It’s either that or the one who can tolerate the most. Yes, I survived. I made it home on Tuesday night around 9pm and was so glad to have made it. Don’t get me wrong, I Love my family, but I started to realize why I had moved to the other side of the Continent. Good things were accomplished though. I got my parents set up on Broadband and Video Conferencing. I got to spend a lot of time with my Sister. And I got to spend a lot of time and Christmas with my Son Andrew. (Of course the latter being the most important.)

The Flight home was very Un-eventful, we got to Crescent City around 9ish and checked in. Flight took off at 10:50am and I waved to everyone from the plane. (It’s a small airport) Landed in SFO at 11:50 and had enough time to hit the restroom, Buy me an 8 dollar Sandwich with Bottle of water, and get a Magazine (which I promptly forgot in the terminal when I boarded, damnit.) I then boarded and threw on the Headphones for a nice relaxing 5 hours. No Screaming kids this time, I even got a little nap in there. When I landed, Amy was waiting there to pick me up and we went home.

Yesterday was spent relaxing and doing the Financial Discovery. (Realizing how much I had spent on vacation) Looks like its Top Raman for a while. (Thankfully no Shrimp Flavored)

Friday is the Garrison New Years Party (need a new year’s resolution to not spend any more money, hehe like that one will hold) So look for some great Debauchery stories come Mondayish.

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Yub Yub! Andrew and I took some time to visit the Forest Moon of Endor this week. Actually it’s not the Moon of Endor, but actually the Redwood Forest of Northern Cali. I had heard that the movie Return of the Jedi had been filmed in the area so I thought it would be a fun outing for the two of us. Turns out that the actual filming location was on Private Property, and that area has since been logged. (Poor little ewoks, they fought off an entire storm trooper legion, but couldn’t evade the Lumberjacks) So we found a beautiful little area called Stout Grove which looked exactly like the home of the Little Bears. Andrew and I had a great Time despite the fact that it was raining and overcast.

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Can I go Home now? No, I know I can’t, I am here to spend Christmas with Andrew and we will do that come hell or High Water!

Today was a fun day, I got to go shopping all day with my Sister, who I haven’t seen in almost forever! We went from one store to another, then back to the first store, etc. It was a blast, I should really call her more often. Afterwards I configured my parent’s house for Broadband (finally). Of course that took all afternoon, and lots of crawling around under the house to make sure that the Cable was hooked up the way it’s supposed to be. By then it was time for dinner. Dinner was, well let’s just say, dinner was interesting. So Gina and I went out for a drink and a Breath of fresh air.

We are back and I am finally getting the blog caught up to Normal time. It’s especially nice that I was able to get the broadband up and running (even with Wi-Fi). Yes, explain to me why a normal 4 port Router and a 4 port Router with Wi-Fi cost the same amount?? Anyways, Tomorrow Andrew and I plan on going Geocaching and then a Movie in the evening. We’ll see how that goes!

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Here is the Post from yesterday at SFO: (Sorry to be confusing with Times and Dates)

So I am in SFO now waiting at the little Shuttle terminal for smaller flights. Since I am taking a little Spit powered plane to Crescent City, they don’t fly out of the main terminal. This also means I am removed from Most of natural civilization. I did however, Manage to send off the Last big blog post. I am still not sure how I am going to send this one. I can defiantly tell that I am in a California Airport though, it’s Cali because a day old Caesar salad cost me 7 bucks and it’s an airport because the Chai that I got at Peet’s Coffee and Tea sucks ass. At least Starbucks is consistent. Well my flight here has been delayed so I am stuck here until 4:30 (was supposed to leave at 3:50.)

The Last two flights weren’t too bad, The VA to SD one was long, They played Elf and I-Robot (couldn’t they play something I haven’t seen??) It helped to pass the time though and I was thankful for that. The Seats were cramped and the woman with the Kid behind me almost let the kid crap his pants instead of taking him to the restroom. I just about turned around to explain the principle of “Recycled Air” when her husband said that he would do it. The SD to SFO flight was much better, I got to switch to a Exit Row which has super amounts of room. Even got to play with the GPS and clocked the plane at 480MPH. That was fun. Well, Next stop, Crescent City, then Brookings!

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Am so sleepy. Well my flight from SFO to Crescent City was delayed so I spent a good 3 hours putzing around the airport. I wrote a pretty good post to send if I can get to a connection soon.

It's now 10:50 here but that's like almost 2am for me. And considering that I woke up at 5ish, I am pretty beat. Think I will hit the hay for now and see what I can do about a net connection tomorow. Don't forget to check the photoblog for new pictures!

