Just got back from a fun and relaxing vacation to Arizona for Thanksgiving. Here's a quick recap of events.
Erlynne, Chris, Ethan, Tristan and I all drove in Chris' mother's van, taking the drive easy - in installments - staying over night in Midland TX on the way out. When we got there on Saturday evening, Lana, Erlynne and I all went directly out to see "Twilight." It was pretty good. Entertaining enough for someone who hadn't read the books [me] - and from what I gathered - enthralling for those who HAD read the books.
I can't currently think of all the details of all the things I did the rest of the week, except for rappelling. That was certainly a highlight. Chris and I went with his nephew Jared to a park where there was a huge rock formation pretty perfect for rappelling. It was my first time and I was really nervous at first, but I was already feeling like a pro by my 2nd and 3rd trips down the rope. A couple showed up to set up for their family reunion and I went down at the same time as the girl to reassure her that it wasn't that scary. I forgot to bring my camera that day, so I don't have any pictures, but Chris did get some, and some video, so we'll see if I can get some of those and post them.
Thanksgiving day itself was lots of fun. Lana and her kids and I all got up early and went to see Porter, Eric, and Dixie compete in a triathlon. I DID bring my camera with me that day - so you can see my pictures on Facebook where I uploaded the best of them. When I heard what the triathlon entailed I thought 'I could do that, easy' so... next year I will. Lana said Staci had also said she wanted to do it next year... so next Thanksgiving I challenge all my siblings and in-laws to "bring it" because I'm totally there! The rest of the day was fun, too - Thanksgiving dinner at the Shumway's was plentiful and varied, and after eating Dana played the piano and the singers took turns performing. I even dusted off my old, unused, vocal chords and mumbled through a song.
Overall a very fun and relaxing trip for me. I got to take a nap most of the days, so hopefully that will catch me up on my rest. Now it's off to bed so I can get up early for work again tomorrow [frowny face.]
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
long time no post
I was recently chided for not posting any updates here in a long time. I knew it had been a while, but when I got on and looked - Holy Fudge! It's been almost 2 months. The reason for that as some may already know - is that I'm constantly busy. Ever since I discovered MeetUp.com there's almost never a reason to stay home just killing time. I can always be out and about - meeting and associating with people from different cultures, countries, and all kinds of different backgrounds. I have radically diversified my social circle faster than I ever imagined possible. A good thing, methinks.
So the most recent adventure: Last weekend I went with my Travel MeetUp to Hot Springs Arkansas. We went to experience the fall colors and see Hot Springs. Here are a few pictures I took:
...and here's a picture someone else took that has me in it [to prove I was actually there]
and here's a picture taken by someone who's a much better photographer than I
So the most recent adventure: Last weekend I went with my Travel MeetUp to Hot Springs Arkansas. We went to experience the fall colors and see Hot Springs. Here are a few pictures I took:
...and here's a picture someone else took that has me in it [to prove I was actually there]
and here's a picture taken by someone who's a much better photographer than I
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
add a couple of insults to injury
This past weekend I threw my lower back out while over-exerting myself a bit playing frisbee. Well, round about the same time my food poisoning decided to come back [the bacteria and/or virus wasn't really gone - even though I felt ok for a week.] So now not only am I back on a liquid diet with my stomach churning, but also most movements I make that involve my lower back [which is almost ALL movement] are excruciatingly painful. When I woke up this morning I felt so crappy I just wanted to call work and tell them I wasn't coming in. However, since I've already got all my time off planned for pretty much the rest of the year, I don't have much leeway there. So I went in to work. It wasn't long, however, before I realized that I really shouldn't be there. I figured that one out due to the fact that I was spending more time in the bathroom than I was at my desk working. And of course the one day I can't eat anything, and the one day this has ever happened since I've been working here - they were giving away free ice cream in the cafeteria!
So I came home at noon, made myself some chicken broth and am now going to sleep the rest of the day. Hopefully I'll be better tomorrow.
