Journal

Dan's Wedding

Written 8:35 PM on 2/14/2007 while driving

So the Matta's arrived around 9 or so last night (tuesday) and pretty much settled in to go to bed shortly after that. Cali was a bit grumpy cause she had slept most of the way and apparently didn't want to go back to sleep. So Jenny, Shannon and I chatted while Nathan tried to get Cali to sleep..it didn't work so well, but when he took her upstairs, after a bit, she settled down and the rest of us went to bed.

This morning, we headed out to breakfast, dropped all the girls off and then I led Nathan back a ways to get the mini-van's oil changed. We left it there and headed back to Perkins.

Breakfast went OK and was Perkinsish. I took Jenny to get the mini-van and then headed to the bank and then home myself, to get all our things ready to go. I did a quick backup of this computer (macbook) and brought our luggage and other things down.

Nathan quickly loaded things up and we were almost off, when Shannon reminded me to get Dan and Marissa's present. I rand back in, grabbed it and off we went.

Jenny was driving and shortly most everyone (except me) was sleeping, or at least resting their eyes. I read for a bit (catching up on cooking magazines still) and then decided it would be a good time to catch up on my watching of my video podcasts.

South of Kansas City, we stopped at a McDonalds to allow the kids to stretch their legs...which they did. Shannon and I had some Orange Juice and some water.

Our next real stop was in a city called El Dorado. It was about time to feed the girls so we looked for a place to eat...It didn't look like there was much of a selection so we ended up at this "Chinese" Buffet called China Star Buffet. It was...well...it wasn't good. When we walked into the humidity from the not so well covered water wells. It was so humid that my glasses fogged up and after I cleaned them off, they started to fog up again

It didn't look very good, but what can you do? Anyways wondering around the strange mix of food, from the very American to the very Americanized food I picked things out that looked the least likely to kill me. The food wasn't warm by the time it got back to my seat. The fruits tasted a bit off...kinda like they were fermented. The desserts were very dry...the hot tea was very bitter. The only redeeming thing about the place was a sort of sesame seed peanut brittle which was actually kind of good.

So I went up and paid, headed back to the table, got my coat, left a tip, got Nathan's keys and attempted ot go out and start up the min-van to warm it up a bit before the girls got out there. On Shannon and my way out, the lady that had just, not 3 minutes before, taken money from me to pay my bill, asked me if I had already paid. This made me a bit confused...and I told her that I had.

Headed out, started up the car, got situated limbo style in the back seat (I swear these seats are more intended for kids and not adults) of the car and waited for Nathan, Jenny, Taylor, and Cali to come out to the car.

They came out and buckled everyone in and then we headed toward Wichita. No I can't be much of a judge now, since it's dark, but the scenery in Kansas has been...well...obnoxiously the same...People say Iowa is boring, but sheesh...maybe I'm a little biased..

Written at 7:38 on 2/15/2007, while driving

So we stopped at the Super 8 in Perry, Oklahoma. Decent room rate, relatively clean and free wireless internet access. It was nice to get out of the car. We only have 3 or so hours left in our trip, since we covered the vast majority of it yesterday. I was thinking this morning that this toll road trip is a lot like the toll road trip to Chicago. Where most companies and towns avoid the road like the plague, where in Iowa on I80 there are lots of things next to the interstate. Does the road being free attract business? When we stopped for gas in Kansas, and this hotel here, we had to trek off the road to find anything. I find that kind of annoying, especially when you are trying to cover ground. If you are taking it easy, side trips can be fun...but we do have a sort of time frame that we're working with.

So Jenny had thought about not going to the wedding, because she would have to had taken care of the girls...and the wedding was late and then the reception was even later...so when it comes right down to it, she wouldn't have been able to really participate at all. I can understand that. Nathan asked some of his coworkers (since his company is actually based out of Dallas) to help out and they'll be watching the girls while we all go to the wedding. So that's pretty good..

Written at 7:05 AM on 2/16/2007 at the Courtyard at Marriott in Addison, TX.

So For breakfast yesterday morning we went and ate at the restaurant right next to our hotel. It was called Braum's. It was actually pretty good...but maybe that's just in comparison to the meal the night before. It was kind of like a fast food joint, but the sausage on their morning sandwich was very good. They advertised a lot of ice-cream and frozen yogurt based products, and I was curious to try them, but for breakfast? and in front of the girls? Probably not the best idea, so we skipped out.

We got back on the road and drove towards Texas. The ride started off a bit bumpy, since I think both of the girls were cold and so that upset them a bit which started a bit of crying. But after the car heated up, Cali calmed down and then Taylor calmed down.

After entering Texas (My first time, not Shannon's), we stopped for lunch at a Cracker Barrel. It was actually quite a bit better then the one in Des Moines. Not that it was great, but it was better. And certainly an easy place to feed the kids. It was kind of funny because everyone (except me) had chicken and dumplings. Afterwards, Taylor got a little playtime (she decided it was a bit too cold). We tried to buy some bottled water and a Mt Dew for Nathan, but they old sold Coke products so we loaded back up and started headed south again.

The last part of the drive was pretty short. We saw a huge cross (I think we saw them in a documentary on HBO, recently). Which reminds me, at the terrible Chinese place, there were scripture references on the walls, as graffiti...It was a bit weird. But it wasn't the actual words, just the references...so book, chapter: verse. Like that's gonna help people that don't know it very well.

We crossed a point where apparently the George Bush and the George W Bush turnpike come very close to each other...not the best naming scheme there...

We worked our way through traffic and to the hotel (Courtyard by Marriott) and Checked in. It was a bit weird, since the entrance was under construction (apparently to meet ADA requirements). We got settled in and then Shannon and I went out in the mini-van to find some inexpensive water (both to drink and for my CPAP machine). After going a few different ways and getting a bit confused, we finally found a Kroger Signature (oh so special). We had passed a Sam's Club (no Wal-mart next door) and then talked about not seeing any Targets in a long long time...(we made a trip later with the whole crew and apparently there was a target right next door to the Kroger that we just missed, but could see when it had it's lights on at night). Picked up some water and a few other things and headed back to the Hotel.

