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December 27, 2005

Post-Christmas Report

Christmas was quite fun this year. We left at around 3pm on Friday to go down to San Antonio. Stopped by the Hard Eight in Stephenville for a late lunch/early dinner along the way. It was mighty tasty. The temperature was in the mid-70's, so we ate outside, which was nice. :o) Arrived at Greg's Dad's at around 9ish...Paul arrived at 10ish. We sat around and chatted a bit and went to sleep.

Saturday morning Greg's cousin Jeff came by to drop off our tickets to the Saints vs. Lions game. The game started at Noon, so we left at about 10:30 to head downtown. We parked over by the Riverwalk, then proceeded to walk over to the stadium. It took about 15 minutes to walk over (it was pretty ridiculous where they had put parking for this stadium). Jeff and Mike (and Mike's kids) joined us for the game. The game was pretty good...Detroit won with seconds left in the game with a field goal.

We went and ate at Republic of Texas at the Riverwalk after the game. We had originally wanted to go to Casa Rio, but most of the Mexican restaurants there were closed on Christmas Eve, so we didn't get to. The food at the Republic was pretty ordinary...nothing special.

Later than night, we went over to Uncle Guy and Aunt Martha's house for Christmas Eve dinner. A whole bunch of people were there (lots of people I had never met). Mike dressed up as Santa Claus and made a grand entrance after dinner. It was pretty entertaining. We got way too many boxes of chocolate.

Sunday morning we headed out to Boerne to go to Diane & John's house for Christmas. It was fun hanging out. We got to meet our niece Sarah's new fiance, Bryan. He seems nice. :p The boys went out to the driveway to play football after lunch. Only a couple of injuries this time. :o) We sat around, watched basketball/football, and called it a day.

Oh, forgot to mention...Greg got me a USA Hockey Jersey that I wanted. :o) He was sneaking around last week to try to find it, but he had to go to 5 different stores before he found the right size at the Colleyville Players Bench. Ha ha. :p

Anyway, we left Monday morning to come home...stopped by Niester's in Granbury for lunch. Mmmmmmm. Bought a loaf of their sourdough bread. It smells soooooo good. :o) Got home at around 5ish, unpacked, bummed around, watched the Stars game on HD (wheeeee!), and went to bed. :o)

My boss gave me a comp day to take tomorrow. Hee hee. She said it's for the extra hours that I've worked this year (which was actually a lot). So I'll get to run some errands. Fun stuff. :p

Posted by alpha at 01:00 PM | Family | Comments (0)

December 20, 2005

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!! :o)

I've been so insanely busy at work that I haven't gotten a chance to post all month! Goodness gracious. Can't believe it's already Christmas. Must get a groove on the wrapping of presents.

Summarizing December as briefly as possible...

On December 10, 2005, my lil sis GRADUATED from UTD!!!! :o) Yey!!! My friend Katie from my hockey team also graduated that day with a Masters degree. Hee hee.

Greg and I got a TV stand finally. It was an ongoing battle with the sales guy from the store that we bought the TV from. The stand was "on order" when we bought the TV, and we were basically told that it might be there when the TV was delivered. We kept getting a later date whenever we ask about the stand. Then finally, I got fed up with having to check up on this guy every week, that I told him if he can't guarantee a date of arrival for this stand, we'll just cancel the order and get it somewhere else. He called back and said that the date that he was given at that point was the end of December. We told him to just refund us the money, and we went to Best Buy and bought the other stand. I think I actually like this one better 'cuz there's more shelf space. :o) Plus it was on sale for $150, and I had $50 of gift cards for Best Buy from my birthday...so we paid $100 for it! Hee hee.

Oh my hockey team won our game on Sunday night against the Mantis, 2-0. Wheeee! :o)

We're leaving on Friday to go to San Antonio for Christmas. :o) Greg's cousin Jeff got a bunch of us tickets to the Saints vs. Lions game on Saturday, so we'll be going to that. Then Aunt Martha invited us over to their place for Christmas Eve dinner. We'll be going over to Diane's for Christmas, then coming back on Monday I believe. Craziness!

Then on the 30th, we're flying down to Corpus Christi to visit Diane & John at their new beach house. :o) Can't wait to see it (I've only seen pictures). I heard it's pretty awesome...and one of the first things they put in there was a pool table. Ha ha ha. Wheeeee!

Oh, and I almost forgot...I'll be getting my bonus check on Friday. :o) Yey!!!! It's a huge bonus and a huge raise. I'm happy. :o)

Posted by alpha at 08:38 AM | Family | Comments (0)

November 26, 2005

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving *almost* went off without a hitch. :p Reason I said "almost," is that we had forgotten to pick up the smoked turkey that we had ordered from Dickey's on Wednesday night. We were so preoccupied with the cable people (who didn't show up until 7:30pm), that we had forgotten to go by to pick up the turkey. We were watching the news at around 10, when they did a story on this Honey Baked Ham store being robbed...when we remembered that we had forgotten about the turkey. Normally, it wouldn't be a big deal 'cuz Dickey's would still be open...but since it was the night before Thanksgiving, they were closing at 8pm. Greg and I sat there for a minute while we pondered what to do next...when I came up with the great idea to at least call to see if anyone was still at the restaurant. Turns out that we were lucky, and a manager was still there 'cuz one of his employees screwed up something. WHEW! :o)

The rest of Thanksgiving went well. :o) Paul came over at about 11ish, and my family came over at around 2. Everything was delicious. :o) We hung out awhile and watched the Cowboys game on HD (woooot!). Then my family left to go home for a little bit before going to Matt's parents' house for dinner. The rest of the day was spent watching various sports games. We had a good time.

Friday, Marshall came over to watch the Texas vs. A&M game. He and Laura were in town visiting Laura's Mom. I think he said that Laura and her Mom were going shopping that day, so he got to come over to hang out with us. It was pretty fun. :o) He left after the game. We went to Parma for dinner. It was tasty, except that our waitress basically ignored us after she took our order (as in that she brought us our drinks, took our order, and we never saw her again). Needless to say, she didn't get a tip. I think Greg's gonna have a word with the owner of the place the next time he goes for lunch or something.

Posted by alpha at 07:08 PM | Family | Comments (3)

September 15, 2005

A/C...

...broken.

That is all.

*Ugh*

Posted by alpha at 11:47 AM | Family | Comments (2)

September 06, 2005

Doing Absolutely Nothing

Last week just kinda flew by...very busy at work doing stuff for our site launch. A little recap...Friday night we went to the Plano vs. Lakeview Centennial high school football game, where Plano won (go Wildcats!). :o) Then Saturday morning Greg, Paul, and I left to go to Austin for the UT football game. We got to Austin relatively quickly, so we stopped by Johnny Carino's in Round Rock to watch the end of the OU vs. TCU game (*har har!*). After that, we headed down into town to go to Stubb's BBQ for a late lunch. Hung out in the alumni center for a little while before the game...and then went to watch Texas stomp all over Louisiana Lafayette. :p We had originally planned on going to visit Greg's sister at the lakehouse for the weekend, but we didn't end up going 'cuz we were all tired. We rolled back into Dallas at about 1:30am, and called it a night.

Didn't do much the rest of the weekend. I spent most of Sunday coming up with a mock-up for my Dad's website. I've been wanting to redesign it for awhile, but just never quite had the time. It'll be a challenge 'cuz it's an e-commerce site, and so I'd have to integrate all the scripts to make sure they work with the new layout. Sent it off to my sister for artistic comments. We'll probably bobble some ideas around before settling down on a final design.

Monday I truly did a whole lotta nothin', and it was nice. :o) Read some more of my Photoshop User Guide, which turns out to be somewhat unuseful. I'll be looking for another book to buy. Watched a good bit of the 24 marathon that was on A&E. That was pretty fun. We went and dropped off some clothes and a big pack of soap at church, where they were boxing up stuff to bring to a church in Baton Rouge.

I think I was getting a bit used to not having to much, 'cuz it sure was hard waking up this morning to go to work. Hee hee.

Posted by alpha at 01:06 PM | Family | Comments (0)

August 26, 2005

Shorts Day

Wednesday Greg and I were off 'cuz Greg had oral surgery. I spent most of the morning sitting at the dentist's office waiting for him to be done. I managed to get away for an hour or so to go to the DPS to get my name updated on my driver's license. Glad that's all done. :o)

Last night I went to Lavendou for Restaurant Week with Marcy, her bro Jon, Luci, Trisha, Marilee, Lisa, and Mandi. We had a great time hanging out...good thing too 'cuz the dinner itself took 2 hours! The food was pretty good, especially that seafood crèpe appetizer that I had. Mmmmmmm! I had the sirloin for the main course, and then a raspberry soufflé for dessert (the raspberry sauce was super-sweet). It was delicious.

Today is Shorts Day at work. Wheeeee! :o) So I'm freezing my butt off in my shorts instead of in my usual work attire. Hopefully this day will go by quickly, 'cuz I'm more than ready for the weekend. Tonight we've gotta clean the house in preparation for my family coming over tomorrow to celebrate my Dad's birthday. Hee hee. Tomorrow morning I'm gonna go baby-shower-gift-shopping with Katie (for Marilee's baby shower), and then probably more cleaning and cooking. Greg's gonna be smoking a brisket and a prime rib for dinner. Mmmmmmmmm!

Posted by alpha at 08:15 AM | Family , Friends , Hockey | Comments (0)

August 22, 2005

*Organized*

This past Thursday night we went to III Forks for Restaurant Week with Chris & Christine. It was a good time. :o) The place was a lot louder than I had expected. We could barely hear each other talk. The food was pretty good though...I got the Chateaubriand, which was tasty. It's probably not a place I'd go to if I had to pay full price. :p

On Friday I worked from home to cover Expiration. Fun fun. The kitties were happy that I was home. :o) Slow-cooked beans in our new crock pot. They turned out pretty good for a first try. Had lunch with Abu at Palayok...which was kinda expensive for the food that you get. Anyway, it was a pretty relaxing day, which was nice. We watched the original "Bad News Bears"...it was interesting.

Saturday we did some yard work...fixed the fence gate (it got blown over by one of the storms that we had recently). Kinda just hung out the rest of the day.

Sunday we went to church, then to Chipotle for lunch...and then we went to Central Market and Sam's to see if they have any prime rib that isn't cooked (which they didn't). Afterwards, we went to Crate & Barrel to browse for things to buy with the gift card that Luci & Austin gave us for the wedding. :o) We ended up picking up a wine rack to put all of our alcoholic goodies. :o) It looks real nice, and we now look like alcoholics. Ha ha. :p

Sunday night I had my hockey game...and we played against the Sharks. I won a couple of faceoffs against Sue, which was quite an accomplishment for me since she was the one who had taught me how to take faceoffs. :o) Wheeee! Drew kept saying how well I played last night (he said it was better than last week's game). So that was cool. :o) Hee hee.

This upcoming Thursday I'm going to Lavendou for Restaurant Week with some of my hockey teammates. Should be fun. :o) Then Saturday my family's coming over 'cuz we're throwing my Dad a birthday part (his bday is the 29th). Hee hee. Busy busy!

Posted by alpha at 12:45 PM | Family , Fun Stuff , Hockey | Comments (2)

August 15, 2005

Not 1, but 2

On Friday, Greg and I both took off for the day to run errands in the morning, and then head down to the lakehouse. I had a surprisingly pleasant visit to the social security office to get my name changed on the social security card...it only took 45 minutes, which was way more efficient than I had expected. Then afterwards, I went to the post office to mail off my passport and documentation to change my name on the passport. Fun stuff.

We regrouped and left for the lakehouse at about 11:30 or so. We stopped by Niester's to pick up some sourdough bread (it's great bread...mmmmm), and then went to Hard Eight BBQ in Stephenville to have lunch. It was mightly tasty. :o) We took our time and got to the lakehouse at about 6:30 or so. Marshall & Laura showed up at about 7:30ish...and we all had dinner together. BJ & Christa showed up at about 10:30. It was a full house for the weekend.

Saturday we went up to the Guadaloupe River from the lake on the jet skis. It was a blast. It was a little rainy and windy at the beginning though, and Greg and I got tossed off the jet ski by the waves and wind. :p After much work to hop back on (rather, climb back on), we went on our way. The rest of the day was spent napping, relaxing, and hanging out. John's brother Neal and his girlfriend Sue also came over in the afternoon. We had tons of people at the house for dinner and everything. It was crazy. We called it a day after watching a part of a very unexciting Cowboys preseason game.

Sunday morning Chris came over to the lakehouse with his Dad at around 9:30. Chris helped his parents move down to New Braunfels (about half an hour away from the lake) on Saturday, and we were giving him a ride back home. We took off at about 10:30, and stopped in Lampasas for lunch. It was a relatively quick trip home and was fun. We got home at about 5:30 after dropping off Chris and checking out his new saltwater fish tank.

Sunday night I had my hockey game at 8:45. I think everyone had their game on last night. Each of our 3 lines scored a goal, and Renee and I teamed up and scored our overtime winning goal. It was freakin' awesome. I got 2 assists. :o) We won 4-3 in overtime. Anyway, it was a blast, and we had ice cream afterwards to celebrate. :o) Wheeeeee!

This week...not much planned. We're going to participate in Restaurant Week with Chris & Beta at III Forks on Thursday night. That should be fun. I've always wanted to go to III Forks. :o)

Posted by alpha at 10:51 AM | Family , Friends , Fun Stuff , Hockey | Comments (4)

August 04, 2005

Gone forever be Yellow Fever

Gain one, lose one. We just sold Yellow Fever to this guy. I think he used to ride dirt bikes or something. He said he hadn't ridden in 10 years. Anyway, he came over with his brother and brother's wife/girlfriend (I missed the introductions), handed over a wad of cash, and took it home. :o/ It was sad in a way, really...and Greg did shed a tear after they took Yellow Fever home. Poor thing.

Now he's out playing his new toy...the V-Strom. He's getting it all cleaned up and stuff. :o) We took a ride on it last night. It sure is nice. :o) Had a nice late dinner at Luna de Noche in Plano, where there were lots of loud little kids. :p Hopefully if it doesn't rain tomorrow, we'll ride it to work together. That'd be fun.

Posted by alpha at 07:12 PM | Family , Fun Stuff , Memories | Comments (0)

August 03, 2005

"Suzi"

The Stange family has increased by 1 member...and no, not by a human being. :p We went to the Suzuki dealership last night and acquired Suzi, a 2002 Suzuki V-Strom (DL1000), from its temporary owner. Sure is a big and beautiful piece of machinery. :o) Can't wait to ride it.

Cool thing was that the price of Suzi kept going down. Over the weekend, when we were first checking it out, I remembered a price tag with around $5,800 on it. When Greg called on Monday to have them put it aside for us, the guy said $5,699. Then yesterday, when we finally bought the bike, the invoice said $5,600. I wonder if we should've waited another couple of days...hee hee. :p

This morning I sent the pics to one of my co-workers, Darren, who owns a Harley. We had been talking about and looking at pictures of the V-Strom, since Greg was thinking about getting one. When Darren saw the pics, he emailed back and asked if by chance Greg was at Walmart (the one over by where we live) at about 8 last night. He said that he saw a V-Strom there while he was there, parked a spot away from his truck. He went over and looked at it, since we had been talking about it...he thought it might have been Greg's, but wasn't sure. Turns out it WAS Greg, and Greg remembered parking next to a white truck. Ha ha ha. How funny.

