Enjoy your holidays, everyone. I hope it is a great one for you.

So, my first anniversary with Cristin is coming up next Sunday. It's almost shocking to think that it's already been a full year since we vowed to be together forever.

Thanks to everyone that helped me in any shape or form with the wedding a year ago, thanks to all our friends that have been with us, and another thanks to those that have kept us in their prayers over this past year.

Some of you probably saw the update to my Mando Helm, but it is not, in fact, teh only project I have in the works right now. I felt like writing about some of the things I have planned coming up soon, so here goes.

The Mando Helm is being put aside for a small while, but still needs inner lining before I can call it complete.

I started and am working on a custom sintra sword for my friend casper's Mando armor. He wanted a poison sword, so I got a picture of a sword blade shape he likes and did a concept. He approved and I went to work on it. It has three layers of sintra, and an aluminum core sandwiched in between for strength. Then I ran into some problems with the blade edge. I have tried several different methods, and it wasn't turning out. I finally figured out an easier method that will still look good, so I am still in process to finish the blade. When I get enough finished on it, I will post a series of pictures.

I have a helmet kit, belt buckle, and blue shirt for the beginnings of a Rebel Fleet Trooper. I haven't started on anything really yet, as it will serve as one of my backup costumes on convention trips and Rebel Legion events. I am slowly collecting the pieces over time so as not to overwhelm my budget all at once.

For Halloween this year, which is the main reason other things got put on hold, is going to be likely one of the more intricate costumes I have done in a while. I got extremely excited and inspired when my wife told me she was going for something "steampunk-esque". I immediately ran with the idea, (being inspired by steampunk art and other costumes), and have the basic concept for another Ronin costume, but in a Steampunk universe instead of World of Darkness. Here is my old Ronin costume in case anyone forgot [link] . My plan is to make an Alchemist/Paranormal Collector in a steampunk fashion. So far, I have some concept drawings, a wire skeleton of the face mask and materials for PKE goggles and PKE meter.

Not much to report, but I felt like summing up what has been happening recently.

Taj very much wanted a new enclosure for Xerxes, our adopted bearded dragon. She told me basically how big she wanted it to be, and I made some design drawings. Our first trip to Home Depot wasn't very productive, except that we had a better idea of what materials were available and how much it would cost. I went ahead and bought some 1/4" paneling wood to make a frame for a hinged door to this enclosure.

The second trip to Home Depot proved more fruitful. We picked up pretty much all the materials I needed to start construction. I started with a few large pieces of Birch 1/2" plywood, and some thinner hardboard for the floor and ceiling of it. After cutting out the window openings with my new jigsaw, I assembled the four walls and attached the floor and ceiling pieces. I then lined the bottom with ABS plastic and used clear silicone caulk to seal all the seams on the inside. Then, I drilled several 1/2" holes in a lattice pattern in the back of the enclosure near the top, for ventilation purposes.

I can post some pics soon, as Taj is begging me to take photos of it as I progress toward the finished product.

My Mando project has been put on hold temporarily, until I have finished other major house chores I have planned to complete.

The first weekend of August (1-4), myself and a few friends are making a trip to St. Louis as our "summer vacation", which we haven't had yet. We plan on hitting the City Museum, St Louis Science Center, St Louis Zoo, Old Pasta Factory and Rock the River concert on Sunday at the arch grounds. It'll be tons of fun. I'm pretty excited about it.

Later this year, the Rebel Legion is involved in the Mizzou homecoming parade. I am going to try and make a Rebel Fleet Trooper costume for it, and I have the helmet kit, but I don't know if I can get everything up to standard by October (I still need to start my Halloween costume too, so I might just go Jedi Obi-wan for the parade.)

Anyhow, that's the mediocre update.

A couple weeks back, the general manager at my hotel bought $14,000 worth of computers and equipment to start up his new computer business. He had me help unpack and set up the server and workstations. We had a brief conversation about how I like to work with computers and have always enjoyed web-related stuff.

A few days later, he talked to me again about it. He showed me a site where I could learn about the .NET framework and ASP.NET. He said he wanted me to learn as much as I could about it. He also said that if I did well, I could get transferred from the hotel to his new company, Impex Technologies. I was pretty excited, but held my breath since there have been empty promises in the past.

Within a week, he had developers coming in and helping start up his initial business web site. He then gave me a project that had me researching and analyzing a particular web application so they could recreate it. I wrote a 5 page paper on it (didn't think I would ever be doing that after college, lol).

The next week, he came up with another project for me. This time, I was evaluating and critiquing his developers' work of recreating the web application (there's an ego boost for ya, I don't even have development experience, lol).

Then today, he pulled me aside again. He asked how my training was going. I had been reading a lot and watching tons of demo videos to get the hang of it. He asked when I'd be ready for transfer, so I answered him by asking when he wanted me to be ready.

Then it hit me and got real.

He said he wanted me to be ready to start on their projects in 1-2 weeks. I about fainted, lol. I am excited about this opportunity, and I know I will be working my ass off....but anything is better than working front desk of a hotel.