Jeff Billimek’s Journal

Today was game night for me.  Chris wasn't able to make it today so we ended up playing some video games on Clint's PS2 until the power went out due to the summertime afternoon storms.  So we all moved into the dining room and began working on creating new characters to play for Clint's upcoming gestalt campaign.  I think I want to play a fighter/monk.  Clint helped me out with some things and he also helped out Drew and Tamon too.

When I got home I stayed up very late getting things ready for Jen's birthday tomorrow so I didn't get much sleep.

I did some extreme programming today with Allen M. and Rajesh R. Actually it's called agile development now. The two of us sat at Allen's cube and together we worked on coding a new approach to some unit-tests (test-driven development). It was actually really productive. We were at this for about three hours.

Afterwards I went to lunch with Allen M, Scott E, and Jeff H. The rest of the day was pretty slow. I left work around 5pm and as soon as I got home we had to leave for Stonebridge Restaurant for our monthly wine tasting dinner. We've been going out a lot recently.

It was a large group of us that went out there this evening. The food was really great but I wasn't to keen on the wine (which was all French wine). B.J., the owner of the restaurant, made an announcement afterwards that he recently sold the restaurant but expects the wine dinners to continue under the new owner. I hope they don't change or discontinue this thing because it's a lot of fun.

(Jen and I at the wine pairing dinner)

Chris was up before me and was doing some things on his laptop. I sat in bed and used my laptop to write down some notes for my journal. Fortunatley we didn't have a lot to do before the wedding so it was sort of relaxing. Chris had plans to play some poker with Clint and others and I was invited too.

We were going to grab some lunch with Chris's brother around 11:30am but as we were walking to the restaurant I got a voice mail notification from Jen. Her voice was really muffled but she was asking something about me going over to the reception hall place (the Classics Center) to help out with something.

So I excused myself from lunch and ran over to the reception hall. She wanted me to take some pictures of the place after everyone got it set up. I went back to the hotel to get my camera equipment and then walked back to the reception hall. I took some photos but they wanted to have some pictures after everything was setup so I waited a bit in order to do that.

(The reception hall before guests arrive)

Next they needed some help with the place setting cards so I helped with that. Afterwards they wanted me to print up some large numbers to put on the tables, so I walked back over to the hotel and worked on getting that done. The cleaning staff was in our room so I grabbed my laptop and went down to the lobby. I was having trouble getting onto the wireless network but Jen came over and offered to let me into the 'hospitality room' where I could use the wired ethernet connection. I went up there with Jen and finally got onto the network. Jen left.

I was able to eventually get the numbers sent to the remote printing service and went downstairs to the front desk to pick up the printouts. After waiting in line for about fifteen minutes they finally told me that the printouts go to the business center, and pointed out to me where the business center is.

The numbers didn't look large enough at 80pt so I printed them out again at 250pt. By this time it was around 2pm and I was starving. I walked back to the reception hall and handed off the numbers and got out of there as quickly as possible before I was put to work again.

I went over to Taco Stand and had to wait in line for about twenty minutes before I was finally able to order. I think I was a little light-headed from lack of food by this point. Finally at around 2:30pm I was able to have some lunch.

Next I went back to the hotel and relaxed a little and then went to the hospitality room to join Chris, Clint, and Chris's brother in a friendly game of Texas Hold-em poker. They were playing with real money and I bought-in $20 worth of chips. I've never playing this before so it was a bit of a learning experience. I actually did pretty well and ended up with $30.50 worth of chips, so I made money. It was fun. I'm sure it wouldn't have been as fun if I lost money.

It was now getting close to the time that we had to go to the church. We went back to my hotel room and I changed into my suit. Chris and Clint were going to change into their tuxedos at the church along with the other groomsmen.

Before leaving, we stopped at Junkman's Daughter so that Chris could buy Mathew a little gift for helping out. After that we headed out. I drove. We stopped at the Best Western to pick up Chris's Dad. While we were waiting for his Dad, he got a panicked phone call from Katie. It seems that she misplaced her huge white binder with all of the wedding info in it. In addition to wedding info it contained all of the envelopes with money to give to the minister, DJ, photographer, etc. It also had their plane tickets to Cancun for their honeymoon. It was imperative that this binder be recovered.

