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October 13, 2005

Wheeee!

This week has been going by so quickly. I spent most of the week testing and integrating a new search engine for a couple of our sites. We launched our new Chinese mini-site for the Options Industry Council. It's pretty nifty. :o)

Yesterday Chris and I met up with Darcy at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas for their Lunch & Learn event, "You Earn What You Learn: Thriving as a Young Professional." They had a big buffet lunch, which was really cool. The President of the Dallas Fed introduced the speaker, Dr. Michael Cox, who's the Senior VP and Chief Economist. He spoke on the importance of education. Pretty cool. After the event, we went up to visit Darcy's cool desk on the 10th floor. Hee hee.

Posted by alpha at 06:08 PM | Friends , Work | Comments (0)

October 05, 2005

Loads of Good News

Good news seem to be abundant these days...here's the 411...

- My friend Rita (from middle school) got married back in February to Ranu, her friend for many years.
- My friend Ruth (from middle school)'s daughter turned 1 yesterday.
- Ruth's husband Kent (he's a Marine) got promoted to Captain.
- My friend Jane (from high school) just got engaged 2 days ago! Her fiance, Leo, proposed to her while they were hiking in northern Georgia and totally took her by surprise! They're looking at an April wedding in Atlanta.

Wheeeeee!!! :o)

Posted by alpha at 11:09 AM | Friends | Comments (2)

October 03, 2005

Fall BBQ Extravaganza

Our Fall BBQ Extravaganza was a great success! Greg smoked the brisket for about 10 hours, and it was done just as everyone was arriving. Paul brought over an apple pie, which was a big hit along with Luci & Austin's Coldstone ice cream. Delicioso! :o) Everybody's tummys were full, and we were very happy. Had a great time hanging out and watching football. Also got to meet Adam's new girlfriend, Jill. Hee hee. :o) Yey!

Sunday we went to church, then I guess I was really tired or something...'cuz I kept falling asleep while watching football on the couch. Hmph! Anyway, we went back to church at 7 that night to go to the Jeff Berry Band's CD Release Concert. :o) It was awesome!!! We also got to get their new CD 2 weeks before it's officially released. :o) For those who don't know, Jeff Berry and his band lead worship in our contemporary service. He's a great musician. We enjoyed ourselves very much.

Then this morning I had to wake up at 5am to be at work at 6. Was tired all day at work. Bleh. Then when I got home, my boss called and asked about this one thing that we're supposed to do by 1pm every day. We all kinda forgot about it. Oops. Hopefully I won't get into too much trouble for it.

Posted by alpha at 07:15 PM | Friends | Comments (2)

September 30, 2005

Funk

It was a pretty laid back day at work today. Did some regular updates on the sites, etc. We had a catered lunch to raise money for our charity project. Also had a movie lunch thing where we watched a part of "Matchstick Men." I wish I had gotten to watch all of it...might have to rent it some other time to watch. The afternoon was fairly uneventful in spite of being pretty busy towards the end of the day. Then all of a sudden I noticed that I was in kind of a funk. Dunno why. Nothing happened or anything. Just felt...defeated. It was kinda weird. :o/

Tonight Greg and Paul went to the Mesquite/North Mesquite game. I stayed home and straightened up a little bit in preparation for the party tomorrow. There's more cleaning to be done, but I don't really feel like doing that right now. :p

Oh, and today my boss and I signed up for the luncheon at the Dallas Fed, "You Earn What You Learn: Thriving as a Young Professional." Darcy recommended it to me, and I sent the link to my boss to see if she'd want to go with me. :o) She paid for the registration, and I get to drive. Ha ha. It'll be a good time. Can't wait. :o)

Anyway, I think it's time for bed for me. Too-da-loo! :o)

Posted by alpha at 10:46 PM | Friends , Work | Comments (0)

