April fool's came and went yesterday.  I didn't do a single joke or prank.  eh, next year.  Rachel and I went to DC to hang out with Serah and Mike.  Had a great time.  We saw Mount Vernon saturday, then spent some time at the Mall for the cherry blossom festival, then just chilled out at their place.  I uploaded a bunch of photos to the gallery, including some of a hidden tunnel/room thing that Rachel and i broke into at mount vernon.

Looks like I will be working from London for may 24th and 25th.  should be a good time.  I'll probably go over a day or two earlier and sight see.  Still a lot of planning going into the whole Italy trip, but time is flying!  6 weeks!

So here's a weird story.  Got a laptop last week from work and i took it home wednesday to work from home that night.  Half way home, I stopped at walmart and ended up taking a nap for a bit before going in and head home.  When I start back home, a few minutes away I smell something burning like plastic or rubber.  I forget about it until i get home and i see smoke coming out of my hood.  I pop the hood and the belt is smoking, and it's dripping.  The belt is so hot it is melting.  Since i can't do anything with it hot, i leave it cool down.  Later on, I come out and notice that the engine coolant is pretty much gone.  I fill that, and start up the truck again.  It is squealing really badly.  I am thinking it just has to wear away the dried melted parts and the squealing will go away.  Its gets quieter and quieter and finally does stop.  Satisfied, i turn the truck off and get out to shut the hood, but i notice that the belt is broken and that would be why it is no longer making noises.  So now my truck is disabled.  Luckily, I had an appointment already in place for friday to get emissions and state inspection.  Luckily, I don't need to go to work because i can work from home.   Luckily i stopped halfway home or else i could have been stuck on the side of the road.  So i just got it towed back home on thursday, got a lift home on friday with my stepdad who works in the city, and i'm borrowing my mom's minivan until the truck is done.  It's going to cost $700.  They have to replace the entire air conditioning unit/system thing or else the belt will just melt again.  I had just used the air conditioning for the first time on monday, and it didn't work, so i knew something was wrong.  sucks though, i could REALLY use that money with italy coming up.

Alex is pretty cool.  He's got an architecture internship downtown.  haven't had the chance to do anything with him yet, but we've got a while.  Still trying to find someone to rent the basement room out too.  Craigslist for the win!

Getting really proud of the city.  here's a cool article on on the new building projects for the city. www.post-gazette.com/pg/07091/773880-85.stm So much to be excited about!