Zachary

The band

The other band

Cooking stuff (temporarily inactive...)

 
Call it the year of the TV! J.T. and I made out pretty good with the TV this year. Actually, the TV is unchanged. But we now have a new DVD player, Direct TV (no more bunny ears!!!), a Nintendo GameCube so I could get the new Zelda game, Dance Dance Revolution for the PS2, another couple games, and tens of hours of movies, including the first season of Babylon 5 and a grocery store bag full of duplicate James Bond movies from Mom.

Whew!

All in all Christmas was nice. It was without my great aunt this year which was sad for all of us. She is dearly missed. Food was good as usual. Mom made out like a bandit - when the presents were all passed out, they were so piled up around here you almost couldn't see her! Then the classic pinochle. Boy did I get my bootie kicked...twice... :(
posted by hbt at 2:00 PM

 
Traditionally, this day has planned festivities, but this year, we're just hanging at home. We did something Sunday. We did something Monday. That should hold me through until Christmas (although I'm dying to see what's in my stocking!)

Up until 6 or 7 (or is it 8?) years ago, it was tradition for me and my parents to drive to my grandma and grandpa's little apartment for Christmas Eve. My aunt's family would come too and we'd open presents and eat lots of food, including the beloved crab dip, and grandma's special punch in that one punch bowl that only saw the light of day once a year. We had 2 tables - the "adult table" and the "kids table". Even as I got older, I still sat at the kids table, usually with my cousin and her grandpa, who was a big kid in disguise.

That cousin was close in age to me. We'd usually play in the back bedroom while the adults mingled and talked about things we didn't care about. I don't know how it started, but one year, we found some small, lunch sized paper bags and made puppets. It evolved into a puppet show. I have no idea if our little stories had plots. One year, her grandpa even made us a stand up "puppet stage" that we could hide behind. (What did we hide behind before that???) Hey! It was kind of like those silly Fandango ads!!
posted by hbt at 11:06 AM

 
I guess I need new New Year's resolutions to go along with my new blog title. Resolution number one is to figure out what I'm allergic to in my bedroom. I walk around the house just fine, then go to bed and get all sniffled up. I bought a book called "The Complete Allergy Book". Sounded definitive.

Today was our first day of opening Christmas presents. J.T.'s mom was nice enough to give a gift to our undeserving cats. A mechanical mouse that runs around in circles, says "nay nay nay nay nay", then plays dead waiting to be touched again before it starts its taunting routine all over again. Jo Jo the Zen Cat is not so interested, but Harvey is borderline obsessed. When the mouse plays dead, Harvey can't help himself - he has to touch it. He's obsessed because he hasn't "figured it out" yet. You can see the tiny gears moving behind his eyes as he works on a problem. Too smart for our own good if you ask me.

Credit where credit is due. They were both good today. We finally got a Christmas tree up. Or rather J.T. picked out and put up the tree while I spent the latter half of the day recording band stuff. ($3.99 tree special at Home Depot!) The cats insist on drinking the tree water, but so far the tree is still intact. Tomorrow we may brave ornaments.

Such a full day for both of them - they're conked out on the bed. Mmmm so cute when they're asleep...
posted by hbt at 1:08 AM

 
It's almost been a year. Time to think of a new name for my blog...

Today marked the first of the Christmas festivities. An extended family dinner at my mom's house with my parents, Grandma, and my mom's niece and her family - including new 7 month old baby grandchild, Hunter (if you're doing the math...that makes my mom a great-great-aunt!) Their house has never seen a baby before. The couches must have tasted good because Hunter kept trying to eat them.

The youngins got to open a few presents; I gave my cousin a complete "reference" on dragons, that included swatches of "scales" and "membranes" - a clever and creative book, beautiful really. I think J.T. was jealous. :) The food was good, as usual. Dad was excited to do something on the rotisserie - anything, really. He just wanted to use his new toy. The turkey was really great, and inspiring since our Thanksgiving turkey has not been interesting the last couple years. We may have to experiment with the grill.

All in all a nice evening. Tomorrow: lunch with J.T.'s mom and a little gift exchange before she heads down south to see J.T.'s brother.

And maybe, just maybe, we'll get our Christmas tree...
posted by hbt at 10:27 PM

 
While I was in Germany, I taught a class for a week with a coworker. We taught in Boeblingen, but he's from Colone. He sort of played host, but mostly because he could speak the language - he wasn't from around there, and as I learned, southern Germany can be different from other regions. Anyway, we had way too much fun teaching this class. We spent probably 4 out of 5 evenings hanging out together, eating non-German food like Thai, Polynesian, ... Actually I ate my fair share of German food - probably more than the average German in a 2 week period. I like spaetzle. And the cheesy spaetzle (kaesspaetzle) which is what mac n' cheese *should* be. And southern Germany is very into "meat and potatoes" which I can't complain about. Certainly there were BIG beers to be had, but I didn't drink much. The beer was bigger than I was! I think my favorite food was breakfast. Lots of fresh breads. After a couple mornings of hotel breakfast, the other instructor and I started heading across the street to the bakery/cafe and got espresso drinks and pretzle knots, which were like rolls with the familiar tougher outer shell and the doughy inside - mmmmm split and warmed with butter. Oh man. So good.

By good fortune, this co-instructor is now visiting out here for two weeks and I've had a couple opportunities to take him out to eat. Excellent Mexican for lunch. Cheap sushi for another lunch (okay), and not so cheap sushi for dinner with J.T. (awesome) - we ordered a boat! And last night he preferred seafood. We were sushied out, and unfortunately, there isn't a good local seafood restaurant. So we drove a bit downtown to Scott's Seafood. He got the seared ahi tuna, and I got red snapper. I think I have to go back with J.T. and order the ahi cause it was damn good. Siggi (this German guy) said of all the times he's been out here, and that's several, it was the best dinner he's had. SWEET! I'm a good host! :)
posted by hbt at 12:06 AM

 
Ever think your bag would be misdirected by the airlines? Sure! You've heard lots of horror stories, but they usually end with the luggage arriving on a later flight and being hand-delivered to your destination. What happens if the bag is not delayed, but really lost?

It's been 3.5 days now and the airline has no clue where my bag is, except that it was last scanned in Frankfurt. I've talked to the baggage claim folks 5 or 6 times now and the questions they've asked me made me realize I didn't pack very well.

Do you know the brand of your bag without looking? Do you remember everything you packed in each bag? If the luggage tags were ripped off, would your identification be inside somewhere obvious?

Uh....

Next time I travel, I'll be doing the following for each bag, including any carry on since they are always at risk of being checked at the gate on a full flight (like one of my "misrouted" bags).
-outside tags on all bags; I use my business card for these instead of my home address
-include a copy of to and from flight itineraries and lodging addresses with phone numbers
-attach business card to itinerary
-take a digital picture of my open luggage, or when all my items are sprawled out on the bed, so it's easier to remember what was packed
-note the brand of each bag; try to find out the airline "code" for your bag, or how to describe the bag in their terms. My lost bag is apparently a "22".
-don't pack anything that's irreplaceable!

And know:
-what are the carry-on bag restrictions? (weight, number, special bag fees)
-what are the delayed and damaged bag policies? If the value of the bag is higher than their policy, declare it...value of international traveling bags may be calculated differently.

And DON'T expect an apology from anyone!! :(

posted by hbt at 8:45 AM

 
Only one month left - pretty soon I'll have to change the name of my blog to something else.

Ahhhh Thanksgiving. I quote Halloween as being my favorite holiday, but Thanksgiving is really right up there. It's all about food + family. Hard to go wrong. And after years and years of the tradition, you grow to look forward to it, and find comfort in having the same foods every year because you don't get them many times outside the Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday season. Being in Germany right before the holiday, several Germans asked about the holiday since they don't have an equivalent (it's all about the pilgrims). Seems a couple of them had been in the U.S. during the holiday and were invited to houses to celebrate - I think it really comes across as a nice holiday.

