Birthday loot!

Well, despite our lack of blogging lately, life has been going well! The house is coming along quite well, work is busy, and fun activities abound!

Today is a special day, though, as it is my birthday! I'm 24 (thats TWENTY FOUR) years old. A special shout out to that girl I've shared all my birthdays with - you know who you are! :)

As the official birthday is nearly over, its time to review the birthday loot.

Jon got me exactly what I wanted - a PSP. This is the handheld game system made by Sony.

He also got me a few games: "Me and My Katamari" and "Loco Roco." Both VERY cute.

From my co-worker Katie, a DARLING cake pan! I mentioned this to her one day, and she got it for me! How sweet! I can't wait to make a cake!

From the Mom and the Grandma... a bit of cash! Always welcome.

From the group of seniors my organization works with to improve Medicare, a WONDERFUL rendition on Happy Birthday at our monthly meeting today. It was beyond touching.

From the rest of the co-workers, some wonderful cupcakes with purple icing.

From many friends, some happy birthday well wishes!

Needless to say, I'm feeling very loved today!

Artistic renderings

The house purchase is going fine - we take possession on April 6. I'm sure there will be tons more updates then. (Or maybe just pictures of us working on the house?) In the mean time, here's some funny art.

This is the kind of art I really enjoy: stuff that indicates the artist is really talented, and yet incorporates themes I recognize. Like Christopher Walken building a robot in his garage. Or robots fighting. Or Abe Lincoln being a badass.

Brandon Bird, whom I first discovered through his Law & Order: Artistic Intent series, continues to create some amazing work that's also quite funny. I highly recommend that you check out his full collection of works on his website. In the meantime, here are a few of my favorites (click for full-size)

A Night Away



No One Wants to Play Sega with Harrison Ford



Lazy Sunday Afternoon

I also enjoy the works of one Eric Joyner. His masterful intertwining of robots and sweet pastries is mesmerizing. Again, here's a taste of his work:

Smackdown

no title



I/O Jima

We're homeowners!

Well, it has been far too long since we've updated. Life is busy and all that.

One reason that life has been so busy is because we BOUGHT A HOUSE!
WOO HOO! Check out the picture of it we took today - it says SOLD! :D

It is a cute little house in Olde Towne Champaigne, with lots of potential. We close on April 6th. We'll have a bit of painting and carpeting and whatnot to do, but we're very excited about it! I think we are officially grown ups.

To check out more pictures, click here! http://www.tmbg47.com/house/images/properties/full/

Birthday post

Well, today's my birthday, and I am now:


... years old

An overdue update

Okay, so it's been a while since we posted anything. I guess it just seems like, since The Wedding, we don't have anything really big happening in our lives. But I know that's not true. It's a new year, and I resolve to post more often in 2007.

Mere weeks ago, we purchased a new furniture set for our living room (thanks to Allie's dad: Mike). Pictures don't quite do it justice, but it is beautiful:

The sofa and love seat are a deep sea green, while the chair and ottoman match the pillows. Isn't it great?

It hasn't been delivered yet, but I'm already very excited. The sofa's a sleeper, so overnight guests won't have to sleep on the floor anymore!

We may not have quite enough space for all of it in our living room, but we're on track to move into a real house this Spring, which brings me to the next exciting update...

Yes, we're home-shopping! Well, we have scheduled an appointment with a mortgage loan officer next week and are hoping to find a beautiful home we can live in for several years. Yes, homes cost a lot of money, but we're pretty sure we can afford it, which brings me to another (not quite as exciting, but still important) update...

Do you live in Illinois and use AT&T's local phone service? Expensive, ain't they? Well, I read a blog called The Consumerist (which focuses on consumer-rights-advocacy mostly), and this post caught my eye one day. The gist of it is this: the Illinois Citizens Utility Board (aka CUB; a non-profit utility watchdog organization) has negotiated low-rate plans with AT&T for their Illinois customers.

The sign-up process can be a bit difficult, especially if you were an AT&T customer before the AT&T-SBC merger, in which case you have to "switch companies" from "The Old AT&T" (pre-merger AT&T) to "The New AT&T" (SBC/AT&T). Also, some AT&T call centers don't know about the new plans yet. Your best bet, if you want to take part in the savings, is to read over this brochure [pdf], call the number listed for the CUB, and they'll walk you through the process. They'll even tell you which of the new plans will save you the most money. To make it easy for them, have a copy of a recent AT&T bill handy when you call.

