Yesterday (Saturday) while I slept Carrie went and picked up Steph and drove her to her car, then went to Trader Joe's and stocked up on a tonne of schtuffs. She made me a breakfast that included the leftover barbequed ribs. She cut the meat off of the bone and then stir-fried it. It was goot!
Carrie & I went to Fred Meyer's to pick up stuff with which to cook yummy foodstuffs. We then visited the garden center there and picked up some more stuff, including (exciting) a couple of strawberry plants! Fred Meyer didn't have crab that we wanted so we went to Tacoma Boys where Carrie bought crab and I bought some more impatiens. I think I'm 'bouts done with my li'l corner. I just hope that all of the flower I've planted actually take!
I chatted with Brandy briefly but then I had to go to get ready for Fools Play. I shaved, and while I did that Carrie made me a dinner of more stir-fried barbeque pork with some potstickers. Ve'y tasty! After I gobbled that stuff down I jumped in the shower. In the meantime Linnea, Lena, & Eva picked Carrie up and they all went to Starbucks. They weren't back by the time I left for Fools Play.
When I was getting dressed after my shower I discovered that the contents of my wallet were mysteriously wet. Just the cards, though, not so much the cash. I took out all the stuff that wasn't immediately necessary and spread it out on the bed. Carrie found it when she got home and asked what I wanted to do with it, and then admitted to the crime of accidentally washing my wallet (she checked all the pockets in my pants except for the back pocket).
Fools Play was ein very good show. It was a co-show with Travis & Kevin, also known as the "Scarecrow & Mr. Vogt" sketch comedy troupe. It involved much funny things, including Travis replacing Ed in "G'nar the Duck," and Kevin replacing Ed in "Tim & Matt." They gave us a DVD of their show, which I took.
Afterwards I was starving, so we all went to Rib Eye where I had a cheeseburger. Then I went home. On the way home I called Carrie to tell her I was coming, but she managed to answer the phone and have a brief conversation with me without ever waking up.
This is Chris dot com
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Scarecrow & Mr. Vogt
posted by Christopher at 11:36 AM 
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Saturday, April 29, 2006
Live Action Nintendo
Despite some technical glitches, and a couple of stretches where not enough happens, this is pretty well done.
Not as well-done, though, as the Live Action Punch-Out!
Not as well-done, though, as the Live Action Punch-Out!
posted by Christopher at 2:56 PM
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Just Bring It Stick It
Yesterday (Friday) I was feeling a little bits of better than Thursday, though still not over the cold yet.
Carrie & I played a lot of Mario Kart. We're really getting back into it after having not played much for the last 23 years, give or take.
We went down to "Garden Sphere" on Proctor (just north of 30th, across that li'l bridge) where Carrie bought some more schtuffs for her garden, including a tomato plant, a green bell pepper plant, and another type of lettuce. I bought another impatien for my little corner area.
Carrie was out most of the afternoon, first shopping and then going house-looking with Christine. She says it's really good experience for when we want to buy a house. I can't argue with that!
At 5:30 or so she came home and picked me up and we went over to Cat's house and hung out there. Carrie made wicked strong white Russians for herself and Cat, and Cat is always hilarious when she gets some hooch into her. Steph stopped by and had a white Russian as well, and then Heather & Chris came over as well.
Then around 7:00 I put Carrie & Steph into my car and we drove to the big Lakewood cinemas where we met Carly, Christine, and Lawrence (Heather & Chris drove separately). Together we all saw Stick It, the new movie by the writer of Bring it On. I'm going to definitely write a review of it soon (hopefully tomorrow morning), but general consensus was that it wasn't quite as good as Bring it On, but very good nonetheless. The fact that Carrie smuggled white Russians into the theater in Starbucks frappuccino bottles probably helped (a bottle was given each to Christine, Steph, and Carle, and well as Carrie having one).
After the movie Steph was very tipsy so we took her home with us where we watched the excellent show Numb3rs. Then I drove (with Carrie) Steph to her car, not so she could drive, but so she could get all of her stuff out of the backseat. Then we took her to her apartment before coming home ourselves.
What can I say? Good Times... Good Times...
Then last night I had a dream that Samuel L. Jackson was going to be staying with us while he was in the area promoting Snakes on a Plane (in the dream Carrie, Mike, Susan, my folks, and I all lived in the house in Kent in which I grew up). Unfortunately Sam Jackson's cab driver tried to kidnap him, so Sam was forced to strangle him to death. And for some reason my brother thought it would be a better idea to cover the whole thing up rather than go for the (very obviously true) self-defense excuse for Sam. Thing is, my brother was horrible at covering it up.
Good Times... Good Times...
Carrie & I played a lot of Mario Kart. We're really getting back into it after having not played much for the last 23 years, give or take.
We went down to "Garden Sphere" on Proctor (just north of 30th, across that li'l bridge) where Carrie bought some more schtuffs for her garden, including a tomato plant, a green bell pepper plant, and another type of lettuce. I bought another impatien for my little corner area.
Carrie was out most of the afternoon, first shopping and then going house-looking with Christine. She says it's really good experience for when we want to buy a house. I can't argue with that!
At 5:30 or so she came home and picked me up and we went over to Cat's house and hung out there. Carrie made wicked strong white Russians for herself and Cat, and Cat is always hilarious when she gets some hooch into her. Steph stopped by and had a white Russian as well, and then Heather & Chris came over as well.
Then around 7:00 I put Carrie & Steph into my car and we drove to the big Lakewood cinemas where we met Carly, Christine, and Lawrence (Heather & Chris drove separately). Together we all saw Stick It, the new movie by the writer of Bring it On. I'm going to definitely write a review of it soon (hopefully tomorrow morning), but general consensus was that it wasn't quite as good as Bring it On, but very good nonetheless. The fact that Carrie smuggled white Russians into the theater in Starbucks frappuccino bottles probably helped (a bottle was given each to Christine, Steph, and Carle, and well as Carrie having one).
After the movie Steph was very tipsy so we took her home with us where we watched the excellent show Numb3rs. Then I drove (with Carrie) Steph to her car, not so she could drive, but so she could get all of her stuff out of the backseat. Then we took her to her apartment before coming home ourselves.
What can I say? Good Times... Good Times...
Then last night I had a dream that Samuel L. Jackson was going to be staying with us while he was in the area promoting Snakes on a Plane (in the dream Carrie, Mike, Susan, my folks, and I all lived in the house in Kent in which I grew up). Unfortunately Sam Jackson's cab driver tried to kidnap him, so Sam was forced to strangle him to death. And for some reason my brother thought it would be a better idea to cover the whole thing up rather than go for the (very obviously true) self-defense excuse for Sam. Thing is, my brother was horrible at covering it up.
Good Times... Good Times...
posted by Christopher at 1:11 PM
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Friday, April 28, 2006
A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words... Assuming Those Words Describe What's In the Picture
Here are some photos of my rapidly-prettifying backyard.
Here is the little strip by the side of the house where yesterday (Thursday) Carrie planted her herbs and such. Look at what a cute job she did with those circles of stones!
This is that square place behind the garage that I've mentioned several times. It'll be extra pretty once those flowers open up a little bit more:
And I noticed today that the lilac trees in the backyard have opened up. They're super pretty!
Here is the little strip by the side of the house where yesterday (Thursday) Carrie planted her herbs and such. Look at what a cute job she did with those circles of stones!
This is that square place behind the garage that I've mentioned several times. It'll be extra pretty once those flowers open up a little bit more:
And I noticed today that the lilac trees in the backyard have opened up. They're super pretty!
posted by Christopher at 2:38 PM
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Another Sick Day
Yesterday (Thursday) I was still sick (I'm actually still a little sick today, Friday), so I stayed in bed until after 10:00. I called Brandy to chat some.
The rest of the day I just tried to take easy. There wasn't much good on the Tele, so I mostly clicked around teh intarwebs. I read about Sun Wukong (I wonder if Geoff knows of a good translation of Journey to the West
) and other inconsequential stuff like that. Nothing much big.
Later in the afternoon Brandy called me all excited because for the first time ever she'd asked a cute boy to "hang out sometime." It was very cute; I'm glad she called me.
In the evening Carrie & I played a couple of games of Mario Kart and then she went and hung out with Missa. I watched an episode of TNA: iMPACT (sic). I like the feel of the show; I might try watching it some more (though it would be better if it were on an hour earlier. You hear me, Spike TV!?). I might just like it because I'm a wrestler in that fed.
The rest of the day I just tried to take easy. There wasn't much good on the Tele, so I mostly clicked around teh intarwebs. I read about Sun Wukong (I wonder if Geoff knows of a good translation of Journey to the West
) and other inconsequential stuff like that. Nothing much big. Later in the afternoon Brandy called me all excited because for the first time ever she'd asked a cute boy to "hang out sometime." It was very cute; I'm glad she called me.
In the evening Carrie & I played a couple of games of Mario Kart and then she went and hung out with Missa. I watched an episode of TNA: iMPACT (sic). I like the feel of the show; I might try watching it some more (though it would be better if it were on an hour earlier. You hear me, Spike TV!?). I might just like it because I'm a wrestler in that fed.
posted by Christopher at 11:25 AM
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Thursday, April 27, 2006
Running Down a Dream
So, seeing as how I'm sick, I took it pretty easy yesterday. Carrie went over and hung out with Linnea, Lena, & Eva at their place in the morning. In the afternoon I really felt like watching a movie. I was in the mood for some fun, silly action flick. I considered The Fifth Element and both Shanghai Noon and Shanghai Knights. I considered Bruce Campbell vs Army of Darkness. I thought about Ronin as well as Big Trouble in Little China.
But none of those action flicks really seemed like they would scratch my particular itch. What I really wanted to watch was The Rundown. That is probably my favorite fun action flick in the last five years. Problem is, I haven't seen it in a year (not since I got out of the hospital). I have the DVD case, but the disc itself has been nowhere to be found.
I finally realized that no fun action flick would really satisfy me, so I decided to switch genres to fun, quirky crime flick. I noticed Out of Sight in the rows of DVDs, and I must admit I'd forgotten that I'd gotten it. So I pulled it out and popped the case open.
And there, sitting on top of the Out of Sight DVD was the DVD of The Rundown.
Ahhh... that's so much better. That's such a great, fun action flick with no pretensions. I fell asleep just before the third act climax, but then I watched the whole thing when I woke up, while Carrie made banana bread and then baked pasta for din-dins. Yum-mee.
In the evening I watched Good Eats, an episode or so of Ghost Hunters, and then a Mythbusters where they made a rocket out of laughing gas and a salami. I s--t you not.
But none of those action flicks really seemed like they would scratch my particular itch. What I really wanted to watch was The Rundown. That is probably my favorite fun action flick in the last five years. Problem is, I haven't seen it in a year (not since I got out of the hospital). I have the DVD case, but the disc itself has been nowhere to be found.
I finally realized that no fun action flick would really satisfy me, so I decided to switch genres to fun, quirky crime flick. I noticed Out of Sight in the rows of DVDs, and I must admit I'd forgotten that I'd gotten it. So I pulled it out and popped the case open.
And there, sitting on top of the Out of Sight DVD was the DVD of The Rundown.
Ahhh... that's so much better. That's such a great, fun action flick with no pretensions. I fell asleep just before the third act climax, but then I watched the whole thing when I woke up, while Carrie made banana bread and then baked pasta for din-dins. Yum-mee.