Posted by alpha at 09:39 AM | Family , Fun Stuff , Memories | Comments (0)

August 01, 2005

Miscellaneously Fun Weekend

Had a miscellaneously fun weekend. Ya know, one of those weekends where it was fun all around...and wasn't because of any one thing in particular. :o)

Friday I had to go into work at 6am...which ended up being an early departure for me (at 3ish). :o) Went home, vegged awhile, and took a nap while I waited for Greg to get home. We hung out, watched a movie, and then I went to watch him play pick-up at ITC. Walked over to Sonic and got myself some dinner while I watched. It was pretty fun.

Lessee...Saturday Greg got up really early, and went to the store and went to look at motorcycles, etc. He called and woke me up, and asked if I could bring him his jeans so he could test ride this motorcycle at one of the dealerships. Anyway, he ended up coming back and then brought me with him to go look at the bike. It was a Ducati Monster 620...and to me, it looked kinda beaten up (it was dropped at least once). They wanted $3,995 for it. We decided against it and went looking some more.

We stopped by Plano Suzuki...and looked at the used 2002 Suzuki V-Strom that they had. It was a really nice bike...only 1 scratch and the panel looks to be replaceable. It comes with 3 hard saddle bags/trunks, which could easily cost $500. Anyway, he went and test rode that one...and really liked it. I think that's the one that we're gonna get to replace Yellow Fever. The guy's holding it for us, and we'll stop by after work to finish the paperwork.

Saturday afternoon we went over to downtown Grapevine to check it out and to do a wine tasting. We had lunch at Big Fish Seafood Grill and it was delicious. And then we stopped by the D'Vine Winery and did a wine tasting. That was a first for me, and it was a blast. :o)

Saturday night we went to Darcy and Stephanie's house for dinner. I've never really hung out with either of them, so it was interesting. :o) Darcy made chia-xiu (Chinese BBQ pork) as the main dish. Tastiness. We had a fun time hanging out, and I think I might have recruited Steph to play ice hockey again. She had taken some classes while she was in college, and really loved it. She even has some equipment still. Hopefully she'll be able to start playing...it'd be fun.

Sunday we took those pics of Yellow Fever, so we could send them to whoever's interested in buying it. I cleaned the office a bit, so the top of the computer desk is visible once again. :o) Greg made steaks for dinner, after which we went to my hockey team's practice/mix-up game. We had tons of fun, and I scored a goal on Vicki during the scrimmage. It was a well-placed drop pass from Heather (of the Sharks). It was just gorgeous. We had tons of fun, and it was nice to play with some of the other players that I used to play with at tournaments and stuff. Very fun. :o)

Posted by alpha at 12:04 PM | Family , Friends , Hockey , Photography | Comments (2)

July 21, 2005

*Whew*

Man! I've surely been super duper busy lately at work. I don't even have time to eat or read news or anything! We found out last week that one of our contractors is leaving to take on a permanent position at GE Financial...after having been here for 2 years working to set up our WebSphere members portal. Anyway, a wee bit of panic set in within our group...and our managers quickly assigned portal management roles for some of us, so the contractor could impart his great ball of knowledge onto 3 of us. Long story short, I ended up with the Web Content Management (WCM) administration portion. We've been meeting 1-2 hours each day so I could learn about all the stuff that WCM would do. This drains serious brain power. After each meeting, I feel like someone sucked all my energy out of me. *Sigh*

Good thing is...stuff like that is hard to learn, and when you find a company that uses it, you need to take advantage of the situation and jump on the opportunity. It's a valuable skillset.

Other than that, we planted our herbs and watermelon and such in the garden over the weekend. We saw some sprouts yesterday! :o) Yey!

Note to self...need to get some cilantro seeds...

Tomorrow we're going to visit Diane and John at the lakehouse. :o) It'll be a fun time, I'm sure.

What else...oh Greg and I used our Williams-Sonoma gift card and bought a grilling book...with lots of different recipes, etc. So far, we've tried 4 recipes, and every single one of them is just awesome. He made pork chops last night, and it was just delicious. Mmmmmmmm...I think we might have created a grilling monster! :o)

Posted by alpha at 03:26 PM | Family , Work | Comments (0)

July 07, 2005

Life beyond the wedding...

Since it took me so long to finishing updating about the wedding and the Jamaica trip itself, I haven't gotten a chance to talk about life after the wedding. Honestly, it really isn't all that different. :p The major thing is combining finances, I think. But it's working itself out.

We had our reception in Dallas on June 4th, at the Pecan Hollow Golf Course. Of course, as expected, the people setting up the room didn't show up until an hour after they were supposed to...making us late for our set-up. We were rushed quite a bit, but everything turned out okay. The food was great, the company was great, and overall a good time. :o)

Other than that, Greg's been working in the yard a lot. Looks real nice now. :o) We cut down a dead tree that was at the corner of the house...and planted flowers. :o) Purty.

Chris and I went to the AMD/Microsoft Tech Tour a few weeks ago, and came home with lots of goodies. I sold the server bundle that I got to a guy in Florida, and kept the desktop bundle to build a new PC. Most of the parts just came in, so I'll probably begin assembling pretty soon. :p Here are the specs so far...

• AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Processor and retail Heatsink Fan
• ASUS A8N-E Socket 939 Motherboard
• Athena Power Space Shuttle - 500W (P4ATX55FE)
• Kingston KVR400X64C3A/1G 1GB DDR400 PC3200 Memory (x2)
• Western Digital Caviar SE SATA 250GB Hard Drive (WD2500JD)
• Western Digital SE EIDE 250GB Hard Drive (WD2500JB) (x2)
• ATI Radeon X800 XL Graphics Card
• Toshiba SD-R5372 Dual Layer DVD±RW Writer
• Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
• Microsoft Optical Desktop Elite for Bluetooth
• Samsung 930B 19" LCD Monitor

Anyways, should be an adventure trying to put this together and making it work. :p

In other news, Greg's Dad is flying up from San Antonio for the weekend, and we're gonna have a family get together on Saturday. Should be pretty fun. Hee hee. :o)

Posted by alpha at 07:55 AM | Family , Fun Stuff , Nerd , Wedding | Comments (0)

May 12, 2005

Weird Day

It's been kinda a weird day for me. Work was pretty uneventful. My boss was glad to find out that I'm not out of the office tomorrow. :p Heh heh.

Here's a rundown of events of today...

- Marina sent me pics of the cakes that she had made for my Mom. They're beautimus. 1 is going to my Mom's office tomorrow, and the other to her church fellowship on Saturday.

- My high school friend Mirjam got engaged to her boyfriend Colby. He proposed while they were vacationing in the Netherlands (that's where Mirj was from).

- My high school friend Ruth and her hubby (and the 2 kids) are moving to Monterey, CA on June 6th.

- My friend Marilee from my hockey team is pregnant and is due in October. This makes the 3rd one on my team this year. First it was Leslie (who had her baby a few weeks ago), then it's Star (who's due in August), and now Marilee. I better watch out...it's like a virus that's going around...

- My Dad got the new camera that I had helped pick out and ordered on Tuesday. It's a Canon Powershot A95. He said it's cool, and have been playing with it all day. :p

- I received the package of reception decorations. :o) Pretty quick service. Looks like everything's intact.

- My specially ordered wetsuit has arrived. I'll either go pick it up tomorrow or Saturday. :o)

- Picked up my wedding dress from Lasting Impressions after work. I had the lady put it in my garment bag so Greg doesn't see it. :p

- Greg and I trimmed some bushes in front of our house this evening. It looks 10 times better than the shagginess that was before.

- My Grandma's funeral has been scheduled for May 29th. My parents are gonna fly back on the 22nd, and come back to Dallas on June 2nd, just in time for the reception.

See? Told ya it's been a weird day...

Posted by alpha at 10:35 PM | Family , Friends , Hockey , Memories , Wedding | Comments (0)

May 11, 2005

Sad News

My Dad just told me that my Grandma passed away at about 8am Hong Kong time (on 5/12)...that was probably about 7pm Dallas time (on 5/11). My Dad seems to be okay with it. It's not really a surprise or anything...she was getting really old (I think she was 93?), and has been in a hospital/nursing home for the past 6 or so years. Anyway, we think that it's harder for our relatives there in Hong Kong, since they visited her more often and stuff. Doesn't make it any less sad, but she's in a much better place now.

When I told Greg about it, he asked what one thing I used to do with my Grandma. First thing I thought of was that she brought me to church when I was little. We went to Sunday School and stuff, and she was always so nice to everybody. It's because of her that my Dad is a Christian, and it's because of my Dad that my Mom is a Christian. It's because of my Grandma that I'm a Christian...and it's because of me that Greg goes to church.

I had kinda wished that my Grandma could see me get married. Now she can watch from Heaven. Funny how things turned out.

Posted by alpha at 09:01 PM | Family , Memories | Comments (6)

Various News Items

8 days until the wedding! :o)

Last weekend, I was looking around for the wording of a sand ceremony (similar to the lighting of a unity candle). I didn't like any of the ones that people have used in the past, so I went looking for wording of wedding ceremonies. I found this one that I really liked. Greg read it and thought it was perfect. So I sent it to the wedding coordinator at the resort to see if it would be okay for the minister to read our script at our ceremony. :o) Yesterday, I heard back from the wedding coordinator, Tamika, and she said that the minister should be okay with that, but he may want to add some traditional Jamaican vows in it. I'm excited!

A wee bit of bad news though...apparently my Grandma (my Dad's Mom) is really sick and is in the hospital in Hong Kong. She's not digesting the food that's being fed to her via a feeding tube, so her hands and feet are swollen. My aunt in Toronto is flying back within the next couple of days to see her. And my parents are going back the day after they get back from Jamaica (Sunday the 22nd) and coming back on June 2nd. Hopefully my Grandma can hang on long enough for my parents to see her. :o/ So I think the plan is for us to pick up their van when we come back from Jamaica. Yup. Then my uncle (my Mom's brother) is flying in on the 2nd from Seattle to come to the reception. I think they're all flying in at about the same time, so we can pick them up after work.

In other news...Weezer's new album, Make Believe, was released yesterday. Must acquire before trip. :o)

Posted by alpha at 08:49 AM | Family , Wedding | Comments (0)

April 28, 2005

Super Busy

Man, I've been super busy at work this week. Monday through Wednesday, I was stuck making phone calls to people at various exchanges who post memos on our website. Had to walk them through a software token installation procedure, and show them some new screens for the new application that we're rolling out on Friday. It took 3 full days to get a hold of all these people and get them all set up. Ugh. So my week has flown by rather quickly...

Tuesday afternoon I found out that Paul had managed to snatch us 5 tickets and a parking pass to go to the Rangers game that night. I gave the 2 extra tickets to a coworker, but she didn't end up coming. Anywho, Greg and I ran home to change, and came back over this way to meet Paul. I brought my camera with me to take pictures since we got really good seats (13th row behind the owner's box, looking straight down the 3rd base line). I spent a good amount of time taking pictures...kept me busy until about the 5th inning. :o) Good thing too, 'cuz I get bored with baseball rather easily. Hee hee. The pictures turned out pretty well.

Posted by alpha at 04:25 PM | Family , Photography , Sports , Work | Comments (2)

April 15, 2005

Work From Home Day

Today I'm working from home. Hours are a bit funky, 10am - 7pm...'cuz I had to cover a memo that comes out later on in the evening for expiration. But that prob doesn't mean a whole lot to most of you...

So this morning, I brought my car in to get the oil changed and tires rotated. Took about an hour. Then I went over to my parents' house to pick up this present that got sent there. I called my Dad while I was there, and he mentioned that I could pick up the reception gifts that they had gotten for us. So I got those too. My sister and I can get working on them soon. :o)

Greg stayed home from work today. He wasn't feeling very well last night or this morning. So he's resting in the living room while I'm slaving away on my computer...

My sandals arrived in record time yesterday. I had ordered them at around 7:30pm on Wednesday night, and they were delivered at 11:30am Thursday morning. Ridiculously fast. They're awesome too. Very soft and comfy. I like. :o)

Posted by alpha at 12:04 PM | Family , Misc , Wedding , Work | Comments (0)

April 14, 2005

Wisdom Teeth are Evil

Yesterday I took off work to take Greg to get his wisdom teeth taken out. We got to the surgeon's office about half an hour early, so we sat in the car for a little bit before going in. The surgery itself took about an hour and a half. We got home at about 10:30. Greg was still pretty groggy from the surgery...so I spent the next hour and a half getting him all settled in. He got hungry at about 12:30, so I went out and got him a milkshake from Whataburger (and some lunch for myself). Also stopped by the store to pick up some gauze.

I crashed for a few hours after lunch. I think Greg slept and watched some soccer on TV. He was hungry again by like 4:30, so I went out and got him some KFC mashed potatoes for dinner. When he felt better later on in the night, we went to the store to pick up some food items that he could bring to work today. We came back, did some things, and went to bed.

Oh oh...last night I ordered some of these Columbia Surf Tide Sandals from Zappos last night. I've been looking at them for months, but either they don't have the color I want, or they don't have the size. Anyway, the planets aligned last night and I was able to get some in the color I want and in the size I need. :o) They even upgraded the shipping to UPS 2nd Day Air for me, so I'll get them TODAY! Amazing huh? I think I'm a Zappos fan...

Posted by alpha at 08:51 AM | Family , Wedding | Comments (4)

March 28, 2005

*Cough*

Had a pretty good long weekend. Thursday night Greg and I went to Ft. Worth for the Charity Challenge on Ice VIII game. We took a picture with the Stanley Cup after making a $10 donation to the Greyhound Adoption League of Texas. It was cool to see it up close. As for the game, as expected, the girls beat the guys good...7-2. We left in the middle of the 3rd period.

Friday morning Greg took Benny to the vet. Our vet had an extremely rude receptionist, so we aren't gonna go there anymore. He took him to this other one down the street...who manhandled Benny and subsequently got scratched (ha!). Anyway, the vet was really strange...he wouldn't listen to the medicial history and just kept saying what he *thought* was the matter. Finally Greg convinced him to prescribe this med that Benny took the last time he had stomach issues. Miraculously, Benny was feeling better after a few hours.

Anyway, in the midst of all this vet excitement, I picked up my Mom and then went for my dress fitting. It went pretty well (and quick). Afterwards, we went and picked up my sister and we had dim-sum for lunch. Mmmmmmmm. We also took a tour of my sister's workplace. It's pretty cool. I'll know who to ask to get some iron fencing! Ha ha ha.

After that, I took my Mom to get her last shot for Hep B immunization (or was it Hep A). Then I drove her up to the golf course where we're having the reception, so she could see it. She got to meet Danny and his sidekick...they were so excited to meet my Mom (or rather, just another Chinese person) that they kept on blabbing. My Mom really liked the place, so that's good. Hee hee.

We then went back to my parents' house. My Dad was already home 'cuz his office closed early on Friday. He helped me print the labels for the reception invitations. We talked a bit about the trip and stuff, and I went home at about 6ish. Greg and I tried to go to the driving range that night, but we saw lightning in the not-so-far distance, so we went to Golf Galaxy to check it out...and then went home.

