I got a job teaching at Full Sail! For those of you who don't know, Full Sail is a large and well known film school in Orlando. The school is dripping in money. They are buying a few new film cameras and a couple new HD cameras JUST FOR MY CLASS! Each of those cameras cost over $100,000. I am not the head teacher, but I am the lab instructor. Which means that I will be helping with the shoots and assisting the students. The only drawback is that I have heard the students are all stuck up brats. The teacher said I will do fine as long as I can deal with that type of personality. I should have no problem, having grown up with my sister (just kidding Lindsey!). I start on the 30th, so wish me luck.

Today I went to a one day meditation retreat at Peter's house with Marshal and Brittany (among others). The retreat started at 9:00 (I had to wake up early on a Saturday!) and lasted until about 5:00. It consisted of sitting and walking meditation, about 45 minutes of the former then 30 minutes of the latter. We stuck to this pattern all day, with a break for lunch. Everyone brought homemade food (I made pizza) and it was all very tasty. The most interesting part of the day was when I was doing the walking meditation barefoot and stepped in an ant hill. I was so focused on the sensations in my feet that I could feel every single ant bite!

Here's some pictures I took of Piggy with Diane's new camera (the middle one was taken by Diane).

I posted some of my music online... Check it out:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=469411

Here are some new photos from the Thanksgiving cruise, the old Deland Power Plant and some other random stuff.

Emily and I had a solid plan for the wedding. She was going to work lending money to cover our bills and I was going to work flipping houses and investing in real estate to pay for our wedding. Last month my parents said that they would not loan me any more money through Volusia Asset Company (for those of you who don't know - VAC is my parent's company which was set up in my sister and my name to lend money to real estate investors). That's right, it sounds ridiculous, but I was no longer able to use the services of my parents company, which I legally own. Not only did this through a kink in my business plan, but it also took away my ability to pay for our wedding.

Then my parents were generous enough to step up and say that they would help us pay for the wedding. Not pay for all of it (Emily's family also contributed generously to the wedding fund), but pay for everything that I was working to earn. This is where the real problems started. To them, money = control. This is what we were trying to avoid and the exact reason why Emily and I wanted to pay for the bulk of the wedding ourselves. First it was relatively small things like setting up appointments with vendors without consulting Emily, me or our wedding planner. Then it moved on to more important things like trying to control the guest list. Each step of the way they changed their mind about their contribution (their inability to make a decision and stick to it has been something we have battled for a long time).

Originally they wanted to give a set amount of money. Then they divided up that amount and said that we could have X for flowers, X for food, etc. Then they said that any outside contributions (for example, Emily's mom wanted to take her dress shopping) would reduce their budget.

Throughout this process we constantly reminded them that this is our wedding and it will be planned the way we want it (their gift does not come with strings attached). But they kept bring up one issue - having a Rabbi officiate the wedding. I had always said that I wanted a judge or some other non religious officiate for a number of reasons. I do not feel an attachment to the Jewish faith. Having a Rabbi officiate would not mean anything for me. Additionally, the family I am marrying into is Catholic. Everyone should feel included at the wedding. We could not have a Rabbi for the same reason we could not have a Priest - we want to include both sides of the family.

The issue of control was becoming stronger and stronger as the plans progressed. Finally, Emily and I decided to talk to them about it. The conversation went as follows:
"Thank you for contributing to our wedding fund, but please keep in mind that money does not equal control."
"Well, we feel like it does."
"We don't want your gift, if it comes with strings attached."
"Our money only comes with one string, have a Rabbi officiate or you don't get the money."
"I wish you had told us that sooner. The Rabbi would not mean anything to us, and furthermore it would alienate half of the people there. We would rather not have this wedding than have it your way."
"Then we revoke our gift."

Here's how it stands now... Emily and I are planning a new wedding. It will most likely be very small (immediate family only) and it will possibly be a destination wedding. Please keep your calendar open and we will let you know our plans when they solidify.

Happy new years everyone! Here's a recap of our trip to Steamboat and New Years:

We flew into Steamboat, CO on December 24th. All of Emily's family was there, including her four sisters, some of their boyfriends (and the boyfriend's parents), her mom and step-dad, and her dad and step-mom. We all went to a nice Italian restaurant for dinner. The food was great (and I love Italian food), but the service was a bit slow. Sunday we woke up, ate a leisurely breakfast and all congregated at our place (Emily and I, three of her sisters, her mom and step-dad were all staying in a very large and very beautiful townhouse). Jenny and Todd brought plenty of food, which they cooked in the mid afternoon and kept us fed all day. We opened presents and played games for the rest of the day. Fun!