In the evening I watched Good Eats, an episode or so of Ghost Hunters, and then a Mythbusters where they made a rocket out of laughing gas and a salami. I s--t you not.
posted by Christopher at 3:58 PM
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Wednesday, April 26, 2006
A Sense of Completion
Yesterday (Tuesday) I dropped Carrie off at the Tarbets' house in the morning while I ran to the Fred Meyer bonk and transferred some moneys to my account. Then I swung back around and picked her up. She drove us up to her folks' house. She and her dad went up to SPU to listen to an author talk while I went and picked up G-Ma K and took her to the doctor and then back to her place.
I watered my plants and took a nice walk in the early afternoon. I then, much to my surprise, actually finished the article I've been working on for the last ten days!
It's an epic article. Kind of a review of an obscure arcade game from 1984. I wrote it in a Lovecraft-inspired prose style. And true to much of Lovecraft, the narrator of the article says some alarmingly racist things!
I think it's pretty funny, even if it is one of the longest articles I've ever written. You should read it in 3... 2... 1... NOW!
I watered my plants and took a nice walk in the early afternoon. I then, much to my surprise, actually finished the article I've been working on for the last ten days!
It's an epic article. Kind of a review of an obscure arcade game from 1984. I wrote it in a Lovecraft-inspired prose style. And true to much of Lovecraft, the narrator of the article says some alarmingly racist things!
I think it's pretty funny, even if it is one of the longest articles I've ever written. You should read it in 3... 2... 1... NOW!
The Diary of Dr. Kick: Mysterious Stone Archaeologist
Carrie came home around 5:00 I think. We played some Mario Kart Double Dash, which we hadn't done in like 13 or 14 years, so that was nice.
Around this time my throat started to hurt. By the time I made pizzas for dinner, I was pretty sure I was sick. And by the time I went to bed it was definite. I have some sort of nose-and-throat sick. Boo!
posted by Christopher at 10:52 AM
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Spider-Mech
In Japan, Spider-Man had a giant robot (of course):
posted by Christopher at 10:02 AM
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Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Singed
Yesterday (Monday) was kind of the first day of Carrie's week-long vacation. She went over to the Tarbets to hang out with Linnea & Lena while I did my usual morning routine stuff. The two of them walked from that house down to Starbucks, passing our house on the way while I just happened to be outside watering some plants.
Later that day Carrie walked back home and noticed the car wasn't in the driveway. She had a minor freak-out before realizing that she'd left it at the store the night before (after driving it over there for the Fashion Show stuff; she'd been driven home by Viki). It was funny becasue she didn't notice the car was gone when she:
Later that day Carrie walked back home and noticed the car wasn't in the driveway. She had a minor freak-out before realizing that she'd left it at the store the night before (after driving it over there for the Fashion Show stuff; she'd been driven home by Viki). It was funny becasue she didn't notice the car was gone when she:
- Left to walk to Linnea's
- Walked back to the house on the way to Starbucks
- Walked back past the house on the way back to Linnea's
She only noticed when she walked back to the house after that.
I worked on BF Books during the afternoon. Carrie went a little shopping. At 5:00 we drove back to the Tarbets' house together so as we could cook dinner for them. See, all this week people from the Bead Factory are taking turns making them dinner, seeing as how Linnea has the new baby and Jay still has a cast on his ankle. I made barbequed teriyaki salmon. Carrie made a salad. We also had leftover cornbread muffins and a bowl full of blue- and strawberreis. It was a really tasty dinner.
When I lit the barbeque, though, I wasn't paying attention and accidentally singed a couple of strands of my hair! Whoopsies! Nothing noticeable, though. Not like an eyebrow or anything.
A while after dinner the womenfolk (including Lena) went to Gretchen's Dad's Store and bought some vanilla iced cream to put on top of the apple crumble cake that Linnea made for dessert! 'Twas tasty, 'twas.
We got back home by 9:00 so Carrie could watch The Apprentice. Sigh. I'm really not enamoured of television programming right now.
Oh, and here is a video of a cat that is thoroughly unimpressed with a bunch of puppies:
posted by Christopher at 9:05 AM
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Monday, April 24, 2006
Freak is Wrong
Yesterday (Sunday) morning Carrie & I worked on cleaning up the house but good. I was about to clean the barbeque when Nicole stopped by with the class sample for Braided Wire Cuff as well as some oral explanation of the drawings she drew for her handout. I then spent the next couple of hours creating the handout, transforming her admittedly awful drawings into illustration gold.
It took me a slight bit longer than I thought, so that Michael actually showed up for practice before I left to install the handout on Missa's 'puter. When I got back Geoff had already arrived as well! Soon we were joined by two other people: Kevin & Travis, a sketch comedy team ("Scarecrow & Mr. Vote") who are going to do a Co-Show with Fools Play this coming Saturday! W00t! It should be really good; the two mesh really well with our style and caught on quickly to what we were all abouts. Michael met them via the Scarecrow Video people.
While practice was going on, Carrie commenced much food preparation. She made potato salad, cornbread muffins, and slathered a slab of ribs with a dry rub and started the barbeque (which she unfortunately had had to clean due to my over-involvement with the class handout). She also made a bowl of strawberries & blueberries, and that was when she discovered Freak and Son. Who is Freak? Who is Freak's Son? This is Freak & Son:
Freak is a giant mutant strawberry (I tossed down a dime for size comparison) or perhaps several strawberries that grew together. Freak's son is a smaller version of its father. Freak is wrong.
Anyway, shortly after practice ended Viki came by and dropped off the boys. I entertained Julian by allowing him to play Kirby Canvas Curse. We ate ribs and watched The Apprentice and then watched a good bit of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets before Mark picked them back up.
Why were the boys over at my house? Because last night was the big Fashion Show that I'd been working on for untold hours over the last two months. I create the entire booklet for the show and don't even get to go. Now, I ask you, is that right? Is it wrong? Well, Freak is wrong.
After the kids were picked up I cleaned up after them a little bit before Carrie came home.
It took me a slight bit longer than I thought, so that Michael actually showed up for practice before I left to install the handout on Missa's 'puter. When I got back Geoff had already arrived as well! Soon we were joined by two other people: Kevin & Travis, a sketch comedy team ("Scarecrow & Mr. Vote") who are going to do a Co-Show with Fools Play this coming Saturday! W00t! It should be really good; the two mesh really well with our style and caught on quickly to what we were all abouts. Michael met them via the Scarecrow Video people.
While practice was going on, Carrie commenced much food preparation. She made potato salad, cornbread muffins, and slathered a slab of ribs with a dry rub and started the barbeque (which she unfortunately had had to clean due to my over-involvement with the class handout). She also made a bowl of strawberries & blueberries, and that was when she discovered Freak and Son. Who is Freak? Who is Freak's Son? This is Freak & Son:
Freak is a giant mutant strawberry (I tossed down a dime for size comparison) or perhaps several strawberries that grew together. Freak's son is a smaller version of its father. Freak is wrong.
Anyway, shortly after practice ended Viki came by and dropped off the boys. I entertained Julian by allowing him to play Kirby Canvas Curse. We ate ribs and watched The Apprentice and then watched a good bit of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets before Mark picked them back up.
Why were the boys over at my house? Because last night was the big Fashion Show that I'd been working on for untold hours over the last two months. I create the entire booklet for the show and don't even get to go. Now, I ask you, is that right? Is it wrong? Well, Freak is wrong.
After the kids were picked up I cleaned up after them a little bit before Carrie came home.
posted by Christopher at 8:25 AM
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Sunday, April 23, 2006
Metering Out Justice!
Yesterday (Saturday) Carrie & I went to Trader Joe's first thing in the morning to do our grocery shopping. We stopped off at the Great Harvest Bread Co. next door and bought some jalepeno cornbread which is most ecksellent.
Carrie made tuna melts on said cornbread for lunch. While we were eating we got a call from her folks asking us if we wanted to come down to Katie Downs and join them at 2:00. Well, me and Carrie, we looked at each other. And we each said, "Okay."
So we went down there and had a couple of beers and played a few games of Skip-Bo (I won one) and ate some onion rings. From there we headed straight to Target where Carrie bought a glass jar with which she could make sun tea, and I bought a watering can with which I could water flowers and such.
We got home and relaxed for just a bit. Then I got ready for Fools Play by showering and shaving (not, however, in that order) and eating another one of them tuna melts that was leftover from lunch.
I remembered to bring the box office stuff down, but apparently remembering that stuff made me forget to bring down my purple shirt! How embarrassing!
The show was "Meter," using that old meter that Carrie made years and years ago. It's a fun format, and it was a pretty good show. Taisha was there, too! In one scene I got to play K.I.T.T.'s voice to my brother's Hasselhoff. I didn't even try to impersonate William Daniels's voice; I just talked like normal. During the scene we were racing against a motorcycle, and it was kind of a sawdust race. I kept on saying things like, "Michael, they're getting ahead of us." At one point I said, "Michael, I have to go to the bathroom."
Michael Knight: "What? KITT, you don't have to go to the bathroom, you're a car!"
KITT: "Please pull over, Michael. I really have to go."
Michael Knight: "No! We'll lose the race!"
KITT: "Michael, I'm pulling myself over."
I then made a "peeing" noise.
'Twas funny, 'twas. A lot of people from Mike's & Geoff's office came down (other than Jason), but for some reason three of them thought it would be a good idea to get drunk before the show. So they were kind of a handful. Well, the one woman was kind of a handful.
Afterwards about 10-12 of us went out to the Rib Eye. I sat with Sandy, Mike, and an audience member whose name I don't know how to spell but is pronounced Shoo'-vee (rhymes with juvi, as in juvenile hall). She first saw the show when she was thirteen years old. She's a senior in high school now.
I'm an old man.
I had a hot roast beef sammitch drenched in brown gravy. I also ate some of Sandy's steak when she couldn't finish it.
As I was leaving the Rib Eye there was a rockin' house party going on across the street with a live basement band and people hanging out on the lawn drinking beers and everything. It was pretty funny.
But I didn't tarry further; I drove straight home to Carrie.
Carrie made tuna melts on said cornbread for lunch. While we were eating we got a call from her folks asking us if we wanted to come down to Katie Downs and join them at 2:00. Well, me and Carrie, we looked at each other. And we each said, "Okay."
So we went down there and had a couple of beers and played a few games of Skip-Bo (I won one) and ate some onion rings. From there we headed straight to Target where Carrie bought a glass jar with which she could make sun tea, and I bought a watering can with which I could water flowers and such.
We got home and relaxed for just a bit. Then I got ready for Fools Play by showering and shaving (not, however, in that order) and eating another one of them tuna melts that was leftover from lunch.
I remembered to bring the box office stuff down, but apparently remembering that stuff made me forget to bring down my purple shirt! How embarrassing!
The show was "Meter," using that old meter that Carrie made years and years ago. It's a fun format, and it was a pretty good show. Taisha was there, too! In one scene I got to play K.I.T.T.'s voice to my brother's Hasselhoff. I didn't even try to impersonate William Daniels's voice; I just talked like normal. During the scene we were racing against a motorcycle, and it was kind of a sawdust race. I kept on saying things like, "Michael, they're getting ahead of us." At one point I said, "Michael, I have to go to the bathroom."