After chatting with Jenny for a bit, we found out that Dan probably wouldn't be available for the night to go out (I didn't even know there was a plan to do that, until we had gotten down here). So we made plans for dinner and ate at a BrewPub called BJ's Brewhouse. The food was actually pretty good. My burger that I ordered was a bit more rare then I ordered, but still pretty good. The beer there was pretty nice. Nathan and I sampled 6 of them (3 samplers, I had two pints, and Nathan had 1). The Jeremiah Red Ale, PM Porter, Tatonka Stout were the standouts. The IPA (Piranha Pale Ale), was good but not done in the style that Nathan likes (and that's the one he really likes). Nathan did comment that he no longer thought that Texas seemed like a beer wasteland (probably due to limited experience down here).

We headed back to the hotel, Nathan and Jenny put the kids to bed, brought the baby monitor over and proceeded to hang out. We were visited by Dan and we chatted with him for a bit and offered to do anything we could, to help get the wedding going...

After a bit, Dan ran off to get some stuff done with plans on coming back, but when it came down to it, it was pretty late by the time that he could get back, and the Matta's had already called it a night, so we told him to just get some sleep (which he thought was a good idea).

I think I'll be helping him out this morning by picking up a van (to drive the girls in the wedding from the dressing room in the hotel to the wedding). So we'll see what happens.

Our room here looks pretty much the same as my room in Pheonix. the only diffrences, really are that in this one they have a microwave and mini-fridge, but they don't have a book (with suggestions as to where to eat, how the hotel works and what not). This one also has a nice view of the courtyard and a gazebo, rather then the parking lot.

Written at 5:14 AM on 2/16/2007 at the Courtyard at Marriott in Addison, TX.

So we had breakfast at the simple but ok buffet. Afterwards we lounged around a bit and then Dan came and got us. We drove across town to pick up a great big (I think brand new) rented Ford van, which Dan then drove over to Marisa's Sister's House (I followed in Marisa's truck) and dropped off a few things from the truck and then headed over to a rental place, picked up a van load of things for the reception and then headed back to the sister's house to drop off the van. It was quite the adventure getting to the rental place, Dan got a bit confused and we made a few wrong turns. Lets just say it this way. It took us 30 or so minutes to get there and 15 to get back...so...

Afterwards we headed back to the hotel. We drove a bit and since it was lunch time we drove through Whataburger and Dan bought us lunch. I had a Bacon & Cheese Whataburger with jalpenos. The fries were ok. They seemed to be a bit under done, not very crisp...like they could've used another bit in the fryer. The burger was a bit different it seemed like it was more focused on the toppings, rather then the meat of the sandwich. So the bacon was crisp and good, and thin, but not paper thin, like you get at a place like Denny's or IHOP. The tomatoes and lettuce were fresh and tasty and the bun was thick and good. Maybe if it had a second patty, but it wasn't very messy, which is good when you are driving in the car.

Dan dropped us off at the hotel, and shortly afterwards, I headed down to Al's Formal Wear to get a final fitting for the tuxedos. Sort of a modern take on a throwback with low collared buttonless jacket and a deep read vest. The way that Dan had described it to Nathan, it seemed a bit weird, but it did look pretty good. The people there weren't very helpful. When I tried to leave the shoes there, they wouldn't let me. I told her that I could almost guarantee that the shoes wouldn't fit me...but apparently I couldn't NOT rent them...And with Ray asked about a pick up service, she not only didn't tell us what number to call, she didn't set it up for us either...She just told us that we would need to call.

So after waiting for Bret's coat to be redone, we headed back to the hotel and I came home to find the clothes I'm wearing to the rehearsal tonight all nice and ironed. Gotta love the wife :-) I must say they do look nice. Maybe there is something to this ironing thing.

Anyways, we head off to the rehearsal and then dinner here shortly.

Written in the Car (currently in a DFW area CVS) on 2/18/2007 at 12:12 PM.

So we headed to the rehearsal. We were running a bit late, but we got over there. But it didn't so much matter. Apparently almost everyone was running late.

So before I start describing the next few days here, I want to say I love Dan like a brother and I wish nothing but Marisa and Dan the very best for the rest of their lives. And I want to point out that I'm not being critical of them, just probably more the wedding planner.....

We showed up to a growing mass of people, since there were over 20 people in the wedding party (including the two ring bearers, two flower girls, 3 matrons of honor and Best Men (Nathan and Richard being in the best men group) and 7 bridesmaids and groomsman (Myself, Scott, Clif, Bret, etc) and some other people having to do with the wedding. So by far the largest bridal party that I've every seen, let alone been in. So eventually, people got organized enough for a run through...the only problem was we were missing about 30% of the wedding party and the bride and groom. Not a big deal though, I suppose, but it did make things hard for those of us who didn't have people to walk down the isle with. After the run through we tried to get another one started when the bride and groom arrived. Apparently the priest had left. The wedding planner was having trouble getting the run through started (she apparently couldn't get the attention of the crowd). Nathan helped her by projecting over the crowd. Afterwards, we quickly ran through another time and then headed off to the rehearsal dinner. We rode with Richard and Elana (since we then didn't have to climb through to the back seat of the mini-van all dressed up.

Richard...well...his driving scares me a bit. I was ok with it for the most part, but there were a few times where my heart picked up the pace a little bit. The dinner was at Cantina Loredo. This was, to quote their menus, "Gourmet Mexican" food. And I must say that the food was something else. I was quite impressed. even if the food was in a buffet it was still some of the best fajitas I have ever had in my life. The beef and chicken in the two mixtures were both a bit charred on the outside, but juicy and tender on the inside giving a wonderful mixture of the two. The sour cream, tortillas, salsa they had on the table (two kinds, both fantastic), refried beans...all just wonderful. Just a nice end to the day.

