Riding the cougar!

Well, sorry I haven't posted in a while. There have been interesting things going on, but mostly I've kind of forget to blog about them.

This weekend, Austin and I went to Napa Valley for the wedding of one of my fraternity brothers, Dan Fanton, or as he is also known, Don Santon.

Austin and I's flight left at 7:20am on Friday, necessitating a drive to his parent's house at 5:00am. I went to bed Thursday night, Austin decided to just stay up and sleep on the plane. We flew Frontier, which I hadn't flown before. Our flight had a layover in Denver, and the first leg was fine, I slept a little, and also watched a couple of episodes of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" on my iPod which I had ripped from the DVDs I borrowed from Austin.

Once we got to Denver, things went a bit awry. Our departure gate was changed, plus we had to truck down most of the concourse to get there in time. Then the seat assignments were all screwy. Thankfully they decided for the hassle they were going to give us free TV. I should also mention that all of Frontier's planes have a picture of an animal on the tail and the that these animals have names. I think we were on Spike the Porcupine for that particular leg. The rest of the flight proved fine, though as is usually the case these days, there wasn't a meal, just a snack (a granola bar).

We arrived in Sacramento about 11:00am, where coincidentally one of the other fraternity brothers, Drew and his fiancee, had just arrived on a different flight. We bussed over to the rental car terminal and headed out towards Napa. We had decided we would look for somewhere for lunch on the way. Little did we realize that there is very little between Sacramento and Napa. Drew led the way and twice we had to turn around while off the freeway because we couldn't find a place to eat. We finally found an Applebee's in Davis (home of UC Davis) and stopped there. After lunch we headed off towards our respective hotels. I managed to get off on the wrong exit, but we turned back around and made it eventually to our hotel.

That evening (this being Friday still) we went to the rehearsal dinner. The food was very good, I had the rainbow trout. After the dinner we went to the sportsbar in the hotel and had some drinks before retiring for the night.

Saturday, Austin and I met up with Drew and Erin, and also Adam (another fraternity brothere) and Andi and we headed down to Fairfield (town of my birth) to tour the Anheuser-Busch brewery and the Jelly Belly factory. Both tours we showed up just in time to join the next group. At the brewery they gave us some samples and as none of us had had lunch yet, we got a bit tipsy. After that we went down the block (literally) to the Jelly Belly factory. At the factory store I bought several bags of the "Belly Flops" which are jelly beans that fail the strict quality standards of factory.

After the tours we headed back and looked for a spot for lunch. Once again we were following Drew and he got us all turned around, but eventually we ended up at a Baker's Square, where there were some interesting people. There was a Cajun festival in town, so the couple seated at the table near us were regaled in bib overalls and straw hats.

The wedding was at 6, so Austin and I headed over a bit early to the winery's store to pick up a few things. Oh yeah, the wedding was at the Domaine Chandon winery. The ceremony was out on the lawn and then we went up to the patio for champagne (or rather sparking wine) and appetizers. After that was dinner. There were neverending rolls, where as soon as you ate your roll (or even most of it) they appeared with basket to give you another. There was a salad course, soup course and then the entree. I had the beef tenderloin with carmelized shallot sauce, creamed potatoes, and market vegetables. That was seriously the best beef I have ever had. We also had wine with dinner, red, white or both. Both were very good, though I'm no wine connoisseur. Then there was cake, and dancing and candy and coffee. I was so stuffed from dinner I couldn't have any cake.

When Austin and I got back from the reception, we turned on the TV and "Harold and Kumar" was on, near the end, where they were riding the cheetah. I fell asleep very soon after that.

The next morning there was a good-bye brunch hosted by the maternal grandparents. We packed away the food as we knew there would be nothing on the plane. We managed to make it back to Sacramento in pretty decent time, and I was only one hour over 2 days on the rental car, so it ended up being pretty cheap. I mentioned before that all of Frontiers planes are animal named, and our plane for the trip back to Detroit was Charlie the Cougar. We were Riding the Cougar all the way back to Detroit! What was also funny was our pilot on the second leg was Tom Cruise (or maybe Cruz) but I was tempted to ask the flight attendant if the co-pilot was Anthony Edwards. We got back to Detroit a bit after midnight. Austin's dad picked us up and then we headed home.