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Here is the big post from earlier:

So here I am, sitting in the airport with an hour to spare. (Actually I had 1 ½ hours, But a trip to Starbucks and Burger King took care of that) I love the age that we are in, I walked up to the Curb-side check in and checked my one bag, and then over to the E-ticket terminals and printed out my Boarding pass. I guess Paul was right, I didn’t need to get here at 6am. I guess I got used to the idea that security was going to be tough to get through and what-not. I breezed through security like nothing. (It could have something to do with the 8 million security people working at the time.) That’s ok though, this gives me the chance to write the update for the blog covering the weekend. Problem is, without a wi-fi, I am not sure when I will be able to Post this, but please believe me, I am indeed writing this from the Airport in VA.

So the Christmas Party was great! I woke up late on Saturday, Mostly because I knew that Amy wanted to take care of a bunch of stuff and I didn’t want to get in her way. (That, and I really love sleeping in.) So she busily went about her business getting her Broccoli and cheese casserole, and her two Pumpkin Rolls made. Both of which were big hits at the party. We stayed at Marc and Lori’s place until about midnight and then headed home. This was the first time visiting The Patton House in the new truck and I am happy to report, no ditch incidents. (if I get the chance to hyperlink to the “Ditch Incident” I will, kinda hard with no net connection)

So Sunday morning rolled around and I had a plan, sort of, I had an Idea of a plan. I told Amy that she could sleep in and around 8:30ish I woke up and headed to action. First stop, Toys R Us. (Actually first stop was the bathroom, and then the Closet to get my pants.) I knew what I wanted to get, now I just had to find it. I picked out a HUGE “Funshine Bear” Care Bare Plush. Next stop, “Bagel Buddies” for the usual, 1 Bagel with Ham Egg and Cheese, 1 Bagel with Sausage Egg and Cheese, and 2 Spiced Chai Latte’s. Last Stop, back at home. I snuck back into the house, with her still asleep, and assembled the Breakfast Plates, headed in and surprised her with a Birthday Breakfast in Bed with Funshine Bear! Yup, this last Sunday was Amy’s birthday. After sitting in bed and soaking up the morning, we headed out to get my Haircut. While out, we stopped at Hot Topic and I got her a set of Nightmare Before Christmas “Sally” Pajamas. (Also bought a cool GIR action figure.) We then went to Great Falls to the person that cuts my hair. (Yes, I have a specific person that cuts my hair, But I am still not Emo.) While driving through Great Falls we happened on a really cool Mill so, while we had the time, we stopped to look around and walk out in the cold afternoon air. After the brisk walk we went and finished up with my Haircut and ended up getting Amy a Manicure. After that it was a Nice evening at home

Monday was all about cleaning and Packing. Too bad none of that happened until late. I tried to sleep in a little. I Know I played some EQ2 with Lee as he was home before his trip as well. I think I cleaned a little and I know I did Laundry, but the rest of the day was kind of blurry. Except for last night, when my Sister calls me at 11:30pm to see if I can find something at the Local Wal-Mart. So out of bed I go and off to the Shopping Center. Sure enough, they were out too. (After Christmas I might post what it was) After all that, I then couldn’t sleep. I stayed in bed for a while, but ended up getting up and playing on the PC till close to 2am, when I was tired enough to actually sleep. This Morning I woke up at about 5:30am and said my goodbyes and Merry Christmas to Amy. Paul came by at 10 till 6 and we were out the door at 6am. Sure enough, I was sitting here eating my breakfast at 6:30am. So Yes, Paul, You were right, I didn’t need to get here this early. But hey, if I didn’t, then I probably wouldn’t have had the time to write all of this! Next Stop San Diego!

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Here I am in San Diego. Looks as if I just walked off the plane, they cleaned it, and I re-boarded for SFO

Didn't have time to check for wi-fi here. Will check in frisco! Crap I'm leaving. See you there!

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Ok, so I am sitting here on the plane and posting this with my blackberry. I so love technology! I actually wrote a very large blog post on the laptop but without wi-fi I am unable to post it just yet. If I were to write that much on this I think my thumbs would fall off. It already looks like a great flight, only one loud obnoxious kid sitting right behind me. (: If there is wi-fi in san diego I will upload my big post. If not, expect another small one.

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Christmas Time Yet again! And that means, here in DC, we get to Host a Great Big Tree and waste lots of electricity! Ahh, the American way of life. Tonight we took the chance to go down to downtown DC and see the National Christmas tree. Personally, I thought it would be bigger, But hey, I come from California where they have trees that need oxygen masks because they are so tall. Anyways, I had never seen the National tree, which is sad considering I have lived in the DC area for over 3 years now. So Amy, Paul and Myself waited until it was Dark (and late mind you, not to mention really cold) and headed down to witness the government sponsored Arbor-cide. Ok, I’m just kidding, I guess in light of recent events I have been a little humbug about Christmas this year.