So I came home at noon, made myself some chicken broth and am now going to sleep the rest of the day. Hopefully I'll be better tomorrow.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
sick in Boston, but a cash haul is always nice...
going back a little bit...
On the Tuesday after Labory Day I flew out to Boston for a few days on the Cape [in Provincetown, MA] and then a few days with Clark and family in Framingham. Well, something I ate on Tuesday gave me some pretty hardcore food poisoning, so a disproportionate amount of my trip was spent lying in bed/sleeping during the day/subsisting on a liquid-only diet/and generally feeling like puréed tarnation...
On my first day of seeing Clark and Benjamin I did manage to get my camera out and take some pictures... here's a few of them
I did manage to get out and swim in Walden Pond, as well as go to the site of "the shot heard round the world" [the beginning of the American Revolution.] And the important part was getting to see Clark, Guinevere, and Benjamin and hang out with them, so mission accomplished. Oh yea, the last evening I was there [on Clark's birthday] Guinevere made a SUPERB clam chowder, and since I was luckily weaning slowly back on to solids by that time I got to eat as much as I wanted. :) They also gave me a really funny birthday card and my favorite present - COLD, HARD CASH! Which was just the start of the cashflow... :)
When I got back to Dallas I got another birthday card from Lady and Schteve, with MORE CASH! So, SCORE! Then at work they were going to have cake for my birthday, but the lady who was going to get it had a flat tire, so they just gave me the money they would have spent - so, SCORE! Then our sister department happened to also be having "birthday celebration" that day and had enough cake and ice cream to go around, so we ended up being able to have some after all - AND I kept my cash! SCORE! :)
Then today I went to the Fort Worth Bird Mart and sold off a few birds, and most of the excess cages that I needed to get rid of, so I came home with a wad of CASH, so again, SCORE!
On the Tuesday after Labory Day I flew out to Boston for a few days on the Cape [in Provincetown, MA] and then a few days with Clark and family in Framingham. Well, something I ate on Tuesday gave me some pretty hardcore food poisoning, so a disproportionate amount of my trip was spent lying in bed/sleeping during the day/subsisting on a liquid-only diet/and generally feeling like puréed tarnation...
On my first day of seeing Clark and Benjamin I did manage to get my camera out and take some pictures... here's a few of them
I did manage to get out and swim in Walden Pond, as well as go to the site of "the shot heard round the world" [the beginning of the American Revolution.] And the important part was getting to see Clark, Guinevere, and Benjamin and hang out with them, so mission accomplished. Oh yea, the last evening I was there [on Clark's birthday] Guinevere made a SUPERB clam chowder, and since I was luckily weaning slowly back on to solids by that time I got to eat as much as I wanted. :) They also gave me a really funny birthday card and my favorite present - COLD, HARD CASH! Which was just the start of the cashflow... :)
When I got back to Dallas I got another birthday card from Lady and Schteve, with MORE CASH! So, SCORE! Then at work they were going to have cake for my birthday, but the lady who was going to get it had a flat tire, so they just gave me the money they would have spent - so, SCORE! Then our sister department happened to also be having "birthday celebration" that day and had enough cake and ice cream to go around, so we ended up being able to have some after all - AND I kept my cash! SCORE! :)
Then today I went to the Fort Worth Bird Mart and sold off a few birds, and most of the excess cages that I needed to get rid of, so I came home with a wad of CASH, so again, SCORE!
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
the view from my balcony
ahhh, the joys of pollution :) Here are a few pictures I took from my balcony - a few days apart - when I was waking up really early for work [both were taken shortly before or after 6:30am on different days in the last week of July '08]
Thursday, August 7, 2008
busy busy busy
I've been so busy the past few weeks that I haven't even had the time to think about writing a blog chronicling the things that have been keeping me busy. But here I am... during a surprising [and very welcome] respite from the constant onslaught at work.