My family has other traditions as well. From a little girl, I longed to be included in the pinochle games with the family. I'd sit and watch, then I was old enough to help keep score, then finally to start playing, usually with a parent leaning over my shoulder to help me. Ever since then, it's been integrated into my Easter/Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays. I have more memories than I can count or distinguish any more, playing with my parents, my grandmother, and my great aunt and uncle. And I'd hear story after story about my other great uncle, that would bid without looking at his cards - and still win! I think I only once shared in a game with him when he came to our house from Missouri for Christmas, and it was, unique. :) No one played quite like him.

Last night was no exception to the tradition - we played pinochle. I partnered with J.T., and Dad played with Grandma. Overall, uninteresting hands. Last time we played, Mom and I kicked serious bootie, getting huge hand after huge hand. Of the 12 or so hands played last night, only 2 were worth noting (and, of course, both were mine...) Despite that, we lost.

I also handed out the gifts from Germany (not so traditional) - schnapps, chocolate, crystal bracelet, crystal Christmas tree topper. Sadly, the bierkruge are still lost somewhere in Frankfurt (grrrr!). And I bought myself...a big crystal that sits in my belly button. One clear, and one light blue. It's adhesive, not pierced (Grandma was relieved!) I'll be ultra-cool at the next band gig. :) I also got myself a bierkrug. Can't wait to see it again.... *sigh*
posted by hbt at 1:09 PM

 
So an American, an Englishman, and a Swabian (southern German region) are in a bar together drinking beer. A fly lands in each of their beers. The Englishman says, "Waiter, please bring me another beer." The American plucks the fly out, tosses it, and continues to drink his beer. The Swabian carefully props the fly up on the side of the beer glass and says, "Spit it out!"

"Liabr da Maga verrenkt, als em Wirt ebbes gschenkt."

Or, "Rather a stomach pain than leaving food on the table."

I constantly left food on the table - I would make a bad Swabian. My German friend said if I didn't eat all my food, it would rain the next day. Based on my intake, I expected constant, torrential rain, but alas - I must have caused rain elsewhere in the world because the weather, while cold, was more than bearable, and I understand warmer than usual.


A brief introduction to Swabian dialect
posted by hbt at 10:24 AM

 
Dorothy was right. There's no place like home. Even seeing the scattered lights of Sacramento from the plane was comforting. A successful trip I think. Productive, amazingly fun, educational - and a time warp. The trip felt like I was gone forever, and yet, it was over in a blink. I did SO MUCH. I naively thought I'd blog during my trip. HA!

Next time I take a big trip I will do my best to travel light. I thought I trimmed down compared to my last international travels (no industrial strength hair dryer for example) and yet my bags were still too damn heavy. The airlines were nice enough to lighten my load on the way back and by the time I had to go through U.S. customs they had lost 2 of 3 bags. Quite a feat. One is/was somewhere in Denver, and one is/was somewhere in Germany - laptop included. I can't even log on to my work email to say I won't be working... Today they should be hand delivered to the house. Thankfully I don't need any of it for several days.

But the trip home was not a total loss. The stewardess asked me and the girl next to me if we wanted the exit aisle on our flight from Denver to Sacramento (and she asked if we were both older than 15 -- uh....yes...). Then the gentleman across the aisle leaned over bribing us with a $100 not to take the exit row because he wanted it. After much declining, and him not getting the exit seat because it was given to a 3rd party not aware of these negotiations, he insisted on us taking the money anyway. Uh, whatever dude. J.T. and I drove straight to Mikuni sushi had a nice dinner.
posted by hbt at 2:21 PM

 
I'm outta here! Off to Germany on Monday for two full weeks. Works is sending me. Work does have its perks sometimes (besides getting paid...) The only downside is being away from home for and away from my sweetie. We saw people-sized duffel bags at the luggage store, then thought the better of it.

I'll be back just in time for Thanksgiving, which means J.T. is running the show this year. I ceremoniously handed over the master spreadsheet yesterday.

If all goes well, I'll have easy Internet access from my hotel room and will be able to blog during my trip. :)

Wish me luck!!
posted by hbt at 11:03 AM

 
Ahhh, the aftermath. The day after is never quite as glamorous as the party. We had a couple of hitches, the biggest being J.T. had to work and was unable to trade shifts or get off early. He walked in around 9:30pm, changed into Shaggy, scarfed a burger, so we could get on to the radio drama. Needless to say I missed him on many levels. He's the life of any party I go to, and, a party of this magnitude is a bit much for one person to pull off the day of. There were casualties. I managed to get a small sliver of glass in my foot that I never had time to fish out until afterwards, and in curling my hair for the Daphne costume, I burned my neck something fierce. I figured it looked like a hickey, which was probably in character. The other hiccup was J.T. forgot to turn on the recording for the entire third act so we had to do it again. Sadly, there were less mistakes for the blooper real. And the diorama contest was a big flop. J.T. and I had the only finished entries, and Velma had a partially done entry. Cool as mine was, the host is not supposed to win especially when they own two of the three entries. Prizes instead went to the 2nd (Scooby-Dum) and 3rd place (Headless Horseman) costume winners (first place was Velma who was dead-on right out of the cartoon). Our non-costumed guests took the door prize of Scooby Doo pop tarts for bringing the most creative food - a four+ foot high Shaggy styled hamburger. I kid you not. Next year, the non-costume competition will be some contest of skill that doesn't require much preparation. The diorama was a good idea that no one had time to implement.

BUT, that said, I think it was an overall success. Too much food, which is better than the alternative. A great radio drama with new and improved, all digital sound. The sound pit was way high-tech this year and run by one person on a networked computer - last year it took three people. No more banging pots with wooden spoons. And J.T. found a gold mine of sounds at www.clipart.com (which has clip art too). Our friend had a great Scooby Doo voice, and J.T. surprised me with a great Shaggy voice. I'm a natural at the dumb chick voice - not sure how to feel about that... And it ended with a ton of great desserts, including crepes. To quote Fred, "This is the one party I look forward to all year."
posted by hbt at 11:15 AM

 
To date, we haven't had much of a fall yet. Mid 80's, plenty of sunshine. It's what California is known for - I shouldn't complain. I remember trick or treating in my little costume, being cold, trying to beef up the costume with tights, jackets, etc. This year? Kids could trick or treat as a beach bum and be alright. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating.

Is Halloween-party-eve a word? That's today. I spent mucho money on food and drinks. It's potluck, so explain that one to me.

While out, I had to feed myself and chose the closest drive-thru. Not my normal diet, but hey a girl's gotta eat. I had the most magical drive-thru experience. Yes, it's possible. I ordered my #1 combo, drove to the first window and the lady predicted I'd pay with a five dollar bill because she had the $1.65 ready to hand back all in one motion. I looked ahead and an arm was hanging out the next window with my drink and bag of food in hand. 30 seconds and I was outta there. Magical I tell you. I highly recommend the Wendy's by the Sunrise mall.
posted by hbt at 10:01 PM

 
Fall is my favorite time of year. I melt in the heat, so it's such a relief from our often 100 degree summers. ("But it's a dry heat.") The trees turn beautiful, rustic colors, and leaves crunch under your feet. Our trees in the backyard put on a fantastic show between vibrant red and golden yellow. (I highly recommend Chinese pistach and gingko trees.) You get to bring out the sweaters. The weather is perfect. And the fall contains my favorite holiday: Halloween.

Have I mentioned we throw an elaborate party every year for Halloween? It's the 3rd annual radio drama and party. The first year was an experiment, trying to perform a script written in somewhat old English. There was lots of tripping on the lines, cumbersome logistics trying to get the microphones, and no one had time to prepare because the script got finished the night before.

Last year, was a pirate theme and we wrote a script based on the movie "Abbott & Costello meet Captain Kid". We fixed the logistic issues and everyone was a bit more experienced, knew to pause when they screwed up so we could easily edit the line out. The script was circulated a few days before. But, the sound pit was less than perfect and we had to figure out some sound effects the night of the party. A new tradition was introduced: contests with prizes. A costume contest (of course!) and a pirate ship race where our engineering friends constructed custom boats out of popsicle sticks, Legos, and other such creative materials. There was a prize for the coolest ship and a prize for the fastest across a small wading pool. Our friend that dressed up as the Dread Pirate Roberts won.

