Nick would go crazy if I didn’t post this. 
Things have been quite hectic as of late, so I haven’t had time to finish up on some of the posts I’ve had in “draft” mode for a while. I do have some things I’d like to do to the site (still), and more discussions regarding the gallery and some fantastic looking alternatives out there, but no real timeline on when I’ll get that done. Stay tuned…
I’ve been following the Orioles games over the past few weeks, tuning in occassionally to see if they’ve regained that spark that they had throughout the first part of the season, and I’ve been extremely disappointed in what I’ve seen. The O’s are a completely different team now, struggling to compete with any team they play, even against teams that are struggling in their division. So I had to make a list (to let out my frustration) of why the Orioles are doing so poorly, and why they won’t make it to the postseason:
I’m experiencing some discomfort when I breathe deeply, and I can’t figure out why. Tonight, Meg and I went to visit some friends of ours for dinner and shopping in Charlottesville. (Well, Meg went shopping and I enjoyed a tall, frosty beverage). As we were saying goodbye to our friends in the parking lot of the bar we had patronized, I started to feel a dull pain from what felt like under the lower part of my ribs on my right side. I had just gorged myself on some delicious food from Lord Hardwick’s (I highly recommend eating there if you’re in the area), so I figured it was something to do with how stuffed I was, and that it would subside later in the evening. It still hasn’t.
Sorry for the recent absence of activity, I’ve had my hands full with testing various gallery software packages for the site. I think I’ve settled on the best choice, but it’s still in a “testing” phase, so I won’t have it linked from here for a while. I had made a concerted effort to get some of the galleries online, especially since I took a ton of pictures at Saurin and Michael’s wedding with the new digital camera 
, and I promised to have them up by the end of the week. I will be adding some filler posts that I had been working on, as soon as I fulfill my painting obligation to my lovely wife. 
One of our neighbors on the cul-de-sac that Meg and I live on in our subdivision has made it a habit of having a fireworks show each year, located in his backyard. His house is in a great spot, on the very end of the cul-de-sac, with the back facing a cow pasture. Therefore, he has plenty of open space to have his show, without the risk of damaging a neighboring house. Over the past couple of years that we’ve resided in this area, another gentleman from the neighborhood has partnered up with our neighbor to increase the stockpile of fireworks set off on July 4th. The two of them will make a trip down to South Carolina at some point in the year, to buy as much as they want (or can) of the “good” (illegal) fireworks. Even better is the fact that other individuals in our subdivision also hold their own fireworks show, so we can usually look in several different directions and see a decent show.
I had no idea that when I set out to implement a photo gallery on this site, that it was going to be one heck of an endeavor. Not even just with the implementation and adding all of the pictures, but with the decision of which gallery I was going to use! I had posted previously about some of the galleries I was toying with, and the end result was that I wasn’t happen with any of them. So I continued my search, hoping that I would stumble upon a relatively unknown and magical site that would have just the solution I was looking for. Lo and behold, that’s pretty much what happened.
Meg and I attended the wedding celebration of our friends Saurin and Michael today. They had a beautiful service held outside at the Westfields Marriott in Chantilly, VA. Following the ceremony, there was a cocktail hour in the lounge, and then an American-ized (so that us mere mortals could handle it ) Indian cuisine dinner in one of the great ballrooms. A lot of our JMU friends were in attendance, which made for one heck of a time. Meg and I had a blast catching up with our friends that we don’t get to see as much as we would like, and dancing the night away. Later in the reception, some of the guys (including me) decided to see if we could get into the honeymoon suite to have a little fun with the lovely newlyweds. Thanks to an extremely helpful security guard, we were able to. There were quite a few pranks put into place (probably too much, looking back on it now and sober) but it was all in good fun, and I hope Saurin and Michael weren’t too upset with our tomfoolery and shenanigans.
That’s right, I was on the road again the past few days! This time, I traveled home to see the family and play in a best-ball golf tournament with my brother and a couple of friends. Unfortunately, we left a few shots out on the course (I didn’t contribute anywhere near what I expected to), but we were still able to pull out a fourth place ranking out of the 36 teams that were competing.