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January 10, 2006
Migrating again!
Okay, so for the past 3 days, I've spent moving websites around to the new hosting company's server. I've managed to install MovableType on the new server, so I'll be moving my blog over there (thanks Adam for hosting this one!). :o) So to continue...here's the new link. Please update your bookmarks accordingly!
See y'all on the flip side...
Posted by alpha at 09:05 PM | Memories | Comments (0)
January 05, 2006
Hook 'em!!!
Congrats to the Texas Longhorns, who defeated USC 41-38 last night at the Rose Bowl to become the new National Champions!!!!
Posted by alpha at 08:43 AM | Memories | Comments (2)
November 21, 2005
The long awaited big screen TV!
Not a whole lot went on last week...just some busy work at the office, trying to slow things down some before my vacation this week. Paul came over Saturday to watch football games. The boys must have watched like 12 hours of football. Gracious. I escaped to the bedroom after awhile to watch some movies. :o)
Sunday we slept in, watched some of the Cowboys game, and then we went to this Home Theater Expo thing that Star Power was having so we could check out some HDTVs. I had a few in mind that I wanted to look at...and we went to Star Power 'cuz I know they would have good HD connections to their TVs so we could see their full potential. We ended up liking the new Sony 50" Grand WEGA 3LCD Rear Projection HDTV (KDF-E50A10). We also got the matching stand to go with it. :o) Wheeee! Star Power is delivering the unit tomorrow...they'll unpack and set it up for us. The stand was on order...hopefully they'll get it today or tomorrow and can deliver to us.
When I got home, I called Comcast to see about the whole deal with getting HDTV...the lady on the phone wasn't so friendly, so I got online and ordered the service...and got this guy who was very friendly. :o) The lady on the phone "doesn't think" that they could come out to install the Cable Card until after Thanksgiving...while the guy on chat said that they can come on Wednesday between 2pm and 5pm. That's perfect 'cuz we'll get to play with the TV some on Tuesday before installing the Cable Card.
So...what's left for me to do today, is to get the non-essentials off of our current entertainment center. When Greg gets home tonight, we'll need to move it over to the other side of the living room until my parents come to pick it up on Thursday (hopefully it'll fit in their van). I sure hope that the two of us can move it across the room...I just remembered that it took 4 of us to tilt it up when we were building it. Bleh...
In other news...we won our hockey game last night (2-1) against the Mantis. Everybody played really well. I got a really nasty bruise from blocking a slapshot during a penalty kill towards the end of the game. Ouchie. It's nice and purple today. :o/
Posted by alpha at 03:33 PM | Hockey , Memories | Comments (0)
November 13, 2005
New Bed!!
Today we finally caved and bought a new bed!! :o) I've been looking at Tempur-Pedic beds for about 6 months now. We strolled into Mattress Firm to try them out for ourselves. The sales guy was really nice. He told us about all the differences between the beds and stuff. We took about half an hour laying on the different beds (including the Sealy Posture-pedic, which was also quite comfortable).
Anyway, we finally decided on the Tempur-Pedic Deluxe Bed with the platform foundations (kinda like box-springs equivalent). The sales guy also threw in a couple of the neck pillows along with free same-day delivery. There's also 12-month interest-free financing to go with it. Wheeee! :o)
So I'm sitting here watching TV and waiting for the delivery people to come to give us our bed! Hee hee hee. *Excited*
Posted by alpha at 02:45 PM | Memories | Comments (0)
November 09, 2005
Really just for me...wedding dates...
Okay, I know so many people who are getting married next year, that I'm starting to forget who's getting married when and where. So this is really just for me to keep track of all the weddings we're going to...
3/25 (Saturday) - Mirjam & Colby
4/8 (Saturday) - Jane & Leo (Atlanta)
4/22 6pm (Saturday) - Louisa & David (Omni Mandalay)
6/3 (Saturday) - Karen & Matt
Also...not sure of dates yet for these, or if we're invited...
Sometime in April...
- Jessica & Chris
Posted by alpha at 06:30 PM | Memories | Comments (2)
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)
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)
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 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 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)
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 05, 2004
My Birthday Present
Look what I got for my birthday!
See more pictures!
Posted by alpha at 06:36 PM | Memories , Wedding | 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 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 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)
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 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!
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 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 02, 2004
Huh!
Nothing really going on this week. Everything's been kinda slow. I got my car refinanced yesterday...at 5.29% APR (vs. the 6.4% that I got at the dealership). Yah. So today I'm filling out all the paperwork and stuff that goes with that. Fun fun.
My sister got a 4 months old Yorkie! His name is Mak (stands for Matt And Karen), and he weighs 4 lbs. Craziness. She's gonna bring Mak by tonight so I can see him (and perhaps to take some pics). Hee hee.
Tomorrow I gotta get to work by 9am. :o( Not sure when we'll be done. Ick. I'm thinking that I'm prob not going to go down to San Antonio this weekend (Greg's leaving tonight with Paul)...it's not really worth it to be there a day, having to drive 12 hours back and forth. And that is assuming that everything goes fine with our cutover tomorrow. So it looks like Katie and I will be keeping each other company for the 4th (unless anyone else would like to join and/or let us tag along). :o)
Posted by alpha at 10:34 AM | Memories , Misc , Work | Comments (1)