Creepy Chili's and a cool big bear

Today we went to a mall to explore it due to its sheer size (it was big), and went to Chili's there for lunch. We explored through all sorts of stores, and had deep philosophical discussions, such as contemplating what the creepy waiter/thanker's name AJ stood for. I think the final vote was Apple Jacks.

I saw the biggest fishing store of all time. I took a couple of pics to show the bro, because I'd doubt he'd believe me otherwise. And a cool teddy bear that Jake liked quite a bit.

After the afternoon adventures, we came back, had dinner, and played Killer Bunnies well into the night and/or early morning. Oh yeah and Chad broke a chair.

Mini-ng golf

I woke up feeling refreshed after spending the night with Morgan (the dog). We had waffles for breakfast, and got everything ready for the day. We went to a pretty sweet miniature golf course that had a miner's theme (miners not minors), where we could play 18 holes for less than $5. Nine holes were outside: thankfully the weather was nice, while the other nine were underground. We had lots of fun, especially at those holes where we just couldn't get it to work out and got creative.

One of the players behind us got a little too creative. In an aggressive attempt to make it to the end of the hole, she hit the ball fairly hard: hard enough it came onto our course. She came running after it to try and stop it (?), but in her haste slipped on a wet spot on the course and fell, feet flying up into the air. She was okay other than a little embarrassed, but she was able to walk away with pride after seeing she got a hole in one: on the next hole over!

On the way back we stopped at Wal-Mart to get 2 new sippy cups (not for me and Steve: for Jake), and picked a couple of sodas that are specific to the area: Cheerwine and Sun Drop, which I keep calling Sun Spot. My bad. Both are good: Cheerwine is kind of like a cherry root beer, and Sun Spot I mean Sun Drop was like a mixture of Moutain Dew and Sprite.

We finished off the day with Settlers of Catan and got to bed late: most likely a theme for this week ... which I'm perfectly okay with!

Brinner

Well, to kickoff the trip, we decided that our first adventure would be to take Jules to breakfast for taking us to the airport. (I came up to Newberg the night before since our plane was leaving at 6am) Which, of course, meant that we had to get up even earlier in order to have time for an early breakfast before getting to the airport early to leave on the early flight. So, I went to sleep around 10pm and got up around 2am, left around 2:15 to look for an open restaurant to grab some brinner. Actually, we all got breakfast so it technically wasn't brinner. I suspect there was a little more laughter/giddiness due to the time of it all, in addition the the excitement of the fun to come.

I also suspect that due to lack of sleep and multiple worlds colliding (figuratively speaking: collision of GFU/Portland/Eugene eras), I was recognizing about half the people we were walking by. Since only one person did a hesitant double-take (hope I wasn't gawking), I fear these recognitions may have been false alarms. So Steve gave me a piece of gum to distract me until it was time to board. I lucked out because my seat hadn't been assigned yet, and the flight was full, so I got to sit in a better seat, but not first class. Who knows how many "classes" of seating there are nowadays: I'm guessing three or four, because I wasn't coach. I had 5" extra foot space - i think it was "economy plus", so I wasn't economy. And don't forget first class and/or business class. Long story short, I was somewhere in the middle, which I was thankful for the legroom since I was in a middle seat.

The second leg of the journey had a newer jet, and was empty enough that I had a window seat without someone next to me, so that part was nice. Unfortunately, there was a little kid in the row in front of me that elected to throw a 6 second fit every 10 minutes or so. There was many a red-eye-opening glare directed out the window before I was driven to drink to help pass the time. (Water, tomato juice, water, cran-apple) I pondered for a bit about why it isn't called crapple, which was an indication of how rested I was feeling at the time. But I was still excited about the upcoming week.

Chad picked us up at the airport once we got in, and we came back to the homestead for homemade pizza night and played Zombie Fluxx. Much fun - highly recommended.

How much is too much?

Holy cow! Four Thanksgivings this year because we can't all get together at once! Not that I'm complaining or anything, especially since I was able to make it to all four. The first one was on the actual day, with most of the immediate family. Then another one up at Hometown Buffet up in Salem with family that don't really have a place to host and would prefer not to make the full trip (hence the halfway point). It was great to see them and their kids, as that's usually the one time of the year we get together. Then we came back and some of us went to another one, which was a lighter one (chicken wings and other things instead of a full-on meal).

