Texas! | Day 4

Nick Mason — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 22:32:21 +0000

Today we got to wake up even later than yesterday. We got up at 0700. It was nice. I got 8.5 hours of sleep! YAY!
My mom and I finished getting ready, packed the rest of our things, and took our bags to the front of the hotel. We ate waffles again, which were delicious! We sat near the three women from the previous days, chatting, eating. Our shuttle arrived at approximately 0900. We all boarded the shuttle and were taken to the base. My mom and I got off at the Officer's Villa lobby. My mom, dad, grandparents, Jeff and I chatted until about 1230. We were eating snacks - Sergento string cheese, mozzarella stick and marinara Pringles, Goldfish, and I had a mocha. Yum!
After our chatting and munching, my mom, dad, Jeff and I boarded the shuttle once again and were taken down to the Mexican Market. That was really awesome. I bought two small salsa bowls, and they were a deal! Only 1.99 each!
After shopping around for a while we decided to go back to the River Walk. We walked around for a long time. After finding the River Walk Mall, we decided to eat at Luciano. We ordered two pizzas - one cheese and one shrimp. Shit was it delicious! They also gave us some bruschetta and fresh parmesan cheese. I ate spoonfulls of that! It melted in your mouth - truly orgasmic. The pizza was super thin and just perfect! I drank four glasses of water with lemon... I have to pee...
We ended up leaving Luciano for the shuttle to take us away. We went back "upstairs" to Crockett St. and went into this cute little shop that had lots of oriental things and TONS of necklaces and bracelets. I bought... rather, my dad bought me, a yin & yang necklace and a skull & crossbones necklace. I have three necklaces on right now!
We left the little shop when our shuttle arrived. My mom and I would be dropped off at the San Antonio Airport to depart back to Minneapolis, then back to Madison. The ride was too short.
We got off the shuttle, as well as Jeff and my dad. We exchanged goodbyes and hugs. It was really hard to say goodbye. We don't know what time we will see him again! It could be many weeks, or over a year. It was so difficult. My dad went back with him to our grandparents. He leaves early tomorrow morning, and they are leaving tomorrow evening.
My mom and I are now in the San Antonio Airport. We are going to board the plane now... and we are sad.
.....
[added]
So, our plane ride from San Antonio to Minneapolis was interesting... First, we entered into storms. This seemed normal. All of a sudden, we saw some lightning... and then two bolts hit the plane!! We were freaking out... and then when we got out of that storm, I saw another plane quite aways away. I decided to zoom in on it and take a picture. The plane was getting larger... all of a sudden it was HUGE and went RIGHT over us. They are supposed to be 5+ miles apart, but we could see the engine detail! It was fucking close.
We arrived at the Minneapolis airport and found our gate, then went to Chilis Too and ate some chips, salsa, and french fries. YUM! The waitress asked "would you like to sit inside or outside?" (in the airport... outside of course was in the main area of the airport.) I said "well, isn't it cold out?" without meaning to... LOL. Our waitress was very nice and funny!
We boarded our plane in a hurry after paying and getting a bag to go. Our flight departed and was packed! Two rows of three seats across. We were in row 24, near the back.
We arrived back in the Madison airport and quickly went home.
A GREAT trip, I do not want to be home.

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 does not install

Nick Mason — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 03:38:18 +0000

I just recently ran into a problem after I re-installed Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 a few days ago. I tried to update my .NET Framework to v.3.5 so I could run Visual Studio Express, and every time the installation failed while trying to install .NET Framework 3.5.
So, I tried to install 3.5 off of the installation packages off of Microsoft.com, but still, to no success, I kept getting errors while trying to install any 3.5 package. So after some research, I found a neat tool that removes all .NET framework instances on your computer, and then you can install 3.5. Strange why this tool works, but here's how to do it:
Download
http://cid-27e6a35d1a492af7.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Blog_Tools/dotnetfx_cleanup_tool.zip
or
http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/attachment/8904493.ashx
How to Start the Process
First, go to your Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel.
Next, uninstall every version of .NET Framework that is installed on your machine.
Next, save and run the tool that you have downloaded from the links above.
Restart your computer.
Now, you must install ALL versions of the .NET Framework from here
(1.0) http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=D7158DEE-A83F-4E21-B05A-009D06457787&displaylang=en
(1.1) http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=262D25E3-F589-4842-8157-034D1E7CF3A3&displaylang=en
(1.1 SP1) http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=A8F5654F-088E-40B2-BBDB-A83353618B38&displaylang=en
(2.0) http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0856EACB-4362-4B0D-8EDD-AAB15C5E04F5&displaylang=en
(2.0 SP1) http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=79BC3B77-E02C-4AD3-AACF-A7633F706BA5&displaylang=en
(3.0) http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=10CC340B-F857-4A14-83F5-25634C3BF043&displaylang=en
(3.0 SP1) http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=EC2CA85D-B255-4425-9E65-1E88A0BDB72A&displaylang=en
There. Now install 3.5
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=333325FD-AE52-4E35-B531-508D977D32A6&displaylang=en
And feel free to install SP1 of 3.5
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=AB99342F-5D1A-413D-8319-81DA479AB0D7&displaylang=en

Cool huh? I spent a long time finding these answers with Google, so they obviously need to be spread!! (re-written by me)
Hope this helps others.

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Texas! | Day 4

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 does not install