I should have some pictures to put up along with the post soonish, but they aren't here with me. All in all, an awesome weekend, it was a lot of fun to catch up with my fraternity brothers. Drew is getting married the weekend of Thanksgiving, so we should all be together then also.

Toast, getting toasty, Chef-ing

Had some lovely turkey BLTs on toast for dinner tonight. I'm also finishing off the last of the "Labor Punch" from the Labor Day/ Jessica's Bon Voyage party. So, that's nice and alco-tastic. I"m also watching Top Chef right now. The tension you could cut with a knife. Haahaa! Also, they keep having these commercials for Bombay Saphire during Top Chef, so I think I'll have a gin and tonic also.

I guess I'll talk a bit about Labor Day Weekend. Friday was drinking at The Berkley Front. Saturday there was Dim Sum and The Bosco. Sunday was the BBQ. The pulled pork turned out really well. The "Labor Punch" also worked surprisingly well. I shredded the second piece of pork and froze most of it. I finished off the remainder of the pork the other day.

Drinking. Yay.

Shut up, Dawn!

Weekend was movie-tastic.

Backing up to Thursday, when I got home, I ended up actually going down to Cityfest to see Weird Al. He put on a pretty good show, much longer than I expected.

Friday, Dan and I went out to Novi to have dinner at Happy Sushi with Jenn and Jenn's friend (Work)Andy. After dinner, Dan and I went to Royal Oak to catch the midnight showing of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once More With Feeling (The Sing-a-long). We got there probably more than an hour early, but the show was nearly sold out, so it was probably better that we had. The show was a lot of fun, there were props, and karaoke lyrics for the songs, and lots of yelling "Shut up, Dawn!" whenever she said, well, pretty much anything.

Saturday, I went to Noble Fish for some shopping of Japanese food items. Yummm... delicious udon. Austin came over later for dinner, where I grilled up some hamburgers left over from camping. Austin left to see Buffy with Jordan, and I ended up staying home and watching TV.

Sunday, I mowed the lawn and then went to join my parents at IKEA. I bought some big soup bowls and another bin for returnables. It was a while later at home that I realized that my A/C had quit working. It started to get really warm in my house. Eventually I joined Dan in air-conditioned comfort at the movie theater where we watched Transformers. It was, um, very Michael Bay-y. It was kind of a mess, though the effects were pretty cool.

I've got a call into the HVAC company, hopefully they'll be out today to fix my A/C. In the meantime, I'll just be sweating.

Lawn, lawn time ago

Well, I missed the Comic-Con this last weekend. I could have gone, but my dad came over on Saturday and we tilled and raked and graded and moved dirt and put down grass seed and fertilizer behind my garage and under my tree in front, so that hopefully I can have grass instead of dirt.

OMG, The Office last Thursday was hilarious. That was one of things we discussed while at the Necto on Friday night for Beckie's birthday. I drank quite a bit and went way off the diet at Denny's later. I also forgot to communicate to Beckie that Jessica might need a ride. Originally I was going to ride with Beckie and Austin, and Jim and Jennifer were also going to come, filling the car, but they were delayed and ended up driving separately. The Necto was quite fun though.

Saturday there was the aforementioned yard work and then later, I went to Westland to a party for Matt's sister Sarah (who are people that know Jordan and co.)and that was amusing. There were a lot of Jesus Christ songs, but not in the way you'd normally think.

My dad brought me a magnetic dart board. I have to try it out sometime soon.

Sunday I went to Meijer and bought a weed trimmer. It cost them $4.89, because I had a variety of gift cards and bottle deposit slips. Then I had to stop by Julon's to let out Max for Jessica and then went to Sam's Club. I was driving the Saturn most of the weekend to save gas. My parents picked me and the dog up to visit my sister, 'cause she's moving and needed boxes and moving help.

This post is really all over the place, but it doesn't really matter much. It's been a scattered day.

Dropping like flies

Well, diet, week 4 has come. I didn't weigh in last week because of my sickness, but this week I weighed in and had lost 8.2 pounds for the last 2 weeks. That's a total of 13.8lbs. I'm in the 250s. Crazy. I weigh less than 2 Austins. It really hasn't been that hard, aside from forgoing a lot of my favorite things, at least sushi is pretty good, relatively.