Last night I went to the Weird Al concert with Erlynne and Chris. It was great! During the costume changes they showed videos which were hilarious. :)
The last two concerts I went to before Weird Al were Ours, and Yaz. The 'Ours' show was amazing. Ours was great, but more surprisingly, BOTH of the opening bands were really good. I bought the CDs they had there at the show and fell in love with one of the bands. They're called God or Julie. I haven't gotten this hyped about a new band discovery since Mika. You can get God or Julie's album "This Road Before" on iTunes, and I highly recommend that you do!
The Yaz show was also great. They peformed pretty much their entire catalog. A few of the songs had been re-worked and hopefully they'll release some kind of live versions and/or DVD at some point.
Now the next concert I look forward to is Nine Inch Nails. First, my friend Tony and I will be taking a road trip down to Houston to see them on August 16th. Then my friend Brock will join Tony and I to see them again in Dallas on August 18th. I've been listening to the NIN cds again, getting stoked!
Some of the other things that have been keeping me busy lately are watching movies and going to plays. I finally saw Iron Man at the dollar theater the other day and really liked it. I'd be excited to see what a sequel will present. I also saw "Baby Mama" [with Tina Fey and Amy Pohler] at the dollar theater - if you haven't seen it yet I recommend it. I laughed a lot. A friend brought over some DVDs one night and I finally saw "Lars and the Real Girl." Another one I would highly recommend. It made me cry - like 2 or 3 times...
My friend Chris is currently in a theater class and had to see and review 3 different plays. Since he didn't want to go alone, and of his friends, I'm the only one up for such a thing, I went with him to all of them. We saw Footloose [the musical] a british play called "House" [we didn't see it's companion play "Garden" though] and "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." During both "Footloose" and "A Funny Thing..." I felt like I might have seen each of those plays at some time before in my life... but wasn't really sure, as my memory can best be described as "very spotty" now.
Footloose was put on by the Plano Repertory Theater. It was hard to sit through. The singing was sometimes ok - sometimes not. The acting was bad, the direction was bad. You definitely weren't missing anything if you didn't see this production.
In the next play - House - the acting/direction was all good, but the play itself was billed as a comedy and I think I only slightly chuckled at maybe two or three lines the whole time. It was just generally uninteresting and often boring. It had companion piece called Garden, being performed simultaneously by the same cast in the adjacent theater. Each piece was billed as standing on its own, but there were a bunch of things in the play we saw that made absolutely no sense without seeing the other one. Perhaps seeing the other one would have made it better, but I don't think I could have sat through another boring play just to get the other pieces to the bewildering puzzle.
"A funny thing happened..." was put on at the Watertower Theater in Addison. It was at least entertaining, and sometimes actually humourous. The actors certainly brought energy to the show. Overall good.
Last night I went to the Weird Al concert with Erlynne and Chris. It was great! During the costume changes they showed videos which were hilarious. :)
The last two concerts I went to before Weird Al were Ours, and Yaz. The 'Ours' show was amazing. Ours was great, but more surprisingly, BOTH of the opening bands were really good. I bought the CDs they had there at the show and fell in love with one of the bands. They're called God or Julie. I haven't gotten this hyped about a new band discovery since Mika. You can get God or Julie's album "This Road Before" on iTunes, and I highly recommend that you do!
The Yaz show was also great. They peformed pretty much their entire catalog. A few of the songs had been re-worked and hopefully they'll release some kind of live versions and/or DVD at some point.
Now the next concert I look forward to is Nine Inch Nails. First, my friend Tony and I will be taking a road trip down to Houston to see them on August 16th. Then my friend Brock will join Tony and I to see them again in Dallas on August 18th. I've been listening to the NIN cds again, getting stoked!