Saturday was rainy. We spent some time fighting the ants in the kitchen. It was ridiculous. They just wouldn't go away, and we can't use insecticide because of the cats. They just kept coming to take "food" from the ant baits. Ugh. Anyway, we had a quick lunch and went to Dallas Gold & Silver Exchange to take a look at wedding rings. We ended up finding some that we really like. Greg's is a platinum band that's really cool (I'll post pics later), and mine is a 1/3 ct. 10-round-diamond channel set ring. It's purty. :o) We were glad that we went there, 'cuz the lady was really nice and didn't try to force anything on us. Plus we can get free resizing/polishing/cleaning there...and they'd even clean my engagement ring! Very cool deal. Anyways, since we were buying both of our rings from them, they ended up giving us a $100 discount on the total. Pretty nifty. Highly recommended.

The rest of Saturday was spent stuffing envelopes and sealing envelopes, and watching NCAA basketball. Hee hee.

Easter Sunday we went to church, which was packed. Then we went to Souper Salad for lunch. That was fun. We hung out and watched some golf, then I went over to my sister's to do some reception planning, and to see her new apartment. :o) I think we have a general idea of what we wanna do at the reception.

Posted by alpha at 10:12 AM | Family , Hockey , Kitties , Wedding | Comments (6)

March 10, 2005

Kinda like a Friday!

It's kinda like a Friday for me today. :o) I'm taking tomorrow off to use up my comp day that I had gotten from last Saturday. Hee hee. Yey! It's supposed to be beautiful weather too...lower 70's. I've got some errands to run, but I think I'll stop by the driving range for a little while as well.

Yesterday was Greg's 36th birthday. Hee hee. In celebration, we went to the driving range last night (it was windy and kinda chilly) and then came home and baked chocolate chip cookies. :o) Hee hee. It was pretty fun. Greg showed me this new modification to my swing that helped me hit my drives straighter and farther. It was pretty nifty. It was against a pretty stiff north wind too. Hee hee yey!

Hmmmm what else...it's been pretty busy at work lately. It's nice 'cuz then the days go by much quicker, but then I keep feeling like I couldn't get things crossed off my to-do list fast enough. Oh well. Such is life. :o)

Greg is off work today in celebration for his birthday. He's playing golf at Castle Hills. Hope he has fun. Hee hee.

Posted by alpha at 09:29 AM | Family , Golf | Comments (2)

February 14, 2005

Weekend of Exercise

Left work an hour early on Friday to go to the Charity Challenge on Ice tryouts at the Farmers Branch Starcenter. It was fun, and got to see some people I hadn't seen in ages...but I skated like crap. Prob one of the worst performances I've had in awhile. Obviously it showed 'cuz I didn't make it to the final round. Oh well...not really up for another butt-kicking anyhow...

Anyways, Greg, Katie, and I went to have pizza in Lewisville after the tryouts. That was pretty fun. Tasty pizza as always. :o)

Saturday we went to lunch with my parents, my sister, Matt, and a couple of my parents' friends from out of town (they're from Alberta). We had dim sum, and it was rather tasty. Afterwards, Greg and I went to Sun & Ski Sports to buy some bike accessories. They were having a huge winter clearance sale, and we each had a $10 off a $50 purchase coupon...so we got some pretty good deals on some stuff. We also stopped by the Bicycles Plus store in Coppell to look at helmets and things. Came home, had dinner, and watched "Office Space" on TV. Hee hee.

Sunday we went to church, then met up with my sister and Matt to look at the golf course (our reception site). My sister hadn't been there, so she wanted to go check it out to see what decorations she wants to get for the reception. It was cool. Greg and I had lunch there at the golf course...it was a pretty day out...temps in the 70's and sunny. :o) We stopped by the Sprint store on the way home to check out some phones. Went home, picked up our bikes, and went over to Katie's to go bike riding. I think we rode about 5 miles around the UTD area. It was pretty fun, and was nice to be out when it was so pretty outside. Went home at about 5:30...I ordered our new phones online, and then left for my hockey game...which was another butt-kicking for some strange reason. The team just wasn't playing well together last night. It was quite a bit frustrating.

Anyway, about the cell phones...I called Sprint Saturday night, and found out that they'd give us the same deal on the phones as all the new subscribers ($150 upgrade rebate, $30 web special if ordered online). Plus the plan that we're on, actually costs $5 less a month now...so we'd get that updated. And they'd also give us a 5% discount per month for renewing our contracts. So I figured that was probably the best and simplest things to do (since Greg's Dad and nephew are both on Sprint...so we can do PCS to PCS for free). Hence we shall be receiving our new phones some time this week. Yey! :o)

Posted by alpha at 08:12 AM | Biking , Family , Hockey | Comments (0)

February 11, 2005

Tra la la...

Hum dee dum...I'm bored...2 hours left until I leave to go to my hockey tryout. Then it's 2 hours' worth of skating my bottom off. Fun fun. :p

*Yawn* Let's see...what else...my department's Director was here visiting yesterday and today. He just left to catch his flight back to Chicago. It was nice to have him around....we all went out to Jason's Deli for lunch yesterday and that was fun. Then he had 1-on-1 meetings with each of us. Yeppers.

Tomorrow we're going out to lunch (dim sum) with my parents. One of my Dad's friends is coming into town from Calgary, so we're all going out to eat together. Afterwards, Greg and I are prob gonna go look at biking equipment (helmets, gloves, water bottles, etc.) and go to Bed Bath & Beyond to add more stuff on our registry. Yep. Bridesmaid dresses should be arriving next Tuesday. Yey! :o) My wedding dress should be in soon too. Perhaps I should call and find out.

Posted by alpha at 01:14 PM | Family , Hockey , Work | Comments (2)

February 09, 2005

Happy Chinese New Year!

Yesterday Greg and I both took a half-day in the afternoon. :o) Greg scheduled a club fitting at the driving range to try out some of the rescue woods that he's been looking at. I left work after going out to lunch with my mentor at Chili's. Fun times.

After Greg got home from the driving range, we left to go to Bicycles Plus down near SMU to check out some bikes. Side note: There are lots of stupid people that drive in that area. Anyways, we test rode the 2005 Trek 3900, and the Specialized Hardrock Sport bikes. We both liked the Specialized better...it was a bit sturdier, and the shocks and tires were better. :o) They had both bikes at $299 (which is about $30 less than MSRP for the Trek, and $50 less than MSRP for the Specialized). We each bought one...Greg bought the yellow one, and I bought the silver one. Hopefully we'll be kicking butts (at least our own) on the trails pretty soon. :o) Yey!

We also had a more pleasant shopping experience at Bicycles Plus...the guy Matt who helped us out, was knowledgeable in all the bikes they have, and could point out the differences between each. It was great. He was very cool. Highly recommended bike shop. Plus they offer free lifetime labor for servicing the bikes when you buy from them.

After our shopping adventure, we went to my parents' house for Chinese New Year dinner. It was mighty tasty. :o) We had a great time. My parents talked a little bit about the wedding/reception and stuff. So that was cool. Mmmmmmmm...may the year of the Rooster begin!

Posted by alpha at 10:36 AM | Biking , Family | Comments (4)

February 07, 2005

Another Weekend Flown By

This year is just flying by way too fast. It's weird, 'cuz each day seems to go by slowly, but weeks would fly by. Very strange.

Friday night Greg went to the driving range for awhile, and then came home and we made steaks on the grill. It was mighty tasty. :o) Saturday we went to the driving range (it was 60 and sunny), and then went over to the Richardson Bike Mart to look at some bicycles. Got swarmed by 5 salespeople in a mere 15 minutes that we were there, so we left. It was really annoying. Someone would come by every 2 or 3 minutes to ask if we have any questions...and we were like...ummm...we told the last guy 2 minutes ago that we didn't have any...and we still don't...please go away. Anyway, because of the over-aggressive behavior of those salespeople, we won't be buying our bikes from them. Their lost of almost $700 of business.

Didn't do too much on Sunday. Greg wasn't feeling very well. We watched some golf, and then leisurely left for Chris & Beta's Super Bowl Party. It was fun. :o) Chris' projector/screen set-up was awesome. Hee hee. Chris also confirmed some good news that I'm not allowed to share just yet. Hee hee. Yey!

Posted by alpha at 09:46 AM | Family , Friends | Comments (6)

January 31, 2005

Weekend of Fun!

Wow I had a fun weekend! :o)

Friday night I was really tired, so I vegged in front of the TV and watched a couple of movies. Greg went to play pick-up, and I worked for about half an hour at 1am and earned myself another comp day. :p Wheee! Hee hee.

Saturday morning, I got up leisurely, and packed for Austin. We left at about noon or so, and stopped in Waco for lunch. Got to Austin at around 4ish...went by a couple of the Longhorn stores to see about Rose Bowl merchandise. I found this fleece that I really wanted, but they only had L, XL, and XXL...which is too big for me in men's sizes. Bought a shirt for my sis and a hat for me. :o) I'll have to look for the fleece later. Went and checked into the hotel. It was pretty nice. We called Aunt Martha and went over to hang out with her and Uncle Guy at the Embassy Suites that they and the team are staying at. That was pretty fun. There were a lot of Soul fans that came for the game. :o) We left after about an hour to go back to our hotel to get ready for dinner.

We got all dressed up (sorry forgot to take pics), and went down to the concierge to see if she had any recommendations for nice restaurants in town. She recommended that we go to Carmelo's Ristorante Italiano, and gave us a voucher for a free appetizer. The place was AWESOME! They had a guy playing the accordian to entertain. :o) It was a romantic, candlelit, white-table-cloth type of place. Right when we first sat down, we saw the table next to us get a flambe dessert. It looked sooo cool, and so I decided that I wanna have dessert more so than dinner (plus I was still a little full from lunch). We ordered our appetizer (bruschetta with salmon), got a couple of Caesar salads, and ordered dessert. :o) We didn't end up getting the flambe, but we did have a couple of pieces of pie. I got the Chocolate Derby Truffle (it looked like a chocolate dome...hee hee), and Greg got the Lemon Tort. It was delicious!!! OMG. I was so full of chocolate. We had sooooo much fun. We'll have to go back there again next time and try the main courses! :o) Hee hee.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel to change, etc. Checked back in with Aunt Martha, and found out that Mike had returned from their team walkthrough, and he and Uncle Guy (and one of the other coaches) were at Pappasitos having dinner. So we went over there, but just missed them. We went over to the Embassy Suites, and hung out with them in the lobby for awhile. Then up walks Ron Jaworski. I, of course, didn't recognize him, but Greg did (after a couple of seconds), and had this look of awe on his face. For those of you who don't know, Ron Jaworski was the QB for the Philadephia Eagles in Super Bowl XV. He's now on ESPN, and as it turns out, is the President of the Philadelphia Soul. Anyway, we met him and his wife...they were both extremely nice and he was very funny. :p He said that they were heading out to Jacksonville for the Super Bowl right after the Soul game on Sunday. Hee hee. How cool is that?!

Sunday morning we got up and packed up our stuff...and checked out of the hotel. We walked over to the Frank Erwin Center for the Soul vs. Austin Wranglers game. The Soul fans (and family) basically had an entire section to ourselves right behind the Soul bench. It was awesome. I think Aunt Martha said that she had reserved 148 tickets for the family and the Soul fans. :o) I think that's just incredible. We were sitting 4 rows behind Ron Jaworski and his wife, and other important people in the Soul organization. It was pretty awesome. The Soul beat the Wranglers 66-35. :o)

We drove home right after the game, so I could make it back in time for my hockey game at 7:30. :o) Traffic was surprisingly smooth, in spite of the rain. We got in at about 5:30, rested a little bit, and left for my game. We lost 5-2 to the Hornets, but at least we scored more than 1 goal! Greg said that I was skating really well last night too. :o) He's been trying to get me to glide better so I don't use as much energy skating. I think it's working, 'cuz I was skating really fast, but I wasn't really sweaty or anything (a little winded, but not sweaty). :o) Yey! I had a few really good shots in front of the net, but unfortunately, none made it into the net. Oh well. I'm so close that I can feel it. :o)

Anyways, there's my weekend recap. It was a wonderful weekend. :o) Tired today though 'cuz I'm working 6-3 today and tomorrow. Yuck. Hopefully not much goes on today that I can leave at 2:30. Hee hee.

Posted by alpha at 07:26 AM | Family , Fun Stuff , Hockey , Memories | Comments (7)

January 28, 2005

TGIF!

This week seemed to have lasted forever. It was weird. So I surely am glad that it's finally Friday. :o)

Not a whole lot has been going on. We finally watched "Spiderman 2" the other night. It was pretty good. Hee hee. I may have to add that to my wish list. :o)

Yesterday I found out who my mentor (for our mentoring program at work) is. It's one of the Directors that we have down here. She's really cool. I'm looking forward to it. Hee hee.

Oh I found out today that one of my friends that I played hockey with a few years ago has joined my women's team. :o) Yey!!! She's a great player...we can surely use her.

Ummm...what else...still 2.5 hrs before I get to go home. Next Monday & Tuesday I'm working the 6-3 shift. Yep.

I'm not sure what all we're doing in Austin this weekend, other than dinner and the game. I'm sure we'll go hang out with the team and Greg's family a bit. Should be a good time. :o)

Posted by alpha at 02:35 PM | Family , Hockey , Work | Comments (4)

January 24, 2005

Weekend Getaway

(Okay, just 1 last post for today...)

Greg found out that his cousin has a couple of extra tickets to the Philadelphia Soul vs. Austin Wranglers Arena Football game this Sunday in Austin. For those of you that don't know...Greg's cousin Mike is the head coach of the Philadelphia Soul team. Mike's parents (Uncle Guy & Aunt Martha) and siblings all try to go to the games whenever Mike's team plays in town (Austin or Dallas). It's a big family affair and is quite fun. :p Last year we were a rowdy bunch of 20 at the Desperados game. Ha ha ha.

Anyway, as we were making plans to go to Austin for the game this Sunday, we decided that it would be more fun to make a weekend of it, and go down on Saturday instead. So this morning we made reservations at the Austin Marriott at the Capitol for Saturday night. We'll prob go play golf somewhere Saturday afternoon, go out to a nice restaurant Saturday night, and then go to the game on Sunday. :o) This is gonna be our Valentine's Day celebration for this year. :o) I think it'll be much fun. :o) Hee hee. *Excited*

Posted by alpha at 02:52 PM | Family | Comments (4)

Weekend Recap

Not much went on this past weekend. It was really too cold to do much outside. Sounds whimpy, I know, especially to the Chicago-ans that I talked to today...they got 11 inches of snow last night. Anyway, Saturday we went to Foley's to check out their china and things, and to see what nice stuff the department stores have...didn't really find anything we liked. So we went to Bed Bath & Beyond in Addison (the one that stocks the fine china). We signed up for our registry, and started putting things on it. We picked our china pattern (which turned out to be very expensive) and several other things. We'll need to go back to finish up on the stuff that we didn't want to put on the registry without having first looked at it in person. :o)

Saturday night we went to my hockey team's practice. It was a blast. It was Drew, Vicki, John, Marcy, Katie, Kelly (and Kelly's Mom), Rose (from Relentless), and Greg and me. We worked on individual stuff for a little while...I worked on my slapshot and did some skating practice with Greg. And then for the last half hour, the girls scrimmaged against the 3 guys. We first scrimmaged with the guys playing defense...so we could practice our offense, then we switched it around. It was a lot of fun (and very tiring). :p Afterwards, we tried to go to dinner at Pappasitos, but it was packed (45-55 minute wait), so we went to Desperados over by our house instead. It was much more peaceful there, and we had a good time hanging out and talking, etc. Didn't get home until after 11.

