn't under my control, I get strangly happy at the prospect of rain. That fresh clean smell in the air when it stops is great.

All quiet

  It's strangely quiet here at work. We officially released our latest version of code last night so everyone is pretty much worn out, mainly the testers and documentation folks who were working up to the last moment last night. As for me though I've already written my first feature for the next release and we are only finalising the schedule for that release today :| . Still it makes for a reasonably peaceful office at the moment. No people standing around in cubes looking at stuff making noise. Most people are just quietly sitting there reading things and occasionally typing away as they write the next round of specifications.

  It is weird how things change so suddenly like that. Yesterday was such a huge flap of activity that had been going on for weeks and now today you would think nobody is doing anything. True, some people are probably taking the day to not do much work but thats ok. All of the stuff gets done in the end, most of it on time.

  I wonder if I can get a moment to do more personal stuff today. Looking forward to some potential new information about a house on the east coast. Also need to see how much more money I can get together to make all this happen. All sorts of things slowly coming together and a final plan is starting to form.

  I'll see if I can spread some of the quiet here to my wife so she can have a peaceful day at home similar to the peaceful day I'm having.

On my mind

  Few things other than moving on my mind at the moment. First thing is the number of dreams my wife is having about me leaving her. A bit worrying for her but I know it will never happen. I'm trying to console her about it and make her feel secure which is about all I can do really. It doesn't help that I wake up and leave for work before she does so she has to wake up with nobody next to her in bed. At least on weekends she usually wakes up before me so knows I am right there with her.

  I tried out a game demo last night on recommendation of pretty much everybody that I listen to the opinion of about games. XCOM Enemy Unknown was the game and it was very good. A mix of strategy game and turn based tactical battles during an alien invasion of earth. The fact that it comes from the same guys that did the very good Civilization games helps, look forward to maybe getting the full game in the future.

  Also been watching lots of new TV as the new seasons start up. Along with things we already like returning there is quite a lot on the Tivo nowadays. A couple of new comedies for us to watch and some new drama type things. Might drop one or two of them, not always through choice with stuff having the potential to be cancelled, but most of it is pretty decent. Also stuff that returned is looking to be at least be up to par of where they were so we are continuing to watch them. A couple of shows have soldier types in them and my wife was sorely disappointed there were no cute guys in uniforms in them. Come on TV people, there is a certain actor that I'm sure my wife would greatly appreciate getting some work. Also its kind of scary how stupid skinny lots of women on TV are but then again whats new. Kind of depressing for those of us who like women to have actual figures.

  What else? Neighbours are being noisy doing some work on the house. It better not go on too long, they should be finished with it from the peek I took yesterday. They have been digging up and relaying a concrete patio that was lifted up by a tree they also chopped down. Lots of banging and sawing as you could guess. Seems to be roughly over with though. Also saw a car parked on the driveway this morning so they might be close to moving in or actually moved in, can't quite tell. Other than the work though they have been quiet, you can't tell they are there in the evening (not something that could be said about gobzilla across the road).

  Right, off to see what else I can do today about moving house. Feeling a bit more hopeful now, think something will actually move at more than a snails pace very soon.

Consuming me

  The upcoming moving house that is getting closer and closer is starting to consume me. Our current house is upsetting my wife so much it is also becoming something that obsesses me as well. It has to happen for any good future for us to come about and since my wife is my life it something that is always on my mind and actions. As with anything that consumes your thoughts you try not to let it be all you are about but I must do something about this. I need my plans for moving house to come through and if I let it slip it will be so bad for us.

  Take this blog post for instance. Typing it makes me worry about making the moving happen. I'm just talking about it, not actually doing something about it right at this moment. Weird how your mind makes you stress about something that isn't directly being acted on at that time. Part mechanism to make you do it I suppose, resolve the situation so that the stress goes away. It's weird how making something happen to make us happy makes us stressed and worried in the run up to it. The long term benefits though outweigh the problems.

  So the old "rip it off quickly" method seems to be the best. Just get it over and done with and you can move on to better things. In this case literally move.

Day to myself

  Today is Columbus day apparently and I get a day off work. Seems that being an east coast based company they have this day as a company holiday rather than MLK day earlier in the year. Due to when the merger happened I get both days off this year which is nice.

  Still it leaves me with the decision of what do I want to do on my day off. Relaxing of some form obviously and I'm tempted to play games of some form. I'm at home with my wife clearly and she has a huge bowl of cookie dough to cook later on :) . Still as she said to me earlier, what do you want to do today? On days like this I really have no idea, heck last night when I didn't have to go to bed early I still went to bed at a reasonably early time since I wasn't feeling that great. After getting in to bed with my wife I felt much better and was asleep in no time.

