Happy (slightly early) Thanksgiving to all of my readers! I uploaded a few new pictures of Piper onto roberts.overt.org (of her time while we were in California) and was then compelled to post an update.
My birthday week passed relatively without event. On Friday, Matt skipped out on work early to take me to see Harry Potter. I thought it was very true to the books and enjoyed it, although my lack of any other comments makes me think something magical was missing. I just haven't figured out what yet. But anyway, I thought it was good and was thrilled that Matt surprised me with the tickets to see it on its opening day. I had to work on Saturday, but then we had a relaxing night involving Chinese food and a new RPG (for me) - Tales of Symphonia. I enjoyed my two wonderful days off in a row (Sunday and Monday) by playing some WoW (Nyda's 56 now but leveling is getting slower and harder) and ToS. Yesterday was a crazy day at Cisco, starting with a leaky pipe that Mike Shannon could luckily fix, followed by a late waiter, and then the busiest lunch I've ever overseen. It made for a exciting day, though! And then Dad came and ate lunch with me and Tom after the craziness had subsided, which was a fun treat.
Leslie and Bryan get into Dallas sometime tonight, and then we will have a traditional Hall Thanksgiving tomorrow. That means Carolyn comes over early and we eat turkey around 1:00. Untraditional elements: Uncle Mike and Cousin Michael are joining us, as well as Bryan (heck, Leslie hasn't been home for the last two!), and Matt isn't just coming over before his family's dinner. Also new - we're heading to the mini-ranch to spend the night as soon as the last plate is washed and put away. Matt and I are scooting out on Friday in the morning to head to Texas Stadium to watch HP beat the hell outta Ennis (in what should be a much closer game than another football game taking place on Friday). Graham is joining us, which is very cool. So...yeah, that's all I have to report!
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Flying Spaghetti Monster!
Matt just remembered tonight that he had a birthday present from Leslie for me in his possession. And it was AWESOME! A shirt, with this graphic on the front:
and "First United Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster" on the back.
Hehe.
and "First United Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster" on the back.Hehe.
Monday, November 14, 2005
Recent Adventures and a note about comments
I've had a busy life since my last update. First off was our trip to California to visit Leslie, Bryan, UC Davis' vet school, and of course, the Jelly Belly Factory. I'll give a run-down of that trip in a minute. Then after a brief day of rest at the apartment, Matt and I went to the mini-ranch for the Harvest Ball, a celebration of Mom and Dad's 35th wedding anniversary. And, well, of course today is my birthday so I'm living it up with a day of WoW.
Here's my note about comments - I've been experiencing all sorts of comment spam and it's getting old. I changed my settings a while back so I'd see when new comments were posted so I could delete the spam ones, but it's getting tiring. So now there is word verification before you post a comment. Please continue to comment - I love hearing from people - it'll just take a tiny bit more effort on your part. Thanks!
Now the California awesomeness [pictures here]. Matt and I left for the airport at 5am on Saturday, November 5 to catch our flight with Frontier Airlines. We were a bit worried flying them (what do you expect when their fares are hundreds of dollars cheaper than everyone else's?) but the whole experience, including our changing of planes in Denver, went very smoothly. Leslie and Bryan picked us up in San Jose and we paid a visit to the tasty In-n-Out Burger. We picked up Bryan's friend Doug and spent the afternoon in San Francisco at the Exploratorium. Afterwards we headed to Berkeley to get checked into our place and get settled. Matt and I stayed in a place Mom had found - it was an apartment setup in the back of a house in Berkeley. It was very nice and had a full kitchen and a living area. That night we had South American food in Berkeley. On Sunday, Bryan tried to get schoolwork done while Matt, Leslie, and I hiked around a regional park in Berkeley. We followed that up with a walk around campus and downtown Berkeley and beers at a place Leslie and Bryan like. That night we cooked a yummy meal of beef stroganoff and watched Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. On Monday the four of us piled into the car for our trip to UC Davis/Sacramento.
UC Davis is to A&M what Cal is to UT. I felt much more comfortable on Davis' spread-out campus and in their laid-back college town than I did in Berkeley (not that Cal's campus isn't great, but so is UT's). My tour there was not with a vet or professor as I had hoped, but rather with a proud father of a vet. So I didn't get a tour geared with a prospective vet student in mind, but it was still very neat to see all of the buildings and hear about the school. They are in the process of building four new buildings for the vet school, which was very impressive. Overall, I wasn't blown away, but I liked the school and Davis about as much as I thought I would.
