Party

Well, the party on Saturday went great. We ended up having about 12 people over. The usually gang came, along with some folks we haven’t seen in a while and a few new faces. Lauren’s cousin Blake stopped by which was cool, we never get to see him. Lauren’s friend from work Jin stopped by with her husband Steve. My friend Steve, known to the rest of the world as -=TCC=-KidChronic also stopped by and brought his wife Shelly. I’ve talked to KC for quite a while, even had lunch with him a few times, but this was the first time we got to hang out socially. I think our wifes hit it off, so, who knows, maybe we’ve found a couple to do things with on the weekends.

We ended up having far more food than we needed, but party food makes great leftovers, so I’ll be eating 7-layer dip, sausage-cheese dip and Chick-Fil-A chicken nuggets from a nugget tray for the next week or two.

We also have a large quantity of beer on hand. We got some Carona, Bud Light, Shiner, Shiner Blond and Killians and we’ve got about half of it left. Everyone was drinking, so I think we just ended up with so many because we over-bought.

We fired up the Xbox for a while, played some Super Monkey Ball party games, along with some Dead or Alive 2 Ultimate and finished off the night watching Longest Yard, which, I won’t bore you with a review of since thankfully, I had already consumer quite a few beers and I’ve already forgotten most of it… which is a good thing.

So, that was Saturday.

Sunday we just hung around here watching the Astros game, which they won, followed by a in-law sponsered trip to IHOP. After which Lauren and I decided to go catch Wallace and Gromit, which was very enjoyable. Better than last years I thought.

That leaves us with today.

After a rousing morning of chicken nuggets and web surfing, I’m about to sit down and watch Kung Fu Hustle. I’ve also gotten in a few rounds of BF2. Say hello to Staff Sargent Doc 🙂

One last thing before I go, a question for Jason. Any recomendations on some new tunes to listen to? Lately I’ve been dipping back into some classics and haven’t gotten any new music in a while. At The Drive In and Bowling for Soup are the last things I’ve listened to. Any suggestions on something new and exciting?

As a thank-you, I present this link (here). I’m constantly surprised by the internet. Not only are there other game-playing, music downloading, hockey watching people such as myself, but that there’s enough of them sharring the wonder of hockey with the world that it warrents it’s own category, updated weekly with games anyone might have missed. It’s a wonderful thing.

Rita

Well, we’re up from a cat3 to a 4. Evacuations are being called for all over. I’ve already taken all the computers apart and I’m sending this via my Sidekick.

Last night was crazy. People fighting over gas, long lines, people freaking out. It was a little over the top. In situations like this, people really need to keep calm. To bad the goog ol’ media machine ramped up and has been scaring the shit out of people for over a week.

We’re heading west/north west to outside of San Antonio. We’re actually leaving this morning. We’re about 12 hours ahead of the mandatory evacuations. Mostly because we have Lauren’s mom, who just had surgery, as we’ll as her two grandparents who can’t evacuate themselves, plus 3 dogs. Luckily, our route west is also NOT a planned evacuation route, so traffic, a day early, should be lite.

Take care everybody, see ya on the other side.

Last Day

Well, today is my last day here, tomorrow we fly out at some unreasonably early hour. We’ve been hanging out with my aunt Lisa all afternoon and she even let me ans Lauren take her new Mazda Miata for a spin.

Yesterday I got to hang out with Chris for a while. It was good to see him, its been to long. We also got to meet Erin, who was very nice. We started out at Uno’s for a little pizza, followed by a tour for the area. We were wanting to catch Dukes of Hazard but we misread the time. After that we walked around the mall for a little while, had some dinner at a great little place caled John Harvards and headed back to Chris’ apartment and watched a movie.

It was good to hangout with them. I hadn’t seen Chris in a while and its always good to catch up.

Tonight we’ll probably just relax around here, we have an early flight so we’ll need to get some decent rest.

Later.

On the road

The eagle has landed. Eagle, being me and not the president or a moon lander.

We’re chilling at my parents house today. Lauren and my mom are running an errand or two and I’m vegetating infront of digital cable.