This year, it's a Scooby Doo theme! We're all of the age that SD is nostalgic. The radio drama is based on an episode with the Headless Horseman as the villain. :) Everyone with a "gang" part is supposed to dress up as their character. I got my Daphne costume all settled last weekend. And this weekend, I'm creating my diorama. That's the contest this year. I figured last year favored the engineer. This year favors the crafty soul.

I've also learned a couple lessons in the last two years and I feel this year is more under control. First off, I'm time boxing my activities. Last weekend was the only time I spent on my costume. By the end of the weekend, what I had was what I'd wear. This weekend, I will finish my diorama, for better or worse. The fall is way to wonderful to waste being stressed out. Next weekend I have Mom and a friend coming over to decorate - 1 day and that's it. And I made it potluck this year. The script will be ready record early this year!

All this makes for a happier Heather and I can also focus on getting ready for my Germany trip next month. :)
posted by hbt at 12:36 PM

 
Had a rough game tonight. (volleyball that is.) Not only did I suck, but midway through the third game I took a speeding spike right in the nose. I had about a half a second to react, which was mostly thinking "uh oh, I can't get out of the way in time". No, actually I did manage to start my fall backwards to ease the impact. I was already low to the ground so it wasn't far to go. But my nose did take the brunt of it. I opened my eyes and everyone was circled around me, including the butt head that hit the ball. Actually, he's a very nice guy. My eyes were watering a bit, but I was more shocked than my nose actually hurt. A minute later I was up and playing again. They made me fill out an accident report. Overkill if you ask me, but they have to cover themselves in case I start seeing stars. On the accident report, there's a sketch drawing of a person's body and you're supposed to indicate where the injury occurred. The ref was kind enough to put a big "X" on the nose for me. "Cause of injury?" "Ball to nose."

On my way home I needed to get dinner. Feeling a bit sorry for myself, I settled on chocolate doughnuts and milk, which I ate in a hot bath while reading a new magazine. Ahhh I feel much better now.
posted by hbt at 11:45 PM

 
J.T. and I went to a bar last night to check out a band. We'll be playing there ourselves on Nov 1. Anyway, the band is called As Yet Untitled and they play really great funk, all originals. The bass player in particular was doing some amazing, FAST stuff. It's the kind of music that some people like to dance to and bounce off each other, which made for additional entertainment for us. It's difficult for a guy to hit on a girl when she's bouncing a foot in the air...but by golly he tried, and to our surprise, made good progress by the end of the night. Another young fellow thought he'd be cool and did the centipede (remember this terrible dancing from the '80s?) Just like TV slapstick, while he was stretched out on the floor, bouncy-girl backed up and fell right over him. He was so embarrassed he left the building. Whooo boy, that was good stuff.
posted by hbt at 12:12 PM

 
We found it! Well, we found him. Who? Another guitarist! It's not 100% official yet, but he's agreed to try it out for a few weeks and see how it goes. The band is really taking off again, thank goodness. Everyone seems to be investing in new equipment, I'm playing keyboard in two songs already, we have a couple gigs lined up - it's all forward progress. Best of all I'm enjoying it more than ever.
posted by hbt at 1:25 AM

 
[Wednesday of our vacation]
It’s been so long now, I wonder if I can remember what we did our last day of vacation. Let’s see. We were happily reunited with J.T.’s mom who had stayed in the same hotel we did our first night. By the time we showed up, we were ready for lunch. (Did we do lunch first?) We ate at a yummy Chinese restaurant – a nice change from hospital food I’m sure.

Our only tourist activity of the day was checking out a Phoenix Indian museum. It was started by some philanthropist buying up lots of crafts from local Native American artists. The couple acquired so much work they spawned a separate house, which has evolved into the museum of today. They had some really impressive art work, especially the clay bowls and pots. Amazing, amazing stuff. They also had some work that was not so impressive, but that was not the majority. Lots of history and stories wrapped around the pieces and the museum tour guide had good knowledge to share. She did fine until we got to the section on boarding schools. They have small wing/room display dedicated to the boarding schools many Indian children were forced to go to. Native Americas were pushed around, moved around, killed and just plain overtaken by the new settlers. In time, the children were forced to attend boarding school for assimilation into the society. While many European immigrant parents wanted this for their children, most Native American parents did not – they were not given the choice. Some died, some thrived. Most ended up totally confused, unable to relate to the people in their village, and unable to relate to other Americans. The museum tour guide was of the opinion it wasn’t bad or good, but just was, and that the intentions were good.

I struggled with this. It boils down to the old saying, “the means justify the ends” which in most cases is B.S.

After our museum tour, it was off to the airport for a leisure boarding. J.T. was stopped again at the security gate for something in his pocket, but I don’t remember what anymore. I do remember giving him a hard time…
posted by hbt at 11:08 AM

 
[Tuesday of our vacation]
Met everyone at Cracker Barrel for an early breakfast. It was pretty good. Better than Denny’s. :) Then it was off to the Grand Canyon. My parents told me I was there when I was 1 year old – funny, I don’t remember… Our first stop was at the train station. We were taking a train to the Canyon park. This train used to run in the early 1900’s and was revived/restored in the 80’s (I think?). The train station had a little gun fight show, and a Starbucks. Who could ask for more?? The show was cute. Then we were “all aboard!” -- for a two and a half hour train ride. Sadly the train was missing some creature comforts, like nice seats and air conditioning. But we had some entertainment. Walking minstrels… or rather… walking fiddle player, who, according to his oversized belt buckle, was some sort of fiddle champion. I don’t doubt it. He was quite good.

Towards the end of the ride, we were handed a park guide and given some instructions on where to go. There are free shuttles that run a tour all around about a 10 mile stretch of the south rim. After some studying we picked our route.

First stop – food. It was noon and breakfast was a long time ago. Ate cafeteria style then caught the shuttle bus to some lookout point.

The Grand Canyon is….big. Immense. Even standing on its edge you can’t really comprehend its size. Averaging ten miles across and one mile down. Unless you’re in it, or over it, you have no idea. It was awe inspiring all the same. We walked along the canyon for almost two miles, then caught the shuttle back. But, not before a quick visit to one of many souvenir stores. I bought a turquoise necklace, and J.T. bought a cactus – in a “to go” box.

The main downside to the train was you were on their schedule. And by golly if you were not on the train at 3:30, they were leaving without you. We were given many, many warnings on the way there. And sure enough, the train was pulling out at 3:28 by our watch. Sheesh. So if you’ve done the math, you’ll know we spent about 3 hours at the canyon, and that we spent more time on the train than in the park. Not enough time to do it justice, but enough time to make you want to come back, which we may do some day They have plane rides, helicopter rides, camp sites, and yes, donkey rides. Another souvenir was a donkey ride documentary DVD, which we enjoyed way more than we thought we would.

On the trip back, we had much less patience for the train. We’d seen the scenery before and it wasn’t that grand the first time around. But we were tired and managed to get in a couple Zzzs. The entertainer back was a guitar playin singer, who generously accepted tips. They all generously accepted tips. They even went so far as to rob the train about 20 minutes out so they could take even more tips under the pretense of entertainment. The only entertainment it afforded was watching the kids have fun. Bobby was all too eager to put his hands up and get robbed, even before they entered our train car. All in all, a good time, and well worth a glimpse at one the greatest natural wonders of the world.

Got cleaned up a bit then went to dinner at Salsa Brava – an excellent Mexican restaurant. Then back to the hotel for a bit of swimming and sitting in the spa, then a round of dominos (coincidentally, we played Mexican train) and off to bed.
posted by hbt at 12:49 AM

 
[Monday]
Hot day again. I bought the paper and was not surprised to find that Sunday had broken a 70 year heat record for that day. A sweltering 116. And I thought I was being wimpy. Monday was *only* to be 112.

We checked in on Marie. She’d been admitted to a room now. Nothing eventful, which was a good thing, but the hospital had no way of knowing if something was going to happen until they had a sort of baseline on some blood work. This required more time in the hospital and it was becoming clear where she would be spending her vacation. She urged us to go ahead to Flagstaff and meet up with his brother. There really wasn’t much we could do anyway, so we did. First grabbed lunch and got her several books, the paper, and left her a deck of cards, said our goodbyes and headed out.