Michael Knight: "What? KITT, you don't have to go to the bathroom, you're a car!"
KITT: "Please pull over, Michael. I really have to go."
Michael Knight: "No! We'll lose the race!"
KITT: "Michael, I'm pulling myself over."
I then made a "peeing" noise.
'Twas funny, 'twas. A lot of people from Mike's & Geoff's office came down (other than Jason), but for some reason three of them thought it would be a good idea to get drunk before the show. So they were kind of a handful. Well, the one woman was kind of a handful.
Afterwards about 10-12 of us went out to the Rib Eye. I sat with Sandy, Mike, and an audience member whose name I don't know how to spell but is pronounced Shoo'-vee (rhymes with juvi, as in juvenile hall). She first saw the show when she was thirteen years old. She's a senior in high school now.
I'm an old man.
I had a hot roast beef sammitch drenched in brown gravy. I also ate some of Sandy's steak when she couldn't finish it.
As I was leaving the Rib Eye there was a rockin' house party going on across the street with a live basement band and people hanging out on the lawn drinking beers and everything. It was pretty funny.
But I didn't tarry further; I drove straight home to Carrie.
posted by Christopher at 8:47 PM
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ピタゴラスイッチ Revealed!
Hey, remember those Japanese Rube Goldberg machines I posted a video about earlier in the month? Well, reader Johnny Potamus that they are actually the bumpers to a Japanese educational show called "Pitagora Suicchi." So I was very close in my estimation that it was "itakora suicchi." I got the 2nd word right!
posted by Christopher at 10:33 AM
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Saturday, April 22, 2006
Tout le Monde Va au Jardin
So, yes, as mentioned yesterday (Friday) my dad came over and we gardened in the backyard.
He came over around 11:30 and we walked down to Engine House 9 for lunch. Carrie walked over from the store and met us there. She and I both had the mushroom gorgonzola burger (ve'y tasty).
My dad & I walked back home and did much cleaning out of the corner area where all the trees are. He was able to pull a lot of the dead grapevines out of the pear tree. Then we went to Fred Meyer's and I bought a little Japanese stone lantern and a whole buch of impatiens and begonias to put in the corner square area behind the garage. It looks pretty cute!
He left some time around 3:00. Carrie worked very late (she'd also gone in very early). I made breaded cod for din-dins, and then spent the rest of the evening reading The Whisperer in the Darkness and other Lovecraft stuff.
We cracked a bottle of wine and played skip-bo before going to bed. I also ate the ears off of my chocolate Easter bunny!
He came over around 11:30 and we walked down to Engine House 9 for lunch. Carrie walked over from the store and met us there. She and I both had the mushroom gorgonzola burger (ve'y tasty).
My dad & I walked back home and did much cleaning out of the corner area where all the trees are. He was able to pull a lot of the dead grapevines out of the pear tree. Then we went to Fred Meyer's and I bought a little Japanese stone lantern and a whole buch of impatiens and begonias to put in the corner square area behind the garage. It looks pretty cute!
He left some time around 3:00. Carrie worked very late (she'd also gone in very early). I made breaded cod for din-dins, and then spent the rest of the evening reading The Whisperer in the Darkness and other Lovecraft stuff.
We cracked a bottle of wine and played skip-bo before going to bed. I also ate the ears off of my chocolate Easter bunny!
posted by Christopher at 12:42 PM
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Friday, April 21, 2006
Pretty Feathers Flowers
My tulips (I'm kinda obsessing over them, I know) are going strong, and I noticed that one of the red ones with the black-and-yellow interior has really cool petals. They have a strange, feathery edge to them (click the pic for a close-up):
Isn't that awexome? Red feathers! Also, one of the red tulips has a different interior than the others. Instead of the black-and-yellow interior like the rest of the red ones, it has a very soft white-and-yellow interior:
And the "secret stash" of tulips I planted in the corner of the front yard have finally opened (they're just leftover bulbs from the main group of tulips, so nothing unusual about them).
Today (Friday) my Dad & I did some more gardening, so you'll be hearing all about that in tomorrow's post, and there'll likely be photos of that as well. Just a warning.
Isn't that awexome? Red feathers! Also, one of the red tulips has a different interior than the others. Instead of the black-and-yellow interior like the rest of the red ones, it has a very soft white-and-yellow interior:
And the "secret stash" of tulips I planted in the corner of the front yard have finally opened (they're just leftover bulbs from the main group of tulips, so nothing unusual about them).
Today (Friday) my Dad & I did some more gardening, so you'll be hearing all about that in tomorrow's post, and there'll likely be photos of that as well. Just a warning.
posted by Christopher at 2:50 PM
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Drop-Offs
Yesterday (Thursday) Carrie & I reluctantly woke after only getting a few hours of sleep (due to a baby happening on Wednesday) but I successfully got her off to work and everything.
In the morning her dad stopped by to drop off the ramekins that she had taken over to her folks' house on Easter (with which she'd made bread pudding), and also to pick up his Mariners tickets. See, he'd bought them online but then due to the general, well, crappy nature of his computer he was unable to print them off. So he forwarded them to me and I printed them off on my less-crappy computer.
Also in the morning I called Brandy to wish her a happy birthday. She said she was going over to Erin's for a birthday dinner, which should be lots o' fun. I miss those girls!
When I picked Carrie up for her split-shift we went straight to Linnea's to see how she was doing, and also to drop off Lena's car booster seat thing (we'd forgotten it the day before). Kirsten & Kirsten's mom were over there, and Rachel (Linnea's non-blood-related sister) was taking Lena for a walk, so Linnea was well taken care of. Baby Eva was zonked out on the couch and still very tiny.
We came home and Carrie went gratefully to sleep whilst I worked. Chris Fantz stopped by to drop off more material for his website, and I got right to work on that (I'll be uploading the new stuff today).
After I took Carrie back to the store so she could teach Stringing Techniques, I came back home and worked heavily on my upcoming Article. It is definitely one of the longest ones I've written, but that's due more to the Lovecraftian prose style I'm utilizing than actual content (though there is much of that as well). I like the way it's going, but I still have quite a ways to go. I might have time to do more today if the rain keeps up...
In the morning her dad stopped by to drop off the ramekins that she had taken over to her folks' house on Easter (with which she'd made bread pudding), and also to pick up his Mariners tickets. See, he'd bought them online but then due to the general, well, crappy nature of his computer he was unable to print them off. So he forwarded them to me and I printed them off on my less-crappy computer.
Also in the morning I called Brandy to wish her a happy birthday. She said she was going over to Erin's for a birthday dinner, which should be lots o' fun. I miss those girls!
When I picked Carrie up for her split-shift we went straight to Linnea's to see how she was doing, and also to drop off Lena's car booster seat thing (we'd forgotten it the day before). Kirsten & Kirsten's mom were over there, and Rachel (Linnea's non-blood-related sister) was taking Lena for a walk, so Linnea was well taken care of. Baby Eva was zonked out on the couch and still very tiny.
We came home and Carrie went gratefully to sleep whilst I worked. Chris Fantz stopped by to drop off more material for his website, and I got right to work on that (I'll be uploading the new stuff today).
After I took Carrie back to the store so she could teach Stringing Techniques, I came back home and worked heavily on my upcoming Article. It is definitely one of the longest ones I've written, but that's due more to the Lovecraftian prose style I'm utilizing than actual content (though there is much of that as well). I like the way it's going, but I still have quite a ways to go. I might have time to do more today if the rain keeps up...
posted by Christopher at 8:36 AM
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Thursday, April 20, 2006
And in This Corner, Weighing in at Under Seven Pounds... EVA TARBET
Yesterday (Wednesday), after only being able to sleep for a couple of hours the night before, Carrie got up and got ready and I took her to work. Then I went and bought her a coffee as usual, and when I got it back to her she told me that Linnea called and said that she was having contractions that were pretty consistently ten minutes apart. Linnea was going to call Carrie back in about an hour or so, so could I walk home and leave Carrie the car, please, so that in case Linnea needed us I wouldn't have to drive all the way back to the store and pick up Carrie?
Of course I could.
I walked back home and kind of did my regular morning routine. For breakfast I took the two hard-boiled eggs I had decorated on Easter:
I cut each egg in half, took out their yolks, added mustard, mayonnaise, and paprika, mashed it all up and spooned it back into the yolk cavities, making what is known as "Deviled Eggs." I also had a bowl of cereal.
After not hearing from Carrie for a couple of hours I called only to be informed that she was 'bouts to call me. Shortly she swung by and picked me up and we went over to the Tarbets' house. Linnea seemed to be doing surprisingly well, and was up walking around like normal and everything. In fact, she planned to go for a walk to help move things along.
So we grabbed Lena and some of her sundries and stopped off at our house for just a bit before driving to Chuck E. Cheese's.
Lena had never been to Chuck E. Cheese's before. She loved it. With her mom being preggers and her dad having a cast on his ankle, neither one of them had really been able to run around and play with her very much for the past few weeks. So here she got to run around and be almost as crazy as she wanted. She really liked the jungle gym, and we found one whack-a-mole style game that shot out tickets like crazy. It really paid out. Lena really liked the cause-and-effect of bashing things and getting rewarded for it immediately.
Carrie & I set up a system wherein one of us would stay at a table while the other went and played with Lena. Lena would be given one token to play wherever she wanted. Once she used it up, she had to return to the table to get another one, and the person at the table only gave it to her if she said, "Please." So we created a situation where Lena was very well watched in that she had to return to base before she could have more fun, and also was shockingly polite for a three-year-old.
But, y'know, every time I go to Chuck E. Cheese's it seems a little worse than the time before. They don't have any video games (so to speak of). They don't have an animatronic stage show (they just have one crappy Chuck animatronic who "interacts" with a big bunch of video screens). And this time they didn't have the beloved ball pit. Next time they probably won't have the giant rotating Chuck statue or something else like that.
The pizza, despite being perhaps the greasiest pizza you can eat in a restaurant (unless there's somewhere you can have deep-fried pizza... I wonder if that would be any good...), had a subtle garlic flavor that neither Carrie nor I remembered. It was surprising, and actually made it rather tasty.
Anyway, we spent a good two hours there before we stopped off at the house just briefly. We then drove out to Point Defiance Park, where we walked by that big pond area (with a stop in the restrooms for Lena) and then up behind the zoo where there is a swingset and a jungle gym. Lena really likes to be pushed on the swings, and she really wanted me to push her "sister" on one of the other swings. Of course, when you push a swing that is empty, it tends to behave differently than a swing with a weight (like a child) in it. It tended to bounce and flip and spin more, so I would say that Lena's sister was "going crazy!"
On the way back to the car Lena wanted to play another game. "Run!" It wasn't so much a race as it was just running. I surprised myself by actually being able to run for quite a good distance without getting winded.
We stopped at the Asian Garden by the Pagoda for some hide-and-seek before running some more back through the flower gardens to the restroom where she went potty when we first got there. After another stop in those same restrooms we made it to the car.
We stopped off at a soda fountain shop near the Antique Sandwich Company. This is an actual soda fountain, too. It has like five or six stools at a bar, and you can get a whole bunch of soda fountain stuff. Lena got a vanilla ice cream cone (that she ended up eating in a bowl), Carrie got an espresso milkshake, and I got a root beer float.