September 28, 2005

Follow Up

To follow up my entry from yesterday, I had my 1-on-1 with my manager this afternoon. She does this before she writes our yearly reviews. I wonder if my VP said anything to her about the whole resume thing...but she definitely hinted that they want to do whatever they can to keep me happy. She basically told me that she wouldn't be able to do her job without me, and that I'm the informal lead for the group. That's kinda cool. Then she said that she's going to try to put in a promotion for me. No promises, but I think it's still a nice gesture. Basically, she said I can get into any projects that I want to do because I had earned it. :o) And I can go find classes that I'd want to take, etc. I'm pretty excited. Things are looking up, whether this is a fallout of the resume incident or not. It's nice to know that you're valued in the company. :o)

Enough about work...we're throwing a BBQ party on Saturday. We had originally planned on going camping, but the receptionist from the campground that we were going to called and said that they wouldn't be able to accommodate us this weekend because they're hosting a bunch of evacuees. :o/ So we just decided to stay home and throw a party instead. Hee hee. Wheeee! Crazy fun times!

Posted by alpha at 06:42 PM | Friends , Fun Stuff , Work | 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 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 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)

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)

April 11, 2005

Long Time No Blog

So...it's been awhile since I last wrote. Plenty have happened since then...fasten your seat belts...

On April 2nd, we had our wedding shower at Jo's parents' house. It was the first time I had seen it since they remodeled everything. Looks really really nice! :o) Lots of our friends showed up, and we had a great time hanging out with everyone. Presents were opened, food was had...fun times. We got home at around 5:30ish. Paul was already over and was watching basketball games. We unpacked and organized all of our new loot. Hee hee. Yey!

We went to Chris & Beta's crawfish boil on Sunday, April 3rd. :o) It was great fun too! Their doggie Spunky looks bigger than the last time I saw her...Katrina & Trevor brought over their dog Hobie, and Mark brought over his dog Skyla. It was a doggie playground! My parents came and joined us for the boil, which was cool, since they never really come to hang out with us and our friends. I think they enjoyed themselves! I got home kinda late...prob about 8:30 or so.

Last Monday, I went to Jo's after work to pick up a cake that was made by one of her co-workers, Marina. It was delicious!! :o) Greg and I (and my sister and Matt) were all very satisfied with that. So Marina is going to make our wedding cake for our Dallas reception! It's gonna look something like this, but instead of the sugar calla lillies, we're gonna have fresh red roses and petals put on it. :o) It's gonna be so gorgeous. I can't wait. And the best thing is that she's doing all this for $150!!! She's gonna show up at around 4:30 or so on the day of the reception to put the cake together, and to put the border around the bottom layer. Yey I can't wait!!!

The rest of the week was kinda blurred...it went by really fast...and our new person was in town for training, so I had to make sure that he's okay and stuff. We all went out for dinner at Dickey's Thursday night, and that was fun. They had free beer at the Coppell location 'cuz they don't have their liquor license. Hee hee.

We went to the driving range after we got home from Dickey's...worked on my driver quite a bit since I just had the grips changed on my driver, 5-wood, and 7-wood (they were too big). I'm hitting 'em much better now. :o) When we got home, the garage door wouldn't open...turns out that the spring had snapped. :o( We decided that it was too late to worry much about it that night, so I took the info of the repair company that I had used the last time with me to work the next morning to set up an appointment.

