Freakin’ Fantastically Fun Friday!

Or as I like to call it, “FFFF.” Much to the discontent of anybody within range of my spit.

So, my very dear and amazingly awesome friend Erin (visit her blog here) was sweet enough to include me in a post concerning her favorite blogs that she enjoys visiting, so I figured I should probably cook up a nice little post. Had some fun stuff happen in the past couple weeks, so here’s a rapid fire update for you, starting with something incredibly exciting.

I got a haircut.

Okay, okay, I’m sorry.

I grilled a heart-shaped ribeye for Jenn and me on Valentine’s Day.

I used a new seasoning on it that I hadn’t used before, much to the delight of my easily amused palate. Jenn loved it, too. She cooked a mean pot roast that day for lunch. Our V-Day gift to each other was to stay at home and cook for each other. Best V-Day ever, seriously.

It snowed shortly before V-Day.

Just a little.

Some jerk kids knocked over our snowman. Here’s a dramatic reenactment of the discovery from after our second snowman fell over on its own…

Also, here’s Maddie catching a snowball.

Words With Friends is awesome. Here’s a screencap of the most epic opening word I’ve ever started a game with.

You can see my username on there, so feel free to challenge me. It’s a fun little diversion when I have some downtime at work.

I found this really awesome artist who makes some killer poster art based on favorite comic book characters. Here are two of my favorites, Green Lantern and Iron Man.

I especially love that GL poster. I mean, GL’s my favorite in general, but that’s just cool in its simplicity. Wish I had it framed for my nonexistent man cave. Heck, might as well throw in that Iron Man poster, too, if we’re talking nonexistent things. 🙂

Let’s see, what else? School’s going okay, graduation’s getting closer and closer. Work’s going fine, even though I’m beyond ready to move up into the world of teaching.

Jenn and I doing marvelously. We had our first premarital counseling session with our pastor and his wife last Sunday, and we’ll do our second/last one this Sunday. Planning the wedding and the honeymoon have really brought us together as a team more than ever before, and it makes me all the more excited to tackle life together with her.

Speaking of the honeymoon, I’ve been using Yelp and this excellent book to assemble a “bucket list” of sorts of restaurants and other stuff we have to check out while we’re in Kauai. It’s turning into quite a list, and I’m having a blast compiling all this info. There’s so much to do during the week that we’ll be there, and we’re so freakin’ excited about it. 🙂

Guess that’s about it for now. I hope you have a blessed and FFFF.

Excuse me, I need to get a paper towel.

Gettin’ there.

So today I’m wearing this nice brown polo shirt that Jenn got me for my birthday back in May. It’s a 2XL, and thanks to my dieting this week, today is the first time I’ve been able to wear it comfortably. 🙂

It’s been a lot easier this time around. I guess because of the new rules Jenn and I have set. Mainly, no soda, no sweets, and no fried foods for the next 18 weeks. Diet soda is okay, and we’re allowed 25 “cheats” during the 18 week period. So if we wanted to get a burger and fries, that would be one cheat (because technically, you can eat a burger on this diet). Not bad, huh? You’re also supposed to drink 72 oz. of water every day and work out, but I’m not so great on those. I wish I had time to go work out, then I’d be shedding pounds in no time.

Anyway, I think I’m finally past the caffeine withdrawal headaches. I did have a Coke Zero on Tuesday, and that seemed to have helped me feel better. I had a Diet Sierra Mist Cranberry yesterday, which is just delicious. I wish they had that year round, and not just during the holidays. That is some tasty stuff, friend. But yeah, the headaches seem to be gone finally, and I’m feeling SO much better now. Still kinda tired, but that’s just from pushing a crap-ton of mobile lab carts this morning. I try to encourage everyone to sign up early and not wait until the last minute, but that doesn’t really work. I know that most teachers do tend to have to sign up at the last minute for a variety of reasons, so I certainly don’t blame them for doing so. Besides, it IS a good morning workout for me. 🙂

That’s about all for now. Have a great day, friend.

iPSotD:

Caffeine Withdrawal Sucks.

Trying to quit soda again. Freakin’ sucks, my head is killing me. Hopefully I’ll get over it soon enough. Sorry for not blogging yesterday. I was lacking inspiration, I guess. Wasn’t even a busy day or anything!

Anyway, this past weekend was a blast. Friday night, Misty and Jenn and I had dinner at Los Lupes. Had some most excellent tamales. 🙂 On Saturday, Jenn took her bridesmaids to Ocone’s to look at dresses. They found the one they liked best, so they’re on order and will be delivered in February! Afterwards, Jenn and I took Angela to Crystal’s Pizza in Irving, because her sister organized a surprise birthday party for her. It was fun, their pizza is REALLY good! The restaurant itself was interesting, though. I felt like I was on the set of a Ghostbusters movie or something. Just, like, oddly creepy, but not in a bad way. Regardless, we still had a great time!