Sunday we went to church, then hung out around the house trying to stay warm. :p I played around in the registry some, and added some appliances that I know I want. Had the hockey game at 8:45 against the Mantis. We tied 1-1, but we played a lot more aggressive than we had been. So it was a good workout. :p

Posted by alpha at 12:49 PM | Family , Friends , Hockey , Wedding | Comments (0)

January 17, 2005

Another Weekend Flown By...

Wow...another weekend has flown by. How come the work weeks can't fly by so fast? I kinda wish for the reverse...

Anyway, Greg left for Phoenix with his Dad Friday afternoon. They stayed at the Fairmont Princess in Scottsdale. It was a really nice hotel. They were living it up, ordering room service and all. Ha ha ha. :p Saturday they played golf at the TPC Scottsdale - Desert Course. He was actually a little bit disappointed with the way that the course was kept. I think the TPC was concentrating on making the Stadium Course ready for the PGA's Phoenix Open...so might have neglected the little course next door. They had fun nonetheless. :o)

For me, I spent most of Saturday at my parents' house. We worked on the wedding invitations and response cards. They turned out just AWESOME. My Dad was enjoying it so much (he's a professional typesetter) that he's considering going into business making invitations! :o) It took me and family about 3.5 hours on Saturday to print/emboss all 200 invitations and response cards. :o) Yey!!!

Sunday Greg and his Dad went to play at Sanctuary Golf Course, where Greg made a hole-in-one at the 12th hole!!! :o) That's so awesome. He called to tell me about it, and I reminded him that he should keep the ball so he doesn't lose it later on in the round. :o) Hee hee. I think that just made the trip for him (and his Dad). :o)

Sunday I went to run some errands at the store, etc. Then Jo came over at around 2ish, and we did some planning for the wedding shower. :o) It was a good time. I left to go to my hockey game at 6:45...and went straight from there to pick up Greg from the airport. We stopped at Whataburger on the way home 'cuz we were both a little hungry. Hee hee. We spent some time catching up...he gave me the presents he got me from Phoenix (they're way cool)...I showed him the invitations (he loved them). :o) Fun times.

Today I had lunch with Luci at First Chinese BBQ. Mmmmmmmm! We ordered so much food. Ha ha. Tonight she's coming over for dinner 'cuz I'm making ham & stew. It'll be fun. We'll watch "24". Hee hee. Yey!

Oh, and if you want to see pics from Greg's trip, including a pic of his hole-in-one...go here.

Posted by alpha at 03:07 PM | Family , Friends , Memories | Comments (2)

January 14, 2005

Quiet Weekend

As we speak, Greg and his Dad are getting ready to board the plane to Phoenix to play golf for the weekend. :o/ I hope they have fun, but it'll be a quiet weekend for me...

Tonight I'm planning on doing some cleaning and watching my "Return of the King" Extended Edition DVD that I've had for 3 weeks but still haven't watched. It was hard finding that big of a chunk of time when Greg's around.

Tomorrow morning I'm meeting up with my sister at my parents' house to work on the reception invitations. After that, I'll be going to my hockey practice at 7.

Sunday I have plans to hang out with Jo...dunno when/what yet, but I'm sure it'll be a blast! :o) Then, as usual, I'll have my hockey game Sunday night. Hopefully I'll be able to make it to at least a little bit of it before I need to pick up Greg from the airport.

Monday I don't have to go to work, so I have a lunch date with Luci at First Chinese BBQ. Yum! Can't wait! :o) Hee hee.

Well, maybe it's not going to be such a quiet weekend after all. I've got something planned every day. Hee hee. :o)

Posted by alpha at 02:28 PM | Family | Comments (4)

January 11, 2005

A New 24 Addict

I think I have created another "24" addict. Hee hee. Greg actually watched last night's 2 episodes with me, and was quite into it. Yey! :o) The first 4 episodes have been pretty intriguing so far, so I'm looking forward to the rest of the season.

I was mighty tired this morning when I woke up. I was kinda on call for this morning's volume duties 'cuz supposedly Chicago had an ice storm last night...and Jeff didn't know if he'd be able to make it in safely. But since he didn't call at 5:30am, I assume that it was just fine. My body kept waking up all night in anticipation of the call though. It was weird. I think that's why I'm tired today.

This morning Gary brought in some chocolate chip cookies that his Mom had made. :o) His Mom makes great cookies, and she always gives some to Gary every time he goes home to visit...and he always brings them in to share with us. Mmmmmmm...

Today I think I'm gonna go out to lunch with the guys. I'm gonna need an hour-long diversion if I want to stay awake today. Hee hee.

Chatted with Chris for awhile last night. We're gonna go help him shop for hockey equipment Wednesday night. :o) Wheeeee! His first lesson went well, and he didn't fall (always a good sign). Hee hee. I'm so excited!!!

Posted by alpha at 09:37 AM | Family , Friends , Hockey , Work | Comments (2)

January 05, 2005

BB Shek - July 1998 - January 4, 2005

BB Shek passed away on January 4, 2005. She lived a good doggie life, even though she had to live outside in the backyard. She was rescued from the Mesquite Animal Shelter when she was 3 months old, and was a great companion and friend for 6.5 years. Towards the end of her days, she was in much pain - she couldn't hear well, and her joints hurt...yet she would still greet my family at the door with her excited look and wagging tail whenever we come home. She's in a place now where she can run around freely without pain, and I know that she's watching over us each day, like she did everyday for years.

B, we love you, and will see you again some day.

Posted by alpha at 07:27 AM | Family , Memories | Comments (2)

January 03, 2005

4.5-Hr Trip + Rain + Traffic = 6-Hr Trip

Our Pre-NYE party was a lot of fun. Chris, Beta, Chris' brother Steven, Luci, Austin, and my sister all came over. We built our own pizza, and Greg grilled it on the smoker. It was rather tasty. Made a huge mess. :o) We sat around, drank, talked, and watched the Cal vs. Texas Tech Holiday Bowl game. Fun times were had by all.

The next morning Greg, Paul, and I drove down to San Antonio. We stopped once to have lunch, and then again in Austin to go to the UT bookstore to buy some Rose Bowl attire for Greg's Dad for his birthday. I think we spent a good hour there. Goodness gracious. :p We got down to Diane's house in Boerne at about 5:30 or so. Everybody went out for dinner at this Mexican restaurant in downtown Boerne. It was fun. We went back to the house, drank, watched football games, and some played board games. By 10:30 I was getting tired and grumpy...it took a lot to make it to midnight. Heh heh.

On Saturday, everybody came over to watch football games. We watched A&M get clobbered by Tennessee at the Cotton Bowl. Then we watched Texas won in the Rose Bowl against Michigan. Greg's Dad was calling his brother, Uncle Don (in Michigan), all throughout the game to harass him. It was hilarious. :o)

Sunday we went out to breakfast with Greg's Dad for his birthday. All of us out-of-towners couldn't stay for his birthday party, which was put at 3pm for some silly reason. Breakfast was fun and very tasty. The "Chocolate Kiss" at Le Peep's is AWESOME. Best hot chocolate I've ever had. :o) Greg, Paul, and I left to come home right after breakfast. Got stuck in pouring rain and lots of traffic. Took us 6 hours to get home. Yuck. We even had to drive through the ghetto near downtown 'cuz there were wrecks on 35. :o/ Ugh. What a mess. I skipped my hockey game last night 'cuz we got back so late, and I didn't have a chance to rest. I had to come in to work at 6 this morning. Yuck. At least I'll get to go home early. Hee hee. :o)

Posted by alpha at 07:47 AM | Family , Friends | Comments (2)

December 30, 2004

Almost Happy New Year

Happy New Year, everybody! :o) I know it's early, but I won't be in town this weekend to wish y'all a happy new year. Hee hee.

Tonight we're having some people over for a Pre-NYE party. Greg was sad that we'd miss Luci's NYE party this year, so he decided that we should have some people over beforehand anyway. We're doing a "Build Your Own Pizza" night. What happens is that we'd have our own personal sized pizza crusts, add toppings, and Greg would grill it on the smoker. It is sooooo tasty. We haven't done it in awhile, so this will be fun.

It has kinda been a quiet week...not much really happening. I'm really enjoying the drive to/from work though, since a lot of people are on vacation, etc. so I can actually save 10-15 minutes in my usual commute. Pretty nice.

This weekend we're going to San Antonio for Greg's Dad's 75th Birthday/Rose Bowl party. Should be a blast. We're staying at Diane's, and it's always a party there. Hee hee. Can't wait. :o)

7 more hours of work to go...

Posted by alpha at 09:20 AM | Family , Friends , Work | Comments (2)

December 27, 2004

Christmas, et. al

Continuing on from last Wednesday's post...it started snowing at about 11am. It was no wimpy snowstorm either. Everybody was just gathering around the windows to watch it snow. Shortly thereafter, I found out that there were gonna be a bunch of late memos that I would have to post that night (last time it happened I was at work until 7pm). So in an attempt to avoid having to drive on the icy streets in the dark during rush hour, I got my boss' boss (my boss was out of town) to let me work from home in the afternoon. I left at about 1:30pm and the roads weren't too bad. Greg got to drive in the nasty traffic when he was coming home, and he said that people had to stop at the top of the High 5, wait, and then slide down the ramp. It was ridiculous. I was very glad that I got to come home early that day. Later on I heard that Galveston & Corpus Christi & Houston got a ton of snow. Ha ha. How weird is THAT!

I spent most of Thursday cleaning the house. Nothing too terribly exciting. Greg got to come home early from work, so that was cool.

Friday Greg was up early to start smoking the ham. I think he ended up smoking it like 6 hours or something. More cleaning was done. Went to the Christmas Eve service at church. Then soon after Paul arrived with their Dad. They had to make 2 trips back to the car to get everything 'cuz they had brought so many presents along with them! Ha ha. We went to Desperado's for dinner...hung out awhile, and called it a night.

Saturday everybody was up kinda early. Paul told us that Jerry was up Friday night playing with a bow that he had gotten off of one of the presents. Hee hee. We hung out for a little bit, before Greg and I started to prepare Christmas lunch. The lunch was a great success. The ham was awesome, the mashed potatoes and green beans were great...and my Dad really liked the fresh pineapple for the ham. My sister said that it was the best ham she has ever had. Hee hee. :p After lunch, we opened presents. I got my sister a coffee/cappucino/expresso maker and this Yorkshire Terrier calendar...and it just so happened that she had brought Mak along with her to the lunch. Ha ha ha. How funny. Everybody had a great time. My sister and Matt had to leave soon after 'cuz they had to go to Matt's parents' house for Christmas Dinner. My parents stuck around for a little bit...we had apple pie and cheesecake. It was pretty fun.

Sunday morning we brought Paul & their Dad to our church. It was cool. Greg's Dad really liked our church and our pastor. We took them out to Steak Kountry (in Wylie) for lunch. Then we drove around and showed their Dad Southfork Ranch...and drove by Pecan Hollow Golf Course to show him our reception site. Came home, watched some football, and then Paul took their Dad back to Laura's Mom's apartment in Oak Lawn so he could meet up with Marshall & Laura to go back to San Antonio.

Greg and I just hung out for the rest of the day...we were pretty exhausted from all the entertaining. :p But I would declare our first holiday hosting a success. :o) Hee hee.

Posted by alpha at 07:38 AM | Family , Work | Comments (0)

December 22, 2004

Rain, Sleet, and Snow

It was sleeting for about 5 seconds when I was driving in this morning, then it turned into rain. Matt just got in and he said that it just started sleeting again. Yuck. Hopefully the drive home wouldn't be terrible, but who knows. The temperature is supposed to keep dropping all day, so the sleet might turn into snow. Maybe if Greg doesn't have to go anywhere Thursday night, I might think about icing down the driveway to see if we could play hockey on it. Hee hee.

We did all of our Christmas dinner shopping yesterday, so we wouldn't have to do it in the bitter cold today or tomorrow. I got off work at 3 (had the 6-3 shift yesterday), went to the store right after, and didn't get home until about 4:30. Bought like $130 worth of food/essentials. Then I chilled at home the rest of night, 'cuz I was so tired from getting up at the crack of dawn. Greg went to play basketball at church, and I cleaned up a tiny corner of my kitchen and organized the stuff above the washer/dryer. *Accomplished*

Oh wow...Greg said that sleet is starting to collect on the ground. It'll prob start snowing soon...

Goodness...I sure have been busy this morning. I best get back to work. Fun fun!

Posted by alpha at 08:34 AM | Family | Comments (0)

December 20, 2004

T-Minus-5-Days Until Christmas!

I'm actually getting quite excited about Christmas now. Last Friday I was off from work, and spent a few hours finishing up my Christmas shopping and birthday gift shopping for my friend Darcy's birthday. :o) It was mighty fun. I also stopped by the UPS Store to mail off a package to Greg's Uncle Don and Aunt Mac. It was really a 50th Wedding Anniversary gift, but it took awhile for me to get the picture frame shipped from Indonesia, that it turned into a Christmas gift. Hee hee. Yep yep. I came home and excitedly wrapped all my presents. Got a nice Christmasy tablecloth to cover Greg's coffee table, and set all the gifts on it. I have a matching tablecloth for the dining room table too. Yey!

Friday night we watched "Bourne Supremacy" on DVD. It was interesting. Then Greg left to go play pick-up. I stayed home and watched "Legally Blonde 2". Bought it along with "Mona Lisa Smile" and "The Passion" while I was at Blockbuster renting "Bourne Supremacy." They were previewed items, and I have a 30-day guarantee on them anyhow. So I just bought them the cheap way. :o) I still haven't had a nice block of time to watch the extended edition of "Return of the King." I don't really want to split up the movie to watch 2 separate times...so I'll hafta find 4 hours (+?) to watch it. Hee hee.

Saturday we waited around for a little bit for my sister to come by to pick up the old couch and all that. She was moving to a new apartment at Preston & Frankford. When she didn't come by 1, we left to go Christmas shopping. We went to Bed Bath & Beyond and Barnes & Noble. It was fun. Also went to Petsmart to get the kitties some new toys, and stopped by Michael's to check out some Christmas decorations (bought an apple-scented candle and a little wreath thing to go around it).

Saturday night we went to Darcy's birthday party at Bahama Breeze. It was fun! We had Darcy, her bro Doug, Curtis, Peter, Zoe, Adam, Amy, Chris, Beta, Danielle (Darcy's friend from work), and of course us. It was a good time. :o) Darcy was showered with gifts. Hee hee. Chris & Beta got us a wedding scrapbook kit for Christmas! Yey! I'll have to get started on it. :o)

Sunday we went to church...and went to Taco Cabana for lunch. Went to Wally World to return and buy some stuff. Yep yep. That was it. My sister and her gang came over and took some of the couch set, but they had to come back to get the couch 'cuz it wouldn't fit in her Explorer. I think they came over while we were gone at my hockey game, 'cuz when we came back from the game, the couch was gone! Hee hee. :p Now I can get some serious cleaning/rearranging done. :o)

This week I'm off on Thursday and Friday...ie. major cleaning days. Fun stuff. :o) Next weekend we're going down to San Antonio for Greg's Dad's 75th birthday. We'll have a Rose Bowl watching party probably on the 1st. :o) Hee hee. Yey!

Posted by alpha at 01:24 PM | Family , Friends | Comments (0)

December 08, 2004

La Dee Dah

It's been awhile huh? Well the temperature's no longer 28 degrees...it's now getting up to 65 during the day. Pleasant. :o)

Last week I was off starting Thursday afternoon, through Monday of this week. It was kinda nice and relaxing. Didn't do too much. Ran some errands, etc. Worked on Greg's MSO site a bit...people can now log in and log out. I'll be building out the nav menus for the different groups next. Shouldn't be too difficult.

