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July 07, 2005
Life beyond the wedding...
Since it took me so long to finishing updating about the wedding and the Jamaica trip itself, I haven't gotten a chance to talk about life after the wedding. Honestly, it really isn't all that different. :p The major thing is combining finances, I think. But it's working itself out.
We had our reception in Dallas on June 4th, at the Pecan Hollow Golf Course. Of course, as expected, the people setting up the room didn't show up until an hour after they were supposed to...making us late for our set-up. We were rushed quite a bit, but everything turned out okay. The food was great, the company was great, and overall a good time. :o)
Other than that, Greg's been working in the yard a lot. Looks real nice now. :o) We cut down a dead tree that was at the corner of the house...and planted flowers. :o) Purty.
Chris and I went to the AMD/Microsoft Tech Tour a few weeks ago, and came home with lots of goodies. I sold the server bundle that I got to a guy in Florida, and kept the desktop bundle to build a new PC. Most of the parts just came in, so I'll probably begin assembling pretty soon. :p Here are the specs so far...
- AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Processor and retail Heatsink Fan
- ASUS A8N-E Socket 939 Motherboard
- Athena Power Space Shuttle - 500W (P4ATX55FE)
- Kingston KVR400X64C3A/1G 1GB DDR400 PC3200 Memory (x2)
- Western Digital Caviar SE SATA 250GB Hard Drive (WD2500JD)
- Western Digital SE EIDE 250GB Hard Drive (WD2500JB) (x2)
- ATI Radeon X800 XL Graphics Card
- Toshiba SD-R5372 Dual Layer DVD±RW Writer
- Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
- Microsoft Optical Desktop Elite for Bluetooth
- Samsung 930B 19" LCD Monitor
Anyways, should be an adventure trying to put this together and making it work. :p
In other news, Greg's Dad is flying up from San Antonio for the weekend, and we're gonna have a family get together on Saturday. Should be pretty fun. Hee hee. :o)
Posted by alpha at 07:55 AM | Family , Fun Stuff , Nerd , Wedding | Comments (0)
June 29, 2005
Jamaica - Days 5 - 7 (May 20, 2005 - May 22, 2005)
May 20, 2005
Things started to wind down as Greg's family departed today. :o/ We wished that they could have stayed longer, but they had to come back to go to Sarah's (Greg's niece's) high school graduation. In the morning, Jo and I met up to take a scuba refresher course. The guy that did the course (it was just for the 2 of us), Wayne, was super funny. :p Hee hee. We had a good time trying to remember how to dive. We saw everybody as they were leaving from breakfast. It was funny. My sister was like...what are you doing? Hee hee. Jo and I had breakfast after our course. It was fun times. Jo and Deanna had a dive scheduled for Friday afternoon, which didn't turn out too well for Jo...she had a panic attack when she was about 60 feet down. :o( We spent most of the day hanging out with Luci, Austin, Chris, and Beta. It was pretty fun. :o) We ate in the main dining room for dinner (the beach party was cancelled due to rain), then called it a night.
May 21, 2005
My parents, sis, and Matt all left this morning. :o/ Jo and I were gonna go diving this morning, but Jo didn't wanna go due to her experience yesterday afternoon. I decided to go anyway (might as well...I was already there). I got to the watersports area a bit early, so I hung out for a little while. Finally we got our gear together and got out to the boat...we went about 50 yards, when the guys decided to stop and check on the engine (they said something didn't sound right). The next hour was spent bobbing in the water. After awhile, they decided to call for another boat to take us back to shore while they tried to fix the boat. I got back to shore, just in time to see Greg go out sailing with Chris & Christine (Luci & Austin were on another boat) on the catamaran. I waited for awhile in the watersports area...until they got back. Then I walked over to tell them what was going on, and decided that I didn't want to hang around and wait all morning...plus it was a 2-tank dive today. Since I'm not supposed to dive 12 hours before I fly (24 hours to be safe...and we leave tomorrow morning), I would only be able to get 1 dive in even if I did go. That would mean that I'd just be sitting there, bobbing on the boat, while the others take their 2nd dive. Just didn't sound fun to me. So I had the guys take me back out to the boat to grab my stuff. :p We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out with the gang. Chris wanted to take pics of us at sunset, before dinner. We scattered to get cleaned up, and then met up again at Luci & Austin's.
The sunset tonight was perfect. We got some awesome pics. Had a great time goofing around. We then went to dinner at the Lemongrass, which is the Thai restaurant. :o) It was DELICIOUS. Hee hee. They had this appetizer tray that was absolutely awesome. We all wished that we had found it sooner, 'cuz we would've eaten there more. :p Jo and Deanna came by as we were finishing up. I got to take a pic with her and her braided hair. Hee hee. Mighty fun times were had. Perfect way to spend our last night in Jamaica.
May 22, 2005
We got up super early this morning (like at 5:45) to get ready to leave. The bellhops were supposed to pick up our luggage at 6:30...but they decided to call at 6:10 to ask if they could pick up our stuff. We were like...ummmm...no? We couldn't understand why they'd say 6:30 when they really meant 6. Anyways, we quickly got ready, and set everything outside by 6:15. We saw Chris when we were walking towards the dining room to grab some breakfast. Then we ran into Jo and Deanna in the lobby area. Yuppers. Our bus left at 7am for the airport. Our return trip was way quicker than our trip to the hotel. I think it only took a little over an hour, versus 1.5 hours. The line for American Airlines was ridiculously long...so we were there for awhile. The luggages were hand-searched (barely, but they were). Immigration took awhile. After all that, we still had some time to browse around at the shops to buy liquor and other memorabilia (we got a couple of picture frames). Also got some food to eat. Mmmmm.
The flight to Miami was uneventful. We got there pretty quickly. And we managed to run through Customs relatively fast too...even with having our bags checked in the scanner. But it seemed like we had to walk miles before we found our next gate. We quickly got something to eat...and then soon after, it was time to board. Talked to my Mom briefly...she told me where they had left the car at the DFW airport for us to drive home (they were on the way out to Hong Kong...and had a short layover in Chicago). We got to ride on a 777 on the way to DFW, which was pretty fun. We each had our own screen, so we could tune in to whatever movie/show we wanted to watch. Wheeee! Hee hee.