Somewhere in here, my camera was working and then...stopped... It was focusing fine, I went to take another picture and then it was blurry...I figured maybe it was the lighting or movement or something, so I tried something close, and not such luck. So I turned it off and the lens didn't retract all the way. It almost did, but it was just slightly open and then would give an error message after being off for a while. (Later I realized that it was the dreaded E18 error, which there are apparently whole websites dedicated to). So I was a bit miffed by it, but we did take almost 6000 pictures with that camera and it was out of warranty, so I guess that's what one can expect.

Afterwards there was some talk about going out to a bar and maybe getting Dan to come out, just for a drink or two, but Dan had quite a bit of stuff to do, and wasn't able to get out. And when it came right down to it, I didn't much feel like going out and Nathan thought that he should probably return to help Jenny with the girls.

So we ended up going back to our room and Jenny came in and finished off the girl's dresses. After a bit we all headed to bed, but planned on a fairly late breakfast, since we (Nathan and I) weren't too sure when we'd get to eat the next day after breakfast (Dinner for after the wedding wasn't until 9).

After getting ready, eating breakfast with the Mattas and Richard and Elana, We headed over to a park to allow the girls to play and then Shannon and I headed up north a bit to go to Fry's to buy a new digital camera. Nathan gave me directions how to get up there, and they were easy enough to follow. We got up there with little trouble and then went into the wonderfulness of a Fry's. This store is amazing. Huge but they have everything. Computer parts (fans, cases, motherboards), tvs, etc etc. Just something else. I was impressed. We headed in and found a few case fans for Nathan and then got myself the Canon SD800 IS (image stabilization) and a spare battery for it (since the style of battery for the SD550 that we have is similar but just enough different that it's pretty much impossible to use those batteries. So we headed up to checkout and did so. We headed back to the park...or at least thought we were. We stayed on the frontage road (to go slower and avoid tolls) but missed our turn. I don't think we even say the sign, but suddenly we were required to get on the road...so we immediately exited and called Nathan, who with the help of someone in the park, was able to (after a while) get us turned around and going towards the park. It was quite annoying. I turned the keys back over and told them, no more driving for me in Texas. We headed back to the hotel to drop the girls off.

The men (Richard, Bret, Nathan and I) headed into Richard's rented Dodge Charger and headed over to the reception area. We were not the first to arrive (we were a bit late because of my escapade in driving), but went right to work. We tired on black bows to gold chairs, put on table cloths, center pieces and what not. We helped put up candelabras and columns. Some point in there, Richard and Bret ran off to get us a Burger at BurgerHouse (I think that's what it was called). When they came back we took a bit of a break to eat our food. The burger was pretty good (the bacon was better then Whattaburger's) and this was the second time where I commented that I didn't understand why they had everything in styrofoam containers. Not like a great burger, but a good one none the less. We were found lounging around finishing up our dinner and were then put to work again by Marisa's aunt.

So we did a few final things and then headed over to the Renaissance hotel to get changed and take a few pictures. As we were leaving we saw them remove a few of the center pieces that we put in, apparently, as we found out later, to replace them with bigger ones. (Yay for unnecessary work). On our way over to the hotel, we stopped at a liquor store (where one of the items they had was a 50 ml bottle of Remy Louis the XIII Cognac for a surprising price that I could justify to myself (though Shannon couldn't so much justify it)). They had a wonderful set of scotches and cognacs and other fine liquors. I ended up buying Dan a half bottle of Patron Silver Tequila, since he had mentioned that he may want to do a shot for the day. Nathan got a big bottle of Jack Daniel's and Richard got a smaller one (almost coat pocket sized) and we headed over to the hotel.

We found out where people were in this very nice hotel (which according to Clif went up in a bout 3 months, during the time that he lived there, it was on his way to and from work). We went in the room at it was warm in there...and that was even before I put the monkey suit on. Finally someone found the thermostat and turned 'em on to cold. But it really wasn't in enough time to really cool down the rooms. the room had a great view of the city's skyline. And in the bathroom they had a few things which were interesting. They had mint and thyme shampoo and conditioner and a note on there that they had a complementary shoe shine service, so if you got them your shoes by 9:PM they'd have 'em shined by the next morning.

There was a bit of confusion as to when people were supposed to arrive. The schedule that we had gotten the night before said 2, Dan thought 3, and we were told 4 at the reception hall (while we were setting up).

So we eventually dressed up and I helped Dan with his cufflinks and Bret and Dan (one of Dan's best men). Who knew I had so much experience in getting all fancy dressed? Anyways, there was a wedding photographer in there with us taking candid photos and the planner came in to pin on boutonnières. Nathan commented that she didn't pin them on very well, and the photographer agreed. It was a bit silly and kind of hit or miss as to who got them on well and if they were at an angle or not.

We did do a few shots around the room between the Tequila and the Jack Daniel's. Certainly not enough to impair us, but just to relax us. We were told 15-20 minutes to pictures and that someone would come and get us. The wedding planner came back, after about 15 minutes, and told us another 15-20 minutes. Eventually we had a young lad come up and tell us 5 minutes and we headed down to the lobby. We took a few candid shots (but when you are arranging 20+ people it takes a while). And it was much cooler out here in the lobby then it was in the room (which was good for those of us who were sweating in the room. After the pictures we headed to the church (big beautiful Catholic church) to get ready for the wedding (photos before the wedding had been postponed to after, because of the timeframe given).

We were directed to go back behind the Sanctuary to a small prep place (where they had the cup that people drink wine out of along with some of the books and other things) and we just kind of hung out. There were a few jokes (Nathan was looking for a bathroom and I found one and told him to go pee for Jesus) and others that would happen when you get a bunch of guys around. We talked about a few things and then found out that Dan had forgotten the marriage license (which is one of those things you just can't forget) and had to trek back to his apartment to get it. His apartment was about 30 to 45 minutes away (depending on traffic) when you go the speed limit. In our boredom, a few of us put down $5 a person in a pool to call when the wedding starts. Yes, it was silly and stupid and a bit obnoxious, but we're guys... And by start, we decided that meant when the Priest came out. So when Dan got back (a surprisingly small amount of time later), we kept an eye on the door to find out when the Priest would come out. A little after 7:45 PM, He came out and Scott won the pool.

