Journal

a few days that fall on the weekend

So Saturday we met up with Chris and Holly and Holly's mom down at the Greek Food Fair, which, to our surprise, wasn't actually open, yet. Apprently they expanded their hours to Saturday...but only Saturday evening (Chris and Holly already had plans for the evening). So we chatted and ended up going to Cookery.

The food was good. We had scheduled to go to X-Men 3 the next day, but decided to go on Saturday instead. So we headed over to the Cobblestone 9. It was actually kind of funny when Shannon and I went in, cause it was showing on so many screens, we actually tried 2 screens before we actually got the right one. There was nobody taking tickets and directing traffic, so it made it a bit hard to find the right one.

Shannon and I headed home after the movie, and just kind of hung out the evening. We ended up watching Austin Powers: Goldmember and since our next day was to start so early, we went to bed.

5:AM Sunday rolls around.

5:AM is really early, espically on a Sunday when you just kind of want to be lazy all day.

I got up and got ready and Shannon didn't much feel up to it. She was having a common side effect of the antibiotic that she was on, that prevented her from headed out with me. We were under the impression from a call to the Doctor's office that we would be able to change the perscription that we had witht he pharmacist, if the side effect continued. So when it opened we headed down there to get it changed, and we had no such luck. So Shannon will be calling the doctor today to get a new perscription....or at least talk with them about it.

So, making sure it was ok with Shannon, I headed up north. It took a bit shorter then I thought it was (It's about a 160 mile drive, Chris, so about 2 hours or so, not 3). I got to the Mormon church in Albert Lea. I was a bit early, so I thought I'd wander around for a bit and take pictures of the building...it didn't take very long, since it's a lot smaller then most churches that I've been to.

Eventually, other family (Including grandma, with her first trip to church since she went to the nursing home) showed up and we were probably about 1/3rd of the people there. The blessing of Hyrum and Diane's new baby was about 10 minutes, and I kinda sat around for the rest of the meeting.

Afterwards I called and checked on Shannon to see if she needed me to come home (she didn't). So I helped my dad take Grandma back to the nursing home (my first visit there, yes I know, I'm a bad grandson). After that, he led me over to Hyrum's house and I hung out while they setup to grill and sever a small army of people. Diane's parents needed to head back to Wyoming, so they wanted to take off pretty quick, and so lunch was cooked in two shifts.

Burgers, brats, hot dogs, potato salad, and other various things made up the meal. It was nice.

Around 1ish the rest of the faimly showed up from church and the 2nd shift began.

I had a nice conversation with my cousin Mike (who I have seen from time to time). It was interesting we talked a bit about HBO's Big Love and other things. It was kind nice. I hadn't really sat down and talked to him in a long time.

I had some rubarb pie (Mom made), which was pretty good. I took some of it home and had it for dinner (Shannon's not a huge fan of rubarb. I took lots of pictures, played with some kids.

I guess the funny comment of the afternoon was when I explained that Shannon wasn't feeling well, Brent asked if it was morning sickness...which it's not.

Around 3 or so, I headed back home.

I cooked dinner, and for a while, we worked on an assignment that was given to use by the officiant for our wedding. He basically asked us to write how you feel in you head and in your heart about what the marriage should be and write how you are going to seek to accomplish that. Which is a bit harder then it sounds. He also told us to bring along some music if we want it in the wedding. So I have a thing or two in mind.

If what we wrote is not exactly what he wants then I guess we'll have to try again...but I think it is...

We are at about 110 Days to the weding...so things are getting pretty close.

Mac Conversion Updated

Well...here's where the incompatibility comes...

Although rendezvous can see my networked laser printer (with a device not the actual printer) my efforts to print to it continue to fail.

The color printer is not seen at all by the macbook...although that matters less since you can just walk downstairs and print (since it's so infrequent). The laser printer is more annoying.

I'm thinking about moving the home directory of my music and pictures from the NAS downstairs to here, and then just backup downstairs. This will allow for itunes to update quicker and I imagine iPhoto will run quicker too.

Although I suppose I should put it in a "shared" folder so that Shannon can access the pictures too...

I'm still not sure what iPhoto does with pictures, since I'm pretty particular about keeping original files unmodified and copiing them to edit.

I suppose we'll se what happens when I import the pictures from the wedding.

Cell Phone Update....

My cell phone works!

Ok well not reallly.

It does turn on, and I know who calls, however, The top buttons (control) and the last column of buttons (3,6,9,#) don't work. So I really can't do much with the phone. In testing I have actually placed a bunch of numbers on the screen and can't actually clear them off :)

So it's still pretty much broken.

Just called my boss and told him (he got a kick out of it) and all I gotta do is take it down to Telco and they'll replace it.

It's kinda nice when it's not actually my phone (even if I don't get the new cool stuff).

Adam and Tiffer get hitched

So this was the first event that Shannon's really felt well enought to do something. So we got all dressed up (Shannon in her new black dress) and me in my dress shirt and slacks (like normal). I was putting my wallet and etc in my pocket when I discovered that my phone was missing. After searching a bit more we discovered the problem and we headed out.