When we got to DFW, Greg and I split up and I went to remote parking to get the car, while he stayed and waited for the luggages. Surprisingly, the luggages took a longer time to appear than me coming back with the car. Hee hee. We dropped Jo & Deanna off at Jo's apartment, then went on home. We said hi to kitties...unpacked a little, and stopped by my team's hockey game. :p
Posted by alpha at 08:24 AM | Wedding | Comments (0)
June 13, 2005
Jamaica - Day 4 (May 19, 2005)
Greg and I woke up bright and early for our big day. :p I took a quick shower, made sure Greg has everything that he needs to bring with him to the ceremony, and dashed out the door to go to my hair appointment at the salon at 8:30. I stopped by my sister's room so we could walk over together. My sister was doing my Mom's hair before our hair appointment. It was crazy hectic. Our hair turned out awesome! :o) They ran a little bit over for our appointment though, so Luci's and Jo's appointments were a bit rushed. Anyway, after they got done with our hair, my sis and I went back to her room and she helped me with my makeup...after which, I ran back to Luci and Austin's room to change...all the while very carefully avoiding any paths that lead close to the beach (in case everybody's out there hanging around). :p
I arrived at about 9:30 to Austin's room. He was looking for me and opened the door for me. Then he disappeared. :o) Diane, Laura, and Christa all wanted to come over and help me out. They helped me get dressed, etc. As I was finishing, my sister arrived all dressed nice and pretty. We took some pics...then Jo and Luci showed up, and it was time to get on with the show. :o)
Nikki led us down a backway path so we wouldn't accidentally run into anyone going to the wedding. Chris followed us with the camera and documented the exodus. :p My parents and Greg's Dad and the groomsmen were there waiting for us (we were a little bit late). We paired up, they started the processional music, and we "walked in." There were some people who stopped to watch for a little while (I later found out that this couple who came on the same bus with us watched the whole thing from their balcony). :p
The ceremony was beautiful...and was quite hot. :o) Everything went as planned. After the ceremony, we signed our marriage license, and then walked over to the area where they had set up our reception. Everyone was about melting by now, so it was nice to get some champagne and cake. :o) Hee hee. We hung out for a little while, then everyone dispersed to go change for lunch.
We met up with everyone for lunch. :o) It was pretty fun. I still had my hair all up and stuff, so I was getting some funny looks when I was walking about. After lunch, I rested for a little while, and left to go to my 1/2 hour massage appointment. Boy did it feel good! :o) After the massage, I met up with everyone at the beach (as always), until it was time to get ready for dinner.
Nikki reserved the waterfall area of the main dining room for us to have our dinner reception. :o) It was pretty there, and we had our own menu and everything. We celebrated Luci's birthday with a candle on her dessert. Fun time was had by all.
Posted by alpha at 01:26 PM | Wedding | Comments (4)
May 27, 2005
Jamaica - Day 3 (May 18, 2005)
Today we leisurely got up and joined Diane and my parents for breakfast. It's funny 'cuz Greg's Dad gets up early, so he would go and get us a big table for breakfast. People would stroll in at different times to have breakfast with various people from our group. Hee hee. The craft vendors were at the resort today. Diane went and bought a BUNCH of stuff. Hee hee. :o)
Greg and I had a meeting scheduled at 10:30am with our wedding coordinator, Nikki. I kinda wish that I knew what flowers we would be picking from beforehand so we could make a quicker informed decision. Instead we sat there looking at the pictures for the first time...and took forever. We had to go back for a 2nd meeting at 12:30pm 'cuz we weren't done finalizing the details for the wedding.
Between the 1st and 2nd wedding meetings, we went and hung out with Luci and Austin on the beach. Diane and company were coming and going. :o)
Greg got all his golf stuff ready and headed down to grab something to eat before going to play golf with his Dad. I told him to go ahead and get a cart for today 'cuz it was mega-hot. :p Luci and I met up with Greg at Nikki's office...turns out that she only had a few more things to go through. We hammered out the details that involves Greg, and sent him to go play golf with his Dad.
After the meeting, Luci and I met up with Austin for some craft shopping and lunch. I had some jerk chicken. Mmmmmm. So delicious. And I also bought about $120 worth of stuff from the vendors. Bought a necklace for Greg, a necklace each for Tony and Katie, a necklace/bracelet for myself, a wooden cat, a couple of bamboo beer mugs, and a Jamaican bag. :o) The wooden cat is pretty cool...the guy even carved "Jamaica 2005" at the bottom. Hee hee.
We hung out at the beach some that afternoon. It was fun. I think it was John, BJ, Paul, and Luci and I. We bobbed on the floats for quite awhile. Greg got back from golfing and joined us at the beach. :o) We washed up and grabbed a quick bite to eat before our scheduled dinner at Feathers (the reservations were for 9pm). We strolled up to the lobby at about 5:30 or so, went upstairs to check email real quick, and lo and behold, the bus carrying Chris, Beta, Jo, and Deanna showed up. We said hi and let them get settled in, and told them about dinner that night. :o)
Dinner at Feathers was pretty fun. We were separated into tables of 6, 6, 4, and 4. The food was delicious. I got the rack of lamb for my entree, and it was the best I've ever had. :o) Mmmmmmmm! Everyone had a great time. It was kinda like our rehearsal dinner, but we didn't actually have a rehearsal. Hee hee.
After dinner, my sister, Matt, and Luci came over to our room so we could go over the processional music for the wedding. My sister was basically in charge of getting everybody to walk at the right times. :o) She caught on pretty quickly, and so we adjourned the meeting for everyone to get some sleep before the Big Day. :o)
Posted by alpha at 08:36 AM | Wedding | Comments (1)
May 25, 2005
Jamaica - Day 2 (May 17, 2005)
I woke up super early this morning (like at 5:30am) and couldn't go back to sleep. I went out to the verandah of our 3rd floor beachfront room (#4320) to take a look at the view. It was absolutely gorgeous. We walked down to the restaurant to meet up with everyone for breakfast, which was delicious. We went and hung out on the beach in the morning with Diane & John and the rest of the gang. Greg and his Dad signed up to play golf that afternoon. I had lunch with everyone else. :o)
After lunch, when I tried to go back to my room to put my nice camera away and to change into my swimsuit, I found out that my key card didn't work. The lock wouldn't open. So the next hour and a half was spent calling and harassing the staff to come and fix my door, so I could get into my swimsuit and get snorkeling gear to go snorkeling with the gang at 3pm. We cut it pretty close...I got into my room at 2:40pm, and made it to the boat just before they left. Ugh. The snorkeling was fun though. Not a whole lot to see, but it was still fun.
When we got back from snorkeling, Greg was already back from golfing. He complained to the manager about how I was stuck outside the room for so long that afternoon...and got us a bottle of champagne! :p Ha ha. We hung out on the beach some more, and showered to get ready for dinner.
Greg and I wandered over to the lobby at about 5:30pm to see if my parents, sis, Matt, and Luci and Austin have arrived yet. I think we missed them by about 5 minutes. Greg asked one of the guys guarding the luggage if a bunch of Chinese people just showed up. Ha ha. He said 4 of them, and found out the room number for us. We went over there and said hi. They got settled in and we all went down to the beach for dinner, where we found the rest of the gang.
