Month: June 2007

  • More random stuff …

  • It’s amazing how busy a person can be.  Several interesting things have happened during this week so here’s a review:

    1. The Department of Defense had to shut down their computers due to a hacker.  Does it not surprise you that Gates doesn’t use email let alone any “old timer”?  I was astonished when I learned my mom was using AIM. 
    2. How old is Harrison Ford anyways?  It seems like all these old time actors are trying to find work so why not make a sequel?  Even still can’t wait for Indiana Jones 4 to come out.
    3. What does AT&T buying BellSouth give you?  $10 DSL.  Well that’s if it’s available where you live.  Seems like they are giving people the run around.  I checked their website and couldn’t find it and yet from what I’ve read you’re supposed to be able to order it online. *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge*
    4. The IRS is funny.  I get jokes …
    5. Miguel Tejada ended his 1,152 consecutive game streak because of a fractured wrist.  The sad thing is I saw it happen on TV.  Hopefully, he becomes a better player because now he can actually get some rest and start driving the ball out of the stadium like he used too.  No, I’m not bitter.  I just want him to be the player he was a few years ago.  Is that too much to ask for from a fan?!
    6. Yet, another reason to hate these type of amusement rides.  Some would say it was a nail bitter. 
    7. They finally released the Botcon schedule and the guest list.  I’m somewhat disappointed at the guest list.  I could have sworn in the past they’ve gotten some better known people.  Especially the various voice actors from the different generations of the show and more comic artists.  Oh well.  I still can’t wait!!!
    8. I just thought this was an interesting article about Dell.  Some of it I had already heard of but still.  I’m slowly becoming a fan of the Consumerist.
    9. Even if it’s a red state, I’m glad I’m not a Virginia resident.  Reading the article, the fines seem pretty stiff but I like the comparison of arguments.  One favors the fines to help discourage people from breaking the various driving laws and potentially create safer roads.  Then the other viewpoint of the fines are too high, which the less rich couldn’t pay so they won’t pay and then they’d lose their license which then leads to them losing their jobs.  AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!  My brain hurts after hearing people say stoooopid stuff like that.  If they’re willing to break the law then they should be willing to pay the price for doing so.  If you don’t break the law then you don’t have to pay the fine.  (yeah, yeah, yeah there’s always the case of potential abuse and one should stand against that but still, it’s a small percentage of the whole deal)
    10. I wonder if it would look weird if Sharka was riding in one of these.
    11. Whoa.  The Caps got new jerseys.  Mixture of old-school with new-school flare.  I miss the away blue sweaters with the eagle (It was retired a few years and replaced with the then alternate black sweaters with the Capital dome.) but the new home red sweaters look pretty nice.  The away whites still look a little bland too me.
    12. We had one person show up to Bible study last night.  That makes a total of two people in the house (myself and this other person).  Even still, we had a good discussion and I think we both grew from that evenings study.  God is good. 
    13. Not that God isn’t good.  It’s just that sometimes all these responsibilities seem to get in the way.  I say that because my best friend is having his bachelor party this weekend up at Atlantic City.  I couldn’t make it because of Friday night study, having to work today and then various church responsibilities on Sunday (the bachelor party event is the whole weekend).  My buddy isn’t a Christian but he knows how much my faith means to me.  It just seems like these responsibilities curb my ability to continue to witness to him on a more personal level rather than in this remote, distance way.    Hopefully, we’ll be able to hang out before he gets married in a few weeks.
    14. After work I had to go to Giants to pick up some groceries.  We keep a cloth bag in the car just so we don’t need to have the groceries bagged in plastic bags (or we ask for paper bags).  During checkout, there was a bagger dude and I tell him he can just put the groceries in the cloth bag.  He gave me this blank look and then proceeded to bag stuff in their plastic bags.  I know I started to make odd facial expressions but apparently that didn’t matter since the dude kept on using plastic bags.  Weird.
    15. Besides the weird bagger dude, the checkout lady didn’t understand the concept of a “Buy One Get One Free” coupon.  The coupon was for Pepsi products of which I did have two scanned through, as I gave her the coupon she first read the coupon, paused, read the coupon again and then said “But you bought two of them.”  Odd facial expressions ensued again.  Eventually she got it to just subtract one of the items off of the total price.
    16. While all this was happening, another shopper had put his stuff on the belt and proceeded to stand extremely close to the little checkout table where the credit card reader is at.  I don’t know if it was a personal space issue or not but literally there was very little space for me to swipe my credit card because he didn’t move.  I figured he get the hint once the lady gave me the receipt to sign but he didn’t.  He held firm to the space he was occupying until I said excused me so I could slide over to use the table to sign the receipt.  He basically took one step back to give me just enough space to squeeze in, sign the piece of paper and get right out.  That was just a weird time at Giants.

