Monday, July 27, 2009

El Mall-o of America-o

ROAD TRIP!! Ok, so I got the opportunity to travel to Minnesota with 2 of my besties. We hit the Mall of America by storm, cleaned out the IKEA store, and spent the remainder of the time driving around... sometimes lost, sometimes knowing full well where we were. In any case, it was a wonderful chance for me to catch up with my 2 MOHs and spend a relaxing weekend away from home.



We were at the Mall on Spongebob weekend, which means we got to meet many characters. Kym and I even stood in line to see Spongebob and Patrick!!!



Also on the celebrity list for the weekend: Dora and Diego, the Backyardigans, the Rescuers, Underwater Adventure Shark, Bubba Gump Shrimp, and a possible David Hasselhoff (which is the only one I did not get a picture of after Haley reminded me to "not Hassel the Hoff").

I also found my new favorite store: IKEA!!! For those of you not "in the know" (and I was not "in the know" until I walked into the store), IKEA is like a Home Depot meets Bed, Bath, and Beyond meets Sam's Club. It was AMAZING!!! Those crazy Swedes and their WONDERFUL stores!!!



Besdies carrying our cameras with us everywhere and taking pictures of everything, we also stopped at the state signs for photos. Somewhere along the way (or before I left, AHEM JEFF), I managed to catch the plague. Seeing as how Jeff was sick while we were away and I managed to produce the same symptoms upon my arrival home, I am choosing to blame him and his stinking boy cooties. It's been difficult slowing down to be sick for the second time in such a short time frame, but I am trying my best. At least I was able to pass it along to my client who got me sick the first time. :) "Gift" repaid!

Other than that, we have not been up to much. This past weekend we missed a birthday party due to still being contagious (my client and fellow road trippers proved the the virus was still very much alive and share-able). We have also fallen behind on keeping up with all our friends and family due to sleeping so much (sorry to all who are still waiting for a return call).

Anywho, hope all is well with you and yours!!! :)

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Jefther: 3 Year-versary

Yep, I bet all you teachers reading this are mortified by my use of made up words. :)

I spent some time reminiscing about the last 3 years. Can you believe 3 years and a few days ago I received the text message that would change my life: "Can I monopolize your Friday evening?" or something to that effect... My immediate response of "IT'S ABOUT TIME!" was NOT well-received, I am sure. Then began the butterflies... I am not sure why they were there; it was not as if I did not see Jeff every single day anyway. We hung out between then, of course (the asking and the actual date, that is) and neither of us made mention of text or what lay before us. We were both on the phone with friends who were offering advice, clothing, and even step-by-step "how to"s of impressing the other.

Then the Friday came. I was so nervous, I changed clothes a million times (Jeff informed me he had come from his mother's house, where she chose the outfit that made me catch my breath). I finally settled on my "hot jeans" (much to the chagrin of everyone who voted for a dress) and basic black top. Jeff wore a yellow-golden button down with jeans and flip flops. I knew I was in trouble. And so it began...

You know, it doesn't really matter what we did. I know, I know, those were the activities that began forging our relationship. What struck me most about today as I was remembering that night was that we couldn't say goodnight. We went to dinner, hit golf balls, looked at pictures and watched home videos at my apartment, and then went to Old Chicago. It finally ended because we were too tired to hold our heads up, not because it was the end of the night.

Looking back, this is still something that I see in us. We both still talk into the wee hours of the morning or until someone falls asleep mid-conversation (this has been me, more often than not). We still want to squeeze every waking hour in with each other. Although we may not look the same as we did on that first night (my "hot jeans" stopped being a clothing option about a year ago), the true essence of who we are remains the same. And now, instead of excitement coursing my veins at the thought of our first date, words cannot express my anticipation for the wedding.

Jefther: 3 years going strong today. :)

Thursday, July 9, 2009

By my estimation...

Hey, everybody! Just thought that I would drop you all a line and let you guys know where we are at with everything. If you have been reading Heather's posts, you will know that we have been very busy lately. We are coming down to the wire with our wedding plans (okay, so 135 days isn't exactly down to the wire, but it feels like it). We, apparently, have plenty of more stuff to do than I had estimated we had left.

Religious obligations. We have to see our priest, Fr. Anthony, about completing our marriage preparation classes. Before we do that, I need papers saying that I am a good Catholic boy with all my papers in order. Heather has hers. I'm jealous.