The next day Emily, Sara, Rob (Sara's boyfriend) and I went skiing. Emily had never been before, so she started out in the beginner lesson. Sara took an intermediate lesson while Rob and I went straight to the top of the mountain and flung ourselves off. No joke, Rob literally flung himself off, when his ski got caught and he careened off the mountain. Another skier had to lower their pole, so he could hold on and hoist himself back up. Meanwhile, Emily did not stand on two skis until her lesson was almost over. By then she was pissed off at the boring lesson. I met up with her and helped her ski down the bunny slope (which she did very well, and on two skis). That night we went to another Italian restaurant. Again the food was great.

The next day Jenny took Emily, Sara, Rob and I snowshoeing. None of us had ever been (I think) but we all had fun. At the top of the hill, Sara, Rob and I had a very dignified snowball fight. On the way down, I stopped to do flips off a large snow drift. We went into town for dinner (after searching everywhere for Kat, but that is a different story) and ate at a wonderful noodle house. I wish they had places like that in Orlando.

We took an early flight back here, but didn't get in until 10:30 pm. Time changes and layovers suck.

New Years was spent with Katie, Tanya and their boyfriends. We first ate chili at Katie's parent's house, then went to Katie's boyfriend's (whose name I can't remember now) house. We killed time playing Cranium and talking. New Years was fairly uneventful, but we had fun.

Sorry I haven't updated in a while...

Here are some pictures from the Thanksgiving cruise and some other random stuff.

Emily and I have been very busy with all of our real estate work. We haven't had much time to do stuff worth writing about. The cruise was fun, of course. We went to St. Thomas, St. Maartens and the Princess Island. It was nice to be able to just sit in a lounge chair for hours at a time. The service was really good to, but they charged you for every little thing (plus there was a almost constant stream of sales pitches).

We're still working on selling our Shady Lane Drive house. The market has slowed a bit, so it takes a bit longer to make a sale, but I'm not worried about it. The realtor said that this is a slow time of year for real estate. It will pickup again after New Years.

Emily is getting hair extensions tomorrow, so I wanted to find out what she would look like. Here is my "artist's rendition".

Does anyone else thing it's strange that John Roberts gets to be chief justice right from the start? I mean, there are a bunch of other people that have been patiently waiting their turn, then this guy comes out of nowhere and cuts in line! Isn't there some kind of order to this whole "chief justice" thing?

Our Shady Lane Drive house went onto the MLS today! We finished working on it over the weekend (actually Greg finished working on it, he should get all the credit). The project has gone very quickly; we bought the house last month and now it's ready to go! Anyone want a house in College Park? Here is some before and after pictures: http://bpdvd.com/shadylanealbum.html

I'm happy to say that the bee's nest that had been plaguing the pups has been removed. I have been busy working on a new garden planter box thing. Last year when I planted the garden, I just mixed in some fertile soil with the dirt that was already there. This lead to a meager crop. So I spent Sunday digging a big hole where the garden once was, laying down newspaper (which prevents weeds from growing and helps trap water in the soil), and putting big boards around the outside of the plot to hold in the water and soil. I'll start growing some new stuff as soon as Home Depot restocks their seeds.

Howdy! I have some new pictures. The first few are ones my dad took of my sister, Lindsey, when she was in town a few weeks ago. Then we have Emily sleeping with all the animals (Morty is in the leopard print pouch). Turtle and Morty get along great now. Morty will jump off my arm, onto Turtle, and ride on his back. It's very cute. The last picture is the reason we can't let the dogs into the backyard anymore. It's a huge yellow jacket hive, about the size of a softball.

Emily and I have a new addition to our family! He is a little Sugar-glider named Mordechai (Morty for short). We got him yesterday, so he is still adjusting to us and his new surroundings. Sugar-gliders are nocturnal marsupials, so we can play with him at night. He gets upset if we wake him up during the day and makes a crazy growling noise at us. Tonight was the first time we really got to take him out to play. He liked running all over our arms, jumping between us, and pissing on Emily's arm!

