31 August 08

I finally qualified Submarines back on 21 August (just one day short of my 18 month point!). This has been like an enormous weight lifted off my shoulders. It took close to two months longer than I had hoped for, but hey, better late than never, eh?  This sets me up to head to PNEO (Prospective Nuclear Engineer Officer) school later this week. This school will be a nice change of pace for me. I probably won't be working much less, but I will be able to set my own schedule. As a result, I won't have to get up at 0500 to be on the boat by 0600. That is a major difference!

Sooooo....it looks like once again I have let way too much time pass since my last update.  A lot has happened since the end of June. The 4th of July was a roaring success, as I had a lot of friends over. We must have had at least $500 of fire works, and probably almost half of that in beer. Good times! A couple of weeks later, I flew back to Virginia to see Gwen. We had a great visit, and she got to show me the chapel on Fort Belvoir where we are planning our wedding ceremony. Most of August was taken up with getting my quals finished up though, so I didn't do a whole lot there. I did manage to get out a few times to a couple of local game stores, and managed to make a couple of friends as a result. I also got a shot out of the blue today. It turns out my friend Vince just moved to Portland, OR, only 3 miles away! He is heading up to see me right now. I was really surprised to hear he had moved out here, but this is great news. Hopefully it means we can visit more often.

Well, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that once I start PNEO, I'll have a "little" more time to update around here...as always though, no promises!