This all used up a couple more hours, but when we talked to Linnea she was no further along; just periodic mild contractions. So we stopped off at our house and grabbed all of Lena's things and then took her home. Carrie & I came back to our house where I actually got a couple of hours of work done while Carrie relaxed.
Sometime after 6:00 the baby-having began in earnest. So at 8:00 I dropped Carrie off at the Tarbets' so they could go to the birthing center without worrying about Lena (who was completely zonked out at this point). I went to It's Greek to Me and picked up a falafel for Carrie and an Italian gyro for me, which I brought back to the house.
Lena woke up after us being there for a while, so we put on School of Rock and eventually Carrie took Lena upstairs and she fell asleep.
For maybe a half hour.
When she woke up she was wired. She was running around and jabbering and was generally acting like a three-year-old who was well-rested and going full steam ahead.
Around 10:45 we got the call that Eva Tarbet was born at 10:07 PM. Mother and daughter were both healthy and doing well.
After School of Rock it was almost midnight (we backed it up so that Carrie could watch the parts she missed while trying to get Lena to sleep). Lena wanted to watch 13 Going on 30 after that, and it was only about halfway through that movie that we finally basically forced her to lie down and relax, 'cause she was still going full speed. So it wasn't until nearly 2:00 in the morning that she actually went to bed.
Eventually Linnea & Jay came home with baby Eva, and Carrie & I got home and into bed at 3:00 in the morning.
Of course I could.
I walked back home and kind of did my regular morning routine. For breakfast I took the two hard-boiled eggs I had decorated on Easter:
I cut each egg in half, took out their yolks, added mustard, mayonnaise, and paprika, mashed it all up and spooned it back into the yolk cavities, making what is known as "Deviled Eggs." I also had a bowl of cereal.
After not hearing from Carrie for a couple of hours I called only to be informed that she was 'bouts to call me. Shortly she swung by and picked me up and we went over to the Tarbets' house. Linnea seemed to be doing surprisingly well, and was up walking around like normal and everything. In fact, she planned to go for a walk to help move things along.
So we grabbed Lena and some of her sundries and stopped off at our house for just a bit before driving to Chuck E. Cheese's.
Lena had never been to Chuck E. Cheese's before. She loved it. With her mom being preggers and her dad having a cast on his ankle, neither one of them had really been able to run around and play with her very much for the past few weeks. So here she got to run around and be almost as crazy as she wanted. She really liked the jungle gym, and we found one whack-a-mole style game that shot out tickets like crazy. It really paid out. Lena really liked the cause-and-effect of bashing things and getting rewarded for it immediately.
Carrie & I set up a system wherein one of us would stay at a table while the other went and played with Lena. Lena would be given one token to play wherever she wanted. Once she used it up, she had to return to the table to get another one, and the person at the table only gave it to her if she said, "Please." So we created a situation where Lena was very well watched in that she had to return to base before she could have more fun, and also was shockingly polite for a three-year-old.
But, y'know, every time I go to Chuck E. Cheese's it seems a little worse than the time before. They don't have any video games (so to speak of). They don't have an animatronic stage show (they just have one crappy Chuck animatronic who "interacts" with a big bunch of video screens). And this time they didn't have the beloved ball pit. Next time they probably won't have the giant rotating Chuck statue or something else like that.
The pizza, despite being perhaps the greasiest pizza you can eat in a restaurant (unless there's somewhere you can have deep-fried pizza... I wonder if that would be any good...), had a subtle garlic flavor that neither Carrie nor I remembered. It was surprising, and actually made it rather tasty.
Anyway, we spent a good two hours there before we stopped off at the house just briefly. We then drove out to Point Defiance Park, where we walked by that big pond area (with a stop in the restrooms for Lena) and then up behind the zoo where there is a swingset and a jungle gym. Lena really likes to be pushed on the swings, and she really wanted me to push her "sister" on one of the other swings. Of course, when you push a swing that is empty, it tends to behave differently than a swing with a weight (like a child) in it. It tended to bounce and flip and spin more, so I would say that Lena's sister was "going crazy!"
On the way back to the car Lena wanted to play another game. "Run!" It wasn't so much a race as it was just running. I surprised myself by actually being able to run for quite a good distance without getting winded.
We stopped at the Asian Garden by the Pagoda for some hide-and-seek before running some more back through the flower gardens to the restroom where she went potty when we first got there. After another stop in those same restrooms we made it to the car.
We stopped off at a soda fountain shop near the Antique Sandwich Company. This is an actual soda fountain, too. It has like five or six stools at a bar, and you can get a whole bunch of soda fountain stuff. Lena got a vanilla ice cream cone (that she ended up eating in a bowl), Carrie got an espresso milkshake, and I got a root beer float.
This all used up a couple more hours, but when we talked to Linnea she was no further along; just periodic mild contractions. So we stopped off at our house and grabbed all of Lena's things and then took her home. Carrie & I came back to our house where I actually got a couple of hours of work done while Carrie relaxed.
Sometime after 6:00 the baby-having began in earnest. So at 8:00 I dropped Carrie off at the Tarbets' so they could go to the birthing center without worrying about Lena (who was completely zonked out at this point). I went to It's Greek to Me and picked up a falafel for Carrie and an Italian gyro for me, which I brought back to the house.
Lena woke up after us being there for a while, so we put on School of Rock and eventually Carrie took Lena upstairs and she fell asleep.
For maybe a half hour.
When she woke up she was wired. She was running around and jabbering and was generally acting like a three-year-old who was well-rested and going full steam ahead.
Around 10:45 we got the call that Eva Tarbet was born at 10:07 PM. Mother and daughter were both healthy and doing well.
After School of Rock it was almost midnight (we backed it up so that Carrie could watch the parts she missed while trying to get Lena to sleep). Lena wanted to watch 13 Going on 30 after that, and it was only about halfway through that movie that we finally basically forced her to lie down and relax, 'cause she was still going full speed. So it wasn't until nearly 2:00 in the morning that she actually went to bed.
Eventually Linnea & Jay came home with baby Eva, and Carrie & I got home and into bed at 3:00 in the morning.
posted by Christopher at 11:55 AM
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Happy Birthday to Brandy
I'd just like to wish my good friend Brandy a happy 22nd birthday.
She's in a company of people that includes Muhammed, founder of Islam; Adolph Hitler; Tito Puente; and Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in Lord of the Rings.
She's in a company of people that includes Muhammed, founder of Islam; Adolph Hitler; Tito Puente; and Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in Lord of the Rings.
posted by Christopher at 10:05 AM
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Wednesday, April 19, 2006
The Geekier Among You Might Enjoy This
Thanks to Mike Tanner for linking to it before me!
posted by Christopher at 7:52 PM
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Distractions to Productivity
Yesterday (Tuesday) I had a problem being terribly productive during the AM. I kept on getting distracted.
After I picked Carrie up for her split-shift, though, I managed to get a lots of work done, mostly creating new book pages for the Bead Factory's website. Also, Linnea & Lena stopped by for a bit (after walking to Starbucks and back with Carrie), and I played my usual role of "distract Lena so Linnea & Carrie can hang out." This time I spun her around in the office chain to cries of, "'Pin me! 'Pin me!"
After I took Carrie back for her class I made a pizza and worked on my (I promise) upcoming Article. It seems like it's going to be a really big one. And hopefully a very funny one.
Carrie was able to come home around 9:45, which is shockingly early (sometimes on class nights she doesn't get home until almost 11:00), and was due to the fact that there were a couple other Bead Babes who were closing up shop, so Carrie didn't have to.
After I picked Carrie up for her split-shift, though, I managed to get a lots of work done, mostly creating new book pages for the Bead Factory's website. Also, Linnea & Lena stopped by for a bit (after walking to Starbucks and back with Carrie), and I played my usual role of "distract Lena so Linnea & Carrie can hang out." This time I spun her around in the office chain to cries of, "'Pin me! 'Pin me!"
After I took Carrie back for her class I made a pizza and worked on my (I promise) upcoming Article. It seems like it's going to be a really big one. And hopefully a very funny one.
Carrie was able to come home around 9:45, which is shockingly early (sometimes on class nights she doesn't get home until almost 11:00), and was due to the fact that there were a couple other Bead Babes who were closing up shop, so Carrie didn't have to.
posted by Christopher at 8:26 AM
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Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Lost Episodes of Ren and Stimpy - sneak previews
John K. has posted a whole bunch of clips from the Lost Episodes of Ren and Stimpy at his blog. Go and watch them and see if you think they're funny or not. Do it. Do it. Do it.
Okay, fine, if you don't want to go to John K's site, here's one of the clips right here so your lazy bones don't have to go anywhere:
Okay, fine, if you don't want to go to John K's site, here's one of the clips right here so your lazy bones don't have to go anywhere:
posted by Christopher at 11:01 AM
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Opened Tulips
Yesterday was a strange day, but the details are private so I won't get into that. The structure of the day was fairly normal, though.
After work Carrie & I took a walk up to and around Grant School for the Expressive Arts, where Carrie & I agree we'd like our children to go to school, should we ever have children.
When we got home I noticed that the tulips had finally opened on their own (without my having to pry them), so I grabbed my camera and took a photo down into this one.
Isn't that freakin' gorgeous!? I heart my tulips! I'm excited to plant more things that are pretty.
We ate leftover Easter lasagna for lunch and dinner. Monday evenings are Carrie's days for watching a tonne of TV that I absolutely despise, so I retreated back to the office here and worked some more on an Article and read some H.P. Lovecraft stuff. We watched Dave in bed and then fell asleep during Conan.
posted by Christopher at 10:49 AM
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Monday, April 17, 2006
Easter Turducken
Yesterday (Sunday) was Easter. It's too bad I didn't make an Easter turducken.
Around 11:30 we went over to the Tarbets and hung out there for a while. Well, I distracted Lena by playing with her while Carrie hung out with Linnea. Several other people popped by while we were there. When it was time for us to leave, Lena suggested that she should come home with us.
Then we went to Stadium Thriftway where I bought Carrie some coffee while she bought stuff like half-and-half. I ran into Steph, who was on her way to Seattle. As Carrie & I were leaving we ran into Steph again, just outside the doorway.
We drove to Carrie's folks' house, where I dropped Carrie off before driving over to my folks' house. Carrie followed me a bit of the way in her mom's car on the way to pick up her grandma.
I got to my folks' house between 1:30 and 2:00 sometime. Since nobody else was going to show up until closer to 4:30, I wanted to pass the time by watching a movie or something. Mike has Howl's Moving Castle, which I hadn't seen yet. But my dad & I couldn't get his DVD player to accept it, and once we finally did get it to work it kept on sticking like a broken record, so I only got through the first half hour before it became completely unwatchable.
Michael showed up, then Susan, Jason, & Alexis after that. Dinner was a really good pork tenderloin, and after dinner was Mario Kart and then extraordinarily strong lemon pie that I couldn't eat much of on account of full belly.
I drove back to Carrie's folks' house and picked up Carrie & her grandma, whom we took back to her place before heading back to our own.
Oh, and by the way, this is my 900th post. That is just sick.
Around 11:30 we went over to the Tarbets and hung out there for a while. Well, I distracted Lena by playing with her while Carrie hung out with Linnea. Several other people popped by while we were there. When it was time for us to leave, Lena suggested that she should come home with us.