  • I thought this only happened to those bosses that people sorta dislike …

    I think I could find a place for this or that.

  • We had Friday Fellowship last night at church.  First time having this event there and even with a few unexpected happenings it seemed like everyone there had a good time mingling and fellowshipping.  For a bit of fun we played a “identify the logo” game and Bible paper telephone.  Even without proper instructions I think everyone got the idea at the end.  Here’s one funny example:

    Funny moment just happened:

    Chewy: What’s that caribou coffee place called?
    Shyeah: Caribou Coffee.
    Chewy: Oh.

  • Welcome to Waldport, Oregon – Appendum:

    Another interesting tidbit during our trip was when we learned about a whale that had washed ashore a few towns north of us.  Sad.  Yes.  But it made us both think of how they would dispose of the dead whale.  (Something I was too scared to ask the brides parents since I would have broke out laughing.)  First there were cheers, oohs and ah’s then a sudden shout of fear and terror.  Too funny. 

  • Welcome to Waldport, Oregon – Part 2:

    Saturday – Wedding starts at 5pm: Even after my desire to best Rip Van Winkle at sleeping I woke up I think around 9 or 10am.  By that time everyone else was up, had eaten breakfast and started to get ready for the last minute push to finish all the stuff left to do at the house.  I had quickly, as quickly as an exhausted person could do so, gotten cleaned up and headed for breakfast.  I was offered various things that required time to cook.  Time was something we lacked so I opted for a large piece of caramel, apple pie (from Costco ), a bottle of my beloved Frappuccino and a cup of coffee.  I believe my father-in-law was in a state of horror as I told him my game plan – but hey at this stage of the game one’s gotta live on caffeine and sugar. 

    We spent a few hours at the reception house either putting up more lanterns, setting decorations for the tables, setting up sound equipment and for me wasting two hours stripping audio cable to make a converter for non-powered speakers to work through the entertainment systems audio receiver.  I sorta knew what I was doing but apparently not really.  We ended up scrapping the idea and connected one speaker via a phones jack and using the other as part of the outside sound system.  This was a much better idea.  After stupid me, wasting all that time I had to setup a looping slide show of pictures to run off a laptop but through a TV.  Thankfully, we had all the hardware and I just had to get the software.  For those that don’t know of InfranView, it’s a nice piece of freeware for viewing, editing and of course viewing pictures.  If you’re wondering why there’s a picture of port a potty it’s because everyone in this area is on a septic system and with all the guest at the house the bride’s family didn’t want to really overflow theirs.  Images of Meet the Parents kept on coming to mind.  The funny part is the sign on the potty: “Pee Pee No Poo Poo”   That’s just funny and yet very serious.