The display was actually really nice. They had smaller Tree’s circling the larger one. The small trees, of course, were representing the 50 states. An extensive display of trains and tiny villages were set up around the base of the National tree, and at the very back of the display there was a HUGE bonfire with logs that reminded me of my Dad after thanksgiving dinner. (Ok that was gross, Sorry dad, and sorry everyone else for the visual.) Near the bonfire was a small Nativity scene, and off on the side standing by itself was a large Menorah.

Overall it was a nice display. I would have thought that the Govt. would have spent a little extra on the displays, I mean really, I have seen better displays on the front lawns in PG county, But a nice effort none the least. And most importantly, I got to see it with someone I really care about, Amy. I know it meant a lot to see that tree and it showed in her face.

I will be preparing to leave for my trip to Oregon on Tuesday. I am bringing the laptop with me so I might actually be able to Blog from there. We shall see of course. Merry Christmas all!

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Well, I just recently finished reading “Just a Geek” by Wil Wheaton. I have to say, it was pretty damn good. I bought it on Sunday and finished it Thursday evening, so you can see I read through it pretty quick. (I don’t read fast unless I really get into a book)

I had been reading Wil’s website for a while now, ever since my friend Arik told me about him. I have to say, I am almost ashamed to admit it, I was one of the “Kill Wesley” fan club. I was a big fan of trek and any episode with Wesley just annoyed me. The whole “Teenage Kid Saves the Galaxy again” thing bothered me in a storyline. Maybe it was that I was Jealous of him or truly hated him, I don’t know. When Arik called me up and said “Hey, I just got back from a party in SO-CAL where I hung out with Wil Wheaton, and he is a really cool guy!” I had to check it out for myself. It was at this point when I started reading his blog.

Well what do you know, Wil is a pretty cool guy. And it looks like he has/is going through the same sort of issues that plague us here in our normal lives. **GASP** Can that mean that he might actually be…….Normal? I know, I know, it’s sounds crazy, but it’s true. Well after a long while of putting it off, I finally bought Wil’s book “Just a Geek” where he chronicles his journey from Actor to Geek to Writer. This is one of those book that I felt I could really relate to. Granted, I was not a childhood star, and I have only had a website for maybe about 3 years, and I haven’t written anything longer than an in-depth weekend review for the blog. (not true, I have written many many things, but they are locked in a tower with a 4 eyed troll guarding them, and the troll has a +90 resist to everything, trust me) BUT…. I did grow up a drama geek, only to transform into a computer geek. There are many times that I miss acting, and I understood the difficulties Wil suffered with auditions. (It’s the same for Stage Wil!)

Long Story made short, The Book was good. He defiantly has come around as a good writer, and if I were anywhere near LA I think it would be awesome to see he and his troop perform live. He should look into some book signings in the DC area! I will have to go and get his first book “Dancing Barefoot” next.

P.S. No Furries were harmed in the making of this blog post

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So apparently there is a new movement ravaging across the youth of today. (I can say youth now, I am over 30) When I was young, there was this new style called Goth. Typically Goth people wore black, listen to dark music, and are very very angsty. Now, I loved wearing black, I was a big fan of dark music, and being a teenager, was the epitome of angst. I played Vampire, I yelled at my parents, you know, all the things that a young Goth teenager would do. Even into my early twenties, I still enjoyed the music and wore black. The only problem is, so did everyone else. To be “Goth” became the cool thing to do. Everyone was Goth now. Stores like “Sears” and “JC Penny’s” started selling dark Goth clothing. The only problem with this is that, I enjoyed being Goth because it was the rebellious thing to do. Now, if everyone is rebelling, who are we rebelling against?

So I tapered off my Goth regime. I started buying some regular clothes, some non-black jeans, the occasional blue T-shirt, etc. I look at the kids today walking around in their black spiky hair, and their torn “Doors” black shirts and I just laugh. I laugh because, 1: I used to be like that, and 2: I did it because it’s what I wanted, not what everyone was doing.

BUT WAIT, There’s more. Now there is a new movement, it would seem that the Goth scene has split (that’s what happens when you have too many people rebelling) Now you have Goths and Emo. Goths are the Dark Rebels and Emo’s are the Trendy rebels. At least, this is what I see.