Then we went to Stadium Thriftway where I bought Carrie some coffee while she bought stuff like half-and-half. I ran into Steph, who was on her way to Seattle. As Carrie & I were leaving we ran into Steph again, just outside the doorway.
We drove to Carrie's folks' house, where I dropped Carrie off before driving over to my folks' house. Carrie followed me a bit of the way in her mom's car on the way to pick up her grandma.
I got to my folks' house between 1:30 and 2:00 sometime. Since nobody else was going to show up until closer to 4:30, I wanted to pass the time by watching a movie or something. Mike has Howl's Moving Castle, which I hadn't seen yet. But my dad & I couldn't get his DVD player to accept it, and once we finally did get it to work it kept on sticking like a broken record, so I only got through the first half hour before it became completely unwatchable.
Michael showed up, then Susan, Jason, & Alexis after that. Dinner was a really good pork tenderloin, and after dinner was Mario Kart and then extraordinarily strong lemon pie that I couldn't eat much of on account of full belly.
I drove back to Carrie's folks' house and picked up Carrie & her grandma, whom we took back to her place before heading back to our own.
Oh, and by the way, this is my 900th post. That is just sick.
posted by Christopher at 9:12 AM
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Sunday, April 16, 2006
The Friendly Duck doesn't Have a Skeptiface
Yesterday (Saturday) morning Carrie & I realized that Sunday being Easter we probably wouldn't go out for breakfast then. So we decided to go out for breakfast immediately. On recommendation from Northwest Diner Blog we went to The Friendly Duck Family Restaurant on S. Tacoma Way. But on the way there we stopped and picked up Catherine.
Carrie & I each had the Biscuits & Gravy special (the special being that you could have the gravy over biscuits, toast, or hash browns; I got biscuits and Carrie got hash browns) and Cat had the Chicken Fried Steak. She let us have a bite, and it was pretty gosh-darned fantastic.
I dropped both Carrie & Cat off at Cat's house and then came home while they went to Tacoma Boys and whatnot. Carrie came home with some herbs to plant in the newly-tilled backyard.
I made some gyoza for lunch and then shaved and took a shower. Around 4:00 Carrie got a call from Trevor, and Mark brought him by the house so he and Carrie could come with me to Fools Play.
See, being the day before Easter, it was time for my annual Peep Show (see the previous post for more info on that). So the twain of them dropped me off at the theater and then went and had dinner at the Clubside Cafe, which they said was really excellent (and was open until 3:00 AM on Saturday nights... or I guess that would be Sunday mornings, huh?).
The show was "Dream Hotel," and it was a rather goot show. The best scenes of the night were probably my Peep Show (which was about killer giant grasshoppers); the "Subway Champion" scene, which was silent except for a song sung in the background by the Blue Fool about how Ed's character was the chamion of riding the subway, and kept kicking people in the face; and the "Poo Onion" scene, which included me coining the word "skeptiface" to describe the Blue Fool's skeptical-looking face.
After the show I left almost immediately (even though all my friends were there) so we could get Trevor home.
Carrie & I each had the Biscuits & Gravy special (the special being that you could have the gravy over biscuits, toast, or hash browns; I got biscuits and Carrie got hash browns) and Cat had the Chicken Fried Steak. She let us have a bite, and it was pretty gosh-darned fantastic.
I dropped both Carrie & Cat off at Cat's house and then came home while they went to Tacoma Boys and whatnot. Carrie came home with some herbs to plant in the newly-tilled backyard.
I made some gyoza for lunch and then shaved and took a shower. Around 4:00 Carrie got a call from Trevor, and Mark brought him by the house so he and Carrie could come with me to Fools Play.
See, being the day before Easter, it was time for my annual Peep Show (see the previous post for more info on that). So the twain of them dropped me off at the theater and then went and had dinner at the Clubside Cafe, which they said was really excellent (and was open until 3:00 AM on Saturday nights... or I guess that would be Sunday mornings, huh?).
The show was "Dream Hotel," and it was a rather goot show. The best scenes of the night were probably my Peep Show (which was about killer giant grasshoppers); the "Subway Champion" scene, which was silent except for a song sung in the background by the Blue Fool about how Ed's character was the chamion of riding the subway, and kept kicking people in the face; and the "Poo Onion" scene, which included me coining the word "skeptiface" to describe the Blue Fool's skeptical-looking face.
After the show I left almost immediately (even though all my friends were there) so we could get Trevor home.
posted by Christopher at 11:05 AM
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Saturday, April 15, 2006
Too Much Dough
Did you know that you can read all of H.P. Lovecraft's works for free on teh intarweb? I just found that out yesterday. They're all over at Wikisource.
Anyway, I digress. Yesterday (Friday) Carrie y I got up a littl early so Carrie could get to work before 8:00 (which she did by about five minutes).
After work we went to the big dollar store on 6th Avenue (near Pearl) and bought a few little things, mostly for Lena's Easter basket. I also stocked up on Peeps so I could perform my annual Peep Show at Fools Play this weekend.
Don't know about my Peep Show? Or alternately, know about my Peep Show and can't wait to see it? Here's one from a couple of years ago.
Then we swung by Chez Targét where we ran into Lindsay and Parker (who is just enormous).
From Chez Targét we went directly to I Heart Bento, one of Missa's favorite restaurants. I had squid sushi, tuna rolls, and salmon rolls with cucumber. Carrie had a blackened mackrel with California rolls. We both had miso soup as well (of course). It was pretty tasty, and we got out of there for about eight bucks less than we would usually spend in a sushi joint.
After that we swung by Trader Joe's and stocked up on what they had in stock. See, Carrie usually goes there Saturday mornings, which is right after they do a huge re-stock of the store. On Friday nights they're plenny picked-over, so we ended up spending like 20 bucks less than usual (which ain't a bad thing necessarily) because they were just plumb out of some things.
As we were driving back to the house Carrie called Catherine and learned that Heather and Chris were also going to be over there that evening. So we stopped at home really quickly so we could grab a bottle of wine and I could burn Nicole's handout onto a CD. We ran that (the CD, not the wine) to the Bead Factory, and then we swung by Metropolitan Market to buy garlic bread and heirloom oranges.
Then we went to Chris & Cat's house and had a jolly good evening. All three of the Chrisses were in attendence, and it's always nice when we get together. Heather was making pizza, but she accidentally made too much dough. When I say she made too much dough, I mean she made way too much dough. She made enough dough to create probably seven extra-large pizzas. Sometimes I don't know what's going on in her head.
Chris Gouker went to the store to buy some more pizza sauce and Carrie went with him... in his gigantic boom-truck! Carrie said it was mucho de fun. There was much wine consumed that evening (I think three or four bottles between six people). Whenever Carrie & Cat get together they somehow feed off of each other's energies and end up having about seven or eight times as much fun as they would normally be having. Add some wine to that mix and you have really loud fun. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I didn't enjoy so much when Cat & Carrie wanted to watch an episode of Cheerleader Nation that Cat had recorded. I will say that Cheerleader Nation is not nearly as loathsome as 8th & Ocean or Laguna Beach, in that Cheerleader Nation does not glamourize everything that is wrong with humanity. Many of the cheerleaders are actually quality people! Their mothers, on the other hand...
I kinda dozed off because I hadn't gotten good sleep the night before (stressful dreams about complicated buildings, of course), and I got a little grumpy when a second episode of Cheerleader Nation started. Fortunately that got cut off halfway through the episode.
I drove Carrie home, as I had only had a couple of glasses of wine several hours earlier and was therefore completely sober by this time, whereas Carrie was not quite so much. We put on pajamas and went straight to bed, and I had a dream about a sequel to Thundercats, starring a whole new set of cats including wizard triplets and a young girl and an old man, and then some kind of mysterious warrior guy who could turn himself into some sort of flaming something, and another kinda generic young woman. And Mum-Ra was back from the dead somehow (but he gets killed by the fire guy in the end of the series). This Thundercats show took place in a much more oceanic setting than the first one, with most scenes taking place within view of the ocean or at dramatic rocky cliffs.
Sometimes I heart my dream people.
Anyway, I digress. Yesterday (Friday) Carrie y I got up a littl early so Carrie could get to work before 8:00 (which she did by about five minutes).
After work we went to the big dollar store on 6th Avenue (near Pearl) and bought a few little things, mostly for Lena's Easter basket. I also stocked up on Peeps so I could perform my annual Peep Show at Fools Play this weekend.
Don't know about my Peep Show? Or alternately, know about my Peep Show and can't wait to see it? Here's one from a couple of years ago.
Then we swung by Chez Targét where we ran into Lindsay and Parker (who is just enormous).
From Chez Targét we went directly to I Heart Bento, one of Missa's favorite restaurants. I had squid sushi, tuna rolls, and salmon rolls with cucumber. Carrie had a blackened mackrel with California rolls. We both had miso soup as well (of course). It was pretty tasty, and we got out of there for about eight bucks less than we would usually spend in a sushi joint.
After that we swung by Trader Joe's and stocked up on what they had in stock. See, Carrie usually goes there Saturday mornings, which is right after they do a huge re-stock of the store. On Friday nights they're plenny picked-over, so we ended up spending like 20 bucks less than usual (which ain't a bad thing necessarily) because they were just plumb out of some things.
As we were driving back to the house Carrie called Catherine and learned that Heather and Chris were also going to be over there that evening. So we stopped at home really quickly so we could grab a bottle of wine and I could burn Nicole's handout onto a CD. We ran that (the CD, not the wine) to the Bead Factory, and then we swung by Metropolitan Market to buy garlic bread and heirloom oranges.
Then we went to Chris & Cat's house and had a jolly good evening. All three of the Chrisses were in attendence, and it's always nice when we get together. Heather was making pizza, but she accidentally made too much dough. When I say she made too much dough, I mean she made way too much dough. She made enough dough to create probably seven extra-large pizzas. Sometimes I don't know what's going on in her head.
Chris Gouker went to the store to buy some more pizza sauce and Carrie went with him... in his gigantic boom-truck! Carrie said it was mucho de fun. There was much wine consumed that evening (I think three or four bottles between six people). Whenever Carrie & Cat get together they somehow feed off of each other's energies and end up having about seven or eight times as much fun as they would normally be having. Add some wine to that mix and you have really loud fun. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I didn't enjoy so much when Cat & Carrie wanted to watch an episode of Cheerleader Nation that Cat had recorded. I will say that Cheerleader Nation is not nearly as loathsome as 8th & Ocean or Laguna Beach, in that Cheerleader Nation does not glamourize everything that is wrong with humanity. Many of the cheerleaders are actually quality people! Their mothers, on the other hand...
I kinda dozed off because I hadn't gotten good sleep the night before (stressful dreams about complicated buildings, of course), and I got a little grumpy when a second episode of Cheerleader Nation started. Fortunately that got cut off halfway through the episode.
I drove Carrie home, as I had only had a couple of glasses of wine several hours earlier and was therefore completely sober by this time, whereas Carrie was not quite so much. We put on pajamas and went straight to bed, and I had a dream about a sequel to Thundercats, starring a whole new set of cats including wizard triplets and a young girl and an old man, and then some kind of mysterious warrior guy who could turn himself into some sort of flaming something, and another kinda generic young woman. And Mum-Ra was back from the dead somehow (but he gets killed by the fire guy in the end of the series). This Thundercats show took place in a much more oceanic setting than the first one, with most scenes taking place within view of the ocean or at dramatic rocky cliffs.