    I can’t totally remember the times but it was 1:45pm when we left the house to get back to our house to get ready for the wedding.  I believe we were supposed to be back at the reception house at 2pm for pictures.  (I could be off by an hour or so as time didn’t seemed to matter at this point)  Either way we got back to the rental and back to the reception house by 3-ish.  At this point we started to take pictures of the families and all that wedding stuff.  The groom saw the bride for the first time in her lovely dress and all that was captured on 0′s and 1′s.  After pictures, we walked to the church and the wedding started just after 5pm.  A tad late but for the type of day and really the type of week that was a good thing.  Part of the ceremony was about the rings.  The rings were placed in a birds nest and the couple wanted the rings to be passed in the nest to every guest so they could say a blessing on the ring.  Definitely different and interesting nonetheless.  The rings were tied down and myself and another usher were keeping a careful eye on it.  So why a birds nest you ask?  As the pastor mentions during the ceremony the bride says the nest represents the start of a family and  the coming together to two people (I’m making up the later part because it’s been over a week now).  The grooms’ response was the nest is a good way to carry the rings.  Post wedding ceremony everyone walks back to the house and the reception begins.

    Tons of food from beef brisket with blackberry sauce, Ling Ling dumplings, egg rolls, salmon to macaroni and cheese.  We mingled with relatives and friends til the wee hours.  At some point the couple, us and some other young professionals ended up in the gazebo.  Just chillin and talking as most of the other guest had gone home.  It was interesting to meet these other people only because they all seemed to know each other except it was the first time meeting most of them.  One was having a public text messaging session with a guy who was interested in her but not vice versa.  Definitely an interesting night.  We headed home around 1-something in the morning. 

    Sunday – Day 1 of recovering from the wedding: I really don’t remember waking up or anything other than anticipating going back to the reception house for the pancake breakfast for all the wedding guests.  I guess pancakes were too hard to make, all those individual pseudo-circles, so the catering company made french toast.  Still good, especially with real maple syrup but I really was hoping for pancakes.    More mingling and socializing and playing the Ring Toss game because I think we were tired of mingling and socializing.  As the guest were leaving we started to do some simple clean up.  The time went by fast because before we knew it it was the late afternoon and some family friends were going to come by the rental house for dinner of leftover BBQ and wedding reception food.  Finally, HOT and STEAMING crab!  This actually made the crabs taste better especially with the Old Bay.  At some point we went to bed.

    Monday – Day 2 of recovering from the wedding: Our only day to see the sights and do tourist stuff.  After breakfast we headed south on 101.  First stop was Devil’s Churn State Park. This was a nice paved park to walk through and see the waves crash against the rocks.  Plus there is a Spouting Horn just like the one in Hawaii.  Though the one in Hawaii was nicer.    Then we drove about 15 miles south to Heceta Head Lighthouse.  Below the lighthouse is a beach where we saw several beach goers, some kite fliers and  then there was us eating our lunch of chicken and bread.  A short hike were we upon the lighthouse where we had a short, but free tour of it.  Not as impressive as the lighthouse in Kauai, but still interesting.  The tour guide was telling us how there is this one eagle who nests close by and the day before the eagle came out to hunt, flew near some seagulls, inverted and snatched a gull out of the air.  That would have been cool to see. After the tour and a bag of Skittles we drove a few miles south to the Sea Lion Caves.  Oooooh.  Aaaaaah.  “The world’s largest sea cave.”  I don’t remember how much admission was but last nights dinner guest remarked how they had pulled off at one of those vantage points, looked down and saw sea lions.  Yep.  Sea Lion Caves, good as a rest stop.    We went looking for the vantage point, which we found and saw the sea lions for free!  On our way back to the rental house we stopped by a few local art galleries looking for this years potential Christmas ornament but came up empty.  At the house we rested and awaited the couple and her family for dinner.  More leftovers and basically our farewell to them as we leave the next day. 

    Dinner was nice as well as the company but a long vacation week was coming to an end.

