It isn't a wedding until...

Recently before a wedding I found myself with two of my roommates' cousins helping with a few of the last minute things that needed to be done.

With half an hour till "go time" we beat a hasty retreat to get ready.  The plan from that morning was to change at one of the other cousin's hotel rooms which was only two blocks away allowing us to walk from and to the wedding and not have to worry about parking in downtown Boston.

We got there only to discover that the magnetic strip had de-magnitized itself since the morning hand-off...

Great.

E! went down to the front desk to try to get it set it up again... He was escorted back by the host who said something along the lines of "I need you to identify a couple of articles in the room so I know you've been in there before" *totally routine*

*bites lip* well the thing is, we haven't been in there before... and we all knew that none of us were in a position to guess anything other than "uhhhh twin's stuff?"

While all this was going on we had called the room owners who were already at the wedding and kept them on the phone with us, and they quickly described a couple key items to identify (my favorite being "in the luggage closest to the door, if you open it up you'll find a burgundy dress shirt, and multiple star wars t-shirts") They also gave us the names and the address on the account...

He stopped, looking concerned and said "We don't normally do this over the phone, usually it's in person, excuse me for a moment I need to consult with security"

"Of course, no problem" we replied... He retreated down the hall a ways but we could still overhear snippets of his conversation including "This could be a set up" 

Awesome. So we're either about to get escorted out of the building... or possibly arrested...

What felt like 10 minutes later he returned, listened to the few items we'd been given to use as identification and unlocked the room saying "Give me a couple minutes to check this out" I'm pretty sure we were all trying to remain nonchalant and not make him any more nervous than he already was...

My favorite part of the whole ordeal happened, after he took a few steps inside the door and radioed back "Yep, I'm still alive"

Dude! We're standing here with dress shoes and clothes because we need to get ready for a wedding, not because we're trying to break into a room on the 10th floor with your help. Security already knows about this, and has probably positioned themselves appropriately... or at least hit 'record' on their closed circuit camera feed *sigh*  

Less than a minute later, he had confirmed everything to his satisfaction, let us into the room and everything resumed as normal.

Everythin except that we had significantly less time to get ready.

I took the fastest shower I've ever taken in my  life! (faster even than a cold water shower - TC's Mom would be proud) The rest is a blur of E! speed-ironing his clothes and Mr. Beauuuutiful standing in the bathroom in his underwear and dress shirt watching a You-tube video on how to tie a bow tie.  By the fourth or fifth iteration I was ready enough to help him find the elusive hole he was missing and we were on our way!

I put my pretty shoes on in the elevator, and we walked into the wedding half an hour late, which it turned out, was just *after* the bride had walked down the aisle, so all in all we really hadn't missed that much after all ;)

How do you feel?

Well enough to hit a home run, and run all the way around the bases! *grins*

It figures, that the time I'm trying to take it easy while recovering from being sick is the time that I launch it past the outfielders...

But the way that it felt and sounded when I hit that ball... was so perfectly wonderful, that I'm not complaining. In fact as much as it will frustrate me, it's totally worth every second of being exhausted today ;)

Happy Birthday Mama!

My best friend's grandmother is turning 100 this year, or at least they think she is, record-keeping being what it was in the Philippines back in her day, well that and while visiting relatives she found out she was actually four years older than she thought she was...

They put a call out for videos and pictures of everyone "Doing something cool and wishing Mama a happy birthday" This is our submission:

To elaborate a little, we probably waited in line for over two hours, as due to the limited time left to submit we only had one shot at this!

Luckily we were placed in front, and as we waited for the final checks they ran through the plan again.  Ok, it's going to turn right, right, right, right, and then left... So basically when it changes direction, you need to lean as far forward as you can and smile because that's where it takes the picture.

Ok, I got it, I can do that.

We were whizzing through the ride, turning, turning, turning always to the right... the new things they've added for the 60th makeover are amazing and totally capture my imagination, I really do feel like I'm blasting through space!

All of a sudden there's a commotion in front of me, as the Ninja unfurls the banner.  What's this?! We haven't turned yet I think, as her cousin yells "It isn't tiiiime yeeeeet!!!"

It sounded like an angry tarp on the highway beating itself to death, as she tried to stretch it across to her cousin... *pause for blinding insight* she realized there were two things we didn't take into account: the wind factor and that in order to do this she wouldn't be hanging on to anything... *unpause* She caught air on the next right turn where it then acted as a drag chute and pulled her all the way to the left, I thought for a moment I was going to have to grab her leg on the way by!