That night they were doing an Italian-themed dinner on the beach, so we got the waiter to save us a couple of tables so we could all have dinner together. It was a blast! :o) We called it a night shortly after 'cuz we were all exhausted. :o)
Posted by alpha at 08:35 AM | Wedding | Comments (2)
Jamaica - Day 1 (May 16, 2005)
I stayed up late last night to pack and stuff. Then this morning I got online and said hi to a few people, and off to the bank to get some cash for the trip. My parents came over at 10am to take us to the airport. The check-in line at AA's counter was horrendously long. We couldn't do curbside check-in 'cuz we were flying international. Darn. Anyway, we made it in plenty of time...got something to eat, and found Paul when he arrived.
Most of the rest of the plane rides were somewhat uneventful, except for the big fat guy that was sitting next to Greg on the Miami to Montego Bay flight. The guy had this grocery bag full of snacks on his lap and proceeded to eat all of it throughout the flight (did I mention that he was fat?). At one point, he elbowed Greg while Greg was taking a sip of his wine...wine went everywhere (thank goodness it was white wine). I swear, airlines need to enforce the 2-seat rule for people who obviously aren't able to fit in 1 seat. Geez. Anyway, the flight attendent was really nice and brought Greg another $5 bottle of wine.
Immigration at Montego Bay took forever. We were lucky too that we arrived shortly before another flight did, and got to the lines first. After immigration and customs, we were shuffled off to the Couples lounge, where we were shuffled off to this teeny bus that transported us to the resort. There wasn't much traffic (although there were plenty of crazy drivers), and our driver was a great tour guide. It was pretty fun. We got to Couples Swept Away (CSA) at about 10pm. Greg's Dad and Laura were up there waiting for us. :o) We got all checked in, and had a quick dinner on the beach at the grill...and called it a night. :o)
Posted by alpha at 08:23 AM | Wedding | Comments (0)
May 24, 2005
All Married and Stuff!
Okay okay! We're back, and all married and stuff! :o) Actually, we came back on Sunday night, and yesterday I was crazy busy trying to get pictures up. Hee hee.
Speaking of which, expect to see pictures begin to appear on our photo album. It'll take a little while to get the selected ones up there...so be patient. Hee hee.
I'll give a detailed trip report another time. Right now I need to be pretending to work. :o) Hee hee.
Posted by alpha at 09:32 AM | Wedding | Comments (1)
May 16, 2005
Yey!!!!!!!
Our plane leaves in 4.5 hours!!!! :o)
I still gotta go to the bank to get some cash. Fun times. Stayed up 'til about 1 to finish up packing 'cuz I had to do laundry after my hockey game. During my hockey game, this girl wasn't paying attention and hit me from behind. So now my right knee is bruised. Ugh. I was hobblin' around last night while trying to pack. That wasn't too fun...
Anyhoot. I best get going. My parents are coming over at 10am to pick us up. :o) See y'all down there, or when I get back!
Posted by alpha at 08:48 AM | Wedding | Comments (2)
May 14, 2005
2 more sleeps!
Yey! 2 more sleeps until we leave for Jamaica!!! :o) We've started gathering things for the trip, but nothing is in the suitcases yet. Heh heh.
We went to the Byron Nelson today. It was fun (and quite sunny). :o) I think I got a tan from being outside for 3 hours. Hee hee. We did our usual thing and walked backwards on the course to catch up with the leaders. We ended up camping out at the 15th tee, and saw Jesper Parnevik, Vijah Singh, Phil Mickelson, and Nick Price come through. It was pretty cool. We were sitting about 10 feet from where they were teeing off. :o) Fun times.
On Friday, I ended up taking a half-day 'cuz I was done with all my work stuff...and went to Aqua Adventures to pick up my wetsuit. While I was there, I ran into my dive instructor, Mike. I hadn't seen him in like 4 years. He remembered me, and we chatted a little bit. He asked where I was going. Hee hee.
After picking up the wetsuit, it was about time for lunch. I called up my sister to see if she has had lunch yet. Turns out that it was the only day she didn't have lunch plans. :o) We went to First Chinese BBQ...which was completely packed even at 1pm. Craziness. It was a good time. :o)
Greg had a dentist appointment, and came home at about 3:30 or so. We hung out a bit, and he went to play golf for a little while. I continued converting my CDs in to MP3s to put on my iPod. What a time consuming process! I think I just have way too many CDs. :p
Posted by alpha at 09:28 PM | Golf , Wedding | Comments (3)
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
Various News Items
8 days until the wedding! :o)
Last weekend, I was looking around for the wording of a sand ceremony (similar to the lighting of a unity candle). I didn't like any of the ones that people have used in the past, so I went looking for wording of wedding ceremonies. I found this one that I really liked. Greg read it and thought it was perfect. So I sent it to the wedding coordinator at the resort to see if it would be okay for the minister to read our script at our ceremony. :o) Yesterday, I heard back from the wedding coordinator, Tamika, and she said that the minister should be okay with that, but he may want to add some traditional Jamaican vows in it. I'm excited!
A wee bit of bad news though...apparently my Grandma (my Dad's Mom) is really sick and is in the hospital in Hong Kong. She's not digesting the food that's being fed to her via a feeding tube, so her hands and feet are swollen. My aunt in Toronto is flying back within the next couple of days to see her. And my parents are going back the day after they get back from Jamaica (Sunday the 22nd) and coming back on June 2nd. Hopefully my Grandma can hang on long enough for my parents to see her. :o/ So I think the plan is for us to pick up their van when we come back from Jamaica. Yup. Then my uncle (my Mom's brother) is flying in on the 2nd from Seattle to come to the reception. I think they're all flying in at about the same time, so we can pick them up after work.
In other news...Weezer's new album, Make Believe, was released yesterday. Must acquire before trip. :o)
Posted by alpha at 08:49 AM | Family , Wedding | Comments (0)
May 09, 2005
1 more week!
Oh goodness...I've been so busy that I haven't gotten a chance to write lately. Last week was bad at work, 'cuz my boss decided to pick on every single thing we were doing and insisted that I didn't work enough (even though I work on average 42-43 hours a week)...so it was a pretty miserable week on the workfront.
During my non-work time, I spent most of it ripping my CDs to put on to my iPod. :o) Very time consuming. Hopefully I'll make some headway on it this week 'cuz I'd like to have most of my CDs done by the time we leave for Jamaica.
Last Friday I had my 2nd fitting for the dress. :o) It fits! Ha ha. My parents both came for it, and then we went to have dim sum with my sister. It was a Mother's Day thing. Hee hee. Was fun. Took my parents up to Plano Centre to pay for the reception. The lady was late coming back from lunch, so we didn't have a chance to stop by the golf course. Oh well.