The question is where was the wedding planner in all of this?

The wedding was very beautiful (if a bit long) and Marisa was a vision of beauty and Dan as very handsome. I must say that Marisa's dress and the flower girls dresses (which seemed to be a slightly simpler and smaller version of Marisa's) are probably the most intricate dresses I've seen in person.

After the wedding many of us thought that we were free to go to the reception, but found out that we were mistaken and were left behind for a bit to get more pictures taken. We weren't there to long and Shannon and I hopped in Wade's car with Clif to head to the hotel (to pick up a bigger memory card, since I had forgotten to put it in our new camera, the memory card that it came with, pretty much allowed for 3 or 4 pictures taken at the top resolution and detail before the card would be full). From the hotel we took the short trip to the Addison Event Center to the reception. Wade had a pretty serious curb check on our way there.

So Shannon got to go sit down, but I had to hide in the back hallways to make the grand entrance. When we passed a mask to wear, it became abundantly clear that the theme was based on the Phantom of the Opera's Masquerade scene. Dan's dad Ray told me that he had picked them up masks from Venice (I think) where the style of party originated from (I think). Anyways, wearing the mask made it fairy difficult to see, for me, since I couldn't wear my glasses and the mask at the same time. I explained this to those around me and the bridesmaid I was paired with, told me she'd be my guide (which was very nice of her). So we would have waiters go by with the appetizer, which turned out to be the highlight of the evening. They were pieces of chicken and beef that were tossed with what might have been Chinese 5 spice, but probably not. They were quite good. fairly tender meet spiced well.

As for the rest of the food, I was fairly underwhelmed. The fruits were nice, the alfredo pasta was ok, the chicken marinara was...well..ok the crust was a bit less then I would've thought it should be. The beef brisket was a bit tougher then it should've been (according to Nathan) and the flank steak was pretty good, but could've been more tender. The sauce for the brisket was supposed to be horseradish but if there was any horseradish in there, it was a tiny amount. The cake was a bit dry (both the angel and chocolate) and had way to much frosting for my taste. The chocolate peelings on the cake were good though (I was able to grab a bit away before Shannon consumed them).

It still was a beautiful reception and after I got some food in me I felt quite a bit less grumpy and felt more social (especially after getting off my feet for a bit). They had a mariachi band for a while which was pretty cool and they were pretty good too. The DJ was fairly good at the organization (which was good, since, again, the wedding planner was at best incapable). The music was cheesey at times and a mix of Phantom, country, classics, and mexi-pop. Jenny and Nathan took the dance floor (Taylor and Cali were being taken care of by one of Nathan's co-workers) and they were quite good. On asking Shannon if maybe she wanted to do that and maybe take some lessons and she said she would...so maybe we'll be doing that...

During the Dollar dance, I danced with Marisa and Shannon danced with Dan.

Shortly after that, we said good bye to Marisa and Dan and our friends there and headed back to the hotel.

After changing out of the monkey suit and Shannon out of her dress, Nathan, Jenny, Shannon and I unwound a bit and then went to bed.

So there was a lot of missing direction and planning and coordination (again, where was the wedding planner, she was actually LATE for things at times). Things that had to be redone, because people weren't sure what needed to happen initially.

Oh well...After all the confusion, It turned out beautifully.

This morning, since Taylor enjoyed knocking on our door so much, we ate breakfast with the Mattas This morning. After packing up, we heisted some bread from the breakfast buffet and headed to the park.

Taylor and Cali got some playing time and feeding ducks time at park (as did Shannon and I). There were some odd looking ducks in there (I may just not recognize them).

Written in the car, Somewhere in Oklahoma on 2/18/2007 at 5:05 PM

So after the bread was gone, we played with the girls a while, swung on the swings and had some general silliness before we got on the road.

So we stopped for lunch at an On the Border. I was surprised to find that it was actually pretty good. It was a good change of pace. The salsa had some heat to it, the food was done right..our waiter kind of sucked...I asked for guacamole and cheese twice for my lunch fajitas, and didn't get them. For play time we wondered around the large store strip mall area and ended up in a Toys R Us...where Taylor had a bit of an accident. Jenny was not exactly pleased. I did check in a bed bath and beyond for the 8" omelet pan that I've been looking for. They had it, but only in a set of 13 other things, and I'm not dreadfully thrilled about that...anyways, Nathan suggested Ebay and Shannon suggested I try their website...so maybe I'll be able to find it...

Our Journey continues.

Written at the Wyatt Earp Inn, somewhere in Kansas 2/18/2007 at 10:15 PM.

Well after passing up the Universal Hotel, since it looked similar to the Bates Motel (and with nothing around it either), we went to the next exit. At this exit they had a few restaurants a truck stop and the Wyatt Earp Inn. It looked less scary and with the things around it, we thought it seemed to be less likely to be murdered in our sleep. We got something, checking in, that we haven't gotten on this trip so far...a key. Yes...a key for a room, not a card. It seems odd to me. But I guess that's when technology moves forward, some get left behind. The carpet has stains on it...I had to search for outlets to plug in all my devices (I had to unplug a lamp to get my laptop, cellphone, iPod and CPAP plugged in. We checked for bed bugs and Shannon checked for mouse droppings, so I guess we'll see what happens.

I was hoping to post this through the truck stop's wireless internet, but every time I try to connect, I get rejected. So...that kinda sucks...

Written at the Wyatt Earp Inn, somewhere in Kansas on 2/19/2007 at 4:51 AM.