Some of the other things that have been keeping me busy lately are watching movies and going to plays. I finally saw Iron Man at the dollar theater the other day and really liked it. I'd be excited to see what a sequel will present. I also saw "Baby Mama" [with Tina Fey and Amy Pohler] at the dollar theater - if you haven't seen it yet I recommend it. I laughed a lot. A friend brought over some DVDs one night and I finally saw "Lars and the Real Girl." Another one I would highly recommend. It made me cry - like 2 or 3 times...
My friend Chris is currently in a theater class and had to see and review 3 different plays. Since he didn't want to go alone, and of his friends, I'm the only one up for such a thing, I went with him to all of them. We saw Footloose [the musical] a british play called "House" [we didn't see it's companion play "Garden" though] and "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." During both "Footloose" and "A Funny Thing..." I felt like I might have seen each of those plays at some time before in my life... but wasn't really sure, as my memory can best be described as "very spotty" now.
Footloose was put on by the Plano Repertory Theater. It was hard to sit through. The singing was sometimes ok - sometimes not. The acting was bad, the direction was bad. You definitely weren't missing anything if you didn't see this production.
In the next play - House - the acting/direction was all good, but the play itself was billed as a comedy and I think I only slightly chuckled at maybe two or three lines the whole time. It was just generally uninteresting and often boring. It had companion piece called Garden, being performed simultaneously by the same cast in the adjacent theater. Each piece was billed as standing on its own, but there were a bunch of things in the play we saw that made absolutely no sense without seeing the other one. Perhaps seeing the other one would have made it better, but I don't think I could have sat through another boring play just to get the other pieces to the bewildering puzzle.
"A funny thing happened..." was put on at the Watertower Theater in Addison. It was at least entertaining, and sometimes actually humourous. The actors certainly brought energy to the show. Overall good.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Should I BE this excited about an IRON?
I haven't been the owner of decent iron at any point in my life before and the latest hand-me-down I got from Lady was very problematic, basically making any clothes I tried to iron with it worse off than where they started. I've got all these shirts I never wear because I don't have an iron and even I wouldn't wear something THAT wrinkly.
So I decided it's time to buy an iron for myself. I have done this one time before - back when I was living in the townhouse in Allen. I didn't want to spend a lot of money and I basically got what I paid for. After about a year the heat setting knob broke and came off.
This time, I decided, is going to be different. I went online and did reasearch. I went to the Consumer Reports website and their "best buy pick" was a Black & Decker Digital Advantage D2030, which I searched for on a few shopping sites and realized that buy.com [where I have all my credit card points accumulating] had it for just over $50, and I had enough points that I cashed in and only paid out of pocket about $3.58. So I'm getting the sweetest iron out there, probably better than anyone else I know - and it cost me less than $4.00!!! And shipping was free! Unfortunately I can't get the instant satisfaction of having it right now... but nearly free is worth waiting for a few days of shipping.
I'm kind of surprised at how excited about this I am. I can't wait to let my new iron loose on all my jeans [the legs always get twisted around in the dryer] and I'll finally be able to wear all of my shirts without looking sloppy.
So I decided it's time to buy an iron for myself. I have done this one time before - back when I was living in the townhouse in Allen. I didn't want to spend a lot of money and I basically got what I paid for. After about a year the heat setting knob broke and came off.
This time, I decided, is going to be different. I went online and did reasearch. I went to the Consumer Reports website and their "best buy pick" was a Black & Decker Digital Advantage D2030, which I searched for on a few shopping sites and realized that buy.com [where I have all my credit card points accumulating] had it for just over $50, and I had enough points that I cashed in and only paid out of pocket about $3.58. So I'm getting the sweetest iron out there, probably better than anyone else I know - and it cost me less than $4.00!!! And shipping was free! Unfortunately I can't get the instant satisfaction of having it right now... but nearly free is worth waiting for a few days of shipping.
I'm kind of surprised at how excited about this I am. I can't wait to let my new iron loose on all my jeans [the legs always get twisted around in the dryer] and I'll finally be able to wear all of my shirts without looking sloppy.
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