Unfortunately, I found out that the garage door repair company that I had used went out of business. :o( It really was too bad, 'cuz they were really nice and helpful in showing me to fix the minor things. Anyway, I had to look for another company to fix the door. I ended up calling Action Garage Door 'cuz they had a good record with the BBB. They sent a guy out Saturday morning to take a look at the door...and then he gave me a quote of $259 to change out the spring!!! WTF!!! I flat out told him that I got it fixed 4 years ago for $127, and that I had a receipt to prove it. It just didn't make sense that the price could have doubled in 4 years. The repair guy disgruntally called the guy in the office to "see if there was anything he could do." The guy splattered off some sales pitch (they must do this often since it sounded rehearsed), and I told him to just give me the price. He called me on the phone and told me that they'd do it for $165.50, which is a whole lot more reasonable that $259!!! What a ripoff. I can't even imagine how much money they're making off of the unsuspecting public. Anyway, the repair guy got to work...banged around in my garage, showed me the rollers that needed to be replaced (he said it was gonna be $12/piece to change them out), and went on his way. I was so glad to get him out of my house. Later on, I looked up this company that sells garage door parts to do-it-yourselfers, and I'm buying some rollers for $1.99/piece + shipping. Good thing I didn't tell the repair guy to change them.

With garage door fixed, I quickly had lunch and then went off to meet with Luci & Jodie to go shopping. We stopped by the Stila counter, and the make-up artist there fixed me up with some make-up. I think it looks really nice...not too overly done, since I don't usually wear make-up. Anyhoot, $120 later, I think I'm pretty much all set with that for the wedding. There's 1 thing though that she had forgotten to ring up...the Sheer Color Tinted Moisturizer...I'll pick that up next time when we go for this workshop class thing on the day of my bachelorette party. :o) The workshop itself costs $35/person, but we get it back in make-up, so it's a good deal. Hee hee. It's my gift to the bridesmaids for helping out with everything. I think it'll be a blast. :o)

After the make-up adventure, we went to look for a shirt for me for the bachelorette party. We ended up finding this blue button-down one at Express. :o) It's pretty nice.

I got home at about 5:30 or so, then Greg and I went bike-riding. We went down to the (small) lake that's near my house. We rode probably about 4 miles or so. It felt nice. :o) I had to get back in shape for hockey on Sunday! Hee hee. Afterwards, Greg grilled this perfect ribeye steak for dinner. Yum!!!

Sunday we slept in, I took a shower and then started cleaning the house. We got a lot of stuff done in the kitchen...consolidated some of our duplicate spices and things...cleaned out the pantry, etc. etc. The kitchen looks much roomier now. :o) Yey! Then we watched the Masters pretty much all afternoon. It was pretty exciting! Left at 8pm to go to my hockey game. We played against the Mantis...lost 0-1. They got this new girl who's pretty good...she played in the Charity Challenge. I think we played pretty well. :o) I ended up getting the "Game MVP" award for my team. Ha ha. I didn't think that I played *that* well. Anyways, the prize was awesome...it was this pillow with "Red Hot" stitched into it. :o) Hee hee.

Posted by alpha at 10:51 AM | Biking , Friends , Golf , Hockey , Wedding , Work | Comments (2)

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 24, 2005

For Matty :o)

I got your IM...your comments for the blog came through at least on 1 day. I see a couple from 1/14/05. Did you put in your name and the security code? :o)

Posted by alpha at 09:11 PM | Friends | Comments (0)

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 13, 2005

Yet another quiet night

Took forever to get home from work yesterday 'cuz morons were going 30mph on the highway because it had rained earlier. So irritating. Took Greg a long time to get home too. We left soon after to meet up with Chris & Beta at Players Bench to do some hockey shopping for Chris. Mainly we just showed him what he needs to get. He didn't end up getting anything, but he'll prob get skates at Oshman's this week 'cuz on Saturday, the rink where we're practicing doesn't have skate rental. After gawking at new hockey equipment, we headed over to Rockfish for some yummy seafood. :o) Mmmmmmmm...

We just relaxed awhile after we got home. I read some more of my PHP book, while Greg played Scrabble on PlayStation. It was quite nice. I was exhausted for some reason. This week seems to be lasting forever. Very weird. It felt like it ought to have been Friday like 3 days ago. Ugh. 1 more day and it'll be a 3-day weekend for me. :o) Yey!