The drive was one of those totally boring drives to anyone that has driven it before. Being a visitor, any difference from your own home is interesting. Already we’d observed the Phoenix area, full of stucco buildings, rock landscaping, heat tolerant plants, and bad signage. The drive to Flagstaff is literally a drive up several thousand feet in elevation through nowhere, and starts off with scattered cacti -- like the cacti you see in cartoons that are 8 feet tall and have “arms” sticking out the side. I noticed many of them had holes and I’d heard before cacti were in danger because people liked to shoot at them. Just like we have oak trees that are decades, well over a hundred years old, these big cacti are slow growing and pretty old. Given pop culture, I am not surprised at the bullet holes. Who hasn’t seen a cartoon where the good guy hides behind a cactus, only to have it shot out from in front of him and he’s left standing in the classic “cactus pose”? I even recall my old Atari 2600 game (Outlaw) where one of the objectives was to shoot away cacti.

Soon the cacti were gone and it was mostly brush and rocks and hills. The elevation was too high. Boredom started setting in. We listened to “scan” on the radio, which was dominated by country music, Mexican music, and religious stations. Call it divine intervention, but the religious stations were mostly immune to the static.

Another couple thousand feet and we started to see pine trees. The poor car was not meant for such a climb and we had to sweet talk it to get us there. The only relief was it was cooler at the higher elevation and we were finally able to turn off the air conditioner. In fact, it looked like rain...

After what seemed like a long, long time, we pulled up to the hotel and found his brother & the family. It was good to see them and the kids (2 of them). We were starving and didn’t want to wait for dinner so we grabbed a snack at a nearby Wendy’s, drove around and got acclimated. Just as in Pheonix, we were made to feel right at home with all the chain stores and restaurants. Disappointing actually if you're trying to get away from your normal surroundings.

Dinner, was at Black Bart’s. Sounds scary, but in fact, was totally benign and had local college students singing show tunes throughout dinner. Weird. Great piano player. The food was pretty good and it was nice to spend some quality time. Then it was off to the Lowell Observatory, home of one of the largest telescopes in the world, famous for discovering Pluto. Now it’s used for education. Sadly it threatened rain and they wouldn’t open the dome to look through the scope. But it was still cool to see. Too bad really, especially with Mars so close right now.

Off to bed to rest up for the Grand Canyon.
posted by hbt at 12:43 AM

 
Time to finally capture our small vacation to Arizona and the Grand Canyon. It was a 4 day trip total. J.T., his mom and I flew out and met up with his brother’s family who drove up from southern California.

[Sunday]
Our plane took off around 10:30am. We got to the airport early, which was good, so J.T. could get stopped at the security check for trying to pack his Swiss army knife in his carry on. They’re pretty uptight about knives and weapons these days. They escorted him back to baggage check and he checked the bag. And another new pet peeve of mine is taking off the shoes. I don’t mind doing it, but as you’re plopping your bags on the x-ray, there are no signs saying you must, and the dude says “it’s recommended”. I’m sorry, but make me do it or don’t. So you get up to the walk-through x-ray and then the guy on the other side makes you take them off anyway. Make up your mind people. Otherwise, the ride was uneventful. Had to concentrate real hard to not get sick, but that’s typically during landings. The Phoenix airport has lots of hot air currants so it’s particularly bumpy.

We rented a Hyundai. I was surprised how many of these cars were on the road. I don’t know what part of Phoenix we were in, but overall there were not many nice cars on the road. It’s after noon now and really heating up. We headed north towards Flagstaff, but stopped at the Anthem outlet mall about a half hour out to grab some food. It’s about a 2 hour drive total through empty terrain. After lunch, it was time for the unplanned adventure. J.T.’s mom was not feeling well, and in fact wasn’t sure if she was having heart attack symptoms. She had an angioplasty about 7 years ago so she has to be careful. We decided it would be better to go back to Phoenix now, rather than something happen in the middle of nowhere.

The next several hours were spent in the nearby hospital ER. It was a small adventure to get the this ER, as the 411 information operator tried to send us to an animal hospital. But the 911 operator was kind enough to put us through to the local fire department, which gave us detailed directions and stayed on the phone until we arrived at the hospital – even offered to have a truck go meet us. After some time it was clear she’d be staying the night, so we went to dinner and found an Inn across the street. Dinner at least was great; a local Mexican restaurant called Macayos. Strong margaritas… and cool, cheesy "his and hers" souvenir glasses (Senor Bob and Cha Cha!).
posted by hbt at 12:17 AM

 
Just got home from the California State Fair, a several year running tradition for myself, and the 150 anniversary of the fair (it's only a few years younger than the state).

California is known for so many high-tech and celebrity things, but the fair is rooted in agriculture. Every year you can see calves and pigs being born, lots of livestock like sheep, goats, cows, pigs mostly. Lots of local ranchers enter contests with their livestock and you can walk down all the stalls and see rows and rows of big ol' smelly animals. Kind of grounds you to see a bunch of real farmers making a living.

The fair was a little disappointing last year, but it more than made up for that this year. We arrived around noonish and were pleased with the less-than-100-degree weather. Low 90's - cools for August. We did a bit of walking around first and headed to the wine tasting tent. There's lots of wine made in California and the fair hosts a big wine competition every year. All the gold winners are available to taste and buy. I had a Gewuerztraminer (sp?) and J.T. tried a Merlot (which the dude pronounced "mer-loT" - *sigh*). Then a quick snack of deep fried food. A fair isn't a fair without fried food. Artichoke hearts and zucchini, not so typical. Also not typical was J.T.'s roast lamb sandwich. I still haven't tasted a lamb I've liked.

Then it's off to "Super Pork"! Yes, Super Pork, the 600lb trained pig that responds to dog commands like "sit", "heel", etc. He proved cooler than even the average trained dog and was quite entertaining...and dare I say cute? We walked all over the "Side Show" area which was themed after the old-time circus acts like two-headed cows and fat hairy women. It was way cool. Lots of amazing reptiles, snakes, spiders - many of which they had an albino version to compare to. They even had two sphinx cats. They just are not cute. We managed to catch a presentation on a bunch of snakes. The speaker was really knowledgeable and showed us really awesome snakes, some being poisonous but with their venom removed. The ultimate of course, was the king cobra. Just awesome. Later in the day in the same Side Show area, we saw a domino demonstration. Some people like to spend hours lining up dominos so they can be tipped over. Well these "dominolologists" spent five hours setting up ~4500 dominos in an elaborate display that ended with setting off 75 mouse traps in a cage, each with a plastic egg on it that was flung into the air. Those guys must have a lot of patience... (Indecently, other new words learned besides dominolologists were “predation”, “splendiferous” and “pestiferous”.)

Other standard fare included the county exhibits, crafts and sales booths (where everything says "as seen on TV" on the box, "it dices, it slices, it cuts through tin cans"...) I *love* that stuff, though I never buy anything. Every now and then something is real popular. A few years back, everyone was carrying a mop over their shoulder. :) And let's not forget the exhibit hall, which has amazing crafts from 5 year olds on up. Architecture/CAD drawings, photos, paintings, hand made furniture, quilts, crochet, silk screens - you can really appreciate the talent. One or two of the exhibit rooms are usually themed. A couple years ago it was "Route 66" paraphernalia. This year they had a dedication to the fair and its anniversary. They also had a room of U.S. presidents - pretty neat. Some you've never heard of, simply because they didn't have much affect on history or the country. I'm sure I was taught all that president stuff in grade school, but ask me how much I cared about it then.