What else...Saturday had lunch with Jodie at String Bean. That was great fun. We were gonna go shopping afterwards, but called it off 'cuz we were both in food comas after lunch. :o) Greg and Paul went to Southlake Carroll's high school playoff game at Texas Stadium while I was gone. They came home not long after I did. I watched TV and looked for wedding invitations online. Paul stayed over Saturday night and went to church with us Sunday morning. That was pretty cool. :o)

Sunday night's hockey game was a lot of fun. I got to play forward again after having to fill in as defense for the past few weeks. Had quite a few shots on net, and had this beautiful pass to Katie (who was wide open). Heh heh. I was skating so fast that Drew asked if I had my Wheaties that morning or something. :p How funny. We ended up with a 1-1 tie, but lost during overtime. Still fun though.

Monday I went to lunch with my friend Louisa from high school/parents' church. It was cool. I don't think we've hung out in years. She mentioned this boy (Dave) that she's been dating for 2 years, and I had no idea. :p Ha ha. It was good catching up and all that. We went to try the Chaat Cafe upon Adam's recommendation. It was pretty tasty. :o)

Hmmm talking about food is making me mega-hungry. I think I'm gonna have some banana bread for breakfast. :o) Mmmmmmm...

Posted by alpha at 07:51 AM | Family , Friends , Hockey | Comments (0)

November 29, 2004

Thanksgiving, Wedding, and a Baptism

It sure was nice to have 5 days away from work! :o) I was off Wednesday through Friday last week. Got plenty of rest (and also got a slight cold). It felt so much longer than 5 days off though...pretty weird. Wednesday I just chilled and hung out at home with the kitties. After Greg got home from work (he got off early at like 3ish), we went out to Wylie to look for Outlaws BBQ, which unfortunately had gone out of business. :o( I grabbed some pho for dinner...Paul came over at about 8ish. He stayed over so he and Greg could leave for San Antonio early Thursday morning.

They left at about 7:30, and got to San Antonio at about 11 (he said no traffic). I got up leisurely and did some vacuuming around the house. Then I left at about 11 to go over to my parents' house for Thanksgiving. It was a good time. Surprisingly, my parents weren't all stressed out like they usually are when we have company. We just kinda hung out and went through the Black Friday ads (weren't many good sales this year tho). People started showing up at about 6. The turkey turned out great...it was "Chinese style" turkey...my Mom cooked it with ginger & green onion, and it was perfectly cooked (not too dry). We also had baked salmon, potato pie, curry pastries, and sticky rice. It was sooooo good. We also had apple pie & ice cream for dessert. Everybody left with happy tummies. I hung around and helped my sister acquire her new laptop from CompUSA's Black Friday sale. She got a bunch of free stuff to go with it too...which also meant that she also gets to fill out tons of rebate forms. :p Hee hee. Didn't get home until about 1:30am...

Friday I slept in a little. Tried to work on a website, but couldn't concentrate to do it. Ended up watching football games and movies pretty much all day. Kinda fun. Greg and Paul got back from Austin at about 10pm.

Saturday I think I slept in too. Hee hee. Had some leftovers for lunch. Watched some football. Went to my friend Sinead's wedding at my parents' church. :o) Saw a bunch of my friends from there that I hadn't seen in years. Kinda cool. Not as weird as I had originally thought. They had their reception at the Omni Park West Hotel...great food, but the service was a little lacking. They had run out of the chicken entree (even though it was predetermined when we RSVP-ed), so my Mom and several at her table didn't get to eat until after we had our dessert. Then they ran out of cake by the time they were done with their food. Ah well.

Sunday morning we went to church. One of the associate pastors, David Rogers, did a sermon on baptism. This has been an ongoing "thing" (wasn't really an issue, just a "thing") with Greg, since he grew up Episcopal, and so he was baptized by sprinkling as a baby. But the Baptist church (nor my parents' non-denominational church) doesn't recognize that as baptism. We believe in baptism by immersion. Anyway, back in April or May, when I became a member of our church, Greg couldn't because he wasn't baptized by immersion. So we've talked about that a few times and I thought I'd let it alone 'cuz it really would be his decision to do something that important. On Sunday, after Pastor David did his sermon on the importance and significance of baptism, he invited anyone who feels that s/he needs to be baptized to come out front and meet with him during the invitation. All of a sudden, Greg turned to me and said, "I'm gonna go do that!" Taken by surprise, I said "Really?" He said yes, and asked if I'd come with him. We walked across the front and he met with Pastor David, and got changed in the dressing area. I waited for him by the baptismal pool. He got baptized by our senior pastor, Pastor Gary Singleton, at the end of the service! It was so cool! :o) After the service, this guy David, who came as a member of the panel we had at our premarital class, came over and told me how cool it was. He asked about our wedding, so I talked to him some about that. Then this old couple (I think they were in their late 60s or 70s) came over...the guy told me how beautiful the baptism was, and said that he started crying when he saw us coming across the front! It was neat. :p I wish Greg had gotten to hear all that!

We celebrated his baptism by having grilled steak & tator tots for "lunner" (lunch & dinner). Then we went to my team's hockey practice. There were 6 of us there...me and Greg, Mandi and her husband Chris, and Marcy and her bro John. It was fun. Each girl had her own guy coach! :o) Greg and I worked on some things that I've been needing to work on, and then at the end of the practice, we played a little bit of 2-on-2 (Greg & John against me & Marcy) for about 10 minutes. It was a lot of fun. :o)

Posted by alpha at 03:22 PM | Family , Friends , Memories | Comments (0)

November 22, 2004

Rain, rain, go away

Man traffic was horrendous this morning! This rainy weather caused 3 accidents on 635...making it virtually impossible for me to go that way and be able to make it here at a decent time. So I took the George Bush Turnpike...it didn't end up being a whole lot faster, and it cost me $1.20. Oh well.

My whole body hurts. Last night I made the mistake of eating (a steak, no less) an hour before my hockey game. We were short on players (we had 9), so there were only 3 of us on defense (hence double-shifting). By the 3rd period I was feeling my dinner (stomach hurting like hell), and my right thigh was cramping. Then I made the mistake of blocking a shot with my left thigh (see similar incident from a few months ago), so my left thigh was throbbing. Ugh. At least we made it out of the game with a 0-0 tie. :o) Makes my suffering almost worth it. Ha ha.

Looks like I'm recaping my weekend backwards here. Lessee...Sunday morning was our last pre-marital class. Yey! :o) Our facilitators brought a really nice breakfast for us. Mmmmmm. Hungry just thinking about it.

Saturday night we went to Greg's orchestra concert. It was good. :o) Lots o' fun were had. My Dad really wants to go to their holiday concert in December. He kept asking about it. Very funny.

Friday I spent a good portion of it running around, getting our reception site settled. I went up to Pecan Hollow Golf Course to take some pictures for my Mom 'cuz she wanted to see what it looks like. While I was there, I ran into the site supervisor, Danny. Apparently Danny got the run-through about my reception Friday morning, from the facilities manager (Shannon) at the Plano Centre. So when he saw me taking pictures, he came out and introduced himself. It was pretty cool. We went through the set-up together, and figured out that we could seat 150 pretty comfortably in the dining room. Yey! :o) After the picture-taking, I went up to the Plano Centre to meet with the events coordinator (Jo) and the catering manager (Anne). Jo introduced me to the wedding coordinator (Claudia). Claudia, Anne, and I sat down to talk more about the details, etc. Then Anne went and got Shannon so he could tell me what all's included in our rental/service charge. I have a feeling that this might be their biggest event there, since the clubhouse is pretty new (remodeled and opened this April). Everybody was freakishly excited about the reception. It was really strange. :p Anyway, Claudia's gonna send me an itemized list of costs this week...and I'd sign the contract and pay the $75 deposit and everything will be official. :o)

Anyway, enough about my weekend. 2-day week for me this week. Yey! :o) It's supposed to get REALLY cold over Thanksgiving...gonna get down to freezing Tuesday night. Brrrrr! I'll be celebrating Turkey Day with my parents...Greg's going down to San Antonio with Paul.

Posted by alpha at 08:18 AM | Family , Hockey , Wedding | Comments (0)

November 11, 2004

Marathon Day

It's 8:12 and it's already over 2 hours into my day...I hafta stay 'til late tonight too 'cuz our Director is in town again (this time to do reviews), so we're all going out to dinner (supposedly anyway). We'll see. I brought a couple of DVDs to kill time between 3 and 5pm. Fun stuff.

I guess I haven't updated since the weekend. My birthday was really nice (especially so since Greg and I got engaged). :o) Saturday Greg and Paul went down to College Station for the A&M/OU game, then to Austin for the Texas/OSU game. They were gone all day and got on TV coverage twice in 2 different games. How funny. Anyway, Jodie, Luci, and I went wedding/bridesmaid dress shopping. It was loads of fun. We found both a wedding dress for me and a bridesmaid dress for them. :o) Quite an accomplishment I'd say. Hee hee.

Saturday night I went over to my parents' for dinner. I requested that they make dinner this time instead of going out to celebrate. It was a great time. My sister and Matt left soon after dinner, but I stuck around and watched the Mavericks game with my Dad, then talked to them some more about the wedding and reception and stuff. :o) My Mom came up with 60 people for her guest list. Good grief. We'll see what happens with that.

Sunday (my birthday) we slept in, and then went out on a motorcycle ride to go have breakfast at Denny's. That was pretty fun, and it was a beautiful day out. We also stopped by the golf course in Plano to check out their banquet facilities for the wedding reception. Looks like they could only hold 120 people though. My hockey game was at 7:30pm...Katie finally broke our no-scoring streak! Went out to Razzoo's with Greg, Luci, Katie, and Tony after the game to celebrate my birthday. It was fun. :o)

Monday Greg and I were off work again. We tried to get a hold of the people who are in charge of event planning in the City of Plano. Found the golf course guy, who referred us to a lady at the Plano Centre, who we emailed but never heard back. I don't think we did too much else that day. Just kinda hung out and relaxed.

This upcoming Saturday, Chris and I will be hosting a birthday party at Chris & Beta's house. :o) Wheeee! Fun fun! Hopefully people will be able to make it since it's a little bit late notice. I'm sure it'll be a great time. Hee hee.

Posted by alpha at 08:13 AM | Family , Friends , Hockey , Wedding , Work | Comments (0)

November 04, 2004

Yeyeyeyeyeyeyey

3 hours 45 minutes to go, and counting...then no more work until next Tuesday!

Man I just realized that I have a lot to do before I leave today. Also am obligated to attend a lunch thing at 11:45 with a Senior VP who's in town from Chicago. I asked my manager if I should stay to go to that (otherwise I leave at 11:15 for my half-day), and she would highly recommend that I do. So I hafta stay for it. Oh well. Not that I had other plans anyway. :p

Last night Luci came over and we made "extreme nachos." It was pretty tasty. Hee hee. Then we (including the kitties) had ice cream that she brought over. Mmmmmm.

Saturday I'm going shopping with the girls for wedding dress/bridesmaid dresses. Fun stuff! Then Saturday night my parents are making me dinner for my bday. :o) Hee hee. We hadn't had dinner at home in awhile (we always celebrate at a restaurant), so it should be fun.

Posted by alpha at 07:29 AM | Family , Friends , Wedding , Work | Comments (0)

October 26, 2004

Record Time!

29 minutes from garage to parking lot this morning. :o) I think there were a couple of stalled cars on westbound 635, east of the 635/75 intersection, so they alleviated traffic somewhat. Hee hee. Wheeee!

I think Greg and I are gonna go vote during lunch today. Hopefully there won't be a really long line or anything.

This week is my last 5-day work-week. :o) How 'bout that! We got all the vacation schedules figured out and put on a nice-looking calendar (thanks to yours truly). I'm off next Thursday afternoon, through the following Monday for my birthday. Hee hee. Greg got next Friday & the following Monday off too. Yey!

This last weekend was good. I was over at my parents' house for most of Saturday. My sister and Matt joined us for lunch, we all chatted...had a good time. Then my Dad and I took pictures of some of the wood products that he had, so he could put them up on the website. Saturday night Greg and I took my parents out to dinner at Toyko One. He officially got permission from them to marry me! Ha ha ha. :p We had a great time. It's usually not just the 4 of us that get to hang out...my sister and/or Matt is/are usually around too. So that was good. :o)

Sunday we went to church for our class, and then to the mall to get Greg some new clothes. He bought this new pair of Timberland shoes that are really nice. :o) He wore them to work yesterday and said that they're very comfortable. Hee hee.

Sunday night I had my hockey game against the Hornets. Lost 0-2. Coulda been much worse. I think for the most part we kept up pretty well. Our coach Michael's back. :o) I like having him around. I know some of my teammates don't like his aggressive coaching style, but I always enjoy learning from him. Anyway, he and Drew (our goalie Vicki's boyfriend) both know how I can improve as a player (Drew used to coach my travel team), and I appreciate them volunteering their time to help us get better. :o) Oh oh! And Michael made it on the backup squad for the Ft. Worth Brahmas!!!!! He might get called when a player gets injured, etc. That's soooooo cool. :o) And he said that he's been practicing with some Stars players at Grapevine Mills. Hee hee hee. :o) Very awesome.

Posted by alpha at 07:20 AM | Family , Hockey , Memories , Work | Comments (0)

October 13, 2004

I need a nappy...

Last night I managed to sit down for about 15 minutes before Greg got home from work, after which we were off to move all the rest of his stuff from the storage room across town in Lewisville. We stopped by the U-Haul place by my house to rent a trailer, drove across town, got to the storage place 20 minutes before they closed, moved everything (huge couch, king-sized bed & box springs, table, hat hanger, bookshelf, rocking chair) out of the room in those 20 minutes, and then put everything in the trailer. It was some good and efficient work, lemme tell ya. Found some muscles that hadn't been used in awhile. :p

We stopped by our favorite pizza place, Parma Pizza & Pasta, in Lewisville on the way home. Business must have been good...they upgraded the table settings and stuff, with fresh roses (very pretty), etc. and added some decorations. It had a more intimate feel to it. On top of it all, there were a few guys there playing music for us. It was greatness. It turns out that they're there every Tuesday night from 7pm to 9pm. They were pretty good too. :o)

Afterwards, we went to Bed Bath & Beyond and used our 20% off coupons to buy some new sheets for the bed.

We hurried home and moved everything inside the house, organized (somewhat) and managed to put the bed into the room. Cats were amused. :p Threw the new sheets in the washer. Went back to the U-Haul place to drop off the trailer. And thus ended our evening at about 11pm. Late for me. :p So I'm mega-tired today. Must find something interesting to do here at work...

Posted by alpha at 08:00 AM | Family | Comments (0)

October 06, 2004

It's been awhile

Well I made it through Thursday last week, and then had myself a 4-day weekend. It was quite nice. Friday I spent a good portion of it cleaning the house. Then Greg came home from work with Paul so we could leave in the morning for Austin. We watched TV and hung out, as usual.

Saturday we left really early to drive down to Austin to the football game. John, Diane, Greg's Dad, Laura, BJ, and Christa met us there. We didn't sit in the same place, but we met up towards the end of the game. It was pretty fun in spite of the rain. Afterwards we headed to this Mexican restaurant in New Braunfels for lunch/dinner. Then it was onwards to Greg's Dad's place to watch football for the rest of the night.