Posted by alpha at 07:41 AM | Friends , Hockey | Comments (5)

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 10, 2005

Day 4

I had a pretty good weekend. Friday night we met up for dinner at BJ's with Luci, Austin, Chris, Beta, some of Luci's friends, and some of Greg's friends from work. We went to their new location in Plano, and it was PACKED! Luckily Luci made reservations for us, otherwise it would have been an 1.5-hr wait. Yuck. Anyway, the food was quite good. We got a pizza...it was Chicago-style deep dish, and it was rather tasty. I think we're be going back there again (just maybe not on a Friday night).

Saturday we went to Oshman's to find some golf shoes for Greg. He and his Dad are going to Phoenix this weekend to play golf. We also went to REI, where they're having a clearance sale on the zip-off pants that I wanted a few months ago, but didn't get 'cuz they were $55. Then we went to the driving range...I hit balls for the first time in months. Did pretty good for not having practiced in so long. But boy my arms and back sure are tired...

Sunday we went to church, as usual. Then I think we watched TV and I took a nap for awhile. Greg went to play golf in the afternoon. We watched the first hour of "24" together before I had to leave to go to my hockey game. I had taped both episodes, and when I got home from hockey, he was all asking if we could watch the 2nd episode. Ha ha. I think I might have gotten him hooked on it. How funny. :p

Posted by alpha at 10:04 AM | Friends , Golf | 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 29, 2004

New Blog!

Adam set up a new MovableType blog for me on his server! :o) So fun! I get to customize everything. I'll be slowly archiving/porting my LJ entries over there. *Grin*

Check it out.

Posted by alpha at 08:14 AM | Friends | Comments (0)

My First MT Post

Yey!!! :o) Thanks Adam! I shall try to import my old LJ entries into here. Hee hee!

Fun times for everyone!

Posted by alpha at 07:31 AM | Friends | Comments (4)

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 14, 2004

Oh oh there's one!

Was busy as hell at work yesterday. I was also very tired for some reason. Maybe it was just a Monday thing. Anyway, we had Luci over for dinner last night. Made some queso and we grilled hot dogs (enhanced with chili on top) outside. Greg made a big fire in my old Charbroil grill (those round charcoal grills). It was a lot of fun! We had the food inside the house, and then came back outside to sit by the cleverly portable fire pit to watch the meteor shower. :o) Saw a few meteors streak across the sky, and called it a night. It was really fun. Wasn't all too terribly cold with a big jacket on and sitting by the fire. :o)

Kind of a slow start for me this morning. More awake than yesterday though. Hee hee. Took me like 50 minutes to get to work this morning 'cuz of a wreck that I didn't know about until I was already sitting in traffic for 10 minutes. Yuck. Hopefully it'll be a slow(er) day for me today so I can get some of the recently neglected stuff done.

Tonight we're going over to Katie's for a fajita dinner. :o) We've been talking about it forever, and now that she's done with school, we finally have time to get together. Wheeee! Mmmmmm fajitas!

Oh oh!!!! My Lord of the Rings - Return of the King Special Extended Edition DVD has already been shipped!!! I'm so excited! I wish it had shipped via UPS or something though 'cuz that usually takes less time than USPS. Oh well. What the hey. :o) Yey!!!

Posted by alpha at 08:11 AM | Friends , Work | 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 15, 2004

Another week begins...

How exciting...it's gonna be raining all week. At least I'll be off on Friday. Wheeee! I can't believe that it's Thanksgiving already next week! Craziness. 2-day week for me next week! Yey!

Anyway, I got dumped with a HUGE project last Friday (at 11:45am, mind you). One that took a total of 10 hours to complete. Bettye, my counterpart in Chicago, took pity on me and helped out with a little bit of it. I worked on it from 11:45am to 4:45pm. Then I had another 3 hours left of work to do on it after I got home. So I went home, drained my brain a little bit, and got back to work. Greg was very nice (he knew that I was really stressed out at work) and went out to get Popeye's for dinner. :o) Worked from 8:30pm to 11:30pm. Then at 11:30pm, I had to start doing the volume stuff (for which I was previously scheduled)...until 2am. Just before I went to bed Friday night, I managed to figure out that I worked 15.5 hours that day. Ridiculous. I don't want to hear another word about having to work more just because I'm a salaried employee.