That night, Jenn, Misty, and Samantha had a girls night while I stayed with my brothers. Mom and Dad were out of town for their anniversary, so I hung around to keep an eye on Mark. Allen came over, and we watched Snatch and Superman/Batman: Public Enemies. Snatch was hilarious as always, but we hadn’t seen Public Enemies yet. It was a sweet little flick. Probably my favorite out of these new animated movies DC has been putting out lately. The animation style matches exactly with the drawing style used in the comic it was based on. And it was sweet to hear Tim Daly as Superman again, along with Kevin Conroy as Batman. Cool stuff.

Sunday, we took Allen to Genghis Grill for lunch. Allen’s getting ready to go to South America for his big solo adventure for three months, so we wanted to take him out one last time before he goes and gets lost in the Amazon. After lunch, we went down to Joshua to see his parents. It was the first time Jenn and Misty had met them, so that was pretty cool. We stayed until somewhat late in the evening, playing with the goats and watching the Cowboys game. Definitely one of the more relaxing Sundays we’ve had lately! I hated that we had to go home and get ready for the work week. That’s never fun.

Ugh, this headache is making me over-sensitive to noise. The kids yapping in here are driving me nuts, and I have to keep reminding myself that they really are being relatively quiet and good, it’s just me being too sensitive. Wish I had a soundproof room right now. Hah! Hopefully this headache will be gone soon, once the effects of caffeine withdrawal diminish. I’m back on the diet as of yesterday, too, so talk about quitting cold turkey. Think I’m getting the shakes. LOL

Guess that’s it for now. Hopefully I’ll get the pictures from this weekend online tonight, so keep an eye out for those on my Flickr. Have a good one, friend.

All quiet on the… laboratorial front….

No classes in either lab this afternoon. It’s exquisitely quiet here right now. Just how I wanted to end my week.

We celebrated Jenn’s birthday last night with her mom. Her dad was off on a fishing trip, so he couldn’t make it. But it was cool, we still had a lot of fun. Went to Olive Garden for dinner and got nice and stuffed there. Then we went back to Jenn’s for some cake. Little did I know that this was not just a cake… it was a Cheesecake Factory red velvet cake cheesecake. O. M. G. Let me tell you, friend, thanks to the night we first tried it at the CF for her mom’s bday, this is seriously my new favorite cheesecake.

It’s a layer of red velvet cake, a layer of cheesecake, another layer of red velvet, another layer of cheesecake, cream cheese frosting, and white chocolate shavings along the edge. WOWEE WOW WOW. Not only that, but Jenn’s mom got some Blue Bell Southern Hospitality ice cream to go with it. That sucker’s loaded. It’s vanilla ice cream with cherries, pineapple, pecans, and a strawberry swirl. Talk about a deadly combination with the cheesecake, huh? Needless to say, I was amazingly stuffed when it was all said and done. Good times, good times.

Oh, and for her birthday, Jenn’s mom got her all three boxes of our new dishes that we registered for at Bed, Bath, and Beyond! They look REALLY slick…

Jenn was SO cute when she opened the wrapped boxes. She was all giggly and excited, it was greatness.

So tonight, we’re gonna eat somewhere cheap, then go to the Highlands to look at furniture. Tomorrow, Jenn and her bridesmaids are all going to Ocone’s to pick out the bridesmaids’ dresses. While they’re doing that, I will be taking a nap, and it will be awesome. Dunno what we’re doing after that, though. At one point, we were talking about going to Crystal’s Pizza with Angela and James and the girls, but I’m not sure if that’s happening still. Guess we’ll just play it by ear. I’m just glad we’ll get to hang out with them regardless. 🙂

Guess that’s all I got for now. Have a great weekend, friend!

Dadgummit.

Sorry the blogging’s been all but nonexistent the past couple days. Between school and work, I’ve been having a hard time shifting gears enough to do this. Had a major paper due in Archaeology yesterday, plus an exam in Criminal Justice. So that was a little nuts! But, it’s all over now, so I’ve got at least a couple days of respite before it gets wacky again.

So Friday night, I surprised Jenn for an early birthday treat. I had Misty tell us that she wanted to go to Chuy’s for dinner with us after we finished registering at Home Depot. When we got there, Misty walked us back to where she had already got us a table. What Jenn didn’t realize was that there were a whole bunch of people waiting for us there. 🙂 My dad, Brad, her parents, her aunt and uncle, and several of our friends were all sitting there… and she walked right by them! Only when Kevin jumped out from behind a wall and surprised her did she realize what was going on. We got her good! LOL So that was a lot of fun. She totally had no idea, which was awesome. Tomorrow night is her real birthday, so we’re going to spend some time with her family to celebrate it.