The pinnacle, the height of the day, was the freestyle motocross (a.k.a. crazy young men that fly through the air on motorcycles doing stunts). Oh my gosh. Right out of ESPN's X Games (no, really). One 8' tall ramp propelling them ~35' in the air. And they'd do tricks called "heartattack" and "kiss of death". Yeah, well, they made my heart rate accelerate. I have to say the tricks are appropriately named. What motivates someone to fly through the air - over concrete - and throw their legs off their bike? turn the bike on its side? or practically do a hand-stand on it? only to regain control and sit back on the bike a split second before landing on the other side? I've seen this type of trick riding on TV, but nothing compares to live and close up. J.T. knew what some of the tricks were called. I was pretty impressed. He's quite the expert on an ATV PlayStation game. :)

Speaking of video games, I was transported back to my childhood. One of the exhibits had a row of TVs hooked up to various video game consoles. By the look of the controllers, it was all XBox, GameCube and PlayStation. But in the corner, oh my gosh, could it be? Could it be an Atari 2600? And is that? No... YES! It's Adventure!!! Of the hundreds of Atari games, they chose this one, my all time favorite. It was such a trip!

Top it off with more wine tasting and a deep fried Twinkie, and I was in heaven.
posted by hbt at 11:28 PM

 
I have finally seen Casablanca. What a perfect movie. And so quotable! It’s a (lesser) goal of mine to watch the AFI’s top 100 films, of which, Casablanca was #2.
posted by hbt at 11:18 AM

 
Ghostbusters has to be one of the greatest movies of the 80’s. It’s also Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray at their prime. And I love how pathetic Rick Moranis is. Ahhhh, good stuff. This is one of the few movies I remember seeing as a kid in the theaters. I saw it with my two cousins – I guess my mom took us. We giggled to no end when Venkman said “he slimed me”. The whole drive home my little cousin kept saying “he slimed me!” I’ll never understand why that was so funny but we were laughing until we were crying…I guess you had to be 10.
posted by hbt at 9:29 PM

 
Who knew?? Who knew that karaoke was such a big deal? Now maybe it's not a big deal everywhere, but at the 7440 club, it sure was. J.T. and I were desperately trying to find a bar with a band worth watching. We passed up a blues band, and struck out at the other three places in the area. Then there was the 7440 and I said, hey let's go check it out. We'd always seen lots of cars and a line to get in. Holy cow. The place is huge. Actually the building isn't big, but they have a huge backyard with tons of built in tables and stools, sand volleyball, two bars and a DJ playing house music. Huh. Definitely the 30-something scene. We headed back in to the indoors bar where all the karaoke action was. It was obvious who the regulars were. A surprisingly cool place. And no, I didn't sing. I have my own outlet for that. :)
posted by hbt at 5:17 PM

 
It's that time of year to celebrate - apparently our 227th birthday as a nation. Pretty young compared to many. Why is this holiday always celebrated with fireworks? The "rocket's red glare" perhaps? We did our part to watch the neighborhood fireworks. I've lived here 3 years now and never saw them before. We scrambled after dinner to walk to the park and managed to catch the finale up close. They're pretty wimpy from any distance, but closer, with all the noise (boom!), much more impressive. Made me remember all those years spent growing up watching fireworks shows. I helped my mom work the city's rodeo for many many years, and all five nights there were fireworks. That was our cue to close up the gate. So why don't I work it any more? Well, there was a sort of changing of the guard. I'd rather do my own thing now instead of having drunk cowboys hit on me as they came through the gate. Lucky for the football team was always standing close by selling their programs. :) But many memories workin' the gate with Mom!

The latest tradition is to go to a friend's for a *big* BBQ at a totally gorgeous house, big pool, horseshoes, volleyball - but alas, they had it early and I was in Chicago. :( First one I've missed...
posted by hbt at 6:43 PM

 
Still staying with Grandma. Still staying at my parent's house. Kind of a trip. I spent all my teenage years here and thensome. Sitting in my old room (which is now an office) I recall so many memories. Last night J.T. and I took a walk around the block. I've done that so many times before (jogged it even). I wondered how many of my peers families still reside in the neighborhood? I went to the store yesterday and wondered what the odds were that I'd run into someone I knew. High I guess, but I didn't stop to talk to her. You know how that goes.

So now I'm listening to ABBA and having a hard time staying in my seat - how can people *not* dance to this? We recently saw the musical Mamma Mia (awesome!) and again it's nostalgic. My mom listened to this music all the time when I was growing up. In my bedroom, I used to have this part of the wall reserved for posting stuff throughout the school year. At the end of the year it was full of awards, ticket stubs, pictures and other memorabilia from the year. Then I'd take them all down, patch the holes and do it again for the next year. Now it's all stuffed in a scrap book. I did so many sports and music, the wall was always *full*. :) I did so much growing up here. From 14 to 24 years old. My cat is still here. Fred. I got her for my 18th birthday. Now she's going on 11 - an old lady. She used to be a beautiful, long haired cat, but now she can't clean her fur as easily. I spent a few minutes yesterday cutting the knots out of her hair. I cut Grandma's hair too. It was a beauty day for everyone! I really have no business cutting hair, but Grandma is totally biased and likes how I cut it. It's fun really, and as long as I cut it reasonably short, it's hard to screw up.

I lived in this little town for so many years - over 20. I don't live here anymore, but I live nearby. This "town", which is really a thriving city, is one of the fastest growing cities in the country. I tell people how long I lived here and they usually reply "wow, I bet you've seen some changes". That's for sure. I remember empty fields, and only 4 schools, and 1 grocery store. Now an empty field is rare and there are too many schools and grocery stores to count. At least my parent's neighborhood is timeless. It never changes. Many people have transplanted here from the bay area. Which is okay. Just makes it different to have this flux of new people. It's a nice place to live and you can't keep people out. :)

I used to love this bedroom. It's huge. Two bedrooms with a wall knocked down between so it's twice as big. I had a couch in here and everything. I loved to redecorate and move my furniture around. I used to like to clean my room too, I guess because it was "my domain". I wish I was as motivated about cleaning the house I live in now...

I even drive the same car that I got when I was 16. It's easy to get nostalgic here. :)
posted by hbt at 11:35 AM

 
Yesterday was an interesting day. So I'm Grandma (Katie) sitting, which I already mentioned. Nothing unusual there. My other Grandma (Ruth) lives right around the corner from my parents so we'd made plans to visit. And the plan was to head over to the new local Indian casino for the afternoon. Sounded fun to me, and I hadn't seen Jason's work yet either. He was working yesterday so I'd hoped to catch him in action! :) About 12:30 I headed over to pick her up. I get to drive Mom's car while I'm here. Call it a perk. Most cars are better than my car (1990 Nissan Sentra); hers is for sure (2001 Toyota Avalon).

First we head to our house so I could check on the zoo. All was well, and Grandma got to see some of our remodeling progress in the kitchen. Then we headed to the casino. What a big place! But *beautiful*. So gorgeous. I mean, it's only a casino, but still, beautiful. The main bar was amazing. Walls of waterfalls, leather chairs, blue lights everywhere, glossy black ceiling and lots of blue iridescent tile. Someone had good taste. And the string of restaurants they'll be opening in a few months is promising. All great stuff. The place was bustling, but not over-crowded. When it first opened, you had to wait in line for *everything*.

We eventually found Jason. Is it possible to be cute when you're dealing blackjack? :) Oh yeah. We said 'hi' then went in search of particular slot machines. Grandma sat down and I headed for the Starbucks (they're everywhere, I swear!) Her $20 was gone in no time on a $.05 machine. We scouted another one and this time it was faster. We went back to find Jason and waited at his table until he went on break.

Break wasn't so fun because he's not allowed to loiter. So we stood in the hallway and chatted a bit, then he had to go back to the "workers only" part of the building.

Grandma had lost all the money she wanted to so we headed home, grabbed some pizza (on Mom, another perk) and watched the second Harry Potter movie. She'd recently read the second book and was interested in the movie. What a good movie! I guess it's time to buy the latest book...

I drove her home and hung out for a while. Played my harmonica. I can play a scale now without much pause, but the lower notes are giving me real trouble. We'll see where it goes. I bought it specifically for one song we do with an easy harp solo. In fact someone had a cameo last gig and played it for us. He'd never played harp before and learned the solo in 3 days. Heck! I can do that! But I don't have the song with me over here so I can't practice it...