This all started with my friend turning to me and saying
“Your so Emo.”
“I’m what?”
“Emo! Look at you, you wear trendy black, you style your hair, you listen to punk music, Your Emo”
“I am so not Emo”

He sent me a few online quizzes and sure enough, they said I was Emo. I don’t want to be Emo. To me, Emo was a Stand up Comedian who had a really whiney voice and a scary disposition.

So I changed my Website, No more black and Red. I have started to evaluate my wardrobe and after the first of the year I believe I will be doing some cleaning in that department. I want to be Steve, not Goth, not Emo, not Punk, just Steve.

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So you may notice a few things different about the Place. The website has been up for almost a year now and I thought it was about time for a Face lift. I mean what website isn’t always under construction. But hey, with Re-Design comes new features too! Check out the “PhotoBlog.” This is a great tool powered by Buzznet for Cameras and other pictures. It’s totally free for basic service. And seeing as how I got a new camera phone, it’s perfect. I can snap a picture from anywhere and send it to this within seconds.

Also….. I Notice that not many people ever use the comments feature on the blog. (Either that or no one cares, and I am just talking to myself here, which could very well be true) Please feel free to use the comment feature and leave me some feedback! It gets lonely in my little corner of cyberspace.

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I feel like crap. No, wait, crap probably feels better because it’s out and free. You know sometimes I am floored by Humanity, especially in times of “Goodwill towards man, and Peace on Earth.” Alright I guess I will explain.

Christmas is coming and I have been making plans for quite a long while now to go visit my Son and My parents in Oregon. So I am going to be gone from the 21st through the 28th of Dec. That’s great stuff right? Amy was making plans to go visit her family in TX as well. So we wouldn’t be spending Christmas together, I understand that, we are both with Family and that ok. I even thought it would be a nice Idea to buy her a Plane ticket for her Christmas present. Wasn’t cheap, but I figured, part of that good will towards man thing, it was for a good cause. She would get to see her Kids, and be with her Dad and brother on Christmas.

Well, that was the plan. Last night new plans came to light. For reasons not to be listed here because it’s not my story to tell, we had to cancel Amy’s ticket. Granted she now has a goodly sized credit with the airline that will be used before Dec of 05, minus the $130 cancel fees. But now she won’t be going anywhere for Christmas, and I will be in OR. This kills me because I know she knows so few people here and most of them will be leaving too.

She is being very adult about it, but I know it hurts. I have spent a lot of Christmases alone due to Military and whatever so I know what it’s like. You say in your head “It’s just another day” Until that morning comes around and you wake up and then try and force yourself back to sleep because you know Christmas is there and no one else is. You turn on the TV and see the Specials Airing, “Christmas Story” (you’ll shoot your eye out) and “Nightmare on elm Street” (Whenever Freddy Kills, and Angel Looses his wings).

I sat staring at the Cancel button for a few minuets while the Orbits Lady on the phone explained how to handle the credit and all. And I felt the pain shoot through my heart when I had to click it. I am so used to making things work no matter what and I have lost control of a situation that probably wasn’t in my control to begin with. I don’t know what else to do.

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Wow, what a weekend! For starters you may have noticed a little change in either how you got here or where you are now. If you don’t notice any difference than I did everything right and it’s Transparent. I switched Domain Hosts! We are no longer hosted by V3, which was a nice company, Just not what I wanted. We are now Hosted by BlueHost! And www.wizzer.org is a Domain and Host site, not just a Redirect.

Ok, Let me take it down a notch for those who are looking at that last paragraph and saying “Huh?” When I bought the rights to www.wizzer.org last year I only bought the name. V3 actually Redirected all Traffic that went to wizzer.org to my cox.net personal web space. Which is why most bookmarked pages are members.cox.net/spetrucelli/page.htm instead of www.wizzer.org/page.htm . Following so far? So by doing this switch, all of my Pages are now hosted on the wizzer.org machine. I have set up a few Temp pages that will forward you from the old site to here, just in case.

Now, why did I do all this? GOOD QUESTION! I needed more from my Site. More space, more capability etc. and to do that I needed full blown webspace. I am working with DeadManWalking on getting my Gallery moved over from the Team Immortal site to here, and will prolly move the Movies over as well. We have a whopping 2gb of space to play with.

So as for the weekend, You guys know that I was feeling pretty sick last week right? Yeah well that being said it prolly was not a good idea to go out and Drink on Friday night. Knowing that it was a bad Idea to drink it would have been an even worse idea to drink Jägermeister. So with these incredibly bad ideas in mind, Paul and I headed out to a local irish pub on Friday Night called Ned Divines. It was here that we started to Imbibe. First came the Liquid Cocaine. Next, the Red Headed Slut. Then, another Liquid Cocaine. Somewhere in there we ate dinner.