We headed back to the hotel to begin an exhaustive search for this binder. Once there, Chris, Clint, Chris's Dad, and I all split up to scour the place to find the binder. I went back across the street to the reception hall place (I think I crossed the street about 26 times today going back and fourth) to check there. When I asked the people running the Classics Center about the binder, they looked a little exasperated and said that someones already been around asking about it.

I went back to the hotel and Chris declared that the binder had been located. Katie left it at the hair salon and Scott was on his way to pick it up. We headed out again.

We got to the church and the guys in the wedding party began to change into their tuxedos. I busied myself by going up to the chapel place and hung out there. The photographer was shooting the breeze with the minister. Jen find me and put me to work for a little while. Eventually as it grew closer to the time of the wedding, people began to show up.

The wedding ceremony was nice. Katie requested that I photograph of Chris's reaction as she walked down the aisle since the paid photographer would be focusing on her.

(Chris's reaction to Katie walking down the aisle)

After the ceremony Clint's girlfriend Erin grabbed me along with Tracy and Tremayne to go decorate Katie and Chris's hotel room. We drove over to the hotel in Erin's car. I left my car behind for Jen to drive after the wedding. The wedding party was going to be busy at the Church getting more pictures taken.

We grabbed the supplies that Jen left behind in our room to decorate with. The four of us headed over to Katie and Chris's room and spread out rose petals and candles. We also brought along a bottle of champagne to put in a silver bucket full of ice. It looked pretty nice.

While we were doing this, it began to rain. Hard. It was raining so hard that the windows in the hotel room were shaking violently. The power also cut out a few times. We were on the 8th floor. After we all piled into the elevator I helpfully suggested that I hope the power doesn't go off while we at in the elevator. No one else seemed happy with my declaration about this.

I grabbed an umbrella out of Erin's car (Tremayne was smart and had one already) and the four of us crossed the street in the very violent rainstorm to go to the Classic's Center. As we entered, a lady ushered us over to a waiting area downstairs. It turns out that she thought we were the wedding party and this was the waiting area for the wedding party. Once we realized this we headed back up to the main reception area and mingled.

After taking a look around, I made a dash to the bar and got a glass of Cabernet. It was pretty good. I saw Drew and his girlfriend so I headed over there to talk with them. A short while later we were all allowed to go into the dining hall.

I took a seat at the head table with Erin and Katie W.'s boyfriend. We talked and then the wedding party arrived. Jen and Scott sat next to me.

As they were sending our table to the buffet line, Jen asked if I could go back to the hotel to get her speech. Fortunatley it stopped raining. I crossed the street yet another time today, went up to our room, and collected Jen's speech. Once back at the reception hall I ate dinner. It was very good.

(Lynne)

(Clint & Erin)

(Dave)

I rotated between sweet tea and red wine as the evening went on. There was dancing (which I am terrible at) and talking with far too many people whose names I never remembered. I had a great time though.

(Katie having a great time)

(Katie throwing the bouquet)

(Katie and Chris leaving the reception)

At 11pm the party was over and Katie and Chris left. A few of us remained behind to clean the place up. This took about thirty minutes. Afterwards Jen and I headed downtown to hang out with some others for the after-party.

We went to the Winery and had a really large group. It was Jen, me, Scott, Dan, Elizabeth, Dave, Tracy, Tremayne, Clint, Erin, Lynne, Tom, and Terry. Jen and I were the last to arrive. We were all seated in the back area where it was a little quieter and had some drinks.

Scott bought a round of x-ray vodka & red bull for everyone. It's really quite good. Dave got the next round or two, and some others got the next two rounds as well. We had a lot to drink. It was a really great time socializing and enjoying the evening. Some people began to leave and eventually it was a smaller group. At 2:15am it was last call so Clint bought us all a round of kamikaze shots. The kamikaze is actually very tasty.

Jen was fairly far gone and it was time for bed. We all headed our separate ways and walked back to the hotel. I'm very happy for our choice of hotel for this reason - it's within walking distance of everything. As soon as we got to our room we had some water and went to bed. It had been a long day.

Today was another uneventful day at work.  When I got home, Jen was dressed nicely in a long brown dress and had some wine poured along with cheese and crackers.  As I hugged her I noticed that she smelled great.