Last evening, Jason and I made plans to meet at a bar to watch a band (felt like we were going on a date or something!) The guitarist and his friend (who is my friend) came out to see us play so I wanted to return the favor. Little did I know I was networking.

*Had to stop and give Grandma her eye drops. It's twice a day. Kind of weird laying her back and touching her eye like that to hold it open, but she's a really good patient.*

So my friend was there at the bar. He's a guitarist too and we're trying to recruit him. He's thought about it, but not much else. The band was pretty good. They had a good sound and tackled some hard songs well. Had a good Santanna guitar sound. And a quality lead singer, which is refreshing. They were expecting another woman to show up around 11 to sing a couple songs with them, but hadn't shown up yet. The guitarist guy approached me and asked if I knew any of their songs - they do mostly classic rock. The end agreement was if he could get the words to a Pat Benetar song, I would sing it. Well the woman at the bar wrote them down for us... And yes, half way through the set, I went up there with my scribbled notes and sang a song. I knew it mostly and didn't have to read much. I had to stand directly in front of the drums - way loud. But it was fun! Got a quick plug for the band, and applause, then hopped off the stage. I think people were impressed because it seemed so unplanned. Later that woman showed up and she did do a song (Black Velvet) - a sexy song. She was real good; we've seen her before in her regular band. I couldn't help but wonder how we compared. Sometimes when you get good singers together, it comes down to personal preference... It doesn't matter I guess. I had my first real "sit in" with another band and it was fun.

Then to top it off, yet another guy guest sang for the last song, and he was awesome. Perfect for the song. This big oaf looking guy with long, wild hair - but he was captivating and played to the audience very well. Apparently, he's an awesome guitar player too.

When the gig was over, there was some more chatting with the band. Thanks for singing and all that. I said any time, and they may take me up on the offer. They're not playing any in July, but I suspect they'll be in touch after that. They also showed interest in coming out to see us next gig. We shall see. And Jason had a good opportunity to get us booked there, and that seemed to go over well.

It's all good.
posted by hbt at 11:06 AM

 
I'm back from Chicago. Spent the week there on a lovely business trip in the lovely windy city. Actually, it wasn't all that lovely until the last day. But the business show I went to was fun. I flew out on the red-eye Monday morning and arrived around 2. I hadn't even arrived at the hotel yet and my coworker was calling me on my cell phone; I had a message waiting for me in my room too. It's good to be wanted. ;) The day was a whirlwind of sorts and I was a bit tired. Went to dinner with yet another coworker - this one from Germany. :) It's nice to work in a global team... We ended up at some random restaurant. I had good mushroom ravioli - it was one of those fancy dishes where they don't give you much food. I think they call that "gourmet"? My friend ordered a disappointing salad... :( I didn't find the good cuisine in Chicago - I'm sure it exists. I managed to lose a couple pounds on this trip. Terrible!

Tuesday I slept in a bit. Long night. Did work stuff, but that's too boring to record forever more in writing. Tuesday night was the "big event" for the conference. A night at The House of Blues. House is really an understatement. It was four stories, had two bands, and many bars - all of which serving free alcohol. Of course I took advantage of the hospitality. I hung out with more of my coworkers - many I don't get to see except at these shows. My French coworker showed me a dance at the last conference in Lisbon and he tried to refresh my memory. Too much twirling... (Twirling and drinking... bad combo). And if that place wasn't enough, when it closed down, we headed to "Buddy Guy's". Some old blues guy opened a blues bar that had blues bands. A hole in the wall and right across the way from the hotel. The band was good too. One of the singers had this ammunition belt (at least it looked like one), full of harmonicas. Pretty cool. They only come in one key so you have to get several.

I was so inspired I went out and bought myself a harmonica today. No, really! It's harder than it looks!

Anyway. That was Tuesday. Wednesday morning was more work. I had to validate some computer setup thingy for my thingy the next day. This thingy was the reason I was even there. :) They do pay me to do something useful... We came back later that evening to setup our room and it, of course, took longer than we'd hoped. A group was waiting for us downstairs to go to dinner and I had to send them off without us. :( Group outings are the best part of these shindigs - it was disappointing. But it was for the better. We got our room all set up and the 3 of us followed after the group. I don't know why since we sat at a different table... This was supposed to be some great steak house. Pah! My $40 aged steak didn't compare to what we can do on the grill at home. I was severly disappointed. But too hungry to care. I recalled my meals over the course of the day. Let's see. Orange juice for breakfast (freshly squeezed!) Pretzels in the VIP lounge for lunch. By dinner time, I was faint with hunger. *sigh* What a dope!

Wed night I must have had nerves or something because I didn't get much sleep... Our session thingy was at 8:00 the next morning. Needless to say, not much sleep that night.

At some point along the way I decided to paint my toenails. I knew I'd be wearing sandals all week so I wanted to relax 15 minutes and do this. Sitting on the toilet (lid down!) with my foot on the tub edge, I painted away. Only I got careless and knocked the open bottle of nail polish into the tub, spilling pink polish all over. OOPS. That's gonna stain... I tried to wipe it up with Kleenex, but alas, it only smeared. Worried the cleaning people would freak out, I made a plan to buy nail polish remover to clean it myself. Until then, I kept the "do not disturb" sign hung.

Moving on. Thursday was the big thingy. The thingy went well and I'm relieved. There's a lot of prep work for these thingies, and customers pay to attend, so they really need to be smooth. And it was. By 12pm I was free of all obligation and responsibility. What a nice feeling...

Thursday night was sushi night with the team (minus one). The big boss too. We got a big, round table, and proceeded to have an awesome sushi dinner. A bit more sashimi and nigiri than I prefer (gimme maki), but it was fresh. There was exotic eating as well, none of which I was interested in. The craziest was the oyster shooter with the (raw) quail egg. Hey, all four of them said it was good, and none of them died. Positive testimony. After dinner, the big boss was ready to party, as were some colleagues. I however, was falling asleep standing up. Ready for bed. We split off and some of us went back. We took the train to and from dinner - an authentic experience considering we don't have trains like that locally. Cool stuff. I wish we did have trains, but they're not so compatible with "urban sprawl".

Friday - a free day. I went to bed around 11 the night before, and gee, got up around 11. My first sound sleep in the hotel room. Pillow was hard as a rock, but didn't matter that night. Guess I was used to it. My coworkers' sessions were wrapping up around noon and I caught them for lunch. They had successful sessions as well and I was pleased to hear it. Played the tourist after lunch. Trip up to the Sear's tower. What an awesome view. I could stare at the horizon for hours. So serene. What else did we do? Walked the Navy Pier, which was not so exciting, but it was windy. And they DON'T have an IMAX theater. Took the free trolley around a bit, and did some walking as well. It's nice to know you're never far from a Starbuck's.

By this time, some people were heading home. I however stayed over another night so I could play in the city a little. A couple coworkers did as well so I had company. Chicago was a foreign place to all of us. :) I had done some research on things to do. Most of it was totally worthless, but I at least had a list of sushi restaurant reviews. We took the train (I was the expert) and got off in a more residential looking area. Reminded me of old town. Very quaint. Cute little shops. And a good sushi restaurant. We ate maki, and it was yummy. The firecracker roll was my favorite - it had some tempura batter in it. Just the crunchy batter. Surprisingly tasty. :)

That sums up the evening. Next day was breakfast on the sidewalk at some place that served way too many eggs. There was a Puerto Rican parade and many were walking by in T-shirts showing their Puerto Rican pride. There were also pictures in front of a neighboring hotel. They had been marching around in a circle for weeks, megaphone and signs in hand. Chicago does have a lot of unions... You don't see picketers here so much.

The rest of the afternoon was spent finding a boat, then riding a boat, and getting an architecture tour on the Chicago river. Did you know they reversed the flow of the river? And that some rich guy had nude parties at the lighthouse? Lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen - Thai chicken pizza - my favorite.