Sometimes I heart my dream people.
posted by Christopher at 10:17 AM
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Friday, April 14, 2006
Dreary
Yesterday (Thursday) was really dreary, so I wasn't able to do any more gardening. Too bad! I wanted to get the area around the roses cleaned up. Then after that I'd think about the tree corner...
En-ee-ways, In the morning I went to Fred Meyer to deposit some checks in the bonk and then buy stuff like cheese and dishwashing liquid, and a whole mess of veggies for Carrie.
Carrie took a big nap during her split-shift while I worked on a class handout (not a Fashion Show handout) for Nicole.
In the evening I did a tonne of prep work for the next Article I'm writing (should be a good one). Then I caught the last half of Predator 2
—Letterboxed!— on one of them no-commercial cable channels. I've always thought that Predator 2 was underrated. It's especially interesting that from the subway scene on it's all basically one big action sequence (with tonnes of different mini-sequences within it) up until the end. Almost an hour straight (there's maybe a little break when Danny Glover is in the command center with Gary Busey).
En-ee-ways, In the morning I went to Fred Meyer to deposit some checks in the bonk and then buy stuff like cheese and dishwashing liquid, and a whole mess of veggies for Carrie.
Carrie took a big nap during her split-shift while I worked on a class handout (not a Fashion Show handout) for Nicole.
In the evening I did a tonne of prep work for the next Article I'm writing (should be a good one). Then I caught the last half of Predator 2
—Letterboxed!— on one of them no-commercial cable channels. I've always thought that Predator 2 was underrated. It's especially interesting that from the subway scene on it's all basically one big action sequence (with tonnes of different mini-sequences within it) up until the end. Almost an hour straight (there's maybe a little break when Danny Glover is in the command center with Gary Busey).posted by Christopher at 10:29 AM
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Thursday, April 13, 2006
土の歓喜の庭
Yesterday (Wednesday) something wonderful happened. I drove Carrie to work as usual and then got her a coffee as usual. But when I drove home I noticed something had changed... for the better:
My tulips are bloomin'! Those salmon-colored ones are really cool because they have a black center that's outlined in yellow. If one opens up some more I'll take a photo down into it.
I'm so happy! These are the first plants I've planted that have really thrived. And they ALL came up. I don't think a single bulb failed. Even the 5 tulips of the "secret stash" in the corner of front yard have come up (although none of them have opened yet).
Anyway, it looked to be raining in the morning, but then it cleared up around 10:00, so I called my dad. He came over around 11:00 and we went out in the backyard and pruned and weeded and tilled and all that fun stuff.
Then closer to noon we swung by the Bead Factory and picked up Carrie, and we went to The Rosewood where we were met by my mom, my grandma, and their friend Jean. It was a very good lunch (I had the ciabatta club with a cup of potato-leek soup) and everyone was very well-behaved.
My dad & I dropped Carrie off back at the store and then continued on home and gardened some more. On the way home we drove by Engine House No. 9 and my dad was fascinated by it. He wants to eat there next time he comes over.
We gardened some more until he left at 3:00. By that time I had completely cleaned out the square planting area in the corner by the garage. After dad left I took a quick break to send off the VERY final Fashion Show Handout revision to Missa. Then I went back out and worked on the strip by the side of the house. Carrie walked home and came out to check my progress, and Fantastico hung out with me a little bit, too.
For some reason the people who previously owned the house (well, the people before Carol, because she didn't do any yard work... ever) thought it would be a good idea to line the bed of that strip of land with a burlap-like cloth. In theory I suppose it was supposed to keep things from growing up through it. But around here the only weed of any consequence is the dandelion, and it's an airborne weed. Putting sackcloth under your soil will do nothing to prevent it from taking hold. All it does is make it really hard to till the soil because your hoe keeps getting caught in the cloth.
So eventually I got fed up and reached down and in a series of mighty tugs I pulled up the entire strip of cloth and threw it to the side. Underneath was beautiful, pristine soil. Carrie wants to plant veggies in it. It should be good!
Carrie made tapenade-coated salmon with risotto, cooked carrots & collard greens, and blue cheese toast for dinner. Good stuff. In the evening I watched Ghost Hunters and Mythbusters. Then as I was getting ready for bed there was a show about the imagineering of a Himilayan-themed ride in Disney's Animal Kingdom. That stuff fascinates me, so we watched it in bed (although I dozed off during the part where they showed how they built the 20-foot-tall yeti&mdashdamn it).
My tulips are bloomin'! Those salmon-colored ones are really cool because they have a black center that's outlined in yellow. If one opens up some more I'll take a photo down into it.
I'm so happy! These are the first plants I've planted that have really thrived. And they ALL came up. I don't think a single bulb failed. Even the 5 tulips of the "secret stash" in the corner of front yard have come up (although none of them have opened yet).
Anyway, it looked to be raining in the morning, but then it cleared up around 10:00, so I called my dad. He came over around 11:00 and we went out in the backyard and pruned and weeded and tilled and all that fun stuff.
Then closer to noon we swung by the Bead Factory and picked up Carrie, and we went to The Rosewood where we were met by my mom, my grandma, and their friend Jean. It was a very good lunch (I had the ciabatta club with a cup of potato-leek soup) and everyone was very well-behaved.
My dad & I dropped Carrie off back at the store and then continued on home and gardened some more. On the way home we drove by Engine House No. 9 and my dad was fascinated by it. He wants to eat there next time he comes over.
We gardened some more until he left at 3:00. By that time I had completely cleaned out the square planting area in the corner by the garage. After dad left I took a quick break to send off the VERY final Fashion Show Handout revision to Missa. Then I went back out and worked on the strip by the side of the house. Carrie walked home and came out to check my progress, and Fantastico hung out with me a little bit, too.
For some reason the people who previously owned the house (well, the people before Carol, because she didn't do any yard work... ever) thought it would be a good idea to line the bed of that strip of land with a burlap-like cloth. In theory I suppose it was supposed to keep things from growing up through it. But around here the only weed of any consequence is the dandelion, and it's an airborne weed. Putting sackcloth under your soil will do nothing to prevent it from taking hold. All it does is make it really hard to till the soil because your hoe keeps getting caught in the cloth.
So eventually I got fed up and reached down and in a series of mighty tugs I pulled up the entire strip of cloth and threw it to the side. Underneath was beautiful, pristine soil. Carrie wants to plant veggies in it. It should be good!
Carrie made tapenade-coated salmon with risotto, cooked carrots & collard greens, and blue cheese toast for dinner. Good stuff. In the evening I watched Ghost Hunters and Mythbusters. Then as I was getting ready for bed there was a show about the imagineering of a Himilayan-themed ride in Disney's Animal Kingdom. That stuff fascinates me, so we watched it in bed (although I dozed off during the part where they showed how they built the 20-foot-tall yeti&mdashdamn it).
posted by Christopher at 9:53 AM
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Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Japanese Rubes
I think tangentbot especially will enjoy this phantastic series of dozens of videos from Japan showing actual, real-life Rube Goldberg style machines. They seem to be commercials for something that sounds like "itakora suichi" but I can't read the kanji to be sure.
Be warned, there are almost 13 minutes worth of them (but it's worth it)! Thanks to TechEBlog for posting about it.
Be warned, there are almost 13 minutes worth of them (but it's worth it)! Thanks to TechEBlog for posting about it.
posted by Christopher at 6:21 PM
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Of Note
The only thing really of note that happened yesterday (Tuesday) was that I didn't have to pick Carrie up for her split-shift break; Linnea picked her up, and she and Lena came and had lunch at our house. After lunch Lena dragged me into Carrie's closet to play a game of "Push You Down." It was fun!
posted by Christopher at 5:31 PM
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Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Just Doing My Part
I'm taking a quick minute to plug some stuff that I enjoy.
I've been really digging the Andy Milonakis Show on MTV2. Andy is a 30-year old who is has a growth hormone condition that gives him the appearance and voice of a pre-pubescent boy. The show consists of extremely short sketches (sometimes so short that they consist of a title card and then a punchline) interspersed with not-so-hidden camera slash man-on-the-street segments where Andy interacts with people on the streets of New York. At times the show seems to be an expanded cable access show, down to the bare-bones production values. But once it gets me laughin it's hard for it to get me to stop. It's frikkin' funny.
Thanks to Gibdo the Mummy Man for turning me on to Ballzack, a very funny hip-hopper from New Orleans. Go to his media page and download some of his old (late 90s) demos, and then buy an album or two from him.
One of my favorite artists right now is Daryl Walker, whose black-and white drawings are really simple and have incredible fluid lines to them.
He also has a blog, so you should check that out as well for all the new stuff he's constantly producing (a new drawing almost every single day!!!11!one!!1!).
I'd also like to give a shout-out to the folks at Split Reason. I really like the stuff they produce. It's very appealing to a geeky child of the 80s like me. I mean, just look how badass I look in this Pac-Man shirt!
So if you wanna support clothe yourself in constant reminders of how unpopular you were in high school, you should buy geek and gamer themed T-Shirts and Hats @ SplitReason.com!
Just doing my part.
I've been really digging the Andy Milonakis Show on MTV2. Andy is a 30-year old who is has a growth hormone condition that gives him the appearance and voice of a pre-pubescent boy. The show consists of extremely short sketches (sometimes so short that they consist of a title card and then a punchline) interspersed with not-so-hidden camera slash man-on-the-street segments where Andy interacts with people on the streets of New York. At times the show seems to be an expanded cable access show, down to the bare-bones production values. But once it gets me laughin it's hard for it to get me to stop. It's frikkin' funny.
Thanks to Gibdo the Mummy Man for turning me on to Ballzack, a very funny hip-hopper from New Orleans. Go to his media page and download some of his old (late 90s) demos, and then buy an album or two from him.
One of my favorite artists right now is Daryl Walker, whose black-and white drawings are really simple and have incredible fluid lines to them.
He also has a blog, so you should check that out as well for all the new stuff he's constantly producing (a new drawing almost every single day!!!11!one!!1!).
I'd also like to give a shout-out to the folks at Split Reason. I really like the stuff they produce. It's very appealing to a geeky child of the 80s like me. I mean, just look how badass I look in this Pac-Man shirt!
So if you wanna support clothe yourself in constant reminders of how unpopular you were in high school, you should buy geek and gamer themed T-Shirts and Hats @ SplitReason.com!
Just doing my part.
posted by Christopher at 3:25 PM
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Carrie's Roommate Number One!
Yesterday (Monday) Carrie spent most of the first part of the day hanging out down here with her old college roommate, Christy, who used to have the last name Earp. Yes, she is related to that Earp. But she changed her name when she got married, which I personally think is a shame, but is really no business of mine.
I spent the morning cleaning up the office and letting Roomba run around in it.
I ate the rest of the leftover salmon pasta for lunch... and then another, later lunch. So I wasn't at all hungry by the time dinnertime rolled around. Plus Carrie went and hung out with the Tarbets (still no baby yet) around that time. When she got home Carrie instead made a tapenade butter and spread it on some toast for a light dinner. Danged tasty, it were.