Saturday Greg and I stopped by the bike shop (to fix the tire on Greg's bike) and the scuba shop (so I can get a wetsuit). Yup. Then I left to go to my sister's at 12:30 to have lunch with her, and to do some reception planning. We went to the Galleria to meet up with Luci and Jodie for our make-up training class thing at Stila...only that the lady at Stila didn't bother calling us to tell us that the class was rescheduled to next weekend. Ugh. We ended up just going shopping at the Galleria. It was fun anyways. :o)
We all split for a couple of hours to run errands, and then met at 7 at the Hampton Inn in Addison for my bachelorette party. :o) Austin got us a couple of hotel rooms for the party using his hotel points (thanks Austin!!!). The party consisted of Luci, Jodie, my sis, Beta, and my friend Raechel from high school. We went to Antonio Ristorante in Addison Circle for dinner. Had a great time and some tasty foodness.
After the long dinner, we went to the Londoner for drinks. Jo exercised her assertiveness to get us drinks at the bar, since we were completely ignored by the wait staff. Not a single one of them came by to check on us the whole time we were there. It was pretty amazing. Anyways, after a couple of rounds, we went back to the hotel to hang out some more. Called it a night at about 2:30 or so.
A thunderstorm rolled through sometime that night and woke me up. Then, for some strange reason, I wasn't all that tired...and woke up at about 8. My sister got up at about 9:30 and left to go to church. I slowly got ready...called Greg to say hi, and then went over to wake Luci up. :p Hee hee. We cleaned up the room some, and loaded up the cars to go home. :o)
Greg and I went to Target to do some shopping for the trip. :o) Bought sunblock and stuff like that. Also bought food for dinner Sunday night 'cuz Katie & Tony were coming over (Katie's keeping an eye on the kitties while we're gone). We made fajitas from scratch, which ended up tasting pretty good. :o) Hee hee. Yum! We had a good time. They left at about 8 to go to the hockey game...I didn't end up going 'cuz it was too late and I had to be at work at 6am today. *Grumble*
1 more week until we leave for Jamaica!!!
Posted by alpha at 09:39 AM | Fun Stuff , Wedding , Work | Comments (4)
April 24, 2005
Surprised Wedding Shower, $$, Stuff, $$
Our 1st VP, Carolyn, came down from Chicago to visit us on Thursday and Friday. :o) She's such a nice lady. I really enjoy hanging out with her. She was all asking about the wedding and stuff too. :o) We all went out to Bahama Breeze after work on Thursday night. Had a great time.
Friday we found out that Carolyn's flight back to Chicago was cancelled, so they managed to put her on an earlier flight that left at 2pm. I was going about my business...heating up food to eat, etc. etc. My boss, Cheryl, called me at around noon from one of the conference rooms out of the blue, demanding why I wasn't at the meeting. Thinking someone was amiss (there wasn't a meeting scheduled in my calendar for that time), I strolled over towards the conference room to see what was up. As I approached the conference room, Fabria, a co-worker, told me to hang on 'cuz she thought there was still a meeting going on...as she passed by with punch bowl, etc. Now, REALLY suspecting that something was going on, I hung out with Gary for a little while at his desk (who, as it turned out, was stalling for the people in the conference room). Then one of our VPs called me over and opened the conference room door. Turns out it was a surprised wedding shower for us!!! :o)
They had people in Chicago hooked up to the party via video conferencing, and there were cakes in each location...mine in Dallas was completely pink (thanks to Cheryl), and the one in Chicago was chocolate. :p Lots of people showed up. Fabria had coordinated everyone to give us marital advice, and she put them together in this little photo album. :o) Hee hee. It was a great time. We got a HUGE check (as in $430) from everyone. So touched. :o)
Saturday Greg went to see his nephew Marshall, who's in town visiting his friend Eric. Marshall and Eric have an NFL Draft party every year, so Greg goes to it to hang out with them. :p I went to Microcenter to check out some iPods 'cuz they're running a special where if you open a credit card account with them, you get $75 back in mail-in rebate when you buy an iPod. Anyways, talked to the guy in the Apple department...and ended up buying a 30GB iPod Photo. The thing is pretty awesome. :o) Also bought a case for it. Hee hee.
After the Microcenter excursion, I went up to visit my parents, and to bring my Dad the shirt that Greg had bought for him to wear at the wedding. It fitted perfectly! :o) Had lunch with the folks...we oogled over some digital cameras, then went clothes/shoes shopping with my Mom. That was pretty fun. We went to DSW, Kohl's, Best Buy (to look at the cameras in person), and then to the grocery stores to pick up something for dinner. Yep. Had dinner with my parents and then came home. :o)
Today Paul came over in the afternoon, and then we went up to the Allen outlet mall to go get him some pants for the wedding. He and Greg ended up getting new sandals too at Bass. :p And we bought Paul a new Samsonite bag to take his stuff to Jamaica (the Best Man's gift). :o) We almost bought ourselves a nice new set of suitcases, but didn't. Hee hee. Greg almost bought a new suit for the reception...they're holding it for him to decide. :o) It's an $800 Italian handmade suit that they're selling for $300 'cuz of the 50% off sale that they're running. It was beautimus. Hee hee.
Posted by alpha at 01:55 PM | Wedding | Comments (2)
April 19, 2005
1 more month!!!
1 more month 'til the wedding!!! :o)
Posted by alpha at 04:48 PM | Wedding | Comments (3)
April 15, 2005
Work From Home Day
Today I'm working from home. Hours are a bit funky, 10am - 7pm...'cuz I had to cover a memo that comes out later on in the evening for expiration. But that prob doesn't mean a whole lot to most of you...
So this morning, I brought my car in to get the oil changed and tires rotated. Took about an hour. Then I went over to my parents' house to pick up this present that got sent there. I called my Dad while I was there, and he mentioned that I could pick up the reception gifts that they had gotten for us. So I got those too. My sister and I can get working on them soon. :o)
Greg stayed home from work today. He wasn't feeling very well last night or this morning. So he's resting in the living room while I'm slaving away on my computer...
My sandals arrived in record time yesterday. I had ordered them at around 7:30pm on Wednesday night, and they were delivered at 11:30am Thursday morning. Ridiculously fast. They're awesome too. Very soft and comfy. I like. :o)
Posted by alpha at 12:04 PM | Family , Misc , Wedding , Work | Comments (0)
April 14, 2005
Wisdom Teeth are Evil
Yesterday I took off work to take Greg to get his wisdom teeth taken out. We got to the surgeon's office about half an hour early, so we sat in the car for a little bit before going in. The surgery itself took about an hour and a half. We got home at about 10:30. Greg was still pretty groggy from the surgery...so I spent the next hour and a half getting him all settled in. He got hungry at about 12:30, so I went out and got him a milkshake from Whataburger (and some lunch for myself). Also stopped by the store to pick up some gauze.
