It looks like one of my current projects will be drawing to a conclusion soon. . . and another project is in the queue to be worked on, and yet another is rumored to be coming down the pipe soon. Its going to be busy. . .

A quick summary. . . Things at Best Buy are shaping to a normal routine. . . with positive outlooks on the future. Things here at RPM Freelancers is getting busy. I am now multi-tasking between three active clients (with their prospective projects) as well as the long-awaited deployment of my first webapp (to be initiated once my partner gets back from Florida). I'm beginning to think I bit off more than I can chew for my fledgling company, but it'll be a nice challenge to see how I handle things in the next month or so.

My XBox is currently in the hands of Gamestop.com, where it is being repaired. In the meantime Rus has my games, so at least someone is getting some use out of them. That and also I need to finish playing my PS2 games. . . :P

I took the easy route out and reconfigured Quincy V to be the Media Center PC until I am able to put together Quincy XI. So far its working out pretty well. . . I just need a PS/2 splitter so that I can use a mouse in the living room. How's that for scrounging?

Took some time out today at lunchtime and introduced Rus and Katherine to Ski Shores, which they both enjoyed immensely. Lots of comfortable conversation ensued, along with the planning of fun and games to take place tomorrow after work.

Other than that, it seems that the family received Yan Yan quite well. My sister took an instant liking to her, but then again she takes an instant liking of anyone who would play with her. Mom and dad were not that hard to sell either, and future visitations looks likely (assuming we can get time off from work).

Lunch at grandmother's birthday was relatively uneventful, although I did sense a bit of tension at the absence of my uncle. I did not get any details, but something's a foot.

But I digress. . . the XBox AND the games I ordered from Microsoft were waiting for me when I got home. I gulped down a quick lunch and sat down to enjoy my new toys. Except my new toy had a small problem: it is having trouble reading the game discs. Yeah. . . its disappointing. . . and I'm toying with the idea of buying another preowned XBox, and return this one for a refund, effectively creating a instant exchange. It'll cause a minor inventory problem for Gamestop, but they have to send it back for repairs no matter which route I take. Like I said, that's what I'm tempted to do.

In the meantime I will just settle down in front of my XBox and drool over Halo. . .

For example, I'm waiting on Kyle to finish being busy at work so he can finish painting my bike. I'm waiting on FedEx to deliver my newly acquired XBox (reason I got one follows. . .). I'm waiting on Microsoft to send me the XBox games I ordered through their retail program at virtually no cost (but I just found out five minutes ago that it takes them six to eight weeks to ship an order). I'm waiting on Jeff to get with his brother Doug and call me back so we can arrange a meeting to polish off their website (and I was just contacted by someone else interested in me designing their site).

So. . . here I am. . . twiddling my thumbs and waiting. . . and waiting. . . and waiting. . .

A quick breakdown. . . Thursday was quiet at work (and they did repair the life support system in the morning, as promised, I'm glad to announce). . . followed by a mad hockey game (I actually scored thrice after being out of the game for almost six months), followed after that by a grueling game of 80-points (some weird contraption with 3 decks of cards with which I still have no fathom on how the cards work) with Yan Yan and friends. . . went to bed entirely too late.

But that's okay. . . Friday I only had one appointment to keep with a client, which I managed without much trouble. This was followed up with the ordering of an XBox (yeah. . . I'm getting one. . . pretty much since there are mech games I want to play and there aren't many for the PS2. . .). Friday night was once again a pleasant evening with Yan Yan. . . and it actually involved some slight philosophical discussions. Did I mention she's a sweetie? :)

We had originally planned to go camping this weekend, but we decided to postpone it due to the violently changing weather. Instead, we made a day-trip to San Antonio, since she's never been there. Lots of pictures were taken, and will be posted soon. Activities included a nice long walk on the Riverwalk, browsing through the ubiquitous souvenier stores, and paying our respects at the Alamo. Oh, and chowing down on a couple of Marble Slab ice cream cones. We concluded the evening with a ridiculously long Magic (yes. . . Magic. . . The Gathering. . . old school, huh?) game at Crystal's place (the last person I'd suspect to be attracted to Magic). Yan Yan was dead tired by the end of the game, and somehow I made the drive home after dropping her off to write this.

Damn. . . this puts a damper on me having Yan Yan over for dinner tonight. . .

Yesterday was a pretty stressful day at work, but I was rewarded with having dinner with Yan Yan's friends. It was interesting to hear myself being introduced to everyone as Yan Yan's mysterious friend, when it was readily apparent that we were anything but. However, my status was upgraded when everyone was amazed at how much alcohol I could drink without breaking a sweat. Yan Yan was worried I'd be incapable of driving safely, but I assured her that everything was still peachy since my de-toxification process was already getting rid of the alcohol in my body at a pretty good clip.

Found out yesterday that one of the techs was leaving the force (today is his last day), so there was a windfall of hours. Looks like I'm going to be busy starting next week. Not all too bad. . . except it might put a damper on my other ventures.

Had the pleasure of spending the evening with Yan Yan in my hilltop fortress last night. She became intrigued with my haphazard cooking skills, so I made some lemon pepper chicken alfredo with a dash of broccoli and mushrooms on a plate of chilled rotoni (should have used fettucine, but I did not realize I was out of stock until it was too late). I think it could have used a bit more salt, but she thought it was quite good. We feasted on it while watching The Matrix, with me explaining some of the intricacies that she had missed the first time she watched it. All in all a fairly pleasant evening. . .