We drove to the Gloria Dei church and headed in. I like the stained glass and the design of the church, although their are a few things, that I don't like, but over all it's a fiarly modern design, but still has a very strong religous feel to it.

Adam, Josh, Drew, and Ryan all looked very handsome and respectable in thier tuxedos. Tiff's bridesmaids were all very pretty. The combination of Pink and Green was a very good one. Tiff was very beautiful in her dress.

The ceremony was a bit dry and long and I almost wished I would've kept track of how many times he said "marriage" or "Love". But Adam and Tiffer looked very nice up there and it was nice over all.

Afterwards we headed towards the Comfort Suites for the reception. They are located right next to Living History Farms. We headed in and the place was decorated nice, but it ended up being a little crowded (I think more people showed up then said they would.

Dinner was a build your own pasta bar, which was...well...OK. Nothing to memorable about it. The Champagene cake was pretty good (it was in the other room).

Adam and Tif did kind of mash the cake into each other's faces, and as they passed by to go clean themselves up, Adam did say that he had gotten cake up his nose.

It was cute.

At around 10:PM we said our goodbyes to the happy couple and the rest of the people we knew there and headed out.

Oh, and since Shannon likes sparkly wrapping paper, I did get some sparklys over what I was wearing.

So so clean...

So in getting undressed Thursday night, I had forgotten to take my cell phone (from work) out of my pocket...so Why is this a big deal? When Shannon got home on Friday, she did a load of laundry (her work clothes) which also included the shorts I was wearing.

Needless to say, my cell phone isn't so much working.

I've already called work and they know to try home first and then Shannon's cell if I'm not there (if something goes wrong).

It shouldn't be a big deal to get a new phone, I just hope they'll be able to transfer over the phone numbers.

Apple Update.

So After staying up till 1:30 AM on Tuesday Night and pretty late last night (around midnight before I actually got into bed), Our new MacBook is now pretty much setup more or less the way I want it.

I've gotten firefox and my bookmarks over, thunderbird and my email moved over (was way easier then I thought it'd be, I was gonna use the mail application, but they wouldn't import from thunderbird), I've got itunes setup, and my iPod reformatted so it's a mac one (even though it was updating fine on the mac itunes).

The only thing that remains really problematic is my spreadsheet, espically for our financial information. I have no desire to pay for Microsoft Office, but have a desire to continue to be pirated software free. I am using OpenOffice, but apprently they don't officially support intel based Macs yet. So I can either wait for that or try something else. Of the options are moving to things like Quicken (isn't that what you use, dutty?) or getting another spreadsheet program (maybe appleworks?) or doing something else. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know. I still have my PC lappy from work, so there's no rush, but I still need to move forward here.

I am still debating on if I want to install bootcamp on our macBook...

fun fun

Wedding Spoons and Shannon's Sick

So Vanberia International Gifts, called me back and they did have them, in stock, just in a diffrent place then where they thought they would be. So I ordered them and they shipped it...and fast too, cause we got them yesterday. Now we're down to gifts for people...and M&Ms I remembered those earlier today.

Also, Shannon's been sick. She took of Tuesday and Wednesday off and stayed at home. She actually did go to work today, but she's still feeling it and will be going to visit the doctor this afternoon (after her short day of work). Although, I must say that she seemed a lot better this morning then she did the previous two, but still not 100%.

I hope she gets better.

What? Decorah has no wood?

So Friday night we spent the last of time here doing final shopping and getting for our camping trip. We hit Target and Hy-vee. Shannon was a bit late getting home from work, so we couldn't go to The DaVinci Code with Chris and Holly, so shopping was the name of the game.

We woke up early (I woke up earlier then Shannon), and got the final prep done and loaded my car up.

Chris and Holly met up with us at our house and we caravaned to our destination of the Highlandville General Store and Campground. We stopped at a McDonalds off of I35 for an early lite lunch (or a late breakfast for Chris).

We continued on. Eventually Chris and Holly lead the caravan.

We ended up, after a bit of time, in Decorah. And so the search was on for Nordic Wedding Spoons. Many shops on Water Street (which is what was suggested for us to go to by Lindsay). So we parked near the begining of the street (free parking!) and headed through our walking tour of it.

There were several shops that looked interesting, and had neat things (lots of nordic themed items and trolls and what not, including a cool little find of classic beer glasses at a 2nd hand store). Most of the things one could probably find in the metro if they looked, but it was still nice to have it there. One store, Vanberia International Gifts, held a lot of promise and when we asked about Wedding Spoon, we didn't get the strange look that usually follows, but a look of "I know what you are talking about, but I'm not sure we have anything right now". She asked if we wanted metal or wooden and I told her that it really didn't matter. So she looked, she was pretty certain they didn't have it in stock but when one of the other co-owners showed up she'd ask where they could order some more from. This was very promising. I gave them my information and I took a card, and we continued on.