Invites. Yes, invites. Those glorious announcements that we will indeed be having this wedding thing and that you, the recipient, have been cordially invited to our shindig. We have things yet to decide like if we should go with a color that matches our chosen colors, what font describes us as a couple, what color should the letters be and other fun things like maps, places of registry and the like. I thing lemon chiffon will do quite nicely (turns out I'm wrong).

Flowers. They smell pretty, look pretty and make me feel pretty. Er... That is not what I meant. We have yet to secure a vendor for this aspect of the wedding, but we are drawing a bead on one now.

Cake. Already have a person for the cake, I just need to tell her that she officially has the job and that I have the design for the groom's cake (I'm not telling yet).

Guest gifts. Heather is working on those. We can't decide between personalized mints or personalized pens or personalized shot glasses or personalized... There is a lot of stuff out there.

Grooms gifts. I got 'em. They are nice.

Other gifts. Haven't figured it out, but will soon. We are giving people.

Houses. Okay, so not really wedding centric. We are looking at houses (no big shocker there). Yep it is time for us to stop "throwing equity away" and start owning something in this big, bad world to call our own. Yes, mortgage debt. It is honestly scary to think about plunking down X.X% at one time and realizing that money represents 4 to 5 paychecks that you have spread out saving over the past N months. But it will all be worth it. After all, it is only money.

Various other stuff. Haven't figured it out yet, but it will hopefully come up before October 21st and give us plenty of time to react to it (as life is not "fair", I doubt that the plenty of time thing will happen).

By my estimation, we will be ready for the wedding by January...well that's not right.

:)

Wishing you all the best.
Cheers!

Saturday, July 4, 2009

9 Reasons to Celebrate America

I read this on the BBC, and it made me smile a little. Even the world recognizes the trivial reasons that America is great. Enjoy. :)

Nine reasons to celebrate America

As the US is marking its 233rd anniversary of its independence, the BBC's Kevin Connolly gives his own list of reasons why America should be celebrated.

I have left out such obvious American inventions as electrical light, water-skiing, space travel and the pop-up toaster on the grounds that someone else would probably have come up with those sooner or later.

This is more about the American genius for making daily life more convenient, more entertaining or just more fattening.

First - air conditioning - testament to the American ability to conquer the harshest physical environments and to expand American life towards improbable horizons.

For more than a century now, America has been making machines that blow cold air into hot places - without it Florida, Arizona and southern Texas would be uninhabitable.

Florida's population has gone up 10-fold since air conditioning became affordable. It caught on as a way of cooling cinemas when hot projection equipment made them unbearable in July and August.

Without aircon, going to the pictures would be as seasonal a pastime as ice-fishing.

Ice cubes , too, reflect the same happy knack for making light of the hostility of circumstance.

Every floor of every motel building in the country has an ice machine; every convenience store sells it by the sackfull, and every drink you are served contains lumps of ice big enough to sink a battleship.

All cold drinks in America are served at a temperature which could cryogenically freeze human tissue. I know you find ice cubes elsewhere, too, but in Europe bar staff hoard them as though they were precious stones. In America, they flow in rattling abundance.

Third - valet parking. President Barack Obama says America invented the car, which it did not. But it did invent motoring, and the pinnacle of the American motoring experience is the practice of having someone else park your car when you arrive at a restaurant or hotel.

It makes the list to symbolise the American genius for making money out of simple services done well.

I have paid people to valet my car and then watched mesmerised as they proceeded to park it just a few feet away from me. Somehow, I never feel I am being ripped off.

Item Number Four is aviation. America did invent the aeroplane but it was rather a dull device at first and spent its early years being flown short distances in wobbly straight lines by plucky pioneers.

Before long though, America had invented barnstorming, and intrepid entertainers were performing the Charleston on the wings of bi-planes as they were flown under low bridges. A pointless but brilliant feat.

I put it down to the manner in which the Declaration of Independence promises the right to the pursuit of happiness.

Fifth - chewing gum. One of America's more enduring gifts to humanity requiring no comment or explanation.

Except, perhaps, to note its surprising antiquity - juicy fruit flavour gum was invented in 1893. Odd to think it would have been a familiar taste already to the Americans who came to Europe to fight in the Great War.

1893, in fact, was a bumper year for people who do not worry too much about their fillings since it also saw the invention of Cracker Jack , a mixture of popcorn and peanut coated in toffee which is the baseball fan's snack of choice.