So I did sleep some, but not very much. I think I'm up for the day. But I can't do much, since Shannon's sleeping. Pulling the covers back on my bed, I found crumbs on the bed. Shannon had suspicions and checked to see if it was flea droppings. She took a couple of crumbs in a tissue and washed them, because apparently flea droppings will leave a rust color (because of the iron in the blood they eat I suspect. No...they were just crumbs.

One of the things I noticed that was kind of odd was the clocks. They were set to be a similar time, but they were slow. By about 15 minutes. Most clocks in hotels are not particularly right, but they usually are fast (probably so you are not late for wherever you are going).

I am looking forward to being home later today.

Written on the road in Kansas on 2/19/2007 at 10:32 AM

So we skipped the truck stop, even though in the advertising paper in our room it said that it had won the the best restaurant in 1996 in Trucker magazine...We headed down the road to find somewhere else to eat and ended up at the Old 56 Family Restaurant.

The food was pretty good. Nathan said the pancakes felt done texturewise, but tasted underdone. He said it was weird and I agree that it was. The english muffin I had was fantastic. It tasted like it was grilled on the griddle, rather then in a toaster. Shannon and I also split a cinnamon roll which was pretty good. So a pretty good way to start the day.

The funny thing was that even though they had a table tent posted stating they use no trans-fat in their cooking, they do allow smoking in their restaurant...which is a bit funny.

To give the girls a bit of play time, we hung out in a Walmart (ewww). We spent some time looking around. We bought Shannon a cheap tetris game so she could play that in the car...which she is doing right now. After playtime was over, pottytime happened and we got back on the road.

Only a few more hours till home.

Written on the road in Kansas (less then 5 miles to the Iowa Border) on 2/19/2007 at 1:57 PM.

So we stopped at this truck stop Dinner Bell Restaurant ("Eat Well at the Dinner Bell"). The food was fairly lackluster. The fries were good, but there was too much thousand island dressing on my ruben. Mostly the food was pretty blah. I tried to convince Shannon to just split a piece of pie, but she wanted her own. The pie was actually pretty good. I had a slice (that I couldn't finish) of lemon cream cheese pie (a layer of whipped topping, lemon (like from a lemon bar), and then whipped cream cheese and sugar) and shannon had a slice (which she couldn't finish) of peanut butter chocolate pie. Both were worth the paltry under 3$ price we paid for them.

So we are in Iowa now and tearing up the distance to Des Moines. I've caught up on all of the video podcasts that I've been so far behind on and it actually freed up quite a bit of space on here. Of course now I have 11.2 hours of audio podcasts, but I listen to those at work, so I imagine after a day or 3 I'll be all caught up.

We never got a call from our cat sitter, so I imagine they are doing good, at least I hope so. I guess we'll find out in a few hours. We decided not to take 'em in for boarding since last time they freaked out so much and it took them (especially Gracie) quite a while to get back to normal.

PHX is Annoying.

So I got up Sunday morning, ate a lousy breakfast, got my things and hopped on the shuttle out to the airport. So the hotel people were great and easy to deal with (Courtyard by Marriott), with the voucher and all that nonsense, but when I got to the airport it got harder to get things done.

So there's a line right by the road that says US Airways and America West check in. So I figure, this must be me. So I head out of the shuttle and wait in line.

20 to 30 minutes later, I talk to an actual person and after not being able to find my record and heading inside to double check, he sends me off to the inside line (what inside line?). I head inside and he told me to head to the right...but to the right was US Airways international flights...so I talk to the lady waiting at the head of that line and she was nice and told me to head down to the green balloons for e-ticket check-in. So I walk down there and get in line again.

25 to 35 minutes later I go up to a computer terminal where I have the option to put in my driver's license or a credit card and they'll use that information to get my name for check in. The computer tells me my ticket has already been used.

So then I have to stand in another line (10-15 minutes) to talk to an actual person, where they are able to unflag my replacement ticket and print me out a copy and check in my luggage.

So I was told to show up 90 minutes early (I was a bit earlier then that) and because of the amount of time I had been waiting in line I was growing fearful of getting to my actual flight in time.

So I head upstairs. The gate A security check line is long as hell, so I'm like crap, but I look at my ticket and I'm at gate B so I head across the mall inside the airport (a bit of a hike) and look over, the line looks very short, so I head forward and oh no, they hid it around the corner....

Crap.

So I called Shannon and told her I was uncertain about my making it on time, since the line was huge. About halfway through they line, I turned on my stop watch on my cell phone and it took about 20 minutes to get through the rest of the line...so a total time of about 40 minutes.

I called Shannon again and I'm sure I'm gonna make it since they should just be opening up the door for boarding. I head to the bathroom, come out and then made the initial boarding call.

Ahhh...

The only consolation for all of this waiting in line and assumption of criminality by the TSA (I will admit that they were fairly efficient considering the amount of them and the amount of people flying...but maybe they should add a person or three), at least I put my CPAP machine in my suitcase, so I wouldn't get extra screening, was that I got my whole row to myself in the airplane. So I had at least a somewhat comfortable ride to Des Moines.

I am Stuck in Phoenix

So yesterday, I got up fairly early and lounged around a bit and then got dressed up a bit and rode along with the family to the Mount Timpanogos Temple (LDS). Since I wasn't allowed inside, I wondered around, took lots of pictures and what not...One of them, that I just found kind of funny, was a big Gold's Gym H2 vehicle in the parking lot. And I thought, the way Gold's Gym advertising usually targets your vanity and an H2 is just excessive and a sign of needless extravagance...It just struck me as funny in the parking lot...

Anyways, after wandering around for a while, I finally sat down and started to Text message Brandon (Shannon wasn't home from work for her lunch break yet). And through those text messages, I realized that for a religion that touts families so much, it seems really divisive...But on the other hand I do support their right to have sacred and holy places that us normal people can't go...I don't know...I just felt like I was missing out on something.