We had a really great evening together.  We talked and made dinner.  Jen went to Costco today and bought a bunch of food & supplies.  We grilled some marinated steaks as well as sweet potatoes.  We also had some really tasty green beans and sun dried tomatoes.

The wine was a 2004 Rodney Strong Cabernet that we both enjoyed very much.  After dinner we took a short nap and then watched our netflix movie, 'Underworld: Evolution'.  As we watched the movie I worked on my journal notes on my laptop.  I thought that the movie was pretty lame, but Jen liked it.

Because it was a late night last night, I didn't wake up until about 10am.  Craig woke up around the same time and we headed out to get some BBQ for lunch at a new restaurant down the street.  I ordered the chopped beef sandwich and it was pretty good.  Overall I would rate the restaurant 3.5 out of 5.

We talked about going to see a movie and went back home to look up some info.  We also made plans for dinner tonight.  Craig and I went down to the nearby movie theater and saw Talledega Nights.  It was a decent movie.

Once the movie was over I coordinated with Scott to meet up for dinner tonight.  I called up 'The Punchline' to reserve four tickets for tonight.  Craig and I ate some cheese and crackers and watched an episode of 'Mythbusters ' followed by 'Air Emergency'.

We got changed and then headed out for dinner.  I was really looking forward to this because we were going to Eclipse Di Luna and I love that place.  Scott was supposed to meet Craig and I there.  I called ahead to get put on the wait list so we won't have to wait too long once we arrive.  On the way there I heard an awesome song on the radio and made a mental note to look it up later at yes.com.  It turns out that the song was 'The Adenture' by 'Angels and Airwaves'.

Craig and I met Scott at the restaurant and because I called ahead we didn't have to wait long.  Also as a first for me, we were seated in the patio area off to the side which was great because it wasn't nearly as loud as it normally is.  We ordered a pitcher of sangria (I wanted Mojitos but Scott and Craig overruled me) and some tapas.  My absolute favorite is the goat cheese & honey stuffed red pepper thing.  It's awesome!

We had a great time eating different tapas and drinking.  Scott and Craig also had fun seeing all of the cute girls.  Scott was on the phone part of the time making plans with Kathleen to have her join us at the comedy club tonight.  As a result Scott left early to go pick her up.  Craig and I ordered a pitcher ofmojitos and hung out for about an hour longer.  We also had tiramisu for desert.  It was a nice time!

Finally it was time to leave for the comedy club.  After parking we picked up tickets from the will call booth and got in line to enter.  We were seated at an extremely small table which was only designed for two people, but they had all four of us sitting at the table.  It was very crowded.

Other than the claustrophobia, it was a nice time.  Scott and Kathleen joined us and we enjoyed the stand up comics.  It was time to leave and we split ways with Scott and Kathleen.  Criag and I headed back to the house and decided to stay up late drinking and playing Heroes of Might and Magic 5.

Mom knew that Craig was going to be in town and wanted to see him so we made plans to all go to the Sun Dial restaurant in downtown.  Mom & Jim arrived at our place and we all piled into my car and drove downtown.

I parked in my office parking garage and we walked a few blocks over to the Westin hotel where the restaurant is.  We had a nice lunch together and the views of the city were awesome!

After lunch we drove over to Atlantic Station to have some cheesecake for desert.  After that we walked around the shops and finally went back home.  Later Jen, Criag, and I went out to have dinner at M&T (Jen and I really like this restaurant right now) since Craig is leaving tomorrow morning.

I was up late last night trying to fix some problems with my laptop.  The laptop is getting pretty old and starting to show signs of age.  There is a spot on the display that is a little darker than the rest of the screen.  The power button only works part of the time and the HD seems incredibly slow.

Jen and I met Christin for lunch at Nuevo Laredo.  We got there just as it opened and were among the first to enter.  It was such a stark contrast seeing it so empty compared to the evening.

After lunch I spent a lot of time doing installs and toying with OSX, Ubnutu, and Vista.  I really like OSX but it doesn't work well enough for my taste on the non-apple hardware and I don't want to buy apple hardware.

We recently switched our weekly 'game night' from Tuesday to Monday.  Tonight we finished up Tamon's short adventure.  I liked it because it gave me an opportunity to test out the gestalt fighter/monk (as level 9) that I rolled for Clint's upcoming game.