It is really on the list representing all processed food since the genius of it lies in a manufacturing process that prevents all the small lumps from sticking together in one big one.

And while we are on the subject of food, achievement number seven is American cheese - an industrially processed foodstuff chiefly valued for its ability to melt evenly on to a hamburger.

Often sold in a shade of orange - also used on motorway workers high-visibility coats - it exhibits a quality which I think is called hyper-plasticity which means once its ever been melted it never quite returns to its solid form again.

That is a lot of science behind the cheeseburger.

For anyone travelling through an airport this weekend I thought I should also mention the invention of metal detector in 1881 by Alexander Graham Bell, he of telephone fame.

One of its first deployments was a failed attempt to find a bullet in the body of the assassinated President James Garfield as he lay dying from a gunshot wound. Might have worked too if he had not been lying on an iron-framed bed.

Finally, for this year anyway I give you the space pen - a miracle of engineering which allowed astronauts to write in outer space.

Do not believe the urban myth that says Russians achieved the same effect as the Americans without spending millions of research dollars by sampling using pencils in their spacecraft.

Actually, pencils are dangerous in space because wood is flammable. The Russians use the space pen, too, apparently.

I leave it there because I have run out of time [space] rather than because I have run out of examples of American ingenuity.

Indeed so lavishly have the blessings of providence and the bounty of human ingenuity been bestowed here that by the time America's 234th birthday rolls around, I might well have compiled an entirely different list.

We will see - but for now, happy Independence Day.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Independence Day

Hey all, Happy early 4th of July to all our readers out there. Wanted to take an opportunity to examine thoughts and memories surrounding the Fourth.

The question was asked on the radio the other morning as I was driving into work what the most memorable 4th of July you ever had was. There were several that popped into my mind, and I wanted to share one or two of the most special memories I had with you.

The first most memorable 4th of July I had was when I was a kid. I think I may have been around 3rd grade-ish, because I vaguely remember Spearville afterwards. We happened to be in Kingman. My parents and grandparents were there, and I think I remember my uncles being there as well. We were popping off my favorite firework at the time: Black Cats. I remember seeing all the boys sitting there lighting them and then throwing them up in the air to pop. This was amazing, beings how I was lighting them via punk on the ground and running from them before they made the loud "POP"-ping noise. I began lighting them in my hand as well, and found delight to find they popped exactly as the grown-ups did... in the air. It was so much more exciting! Well, as my parents were supervising me (like good parents would around fireworks at such a young age), they told me NOT to do this!! I couldn't believe it. I decided that I was going to continue doing it... after all, I had shown them I could do it already. They said "Don't come crying to us if you get hurt." Well, as most of my stories continue, I did get hurt. There came that one firecracker that had the fuse that burned quicker than the rest, or maybe it just had a shorter fuse. To this day, I still cannot figure it out. In any case, it went off in my hand. My hand was covered with blood blisters, and when I cried, as my parents always did, comforted me and took care of me. I learned my lesson, and from that day on stayed away from the Black Cats!

I also remember being in the front yard at Spearville, and having my parents light Sparkler after Sparkler for me (what, you think they would turn me loose after an incident like that?). I played as the neighbors' fireworks popped in the dim hours, practicing my ribbon dancing skills and praying one day they would make ribbon dancing with Sparklers an Olympic sport.

The fact that my Dad was out there with us now particularly resonates with me. I now hate the celebration of the 4th of July in the manner that America has chosen. I enjoy watching the wonderous fireworks displays, but absolutely hate all the popping that the Black Cats invariably make the week before and weeks after the holiday. Now while I am working, as soon as I hear the pop, I immediately am transported to that shitty, tiny, cockroach infested apartment where bullets flew. I am taken back to the time when I waited, uncertain of my destiny, for authorities to "rescue" me. My time of dodging bullets lasted a few mere hours... I cannot even imagine what it must have been like to have dodged bullets for days, months, and even years.

I cannot begin to understand the strength that Veterans hold. I only know my reaction and understand that what I went through was not in a foreign land where help could not possibly arrive soon enough (and was often an uncertainty).

I want to take this moment to thank my family and all Veterans who so courageously fought for our freedom, so that our Independence Day could remain.

Also, I want to hear about YOUR most memorable 4th of July. What is something that sticks out in your mind??? As always, Happy 4th of July, and I pray all is well with you and yours.