Then it was back to the hotel to grab my junk, take a nearly-vomit-inducing cab ride to the airport, say my goodbyes to the city, and head home. A memorable trip.
posted by hbt at 12:18 AM

 
Hmmm. I typed in a nice, long blog entry and the result was... a "big post error".
posted by hbt at 12:02 AM

 
Had a nice morning at the driving range (that's golf) with Dad. On my way home, I called J.T. to see what he was up to. He said he'd been "puttering around". (That's his way of saying he's just been doing stuff around the house). I replied - hey, I've been puttering too! Dad bought me a putter! *smile* First I got a putting lesson, then we checked out the clubs. Took 20 minutes or so to pick one. The selection is crazy! They make it hard to choose! First the lady started me out with a Frankenstein club that adjusted at the length and neck. This got us the right length. Then I putted with one after the other until I found "the one". Then she gives me Frank again and gets a measurement for the neck angle. She puts my poor club in a torture rack, cranks it down, then bends it. Ouch! But, the result is my very first, custom fit club. Pretty exciting. I have 30 days to find out if it's truly "the one".

Off to the side, Dad was chatting with another patron and I heard him say something important. He said I'm getting to the point where the club actually matters. Sounds like new clubs are totally justified. *grin* I'm buying a pitching wedge next, and predict I'll have a new set of irons before the summer is over.

The day was not all good. It started out bad in fact. At the Starbuck's drivethru, I was informed the "Toffee Nut Latte" is seasonal and won't be back until maybe winter. And that's all I go there for! A sad day indeed.
posted by hbt at 6:37 PM

 
Babies everywhere!!!

Last week was baby shower week. Thursday my good friend from work had her work-baby shower. Tons of fun, and she made out with tons of loot. It was fun going to Babies R Us with lots of dinero on behalf of the team. Her brother and I couldn't believe all the cool gadgets. Remote control swings??? Awesome! Then Saturday, another shower a couple hours south of here. A friend from college that moved away to live a double life: commute to Sun as an engineer, and live on the farm to help run the family cattle ranch. Talk about two lives. They've been married over 2 years now and are expecting in ~7 weeks, though by the size of things, it will likely be sooner. At least Kelly hopes so... Aside from the tent (sole shade provider) ripping in the wind and coming down, the shower was lovely. Nice day, nice home and yard, cute kittens everywhere (wild ranch kitties). And it was nice to see them again. We only see them at events anymore (weddings, showers and funerals). We talked about visiting each other more often, maybe before the baby comes. We shall see - hope so.

Eric carpooled with us, or rather we carpooled with him since he drove. His wife was throwing her sister's baby shower (her other sister is ALSO pregnant, both due at the same time!) I tell ya, day for showers.

Then back home to yet another baby shower. This was for the same work friend, only the non-work version. Fun stuff, great food. I mean yumm-y. Blackberry BBQ ribs, Frank's RedHot BBQ'd wings, grilled veggies, spicy pasta salad with tomatoes, basil and mozzarella - and chocolate rum cake for dessert. Her single, young brother brought over his personal food processor - any girl will be lucky to catch this guy with such culinary skills. J.T. had seconds of the ribs, and the cake. A true compliment to the cooks, most work being done by her brother. Unlike the traditional baby shower, no games. Just good food, conversation, and watching our basketball team lose. That part was not fun.

There was a gal there at the shower that looked so darn familiar. She has unexpected, deep set blue eyes that require a double take, so I figured it was her exotic looks. But there was something...

I never asked or figured it out. By the end of the night it was my friend, her hubby, her brother, sister & boyfriend, and us. Somehow this familiar gal came up and I said I'd seen her before, maybe at one of their gatherings. She'd only been dating their friend for 6 months, so that wasn't likely. Her hubby mentioned she did electrolysis for a living. After a few moments the light bulb went off. I had been a client!!! Oh man did I start laughing. And J.T. then says what everyone is thinking - "she did your bikini line, right?" I'd say utter embarrassment if it wasn't so comical. The next 5 minutes was funny comment after funny comment. I was relieved I didn't realize who she was before. What do you say next? "Remember me? You saw me in my underwear and ripped the hair off my bikini line before my wedding!" Well anyway, she was a sweet, sweet girl, and gentle. And even a little nervous about my wedding a week away - she wanted to do a good job. Got to respect professionalism.
posted by hbt at 10:12 AM

 
I joined my company's golf league. What am I, crazy?

No.

My theory was, if I forced myself to play, I'd get over this fear of playing with strangers. Any time I get paired up with a couple of strangers, I get nervous and play terrible, which makes me more nervous. It's a spiraling problem. There's so much unsaid pressure to "keep up"! And we always get a warning from the golf ranger to pick up the pace. How can I pick up the pace when I keep hitting from out of the trees??!!

So I've played twice now with the league, minus the 36 holes I had to play on my own to establish a handicap (which is incredibly high - 29). The first time I played, I didn't do so well. Sometimes I can really knock the heck out of the ball, and it feels good. Last time all I did was hit the top of the ball, walk 20 yards, hit the top of the ball, walk 20 yards... After 9 strokes you have to pick up the ball and record a "X-10", which in short means you suck. I had to do that three times. Believe me, after 9 strokes you want to pick up the ball - you want it to be over. But the weather was perfect and the course was nice, so my mood wasn't 00% spoiled.

Last week, we played again. I was much more relaxed this time. I didn't get "my swing" back, but there was some resemblance. I had a pretty nice game. 1 over par (with my handicap of course!) And I beat the other guy on 6 of 9 holes, allowing my team to win by 1! Hey, I'm cool! The three memorable moments...

1) The big pompous grass bush, standing in the middle of the fairway all by itself, ate my ball, costing me TWO strokes. I got an X-10 on that hole...
2) At tee off, I accidentally tapped my ball off the tee. Without picking my head up, the guys on the side said "that's one!" See - anytime you touch the ball, intentional or not, it's a stroke. *sigh* AND you play the ball where it lies. I didn't tee it up again.
3) I had a classic sand trap moment where I felt like sport Goofy. A wonderful hit followed up by a sand storm. One whiff, one hit to the other side of the trap, one hit into the lip, and finally, the last hit popping it out on the ledge - 4 strokes later... Ugh.

We played at a golf course in a (rich) retirement community. In fact, the same community where J.T. and I got married. I love living so close to the site. It's sentimental. I quickly reminisce seeing our little rose garden, where I could hardly get any words out for fear of crying. Anyway, like I said, rich. The signs along the road say "this is a golf cart community". They aren't kidding! I parked and noticed a whole line of personally owned golf carts - all nicer than my car! Oh, to retire and drive around in your own golf cart. Now that's a goal in life!
posted by hbt at 9:02 AM

 
Showing Mom how to do a link.

My band.
posted by hbt at 4:18 PM

 
Been pretty busy. Hey - our band web page got an update - check it out! New mp3's and everything. Boy are we lovin' our new drummer!

Last weekend was our one year aniversary. I'd say time flies, but sometimes it feels like we've been together a long time. :) It's nice - I love being married to J.T. We spent the weekend in S.F. We wanted to get away, even if we didn't do anything fancy. We had a great, cheap dinner in China Town and spent much of Sunday at the Exploratorium. J.T. had never been there and being the science and math guy that he is, I knew he'd enjoy it. I was right. We also stayed in a nice hotel and went dancing Sat night. And of course, Sunday included a clam chowder lunch. How can you not eat seafood in S.F.? Overall, a relaxing, special weekend, just the two of us. And as a gift, J.T. got my piano tuned! After 15 years or more, it's an understatement that it needed it. :)
posted by hbt at 9:08 PM

 
Added cool new "House Makeover" page!
posted by hbt at 10:40 AM

 
I'm showing my mother my cool new blog!
posted by hbt at 6:52 PM

 
Some of my friends call Valentine's Day "single awareness day". Now that I'm an old married lady, I think Valentine's day may be more for youngin's not yet settled down with someone. But just to prove me wrong, my honey took me out! :) Trying not to get carried away with buying things, we kept it simple and went on a picnic. Naturally his plans were weather permitting and I don't know if it's called a picnic when you eat in the car... But we had sandwiches, salt n vinegar chips, carrots, crackers with yummy cheese - it was all good. Then we saw "Jungle Book II" which is a great movie for a 5 year old. The little boy next to me was totally enthralled. But overall, still cute. It made me want to buy the sound track to the original, which I remember being a lot of fun ("Bear Necessities", "I want to be like You"). The night ended perfectly with chocolate covered strawberries from Shari's Berries. Mmmm strawberries... I told him I wouldn't mind if he got me strawberries every year for Valentine's day...
posted by hbt at 2:03 PM

 
You know, I'm at a keyboard all day. I thought journaling through a blog would be easier. Turns out I'm almost as neglectful here as with my traditional diary... If I can make entries closer than a month apart, it's progress.