The next day we had another one the next day with a whole bunch of us (approx 12.5 people and two dogs). After the food, we headed for the living room to try out the wii fit. I can't think of a better day than Thanksgiving. It turns out I'm 4/10 of a pound overweight from all the feasting, so I must have been 10 pounds underweight before. We had a lot of fun! Hopefully I can steal some pics from somebody and include them in, or maybe even a video, because there's no describing what all went on that afternoon. Let's just say there were some troubles with some of us getting used to how it worked. We had a feeling that granny wasn't going to pass her balance test: she lost her balance as she lifted her foot to put it on the platform ... looks like she's got some work to do!

All being said, I've decided that there's no such thing as too much partying for the holidays.

Whoa. Wha? October?!

Crud - I did it again. Old habits die hard, and new ones are, uh, hard to grow. (?) Sorry all that I've been a little irregular lately. You know what I mean!

It's been busy between work, taking classes, and dealing with the mundane. There were some cool things mixed in there, but hadn't had time to get them put on here. I'll try and go back and put them in...

Today was one of those days that took a step or two away from the typical day:

I wake up with that feeling like something's wrong. You know, when the adrenaline hits and you don't even know why yet. It seemed too bright outside for the time I was supposed to be up. Ugh. My cell phone aka my alarm clock. Is dead. Apparently the connection where the charger plugs in has finally worn out. Heck, I've only had the phone for 4 years. I run into the hall to see what time it is: 7:58am. Sweet. Two minutes to get to work on time. Oh yeah, that's right. The car had started freaking out last night and needs to be towed to a repair shop now that places are open. (Possibly transmission-related) Awesome.

I was going to wait until I was at work to take care of the car business, but with my only phone being out, I had to do something about it all now. Carefully plugging in the charger at just the right angle, putting the cell on speakerphone, and placing on a book, I managed to get a call in to someone at work letting them know my car's dead and my phone's dead, but I will try and make it in when I can. (I felt like Jim Carey trying to talk on his busted cell phone in Liar Liar)

So I walked a few blocks down the street, picked out my new phone/calendar/only alarm clock, plugged it into the wall and started calling around for auto shops and tow trucks. By the time all was said and done, the day was pretty much over. Guess this week will be 4-10's, eh?

John's Bday Trip to Portland

For his birthday, my brother John opted to head up to Portland to go to the zoo, bowl, and hang out with his other brother Mike who lives up there. They later went on to see the Blazers scrimmage for free (I knew I came home too soon!), but here's an account of when I was involved. I stole some of the pics from Dad due to camera battery issues, well, okay most of the pics but they were awesome. For his birthday, we finally told John where he actually came from:

Came out a little blurry, but I still like this pic:

My sister's worst nightmare. (The birds, that is)

A highlight of the zoo trip: the cooler weather leaves the predators a little more energetic. One of the lionesses came right up the the glass wall. If that wall wasn't there, I could have reached out and touched her!

Minimal zoom, baby!

I like this one:

No pictures of the bowling or eating, but we all know what that looks like anyway.

Fresh Fruit and Guitars for Gamers

For some, Labor Day is a weekend getaway trip or vacation. For others, it's the big weekend of sales and preparations for school. As for us: no plans at all. I think we tried at first, but it was last minute enough we gave up. At first we felt bad, but later decided we were probably closest to the original spirit of the holiday: not-labor. So I stayed the night up at the homestead. The next morning, I wandered out into the yard and grabbed some breakfast.

Well, the walnuts weren't ready yet. And sadly there's no garden this year.

We did decide that we would at least go out to eat, so the four of us went to a place I forgot the name of. Some Italian place by the mall. It was good. No leftovers. No way. We then sauntered over to the mall to pick up the latest mario party game that would be fun for all ages, but realized it was fairly expensive, and the price tag grew when we realized we'd still need to get a couple more controllers. So what did we do instead?

GUITAR HERO!!! At first I thought I'd play a little just to humor them, how much fun could it be? But oh man, it's addicting. And disturbing to some of the other residents:

Mom was a good sport and joined in, playing bass for a few songs. She played bass guitar in high school. Apparently these guitars aren't quite the same as the real thing? I chose to ignore her observations, preferring to pretend I was learning the real thing this quickly.

All in all, it was a nice relaxing weekend of doing nothing, yet life will never be the same. Listening to the radio will never be the same, either.