I crashed for a few hours after lunch. I think Greg slept and watched some soccer on TV. He was hungry again by like 4:30, so I went out and got him some KFC mashed potatoes for dinner. When he felt better later on in the night, we went to the store to pick up some food items that he could bring to work today. We came back, did some things, and went to bed.
Oh oh...last night I ordered some of these Columbia Surf Tide Sandals from Zappos last night. I've been looking at them for months, but either they don't have the color I want, or they don't have the size. Anyway, the planets aligned last night and I was able to get some in the color I want and in the size I need. :o) They even upgraded the shipping to UPS 2nd Day Air for me, so I'll get them TODAY! Amazing huh? I think I'm a Zappos fan...
Posted by alpha at 08:51 AM | Family , Wedding | Comments (4)
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)
March 30, 2005
Rings
Ah yes...pics of rings...
Posted by alpha at 01:29 PM | Wedding | Comments (8)
March 28, 2005
*Cough*
Had a pretty good long weekend. Thursday night Greg and I went to Ft. Worth for the Charity Challenge on Ice VIII game. We took a picture with the Stanley Cup after making a $10 donation to the Greyhound Adoption League of Texas. It was cool to see it up close. As for the game, as expected, the girls beat the guys good...7-2. We left in the middle of the 3rd period.
Friday morning Greg took Benny to the vet. Our vet had an extremely rude receptionist, so we aren't gonna go there anymore. He took him to this other one down the street...who manhandled Benny and subsequently got scratched (ha!). Anyway, the vet was really strange...he wouldn't listen to the medicial history and just kept saying what he *thought* was the matter. Finally Greg convinced him to prescribe this med that Benny took the last time he had stomach issues. Miraculously, Benny was feeling better after a few hours.
Anyway, in the midst of all this vet excitement, I picked up my Mom and then went for my dress fitting. It went pretty well (and quick). Afterwards, we went and picked up my sister and we had dim-sum for lunch. Mmmmmmmm. We also took a tour of my sister's workplace. It's pretty cool. I'll know who to ask to get some iron fencing! Ha ha ha.
After that, I took my Mom to get her last shot for Hep B immunization (or was it Hep A). Then I drove her up to the golf course where we're having the reception, so she could see it. She got to meet Danny and his sidekick...they were so excited to meet my Mom (or rather, just another Chinese person) that they kept on blabbing. My Mom really liked the place, so that's good. Hee hee.
We then went back to my parents' house. My Dad was already home 'cuz his office closed early on Friday. He helped me print the labels for the reception invitations. We talked a bit about the trip and stuff, and I went home at about 6ish. Greg and I tried to go to the driving range that night, but we saw lightning in the not-so-far distance, so we went to Golf Galaxy to check it out...and then went home.
Saturday was rainy. We spent some time fighting the ants in the kitchen. It was ridiculous. They just wouldn't go away, and we can't use insecticide because of the cats. They just kept coming to take "food" from the ant baits. Ugh. Anyway, we had a quick lunch and went to Dallas Gold & Silver Exchange to take a look at wedding rings. We ended up finding some that we really like. Greg's is a platinum band that's really cool (I'll post pics later), and mine is a 1/3 ct. 10-round-diamond channel set ring. It's purty. :o) We were glad that we went there, 'cuz the lady was really nice and didn't try to force anything on us. Plus we can get free resizing/polishing/cleaning there...and they'd even clean my engagement ring! Very cool deal. Anyways, since we were buying both of our rings from them, they ended up giving us a $100 discount on the total. Pretty nifty. Highly recommended.
The rest of Saturday was spent stuffing envelopes and sealing envelopes, and watching NCAA basketball. Hee hee.
Easter Sunday we went to church, which was packed. Then we went to Souper Salad for lunch. That was fun. We hung out and watched some golf, then I went over to my sister's to do some reception planning, and to see her new apartment. :o) I think we have a general idea of what we wanna do at the reception.
Posted by alpha at 10:12 AM | Family , Hockey , Kitties , Wedding | Comments (6)
March 22, 2005
Pics from San Antonio Bridal Shower
I uploaded some pics from the bridal shower in San Antonio. :o)
Posted by alpha at 10:52 AM | Wedding | Comments (6)
March 21, 2005
1 down...
Greg and I left for San Antonio right after work Friday. We endured traffic all the way out to Ft. Worth, and then we got on 281, drove in the country for a little while, and went to Granbury for dinner at our favorite German restaurant, Niester's. The drive was somewhat uneventful, which was nice. We got to Diane's (in Boerne) a little after 11...hung out for a little while, and crashed for the night.
Saturday morning Greg went to play golf with his Dad really early. I got up kinda early and helped Diane out a little bit with the preparation for the shower. My parents called at about 2:30 and told us that they were getting on 1604 from 35...so Greg and I left to go meet up with them to bring them to the house (they woulda never found the street to turn on). We showed the house to my parents and my sister and Matt...and were outside in the yard talking when Uncle Guy, Aunt Martha, and Aunt Jane showed up. They're so funny. :o) We got some party trays from Jason's Deli and hung out for awhile...talked and watch the dogs (all 9 of them, including my sister's Yorkie!) play. Terrie came by after work at about 5:30 or so. We opened presents. :o) Greg's Dad got us the 2-tier folding dish rack, and Diane and John got us the spice rack. We got a Dillard's gift card and money from Uncle Guy, Aunt Martha, and Aunt Jane. :o) Yey!
My family left at about 7:30pm. Terrie left soon after that too. Greg and BJ went to bring my parents back to I-10 so they could find their way home. I stayed and hung out with the rest. Everybody stuck around and talked until about 11 or so. It was fun. :o)
Sunday morning I slept in...and then we left at about 11:30 to drive back to Dallas. It was a horrendous drive! Everybody and their dog were out on I-35. It was bumper to bumper from Austin to Hillsboro. Ridiculous. We didn't get home until almost 7pm (we did stop and eat for about an hour). Ugh. Then I had to leave for my hockey game at 8 (at that point I was very glad that we left SA early). Blah.
Posted by alpha at 01:03 PM | Wedding | Comments (2)
March 16, 2005
So Busy!
Man I've been so insanely busy at work lately! It's quite exhausting. After I get home I just want to lay on the couch and watch TV. :p
We're chugging along with the wedding stuff. Haven't really done much since last week. We finalized the reception guest list (which had grown quite a bit, actually), and I sent it to my parents to review to make sure they didn't forget anyone. Next up would be to go to my parents' to print the mailing labels and maps on their laser printer. Yep yep. Fun stuff.