Saturday I slept in (for obvious reasons). I just kinda hung out and didn't do anything all day 'cuz I was so exhausted from the past week's drama at work. We left at about 6ish to go to the store to pick up some stuff for Chris & my combined birthday party (Chris' bday was on 11/12). :o) It was great fun. Chris' friend Judy's brother brought over the XBox and they were playing Halo 2 on the projector. It was ridiculously big. :p Great people, great food, great fun. :o) Funny cats. It had it all. :o)

Sunday we went to church. Then we hung out, and I slept for awhile. We tried to go to a pizza place for dinner, but apparently both pizza places that we usually go to (the one in Plano and the one in Lewisville) were both closed on Sundays. :o( We drove all the way to Lewisville to find that out. So we settled on going to Johnny Carino's instead. Tasty food, nonetheless. Afterwards I went to my hockey game where we lost 0-4 to the Hornets.

Posted by alpha at 01:53 PM | Friends , Hockey , Work | 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)

November 03, 2004

*Yawn*

*Yawn* I was definitely spoiled by my extra 45 minutes of sleep yesterday, when I worked from home. :p Plus last night Greg was watching the election coverage 'til really late when I was trying to sleep. Heh heh.

Lessee...yesterday was somewhat uneventful. It was nice to not have to drive to/from work...actually gave me an extra 1.5 hours in my day. Heh heh. :o) I used that time to run adware/spyware removal software on both the laptop and the desktop. Just a monthly maintenance thing. Fun stuff.

Last night we had a meeting with our premarital class facilitators, Cody and Georgia. We went over the test that we took awhile back. They said that we had scored in the highest category possible (yey!). :o) Hee hee. The meeting went pretty well. Cody went through the results and pointed out things that we should pay attention to in our relationship. Yep yep. :o)

Tonight Luci is coming over for dinner. :o) We're making "extreme nachos". Should be tasty and easy to handle. Hee hee.

Tomorrow I'm working a 1/2-day, which means I get to go home at about 11:15. :o) Yey! Then I'm off on Friday & Monday. Wheeee!

Posted by alpha at 07:52 AM | Friends , Wedding , Work | Comments (0)

November 01, 2004

Whew!

I feel like I did a bunch this weekend. :o) Friday night Greg and I went to the Plano/PESH game. The turnout was kinda disappointing. I remember when I was in high school, if there's 1 football game you go to, you'd go to the Plano/PESH game. But less than half of the stadium was filled. It's kinda sad. The game itself was pretty good. When we left, Plano was leading 21-14 with 3 minutes left in the 4th. I later found out that PESH somehow came back and won 31-21. :o( I guess Plano couldn't beat PESH's 8-year winning streak for the Plano/PESH rivalry game...

Also had to work late Friday night. Bleh. Was up way too late...

Slept in on Saturday, then got ready for Chris & Beta's Wedding. Chris gave me photographic duties, so I went up to the church about an hour early to set up and to scope it out. :o) The wedding was beautimus! Chris & Beta were just adorable. :o) I'm sooooo glad that it *finally* happened. Hee hee hee. Anyway, I spent about 4 hours taking pictures (all 235 pictures!), and then came home and spent another 3 hours with post-processing. Got the pictures up on my website. Sent the link to Chris 'cuz I thought he just might be checking his email before he leaves for his honeymoon. :p And sure enough, I was right...he got to look at the pics Saturday night. Hee hee hee. Gooferhead.