Sunday at noon we all went to pay respects to Greg's late Mom (she passed away a year ago Sunday). It was a short 15-minute stop at the cemetery, and then we went to lunch. At first we were gonna go to Le Peep's, but there was a 45-minute wait. So we went to a Mexican restaurant around the corner. By this time I was pretty tired of Mexican food...and how a bad Mexican restaurant can survive in San Antonio is beyond me. The place didn't have very good food, and the service was slow...it took us 3 hours from the time we stepped in the door to the time we left. It was ridiculous. Greg, Paul, and I had planned to stop by the German restaurant in Granbury (Niester's) on the way back, but leaving San Antonio at 3pm made that impossible. So we headed straight home after lunch, and got stuck in lots of traffic (and it was raining for parts of the drive).

Monday I slept in, and then got ready to go visit my friend Ruth and her husband Kent in the hospital 'cuz Ruth was having a baby. :o) I got there a little after 1:30, and they were in the recovery room. So Annabella Robbins was about 40 minutes old when I took these pictures of her. Annabella was born on October 4, at 1:01pm, and weighed 7 lbs 8 oz. She's ADORABLE. :o) I hung out with them for an hour and a half. It was great fun. She and the baby should be going home from the hospital today.

Yesterday was somewhat uneventful. Was busy at work after having been gone 2 days (was greeted with 115 emails). Oh, Greg and I went to lunch at Saltgrass, which was tasty. :o) Then last night we went to Tower Records, and neither of us bought anything. Ha ha. :p That's about it. Exciting huh?

This weekend we're hoping to be able to go camping, if weather would cooperate. We had reserved a campsite at Mission Tejas State Park. :o)

Posted by alpha at 05:28 AM | Family , Friends , Memories | Comments (0)

September 27, 2004

LJ redid their post msg page

Hmmmm...not sure if I like this new message posting page...

Anyways, the rest of last week was somewhat insignificant at work. Was stuck in a class about diversity ALL day Thursday, and was busy as hell on Friday as a result. Saturday Jodie and I went to First Chinese BBQ for lunch, and then went to see First Daughter. OMG Marc Blucas was sooooo hot in it. Ha ha. Oh, so cute. :o) After the movie, we stopped by the Chinese bakery so Jodie could get some pastries for J.D. to try. :o) By the way, Luci, that bakery we went to last time has egg custards on the weekends. :p

Shortly after I got back from the excursion with Jodie, I left to go over to my parents' for dinner. We ended up going to Tasty China. It surely was tasty. Hee hee. Then we went back to my parents' to hang out and such. Didn't get home until about 12:30am. Greg and Paul got back soon after me (they were in Austin for the football game).

Sunday morning Greg and I went to church and took the premarital test thing that's a part of our class. Got done really early, so we got to hop in on the service. We had a guest speaker, Dr. Tim Kimmel. The guy was hilarious. :p Then in closing, this guy Jeff Berry was there, and he performed this song on the piano. He was awesome. :o)

After church, Greg and I met up with Chris & Beta at Steak Kountry for lunch. It was a fun time. We need to do that more often. :o) Hee hee. We didn't take the motorcycle out there though this week 'cuz we thought that Paul was coming along, but he didn't. It was too late to change clothes and stuff to take the bike, so we drove instead. :p

Sunday night we had our playoff game against the Hornets (the 1st place team). We managed to hold on for most of the game. It was 1-0 Hornets counting down to the final seconds of the game. Then Luci got a breakaway pass and scored with 4.7 seconds left on the clock. It was awesome. She popped up the puck and it flew over the goalie's head, dropped right behind the goalie, and into the net. Ha ha. Talk about timely. :p That bought us a 5-minute 4-on-4 run-time sudden death overtime. Nobody scored during OT, and it went to a shootout, which the Hornets won eventually. It was fun, and we had ice cream afterwards. Hee hee.

Tonight I'm going over to Jodie's place for dinner and TV watching. Then tomorrow night Greg and I are going out with my high school friends to celebrate Ruth's hubby Kent getting back from Iraq safely. :o) Wheee! Hopefully this week will go by quickly...I'm off on Friday and next Monday. Can't wait. :o)

Posted by alpha at 07:29 AM | Family , Friends , Hockey | Comments (0)

September 14, 2004

Vacation has come to an end...

Man I just remembered that I have to go to work tomorrow. Bleh. This is gonna be a marathon update...you've been warned! :o)

My time off has been nice. Friday I had lunch with Luci at First Chinese BBQ and it was awesome. :o) We walked over to the Chinese bakery afterwards and got some pastries, etc. It was a good time. Did some cleaning when I got home (note that this will be a common theme during my vacation). Went to Central Market with Greg when he got home from work, and bought some food to make for dinner. Tastiness.

Saturday morning Greg left early to go to symphony rehearsal. I slept in a little bit, then vacuumed in preparation for Jodie's arrival. Jodie and I went over to Ft. Worth, to the Bass Performance Hall, to see "Stomp" with my coworkers. :o) It was a great time. We went to a burger joint for lunch beforehand and got to chat a bit. Good times as always. The Bass Performance Hall is AWESOME inside...it's designed like an opera house, with boxes and stuff. It was very neat. "Stomp" was great (nothing like making music out of brooms and barrels and stuff). After the performance, we skidaddled and went to Milwaukee Joe's for ice cream. It was delicious! :o) They really need to open a store in Plano or something...somewhere closer. :o) Mmmmm!

We then all went to Greg's symphony concert Saturday night. That was fun. I brought my camera 'cuz I wanted to get a pic of the orchestra members all dressed up. They had a photographer there to take a pic for their program's centerfold. He had all this awesome sophisticated (ie. EXPENSIVE) equipment set up. So Jodie and I went and sat behind him. He striked up a conversation with me, and I showed him my camera. I realized how little I knew about cameras from talking to the guy. Ha ha. But he let me borrow the trigger of the 2,000 watts worth of studio lighting (ie. VERY BRIGHT FLASH) to take a couple of pictures. That thing was freakin' ridiculously bright. It was fun though. Hee hee. The music was good, and we were entertained by this really old lady who didn't realize how loud she talked (which, included some racial comments about the saxophone soloist)...we got a big kick out of it. Hee hee.

Sunday we had our first marriage preparation class. It went pretty well. We have homework to do for the next class (which reminds me...). Anyway, then my sister and I had a "marriage session" with my parents. Apparently, whatever went wrong with my parents earlier on in the week are now all fine and dandy. Oh well. Our session went well...and when my Dad realized that Greg and I are taking a class at church, he was like...oh, well then I don't need to speak as much to you about this. Ha ha. :p Then they got all excited because we're taking a class at church...one thing led to another, we were all discussing our wedding! Ha ha. It was pretty funny. My parents were REALLY excited...I had to calm them down and tell them that it's not official yet (no ring on my finger) and we won't be making any solid plans until that happens. But I wanted to give them a heads up so they wouldn't be surprised when Greg comes a-knockin' to ask for permission. Plus, I wanted to find out what their reaction would be. So it all went well, thank goodness.

Since the session with my parents went so well (and very long), I had to rush home to pack up for hockey. We lost to Relentless 0-2. I got to skate very fast during 1 of my shifts...that was fun. I hadn't done that in awhile. Hee hee. :p I had some shots on goal, but nothing went through the goalie, unfortunately.

Monday...I don't really remember what I did. I was on the computer for a good bit, trying to get someone to get my server back up. And once it did, I started transferring stuff over to Adam's server. :p I think I spent quite a bit of time doing that. Then went to the store and bought some food. Made queso for a snack and it was ready right when Greg was arriving home from work. He was happy to see food for him when he got home. :o) Hee hee. He made some sausages for dinner, and it was great. I watched the season premieres of "7th Heaven" and "Everwood." Yep. Cleaned a bit. That was about it. :o)

Today I got up reasonably early, got on the computer for a little bit, cleaned a little bit, and went off to lunch at Texadelphia with Chris, Adam, and Katrina. It was good to have lunch with the gang again. I think that's what I miss the most at my new job...I miss hanging out with my friends. :o/ After lunch, I came home and cleaned some more. Got a lot of boxes out of the way. Just a few more piles of papers left before we can move the couch into the office, and Greg's couch from storage into the living room. At least I've accomplished something during my time off though. :o) Hee hee.

Posted by alpha at 09:09 PM | Family , Friends , Hockey , Photography , Work | Comments (0)

September 08, 2004

Me's a updatin' me's a journal

This week has been going by relatively slowly at work. Kinda weird 'cuz it's a really short week for me. But somehow 2 days of work felt more like 4. Tomorrow's the last day this week that I'll be working...then I won't be back until next Wednesday. Yey!!! :o) Not going anywhere special...in fact, I'll prob spend most of it cleaning up the house to make room for Greg's furniture that has been sitting in storage for a year. Hee hee.

Labor Day weekend was good. I worked Saturday morning while Greg went to orchestra rehearsal. Then we left for Austin at about 11:30am. Went to Stubb's BBQ for lunch. It was REALLY tasty. We left the car parked over there and walked over to the football stadium for the game. It was a good 15 or so blocks. :p Walked off the BBQ that we just had. Ha ha. Anyway, the game was fun. Texas won 65-0 vs. UNT.

After the game, we drove down to the lakehouse. Diane & John were up when we got there. But we all turned in soon after 'cuz we were quite tired. Paul had a migraine Sunday morning so he didn't go jet skiing with Greg & John. I slept in and then helped Diane fix lunch for everybody. John's parents and brother came over in the early afternoon. Dr. & Mrs. Nau (John's parents) are so cool. Ha ha. Mrs. Nau is always so nice. :o) Marshall & Laura came over with Dr. & Mrs. Nau 'cuz I think they went shopping together or something beforehand. Anyway, Greg, Marshall, Laura, and Diane went jet skiing...John & Dr. Nau went down to sit by the lake, and Paul and I stuck around the house and talked with Mrs. Nau for awhile until John's brother Neil came over with Erin & her boyfriend Glenn. Then Paul and I went down to the cove and went swimming. Greg drove up in the jet ski just as we got there, and we skipped rocks on the lake for awhile. That was fun. The water was nice. :o)

Sunday night we grilled burgers and sausages for dinner. Greg did most of the work and it was delicious. I think John got jealous and was challenging Greg to a BBQ cookout (I think Greg would kick John's butt...and everyone agrees). Ha ha. Fun times. We watched "Starsky and Hutch" after dinner. Hee hee. Funny movie.

We left Monday morning to come home. As we were leaving, my sister called and asked if I wanted to come shopping at San Marcos with her and my parents. They're such goofballs...they left Dallas at like 6:30 in the morning to come down to go shopping. I kindly passed (I knew they wouldn't come back until late and I have to be at work early the next morning). :p The drive back was somewhat uneventful. It did rain quite a bit though, which made the temperature relatively cool. So it was pretty pleasant. We grilled pork chops for dinner. Paul stayed over again so Greg could bring him to work Tuesday morning. Yep yep. That was how my weekend went. Prob more details than you guys care to know, but oh well. :o)

Anyway, this weekend is fun-filled (laced with cleaning chores). Saturday I'll be going to see "Stomp" with Jodie at the Bass Performance Hall in Ft. Worth. It's my company's outing. :o) We're meeting at 11:30 and heading over there, run around downtown to find something eat, and then show's at 2. After the show, my company had planned a reception thing across the street from the Bass. Depending on how long the show is, we may or may not be able to stay very long at the reception. Greg has his orchestra concert Saturday night at 7 or 7:30...in Mesquite...which is WAY on the other side of town from Ft. Worth. So we'll see how it works out.

Sunday is our first premarital class thing at church. Hopefully it'll be cool. :p Fun stuff. Heh heh.

1 more day left of work this week...

Posted by alpha at 09:36 PM | Family , Friends , Fun Stuff , Work | Comments (0)

September 03, 2004

In a protesting mood...

Someone annoyed my boss this morning (before she even got to work), and she went on a tirade checking every link on a site, so I got like 20 emails from her for things that need to be changed. But right now I feel like protesting and I'll just sit here listening to my 311 CD and updating my journal. :o)

Anyway, this week has flown by, thank goodness. It has been relatively quiet at work (obviously except for today). Looking forward to a 3-day weekend even though I have to work tonight. It should be a nice and short week for me next week. Monday off, and then I'm off Thursday afternoon, Friday, and the next Monday & Tuesday. Wheeee! Hopefully I'll get some much-needed cleaning/organizing done while I'm home.

Paul stayed over last night. His car got stolen from his apartment complex last Friday night, and the Dallas Police found it on Tuesday. It was completely trashed. So a friend of his dropped him off after work last night, we watched football and had a good time, and Greg took him to work this morning. Tomorrow late morning we'll be heading down to Austin for the first UT football game...so it all works out just fine. We'll be heading on down to the lakehouse after the game for the rest of the weekend. Should be great fun.

Last night my sister came over with her dog Mak. She wanted to show me her portfolio that has her drawings in it. It was pretty neat. She can really draw. I was impressed. :o) We'd make a good team 'cuz I can program and she can draw. Ha ha. She has an interview with a lady who owns a graphics design company on Saturday. Hopefully something comes out of that.

Other than that, I don't think a whole lot is going on really. My bruise has gotten MUCH nastier. It's mostly purple now. Really, it's gross. I'm sure I'll get comments on that at the lake this weekend. Ugh.

Great...now my Director has joined in the madness in sending emails about things that need to be fixed. Argh. Guess I better go. Fun stuff. Maybe these would make the day go by quickly. Y'all have a great and safe Labor Day weekend! :o)

Posted by alpha at 09:53 AM | Family , Hockey , Work | Comments (0)

August 30, 2004

Black & Blue Goodness

Weekends go by way too fast nowadays. Why can't the work week go by fast like that too? Actually, maybe it does. It's already the end of August. What happened to my summer?

Got a call from Jodie Friday afternoon with some good news. :o) Hee hee. I'll let her tell you all about it. And no, it's not that Jodie and J.D. are engaged or anything juicy like that. :p

Friday night I went out to dinner with Ruth (and her daughter Lily), Bena, and Mirjam. Friends from high school. :o) Ruth is pregnant with her 2nd girl and is due at the beginning of October. We're gonna throw her a baby shower. Hee hee. Anyways, we had a good time hanging out, and got to check out Bena & Josy's new crib (they just got married in May). It's very nice. They're living in Bena's parents' old house...they completely remodeled it and it looks fantastic. There's hope yet for my little pink-carpeted house.

Saturday we were supposed to go move Greg's stuff from storage to my house, but it was rainy and we really needed some time to make room for all of it. So I ended up going over to my parents' early to have lunch with them. It was mightily tasty. Then I helped them fix up my Dad's computer so it's getting emails from the proper email addresses for the company. :p Had a great time. We met up with Greg, my sister, Matt & his bro for dinner at the buffet place. Ate too much as usual, but it was fun hanging out with my parents. Hee hee.

Oh, by the way, an update on the 1st online sale we made on our website. It turns out that my Dad tried to process the lady's credit card on Friday and it didn't go through 'cuz the security code was wrong. So my Mom tried to call several times Friday to find out what it was supposed to be. She finally got a hold of the lady Saturday morning...the lady was all apologetic, thinking that it was completely her fault (even though we didn't get her order email until Thursday night) that the order was being processed late. Ha ha. It was pretty funny. Anyway, she gave us the correct security code and it went through just fine. My Mom shipped out the package Saturday morning...so it's now official that WE MADE OUR 1ST INTERNET SALE ON OUR WEBSITE!!! :o)

And the reason why my Dad didn't get the order email in the first place was that he didn't have Outlook checking the right accounts. Just what I had suspected. It's all good and fixed now. Ha ha.