After a lunch in Davis, we drove through Sacramento to check it out. Then we hit up the Jelly Belly factory for its free tour. The tour itself was neat, seeing the week or more that it takes to make a jelly bean, and we all enjoyed the sample bar where we could taste every flavor of Jelly Belly, including Bernie Botts and their new chocolate jelly bellies. That night we went to Triple Rock, Leslie and Bryan's favorite local brewery, where I had the most amazing pomegranate cider and we all dined on fun and yummy food (my hot dog was excellent!).
On Tuesday Leslie and Bryan had to get back to their school business, so Matt and I ventured to San Francisco on our own via public transportation. We checked out the Metreon, a building full of Sony stuff, including a Playstation store, arcade with very spiffy games, and a movie theatre. We walked over to Chinatown for lunch and for the experience (this was my third time out of three trips to go there in recent years but since Matt had never been to California it was a must). Then we headed back to the Metreon to see Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. And then we headed back to Berkeley to relax before our amazing dinner compliments of the parents at the cafe of Chez Panisse. It was wonderful...We started with fizzy drinks and goat cheese and sardines on crackers. Then the entrees: Leslie had salmon, Bryan chicken, Matt ricotta pasta, and me pork leg and sausage; with wine, a nice bottle of pinot noir. For dessert, Bryan had a cranberry and apple tart, Leslie cinnamon ice cream with bittersweet chocolate sauce, Matt a dish of pear, dates, and almonds, and me ginger and caramel custard. We all ate off each others' plates and enjoyed almost everything (my dessert was too gingery). We made sure to toast Mom and Dad several times during the meal, because it was excellent.
On Wednesday Matt and I wandered around Berkeley and had brunch, and then Bryan took us to San Jose so we could catch our plane. It was an awesome trip and Leslie and Bryan went way out of their way to be hospitable and show us a good time. We had a blast.
We had a brief time to rest up from California before heading to the mini-ranch on Friday to the Harvest Ball. Basically, Mom and Dad threw themselves a big party to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary. On Friday and Saturday morning a group of us worked on getting the ranch ready for all our guests. The ranch was decorated wonderfully with definite Western and autumn themes. A ton of their friends and family came, and Matt and I had a really good time. There was a poker tournament (my cousin Taylor tied for first place!), great food from the restaurants, and Mom's brother Stan provided entertainment with his band "Straddlegrass." I also got to spend some time with Emily, as she was in Dallas for the weekend and came to the party with her parents (yay!). Some people even spent the night camped out in tents. On Sunday we were all a little slow, but we had a great breakfast with all the remaining guests and then tried to put the ranch all in order. It was awesome celebrating Mom and Dad's marriage and seeing the ranch so lovely and full of people and merrymaking!
Matt and I came back to Dallas midday and totally crashed, good for nothing but sitting on the couch and watching our TiVo-ed shows. Then today I celebrated my 23rd birthday by playing Warcraft and getting Nyda the paladin to level 53. Go me! I think Matt and I may do something a bit more involved this coming weekend to really celebrate. He did cook me a lovely pasta dinner tonight though...which I ate while running Nyda through the Sunken Temple and getting her a new shield.
Here's my note about comments - I've been experiencing all sorts of comment spam and it's getting old. I changed my settings a while back so I'd see when new comments were posted so I could delete the spam ones, but it's getting tiring. So now there is word verification before you post a comment. Please continue to comment - I love hearing from people - it'll just take a tiny bit more effort on your part. Thanks!
Now the California awesomeness [pictures here]. Matt and I left for the airport at 5am on Saturday, November 5 to catch our flight with Frontier Airlines. We were a bit worried flying them (what do you expect when their fares are hundreds of dollars cheaper than everyone else's?) but the whole experience, including our changing of planes in Denver, went very smoothly. Leslie and Bryan picked us up in San Jose and we paid a visit to the tasty In-n-Out Burger. We picked up Bryan's friend Doug and spent the afternoon in San Francisco at the Exploratorium. Afterwards we headed to Berkeley to get checked into our place and get settled. Matt and I stayed in a place Mom had found - it was an apartment setup in the back of a house in Berkeley. It was very nice and had a full kitchen and a living area. That night we had South American food in Berkeley. On Sunday, Bryan tried to get schoolwork done while Matt, Leslie, and I hiked around a regional park in Berkeley. We followed that up with a walk around campus and downtown Berkeley and beers at a place Leslie and Bryan like. That night we cooked a yummy meal of beef stroganoff and watched Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. On Monday the four of us piled into the car for our trip to UC Davis/Sacramento.