It's definitely worth it, in my opinion. Cut our bill in half. These new rates are only available to residents in Illinois, and they don't cover long distance at all. But seriously, AT&T long distance is a rip-off. I highly recommend Opex instead.

Well, enough with the seriousness. I'm sorry I don't have any new cat pictures to post, so instead here's a quick joke (not my own work; I'm afraid I don't know who created it):

Half-a-dozen of the other

The Bad:
- People who still don't have power
- Not getting to play Zelda as much as I want
- Crazy cats
- 1 F wind chill
- Computer problems that only occur when I'm not around
- Allie leaving all day Saturday

The Good:
+ TiVo freeing us from the shackles of "scheduled programming"
+ Getting the final version of Windows Vista running (and successfully activated!)
+ Websites that get me through the day (StuffOnMyCat and Fark)
+ My lovely wife
+ (Probably) getting another car (a nice one!)
+ Getting more Wiimotes and nunchuks (they're on their way!)

6 of 1

The Negative:
- Car would not start this morning
- I have to work all day Saturday
- My feet hurt & and I haven't slept well this week
- I only worked out once this week
- I have to miss my tennis lesson this Saturday cause of work
- My computer randomly shutting off!


The Positive:
+ Its FRIDAY!
+ Our Christmas trees
+ Car is seeming to start again
+ CCHCC Holiday Party - success!
+ Joy's cherping at Lenny
+ MY NEW BOOTS! (that I got for HALF OFF CAUSE I RULE)

Wii day arrives

Today was the day. Wii day. If you're not familiar with Nintendo's latest console, you can find more information about it on the official website. Essentially it's the successor to the Nintendo GameCube and the method of control is extremely innovative. So much so that it may in face put the big N back on top of the home console market. But I digress...

Wii day. For gamers such as me, this day has been in the making for longer than we can remember. Recently there were rumors of possible shortages... demand would be high, especially due to the hype generated on the internet. We decided the best course of action would be to wait in line outside our local Target this morning before they opened. I managed to get there about 6:00 (they opened at 8:00). This particular store was to have 39 in stock the first day. I was not a moment too soon! I stepped into the line, 37th person from the door.

It was a cold, cold morning... but it was worth it. I snapped this picture with my phone in the car.


Allie and I spent the rest of the day (after I got home at 9:00) setting it up and playing games. Man, it's amazing. Everything I thought it would be. Here's another shot in case the first one's not believable:



Everyone should get a Wii!

supa hot!

And one of MY favorites...

Website updates!

In the midst (er... near the end, actually) of a busy busy week, I've finally gotten around to updating our website, to coincide with the RTM (tech speak really gets into your head; sorry!) of the first wave of Thank-You notes.

Updates include a transcript of our wedding ceremony and photo albums from the wedding shower and the reception. The photos currently up are those that we got from the "table cameras." That means that you, dear reader, are the photographer who created these masterpieces.

Below are a couple of my personal favorites from the reception album.



Head on over to our website to check it all out!

Cat update!

Yes, my cats love me.




And here is my multi-cultural kitty family.

BAT!

So, the other week Jon and I were walking down one of the strip malls in Champaign, and much to our shock, we saw a bat!!!!

HOW AWESOME!

Here is where the bat was hanging out on the building.



And closer...





BATS ARE SO AWESOME!

Saying goodbye

As previously posted about on the blog, our friend Philipp from Germany came to visit for a few weeks. For those who do not know, he was originally in the US as an exchange student in high school, and we have all remained friends since, with a few international visits back and forth.

Philipp left to fly home today (Saturday), so last night we had a little get together at Ashley's mom's house. The evening was lots of fun, of course, with a grill, fried potatoes, and smores.

It is really hard to say goodbye to someone you love - especially if you know you will not see them for a long time.

Last night was also a bit hard, because Ashley's mom is probably going to be moving and selling her house. We have spent countless evenings at Ashley's house - playing board games, playing video games, drinking, eating, talking... etc etc. Doing all the wonderful things that make life wonderful. It is one of those places that you just cannot describe - I suppose the right word is home.
And, although a few friends were missing, it was a fitting goodbye.


So, last night was bitter sweet. I love where we've been, I love where we are, and I look forward to where we will all be.

I'll miss you Philipp, but we will be together again some day!
I'll miss you Ashley's house, but you will always be in my heart!



A part of you has grown in me. And so you see, it's you and me together forever and never apart, maybe in distance, but never in heart.

Here comes the bride!

Well, the wedding is over! It went so, so well! It was so great to see everyone look so beautiful. We had such a great time. There will be a longer update eventually, especially when we get the professional photos back.

