Cindy and Greg

As of this morning, my last student loan payment was made by ACH. While I didn’t have many loans, thanks to my parents paying for 4 years of tuition, room, and board, I did have a second senior year, which in addition to being a load of fun, cost a little over 25k. 10 years later, the loan has been satisfied!

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We have been taking some heat for not having new pictures of the house (post move-in) up on the web site. So to satisfy those “heaters” here they are:

http://picasaweb.google.com/gmsmith/GeneralGookinNovember2007

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We got a call from Rob at Crate and Barrel the day we before we left for Banff, our furniture is in! It is suppose to be delivered on Wednesday, November 7. Finally, this project is coming to an end. Pictures will be posted once the furniture arrives.

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This morning while doing some after hours work I turned on the TV in my office to find the movie Elizabethtown on HBO. I don’t know what it is about this movie but I can since the first time I saw it, I could relate to the character that Orlando Bloom plays. In the beginning of the movie Drew (played Bloom) is on the top of the world. He had created a sneaker that took 8 years to develop and was slated to take over the athletic world. Just as it was released, there was an issue that recalled the sneaker, costing his company close to one billion dollars. After being fired, he went home and was about to kill himself when he got a call from his sister, that his father had passed away. So in the course of a week, he went from being on top of the world, to the bottom of the emotional world. This is not unlike when dad passed away. Cindy and I were married on October 30, 2004 and dad passed away on Sunday, November 7, 2004. From the highest highs, to the lowest lows in a matter of 180 hours.

Looking back it is hard to believe it has been three years.  I often find myself trying to remember my last words to dad, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to remember what they are. I remember clearly the last time I saw him, it was the day after the wedding and we were getting ready to head back to Dumfries to get ready for our “mini-moon” to San Francisco and he was sitting in the chair in the room at Ford’s Colony. He was weak, but smiling and happy.

The movie Elizabethtown always brings back strong emotions and memories of dad for some reason, with the tears comes comfort in knowing the impact that dad made on my life. So if you get a chance, be sure to rent Elizabethtown and remember someone whom you loved.

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Cindy and I had an incredible getaway vacation in Banff. Cindy celebrated her birthday with a Mountain Mint Pedicure at the Willow Stream Spa while I recovered from the travel with a jet lag massage and had an incredible dinner (perhaps the best we have ever had) at a small little wine bar called Grapes. We celebrated out anniversary by sitting in the jacuzzi overlooking the snow capped Canadian Rockies. There are few words that can describe the beauty of Banff, AB. We have approximately 300 photos in our gallery from the vacation.

On a funny note, while touring the town of Banff, we stopped into a local Tea Store and the proprietor tried to guess where we were from. His guess…Alabama (wtf?).

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