Sunday we went to church for our class. We had a panel to interview about marriage. They were pretty cool. Tuesday night we have a meeting with our teachers to go over the results from the test that we took awhile back. Wheeee. Heh heh. :p

Posted by alpha at 07:37 AM | Friends , Fun Stuff , Memories | Comments (0)

October 28, 2004

*Growl*

Man! I'm hungry already. Not a good sign...

Today at work, we're having a "baseball day." People are allowed to wear baseball jerseys & hats to work, but get this...NO JEANS ALLOWED. Lame. We do get fed hot dogs, chips, nachos, pretzels, popcorn, and cracker jack though. Oh well.

1 more day until the end of my last 5-day work week for the year...wheeeee!

Chris & Beta's wedding is on Saturday. :o) Yey!!!! I'm so excited. Must remember to charge up batteries for my camera...I have picture-duty at the wedding. Hee hee. :o)

Posted by alpha at 08:04 AM | Friends , Work | Comments (0)

October 20, 2004

Fajitas!

Yesterday went by relatively quickly. I did my fair share of goofing around, and then our Director Dan came into town from Chicago, so we went out for an 1.5-hr lunch. :o) Stopped by the store to pick up stuff for dinner...and the strangest collection of people were there. It was rather bizarre.

Luci came over at about 7:30, bearing Snickers ice cream and red wine. Greg cooked the fajita meat and the veggies (and shrimp too!) on the smoker. It was ultra delicious. I made some mexican rice that turned out great! Found the recipe on AllRecipes.com. It's also listed below if you want to quickly see what went into it...it was very simple to make.

------------------------------------------------------------
Mexican Rice II
Submitted by: Sylvia Eccles
This is a wonderful side dish for any Mexican dinner.
Servings: 4

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup uncooked long-grain rice
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup tomato sauce
2 cups chicken broth

Directions:
1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat and add rice. Cook, stirring constantly, until puffed and golden. While rice is cooking, sprinkle with salt and cumin.
2. Stir in onions and cook until tender. Stir in tomato sauce and chicken broth; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes. Fluff with a fork.
------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by alpha at 08:24 AM | Friends , Recipes , Work | 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 29, 2004

Posados

Went with the gang last night to Posados for dinner. It was mighty tastiness. :o) It sure was good to see Kent. He told us that he was in Fallujah and his platoon ran support for the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade (something like that). I had no idea that he was in Fallujah. Goodness. Anyway, he's on vacation for a month (while Ruth has their 2nd baby), and then they're moving back to Camp Pendleton in CA (in a couple of weeks). Ruth is scheduled for a C-section on Monday at noon, so I'll go by there and see her. :o)

Oh, after Posados, we all hopped on over to the Cold Stone up the street. I didn't have any ice cream 'cuz I was too full from dinner, but it sure looked delicious.

Tomorrow I'm working 6am - 3pm. Icky. The guy that usually comes in early (and actually enjoys it) is taking a vacation day. Not that big of a deal...I just get to start my vacation earlier (I'm off on Friday & Monday). :o) Wheee!

Posted by alpha at 07:45 AM | Friends , Work | Comments (0)

September 28, 2004

Tasty Goodness

This morning I forgot to reset the alarm for Greg. :o/ He woke up just fine, but I still felt kinda bad about it.

Last night Jodie and I made "The Special" for dinner. It was mighty tasty goodness. We finished just in time to watch "Everwood." Hee hee. :o) The Camster was hyper as usual (apparently only when other people are around). Hee hee. Fun times, fun times, and lots of leftovers.

Tonight Greg and I are meeting up with Ruth, Kent, Mirjam, Coby, Bena, and Josey at Posado's for dinner. :o) I hear it's a great place. We're celebrating Kent's safe return from Iraq. Yey!

Posted by alpha at 09:36 AM | Friends | 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 16, 2004

Thursday

Yesterday was a day from hell at work. I won't go into details, 'cuz it'd just make me mad all over again. But I'm lucky to have a friend in Matt, who I can email with off-network and get a sanity check. :o) Anyways...