Afterwards we headed over to the Rose Room at Thanksgiving Point for a family luncheon. It was...interesting I guess. My brother-in-law Brent (Cara's) told me that it was one of the Wordperfect guy's thanks for being so successful...So that's interesting I guess. The Lunch was OK. The salad wasn't properly mixed (but still good) All the additional components were on the top and not throughout the salad, and so myself, being one of the last. The Potatoes were pretty good, but the the chicken was a bit overdone (not like burnt, but just a bit less tender and juicy then it could have been). But for a free lunch, it was pretty good. Alissa and uh...her...uh...I forget his name...husband I guess, introduced everyone in the room and then treated us all to a couple of musical numbers, which were both loving and sung and played very well... They had cheesecake for dessert...which was...well the crust was good and the blackberry and whipped cream was good...but the cheesecake part just seemed a bit off to me...like it had sat out too long or the cream cheese was about to turn or something...I don't know, but it didn't taste right.

Afterwards, we headed back to Cara and Brent's to get ready for the wedding reception that was hosted at their house. I went up to Camden's room (where I was sharing the room with Joseph) and just got some quiet time to myself and then after taking a little nap (I had a late night chatting with Joseph and Cara), headed downstairs to help setup. I helped make a nice cheese, cracker and tomato tray. It turned out pretty nice, I liked the way I did it. It wasn't want I originally wanted to do (which was kind of a flower theme in my head) because I realized that if I did that I wouldn't have much on the tray at all. I ended up with little rotating piles of cheese (7 per stack, just seemed like a good number). With the cheese around the platter on the outside, the crackers in a nice circle on the inside and the middle filled up with tomatoes. I helped out a bit more where I could here and there, and then we were ready...

It was a nice spread, from mints to nuts to sandwiches, hummus and cheese and crackers. People came in and out of the house for most of th night. By the end of then night something like 100 people had gone through the house. I took a break or three to just get some quiet time and to talk to Shannon and after the night was done, we all chilled out a bit and then most people started going to bed. I stayed up chatting with mom, Joseph and Hyrum. It was interesting.

The next morning (Saturday), I got up bright and early and started making breakfast. I wasn't able to get the bread I wanted (a French bread with too many ingredients), and forgot to buy butter (my sister had a surprising lack of it, but has plenty of vegetable oil based spreads) and the vanilla was kinda crappy (had corn syrup in it as a sweetener, none they had at Albertson's were acceptable as far as I'm concerned). But it all worked out. I made bacon, sausage and cinnamon encrusted French toast for about 2 hours or so. Fed 6 kids and 10 (including myself) adults, which is by far the largest group that I've cooked for. It turned out good...some of the toast in the middle didn't have the amount of cinnamon that I intended to have on them, but over all it was pretty good for small little toasts. I got good complements, the best, I think was Brent who said (even though he's fairly proud of his French toast), "I think this is even better then the French toast I make" (or something close to that).

So I didn't eat much for breakfast. I had some sausage and bacon and the ends of the French bread that were too small or hard to cut for the and a couple samples of the toast.

For lunch, Cara and Brent got a babysitter for the kids and we headed to Tucanos Brazilian Grill. While we were waiting for a table, I wondered around a bit and ended up buying Shannon some chocolates at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory...and now that I have the internet I have seen their stores before. I did buy myself and Joseph a chocolate soda which tasted something like bad chocolate syrup...so not very pleasant. So the grill is all you can eat... So they have a salad bar, but that's not what is important, although I did have a pickled egg of some sort (which was pretty good), but the meat was cooked on skewers and they would bring them around, ask if you wanted any and cut you off a slice or portion of the meat and then move on. They also had grilled pineapple (fantastic), vegetables (pretty good) and fish (this lunch it was mango cod) (pretty good). So the highlights for me were the Picalho (Garlic Parmesan Beef), Peru (Turkey Wrapped in Bacon) and these wonderful battered fried bananas. I don't think I've ever eaten so much meat in my life in one sitting...so many varieties of meat...so many things to try. Anyways it's night time, and pretty late and I've had no desire to eat yet...so it's still in there I guess.

Mom took me to the airport...She was going to meet up with a cousin of hers in SLC, so we headed up there. She dropped me off, and I checked in...

Easy enough. Called Shannon, told her I was on time, and the plane was on time...or so I thought. Oh no, it was a bit late getting to our gate. No big deal...we all loaded on the plane.

And waited.

and Waited...

AND WAITED.

It got a bit obnoxious. they claimed it had something to do with luggage, but that just sounded like a load of crap. So we took off. things were going fine and then when we landed they told us that people should pay attention to who needs to make connecting flights and let them off first. When we touched down, I had about 15 minutes between our landing time and when my connecting flight was supposed to be in the air. Now I wasn't sure I heard it, but I thought I heard them say that the Des Moines flight had already left the gate...and it had. I headed up to the counter, asked and then proceeded to get a ticket to stay in the Courtyard by Marriott. So I told the person at the counter that I didn't need my bag, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought that yes, I would need it. So I ended up going to the luggage services place. In front of me was a couple of Canadians who apparently had a bag lost and tried to get a search started, but they had to go (they were in a tour group of some sort). So they were in a rush...but as soon as they left...one rep said to the other that if they're going to leave, don't do anything about it...like people don't have things to do...but they were nice enough to me. They said that they'd have my luggage found and put on the first luggage return...so I sat there. Called Shannon, call Chris (to tell him that I probably couldn't host movie night and make the dinner I planned), called my mom. I heard an announcement about luggage from my flight, so I figured I'd go check it out and in walking down there, I saw my suitcase...not where they said it be...but I found it. They check my request and gave me my bag, I headed out to get picked up by the shuttle and out here to the hotel.

Check in was easy and I've been chilling out up here for a while.

I'd rather be at home...but it's better then being in the airport waiting I guess...

I miss Shannon.

Going to Utah

Written 2/08/2007 12:57 PM

So is it just me, or does everyone feel like a molested criminal when going through airport "security" I find the whole experience to be dreadful. Take of your shoes, your coat, take your laptop out of it's bag (I thought they had x-ray machines), oh you have a CPAP I don't know what that is, it might be some sort of device, so...how about you stop and wait for me to swab this so that we can tell it's not a bomb.