I'm mostly recovered from my illness. I'm still coughing a bit, but my throat is ok.

Thursday I had to rearrange my garage so I could get the trailer out so my sister could borrow it, then my Dad borrowed my Saturn and Lani's car stayed at my house the weekend so she could use my Dad's truck to tow the trailer. There was also some minor drama with trying to get the lights on the trailer to work.

Dan came home for the weekend. Nice.

Weekend was low-key for the most part. Friday I stayed home and watched TV so I could rest, Saturday, Jessica, Dan, Austin and I went to see Spiderman 3. It was decent but sort of a mess plotwise. Sunday I went with my parents to visit my Grandma for Mother's Day. Lani also came by to drop off the trailer and get her car.

Monday, Dan and I met up with Austin and Beckie at Augie's for dinner and drinks. Augie's also had Guitar Hero set up. We of course played a bit.
Tuesday a big group met up at Xochimilco's for dinner. I had some delicious chicken fajitas. Dan and I split a liter of Margarita. There was a pretty good storm going on all night, and when I got back home, Dan had come along also, we went to watch Veronica Mars, which I had recorded, but about 10 minutes in, the signal cut out, and recovered only in the last 5 minutes. My cable was intermitently out for a couple hours so, internet and TV were all screwy. I ended having to download a torrent of Veronica Mars.

I sent in a hard drive for warranty a couple weeks ago, and I got it back yesterday. I had sent in a 160GB drive and awesomely they sent me back a 250GB drive. I think I'll replace the 120GB drive that's currently in my computer. It's getting pretty full.

In The Great T-Shirt Adventure Quest 2007 news, I loaded in my latest batch of photos, bring the total to 92. I think there are maybe 8 shirts still left in my drawer, so I just might break 100. That would be awesome. I expect to make the animation sometime soon.

The resemblance is uncanny...

How is it that I meet people who look so much like me?

Exhibit A

This is from the LAN party Austin and I went to on Saturday. That is Taiki. He's 3/4 Japanese. We played Wolfenstein ET and Unreal Tournament. I also played a bit of Guitar Hero as seen here.

Friday night I went to see 300 with Austin, Beckie, Jim and Jennifer. I was called last minute. We were going to see the an 8:15, but it was sold out so we went to The Shamrock for a beer or two until it was time for the show. The movie was decent. A lot of waxed up dudes in thongs. But it was just like a comic book. Visually awesome.

Thursday night I had dinner with John and then went to see Steve's band play at the Berkley Front.

I just finished watching a new show on F/X called The Riches, which stars Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver. It was pretty good though a lot darker than I expected.

You are the one that is the buster

Ugh. My back is still kind of sore. And I'm kind of tired.

For what had promised to be a nerdy weekend, it didn't end up being that too much. Austin and I were supposed to play cards on Friday, but one of the other players canceled, so we canceled the game and will probably reschedule sometime later. Austin and I still ended up going out for Middle-Eastern food and watching anime.

Saturday, I got up unnaturally early (at least for a weekend) and headed to Austin's where we carpooled to Beckie's parent's house to load the truck for her move. It took a surprisingly short amount of time to load the truck. We then headed to The Apartment (Mark Deux) to unload. We had to wait a bit for Beckie to get her keys and the rental agreement signed and whatnot, but then got her stuff unloaded fairly quickly and with few problems.

Austin and I took off after Beckie and her dad went grocery shopping, and I went home to walk the Skip, while Austin had to stop by his work to sort out some robot issues. After attending to these errands, Austin picked me up from my house and we went to the LAN party at Gerry's.

There was much bustin' of caps at the LAN party. I clumsily attempted to ensnare Gerry's friend Meaghan in my nefarious plan to see silly romantic-comedies.

Sunday I went to IKEA to meet my parents and sister for lunch and shopping. We tend to meet somewhere on the west side of town so as to be somewhat half-way between my parents and Ann Arbor. I bought a small rug for my side door and a recycling bin so Skippy will stop rooting around in the bag I had been using for collecting the recyclables. Later I met up with Austin and Beckie for Thai food.

Watched BSG last night. Awesome. Also watch The Dresden Files. That was pretty decent, kind of a magical version of Monk.