Nothing else really happened yesterday. Went to work, came home, fed cats, watched TV. Worked on my homework for the seminar. Yep. Exciting, I know. But it was a much needed brain-dump time.

Let's see...Saturday I have a bridal shower to go to for Beta. :o) Then I think Saturday night Greg has an encore concert to play at Brookhaven College. I'm not sure if I'm gonna go to that one, since I've already gone last week. We'll see. Will probably move some things around to get ready for moving Greg's furniture in. Yep. Fun fun. Hee hee.

Posted by alpha at 12:25 PM | Friends , Work | 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)

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 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 18, 2004

Salmon and Twix Ice Cream

This week has been going by rather slowly. :o/ I can't believe it's only Wednesday. It feels like it ought to be at least a Thursday. Ah well.

Not much is really going on. We had Luci over for dinner last night. It was mega-tastiness. I went and bought some fresh(er) salmon, some green beans, and some dinner rolls. Luci brought over some red wine and ice cream. Mmmmmm. Good food and good times were had. Lemme tell ya, Greg's getting pretty good with the smoker. We've had grilled food the past couple of nights, and both were exceptionally tasty.

La la...I can't wait 'til this week's over. My counterpart in Chicago is out on vacation the rest of the week, so it's one of those "come in on time and stay late" kinda situation for me. Ugh. Hopefully it won't be too terribly busy and I can get outta here having only to stay an extra 15 minutes or something. It'll still suck though having to sit here all day long...but anyways...

Oh! I now have Photoshop and Illustrator CS installed on my computer at work! I even got our PC guy to leave me with the books that come with the software. I s'pose that's what I can do when I get bored. I've always wanted to learn Photoshop properly... :o)

Posted by alpha at 08:24 AM | Friends , 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)

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)

June 17, 2003

Car - checked

All done with car stuff. Got my oil changed and tires rotated. Actually had to go back to recover a couple of my tire gauge cap things. Somehow those always go missing when I bring my car in where they check tire pressure, etc. Anyways, the guy was real nice about it, so that was cool (not so much that I had to go back for 'em, but oh well). Bought some new wiper blades at AutoZone. Tried to install them earlier but couldn't get the old ones to come off. Of course just now my sister tried and got 'em uninstalled and reinstalled with no problems. Go figure. :p So hopefully I'll be able to see out my windshield better when it rains with these new blades instead of having things all smeared up.

Went to see "Finding Nemo" with Jay tonight. Forgot to ask him why he hasn't done anything with his LJ. Oh well. He was telling me about his photography gig with JC Penney last week...he's gonna pick up an application (to be a photography assistant) for me next time he goes in there. He said he mostly just moved furniture around and loaded film for the photographers. Nothing too difficult and it pays about $12/hr. Would be an interesting part time job.

Mt. Wanahagalugi...hee hee. :p

Posted by alpha at 11:46 PM | Friends , Misc | Comments (0)

Ah ha!

Looks like I've found myself a "victim" to go see "Finding Nemo" with me! :o) Jay, you're awesome. Hee hee.

Nothing much is going on. Made an appointment to get my car stuff done at 1pm. I called a little while ago and asked how long it would take for them to get my car in if I went up there now, and the dude said that he has enough cars to keep him busy until about 12:30 or 1. So I'll just wait 'til then to bring my car in 'cuz there's no point in me wasting time sitting up there a few hours. Hee hee.

Dunno why I'm so hungry all of a sudden. Very weird. *Tummy Growling*

The Therm-a-Rest sleeping pad and storage bag that I ordered yesterday are scheduled to be shipped today. I'm excited. I ordered from BackcountryStore.com, and the customer service rep was quite nice. I called yesterday to make sure that they had those in stock before I ordered them. Hee hee. Yey!

Posted by alpha at 10:43 AM | Friends , Misc | Comments (0)