i slept in, i had a good meal, and i didn’t worry or fret about love. as dad told me: ‘she loves me, and i love her.’ life is much more simple with that view. i was surprised with a package about noon, which was from Eriko. she made me a sweater. its beautiful and i really like it. its a tad big, i think it goes to my knees. hehe. her first sweater was a little too small, this one a little too big. just like the rings i made for her. maybe the third time is the charm for both of us. ;P i didn’t do anything for valentine’s day for Eriko except spend time working on the container for the cookies i’m going to send her. after spending way too long trying to get sticky material off of these two nut jars, i finally realized i could just cover the nut jar with construction paper and decorate it. that and if i left two cookies out then i didn’t need to have two jars. this morning i bought three flavors of frosting and i will sample them and apply them to the three heart shaped cookies to go along with the jar. it will be two years since we met next week. time really flies. i’ve watched her grow and mature, becoming the woman in real life that my heart already sees. i’m so grateful.

I just bought my tickets for Japan, Aug 22-29. Now I have to figure out when I’m going to Alaska… July 4th weekend?

i think i finally figured out what her cryptic email address stands for! my guess is “look up at aurora in alaska.” she received her tickets to seattle, she’ll be visiting me the 20th - 23rd. she decided that she cannot visit anchorage during the summer (too expensive) so i’ll go instead. she wants to come to anchorage during Christmas. i was hoping she’d take that route, because christmas is just so unique and exciting in our family. matthew will turn 1, we’ll sit around playing games and making fun of Zack. it will be great.

i wanted to make a point of writing about the negative aspects of my day. i’ll start with sleeping – i moved from the couch to the floor and it seems to be much colder there. regardless of whether i leave the window open or not (for instance, Bailey is outside now and the window is open). i’ve been wearing long johns to keep warm but they aren’t that comfortable. this morning besides being a little cold i also had a bit of a tummy ache. my alarm went off at 6 am but i didn’t get out of bed until close to 8 – that is really lame. i am annoyed by my lack of discipline. i was a little dissapointed that my weight this morning didn’t drop at all past what it was the morning before and that my exercise was lighter than i wanted due to my tummy ache. i got into work a little past 8:30 (which is late for me) and ended up being a tad late for a meeting (which kaya was supposed to attend). the meeting was a phone call with some guy in michigan and everyone had everything taken care of. i probably didn’t need to go at all, but it wasn’t so bad. i got a couple new bugs assigned against me. it seems like everytime i make a little prog! ress i get assigned another trivial bug. they are trivial in their nature but can often be a pain to reproduce and figure out how to fix. ok, i can’t bitch anymore. i’ve got other things to bitch about but i want to watch seinfeld and go to bed. ;P

sometimes i feel like i get in the habit of just writing the good things down. there are definitely some good opportunities ahead of me and i feel very good about who i am and where i’m going (at this particular moment in time). i miss my girl and i don’t hear from her that much. its strange, it makes me wonder, it makes me reminisce. of course, i feel like this is a test: i need to leave her alone, let her figure herself out, etc. not only that, but i feel like this is just right for me – i need to get myself on track. if she were here now i wouldn’t have time to sit in my undies and hack away on some PHP in front of my three monitors. i wouldn’t be able to sleep on the floor in front of my oversized TV and watch seinfeld for an hour before i go to bed. if i were to script my life, i wouldn’t change a thing. i know its hardest to remember how amazingly tailored and perfected life is when you need to remember it most. so i’m lucky i can “see” it now. my hands shake a little as a write this. its as if i reach a t where i am communicating directly from my soul.

Check out Matthew’s or Zack’s. In other news, I met with Art and Brandon and they want to have three more classes in the next two months. A little intimidating; I might buy a laptop (from Art or new) as part of my investment. I told Kaya he was moving to Pete’s team; at first he acted hesitant but I know he was really excited and some strict words from me wore down his act. I’m sad to see the potential go but he wasn’t applying himself for me anyway.