    Tuesday – Day 3 of recovering from the wedding:  Luckily our flight was at 2pm.  We left the house just after 9am with a three hour drive back to Portland.  Between traffic and really bad Portland (or maybe it’s Oregon) drivers we make it to the airport at 12:30pm.  Drop off the rental car and run to get checked in.  During all of this we stopped off at Bamboo Grove Hawaiian Grille for a Hawaiian plate lunch.   I luv me some Hawaiian plate lunch.  Since we were pressed for time we got the fastest meal we could which was the Auntie’s Shoyu chicken with macaroni and two scoops of rice.  That was some good eating.    We ate, caught our plane to Denver and we were half way home.  As we were boarding the plane to Denver Chewy and I both heard this “cheer” going on.  There was this asian girl, maybe 4 years old, shouting out “We got SPIRIT” and doing various cheerleader kicks and arm extension things (I have no idea what it’s called).  Her mother was just sitting there trying to hide her embarrassment and laughter.  It was so funny and cute at the same time especially since the little girl was pretty good.

    We left Portland on a good note.  Though our stay in Denver wasn’t that great.  The weather was bad and planes were getting delayed left and right.  On the plane we were told one thing as to where our connector flight would be at.  By the time we got off the plane that information changed.  We grabbed some dinner, which was an excellent idea because instead of an hour layover it became well over a three hour delay.  United airlines kept on switching gates and changing departure times.  We eventually boarded the plane but sat there while the plane received a new flight route.  As the pilot said, with the new flight route we need to determine if we have enough fuel to fly it.  That took an extra 30 minutes or so.  We landed at BWI around 3:30am.  Got our luggage, waited for a shuttle to the parking lot and eventually got home at about 5:30am.  Just thirty minutes before I would wake up and go into work. Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen. 

    Oh well, we’re all safe and sound.  People we care for and love got married and they were generous enough to have us join in all the fun.  Yes, it was laboring and exhausting but to see these two extremely happy as everything came together was enough for us. 

    And they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

  • Welcome to Walport, Oregon!  – Part 1:

    Just a short three hour drive south-west of Portland.  A picturesque coastal town of about 2,000 residents and the place where Chewy’s brother got married over the Memorial Day weekend.  We arrived there on Tuesday before the holiday and came back the Tuesday after the holiday.  A solid week of preparing for a wedding and meeting a whole bunch of new people.  Here are some of the highlights of our trip:

    Tuesday:  We left the house at 5-something in the morning off to BWI airport, with a layover at Denver and then finally at Portland at about 1pm.  Our main goal was to stop by Costco before heading down to Walport to pick up a bunch of food for the wedding reception.  Among the things we bought were various paper products, 15 boxes of egg rolls and 12 bags of Ling Ling dumplings.  Yep, that’s a lot of dumplings.    We got to Walport around 4-5pm and met the bride’s side of the family and where the reception will be held at (basically her parents house).  We eventually got to the place where all the grooms’ family would be staying – the extremely nice Casa de Le’on beach front rental. 
     
    Here we see our first sunset over the Pacific Ocean and enjoy a short break before meeting the bride’s family for dinner.  The funniest part of the day was while driving down to Waldport we were talking about the upcoming summer movies and how there were a ton of sequels coming out.  In particular the Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer was interesting to me (as most comic book movies are) as I wondered if they would show Galactus, Silver Surfers boss.  As I was trying to explain parts of the myth to Chewy this is how the conversation went:

    Me: Silver Surfer is the herald of Galactus, the planet eater.
    Chewy: He eats peanuts?
    Me: Uh, no.  Not Planters … planets.
    Chewy: Oh.  But if he eats planets then technically he eats peanuts too.
    Me: uh, sure that would be technically correct.

    Wednesday – Three days before the wedding: It seemed like everyone but us got up late, I guess we were still on East Coast time.  After a long, hearty breakfast, 11am rolled around and we went back to the reception house to get started on all the decorations.  Yep, I was surprised we started so late as well.  But I guess those things tend to happen.  Chewy and her eldest brother headed off  to Walmart for more supplies while the groom and I begin hanging decorative lanterns strung by white Christmas lights.  What seemed like a simple and easy task took a loooooong time.  Today became mostly a planning day as we had to figure out how we’d run electrical to all the lights we were going to hang.   

