Yeah!  I am a free woman!  My MBA class ended on Sunday at midnight - I now have time to return phone calls, watch TV, catch up on my ironing and do fun things on "school" nights!    Yippie!  I even found out that I received a very good grade on my final paper and got an A in the class!  I am super psyched!

To celebrate my new freedom Ray, Jami, Tonya and Tonya's friend from Seattle, Jami, all went to the Lake Monsters game on Monday night.  It was $0.25 MacKenzie Hotdog night.  You can't hate that.  Photos - coming soon!

To celebrate my new found freedom from homework Ray took me to see a Lake Monsters game (our local single A baseball team).  As it was Hot Dog Heaven night - MacKenzie hot dogs for only $0.25 - we invited Jami and Tonya, and Tonya's friend from Seattle, Jaime!

We purchased "reserved" seats because for $1.00 more you get an actual chair (instead of the cement bench) and a roof over your head.  Oh yeah, and a better view!  :o)

Ray appreciated the variety of condoments and the ballpark dinner!

Actually ballpark food for dinner was what we were all craving, and the game ended up being great!  By about 11:00 we decided to call it a night.  The score was still tied and the game was about to go into the 14th inning!  Actually, it ended up being the longest game in Lake Monsters history!  The game went 18 innings and didn't end until 12:36 am.  Glad that they won, but I was also glad that we headed home when we did!  We still have to work!

So I'm a HUGE, HUGE, HUGE SquareSoft (SquareEnix now obviously, but I say it only as a loyalist) Fan.  They won my heart with Final Fantasy II when it came out on the SNES.  I didn't get it mind you; my wonderful mother and father presented it as a bundle at Christmas one year for Jason and me.  I think Jina was considered, but you could tell it was aimed at us.  Not having any understanding of what the game was, I popped it in and started playing.  The next thing I knew, the SNES, the 1981 10" Color TV and the game "magically" appeared in my room at night and I don't believe I came out for an entire week unless it was to eat.

I also am slightly a perfectionist and when I discovered you got better when leveling up, I got my Dark Knight (the main character/hero) to level 99 (highest in the game).  Yes it was absurd and ridiculous.  I soon realized it was a wasted effort after the hero during a certain part of the game became a Paladin (oooooo...).  Those who know the game and are readying this probably uttered "idiot" or got a good chuckle.  Basically becoming "re-born" as a Paladin meant you started back at level 1.

I think I cried...

I think this was the game when my parents started to second guess Santa's gift.

So, to continue the saga, I played Secret of Mana (another great series) and Final Fantasy III.  The Mana and Final Fantasy series are what I played for years and still do now.  I not too long ago broke down and purchased Final Fantasy Tactics A2 and realized it's going to be another great game I'll enjoy.  I've already put in at leastn15 hours and haven't made it past the 2nd level/stage/land.  I read on the box that there are hundreds of hours of game play.  Wow... This means I'll probably invest at least 2x that... Maybe 3x.  I do feel the need to be a perfectionist in these game spheres and it's like a really really bizarre quirk I have, but maybe it can be considered a good thing?  I think SquareSoft could poop something out on a plate and I'd still buy it.

I haven't played every game in the series though, especially the MMO Final Fantasy XI.  I really wish my PS3 could run PS2 games (PS Sony, you suck), and if it were the case, I'd buy the rest of the series I haven't played yet (FF IX, FF X, FF X2, FFXII).  But what I'm realizing is that I'd probably have no social life due to my quirk.  I think I really like the DS versions of the game since I can simply pick them up and put them down, not to mention that I'll play it until 2am every night while my lovely wife is trying to sleep.  I'm addicted to SquareSoft.

I think I sent them a letter years ago thanking them for creating cool games and how it affected me on a personal level.  I wonder if they ever got it or if it ever was read?

Oh, by the way, supposedly the remake of Final Fantasy II (which is actually referred to as Final Fantasy IV because II was the US Import) is now out on the DS (as of July 22).  I think I know what I'm going to do as soon as I remember to make a trip to Best Buy!

God bless my wife for loving me during these harsh times!

While Ray was busy working to get the photo album section of our website working (well, a possibility actually) I headed out for an afternoon with the ladies.  Jami, Tonya, Tonay's friend Jaime and I all headed to the Shelburne Vineyard for a bit of afternoon wine tasting.

Even though they were out of quite a few of their wines, we all found a few we liked and ended up purchasing some to take home.

After wine tasting we headed down Route 7 to the Wildflower farm.  This was a place I'd passed a million times on my treks between my parents' and Burlington but never given much thought to.  It turns out there's a cute little gift shop where you can purchase all things gardening - including many wildflower seeds.  We strolled around the little path they have that heads through the fields and a bit of woods.  While the mosquitos were out in full force we still managed to enjoy ourselves and snap a few good pictures.

... this works on two levels for me this week.

Soon, very, very soon (say about 26 hours from now) I will have finished my current MBA class.  The end of a 10 week class, which is the 4th class of the year, in the second year of the program.  At midnight tomorrow I will have finished my 8th class in the MBA program, and will officially be halfway through.  Seven more to go.  I am greatly looking forward to the month off, especially since it promises a few exciting opportunities.  I am also looking forward to (a) returning phone calls when people call, (b) watching some TV on occassion, (c) spending some time outside (need to work on my tan), (d) having fun and relaxing weekends (and nights after work), and (e) all of the above!  Actually, I'm also super excited for my friend Kristen's wedding in August.  So many of my best friends from college will be in the area and I have an entire week off from work.  I'm also excited to be part of her big day, and help with all those last minute details and tasks that will inevitably pop up - not to mention a week off from work!

The other "end" in my life right now has to do with my parents.  They are selling their house.  They close on Friday on the house that they/we have lived in for 21 years.  Isn't that crazy?  I remember when we moved in.  I was down yesterday offering my very small amount of assistance with the move.  It's crazy, they are going into an apartment (actually, the same apartment complex they lived in when I was born) and most of their stuff is going into storage.  They are in the extremely long process of building a house, but fingers crossed they could be in early in the new year.  It was strange to see the house so empty (most of the items to live in storage are already there) and it was weird to see all the rooms as they are now (which is different than when I lived there, too).  My brother and I took a very brief walk in the woods behind the house where we used to play as kids, and gave each other under-doggies on the tire swing.  That was more fun when we were kids, I almost threw up yesterday (probably because he's taller now than when he was 10, so I went higher).  I can tell my parents are very sad to be leaving, and I know it would be easier if they had a new home to go into, instead of a temporary residence.  It feels ok to me because the family that's buying the place LOVE it, and I know it will become the home to them that it was to us.  Their two young girls will take their prom photos in front of the flowering bush in the front yard, they'll almost push each other into the big tree on the tire swing, they'll pull the clay out of the back creek, they'll have sleep overs with their girlfriends in the basement.  My parents are giving them the incredible gift of a loving home, not just a house, and I know they can feel it.  So it makes saying good-bye ok.