Clint's character died to a really nasty half-ogre wielding a club.  My character nearly died a couple of times too - it was really tough.  I'm certainly looking forward to starting Clint's game.

It was fairly quiet at work today as I wrapped up tasks since my end date is approaching.

The new HD that I bought from newegg arrived today.  It is a 320GB Seagate SATA2 perpendicular drive.  When I opened up the box and examined the drive I noticed that it uses a different type of power connector - the SATA power connector and not the traditional 4-pin plug that all other computer peripherals use.

For some reason I didn't think I had an adapter fro the different type of power connector and urged Jen that we should go out shopping.  She was all for it.  We went out to Target for Jen to buy some stuff while I went over to CompUSA in order to buy an SATA power cable adapter.  Next we went to Umezono to have dinner.  I love sushi!

When we got back home and I was digging out the SATA data cable I discovered that I already had some SAST power adapters too!  So we'll have to return these new power adapters I just bought.

I got the new HD connected and decided to partition it in half, one half will be for ubuntu installs and the other half will be for vista installs.

Jen and I both woke up at 7am.  Normally I like to sleep in on Sundays but we have plans today.  As I was getting ready I think that Jen was a little grumpy.  After a while we packed up the car and headed out.

We met Mom and Jim at J. Christopher's for breakfast.  I had my favorite thing there: the blueberry crunchcakes.  After breakfast we all drove in one car up to the Ocoee river area.  We got there sooner than expected and had some time to kill.

So we went over to the nearby Olypics water course area and walked around.  As we walked around we saw various rafters and kayakers going down the river.  It was fun to watch.  We made our way back tot he rafting place and got all checked in.  We loaded up with our gear and boarded theschoolbus.

They drove us down to the river place and we met up with our river guide, Scott.  It was only the four of us along with the guide in the raft.  The rafting trip was a lot of fun.  There were some great rapids and no one got thrown out.  Towards the end I got to 'ride the bull' which was that I sat on the front pommel of the raft as we went down some of the last rapids.  That was a blast!

We finished up and were bused back to the rafting place.  Once there we changed and headed out.  On the way back to Atlanta we stopped and had a bite to eat at Col. Poole's BBQ in Ellijay.  I love BBQ!

After Jen and I got home we rinsed off in the shower and relaxed.  I did some research on how to redirect everything in the 'My Documents' folder to a share on the samba server.  I've been thinking about offloading this stuff from the PC.  Doing this research took a lot of time and I was up a little later than I planned.

Gaile G. took me out to lunch today.  We walked over to the Fairly Poplar place and had falafels from the Turkish place.  It's really good food and is going to be one of the things that I'll miss about working downtown.

We talked about me going back to Delta (she came over from Delta too) as well as different travel plans and the recent comair crash.  It was nice to have lunch and chat with Gaile.

After I got home, Jen had dinner waiting!  It was great.  We had pork chops and sweet potato fries.  It was all excellent.  After dinner I scrambled to get ready for the gaming session tonight.  Clint is running the game now called Shackled City and this particular game is one chapter of a very long campaign.  It should be a lot of fun.

Clint is giving out bonus points for players who write-up an account from a player's perspective on what transpired during a gaming session.  So I did just that: Shackled City, Chapter 2: Drakthars Way - Aug 28th.

I had lunch today with a large Delta crowd (both active and former) at a cool Itallian place off of Howell Mill Road.  It was Melissa N, Chuck C, Brian S, Alex D, Bob M, Gaile G, Susan E, and myself.  We had a nice time.

After work today I went with Jen to an Indian restaurant called Vatica.  We were all meeting there for the book club this month.  Scott came along too.  He just got back from another trip to Germany.  Aside from Jen and I, Katie, Chris, Kathleen, Tom, and Terri were also there.

Dinner was excellent and the atmosphere was enhanced by a really funny old Indain guy who works at the restaurant.  We all didn't care much for the book that we were supposed to read.   In fact I didn't even finish the audio book.

Following the book club meeting Jen and I went back home.  Jen did some packing for our trip tomorrow and I was up pretty late getting some packing done too.  Tomorrow should be a memorable day.