Somehow she manged to miraculously get it back under control without ripping it in half, her cousin meanwhile was dealing with an ear malfunction, I was laughing uncontrollably... and that's about where this picture was taken ;)

Happy Birthday Mama!

The Engineer's daughter

We were driving along when I saw this billboard and blurted out "They're all turned the wrong way!"

my friend: "What?'

me: "The faucets, they're all open"

her: "How do you know?"

me: "Because of the type of valve they are, those are usually closed when they're perpendicular to the pipe..." 

I trailed off, as I realized just how nerdy the words coming out of my mouth were... smiled and said "My Dad would be so proud of me" I need to send this to him.

And how do you catch a princess?

Why by angling for them of course!

California Surf #2

If someone were keeping score last weekend it would have read something like this;

Waves : 20, rocks : 2.5 and Sam: 1

But that 1 point was totally worth the 2.5 holes I have in the bottom of my left foot, and made it oh so much sweeter when I was finally able to pop up and surf towards shore with a modicum control. It was amazing and incredible and everything I remembered surfing to be from the last time I tried it *grins*  I can't wait to do it again :)

It was ridiculous how many people were out surfing and attempting to surf last weekend, and yet they were friendly and well mannered. 

Of the other times I don't count that I sort of popped up, my favorites include the first when I rode in standing way too far back on my board, awkwardly, like a penguin... and couldn't move to fix myself or do anything other than think about how ridiculous I looked.  The next I was up, and suddenly headed towards a Dad and his kid, I thought I might be able to lean around them until I saw the look of concern and fear in his eyes... I jumped ship with enough room that my board wouldn't bite them, even at the end of it's leash.  I think my favorite of the day though, was losing my balance on the way up and fighting it the whole way... and doing a cannonball butt first, if it were a cartoon my hands and feet would be getting dragged away from where they were trying desperately to maintain their surfing position.

The most pathetical moment of the day was paddling so hard to catch a wave, and then not having enough energy to pop up, and just riding it in on my stomach. *pleh* I obviously need to do more push-ups or something...

Dog Barf... Achievement Unlocked!

After a year of living here, I finally managed to catch dog barf on a scrap piece of paper, rather than with the carpet. My previous attempt at "the football carry" to the bathroom was unsuccessful, and nowhere near the desired outcome. 

I'm sorry blank piece of paper, you may not have been scrap before... but you were the closest one, and I'm willing to sacrifice you for the cleanliness of the carpet.

Dude!

I bought a cheap "foamy" surfboard!!!

The cutest thing was our neighbor literally jumped out of a moving car when his wife said "Oh look Sammy got a surfboard". He was *so* excited for me, and said the best thing about them is that when you get dumped you don't have to cover your head and face like with the old wooden surfboards... he got 15 stitches from one once! 

I'm so super stoked you have no idea! 

Almost embarassing beach story... because everyone has one

I was trying to bodysurf this wave in to shore when I got "Maytagged" (like the washing machine) about half way through I realized the lower half of my bathing suit was making a break for it!!!

I immediately abandoned all pretenses of swimming and caught it down around my knees, with the wave in control I was immediately bouncing along on my head, with my knees and feet flailing around out of the water, while I pulled my suit back into place... 

Sputtering sea water I surfaced cautiously, double checking my suit placement before walking out of the water... acting as though nothing had happened...  judging by the people and their dogs carrying on as though I hadn't just exposed myself to the world... nothing had happened.

Huh. I guess it is true, nobody really cares what you're doing...

I literally brought half of the beach home with me in my bathing suit *sigh*

Darth Paw

Lookout!

Dog with a light sabre!

Thoughts on getting older

It was weird, as I waded through the legal jargon spelling out the representative agreement, and the documents giving my brother power of attorney should something happen to one or both of our parents... I realized it didn't feel personal.  It was like the documents I was signing were for someone else, I mean *my* parent's are "Mom" and "Dad"... who are these people?

When I got to the section dictating the resolution of conflicts I knew that "these people" were one and the same with my parents.  I could see the dissolution of the legal mumbo jumbo into a striking clarity with the statement:

 " ...and any conflicts shall be resolved by coin toss"

Waitaminute... whaaaaat?!?