Our new Internet Producer (ie. graphics designer) started on Monday up in Chicago. So Bettye has been busy training him to do updates and stuff. I don't think she has gotten to do much of her own work at all this week. I know I haven't. Hopefully he learns quickly and we can share some of the workload, so we can all work on the stuff we're supposed to be working on. :p
This Friday, Greg and I are leaving to go to San Antonio right after work. Diane (Greg's sister) is throwing us a wedding shower for Greg's family in San Antonio. Should be fun. :o)
Posted by alpha at 09:14 AM | Wedding , Work | Comments (2)
March 08, 2005
2-0
My hockey team went 2-0 this weekend for our Friday & Sunday games. Friday night we even scored 3 goals to earn us an ice cream party after the game on Sunday (it's a team thing). :o) Greg said Sunday's game (we won 1-0) was probably one of the best games he had seen us play. That's quite a compliment.
Oh, Katie, Tony, Greg, and I went out for Chinese food after the game on Friday too. It was mighty tasty. Sing Kee redid their interior so it looks much nicer now. :o) Good times...
Saturday I had to come in to work. They were running a system test so we had to come in to test and make sure that everything we need is up. Took a couple of hours. After that, I went and ran a bunch of errands...stopped by Babies 'R Us to buy some baby shower gifts for this lady on our hockey team, and went to Hobby Lobby to buy some card stock for work. Greg stayed home and waited all morning for his birthday present to be delivered. Hee hee. He was so giddy when he got it. It was funny. We tried to stop by Tom Thumb to meet with the cake decorator, but she wasn't there. So we went on to the driving range while I wait for my sister to get back from Allen (she went shopping with my parents) so we could go shopping for wedding stuff. We didn't end up going 'cuz she didn't get back until about 5...by then it was kinda late and we were hungry.
Sunday we went to church, then out to lunch at Olive Garden. I hadn't been there awhile. Tried one of their new dishes, and that was pretty good. Went to look at some rings at Jared, but Greg doesn't really wanna get his from there 'cuz of their oober-annoying commercials. Greg did find one that he liked a lot though. We'll see. Maybe he'd have to deal with contributing to those annoying commercials. :p As for me, I found one that I liked, but then found another that looked better on Bile Nile (plus it matches my ring). I'm gonna sit on it a few days to see if that's the one I want. :o)
Think that's about it for now. More updates later. :o)
Posted by alpha at 08:12 AM | Hockey , Wedding , Work | Comments (0)
March 04, 2005
TGIF!
Another week has flown by...
Today has been pretty nice. Had lunch with my mentor today...we went to this sandwich shop in the building next to us. It was really good, and it's within walkable distance. I need to go there more often. :o) Anyway, we brought the food back, grabbed a conference room, and planned out what we need to do for our presentation in the general meeting on the 18th. :o) It should be fun.
Tonight I have a hockey game. We're trying to finish up our season before Easter weekend, so we have to double-up one weekend and play both Friday night and Sunday night. :o) After the game, we're going out with some teammates for Chinese food. Mmmmmmmm...
Tomorrow I hafta be at work at 9:45am. Yuck. Hopefully it won't last more than a couple of hours. I get a full comp day for coming in to do the test. Ah well. After that, Greg and I need to go to Tom Thumb to meet with the decorator to see if she can give us a quote on our wedding cake. Then I'm off to go shopping with my sister for reception stuff. Fun fun. :o)
Sunday I think we're gonna go visit a jeweler to get Greg's ring size, so we can order a wedding ring for him. That should be interesting. I don't quite enjoy going to jewelry stores...maybe it's just too much "bling" for my liking. :p Hee hee. Then of course Sunday night I have my game. Yup...s'bout it!
Next Wednesday is Greg's birthday. His birthday present should be arriving tomorrow. :o) Yey! He's taking off next Thursday to go play golf, and then I'm taking off next Friday to use up that comp day that I'm earning tomorrow. Hee hee.
Oh, and next weekend we're going camping at Purtis Creek. We were gonna go this weekend, but all the sites were booked! Ha ha. Oh well. Next weekend is better for me anyways. :o) This will prob be the last time that we'll get to do it before it gets super hot.
Posted by alpha at 02:00 PM | Camping , Hockey , Wedding , Work | Comments (4)
March 01, 2005
Space Heater = Good
Haven't really felt like writing lately. Have had too much to do wedding-wise that I just hadn't been in the mood to write. :o)
Ended up having to work Friday night, for about half an hour at 1:30am. Yuck. It completely threw my weekend off 'cuz I didn't get enough sleep. Saturday morning I had to get up early to go cake tasting at Frosted Art with Greg, my sis, Jo, and Luci. It was a fun time, but I wish I wasn't so tired. And yes, 9am is way too early to be having cake. I spent most of the rest of the day sleeping 'cuz I was so tired. :o/ Greg went to perform at his MSO event at about 5ish. We hung out for a little while when he got home.
Sunday we went to church, then came home and chilled. I was still tired, so I was watching TV most of the afternoon. :o/ We went out to Oshman's to try to buy a birthday present for Greg's brother Paul but ended up buying some clothes for ourselves. Heh heh. Had my hockey game at 7:30. I didn't feel like I skated all that well (prob 'cuz I had been so tired all weekend. Blah.
Yesterday I had to be at work at 6am. Good thing was that there was no traffic, and I got to go home at 11:30am (that was for working Friday night). I ended up running a bunch of errands until about 1:30pm. Stopped by the dress shop to check on my dress, and the lady there said that it should arrive any day now. I scheduled my fitting for Good Friday while I was there. This way my Mom can come. :o)
Went to Tom Thumb to inquire about their wedding cake situation. The lady who was there told me that the decorator wasn't in yesterday, but that they do make wedding cakes. I need to go back to inquire about the prices, etc. No way I'm gonna spend $600+ on a wedding cake when I can probably get one for $150 that works just as well. It's all gonna be eaten anyways... :p
Also spent quite a bit of time standing in line at the post office. What I don't get is why out of the 5 available counters, only 2 people are working at them...while the line goes out the door. I never quite understood that about the post office. And then they complain that they aren't getting as much business. Well I wonder why. Duh.
Other than that, just worked on getting the files for the invitation labels and watched TV. Nothing real significant. Just the usual. Wish I wasn't so tired so I could have gone to the driving range with Greg. Oh well...
Oh yeah, almost forgot to mention...it has been FREEZING in the office the past few weeks, especially for those of us in the back corner of the office. So we've been wearing our jackets at our desks, and it apparently paid off for me, 'cuz a space heater appeared on my chair when I came in this morning. I've been much warmer today. Hee hee. Yey!