Mondays are days when Carrie watches a tonne of crap on TV, so I retreated to the newly-cleaned office and did one of my massive, hours-long Wikipedia crawls. I first looked up the entry for Buckaroo Banzai just for laughs, and learned where the name "Yoyodyne" came from. Then I started thinking that Atlas Shrugged is one of the few sci-fi epics that I haven't read, so I looked up stuff about Ayn Rand, which of course lead to stuff about Libertarianism.
I spent the morning cleaning up the office and letting Roomba run around in it.
I ate the rest of the leftover salmon pasta for lunch... and then another, later lunch. So I wasn't at all hungry by the time dinnertime rolled around. Plus Carrie went and hung out with the Tarbets (still no baby yet) around that time. When she got home Carrie instead made a tapenade butter and spread it on some toast for a light dinner. Danged tasty, it were.
Mondays are days when Carrie watches a tonne of crap on TV, so I retreated to the newly-cleaned office and did one of my massive, hours-long Wikipedia crawls. I first looked up the entry for Buckaroo Banzai just for laughs, and learned where the name "Yoyodyne" came from. Then I started thinking that Atlas Shrugged is one of the few sci-fi epics that I haven't read, so I looked up stuff about Ayn Rand, which of course lead to stuff about Libertarianism.
posted by Christopher at 9:43 AM
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Monday, April 10, 2006
It Works so that We Don't Have To.
Yesterday (Sunday) Carrie & I got up around 9:00 and the Goukers came over. We went to Home Depot to buy a new nozzle for the sink so that the dishwasher could hook up to it correctly.
Then we went out to breakfast at The Homestead in Tacoma, across the street from the B&I. It looks like a big barn on the outside, and also strangely on the inside. The breakfast food is fantastic, and they have real Corned Beef Hash, so the folks at Northwest Diner Blog should definitely check it out (and call me if they do so I can come too). Carrie got the CBH. Cat & I both got a biscuits & gravy variation that had ham on it. And when I say ham, I mean a single huge, ½-inch thich slab of ham that covered both biscuits. They have those big oval plates, and our plates were basically divided into thirds: one-third meal, one-third potatoes (I recommend hash browns, as the home fries weren't all that), and one-third eggs.
After that we came home and got the dishwasher to actually work! Yee-haw! The dishwasher was running basically the rest of the day, and there are now practically no dirty dishes in the house. Totally awexome.
Mike was the only one who came over for Fools Play practice. We came up with about ten new short song styles. It was pretty fun.
Carrie came home around dinnertime and made a pasta with a salmon cream sauce which was delicioso! And there is a tonne of it. After dinner I had to completely fill two plastic containers with the leftovers.
We did mucho cleaning in the evening, and I cleaned up my desk area and went through all my desk's CDs. I found some really cool audio CDs that had great stuff on them, like old cartoon themes and super-rare TMBG stuff.
Then we went out to breakfast at The Homestead in Tacoma, across the street from the B&I. It looks like a big barn on the outside, and also strangely on the inside. The breakfast food is fantastic, and they have real Corned Beef Hash, so the folks at Northwest Diner Blog should definitely check it out (and call me if they do so I can come too). Carrie got the CBH. Cat & I both got a biscuits & gravy variation that had ham on it. And when I say ham, I mean a single huge, ½-inch thich slab of ham that covered both biscuits. They have those big oval plates, and our plates were basically divided into thirds: one-third meal, one-third potatoes (I recommend hash browns, as the home fries weren't all that), and one-third eggs.
After that we came home and got the dishwasher to actually work! Yee-haw! The dishwasher was running basically the rest of the day, and there are now practically no dirty dishes in the house. Totally awexome.
Mike was the only one who came over for Fools Play practice. We came up with about ten new short song styles. It was pretty fun.
Carrie came home around dinnertime and made a pasta with a salmon cream sauce which was delicioso! And there is a tonne of it. After dinner I had to completely fill two plastic containers with the leftovers.
We did mucho cleaning in the evening, and I cleaned up my desk area and went through all my desk's CDs. I found some really cool audio CDs that had great stuff on them, like old cartoon themes and super-rare TMBG stuff.
posted by Christopher at 10:31 AM
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Sunday, April 09, 2006
The MHN Blog
This entry at The MHN Blog cited my blog as a reference (for the Virginia V). That's pretty cool. Thanks, Joe! Go visit his site.
posted by Christopher at 9:35 PM
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One Reason Why the Japanese are Better than Us
Because they can produce commercials like this:
I friggin' love that. Thanks to Brianne Drouhard (aka Potato Farm Girl) for first posting about it.
I friggin' love that. Thanks to Brianne Drouhard (aka Potato Farm Girl) for first posting about it.
posted by Christopher at 9:22 AM
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Wedding Peach
Yesterday (Saturday) I gratefully slept in until almost 11:00. Carrie had left the house at 10:00 for to go to the Trader Joe's shopping. She also stopped by the Great Harvest bread place and picked up a cinnamon roll. So when she came back I took all the groceries inside and then ate the cinnamon roll with her. As well as some of my leftover pizza from the night before.
Fantastico was finally getting used to Bea, and in fact the two were playing together in a limited capacity. Fantastico developed this ninja move where she would lie on her back and reach her forearms up over her head and then propel herself along the ground with her hind legs. It was crazy but awesome. Fantastico would still come to her senses and start hissing and growling every once in a while, though.
We watched The Soup on E! and then I shaved and took a shower. My neck was all bloody from the shaving! Hooray for shaving!
I got dressed in my finery and then we went to Target to buy a gift bag for our wedding gift (which Carrie had also picked up at Trader Joe's), as well as some deodorant and hair spray for Carrie. She also grabbed a couple of tops that might look nice. But she didn't end up using them so she'll prolly take them back.
Yeah, so we came back home and Carrie went to get ready, and I wrote yesterday's entry in this here website. Around 3:30 Chris Gouker came by with a manly tool and took a look at the sink to see if he could figure out how best to hook up the new diswhasher to it. We're going to need to go to Home Depot today to get a new part for it.
When we were all almost ready to leave Heather called about picking up Bea. We were practically on our way out the door, but they have a key to our house (on account of they usually house sit for us when we're gone), so they swung by and snagged Bea out from our dirty clothes basket and took her back to their apartment. 'Bye, Bea! We'll come visit!
So Carrie & I went in Chris's car up to Seattle, where the wedding was happening aboard the Virginia V. We got there, however, about 45 minutes before they were letting people on the boat. So we sat in Chris's car; Chris & I played video games on our phones and Carrie took a li'l nap. Eventually they let us on.
The original plan was to have the wedding on the foredeck of the boat, but since this is Seattle it was of course rainy and windy. So the ceremony was moved inside. It's a cool boat, but there wasn't anywhere to sit, really. There were only two tables that didn't have the food on them. Oh, and there was a tonne of cheeses on the food tables. That was real good.
Anyway, the boat left at 6:00 and got back to the docks at 9:00. We helped load stuff into Cristy's mom's car, so Chris went and got that car and drove it up to the dock while I went and got Chris's car and drove it up to the dock. Chris has really freakin' long legs. I was operating those pedeals with my tip-toes.
Cat talked the whole way back to Tacoma and was uproariously entertaining. It was almost 11:00 by the time we got back home, so we went straight to bed, and didn't have to worry about locking Bea up in the bathroom. Fantastico was plenny happy about that.
Fantastico was finally getting used to Bea, and in fact the two were playing together in a limited capacity. Fantastico developed this ninja move where she would lie on her back and reach her forearms up over her head and then propel herself along the ground with her hind legs. It was crazy but awesome. Fantastico would still come to her senses and start hissing and growling every once in a while, though.
We watched The Soup on E! and then I shaved and took a shower. My neck was all bloody from the shaving! Hooray for shaving!
I got dressed in my finery and then we went to Target to buy a gift bag for our wedding gift (which Carrie had also picked up at Trader Joe's), as well as some deodorant and hair spray for Carrie. She also grabbed a couple of tops that might look nice. But she didn't end up using them so she'll prolly take them back.
Yeah, so we came back home and Carrie went to get ready, and I wrote yesterday's entry in this here website. Around 3:30 Chris Gouker came by with a manly tool and took a look at the sink to see if he could figure out how best to hook up the new diswhasher to it. We're going to need to go to Home Depot today to get a new part for it.
When we were all almost ready to leave Heather called about picking up Bea. We were practically on our way out the door, but they have a key to our house (on account of they usually house sit for us when we're gone), so they swung by and snagged Bea out from our dirty clothes basket and took her back to their apartment. 'Bye, Bea! We'll come visit!
So Carrie & I went in Chris's car up to Seattle, where the wedding was happening aboard the Virginia V. We got there, however, about 45 minutes before they were letting people on the boat. So we sat in Chris's car; Chris & I played video games on our phones and Carrie took a li'l nap. Eventually they let us on.
The original plan was to have the wedding on the foredeck of the boat, but since this is Seattle it was of course rainy and windy. So the ceremony was moved inside. It's a cool boat, but there wasn't anywhere to sit, really. There were only two tables that didn't have the food on them. Oh, and there was a tonne of cheeses on the food tables. That was real good.
Anyway, the boat left at 6:00 and got back to the docks at 9:00. We helped load stuff into Cristy's mom's car, so Chris went and got that car and drove it up to the dock while I went and got Chris's car and drove it up to the dock. Chris has really freakin' long legs. I was operating those pedeals with my tip-toes.
Cat talked the whole way back to Tacoma and was uproariously entertaining. It was almost 11:00 by the time we got back home, so we went straight to bed, and didn't have to worry about locking Bea up in the bathroom. Fantastico was plenny happy about that.
posted by Christopher at 8:56 AM
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Saturday, April 08, 2006
Boxes From My Folks' Garage
The thing about having a cute kitten is that you don't end up getting very much sleep at night, even if you do lock it in the bathroom.
In the morning (after 10:00 some time) I drove up to my folks' house because my dad had found several boxes of my stuff out in the garage, including (hooray!) most all of my books. So we went through the boxes and decided what I wanted and what I didn't want, and loaded the stuff I did want into the car. Then I went with my parents out to lunch at Marie Calendar's.
I drove straight from my folks' place to the BF to pick up carrie for her lunch (and I brought some onion rings with me for her). I suddenly got very, very sleepy, so she drove herself back to work and I fell asleep... until she got home after work. Nice nap, even with Bea running all over the place and clawing up my legs.
For dinner we ordered Papa John's pizza, and then shortly after that I drove Carrie to Missa's house so the two of them could go dancing to the Boinkers as part of an extended Missa Birthday celebration. I dozed and watched some of the new Doctor Who series (basically as much crap as all the ohter ones), and then Numb3rs. I really, really like that Numb3rs show, even though I did think the final (the final final) solution to this episode was a bit of a cop-out.
Carrie got home after midnight and we went to bed.
In the morning (after 10:00 some time) I drove up to my folks' house because my dad had found several boxes of my stuff out in the garage, including (hooray!) most all of my books. So we went through the boxes and decided what I wanted and what I didn't want, and loaded the stuff I did want into the car. Then I went with my parents out to lunch at Marie Calendar's.
I drove straight from my folks' place to the BF to pick up carrie for her lunch (and I brought some onion rings with me for her). I suddenly got very, very sleepy, so she drove herself back to work and I fell asleep... until she got home after work. Nice nap, even with Bea running all over the place and clawing up my legs.