UC Davis is to A&M what Cal is to UT. I felt much more comfortable on Davis' spread-out campus and in their laid-back college town than I did in Berkeley (not that Cal's campus isn't great, but so is UT's). My tour there was not with a vet or professor as I had hoped, but rather with a proud father of a vet. So I didn't get a tour geared with a prospective vet student in mind, but it was still very neat to see all of the buildings and hear about the school. They are in the process of building four new buildings for the vet school, which was very impressive. Overall, I wasn't blown away, but I liked the school and Davis about as much as I thought I would.
After a lunch in Davis, we drove through Sacramento to check it out. Then we hit up the Jelly Belly factory for its free tour. The tour itself was neat, seeing the week or more that it takes to make a jelly bean, and we all enjoyed the sample bar where we could taste every flavor of Jelly Belly, including Bernie Botts and their new chocolate jelly bellies. That night we went to Triple Rock, Leslie and Bryan's favorite local brewery, where I had the most amazing pomegranate cider and we all dined on fun and yummy food (my hot dog was excellent!).
On Tuesday Leslie and Bryan had to get back to their school business, so Matt and I ventured to San Francisco on our own via public transportation. We checked out the Metreon, a building full of Sony stuff, including a Playstation store, arcade with very spiffy games, and a movie theatre. We walked over to Chinatown for lunch and for the experience (this was my third time out of three trips to go there in recent years but since Matt had never been to California it was a must). Then we headed back to the Metreon to see Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. And then we headed back to Berkeley to relax before our amazing dinner compliments of the parents at the cafe of Chez Panisse. It was wonderful...We started with fizzy drinks and goat cheese and sardines on crackers. Then the entrees: Leslie had salmon, Bryan chicken, Matt ricotta pasta, and me pork leg and sausage; with wine, a nice bottle of pinot noir. For dessert, Bryan had a cranberry and apple tart, Leslie cinnamon ice cream with bittersweet chocolate sauce, Matt a dish of pear, dates, and almonds, and me ginger and caramel custard. We all ate off each others' plates and enjoyed almost everything (my dessert was too gingery). We made sure to toast Mom and Dad several times during the meal, because it was excellent.
On Wednesday Matt and I wandered around Berkeley and had brunch, and then Bryan took us to San Jose so we could catch our plane. It was an awesome trip and Leslie and Bryan went way out of their way to be hospitable and show us a good time. We had a blast.
We had a brief time to rest up from California before heading to the mini-ranch on Friday to the Harvest Ball. Basically, Mom and Dad threw themselves a big party to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary. On Friday and Saturday morning a group of us worked on getting the ranch ready for all our guests. The ranch was decorated wonderfully with definite Western and autumn themes. A ton of their friends and family came, and Matt and I had a really good time. There was a poker tournament (my cousin Taylor tied for first place!), great food from the restaurants, and Mom's brother Stan provided entertainment with his band "Straddlegrass." I also got to spend some time with Emily, as she was in Dallas for the weekend and came to the party with her parents (yay!). Some people even spent the night camped out in tents. On Sunday we were all a little slow, but we had a great breakfast with all the remaining guests and then tried to put the ranch all in order. It was awesome celebrating Mom and Dad's marriage and seeing the ranch so lovely and full of people and merrymaking!
Matt and I came back to Dallas midday and totally crashed, good for nothing but sitting on the couch and watching our TiVo-ed shows. Then today I celebrated my 23rd birthday by playing Warcraft and getting Nyda the paladin to level 53. Go me! I think Matt and I may do something a bit more involved this coming weekend to really celebrate. He did cook me a lovely pasta dinner tonight though...which I ate while running Nyda through the Sunken Temple and getting her a new shield.
Friday, November 04, 2005
California is *mumble mumble mumble mumble*
So I'm lazy and haven't updated my blog recently, but lots has happened! Most immediate is the fact that Matt and I are going to California to visit Leslie and Bryan and UC Davis vet school tomorrow (to Wednesday). I'm *very* excited.
Runners up: I quit my job at the EAC so I can go work part-time at the Highland Park Animal Clinic (a day practice - yay!). I start on November 28.
And news honorable mention: the kitten has a new home with a lovely woman named Jennifer who is a regular customer at Cisco and friend of Debbie's (the Cisco waitress). Check out happy pictures at roberts.overt.org/Foster.
I have to pack still, but if I have time tonight I'll post more. If not, there's a potential for an update from Berkeley or definitely when I get back.
Runners up: I quit my job at the EAC so I can go work part-time at the Highland Park Animal Clinic (a day practice - yay!). I start on November 28.
And news honorable mention: the kitten has a new home with a lovely woman named Jennifer who is a regular customer at Cisco and friend of Debbie's (the Cisco waitress). Check out happy pictures at roberts.overt.org/Foster.
I have to pack still, but if I have time tonight I'll post more. If not, there's a potential for an update from Berkeley or definitely when I get back.
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