Posted by alpha at 08:58 AM | Hockey , Wedding , Work | Comments (0)
February 23, 2005
Saga Galore
My beef with Sprint, is that the staff in their call center in India are completely clueless. I had them repeat everything I said back to me so I could know that they understood me, and yet I can still receive blatantly wrong information. Without going into much details (the story takes 10 minutes to tell in person), make sure you talk to someone from the UNITED STATES. Those people at least know what they're talking about. Better yet, just email and let the eCare people handle it for you...they apparently have the most power to actually fix a customer's problem.
Long story short, if you get a rep at Sprint that sounds Indian. Hang up and try again...
Let's see...what else...Friday night Luci came over and had BBQ and watched TV with us. Hee hee. It was a fun hang out time. :o) Saturday Greg went to rehearsal in the morning...we had a quick lunch and went over to Jo's to drop off her bridesmaid dress. Then we headed over to BB&B to work on our registry. We've filled it up quite a bit with a bigger (price range) variety of stuff. Hee hee. Fun times. Afterwards, since we were already in the area, we went to Toyko One for dinner to celebrate "3 months until wedding." Had a great time. Rented "Napolean Dynamite" (not my choice, but Greg HAD to watch it)...it had some funny moments, but definitely not the funniest movie I've ever seen. :o)
On Sunday, the weather was gorgeous. We went to the driving range, then bike riding around the Sherrill Park area, and then I had my hockey game that night. It was a fun game in spite of our loss. We actually scored more than 1 goal in the game! Ha ha. :o)
Monday's weather was gorgeous too. :o) We went out to Kohl's so I could get some shoes for the wedding, and I found some (the white ones) for $6.50 with the use of a coupon! :o) Wheeee! I'll look for other ones to match my Chinese dress for the reception. Hee hee.
Posted by alpha at 08:22 AM | Biking , Golf , Hockey , Wedding | Comments (2)
February 16, 2005
Bridesmaid Dresses are Here!
Yey!!!! The bridesmaid dresses have arrived!!!! :o) They turned out AWESOME!! Very pretty indeed.
All of a sudden it seems more real... :o) We'd be on a plane to Jamaica in exactly 3 months!!!
Posted by alpha at 07:57 AM | Wedding | Comments (0)
January 24, 2005
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)
December 01, 2004
28 Degrees
Brrrrr! It's 28 degrees out right now. Cold...
It's been hella busy at work this week. I had to cover a 6am-3pm shift yesterday. Bleh. But it's kinda cool that by lunch time, I had already worked most of my day. The only bad thing was that I still hit traffic when I left at 3pm 'cuz there was a wreck. :o( Lame. Why can't people just be more careful...
Anyway, I ordered my camcorder on Monday. It shipped on Tuesday and will get to my house on Friday. I have a day off, so I'll be at home waiting to sign for it. :o) The new SD card that goes into it (the camcorder uses that to store still pictures) will arrive on Thursday. I'm hoping that the mini-DV tapes will ship soon today, so I'd have them by Saturday at the latest...that way I get to play with the camcorder while I have a few days off work. Hee hee.
Sarah, the person at Lasting Impressions that supposedly ordered my wedding dress, called my home phone yesterday and left a message...saying that that she had a question for me. I called back, and whoever answered the phone said that Sarah was on another call, and that she would call back in 5-10 minutes. As expected, no return call. I have a feeling that she would probably call my home phone again today and leave another message, and when I call back, she'd be on the phone or with a customer. It's so annoying when people tell you that they'd call back and they wouldn't. Now I'm all wondering about what question she could possibly have for me, when my dress was supposedly ordered 3 weeks ago. And why didn't she call my cell phone? It was listed on my sales receipt for a reason. Ugh. I'm just very annoyed at the place...I had to call 3 times before they'd call me back. That's just not good customer service. Hopefully I don't have to deal much with them anymore.
Anyway, I have a half-day tomorrow, and then am off Friday & Monday. Can't wait. It's been a long week. Then next Thursday we have a company Christmas party at Champps. Fun. :p
Posted by alpha at 08:05 AM | Wedding , Work | Comments (0)
November 22, 2004
Rain, rain, go away
Man traffic was horrendous this morning! This rainy weather caused 3 accidents on 635...making it virtually impossible for me to go that way and be able to make it here at a decent time. So I took the George Bush Turnpike...it didn't end up being a whole lot faster, and it cost me $1.20. Oh well.
My whole body hurts. Last night I made the mistake of eating (a steak, no less) an hour before my hockey game. We were short on players (we had 9), so there were only 3 of us on defense (hence double-shifting). By the 3rd period I was feeling my dinner (stomach hurting like hell), and my right thigh was cramping. Then I made the mistake of blocking a shot with my left thigh (see similar incident from a few months ago), so my left thigh was throbbing. Ugh. At least we made it out of the game with a 0-0 tie. :o) Makes my suffering almost worth it. Ha ha.
Looks like I'm recaping my weekend backwards here. Lessee...Sunday morning was our last pre-marital class. Yey! :o) Our facilitators brought a really nice breakfast for us. Mmmmmm. Hungry just thinking about it.
Saturday night we went to Greg's orchestra concert. It was good. :o) Lots o' fun were had. My Dad really wants to go to their holiday concert in December. He kept asking about it. Very funny.
Friday I spent a good portion of it running around, getting our reception site settled. I went up to Pecan Hollow Golf Course to take some pictures for my Mom 'cuz she wanted to see what it looks like. While I was there, I ran into the site supervisor, Danny. Apparently Danny got the run-through about my reception Friday morning, from the facilities manager (Shannon) at the Plano Centre. So when he saw me taking pictures, he came out and introduced himself. It was pretty cool. We went through the set-up together, and figured out that we could seat 150 pretty comfortably in the dining room. Yey! :o) After the picture-taking, I went up to the Plano Centre to meet with the events coordinator (Jo) and the catering manager (Anne). Jo introduced me to the wedding coordinator (Claudia). Claudia, Anne, and I sat down to talk more about the details, etc. Then Anne went and got Shannon so he could tell me what all's included in our rental/service charge. I have a feeling that this might be their biggest event there, since the clubhouse is pretty new (remodeled and opened this April). Everybody was freakishly excited about the reception. It was really strange. :p Anyway, Claudia's gonna send me an itemized list of costs this week...and I'd sign the contract and pay the $75 deposit and everything will be official. :o)
Anyway, enough about my weekend. 2-day week for me this week. Yey! :o) It's supposed to get REALLY cold over Thanksgiving...gonna get down to freezing Tuesday night. Brrrrr! I'll be celebrating Turkey Day with my parents...Greg's going down to San Antonio with Paul.