Anyways...

On our websites at work the amount of unwelcome advertising form submissions has increased. In looking for a pattern, I found one, and now have setup a test filter on one of the forms and have it setup so that all the flagged items will come to me and all the unflagged ones will procede as normal. Hopefully it'll have no false positives and few of any false negatives. So I'll get to see how that works out when I get back to work.

Right now I'm sitting in the Des Moines airport waiting the magical two hours to find out if the plane will be on time. Orbitz did call my cell phone and said that it was currently on time a bit ago, but things change.

Yesterday I had an Acura TL for most of the day, because my car was in for it's 30k mile service. It cost a pretty penny, but they did change the oil filter, oil, roatate and balence and align the tires, fuel system checkup, radiator flush and fill, transmission fluid change, new wipers. Driving the TL was pretty nice though and I kind of want one. But we're in that kind of strange maybe transition period where I'm not sure if I want a car that sitll runs on gasoline only. Who knows what a few years down the line will bring. It had XM in the car too, which is quite a diffrent experience, thought in places I could hear the kinda compressed audio crappyness, but that was generally only on the voice stations. Leather, 4 doors, lots of get up and go, it certainly would be a good road trip car (KC, Omaha, Minneapolis, etc). By a matter of a strange coicidense my boss was also getting his Audi serviced, so I was able to give him a ride into the office and back to get his car (he spent the day downtown). I offered to trade them straight up at the dealership. My RSX-S for the TL...it was a no go...oh well. That said, I really do love their service. They never lack in the communication, which you don't get from a lot of places and they do good work. Customer service goes a long way, in my mind.

An email came out yesterday and this IBM Thinkpad T40 is on the Asset End of Lease list...I'm pretty pumped. that means a new laptop for me (probably gonna have to push back to get more ram in the computer, why do people think 256MB of ram is enough?). On the other hand, our computer that we're using for webtrends is also on the list, which sucks, cause we got a big honking hard drive in there and more ram, and I kind of wonder what they were thinking when they gave it to us in the first place?

Gracie (the cat) has been acting up or out lately so Shannon took her in today to get checked out. They did x-rays and drew blood for some blood work. So we'll see what turns out there. We also made some changes to our home enviroment (around areas that she uses) so we tried to change those back to the way it was before. This may mean that I will need to rebuild our network and put the printers and NAS in another area, rather then in the laundry room (where thy just moved too. Hopefully changing back will cause her issues to go back...and if not...well, we'll cross that bridge if we have to.

I've finally been given some sort of deadline for the main project of the year, which is good, cause I work better knowing there's an end...or at least an expected end. Even if it runs over, then you know that you are over and you need to start working faster.

Yesterday I got to have lunch with Nathan, because he came into town to work on a product installed at Mediacom. I thought it was kind of interesting, cosidering my recent beef with them. I think it went fine for him, cause he sounded like he was on the way home when he called me back. We went down to south Union, which is a fantastic place for lunch (they're only open for lunch). We each had a spicy potato soup with our sandwhiches which were really good. Nathan was actually a little surprised at how spicy it is. I told him the place was owned by the same guy that owns Centro, which is probably in the top 5 or 10 best resturants in town. A group sat down next to us that turned out to be from Paragon...one of them actually gave me thier card. I did mention that a friend of mine did work on contract with them, and she asked me if I was interested in contract work...and I shrugged. I'm really not, I guess. Usually when I get home I'm tired enough that I'd rather do stuff around tIhe house or cook, then technical stuff. Though, I suppose, I'll have to change that and get up off my ass and start learnin me some PHP.

I'm gonna be using the next couple of weeks here to catch up on my magazines...since I'm several months behind on a bunch of them. So I didn't bring a book with me, but about 4 back issues of Cook's Illustrated. I'll get quite a bit read because the battery in here kind of sucks so I'll not be able to do much on here, before it'll make me shut down...unless I can find an outlet, which I doubt.

Oh...does anyone else find it a bit odd that they have a Gate C4 in the Airport...that's what I'm flying out of and I just find it funny...though I suppose it'd be even wieder if they had Get C1-6 without a C4.

I'm gonna miss Jen's baby shower this weekend. Shannon's going and we did get the baby some nice things. I hope it's fun. I'll probably be somewhere between Utah an here when It's going on...or maybe still in Utah...

Now since this probably won't get read by my sister, since it'll be posted right after her wedding. I gotta say that some poor thought process went into the planning as to how to send out invitations. There were NO RSVP cards (for the Family Lunch or the reception). The family lunch was the only one that asked for it, but there was NO way to RSVP. No phone number, no email address, no address to mail to nothing. No clue as to where to send presents. The only contact information was my parents address in Cedar Rapids, where neither of them live. And it's really unfair to expect my parents to pass on any gifts and what not that may get sent to their house. Tonight there's a family dinner hosted by her soon to be husband's parents. But here's the issue...nobody told anyone about it, so I just scheduled myself to arrive sometime during the day or night the day before her wedding, expecting that would be the only day I was expected. No...my flight comes in a bit after 6 the event oritinally started at 6...they pushed it back to 7...so now I'll just be late (and Brent too since it sounds like he'll be my ride). Just not well thought out. We had tons of way to contact us and an extra place to get even more information about our wedding, maps and what not. Oh well...What can you do?

We got them a poultry roasting pan...which was on our wedding registry...actually a lot of things on our wedding registry were on theirs...I found it kind of funny. Same with Dan and Marrisa (wedding next week)...quite a few things on there we actually wanted (what we got them was on our registry too).

written at 11:22 PM

So I'm here in Utah, safe and sound. My oldest sister's house is huge...probably one of the bigger houses that I've been it. And it is very nice. There are a few oddities here and there, but I haven't seen the whole thing yet. I guess maybe I don't get the leopard print...but then again, I'm not a young lad either.