There they are, those are definitely my parents you're talking about. *smirk* I can just imagine the consternation of the person drafting this document... the mental grinding of gears as they stumble through it while reading it this time, and every time after *satisfied grin*. It doesn't fit the standard, and I like to think of it as a very Canadian, passive aggressive way of throwing a wrench in the works *sticks out tongue*

As Dad said chuckling when we talked about it later... I know you guys are smart kids, and I trust you to make decisions in our best interest. If there's a conflict it's probably because you're both right, and there's no point in agonizing over it.

It echoed this sentiment, something he used to say all the time ...

"Do something! Even if it's wrong..."

It hearkens back to the oldest form of decision making, let whatever gods may be decide the outcome of my fate.

Patience isn't always a virtue

Someone said something along these lines the other day, and before asking if they meant "infinitely" I thought about it... and realized that it described certain situations perfectly:

"There are some people in our lives that we are intimately patient with."

 

Monkey see, monkey do

A friend of mine recently re-laced his ball glove with paracord, which didn't seem like a bad idea... and when I got to thinking, I realized that it meant I could pick from any number of the brilliant colours that paracord now comes in *grins*

Of course having thought that, it didn't take long for the pocket of my glove to blow out... so after limping through an afternoon of catch using a shoelace, I picked up some pretty green paracord and embarked on my own re-lacing journey...

You know that moment, when you reach a natural breaking point in something you're working on? That moment where you should stop and call it done, but you're feeling overly confident with your recent progress so you keep going. Like the longer you keep at it the faster you're going to get... that is until you hit that plateau...

Yeap, definitely should have stopped at re-lacing the pocket and the sides...

I've learned a few things though, be ye so foolish; 

You should undo the lacing around the bottom of the palm first rather than last... as it would have opened up waaaay more options for fishing the other lacing pieces through.  I've learned that although handy, forceps, needle-nose pliers, zip ties and masking tape in any of the combinations you can think of... are not the appropriate tools for the job.  Also the tensile strength of a paperclip is not up to the task of fishing doubled over paracord through a leather hole with pliers...

Paracord does not like to be tied the way nice rope likes to be tied, nor does it melt and shrink up neatly the way anything with the appropriate amount of nylon in it does... but a couple tubes of electrical shrink wrap and a hot glue gun later, I fixed it's little red green wagon. Ha!

So here you go, it may not last long... but I think it looks pretty!

Riding bikes, always better with a friend!

Fast forward a few weeks from our nocturnal laps, and we went from the relative safety of an empty complex loop... to the bustling narrow albeit paved, bike path that overlooks Huntington Beach!

I would like to say that you did an amazing job successfully navigating through wandering pedestrians, other bikers who weren't paying attention, untrained dogs on leashes, more pedestrians, and a hill larger than anything we have at home...

There might have been some white knuckle moments, and perhaps even one or two moments of panic but you did it dude! You didn't run into anything, or even frighten anyone... you didn't crash, or add any battle scars to your bike or your body. As far as I'm concerned that's a pretty good scale to measure against, and classify it as a successful ride.

You're tired and out of breath but we rode a whole lot further than anything we've ever done before, so that's exactly as it should be.  Tomorrow, and possibly even the next few days you may be sore in places you didn't even know had muscles, but the secret is that's what means you're still alive.

It will get easier, and it will come to be more enjoyable. I promise.  When it doesn't take every ounce of concentration to ride, you'll be able to appreciate the places that we're riding and the beautiful views there are to see.

What I'm trying to say, is In the end it will be worth it.

Eating leftovers. So much easier with a microwave

I'm the first person to go "Really? $70 to install that for me? I bet we could probably do it..."

Long ago, my father tried ever so hard to teach me that your time is worth something.  So while you might be *able* to do something (like changing the oil in your car). You should assume that your time is worth at least $30/hr and if it takes you any longer than that (plus parts) then it's actually totally worth the $40 - $50 they charge at the drive through oil change places which only take ~15 mins ...also sometimes there are some really cute guys working there ;)

So while my brother and I are both extremely cheap in this regard (we must be related) and will err on the side of "doing it ourselves" I think it's good to have that sober second look.

Someone who points out that the new microwave weighs in at 69lbs, and that the old one is probably heavier.

