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.

Damn you, Alberta!

Went to Canada to John's cottage last weekend.

Dan, Jessica and I headed up on Thursday. We stopped at the Duty-Free and I got some beer, Jessica got wine and we declined exchanging any money there, because, as the US dollar sucks right now, the exchange rate they were giving was $1 US = $1 Canadian. Ridiculous. It was later that John told us that apparently more oil had been found in Alberta and that was boosting the Canadian dollar.

We got to the cottage kind of late and in the middle of a pretty good rain storm. Jessica had driven and the rain and fog did little to help her poor night vision. The weather for the rest of the weekend was very nice though. We sat around and drank and had campfires, kayaked out to the beaver dam, went to town, slept, ate, drank some more, ate, read, did crosswords and word searches, and even found the Walmart in Owen Sound. We went to Walmart to get the Canadian version of Harry Potter for John's brother, and also to replace the shampoo that lives at the cottage, which had long passed its expiration date. We unfortunately did not go to The Mall.


As all things must end, we came back on Monday and I picked up Skippy at my parent's although I did make a Sam's Club run to get groceries and Harry Potter while I was on that side of town.

I started reading Harry Potter on Monday night and got through about 280 pages, and then finished it on Tuesday night at about 3:30 in the morning. I am still tired. I really liked it, even for as dark and bloody as it got, it was still kind of uplifting in the end.

Had my WW weigh-in yesterday. I was up almost 2 pounds from the previous week, which I can mostly attribute to the Cottage. I had met my goal the previous week, but slipped back up on the wrong side of it with this last weekend of drinking and snacks. I have to try to be really good this next week so I can make my goal again. I know it's doable, even with Anna's party on Saturday.

So sleepy.

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.

It should arrive in time for my birthday.

If you were sitting at you computer wondering what you could possibly get me for my birthday this year, look no further.

Ultimate Collector's Millennium Falcon™
Item #: 10179
Ages: 16+
Pieces: 5195
Price
USD 499.99
Preorder this item today, will ship by 1 Oct 2007
Limit 5 per customer

Build the ultimate Millennium Falcon™!

This is it - the biggest, most spectacular LEGO® Star Wars model ever! Straight out of the classic Star Wars movies comes the Ultimate Collector's Millennium Falcon, Han Solo's famous smuggling starship. Every detail of the modified Corellian Engineering Corporation YT-1300 freighter is here, all constructed to scale with LEGO minifigures. At almost 3 feet (90cm) long, it's the ultimate centerpiece to any Star Wars collection!

This Exclusive First Edition set includes an individually numbered Certificate of Authenticity, sealed within the product box, available only until the first production quantity is gone! Don't miss out, pre-order yours today!*

• With over 5,000 pieces, this is the biggest LEGO set ever made!
  
• Model is built completely to minifigure scale - minifigures can sit inside and man the controls!
  
• Landing gear provides a stable base for model to stand on!
  
• Ship is over 33" long, 22" wide and 8" tall! (84cm long x 56cm wide x 21cm tall)
  
• Radar dish rotates and elevates and boarding ramp extends!
  
• Top and bottom quad-laser turrets rotate for realistic play!
  
• Cockpit top can be removed to access minifigures!
  
• Includes 5 minifigures: Han Solo, Chewbacca, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia Organa!
  
• This special set also includes a display card with detailed ship specifications!
  

*Please note: In the interest of fairness to all customers, the certificate number that you receive will be randomly chosen.

And it will even ship in time for my birthday. Start saving those pennies now.

New toys!

I got my new computer speakers delivered yesterday. They are pretty cool.

You can't really tell the scale from the picture, but they are pretty big. The "satellite" speakers are about a foot tall, if that helps your mental picture.

The sound is so much better than my previous free crappy speakers. Woo.

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.