Sunday I spent most of it sleeping (other than when we were at church). I was really exhausted for some reason. Greg cleaned out the garage a bit and cleaned out some empty boxes. Sunday night we had our hockey game against the Hornets, which was frustrating at best. I also now have a huge bruise (so huge that my left thigh now looks deformed) from stopping a slapshot with my thigh. It hurts to walk. :o/ Maybe I'll take a pic of it later for your enjoyment.

This whole week at work is going to be just me...again. Bettye is off for yet another week. I can't wait 'til I can take some of my vacation days. This whole you're-the-only-person-here thing is getting annoying. I mean, really, do they really expect me to work 7:15 - 5:30 with no lunch break? I'm hoping that there aren't any late stuff that comes out this week so I can take off at 4:30. Lame, I tell ya, lame.

Posted by alpha at 09:02 AM | Family , Friends , Hockey , Memories , Work | Comments (0)

August 26, 2004

Holy bejesus!

I was cruising around online tonight, and decided to check up on my Dad's company website. Out of curiosity, I wanted to see how many people have been by since the last time I checked (probably about a month ago). I saw this "Pending Order" in the admin control panel, and thought...hmmmmm...interesting. At first I really thought that it was my Dad using it to keep inventory for his offline sales (that's what he's been doing), but upon closer inspection, it was a REAL person with a REAL credit card number with a REAL out-of-state address! So I called my Dad (who obviously didn't know about it...otherwise I would have heard something) and told him. Then I found out that the order was placed on 8/16/04, with a FedEx 3-Day shipping request. I'm still not sure why my Dad isn't getting the order confirmation email. Very strange. My guess is that he didn't include that email address when he's checking his emails. But he's gonna call that person and make sure that they still want the stuff (hopefully so), and perhaps waive the shipping charge for them.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

My first e-commerce success!!!!! :o)

Posted by alpha at 10:29 PM | Family , Memories | Comments (0)

August 24, 2004

7:45

I still think that 6:40 is entirely too early to have to be leaving for work...

Friday night we went to Adam's bday dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. It was a great time! We had Adam, Amy, Katrina, Darcy, Curtis, Peter, Zoe (Peter's daughter...so cute), Chris, Beta, Greg, and me. We hadn't gone out to dinner with such a big group of people in awhile, and it was so fun. We didn't stay to go to Dave & Buster's though 'cuz Greg had rehearsal Saturday morning.

Saturday morning I went to rehearsal with Greg to take some pics of the orchestra for the website. It was pretty fun, but I got done with everything (including loading the pics onto the laptop) with 45 minutes left of rehearsal, so the last part was a little boring. Played solitaire to kill some time. Pics turned out pretty well in spite of not being able to use a flash (hence disrupting the rehearsal tremendously).

Sunday we went to Oshman's and bought some new tennis shoes. Took advantage of their "buy 1 pair, get 50% off 2nd pair" deal. I bought a pair of Saucony...never had any of their shoes, but they sure felt nice. Plus they were cheaper than the others (not to mention that they didn't have a pair of the New Balance ones that I liked in my size). Wheeee!

We then went over to the mall to return/exchange my Dr. Martens. I had problems with my 1st pair that I had bought 3 weeks ago...where there was a hole punched in the insole of the right shoe. So I returned it and they had to direct ship another pair to me (they didn't have any in stock in my size). The 2nd pair had the same problem, but in the left shoe...and there was glue all over the inside of the right shoe. So I brought it back again and talked to the manager, who actually noticed that the 2 shoes weren't even in the same size. He was quite irked at the store that had shipped the shoes to me, and said that he would follow up on it with their home office and give me a call on Monday.

Sunday night we played a game against the Mantis...lost 0-2. We had Vicki in net for us...it's good to have her back. Marilee (our regular goalie) skated out as a D and she was good. :p

No call from the manager at Journey's on Monday. :o( I went to get Greg's car fixed (the door seal on the driver's side door was loose). The guys at Volvo of Richardson were great. I barely had a chance to get out of my car before they approached me to ask about the problem. Greg had called ahead to let them know that I was coming, and they were standing outside in the sun waiting for me. Now that's customer service. :p It was all fixed about a half hour later (they just had to glue it back on). Went grocery shopping and bought food for dinner, etc. Put gas in my car. Watched some TV...funny how time just flies when I'm not at work. :o)

For dinner we made sirloin steak on the grill, and had potatoes and green beans. It was mighty tasty goodness. :o) Fun stuff.

Posted by alpha at 07:42 AM | Family , Friends , Hockey | Comments (0)

August 20, 2004

TGIF!

This week has surely been long.

We went to the driving range Wednesday night. I wasn't hitting the ball really well, but I was physically and mentally very tired. That was probably why. We were planning on playing golf with some people from my office last night, but it got rained out. So we went and dropped off Greg's motorcycle to get a new front tire put on it. And then my Dad called and said that the wireless keyboard & mouse that I had ordered for him from Amazon (which amazingly, arrived 1 day after I placed the order) didn't have an USB adapter so he couldn't hook it up. So I went to Circuit City and found him the adapter, went over to help him set it up, etc. He's all happy now. Fun stuff. :p

I'm gonna go take pics at Greg's orchestra rehearsal Saturday morning, so I'd have something to use for the website. I decided that I'm going to have to buy an external flash for my camera so the pics won't be so underexposed. So I went ahead and bought the Sigma EF-500 DG Super...same one that I've been looking at for months, and the same one as Chris'. Waiting on the confirmation to come through email. I should have it just in time for the concert on 9/11.

Oh, tonight we're going to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory with Chris & Adam & Company for Adam's birthday (it was yesterday). Mmmmmm tastiness.

*Yawn* Is it time to go home yet?

Posted by alpha at 12:57 PM | Family , Friends , Golf , Photography | Comments (0)

August 16, 2004

Me no likes Mondays

Ugh...the weekend went by soooo fast, even though I really didn't do anything. Greg left to go down to San Antonio Friday night at around 7. I ate dinner and lounged around...and played on the laptop (a hand-me-down from my Dad). :p Watched "Monsters, Inc." Hee hee. Saw Nemo make a cameo appearance in it. That was pretty cool.

Saturday morning I had to get up at 5:45am to do the volume stuff for work. :o( :o( It was hella early 'cuz they were running a test (which would take down the systems) at 8. I finished at 7:30ish and was exhausted. Hung out on my bed and read some articles on XHTML and XML, watched the PGA Championship on TV, and fixed the Mesquite Symphony page that I've been working on so it'll display properly in IE and FireFox. Yep. That was about it. Took a nap. Went to my parents' for dinner. Played with my Dad's new laptop...and fixed it up so it could connect to his network at home. Yep yep. It was a late night for me.

Went to church Sunday morning. Came home, watched the PGA Championship some more, and played on the laptop a little. Customized the laptop to my liking, and deleted (and backed up) a bunch of my Dad's files. :o) Yey. Greg got home at around 6ish. I left for the hockey game at 6:45. We were pretty short on people this week, but we played okay. It was a 0-0 tie, and the Relentless wanted to play overtime. Lost during overtime. Oh well. Got a puck in the left toe and left thigh...I'm nicely banged up. :o/

Posted by alpha at 11:16 AM | Family , Hockey | Comments (0)

August 13, 2004

Things may get interesting...!

This doesn't require much explanation. Read this real quick...

No, nothing to announce really. Just getting ready for when it does come around. :p Hee hee hee.

Anyway, it'll be a quiet weekend with Greg gone (he's going to the lake). I have to work early early (like at 6) in the morning tomorrow so I can't go. Blah. Oh well. I think I'll get some stuff done. I'm going to be working on the prototype for the new Mesquite Symphony Orchestra website. It's moving along nicely. Need to go to rehearsal with him next weekend to take some pictures. :o) Fun stuff, I tell ya. Hopefully I'll get some side jobs from it. :o)

*Yawn*

Happy Friday the 13th! :o)

Posted by alpha at 09:46 AM | Family , Wedding | Comments (0)

August 11, 2004

*Yawn*

7:15 is way too freakin' early to have to be at work...

Yesterday I was told that I have to start coming in at 7:15 'cuz this email that needs to go out at 7:30. Some people just couldn't wait the 15 minutes for me to come in at 7:30 (hence allowing me to carpool with Greg instead of having to drive myself). Ugh. Most annoying. So now we have to drive separately, and I have to leave between 6:30 and 6:40ish to get here. The only nice thing about this is that I'd actually get to leave when I'm supposed to (as opposed to coming in at 7:30 and then having to wait until Greg gets off work at 5 to come pick me up). But it was nice to have his company on the way to/from work. :o/ Hopefully this arrangement is just temporary.

Anyway, so I get in, checked all the numbers, and went to moderate the email to be sent...the network asked me to change my password. Okay, so I changed it to something I had never used before. *Boom* "Your login password cannot be changed." Process was repeated 5 more times. Luckily, our network security guy gets in early, so I went over to have him check out what the problem was. Apparently he had just gotten off the phone with one of the VPs who's having the exact same problem. No matter what we typed in as the password, it wouldn't take it. It took a good 20 minutes for us to figure out how to get around the system. It turns out that while it gave me the error saying that it didn't change the password, the password was in fact changed (WTF???). In the meantime, I had to ask the guy in Chicago to moderate the email for me 'cuz I can't log in to the computer. Fun. What a way to start the day...

So the lesson is...don't use NVIdentity to sync passwords on your network. It doesn't work as intended and causes huge problems. Hopefully we'll get rid of it soon.

Oh, last night I went to a New Owners Meeting at the Toyota dealership. It was pretty nice...we got Jason's Deli for dinner and got to take a tour of the shop and stuff. I had dropped off my car yesterday morning to have the little ding on my rear bumper fixed (we did it when we were unloading the smoker grill). Yep. It cost $50 to fix...and this is with the Customer Relations lady pulling a favor with the touch-up guy (he quoted $90). All car things are so expensive. Bleh.

Tonight we're dropping off Greg's car at the Volvo dealership so they could clean it up and stuff (they never got to when we got the car last week). Yep. I think that's all I've got planned. Hopefully it'll be a nice quiet day at work today.

Posted by alpha at 08:09 AM | Family , Work | Comments (0)

August 09, 2004

Is it Monday again already?

I'm really tired even though it was a pretty relaxing weekend. I ended up having to bring back the shoes that I had bought, 'cuz there was a hole (like a hole punch not punching through) in the insole of the right shoe. The mall was a zoo on Sunday afternoon. It was ridiculous. I could barely walk in and out of Journey's. Anyway, they didn't have another pair for my size, and couldn't call around to see if other stores had a pair (it ties up the phone line for credit card processing and stuff). So they ended up special ordering a pair for me, and it'll be sent to my house. :o) How 'bout that for customer service?

Sunday we went to church, and then I came home and sat around. My hockey game was at 8:45pm so it was kinda late. We lost 0-2 to the Hornets. Bleh. Then I went outside, and the Hornets were out in the parking lot hanging out. I stuck around a little bit to talk to them. Jennifer (their sub goalie) said that she enjoyed subbing for us much better than for the Hornets. Ha ha ha. :p Anyway, talked to Amber for awhile to do some catch up. Got talked into going to Austin to try out for the travel team over the weekend of August 21-22. Yep.

When I got home, I opened the garage door, and Greg came out and said to hang on a minute. He wanted to get my hockey bag and stuff out of my car before I park the car in the garage (it gets narrow in there and he didn't want to lift it over his head). :o) How sweet. Hee hee. Awwwwww...

Posted by alpha at 10:12 AM | Family , Hockey , Misc | Comments (0)

August 07, 2004

More new stuff

This weekend is the Tax Free Weekend for Texas. It's mostly supposed to benefit parents with kids to shop for back-to-school stuff, but it benefits the rest of us cheapies who would brave the crowd to save a mere $8.25 per $100 spent. :p I guess it adds up if you end up buying a lot of clothes.

Today I just kinda chilled at home...hung out with kitties, worked on the member's login portion of the Mesquite Symphony website. I'm trying to get the gig to redo the entire site. It's a volunteer thing, but I'll get some public exposure for it (maybe some contract jobs in the future). Anywho, I did that for most of the day. Greg came home from rehearsal and washed his car, etc. We went out to Razzoo's for dinner (I hadn't been there in the longest time and had a craving for some etouffee). :o) We got a 2-person Gator Punch. It was tastiness (it's really just trash can punch). Amazing how a little bit of alcohol can do to you when you don't drink regularly. Ha ha. We had a jolly good time.

After dinner, we went to the mall for a quick after-crowd shopping. We had an hour to look for all the things that we needed to find there. I bought myself a pair of Dr. Martens for work. My previous pair of brown shoes have taken quite a beating, and to be honest, is kind of an embarrassment to wear to work. :p It was most definitely time to buy a new pair. :o)

Posted by alpha at 09:52 PM | Family , Misc | Comments (0)

August 06, 2004

Car #2

Last night Greg finally bought a car. :p At first we were planning on looking at some Volvo S-40's, but once he sat in it, we figured that the car was too small for him (he was almost hitting his head on the ceiling). So we walked over to look at some S-60's. There was this 2001 one that had high-ish mileage (like 65k), that they were willing to sell for $17k. We drove it around and liked it a lot. It has a sunroof and tinted window and everything. Pretty nifty. We're bringing it back on Saturday so they can detail and clean everything, but we took it out on a spin last night after he got done with his paperwork, etc. and had pizza at the place in downtown Plano (Poppy's, I think it's called). Fun stuff!

See more pics of the car.

Posted by alpha at 08:31 AM | Family , Memories | Comments (0)

August 04, 2004

And the winners are...

Okay, I'll attempt to post an update before my 2pm meeting, before which I have to make some popcorn in the microwave...

Last week was crazy busy at work. It was completely insane. I was glad to go on vacation for the weekend. Friday afternoon, I met Greg at his office, so his coworker Brenda can take us to the airport (that way we could leave Greg's car there instead of having to pay for parking). We found Greg's Dad without much problems inside the airport. Had some McDonald's for dinner, and then on to Detroit we went. We got in at about 10pm (half an hour early). Uncle Don came to pick us up (we stayed with him and Aunt Mac). We visited for awhile before going to bed at around 12:30am. :o)

Saturday we slept in a little bit. Had an elaborate breakfast that involved French toasts (Aunt Mac likes to entertain guests). Uncle Don, Greg's Dad, Greg, and I went to the driving range for a little bit to warm up for the tournament in the afternoon. I was hitting pretty well, and felt ready for the tournament. We went back to the house to pick up Aunt Mac and headed to Stony Creek Golf Course to meet up with everybody else. There were about 50 of us there for the tournament. Greg and I were paired up with Greg's cousin Mike and Mike's girlfriend Robin. I had sooooooooooooo much fun. We played a scramble (where you pick the best ball out of your group for every shot). Our group was just on a roll...I was hitting my driver *really* well that day, so they used a majority of my drives. I missed the fairway by 8 ft to win the longest drive competition. :p It was awesome. We usually got to the green in 2 shots...had a couple of eagle putts that we missed, and ended up with a -3. We tied with another group of Greg's cousins, but since they won last year, we were named the winners for this year's tournament. We get our names put on the tournament plaque. Hee hee hee. After the tournament, we went to Greg's cousin Marshall's house for a huge dinner party. I hung out with his aunts and uncles, etc. Great times.