. . . but I went to bed too late, and was feeling it this morning when I woke up for work. Due to a power outage last week (from the spectacular thunderstorms), my alarm clock was reset. I had thought I set the time properly, only to realize this morning that it was set for 6:00. . . PM. Not AM. Fortunately for me my internal chronometer kicked me out of bed at 6:48AM, and off to work I went (had to be there by 7:30AM).

I'm back to listening to Sting again (and practicing my vocal skills. . . damn that boy has a soft pitch). "This Cowboy Song" fits my current mental state quite well. Basically. . . it got me started thinking. With the recent string of events. . . and how things are turning out at the moment. . . it just feels that all's right in my little world. And that's a good thing.

Due to heavy casualties, Engima Squadron was disbanded several weeks back. Of the four units assigned to the group, one was in drydock, another stolen, and the remaining two orders that were suppose to complete the squadron were cancelled. This kind of left Enigma One homeless. So, Enigma One is henceforth redesignated as Shadow Phoenix, now being assigned as a solo unit operating within the Special Operations group. She's almost ready. . . pending the installation of the new unit insignias. :)

Met up with Yan Yan at Design Edge on Monday, and had lunch with everyone there. It was nice catching up with the guys, and nicer still to have Yan Yan by my side. However, after lunch I became slightly ill and went to bed, missing out on Jeff's after-moving party.

Work yesterday was pretty hectic again, this time made worse by a whole series of annoyed customers that were handed to me after someone else had already screwed them over. I did the best I could, I think, under the circumstances. Matt the GM even pitched in to help on one set of customers, and we tagged teamed to make them happy again. Damn its amazing seeing Matt at work.

Fortunately for me, Yan Yan (she's a sweetie alright) called me up shortly before I got off of work and asked me to join her for dinner (she had cooked some stuff and was waiting for me). I hurried over there and tried out her culinery skills, even though she was nervous about her offerings (I assured her that it was quite good). Afterwards we went for a walk in the dark and lounged around for a bit before I made the drive home.

And boy was it a drive. Lighting flashes and rain coming down horizontally to the ground. And I do believe I saw the formation of a twister on the way home. There were a few spots on the road where I felt the wheel grip slipping, and had to adjust my speed accordingly. At one point there was a gigantic thunderstrike that left afterglows on the ground. It was quite a show. . .

Afterwards Yan Yan and I retired to my place, where we had intended to go dip in the pool for a bit. But I guess lunch had really worn us out, so instead we took a nap. Not that I had much of a nap, but she claims she slept well.

Dinner with Yan Yan's friends was already planned in advance, and I must say it is a fun group to hang around with once the ice is broken. We made some sweet dumplings and munched on an assortment of chinese food (was quite good!). After-meal entertainment was in the form of drinking games, except with extra food as penalties. It was the most bizarre experience I have had, but it was still good clean fun without alcohol being involved. Although I can definitely see how alcohol would make things more lively.

We (Shrew, Shweta, Yan Yan, and Mi) finally got to see Matrix Reloaded tonight. Despite what other people think, I personally think it failed to live up to the standards that the original Matrix had set. It felt like that the movie was trying to cram too much in, and the various artistic slow-mos presented uncomfortable speed bumps in the movie. Plus, whoever did the CGI should be banned from working in the motion picture world. The only redeeming feature was watching Neo taking on the hundreds of Smiths in Dynasty Warriors III style. Makes me want to go out with a huge spear and smack a few hundred Wei troopers around just thinking about it. Its one thing to see it being played out in a game, and its another to see it presented in a CG world. Unfortunately, it was not redeeming enough to save the movie. Shrew thinks that Matrix Revolution should not be seen in the theaters. I conditionally agree, unless Matrix Revolution is of significantly higher quality.

The evening concluded with me taking Yan Yan home, and us talking about what has transpired between us for the past couple of weeks. A lot of concerns were addressed, but it all boils down to her being afraid of being hurt again. My response was how does she think I feel after the untimely demise of my last relationship? Fortunately our discussions managed to overcome an impasse that I had felt earlier, and once again we found ourselves unable to detach from each other for the night (it took about 30 minutes. . . but it was touch and go for a while there. . .).

I had planned to go over and help Yan Yan move to her new/temporary place of residence as soon as I got off of work, but as it turns out she and several other people decided to move on Friday night instead. I felt kind of bad not knowing about this and consequently not being there to help her, so I decided to go and help her wrap the move/cleaning after dinner.

I was invited to dine by Jennifer with her group of friends, and it did not hit why there was a gathering until I got to the place: it was Jen's birthday dinner. Yeah, and stupid me forgot to get her a gift (it is on my to-do list, with a nice big red exclaimation mark on it). Anyways, dinner was interesting, meeting Jen's friends and Jen's BF. The food at Chili's was good, although not spectacular. . . but the Molten Chocolate desert was awesome.

After dinner I ventured over to Yan Yan's place, where I helped her, her roommate, and her roommate's BF finish cleaning up the place and moving the final little tidbits out. It was not glamorous work, but at least I got to spent time with her. For some reason Yan Yan got embarassed when her roommate remarked how romantic it was for me to come all the way over to help her out. *chuckle* We finished everything at around 12AM, and each couple went their separate ways. Yan Yan and I then spent quite sometime driving around the city looking for an open grocery to get some ice cream. It was weird finding three out of four groceries closed on a Saturday night / Sunday morning.

Once again it was hard for me to leave her, but once again I reluctantly did so. . . at 3:30AM. . . and my head did not hit the pillow until 4:15AM. . . and my brain decided it got enough sleep by 9:15AM. . . I believe I need to recalibrate my sleep algorithms, as it is having a memory leak somewhere. . .