So they had this sort of make your own sandwich thing in the hotel where I think someone is staying...but I'm not sure who...but between us and uh...what's his name's family the room was pretty big and loud. Spencer and Dallin were in full effect along with the Johnson's (older sister's kids) and between the two sets of them I got a little out of sorts. So...they played a little game and they took one of the couple out of the room and asked the other person about the one out of the room. So it was intersting to see what they got right when the person came back. Shortly after that we came here.

Apprently, according to Joseph, there were a few short cuts taken in the building of the house and the one I noticed right of the bat was the water...it's loud...very loud...when I filled up a glass of water downstairs out of their fridge, I had thought I had broken something...but nobody else perked up (my sister was right there) so I sat down and drank some water....any ways...interesting to say the least....I'm wearing my Guiness pajama pants, and I feel a bit wierd about it, but in all seriousness they are my only pajamas....so it's either these or boxers...I think they'll prefer the pajama pants...

Final Fantasy XII

So after taking a little break and deciding that I didn't want to do a few of the side quests, finally went to beat the game.

It was a lot of fun, I actually enjoyed a lot of the more mature themes (not sexual, political). Certainly a lot better then X-2 (which I got about half way through before I decided that it wasn't very fun).

So with about 150 hours in there it was well worth the entertainment dollars.

The Weekend (Smokin Aces, Phantom, Taxes)

So we headed over to Chris and Holly's and I dropped Shannon off for Holly's Bridal Shower and picked up Chris. I felt extremely outnumbered (We were). We headed off to the Jordan Creek to see the movie Somkin' Aces. It was an interesting movie. The characters were very creative and interesting, the plot was fairly simple but combined together in a hurricane like fashion making it very fun. Chris seemed to really enjoy the shooting of the 50 caliber gun. Afterwards, we stopped by the Apple Store and Best Buy before heading over to On The Border for dinner.

Now I had been there before and wasn't exactly pleased with the service or the food (especially the desserts). So I guess this is our second visit. After drinking a couple of shots of tequila, I was shocked and appalled that by default they wanted to combine higher end tequilas with other things and make margaritas with them. This is sipping tequila, not mixing tequila...but whatever I guess. Both of the ones I had (the names I forget) were quite good.

We finally got our table and sat down and quite a bit later the girls joined us. Holly's mom, quite a number of her friends (first meeting), Chris, Shannon, myself and a couple of babies...apparently a miscount happened along the way, because we were a couple of seats short. So we split up...what was odd though was that a large group showed up a bit later and they made accommodations for them... Anyways 3 people at our table (Chris, Holly and myself) had the Carne Asada Sterak Tacos. In the description they use words like "Overstuffed" and "Jalapeño" which was kind of hard when there are just a few paltry strips of steak...or at least beef. I tasted no Jalapeño...at all..neither did Chris and when I mentioned that it was supposed to have it, Holly was surprised that it was supposed to have it. It does not bode well. I guess fajitas are what you are supposed to get there...cause everything else is unimpressive.

For dessert, Chris, Holly, Holly's Mom, Shannon and I headed over to Gelaterie Stam and had some wonderful gelato. I had this orange cream with dark chocolate (as did Shannon) it was fantastic! I love that place.

Afterwards, we all headed home.

The next day, I got up a bit early, got ready for the day and headed to Target to pick up a few things (Shannon exercised and took a shower), like laundry and dish washer detergent, etc etc. It was interesting cause it seemed that almost everything I bought was on sale.

I came home, we put the things away and then we both headed out to go to the grocery store. We bought light, since over then next two weeks I'll be gone for a large chunk of them, along with Shannon. At home again, we put the groceries away.

Since we had gotten our last tax form the previous day, I went ahead and got our taxes going. Of course we used TaxAct. And it was pretty easy. After filling out our forms answering a few questions, I had the taxes done! And Filed! I found it a bit odd that if we filed separately for the state we would've had to pay in a couple of dollars, but if we filed separately on the same form (wtf does that mean?) then we get a nice chunk of change back? Oh well, who can know. Pop's said it had to do with making up for some inequities...anyways We're gonna use the money to pay off some wedding debt and the rest to start some improvements on the house and get some paint and what not to make it our house instead of really just my house.

Afterwards we had a bit of time, and then headed off to the Civic Center to see The Phantom of the Opera. We had great seats (row E), which I suspect was because it was the big football game Sunday...so it was probably not the first choice of a lot of people...but it worked out for us (being that the timing works out that we can at least partially go to two weddings). Phantom was a lot of fun. cool pyrotechnics, people popping out of all sorts of places. Stuff falling from the ceiling. There was one fire burst so big that we could feel the heat from it. I heard a lot of the music before, because one of my older sisters had the cast recording of it. I enjoyed it...I think I enjoyed the Lion King more, thought, but in an entirely different way. We didn't go out for dinner to save a few bucks.

Great weekend!

tossing history

So yesterday the last of my old magazines were carried away by the garbage men. Years of PC Gamer, Maxim, FHM, all in the trash. In all honesty I haven't opened them up since I read 'em the first time, so it was kind of pointless to keep anyways.

It made a lot of room in the cupboard downstairs, which was the entire point. So now I'll only keep the cooking magazines that I actually want to use the recipes in.

And it begins...

So this past Sunday, we made a trip out to Lowe's to pick up some paint samples. We were also looking for some things to help control cat litter in the basement (around the boxes). So Shannon spent quite a while looking and paints samples and colors and getting and idea of what colors she wanted in the various rooms we are painting. We also got some plastic mats for under the kitty boxes. And also a nice brown mat with some circle designs to go in front of the door.

We grabbed some information on Pella storm doors (Val works there). And looking at our front door. In order to reduce some of the cool air that travels through it. I was thinking that we could basically put the storm door over the entire front entry way...at least that's my theory...I'm sure I'll have to ask someone about that. I'm sure we can also do the back door and kitchen door.

So it begins, the drive to make this house more our place. this will surely be aided on by any sort of tax refund.