Someone who says with a dubious look on their face... "Yeah we probably *could* do it... but we would have to move the stove"

And as I sit here watching two big strong men manhandle the old microwave almost literally out of the wall, I'm satisfied that it probably would have taken us much longer, and there would have been a whole lot more heartache involved.

Soooo hot-pockets for dinner?

New to me dresser

It became apparent that I needed a dresser, to try to tame the entropic pile of clean and semi-dirty laundry in my closet... being that it was going inside my closet, I didn't want to pay a whole lot for it.

We looked and looked and looked, scoped out prices at the local thrift stores and finally I settled on one.

It was a little larger than I had envisioned, but I was excited to get it home and see how it was going to transform my life!  That excitement was short-lived when we discovered we couldn't actually get it in the back of the car *sigh*... They were nice, and despite being busy refunded my money, only giving me a mildly hard time about it because they "don't do returns" until I pointed out that I literally could not get it out. of. the. parking. lot.

I was a little bummed... but we resolved to keep looking, as that must not have been the right one anyways ;)

The next one I liked I found at the swap meet, I was happy with the drawers -they slid nicely, it was a decent price, and it wasn't made of particle board like everything else these days.  I ended up tipping the guy $10 after he single-handedly manhandled it up the stairs like a hero, carried it 30' down the sidewalk and deposited it into the back of our car.

When we got home I was even more impressed when we unloaded it, and considered it well worth the extra $10.

I spent the next ~3 hours cleaning, wiping, and pledging the dirt and grime off of it. While removing the drawers to clean them and vacuum the dust out I was rewarded with a clean pair of socks, and guys boxer shorts -also hopefully clean- from where they had fallen behind.

Moving along, this far into a cleaning project I'm in the groove... I'm working away, I've got the shop-vac swishing around inside doing it's thing, pushing out enough white noise to drown out the dogs next door, when suddenly there's something there in the drawer... something that wasn't there before. Not so far from where I was *just* vacuuming. Something black. and shiny. withlegsandfricken' HUUUUUUGE!!!!!!

I levitated backwards at least a foot and half screaming obscenities I'm sure the neighbours 3 doors in either direction heard.  I also scared at least a year and a half off of my roommate who had been working away behind me on something else...

She was yelling at me for scaring her, until I pointed out the *size* of the black widow that had started the whole thing.

We skipped the raid and went straight to the heavy duty bug barrier that's supposed to kill things dead in their tracks. She sprayed it, and dripping it staggered sideways and then just continued along?!? She sprayed it again and it dropped down, but kept walking towards us! I whipped out a trusty flip-flop and *splat* it was all over.  We figured that it had probably eaten everything else in sight, but I very carefully double checked anyways ;)

And now? Here is the dresser that has transformed my life closet, see what a good job it's doing?  I would have taken a before picture, but you'll just have to trust me... it was much too embarrassing to show the world.

What? you like my Granny's buns?

Heh, don't worry... you aren't the first person to say that.

It always takes me a few tries when I move to a new place, but I think I finally "got it"

Here are my Granny Buns:  

There's magic in the air

One of the most wonderful sounds, is that of unbridled glee bubbling up out of someone unbidden.


As I ran alongside in the dark for moral support, at an hour in which most people are in bed, it was a rare treat, listening to my best friend giggle in the nervous pitches of an elementary school-girl...


The look on someone's face when they are simultaneously thrilled and terrified... the expression of loving going faster than you can run, tempered with the knowledge -born of the wisdom of your years- of how much it will hurt if you fall... and throwing all caution to the wind for the wonder of it all.

Bearing witness to it was incredible, thank you. It's only been about 20 years... but I do believe it's true what they say about riding a bike ;)

I am an IBMer

It's always exciting for me when I get business cards, I always have to show them to everyone I know.

Like "Hey look! I really do work for this company!" *glowing*

I think partly, its a sign of trust. Because once my name is associated with the company's name, I'm an extension of their reputation. 

I think being in IT, since you often aren't customer facing... there isn't usually much "need" for business cards, and quite frankly you're replaceable.  So getting business cards is kind of a big deal, like the company thinks you're going to be around long enough to be worth getting them for.

It's so good it makes you cry

This is some goooood horseradish she says to me...

Almost brings a tear to your eye? I ask

She nods, smiling through glassy eyes

It's so good I keep putting more and more on, although I probably shouldn't she said... just before a giant crater opened up where her nose used to be...

Yeap, might've put a little too much on that one ;)