We don’t have any specific plans, probably some lunch and a walk around Laconia. No plans for the evening either.

24 Little Hours

Well gang, in less than 24 hours we’ll have touched down in Boston. This is my first trip home in quite a while and I’ll be glad to see everyone again and visit the family a little. The main motivation for the trip is because my cousin Meg is getting married on Saturday, but also it’s a a well deserved break from work and all the stress surrounding it. My bosses probably don’t realize the amount of stress they place on a person, and, being the laid back guy I am, I try to let most of it just roll off. Sometimes it builds up and you just need a little break. I’m not saying anything negative about anybody, but I think I’ve worked quite hard this past year and deserve a little time off.

What I could do without is the guilt trip though. I had scheduled this trip WITH my boss 2 full months ago. We bought plane tickets at the end of May. I made sure there was absolutely nothing on our schedule for this coming week before I bought the tickets. I also cleared it with everybody. I asked for the time off originally, then, when I bought the tickets I again made sure it was ok, then I even wrote it down in the book to make sure everyone knew. Now, for the last week or so, I’ve been getting “You really should have checked with us, we have things scheduled this weekend” or “we really wish you weren’t going, this puts us in quite a bind”. Etc.

You know, I’m sorry, I really am. I’m sorry you didn’t notice it written there OR remember me asking you… twice. It’s there. It’s in big print at the top of the page. So, saying something like “I guess you won’t be able to do -blank- on Saturday” is really a moot point isn’t it? Why give me the guilt of not being here? You KNOW I’m not going to be here. Mentioning all the things I could have done while I’m not there doesn’t want to make me cancel my flight.

I like my work. I really do. My bosses are nice, my actual work itself is nice, my hours (except for Saturdays) are fine, the commute is short. Everything is good (althought a raise might be nice – wink wink). I’m not saying any of this to put them down, they’re really great people. Two of the nicest people I’ve ever worked for actually. The first employer I’ve ever had that actually remembered my birthday. They put their trust in me, they want me to take over part of their wedding buisness, all that great stuff. I just need to vent every once in a while. I think this vacation is coming at just the right time. We’ve finished the Miss Texas work, we’ve finished the Texans Cheerleaders work, I’ve gotten 99% of all the pressing matters accounted for. We have a little breathing room. I’ve been working non-stop since May and I think it’s time for a break. Just a little one. A weekend at home, in the trees and the mountains and the lakes. Where I can kick back, have a cigar and a drink and just relax for a while.

I’m technically only taking 4 days off (Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Tuesday) but since the travel is so distant, two of those days don’t really count. We’ll be in a plane all day Thursday and Tuesday. What kind of vacation is Friday-Monday? A crappy one. But jebus, if I had asked for any more time off the world would have stopped. I have three days to relax, three. Saturday we’ll be at the wedding, and that’s not relaxing. I work at weddings, what makes you think I enjoy them?

So, Friday I sleep, wake up, eat really fucking good pancakes, sleep some more, see if Chip or Chris want to do anything Friday night. Sunday, Chris is definatly down for something, I know that much, and Monday is still up in the air. There you have it, my whirl wind vacation.

You want to know what else. I’m not bringing a camera. Nope. I don’t know where my 35mm is and I don’t have a digital. I asked my boss if I could borrow one of his and he offered another 35mm. I didn’t really want to screw with film anymore, so I declined. What I want is $300 magical dollars I could put to good use. But that’s just a pipe dream. With double rent next month, cash is tight for the trip as it is, and buying a new toy wouldn’t help.

So, no photos. Sorry kids. Yeah, that’s right, a photographer is going on a trip without a camera. Sad huh?

Anyway, in case anyone BESIDES Chip and Chris care, I’ll be out of town next week. So, maybe an update or two from the road, I dunno. I can’t FTP any pictures from my phone, so no photo posts either. If only I could install a 3rd party application, then maybe, just maybe…. never mind.

I’ll tell you all about it when I get back.

OUT.

ps: I’m coming Mikey, don’t you worry.