But for now... thank you to everyone!

I love you, Jon!




(Thanks to my dear friend Amanda for the photo!)

Today's the day!

It's finally here, and we couldn't be more excited!

We hope to see you all there! Once again, here are the maps and directions, in case you need them.

German invasion

This weekend we hosted an international guest. I speak (well, actually type) , of course, of Philipp, our friend from Germany. Philipp has been a dear friend of ours ever since we met him in high school.

He was a foreign exchange student at the time at MacArthur HS and became friends with some MHS people I hung out with regularly. We got along well as fellow nerds often do, communicating through the international languages of binary and JavaScript. After he left to return to his homeland, we stayed in touch and he came to the U.S. to visit us again in the summer of 2004. Needless to say, we were surprised and delighted to find out that Philipp would be present at our wedding!

So after he flew into the States on Friday, he came to our house and we partied all weekend... and by partied, I mean played video games. But it was a lot of fun and we are definitely looking forward to everyone being there next weekend!

Speaking of which, holy crap the wedding is close! In a lot of ways, I feel like I'm ready for it; but I keep thinking there's so much left to do. I'm not sure there really is that much left to do, but it feels like it sometimes.

return to blogging!

It has been FAR too long since we've updated! Things are just so busy lately!

There is plenty to report to! My trip to California was great, and it is alos great to be back. The wedding planning is nearly complete, as it is less than a month until the big day! Things will hopefully calm down a bit afterwards.

Here is a photo I took in California after a difficult hike. More to come...

Bachelor chow

Allie's been gone to California for almost a week now. (I'm going to pick her up tomorrow, yay!) But I've managed to keep myself busy while she's been gone. Here are some of the projects/adventures I've had in the mean time.

Before Allie left for California, we went camping in a place called Graham Cave State Park. It was really pretty fun! Here's a photo I took of my knee and our campfire.


Then we hung out in St. Louis until her flight. We went to a Whole Foods for the first time, which was really awesome. Then we just kinda chilled at our hotel and Allie got ready for her departing flight, which was really early in the morning.

In the time since Allie flew away, I've managed to stay busy and take a few decent-ish pictures on my phone in the process. I rented and watched V from Netflix, which was interesting. A package came that Allie had ordered, which included these awesome items:

(whatever this thing is)

I also managed to do quite a bit of cleaning around the house that I'd been meaning to do for a long time. Ah, but I see the cat hair is already accumulating on our living-room floor once again. Oh well.

Today I went to the dentist and found out (not surprisingly) that I need a significant amount of dental work. I'm scheduled to get a root canal and a crown in mid-October and a small filling in November, then probably a few more crowns next year. Oh well... that's what dental insurance is for! While I was at my (new) dentist, I saw that he had proudly displayed the 2005 "Provider of the Year" award he received from CCHCC in the same office as his DDS diploma and Illinois state dentistry license. I was so excited (and wanted to show Allie) so I took a picture with my phone (You can almost read it):


Holy crap, the wedding is getting really close now... Eeep! I'm besided!


In geeky news, I've spent the past few days using Windows Vista Release Candidate 1 on my laptop. It is actually pretty good. I've only had it totally freeze up on me once, which is impressive for an OS that's still unfinished. The coolest eye-candy thing they've done is called Flip3D. Here's a video that gives you an idea of how it works. Aside from the aesthetic improvements, I looked through all the Group Policy settings today and noticed that a ton of stuff that I've always wished I could set by GPO (Power Options comes to mind) will be configurable in a Vista environment. Now that is exciting!

Other than that, I've just been watching reruns of Futurama, TOS, DS9, etc. all week

So tomorrow I drive to STL and pick up Allie. Hooray! The bachelor week comes to a close.

Muuur!

ALTHOUGH, there is something super important that I should write about!

We got yet ANOTHER kitty! This is it though! Our house is full!

We got this little one from my family in Oklahoma too, just like Edgar. Her original name was Abby, but that is my Mom's cat's name. So we have named her Joy because she is such a joy. She is SO sweet, she loves toes, and L-O-V-E-S Lenny and Edgar. They all get along really well. She's about 8 months old, but is only about as big as Edgar (4 months old).

One thing that has surprised me... its amazing how MUCH food three cats can eat!




Joy + Edgar = <3


Joy + Lenny = <3


Pile of Cats (tm)

biz

Super busy lately! No time!

But here is a cute picture of Jon and I.




PS. I go to California in SIX DAYS! A-w-e-s-o-m-e!