For dinner we ordered Papa John's pizza, and then shortly after that I drove Carrie to Missa's house so the two of them could go dancing to the Boinkers as part of an extended Missa Birthday celebration. I dozed and watched some of the new Doctor Who series (basically as much crap as all the ohter ones), and then Numb3rs. I really, really like that Numb3rs show, even though I did think the final (the final final) solution to this episode was a bit of a cop-out.
Carrie got home after midnight and we went to bed.
posted by Christopher at 3:02 PM
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Friday, April 07, 2006
More Cuteness
Yesterday (Thursday) morning I spent most of the time keeping an eye on this li'l thing:
That's pretty frikkin' cute! Although she did crawl up my leg and into my coat and fall asleep at one point, I didn't get very much work done in the morning because of cute distraction. After I got Carrie home in the afternoon for her split-shift, Carrie took over watching her, and I officially finished the Fashion Show handouts! Yee-haw! I put them on a disc and walked them down to the store for Missa. I noticed she had a new piece of jewelry but she didn't mention it so neither did I. As I was walking home she called and said there was a problem with one of the pages, so when I got home I made the changes and emailed them off. And that, as they say, is that.
Carrie & Bea ended up sleeping for most of the afternoon. Well, Carrie slept for most of the afternoon. While I was working on the Fashion Show handouts Bea would periodically come and try to "help" me work.
It was a li'l distracting again. But fortunately Carrie kept her occupied most of the afternoon. I made a quick trip to the bonk and picked up some chotlate house cream while I was there.
After I took Carrie back to teach her class I took a shower and then walked over to Missa's house to help celebrate her birthday (which was actually on the 5th) and Lawrence's actual 25th birthday. Geoff and Katie both stopped by for the middle of the party, and several of Lawrence's fellow New Orleans refugees also showed up. Carrie was dropped off by Paige after class.
Not only was it Missa's birthday party, though; the day before (her actual brithday) she'd gotten a call on the congratumaphone. It was about that new piece of jewelry that I mentioned earlier. Y'know, the kind with a diamond in it and you wear it on the ring finger of your left hand.
I got plenny tipsy on wine at the party (see the post before this one), and had some excellent marshmallow-topped cake made by Christine. Carrie and I walked home afterwards. I stayed up for about an hour because I was wary of going to bed without sobering up some first. I also drank about 25 liters of water. So I felt basically fine this morning—just a little tired from staying up late, but no hang-over effects at all.
That's pretty frikkin' cute! Although she did crawl up my leg and into my coat and fall asleep at one point, I didn't get very much work done in the morning because of cute distraction. After I got Carrie home in the afternoon for her split-shift, Carrie took over watching her, and I officially finished the Fashion Show handouts! Yee-haw! I put them on a disc and walked them down to the store for Missa. I noticed she had a new piece of jewelry but she didn't mention it so neither did I. As I was walking home she called and said there was a problem with one of the pages, so when I got home I made the changes and emailed them off. And that, as they say, is that.
Carrie & Bea ended up sleeping for most of the afternoon. Well, Carrie slept for most of the afternoon. While I was working on the Fashion Show handouts Bea would periodically come and try to "help" me work.
It was a li'l distracting again. But fortunately Carrie kept her occupied most of the afternoon. I made a quick trip to the bonk and picked up some chotlate house cream while I was there.
After I took Carrie back to teach her class I took a shower and then walked over to Missa's house to help celebrate her birthday (which was actually on the 5th) and Lawrence's actual 25th birthday. Geoff and Katie both stopped by for the middle of the party, and several of Lawrence's fellow New Orleans refugees also showed up. Carrie was dropped off by Paige after class.
Not only was it Missa's birthday party, though; the day before (her actual brithday) she'd gotten a call on the congratumaphone. It was about that new piece of jewelry that I mentioned earlier. Y'know, the kind with a diamond in it and you wear it on the ring finger of your left hand.
I got plenny tipsy on wine at the party (see the post before this one), and had some excellent marshmallow-topped cake made by Christine. Carrie and I walked home afterwards. I stayed up for about an hour because I was wary of going to bed without sobering up some first. I also drank about 25 liters of water. So I felt basically fine this morning—just a little tired from staying up late, but no hang-over effects at all.
posted by Christopher at 12:19 PM
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Drunk?
It just accured to me that I've never posted before when I'm drunk. Well, I'm pretty drunk right now. I just got back from Melissa & Lawrence's birthday parties (Missa turned 29 and Lawrene turned 25). And I thought I would post to see how coherent I could be. I'm pretty impressed that I could type "coherent," I tell you what. It's late. I need to drink about a tonne of water before I go to sleep so as not to get hung over in the morning. I love you all! (See... proof that I was drunk... I said I loved everybody... only drunk people do that).
P.S. Originally I spelled "Coherent" as "corenent," so I guess that's pretty drunk. No vomit yet, though!
P.S. Originally I spelled "Coherent" as "corenent," so I guess that's pretty drunk. No vomit yet, though!
posted by Christopher at 12:17 AM
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Thursday, April 06, 2006
Le Visiteur
Yesterday (Wednesday) was Melissa's birthday (one month and one day before mine), so around noontime after I went to the Bonk at Fred Meyer's, I bought her some flowers and brought them to the store.
I tried to get the new dishwasher to work but I couldn't due to the fact that the host part doesn't fit over the sink faucet. And I don't have strong enough tools to remove the part of the faucet that's blocking the hose. Chris Gouker does, though! He'll bring them by on Saturday.
I had pizza for din-dins, then Cat Gouker came and picked Carrie up. They were gone for, oh, an hour or so. When they came back, they had a visitor with them...
Meet Beatrix (or Beatrice? I'm not sure... let's just call her Bea). Beatrix is, as you can see, a tiny little kitten. Much to Fantastico's dismay, Bea stayed with us last night. Oh, she's not ours. She was one of the many kittens that Nyki's cat popped out a while back. She actually belongs to Heather & Chris. We're just holding onto her.
She's very cute, although she's earned the nickname (from me) of "Ketty Belly" because when she meows it sounds like a tea kettle going off.
We set up the bathroom with food, water, and litter for the night and put her in there so Fantastico (who does nothing but hiss and growl at Bea) wouldn't feel quite so threatened. That photos above were taken while I was trying to get Bea to be comfortable in the bathroom. Guess it worked!
Anyway, because of the kitten excitement I didn't get to sleep until Conan O'Brien was almost over.
In fact, right now she's in my lap playing with a pen as I type this.
I tried to get the new dishwasher to work but I couldn't due to the fact that the host part doesn't fit over the sink faucet. And I don't have strong enough tools to remove the part of the faucet that's blocking the hose. Chris Gouker does, though! He'll bring them by on Saturday.
I had pizza for din-dins, then Cat Gouker came and picked Carrie up. They were gone for, oh, an hour or so. When they came back, they had a visitor with them...
Meet Beatrix (or Beatrice? I'm not sure... let's just call her Bea). Beatrix is, as you can see, a tiny little kitten. Much to Fantastico's dismay, Bea stayed with us last night. Oh, she's not ours. She was one of the many kittens that Nyki's cat popped out a while back. She actually belongs to Heather & Chris. We're just holding onto her.
She's very cute, although she's earned the nickname (from me) of "Ketty Belly" because when she meows it sounds like a tea kettle going off.
We set up the bathroom with food, water, and litter for the night and put her in there so Fantastico (who does nothing but hiss and growl at Bea) wouldn't feel quite so threatened. That photos above were taken while I was trying to get Bea to be comfortable in the bathroom. Guess it worked!
Anyway, because of the kitten excitement I didn't get to sleep until Conan O'Brien was almost over.
In fact, right now she's in my lap playing with a pen as I type this.
posted by Christopher at 9:30 AM
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Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Thanks to: Brandy, Linnea & Jay, Carol, Travis, and Andy Milonakis
Yesterday (Tuesday) Carrie did not have class, which is unusual for a Tuesday. I worked to catch up on all those little things I neglected while working on the Fashion Show handouts.
In the afternoon I talked with Brandy for quite a while over the phone. She had a really fun weekend with Devon, Mitsumi (who ate her first-ever s'more at our house on the 4th of July 2004), and Erin Miner. Jealous! It's always nice to talk to Brandy. Thanks for talking on the phone with me, Brandy!
After work we went over to the Tarbets' for dinner. They barbequed salmon. It was our first barbeque of the season! And it was really frikkin' good. They put lemon and onion slices on it and then slathered it in garlic butter before wrapping it in tinfoil and putting it on the grill. They also made asparagus and seasoned potatoes. We brought fresh strawberries and blueberries to the table. It was really tasty and a lot of fun. Thanks for dinner, Linnea & Jay!
Before dinner I did my "Dr. Chris" schtick for Lena. She loves that schtuff. Man, Linnea is gonna pop out that kid any day now.
Seeing as how we had walked to their house, we didn't have a car to drive home. So we stole Jay's truck! Just kidding: he let us borrow it so we could drive over to landlady Carol's house (which is seriously only one block south of Chris & Cat's house) to pick up a BRAND NEW DISHWASHER! Well, brand new to us; she had it for a couple of years before she moved into this new house that came with a dishwasher.
While we were at her house, though, I drooled a little bit over the art on the walls. Her husband, Greg, is very artistic. I especially liked the framed painting of three skulls with cartoon hearts in between them.
Thanks for the dishwasher, Carol!
We haven't tried it out yet, but hopefully it'll last longer than our last one did. And hopefully this means we won't have so many piles of dishes stacked on the kitchen counter so often! I'll try to incorporate running the dishwasher into my morning routine... assuming that I have a
In the afternoon I talked with Brandy for quite a while over the phone. She had a really fun weekend with Devon, Mitsumi (who ate her first-ever s'more at our house on the 4th of July 2004), and Erin Miner. Jealous! It's always nice to talk to Brandy. Thanks for talking on the phone with me, Brandy!
After work we went over to the Tarbets' for dinner. They barbequed salmon. It was our first barbeque of the season! And it was really frikkin' good. They put lemon and onion slices on it and then slathered it in garlic butter before wrapping it in tinfoil and putting it on the grill. They also made asparagus and seasoned potatoes. We brought fresh strawberries and blueberries to the table. It was really tasty and a lot of fun. Thanks for dinner, Linnea & Jay!
Before dinner I did my "Dr. Chris" schtick for Lena. She loves that schtuff. Man, Linnea is gonna pop out that kid any day now.
Seeing as how we had walked to their house, we didn't have a car to drive home. So we stole Jay's truck! Just kidding: he let us borrow it so we could drive over to landlady Carol's house (which is seriously only one block south of Chris & Cat's house) to pick up a BRAND NEW DISHWASHER! Well, brand new to us; she had it for a couple of years before she moved into this new house that came with a dishwasher.
While we were at her house, though, I drooled a little bit over the art on the walls. Her husband, Greg, is very artistic. I especially liked the framed painting of three skulls with cartoon hearts in between them.
Thanks for the dishwasher, Carol!
We haven't tried it out yet, but hopefully it'll last longer than our last one did. And hopefully this means we won't have so many piles of dishes stacked on the kitchen counter so often! I'll try to incorporate running the dishwasher into my morning routine... assuming that I have a