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.

Whoa. Wha? September?!

Perplexed that summer has flown by so quickly, I paused to reflect on what happened. Upon said reflection, I came to the realization that I had allowed cobwebs to not only settle around the apartment, but also upon the blog booth. Blowing off the proverbial dust along with the literal, I opened the apartment windows and windows vista (I think?), let the 70 degree breeze blow through, and decided to kick it with the laptop and a sponge.

Don't be fooled - if my experiment works, it will look as if I've been posting all along the last month or so, but I haven't! I may or may not have succesfully made it look like I did, but I didn't, really. Got that?

American Wedding with Chinese Tendencies

Two folks got married this weekend that I knew from Fox. Both had spent a fair amount of time in China, and had incorporated some of the dress, decorations, and food into the ceremony and reception. Being a bit of a China fan myself, I wanted to add something Chinese to my gift. Unfortunately my decision to do so came on an evening in which I had slept 4 hours the night before and had only eaten a couple of granola bars that day. Rather than the usual "The Happy Couple" or "The Newlyweds" or whatever the heck people put on their cards, I wanted something unique, dangit! In a state of mild delirium (or extreme, perhaps?), I decided I would use Mandarin characters to sound out "For the Happy Couple", aka Fo De Ha Pi Kou Po [foe duh hah pee kow poe]. Lame? Perhaps. Offensive? I sure hope not! As I placed the gift on the table, I hoped that they would find a fraction of the amusement I felt on that odd evening. At the very least, it made the coffee grinder a little more memorable.

Family Reunion

It's that time of year: bees in your soda, grass getting drier, long cool summer evenings, camping trips and family reunions: where good food, drink, and relatives come from afar to get together, catch up, and argue good naturedly over who's in which pictures or what a death certificate says about an ancient relative's cause of death. A group of twenty or so of us got together for a few hours that Saturday afternoon, and then about a dozen or so of us continued back at the homestead for the rest of the weekend.

Even though I'd spent quite a bit of time with some of the fam, it never gets old! Not only were the regulars there, but my cousin brought her new baby and a couple of their dogs. Story swapping, game playing, and dog wrassling ensued well into the evening. Sorry, no pics!

P.S. The flip flops are getting easier to manage. I've been using them for short jaunts such as getting the mail and taking out the garbage, although at first I was putting off taking out the garbage until it was out of hand due to me avoiding putting them on, but I hardly hesitate now. YES!

The Sounds of Summer: Movement 4: Prelude to Gritting Teeth

My laziness may finally be beating out my need for comfort. I have grown weary of sandals that have so many staps on them that you'd might as well be wearing shoes. There are times that I would prefer not to wear shoes or strap-riddled sandals, but have hesitated in getting flip flops due to my severe dislike of having something between my toes. In the past I have almost wrecked my car frantically trying to take my shoe off when a misguided sock worked its way between two toes.

But I finally broke down and got a pair, telling myself that if I just can't stand it I'm only out $4. Resolute, I headed for Alton Baker Park. Being in a masochistic mood, I chose a sawdust path that would take me on a 2 mile loop. Gritting my teeth, I walked/limped my way around, to discover that half a mile of it was also gravel. Trying to keep my mind off the current situation, I tried to focus on anything else. Wow, that tree is very, uh, leafy. That duck's really floating well. The sun's sure yellow today. I figured that if I can make it around this loop, I can do just about anything in these abominable devices. I made it around the loop, took them off, and threw them in the car none too gently. Sorry, Car!