EXCITING NEWS!!

Helen and I are finally going to get married!! And we won't have to wait until '07!! Her mother has graciously given her blessing on an August wedding! We don't have a firm date yet, but we know that it'll be early August. We are both so thrilled that we are getting married so much sooner than we had hoped. Helen is the most fantastic woman I have ever had the pleasure of meeting, and I am convinced that she is the most beautiful girl on the entire face of the planet. I am quite convinced that she and I were created especially for each other and that our Creator knew precisely the kind of person that we would each be most attracted to. Therefore, Helen was designed exactly to my own preferences and perceptions of beauty and that makes her the most beautiful girl that I could ever lay eyes on. I'm afraid that she got the short end of the stick, though, because she got stuck with me.

In other news, I will almost certainly be deploying to Iraq at the beginning of next year for 12 to 14 months. Please be praying for Helen and me as we prepare for this long separation. It is statistically more probable that I will be hurt or killed in the 14 days that I spend going home on vacation than in my entire year in Iraq, so there is little need to worry that I will come home with a Purple Heart or anything. Unfortunately, I will probably not even see combat.

Also, I finally finished my computer, and although I decided to skimp on the graphics card, it is still the fastest computer that I have ever owned. It's really fast. I like it a lot. It even worked out (totally by coincidence) that my monitor, computer case, and keyboard all match, including the spiffy under-key light on my keyboard.

More later...