Spent the weekend on a whirlwind tour of major life events. My Grandpa Arnold died last week, so Lindsey, Emily, my parents and I flew up for the funeral. The service was nice and my family members seemed to be coping. I have never been one to get very upset by death. It's unavoidable, so you really have to expect it. No one is immune. There were about 300 people at the service, not bad for a Tuesday afternoon. I had never been to a funeral before, so it was all pretty new. The traditions were nice and everyone spoke well of my grandpa.

The next morning, Abe and Dan drove Emily's car up to South Carolina. Lindsey, Emily and I took a plane and met them there. Friday night was the rehearsal dinner for my friend Tad's wedding. It was catered by Sonny's so the food was great. That night we all hung out at Tad's friend's apartment. The wedding was Saturday afternoon, outside in the ridiculous South Carolina heat. It was even hotter than Florida, and we were wearing wool jackets! I had a waterfall of sweat going down my back. Thankfully the service was short, but the photographer kept us there for an hour taking pictures. The reception was just as hot as the service. I don't think the hall was air conditioned. I asked them why they had an outside wedding in August. They couldn't answer why it was outside, but it was in August so there would be no conflict with the football season!

Sunday Lindsey, Emily and I drove home with a brief stop in Savannah, Georgia. I love that city. It is beautiful and not overrun with strip-malls.

I finally got around to redesigning the Big Picture DVD website. Check it out and tell me what you think... http://www.bpdvd.com

In other news, we started work on our College Park house. The outside has been painted and the central a/c will be going in soon. We put a for sale by owner sign in front and have been receiving calls about the house. I also put some classified ads in the local papers. We are hoping to have it sold before the work is even finished!

Abe, Lindsey, Emily and I spent the weekend at the beach. It was great! We just swam and sat around getting sunburnt all weekend. It was just what we needed after taking the mortgage broker course. Speaking of... the class was long and boring. Of course, we ended up getting the bad teacher. Emily and I will be taking the state test sometime next week. And I'm sure we'll be getting a lot of studying done at Tad's wedding this weekend.

In a couple weeks I'm going to a Hospice Gala. I will be one of those fancy events where you have to dress up act well behaved. The dressing up part has always been a problem, because I have not had a suit that fit since my Bar Mitzvah. They just don't seem to make suits in my size! Emily and I visited all the local places including Men's Warehouse and the mall department stores. No luck. So I went online and found this place called Baron's Boutique in Nepal. Yeah, the far away Nepal, not some city in the US. They make custom clothing for cheap! All you have to do is enter your measurements in their online form and send them money (the one I chose cost $299 including shipping). I decided to take a chance and buy from them. Abe took the measurements (so that if it didn't fit, I could blame it on him).

It took about a week for them to make the suit and a week for it to arrive from Nepal. I tracked it all the way through Bangkok, Thailand and Ohio to here. The box was basically wrecked when it finally got here, but the suit looked like it was in good shape. So I tried it on and it fit like a glove! I've never had clothing actually made for my body, but it sure is nice. Now I have to share the site with everyone else (they make woman's clothes too). http://www.baronboutique.com/

As you may or may not know, Abe, Emily and I have been trying to buy an investment property for months. We finally found a couple. Well, we didn't find them. We got them from wholesalers - people why buy investment properties for very little money, then sell it for a few thousand more to another investor. The first house we will be closing on is a 3/1 in College Park (a very cool area of Orlando). We're going to try to sell it as is, for a quick profit, but if that doesn't work, we have a guy who will help us fix it up and sell it for much more.

I finally got around to scanning some photos from my trip to Nevada and Utah. Check them out on my photo page: http://flickr.com/photos/zigawatt/

I was sitting at my desk this afternoon (Emily was manning the fort at the Volusia Asset office), when I suddenly heard a knock at the door. Could it be Abe or Diane making an unannounced visit? Maybe the delivery man? Nope. I opened the door and saw a middle aged woman with two young children. "Hi" they said. "We're here to welcome you as new members to the Temple". "Um, OK." They handed me a bag with some jew stuff in it. "Thanks, for the stuff." They stood there staring at me. "I appreciate you coming by..." More blank stares. "Thanks again." I slowly began to close the door. "Um it was nice meeting you." They said.

I closed the door and recoiled at the shock of the strange visit. What freaks. I never even joined the stupid temple.

I made a smoker out of a large terra-cotta pot, an electric burner and a grate from a small Webber grill. Last weekend Abe, Emily and I spent all day smoking some ribs slathering on my homemade BBQ sauce. Needless to say, the results were phenomenal. Next I'm going to make a brisket!