    Both brothers went back to Portland over the night so they could pick
    up a 25 foot rental truck could be gotten and filled with various
    rental equipment such as chairs, tables, speakers, plates, cutlery, and
    a bunch of heaters.  After a careful search in the rental house we found some OLD BAY Seasoning!  I luv me some Old Bay for crabs and french fries.  See even Corey, the new addition to our stuffed animal family, likes Old Bay. 

    Thursday – Two days before the wedding:  Chewy and I get up and out of the house by 9:30am to try and get as much decorating as possible.  We spent about four hours hanging lanterns for a set of three lines that run from the house to some trees across the yard.  This took much longer than I anticipated.    

    But ultimately it was worth it as you can see.  This is a night time shot of the lanterns with a view of the bay and bridge that the house overlooks.  After decorating it was time to unload the truck which had just arrived from Portland.  Driving a 25 foot truck is apparently no fun as the groom had accidentally backed it into his future father-in-laws truck (luckily the truck has an extended grill on it).  After the groom and I unloaded the truck and did some furniture setup it was time for dinner at the River House. 

    Just before dinner, we had gone back to the rental to get freshened up but we also had to wait for the 25 foot truck to make it to this house to unload some more equipment.  Trying to manuver that truck was no small feat but the groom did a pretty good job doing so.

    The dinner was a very informal, rehearsal dinner but mostly just a nice dinner for both families to meet and get to know each other better.  The food and atmosphere were both great.  I unfortunately, was just exhausted from all the stuff we had done today.  After dinner, we headed back to the rental, changed, unloaded the 25 foot truck and proceeded back to the reception house to get more work done.  That’s when we learned that after the groom had left the reception house he had accidently hit a water pipe that fed a sprinkler system at the house.  Water was streaming down the driveway while we were at dinner.  Some would say that’s “Strike Two” but thankfully, the future father-in-law seemed to take things in stride.    They had stopped the water flow by the time we had gotten back to the house and eventually, we went to bed sometime after 1am.

    Friday – One day before the wedding: Up at 4am, running on three hours of sleep, to go crabbing!  In the local bay, residents can go catch dungeness crab year long but can only keep those that are 5.75 inches long.  After about fours of crabbing we only caught 10 legal crabs even though we probably caught more than 50.  Good thing they weren’t relying on us to provide all the crabs for tonights BBQ and crab feast.    Crabbing was definitely fun and brought back a lot of memories of when my family used to go blue crabbing with several church families.  After crabbing and moving several large potted trees to the church we rushed home to get changed for the wedding rehearsal. 

    Post rehearsal it was time to head back to the rental and start cooking some crabs!  They had bought some 70 crabs, two huge boxes of chicken, slaw and corn on the cob.  Cooking dungeness crab was so different then hot steaming blue crab.  Here they cut the crab in half, while alive, rip off the two sides to move it from the main top shell.  Fling the guts into a trash can and then boil/steam for 20 minutes.  OK, the boil/steam for 20 minutes is normal.  Then, this is the kicker, when the crabs are done they ice the crabs!  That just seemed so odd.  Here we love our HOT and STEAMING crabs.  There they like em cold.    That was just weird.  A few of us cooked and cleaned the crabs.  One of the grizzled crab cooking vets kept on talking about how their method is better and as he was grabbing a live crab to be slaughtered from the 100 gallon container that we had them in, another crab got him on his middle finger.  Not a pretty sight as the crab cut through his fingernail and into the underside of the finger.    Pretty gross but thankfully he was fine and there was a house full of doctors.  The feast was a hit, with lots of food and people just gathering and socializing.  At some point the three Frappuccino’s  and sugar wore off and complete exhaustion rolled in.  I went to sleep while they had a bonfire on the beach.