  So time to waste the morning choosing what to do and then a lazy afternoon doing it and an evening not doing much else. Sounds about right for days off that come around like this, just random days during the year.

Day to myself

Found it

  We've found what should be the house where we can be in peace and quiet. As I type this someone next door is running some kind of strimmer or chainsaw, something noisy basically. Being this close to people around you is not for us, heck when we lived in a flat the noise of other people drove us crazy. Being in the same building as other people is very annoying, having them just a few feet away and making noise doubly so it seems.

  The house we found is something we can afford in a place we can live. Reasonably out of the way and with land without being in bumfuck middle of nowhere. In other words ideal for us. Now I just need to get rid of any fucker standing in our way. Basically say sod the consequences and move.

  So rest of the world you are on notice. Get out of our way while we make this happen.

Loot games

  The wife and I ran out of TV to watch last night so I decided to play a game. After humming and hawing for a bit I chose Borderlands again. Somehow the action of running around shooting things while looking for better weapons got the better of me. This type of game where you slowly get stronger and get better stuff really appeals to me. I've sunk countless hours in to games like that, even when the game itself has a few flaws (hello Sacred 2).

  People have tried to characterise that kind of loot drop grinding, where you do similar things over and over to try and get better stuff so you can be better at the action of getting better stuff. It can be an endless cycle. However if the act of doing the loot acquisition is fun it really is a great way to spend time. At least in my opinion. Another game that I got for a whole $1 on PC via steam was like that. Torchlight is a small game that has that same get stronger and get better stuff loop. It is something I play late in the evening when we are away in the caravan, clicking away on dozens of monsters and watch them explode and die. When I think back, a lot of the games I enjoy are like that or if they include some form of progression mechanism it improves how much I enjoy them.

  I don't know. Not sure who would be interested in my thoughts on this. Just struck me when I was playing last night. Clearly this type of game is very popular and enjoyable. I'm just trying to work out why I in particular find it so. RPGs have the same sort of hold on me in that way, the gradual increase in abilities and strength that allow you to be better at the game. I suspect there have been all sorts of other people writing about this but this is me writing it down trying to think it out.

  Aren't you glad you know me and the fascinating things I write about? I shall see if I can think on this subject some more and work out why it is that I enjoy these games rather than just the feeling of progression they provide.

  Great, more stuff to wander around in my brain and distract me from other stuff. :-|

Round up of stuff

  Been trying to do something at work today so not blogged yet. I'm trying to impress on the new management structure that is coming up how incredibly useful I am and showing initiative and coming up with innovative solutions blah blah blah. Doubt anybody wants to hear about it but whatever this is where I write stuff down and that is what I'm doing. It should lead to good things like money, promotion etc.

  Also feeling the need to have a serious veg out and play games session. Only dabbled here and there recently and I don't know if it is withdrawal or just I need to turn my mind off for a bit but I'm getting that urge again.

  Another thought, my wife retweeted something about choosing one woman or another yesterday. The choice was obvious but made it clear that even though it was the right choice the woman shown was lessened significantly by naff tattoos. Small ones can be good but large asymmetrical ones just look bad and over time will look downright crap. Especially when they cover large parts of your body which is going to change shape over time. No thank you.

  Then we come to last nights presidential debate. I think Obama was happy to just let Romney go away with it and make it obvious how much he lies and doesn't even have a clue about the real world. Then again I think for a lot of people they have already made up their mind about who they are going to vote for so these debates (if you can call them that) seem very pointless. Just hope that enough of the states go the right way and get enough electoral college votes for Obama.

  In other news I almost saw a bank robbery the other day. Driving up to a local strip mall to get some food it was surrounded by about 10 police cars. Apparently literally a couple of minutes before I got there the bank at one corner of the mall had been robbed. No money was taken but the police were taking no chances. Weird to see it in person although people were just driving by as if nothing was really happening. Woo, brush with criminal activity.

  What else is there? Driving to work this morning I was amazed at how well the car has turned out. I'm getting close to 264000 miles now. That is a staggeringly large number to me. Back in the UK when I drove over 12000 miles in a year it was a lot. The fact that the car is still going with only a couple of minor rattles is great. Pretty good value for money despite the cost up front I think.

  Now off to do a bit more work and keep looking for somewhere to move. Maybe play a quick game no my phone to relax my brain.

Apologies to my wife

  Was driving on to work this morning listening to my podcasts as usual. Unfortunately I reached the end of them so switched over to my rather large song collection on the iPod. After shuffling around a little I came across a Queen song that I actually ended up listening to the lyrics to (something I really don't do much, I more listen to the sound than the words). Anyway, despite my wife hating Queen, I think the lyrics sum up how I feel about my wife very well. Sorry about the band dear but the words are the important part.