I was hoping to find other options, but among the other stores, where there were other cool things, there was nothing that resembling the Nordic influence that would actually carry wedding spoons. Oh well, it's a lead, and If not, I have another thing in mind too.

During our trip down he street we stopped at a sports bar and had a late lunch/snack. And continued on.

We did find some neat little wire sculptures from Rock Creek Metal Craft. Holly got quite a few, and we got one...It's called Pet Grooming, but we'll call it Vet Teching...

We headed back up the street and to the campground.

The drive to Highlandville from Decorah is quite fun. Very winding, very hilly. It just made me wish my car was empty so I could take the roads a bit faster.

We got to the campground, and a bit of surprise and disappointment followed. Not only was there a suprising lack of tress, but it was surprising as to how many people were there. Not that it was overly crowded, it's just that there wasn't any real dividing lines between campsites or trailer sites. It was kind of wierd. It was kinda like someone took thier side yard and said, "we get trout in this stream, how can we make money here?".

We raced the light scattered showers that we drove through, but we (Shannon and I) got setup in time, Chris and Holly needed a little help to get finished in their "classic" tent (from this point forward, lovingly refered to as the clown tent).

We had fun that night. Cooked a little. Shannon made a s'more (everyone else was full). I think everyone was tuckered, cause after a bit of darkness we went to bed. Nobody really knew what time it was, since we all depened on our cell phones for the time, but we were in a no cell phone reception.

Across the creek, pretty much for the majority of the night, we heard the party surrounding a, as I will call it, "Hippie Wedding", and they had a drum circle, or something like that, so we heard their beats late into the night.

There was too much random noise, so I had trouble sleeping. Not to mention that it was warm and humid, so I was hot anyways. I did sleep, some, and Shannon woke me up a few times, to tell me to turn on my side, but apprently I didn't disturb anyone else, so that works.

i woke up pretty early, but because of the way that we were situated in the tent, it made it pretty much impossible for me to get out, without Shannon getting out. So she got up too. I turned out that it was around 5:30 AM...yes...that early. Shannon headed to take a shower, and I headed to wander around and take pictures.

I made some breakfast, of Scrambled Eggs and Sausage, and they turned out ok...certainly not the consistancy that I'm used to making, but stilled turned out well. Not totally happy, but good enough for camping.

As the day continued and the temp started to rise, Shannon started looking worse and worse. It was quite hot.

We headed into town and in the car (A/C) she got better, and stopping buy to pick up some Camping things (and some sore throat medicine for Shannon), but when we headed out side, she would decline again. We searched around the town for fire wood (so we wouldnt' have to barrow from our neighbors). The first place we found, only sold to campers in the campground it was on (so not us). The second place we found, didn't answer the door when we knocked. Here we have fire wood at Dahls or Hyvee or hell, even Target and some gas stations, but in Decorah, apprently only 2.

We stopped at Mabe's Pizza for lunch (the pizza was very thin). And it was pretty good.

We did go to the Ice Cave and she seemed fine in there, and it was. It was down right brisk in there. It was neat, you could see ice on the walls. The girls headed into the cave while my fat ass couldn't really fit in there without to much of a struggle, and Chris kept me company.

We headed back to camp and into the heat. As the day passed Shannon got a head ache and started to look very pale. Even with the attempt of buying some ice cream to cool her down, it had ltitle affect. Of the options I gave her, she ended up picking to go home. So I packed up everything as quick as I could, (while playing scrabble) and got the car started and cooled on the inside and we made our good byes and headed home. As the time passed and the cool air was on her, the headache went away. It was good, it made me feel better.

Around the halfway or a lttle less stopped at an A&W and got dinner.

We got home around 10:PM and Shannon went up to bed, while I unpacked the card. And when I got it unpacked, I put in the supplemental air conditioner upstairs (since the rest of the house is covered, but the upstairs remains a bit to warm in the summer).

Today she was recovered but still a bit on the weak side. So I really think that it was a combination of heat exhaustion and actually bing sick, which didn't make up for a good day for her.

So it was still fun (even though I complained a lot (cause I like too)) and I'm glad she's ok. It was tough to see her like that.

I forgot to mention this...(about my car)

So in driving my car this past weekend, I filled it up and actually figured out the actual miles per gallon that I have gotten. It was just over 30 MPG, which, considering, the rated MPG was 24-29, is not bad at all.

If I feel up to it, I could figure out things like my daily cost of driving (avg), as far as gas goes, or my avg mpg over the life of the car. I do have all the data for every fillup since I bought it (Odometer reading, gallons put in, gas cost).

That could prove interesting, but I'm guessing my busy and lazy self won't get around to it.

I'm still debating on if we're gonna take Shannon's or my car this weekend to Northeastern Iowa. My car is a lot more comfortable and has all the gadgets I like (easy to hookup my ipod, multiple power ports for devices, etc), but we are driving on gravel or at least may be driving on gravel and I can count on one hand the amount of times I've done that in my car. I'm still leaning towards my car, cause it is more roomy...at least for the driver and the passenger (back seats, not so much).