Posted by alpha at 08:18 AM | Family , Hockey , Wedding | Comments (0)
November 11, 2004
Marathon Day
It's 8:12 and it's already over 2 hours into my day...I hafta stay 'til late tonight too 'cuz our Director is in town again (this time to do reviews), so we're all going out to dinner (supposedly anyway). We'll see. I brought a couple of DVDs to kill time between 3 and 5pm. Fun stuff.
I guess I haven't updated since the weekend. My birthday was really nice (especially so since Greg and I got engaged). :o) Saturday Greg and Paul went down to College Station for the A&M/OU game, then to Austin for the Texas/OSU game. They were gone all day and got on TV coverage twice in 2 different games. How funny. Anyway, Jodie, Luci, and I went wedding/bridesmaid dress shopping. It was loads of fun. We found both a wedding dress for me and a bridesmaid dress for them. :o) Quite an accomplishment I'd say. Hee hee.
Saturday night I went over to my parents' for dinner. I requested that they make dinner this time instead of going out to celebrate. It was a great time. My sister and Matt left soon after dinner, but I stuck around and watched the Mavericks game with my Dad, then talked to them some more about the wedding and reception and stuff. :o) My Mom came up with 60 people for her guest list. Good grief. We'll see what happens with that.
Sunday (my birthday) we slept in, and then went out on a motorcycle ride to go have breakfast at Denny's. That was pretty fun, and it was a beautiful day out. We also stopped by the golf course in Plano to check out their banquet facilities for the wedding reception. Looks like they could only hold 120 people though. My hockey game was at 7:30pm...Katie finally broke our no-scoring streak! Went out to Razzoo's with Greg, Luci, Katie, and Tony after the game to celebrate my birthday. It was fun. :o)
Monday Greg and I were off work again. We tried to get a hold of the people who are in charge of event planning in the City of Plano. Found the golf course guy, who referred us to a lady at the Plano Centre, who we emailed but never heard back. I don't think we did too much else that day. Just kinda hung out and relaxed.
This upcoming Saturday, Chris and I will be hosting a birthday party at Chris & Beta's house. :o) Wheeee! Fun fun! Hopefully people will be able to make it since it's a little bit late notice. I'm sure it'll be a great time. Hee hee.
Posted by alpha at 08:13 AM | Family , Friends , Hockey , Wedding , Work | Comments (0)
November 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 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)
October 22, 2004
Happy Friday!
Happy Friday everyone! :o) I'm only working a half-day today, so that makes me ultra-joyous!
Last night we went to go see "Friday Night Lights." It was pretty good. Greg had read the book so he was pointing out all the fictionalization in the movie. :p Hee hee.
Also talked to my travel agent and put down a deposit for our Jamaica trip. :o) Greg decided that he'd much rather enjoy the trip with A/C in the room, so we upgraded to the beachfront verandah suite. It has A/C, a stocked mini-bar, and satellite TV. Wheeee! See pictures of rooms.
My Mom's trying to be difficult. She sent an email (from her work email addy) to the agent yesterday afternoon (like 2:30ish). Then she emailed me at like 8:45pm asking me how they could finalize plans if the agent doesn't respond to her email. I was like...ummm...I talked to her earlier in the evening, and she got your email...she said she was getting right back to you...PERHAPS she sent an email back at your work email??? Geez.
Anyway, everything else is going as well as can be. :p Looking forward to leaving at 11:15! :o)
Posted by alpha at 07:43 AM | Wedding , Work | Comments (0)
October 19, 2004
Long overdue
So much has happened...
Think that's about it for now. Please call Renee if you know for sure that you'll be going to our wedding. :o)
Posted by alpha at 07:55 AM | Wedding | Comments (0)
October 14, 2004
Confirmed!
Wedding date, time, location are confirmed. :o) Now to find a travel agent to harass... Hee hee.
Date: May 19, 2005
Time: 10am
Location: Couples Swept Away in Negril, Jamaica
Posted by alpha at 11:30 AM | Wedding | Comments (0)
It has been reserved...
I caved and reserved gregandchristine.com for our wedding site. :o) This way we can at least put all the links of the resort up on there, and not have to forward a bunch of links to people every time. Hee hee. There's nothing up on there right now. It took awhile for the DNS info to propagate last night...so I couldn't log in and put up at least a temp page. Now I'm at work and can't log in at all. Lame...
Oh oh oh! I talked to my Dad last night, and my parents are coming to my wedding! :o) He was actually quite excited about it. Hee hee. Yey!!! :o)
Posted by alpha at 07:34 AM | Wedding | Comments (0)
October 11, 2004
Couples Swept Away Pictures
Okay, in browsing through various message boards, I found this thread that has an amazing number of pictures of the resort...
Posted by alpha at 08:28 PM | Wedding | Comments (0)
Put this on your calendar...
May 19, 2005...the latest unofficial date...
Couples Swept Away in Negril, Jamaica is the likely destination.
Start saving up...don't worry if you can't celebrate with us in Jamaica. We'll most likely have a reception when we come back. :o)
Posted by alpha at 12:33 PM | Wedding | Comments (0)
September 09, 2004
Bored
Tick......tock......tick......tock......
Clock's not ticking fast enough. Argh. This afternoon has been going by soooo slowly. The morning went by rather quickly, but the past 2 hours have been just dragging. Ugh.
I got the tix for "Stomp" this weekend. Wheeee! :o)
Not much else is going on. Luci gave me info on the jeweler they like, and I passed on the info to Greg. A few emails later, he said we could go look after he gets his next commission check. We'll see if that happens. :p
In other news, my Dad randomly emailed me and asked me to find a time where my sister and I can have a "meeting" with him about marriage and stuff. It was really random and a little weird. I guess it wouldn't have been odd had the crap didn't happen between my Dad and my Mom earlier this week (they were pissed at each other for some weird reasons). Oh well. Hmph.
Posted by alpha at 02:25 PM | Wedding , Work | Comments (0)
August 13, 2004
Things may get interesting...!
This doesn't require much explanation. Read this real quick...
No, nothing to announce really. Just getting ready for when it does come around. :p Hee hee hee.
Anyway, it'll be a quiet weekend with Greg gone (he's going to the lake). I have to work early early (like at 6) in the morning tomorrow so I can't go. Blah. Oh well. I think I'll get some stuff done. I'm going to be working on the prototype for the new Mesquite Symphony Orchestra website. It's moving along nicely. Need to go to rehearsal with him next weekend to take some pictures. :o) Fun stuff, I tell ya. Hopefully I'll get some side jobs from it. :o)
*Yawn*
Happy Friday the 13th! :o)
Posted by alpha at 09:46 AM | Family , Wedding | Comments (0)
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)