Ooh you make me live
Whatever this world can give to me
It's you you're all I see
Ooh you make me live now honey
Ooh you make me live

Ooh you're the best friend that I ever had
I've been with you such a long time
You're my sunshine and I want you to know
That my feelings are true
I really love you
Oh you're my best friend

Ooh you make me live

Ooh I've been wandering round
But I still come back to you
In rain or shine
You've stood by me girl
I'm happy at home
You're my best friend

Ooh you make me live
Whenever this world is cruel to me
I got you to help me forgive
Ooh you make me live now honey
Ooh you make me live

You're the first one
When things turn out bad
You know I'll never be lonely
You're my only one
And I love the things
I really love the things that you do
You're my best friend

Ooh you make me live

I'm happy at home
You're my best friend
Oh you're my best friend
Ooh you make me live
You you're my best friend

My wife

  Here are a few random things about my wife:-

1. Is a redhead, the best hair colour.
2. Looks way younger than she actually is (e.g. she was asked what grade in school she was when in her late twenties)
3. Is the absolute love of my life.
4. Is an amazing cook.
5. Has a wit that would make stand up comics look slow.
6. Can do amazing things with various body parts.
7. Has curves in all the right places.
8. Is the only person I can see being one of those old couples who know each other completely with.
9. Knows exactly what I am feeling just by looking at me.
10. Loves cats even more than I do.
11. Is a beautiful woman.
12. Is the only woman that I've ever had a serious relationship with, she is that good.
13. Is the only person I play Draw Something with.
14. Lets me play lots of videogames.
15. Looks great wearing diamond platinum jewelry.
16. Has so many good qualities it took me very little time to write this list.

  So there we go, a few reasons why my wife is an amazing person and the love of my life forever.

Numbers

  Looking at my money situation today it has come in to stark contrast where I used to be to where I am now. My wife and I were pretty poor when we first got married, only just being able to pay the bills and afford the bare minimum of food to survive. We never ate out and if we could get a free meal off of someone else then we would take it. Just looking at the numbers back then makes me wonder how we managed it. I effectively earn about 6 to 7 times what I did back then depending on how you calculate inflation. That boggles the mind in some ways especially when looking at the figures. From a pure number point of view (ignoring the fact that it is in a different currency) every month I see so much money moving around for stuff from bills to savings to just buying things that if I could look at how it was back in England all those years ago it was so much simpler. Also considering I was only paid once a month in England as opposed to twice a month here (and sometimes 3 time a month when I used to be paid every 2 weeks).

  What I'm trying to say is when you get in to larger figures you start to ignore the really small stuff. You add it up and see a bigger number but when you see it dwarfed by other things you dismiss it. It is a strange feeling for me when I think that when I went to university I had the grand total of about 2500 pounds in my bank account. Money, that along with my grant, would have to last 3 years of learning. Now I can spend that much money in a couple of weeks paying bills and pushing for savings. Some of the money being stashed away could get quite substantial in time so I can retire. The figures then will set us up for the rest of our lives and let us have a life of if not pure luxury then at least leisure. The annoying thing is that if I could just get a little bit more then I could make that happen so much sooner.

  I think it is time to repeat my plea. Any rich people out there feeling like making a philanthropic donation to a happily married couple so they can spend their time together with lots of animals?

Bye bye zoo

  Our membership to the SF Zoo ran out yesterday. We decided to get one since we were going quite a few times a year and for the cost of two entries we could get a membership that allowed us to enter as many times as we wanted for a year for free. We ended up going a lot more than two times and seriously got out monies worth. We went their enough times that we saw things change over the year and animals come and go. Sadly a few too many went this year through dying from old age or disease. Other than one sign at one exhibit there is nothing to show that these animals were ever there. The saddest one was probably Orkney, the blind 40 year old seal that had a small pool to float around in. He never really did much due to being completely blind but he had been at the zoo most of his life. The fact that they looked after him and let him live a life he never would have managed in the wild made him a favourite of my wife and I's.

  I think we are both of the opinion that any animal that can be helped should be. A lot of them suffer enough due to no fault of their own and "letting nature take it's course" always seems a cop out. Humans are part of nature despite what some people may think. Doing our part to help other parts of nature (well those that aren't trying their best to kill us) seems a good way to live your life. Just because something is the way it is in nature isn't a reason to not do anything. If humans hadn't done anything then even more species would be extinct today than there currently are. Sure some species were wiped out due to humans but a lot of humanity is now doing it's best to reverse that trend and help all living things.

  Now if you will excuse me I have to go work out how to get a huge house and piece of land for our own little menagerie of pets and animals.