Ned Divines wasn’t as happening as we had hoped so we headed over to a great little college bar called T.T. Reynolds. Right off the bat He started there with gin and Tonic and I had an Amoretto Sour. Throughout the Night it was all Ciders for me, about 5-6 of them. Paul stuck with the Gin and Tonic, But I could swear he had more ice than Booze. Well a few bands started Playing and the music there was Uber loud. Of course that might have something to do with us standing Right next to the speaker. By about 1am I was hurting. No wait, I take that back, I was feeling no pain what-so-ever. I gave Amy a call and gave her pretty good directions (considering I was 3 sheets) and she was on her way to get us. Paul had wandered out of the bar to catch up to me, and then realized that he left his Tab Open and Credit card there. He stumbled back in to retrieve it and we started wandering down the street. I have No idea how far I got before Amy got to us, but she said she was happy that there were no police in view, as we would have been taken in for Public Intoxication. I wonder if that Bush Paul fell in was Public or private.

I am going to spare you the details of the rest of the evening, needless to say it got really Ugly from there. (Really ugly). Saturday was not to happy a day for me because of all of this, but I still managed to get up and moving and get some things accomplished. We went through and got all of my Paperwork in order. We finally picked up Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 7, so I can see how the story ends. Sunday was a slow day as well. We decorated the Tree and lounged around the house.

There may be more, so I will probably try and update as the memory returns to me. Oh, I know one thing. (how Could I forget this) Due to the events of Friday night and the Sickness of last week, I now have no Voice. Yup, you could say the weekend left me totally speechless. (ba-dum-dum)

DISCLAIMER: For those Family members and friend who might actually be concerned for me. Please keep in mind, I Rarely go out and drink. And even when I do drink it is VERY rare that I drink as much as I did. The last time I drank this much, I believe was in Okinawa, the night before the Alice in Wonderland auditions. (For those that remember that) So don’t think that this is a regular occurrence for me. It’s not, and it will probably be quite some time before that ever happens again. (Well, at least until new years (: )

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Wow, Things suck when your sick. I have lost track of time and here it is Friday the 10th already. I have been sick the past few days and am still a little woozy now. So I am really not sure how this Blog is gonna sound.

The weekend. Well we did the Toys for Tots drive last weekend in Fredricksburg, It was great fun. I realize that I have a lot of repairs to do on my armor before the next event, But that’s gonna have to wait till After X-mas as I don’t really have the time to do it. Saturday night Amy and I went to my Company X-mas party and it was a very nice time. Dinner was great and we sat with Paul and Kevin making jokes the whole night. The rest of the weekend was split between Cleaning, Lounging and playing EQII.

The Week has pretty much been the same thing. A few new things tho….. I picked up one of the greatest inventions known to man: The TIVO. If you don’t have one of these I highly suggest you go get one. I now have effortless recording, Pausing of Live TV, The Button on the remote that I like to refer to as the “what The???” Button. (Instantly rewinds the last 10 sec) Not to mention that the TIVO will stream Music and Photos to my TV and Stereo from my PC. And sometime this month I will be able to Stream the TIVO recordings back to my PC. It’s Freaking Awesome! There is also a way you can go Online and Tell your TIVO to record something without you even being there. That mixed with the new TV I bought off of Paul. He Sold me his old 32” Trinitron for 200 bucks (can’t beat that price)

This coming weekend is a Cleaning and getting ready for the Holidays Weekend. I leave for Oregon on the 21st and come back on the 28th. I will let you know how the weekend Panned out on Monday.

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Ok, So the weekend is Upon us and it looks to be a busy one at that. Plans for the weekend include: Friday, Crucial Employee Appreciation. This is when we usually get our seasonal bonuses so that should be good. I plan on Buying a TIVO unit so I will finally catch some of the shows I am missing out on without having to laboriously program my VCR. Friday Night is a Spirit Night. There is a Local Woman here that does a John Edwards style reading. It should be fun and it will be nice to get out of the house.

Saturday will be a Toys For Tots drive at the Fredericksburg Toys R Us. The Garrison will be there in Full Trooper Gear. Should be lots of fun. I love seeing the Kids reaction to a bunch of Storm troopers. After That is the Office Christmas party.

Sunday is a down day, doc may be up to visit but aside from that, not gone be doing much.

I have to say I have been having a lot of fun playing EQ2. It floors me that this is the same company that makes SWG. They had so many issues with SWG, and it remains to this day to be broken. But yet they can make a Game like EQ2 that just seems to work. I don’t get it. Anyways, I will most likely have an update for you guys on Monday with how all of the above went. Have a good weekend!

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