Last Saturday night was SUSHI NIGHT! A big experiment beyond just California roll and other cooked alternatives. We did the real deal, ordering fish (salmon, yellow tail, tuna and mackerel) from a sushi place. We had a huge list of possible ingredients, and one of the best features of the night was everyone having the opportunity to invent and name their own rolls. J.T. and Dan had dueling sushi making stations facing each other and it was sushi ongoing for nearly 6 hours. And Dan was right - his wife Corinna is a sushi fiend! Even the non-sushi eaters didn't starve with home made veggie tempura, pot stickers, teriyaki chicken (though not exactly the teriyaki chicken Misty intended) and Chinese take-out (hey, it's Asian!)

I look forward to doing it again in the spring with our own menu and avocados that are in season! See my Cooking Stuff for our list of rolls. And the Bad Cat made away with the $$$...

The only disappointment was my cousin and her hubby couldn't join us - because they had their baby!!! I'm a proud new cousin! Doesn't sound as cool as being a "new aunt" or something, but cousin can be quite the important role. :) Taryn, born January 29 at 4:30am. I haven't seen her yet (I was sick!) but I have pictures and she is amazingly beautiful. Gorgeous. I didn't think babies were supposed to look so good newborn! Can't wait to visit!!!
posted by hbt at 1:31 AM

 
Wednesday night is game night! More Wheel of Time. And this time is was my turn to host. We didn't just have tacos. We had TACOS. The best tacos ever. I didn't buy some seasoning packet for the meat - I used a recipe. And we fried our own taco shells too which are WAY better than anything you get in a box from the store. (It's also a pain in the butt since we had to fry 16 taco shells by hand, but it was worth it!) And it inevitably makes a huge mess in the kitchen...but they were soooo good.

And the actual gaming was really fun. Eric (GM) I don't think realized how difficult it is to run a campaign and occassionally he panics. There's tons of prep work, plus props, and then during play, he has to really think quick on his feet because he never knows what we'll do. We usually use Legos for props and miniatures - everyone has a little playing figure. (Secretly I think the guys use it as an excuse to buy Legos again - they really like the latest Harry Potter Lego sets.) Everyone "role plays", meaning we pretend to be our characters. And we don't always behave the way the GM wants us to. We have to be believably motivated before we'll do something. So the gaming was really fun because Chris and Jason are really getting into their characters - they're way too "giddy" about the whole thing...
posted by hbt at 5:13 PM

 
Saturdays are worth getting up for traditional Saturday-morning cartoons. But on Sunday, it's worth getting up for the radio's "retro-revival" of 80's music. I love 80's! Even some of the bad songs are better than the crud they play today. I wonder if I'm getting old? I suppose that's okay as long as I don't hang out with any young people. I wish my cousin would hurry up and have her baby so we can go dancing (to 80's) again! ;) Well...I guess I can wait 3 weeks.

So I noticed the book I'm reading is "Black Market" by James Patterson, but the book I found on Amazon is called "Black Friday" by James Patterson. The Amazon reviews reveal it is in fact the same book. Weird. My parents buy lots and lots of books and in their buying managed to buy books twice. J.T. and I got a bag full of dups and I'm diligently reading them - Black Friday-Market included.
posted by hbt at 9:59 AM

 
Still recovering from my cold, and I'm amazed that my voice is still all yucky and crackly. Unprecedented. It's a good thing all my band (singing) activities are on break. Well, it's not really a good thing unless the break is by choice, which it isn't. *sigh* I could lament about band, but I won't. Let's just say there are possibilities on the horizon...

It's still winter time - thought I'd put down my favorite things about winter:
-rain drops on roses
-whiskers on kittens
...no wait...
Okay, for reals
-Christmas lights in the fog
-Night walks in the fog (to look at Christmas lights)
-Christmas shopping with my dad
-All the good food that comes with the holidays
-Sitting in front of the Christmas tree with the room lights off
-Hot baths before bed time
-Listening to the Muppets Christmas CD with John Denver
-Napping on the floor in front of the fireplace (with a fire going of course)
-Wearing my fluffy pink bathrobe
posted by hbt at 9:27 PM

 
Ever have a day where at the end of it, you think back to something you did in the morning and say "That was today? That seems so long ago." Yesterday seemed like three days. First it was last minute shopping for wrapping paper (and a belt for me...). Then it was my cousin's baby shower. She's due in 4 weeks or so. Holy cow. (It's their first, and really the first of our generation.) Now the eyes are on us... Okay, okay! After the shower, Jason and I went out to see the Beer Dawgs at Pistol Pete's. A great band at a cool place. We played pool; Jason is pretty good - I would manage a really great shot, then follow it up with a totally horrible shot. J said I was like "Dr. Jeckle and Mr. Hyde". Then we sat at Carrow's and had okay food. I had totally lost my voice by then because I was sick, so I wasn't much for eating. Or talking. In fact, I was sure I'd get my voice back after sleeping all night, but dang it, it's still gone! Hope it's back by tomorrow or work will be interesting.
posted by hbt at 12:04 PM

 
We started a new game this week with our friends (Eric, Misty, Wayne, Chris-my guitarist, Dan and my Jason). For two years (or more?) Jason hosted a D&D game set in the greyhawk world. It's a dedicated group and we played regularly once a week. At some point we took a break (whew!) and Wayne wrote a game module - we play tested it - he did a pretty darn good job. That took about 3 months. Then it was holidays, blah blah blah. Now that everyone is rested and eager, Eric has decided to GM a different game. This time it's Wheel of Time (based on d20 system). Silly me volunteered to be the magic user since I haven't done that type of character yet. Naturally it's the hardest to play and central to the plot. Oops. Didn't know that at the time. I'm not much of a party leader so should be interesting (or not interesting...). But so far I know that I have a little brother (Chris) and an undefined romatic relationship with some dude that has decided to be my bodyguard (Jason). Lots of potenial here for role playing. ;)

Wheel of Time game book

My current book: "V" (remember the mini-series?)

posted by hbt at 7:42 PM

 
So last Thursday, Jason and I took my grandma to a play of "Cinderella". Actually it was a musical. And actually, the step mother and step sisters were played by men - making them extra ugly... It was a nice night overall, but what made it memorable was the not the performances. In the final scene of the play, the entire cast is on the stage singing "la la la we live happily ever after" - and Cinderella and her Prince Charming are in their wedding costumes, because that's how they live happily ever after. And front-center stage, without warning, Cinderella turns to Prince Charming, and vomits all over him - then makes a quick exit stage right. Boy were they professionals because even Prince Charming pretended nothing happened. After the show, Grandma thought it was all part of the act. When we told her no way, she responded, "wow, she really spewed!".
posted by hbt at 8:18 PM

 
And...back to work! Were the holidays faster this year or what??

I don't believe in new year resolutions. Here are mine:

* Our band will gig again!
* I will learn German (as much as can be expected in a year)
* I will exercise more (how original...)
* I will learn to play an instrument (I leave my options open - kazoo maybe?)
* I will not work more than I play
posted by hbt at 12:56 PM

 
Yes well, it's a new year. Time for new things. A "year" is so arbitrary, and yet it's this self contained thing. "Oh, 2000...that was a bad year..." Only old people talk like that, right?

Our New Year's eve was spent with good friends and their family. There are not many things better than Playstation II through a projector - Mortal Kombat life sized! Ohhh the blood! All in all a fun night. All in all a good year, considering I married my now-husband and had the wedding and honeymoon of my dreams. Can't complain.
posted by hbt at 12:58 PM