Sunday morning we got up early to go play with Greg's cousin Mark's golf league at Oxford Hills Country Club. It was a pretty difficult and long course with lots of blind shots. I did pretty well, considering the difficulty of the course. I had a personal best of 109. I can't wait to find out how I do at some local courses that I've played at before.

Sunday night we had a BBQ. Uncle Don cooked pork tenderloins on his charcoal grill. It was mighty tastiness. Of course, that wasn't the only thing on the menu that night...the meal included salad, fruit salad, bread, and broccoli. Uncle Don & Aunt Mac's son Scott and his family stayed over for dinner too. Scott's son Hugo is just hilarious. So cute. He was all bragging about getting to shake hands with Gordie Howe (hockey great, if you don't know) Saturday morning at breakfast. Ha ha.

Monday morning we woke up early and packed up to go to the airport. Uncle Don & Aunt Mac were leaving to go on a family trip to St. Louis. So Lynn (guess...Greg's cousin) came over and took us to the airport. It was fun hanging out with her. :o) I didn't want to come home.

We didn't do much Monday afternoon when we got home. Went out to look at a couple of cars, but that was about it. I took Tuesday off from work to just chill at home and do various things. It was nice to hang with the kitties. :o) Hee hee.

Posted by alpha at 01:36 PM | Family , Golf , Memories | Comments (0)

July 22, 2004

Final Episode of the 4Runner Saga

I brought my car back in to the dealership on Wednesday for the guy to fix the window tint (had bubbles and various weird scrapes on it), the rubber seal at the bottom of the window, the metal frame above the window, and the rear bumper (it needed some touching up after the last paint job). So I got to the dealership at 7am, was showing the guy all the stuff that needed fixing...when he suggested to me that they bring my car down to Pro Tint down the street for the window tinting. I thought...what the heck...at least they have the proper environment to do the tinting. I left my car with him, picked up the rental car (which they paid for...was a 2004 Camry that still had temporary tags on it), and went on my way. Took me forever to get to work. Stopped at just about every single light on Belt Line, and ended up being horribly late. *Sigh*

After work, we went to pick up my car. I think they finally fixed everything right this time! Hallelujah! Geez. I don't think I'll need to go back there until I need to get my oil changed (I get free oil changes there for the life of the factory warranty...3 yrs or 36k miles) and my tires rotated. Yep. Thank goodness. I was getting really tired of bringing it back every week or so. Blah. Anyways, we went to Home Depot & Lowe's afterwards to try to find a burner for Greg's grill. We didn't find what he was looking for, but we did find a cool looking grill there. We stood there trying to decide whether to buy it, and he finally decided to sleep on it. Today during lunch, he went to BBQ Galore to see if he could find that replacement burner, and ended up seeing this smoker that he really wanted. We made plans to go to the store in Plano to pick the smoker up tonight (it wouldn't have fitted in his Camry)...and thus began another saga...

We bought the smoker, brought it home, started the tedious assembly process, and were almost finished when we noticed that the hole for one of the screws that holds the cooking grate wasn't drilled through. In fact, it wasn't drilled at all. It looked like when you try to punch a hole in a piece of paper, and the cutter in the hole punch wasn't sharp enough to punch the hole. So here we were, almost done with the grill (which now no longer fits in my car), with a grill that wouldn't work ('cuz the grate needed that screw to sit on top of). It was pretty annoying. I have a feeling that we're going to end up having to disassemble at least most of it to get it exchanged. It's just stupid how things can't be done right the first time (see 4Runner saga). Ugh. I guess we'll spend the weekend dealing with this new annoyance.

Work has picked up again. Lots of updates. Craziness. I gotta work Saturday morning. Blah. Then next Friday we fly to Detroit for the golf tournament. I'm really looking forward to that. It'll be fun. We're flying back on 8/2, and I went ahead and took 8/3 off as well (it's always good to have recovery time). Can't wait. :o)

Speaking of Detroit, Greg's Uncle Don (Greg's Dad's younger brother) and his wife Mary Ann (we call her Mac) have their 50th wedding anniversary in October. They're having a huge party, so we might go back up there for that. We'll see how it goes with plane tickets and all. That should be neat. :o)

Posted by alpha at 10:57 PM | Family , Misc | Comments (3)

July 20, 2004

Jet skis, broken mailboxes, new cars

Friday afternoon Greg got a call from his bro-in-law, John, saying that Diane (Greg's sis) slipped and fell at the boat ramp and hurt her shoulder. They were unloading the jet skis and there was a lot of algae that had accumulated there on the ramp. Anyway, they were at the hospital gettings x-rays done to make sure that she didn't break anything...so for awhile there we weren't sure if we were going down to visit for the weekend. Finally John called at about 7:30 and said Diane was fine, and to go ahead and come down. We quickly had dinner and left for the long trip to Canyon Lake. Got in at about 1:30am...

Greg spent most of the weekend jet skiing with John and his nephew Marshall. I went Saturday afternoon with John and Greg. It was my first time on a jet ski, so I had Greg take me around once to get the feel for it. It was pretty fun. I spent the rest of the weekend hanging out with Diane and Marshall's wife Laura. It was cool and relaxing. They have a hot tub that overlooks the cove. Was pretty.

We ended up driving back Sunday evening. Stopped by this little country restaurant and had dinner. Tastiness. Got back kinda late, and promptly went to bed.

Monday morning we discovered that our mailbox got knocked over while we were gone. As we were standing there examining the damage, the daughter of the older Korean couple that live across the street drove up. She said her parents' mailbox got knocked over too on Saturday night. Apparently little things like this happen every once in awhile in my neighborhood. It's pretty irritating. Then I was on hold with the Garland police for half an hour while I tried to file a police report. I gave up and never did. Anyway, we had Luci over for lunch. Grilled salmon and had rice to go with it. Good times. Jerry even made an appearance for a little while (we coaxed him with ice cream). Heh heh.

We rested a little while, then went to the driving range. It was hotter than hell. I was hitting pretty well. :o) Should be all set for Michigan. On the way home, Greg wanted to stop by this golf shop on 75, so we were driving down the service road when he saw this black 2002 Solara convertible at one of the dealerships. We turned around and went for a test drive on it. The guy at first told us that it was selling for $13,900. We didn't really believe him 'cuz that's just way too cheap for the car. But he repeatedly told us it was that price. So we went home (to look up financing) and found out that the dealership had it listed at $22,500 on their website. We weren't expecting much, but Greg went back up there to see about it. As he was sitting at the little table (where they try to rip every penny out of you), they went back on their price (don't go to Courtesy Nissan...they're not very courteous). So no car as of yet, but we're stopping by to take a look at a few Sebring convertibles at different dealerships tonight. Wheeeee!

I've got training the rest of the afternoon. Fun fun. Hopefully it won't be too difficult staying awake. :p Hee hee.

Posted by alpha at 12:14 PM | Family , Golf , Misc | Comments (0)

July 16, 2004

TGIF!!!

My goodness it's been a long week...

After my marathon day on Tuesday, I've been exhausted all week. I continue being the only one here doing site updates, so I can't make lunch plans or anything (the guys were nice and brought Chipotle back for me on Monday). I finally went grocery shopping so I have some food to bring for lunch. :p

Lessee...Tuesday night's dinner with the girls was great. We got some great hang time in. We really should do that more often. Hee hee. :o)

Wednesday night I called Community Credit Union to see if my car loan payoff check had been deposited. Found out that they never got the check (WTF??). So I called Capital One to see if the check had been cashed yet, and luckily it hasn't. I had the guy cancel that check and send me a new one. It was, all in all, a very annoying ordeal. For some strange reason lately I've been getting some mail, and not some mail (like my auto insurance policy)...it's starting to make me suspicious that someone's going through my mailbox. I'll have to keep an eye on it. Hopefully it's just a coincidence.

Anyway, the guy FedEx-ed the paperwork to me one more time. I picked it up last night, and went straight to the bank to deposit it. So now my loan at CCU is supposedly paid off, and I should get more info from Capital One soon (if they ever got my paperwork from last time). Hmph.

I'm so glad that it's finally Friday. This week seemed to have dragged on forever, even though each individual day went by relatively quickly. We're leaving tonight to go down to Diane's (Greg's sister's) lakehouse at Canyon Lake (near San Antonio). Hopefully the weekend will be funfilled with relaxation, jet skiing, and boat cruising. :o) On the way home on Monday, we'll probably stop by the German restaurant in Granbury again. :o) I want to get some sausages that we could freeze and save for later. Mmmmmm mmmmmmm! Got hungry just thinking about it!

Posted by alpha at 08:46 AM | Family , Misc , Work | Comments (0)

July 07, 2004

Foil and Microwaves don't mix

Hmmm...so in the freezer at work I found some of those breakfast burritos that we've been having. Thought I'd heat up one of those for myself this morning. It, incidentally, was wrapped in foil, and after looking around for a plate (to no avail), I thought I'd test out the foil-in-microwave theory. Turns out that the theory was not a myth, and foil does burn in the microwave. Go figure. At least I was standing there watching and took it out in time. Well, me and one of the VPs here anyway...how embarrassing.

Anywho, yesterday was somewhat uneventful. I watched "Happy Gilmore" on TV, and then my sister came over with her new puppy Mak. :o) Mak is SOOOOOO cute!!! See for yourself!. And he's the quietest dog! He didn't even bark once when he was at my house. The cats (Benny, specifically), weren't quite sure what to make of Mak. It was hilarious. :p

Posted by alpha at 08:33 AM | Family , Kitties , Memories , Work | Comments (0)

July 05, 2004

*Meow!*

Silly cats woke me up every morning at about 6:30ish. Argh...

Friday night Greg and Paul left to go down to Canyon Lake to visit with their family. Their sister Diane and bro-in-law have a lakehouse out there. I was invited to go, but of course couldn't because I had to work on Saturday. :o( Oh well. It's nice to have a weekend to myself every once in awhile...

Saturday I woke up bright and early and went to work. Everything went pretty well, but it still took about 12 hours for us to finish the tests and stuff. *Sigh* At least we were fed quite well (breakfast burritos in the morning, and lasagna for lunch). I finally got home at about 9:30pm. Made myself something to eat, and went to bed (exciting huh?).

Sunday Katie and I met up for church. I invited her to come 'cuz my church was doing this huge 4th of July production. There was great music and choreography and all, not to mention the confetti that they shot from the balcony at the end of one of the songs. It was greatness. After church, we went to Katie's apartment on campus and she made fajitas for lunch. Mmmmmm! We goofed around and watched some Flash animations (deterbrown.com), and watched some ants try to carry away pieces of potato chips out on the patio (okay we were easily amused). After awhile, we gathered up our things and went over to Chris' for his party. He had made SOOOO much food! Mmmmm tastiness. We were sufficiently stuffed, as always. Watched "Fellowship of the Ring" in the new media room. It was great. :o) Heard fireworks go off in a distance, so we all piled in my car in search of a clear view of fireworks. It was kinda cool 'cuz there was this piece of land near their house where you can see out for miles...so we saw fireworks from 2 different cities at the same time. Pretty nifty. :o) It was a fun time. :o) Thanks Chris & Beta!

Today no work for me, but I intend on doing some trimming of bushes in the yard. :o) Fun fun. Greg and Paul called at about 10am and said that they were about to leave San Antonio. So they should be back relatively soon. Wheeeeeee! Hope everybody had a safe and fun-filled 4th! Off to the yard I go!

Posted by alpha at 11:32 AM | Family , Friends , Wedding | Comments (2)

September 19, 2003

Arrrrrrrr it's Friday!

Happy "Talk Like a Pirate" Day!!! :o)

It's such a nice day outside. Avast me hearty mateys! Perfect temperature in the lower 60s, sunny... Shiver me timbers! I wish I didn't needs be come ta work.

Went ta me parents' ship last night ta ha' dinner 'n' ta show me Dad some stuff ta work on fer the store. I think it's just about ready. I ha' a few more tweaks that I'd like ta do ta it, but the main stuff be done. Eventually I'd like ta change the layout completely so I can get rid o' the osCommerce banner at the bottom. I'm thinkin' that in order ta do that without potentially crashin' the site, be ta ha' a duplicate system set up under a subdomain er something. In fact, I might try that this here mornin' 'n' see how it works out... ARR!

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Translation from pirate talk!
------------------------------
It's such a nice day outside. Perfect temperature in the lower 60s, sunny... I wish I didn't have to come to work.

Went to my parents' house last night to have dinner and to show my Dad some stuff to work on for the store. I think it's just about ready. I have a few more tweaks that I'd like to do to it, but the main stuff is done. Eventually I'd like to change the layout completely so I can get rid of the osCommerce banner at the bottom. I'm thinking that in order to do that without potentially crashing the site, is to have a duplicate system set up under a subdomain or something. In fact, I might try that this morning and see how it works out...

You, too, can LJ like a pirate.
--------------------

Arrrrrr!!!

Posted by alpha at 10:07 AM | Family , Fun Stuff | Comments (0)

August 11, 2003

Weekend of Sports

Friday after work, Greg and I had our usual date with the driving range. I was hitting my irons really well. :o) It was pretty cool. Then we went to dinner at this Mexican restaurant...don't ever go to Ole's Tex Mex in Coppell. Their chips were kinda stale and the waiters were really pushy. We sat down and barely had time to open the menu when the guy was back asking if we're ready to order. It was ridiculous. And the coupon that they send out in those ValuPak things don't work on Fridays. It was definitely one of the worst Mexican places I've been to around here. We won't be going there again.

Saturday morning we went out to Ft. Worth to look at some Royal Enfield Motorcyles. The guy there at the dealership was really nice. We were looking at this one bike, and he said that it's a new 1955 motorcycle. Ha ha ha. :p Also picked up some brochures on rider safety courses for motorcycles. Maybe I'll go take it with Greg. We'll see.

After we got back from Ft. Worth, we ate and then headed over to Darcy's for our little shindig. Adam and Curtis were also there. They were playing Scrabble when we arrived. :p Hee hee. We got to meet Darcy's cute kitty Prailey. We got Prailey to spin all around to play with her string. It was hilarious. :o) We also watched the end of "Cowboy Bebop" and one of the "Gundam" episodes. Was definitely interesting. :o) It was a great time.

We skipped out of the shindig a little early to go play 9 holes of golf at Grapevine Golf Course. We played on the Mockingbird course...it was a fun course to play in (Greg said it's a harder course than LB Houston). The fairways and greens were extremely well kept, which says a lot in this Texas heat that dries out most of the courses around here (except for the expensive country clubs of course). It was really cool. I had a lot of fun.

Sunday we chilled out most of the day before heading out to Bed Bath & Beyond to look for some new sheets for Greg. His fitted sheet was getting worn out and after doing laundry Saturday night, there was a nice rip on it. We didn't end up buying any, but saw some really nice sheets (1000 thread count??). Hee hee. :p

After dinner we went to MacArthur High School to play some tennis. It was packed. We got the last lighted court. I think my tennis skills are coming back to me. Hee hee. :o)

My dad's been busy uploading pictures and product information on our online store. I'm glad I assigned that to him 'cuz I really don't have the time to mess with all that stuff. I've been working on the backend applications that go with the store. Eventually we'll modify the look and feel to our own liking. We'll see what happens. It's starting to take shape though. I'm glad. :o)

Posted by alpha at 12:51 AM | Family , Friends , Golf | Comments (0)