Let’s see, what else has happened?… Oh yeah, Halloween was Saturday! That was a hoot. I volunteered my car to participate in our church’s Trunk or Treat party for the kiddos. I couldn’t believe I was the only one who decorated my car like this:

And the icing on the cake, of course, was Scottie volunteering to be eaten:

After we finished up there, we went to my family’s house for a little Halloween party. Nothing fancy, just hanging out and heating hot dawgs ‘n s’mores from the fire pit. The motley crew for the night:

So, fun little turnout there. 🙂

Sunday was our new music minister’s first day on the job. That was an absolute blast. Plus, even though we couldn’t have service out on the new property (dang mud), our pastor brought in a tub of dirt from the property and blessed it. It was very cool, and the service as a whole was SO much fun. We also raised nearly $200,000 in one-day offerings as part of the “first fruits” offering to go towards the development of the new church. I’m pretty sure that was the largest one-day offering in the history of the church. Very awesome.

That’s about all I got for now. Peace out, homeys.

Good grief.

*hooeeerrkk*

From Engadget…

Confirming our belief that Japan is at once among the coolest and craziest places on this planet we all call home is Burger King’s exclusive Windows 7 Whopper. Seven stacked beef patties extend your usual Whopper to over five inches in height and the whole thing costs an appropriate ¥777 (or $8.55). It’ll be available for one week only — or seven days, get it? Join us past the break to see the full towering size of this meaty monstrosity.

[…]

Andy Yang, our Engadget Chinese editor, has read the smallprint and noted that in fact only the first 30 customers each day will get the Win 7 Whopper at ¥777, with the rest shelling out a cool ¥1,450 ($17.10) for the privilege. Way to break with the number 7 theme, guys.

Seriously, even I have my limits. That’s just wrong on so many levels.

</3 Monday

Monday. I keel you.

I’m not feeling well at all right now. My stomach is killing me, and I feel really nauseous. So no iPSotD today, but click the picture below to see all our photos from our trip to the State Fair on Saturday. We had a great time trying out all the food, revisiting the spot where I proposed to Jenn, and getting to sit in the Bumblebee Camaro. 🙂 I’ll post a more detailed recap later one.

Click to see the whole photo set!

What really sucks is that I have a speech to give tonight, and a midterm right after it. So if you don’t mind, please pray that I get to feeling better, so I can do a good job.

Adventures in Registering

Okay, here’s what I was going to post yesterday, if I hadn’t left my camera cable at home. 🙂

Monday, we spent the day working on our wedding gift registry. We went to Crate & Barrel in Southlake Town Square, and after a wonderful lunch at Five Guys Burgers and Fries, we came back to Arlington and went to Macy’s and Dillard’s. We had a WONDERFUL time looking at all the cool stuff and using the spiffy little scannerthings at each store. Great quality time, and definitely a fun way to spend our day off together. 🙂 Here are some pictures from the day, including our experience at Five Guys…

The first scan!

SPOON!

MOLCAJETE'D! Can you tell I was excited about this one?

Lovely free gift for registering at C&B

Mmmm, burgernomz.

Purty deviled egg tray at Dillard's.

Pyew pyew!

No pictures from Macy’s, unfortunately. We were pretty busy there, working with the wedding registry coordinator there and trying to figure out which china we wanted to register for. The ones we settled on are pretty dang beautiful, in my opinion.

Does it make me less of a man when I appreciate fine bone china? I don’t think so! Heck, I look forward to cooking a mighty fine meal for my wife and using the fine china for celebrations and dinner parties. Yes, I am excited about dinner parties. Deal with it. Haha!

Most of the stuff we registered for is kitchen-related. New pots and pans, dishes, glasses/stemware, pitchers, some very fine Wüsthof knives, etc. We also registered for some new bedding and other assorted linens. We had so much fun! Can’t wait to go to Target on Friday and register there.

iPSotD:

Uhm... yes, God?

Gooooin’ to da chap-pel…

Welp, here we go…

In case you can’t tell by my faux-panicked facial expression, my suit for Troll’s wedding didn’t QUITE fit. It was kind weird, because while the shirt fit just fine, the vest was too tight. Bizarre, huh? Anyway, the lady said the vest would be ready by 5:00 today… which is exactly 25 hours before the wedding takes place. How’s that for cutting it close? Not really hip on that, personally. Jenn and I (and most people) agree, the attire for my groomsmen and myself will be ready LONG before our wedding. Neither one of us want to be stressing out about tuxes the day before we get married. Oh, and I wasn’t the only one who had a problem. The measurements for Troll’s tux? Yeah, they used Garrison’s (the previous BM) measurements. And in case you don’t know Troll or Garrison, Troll is about 5’8″ and Garrison is… oh, what, 6’4″? You can imagine how hilarious that looks, but still, not something they need to be stressing about the day before. I feel bad for Troll and his bride-to-be when I’m not laughing at the situation.

Anyway, tonight’s the rehearsal. The wedding’s taking place at All Occasion Party Place in southern Tarrant County. That’s right, “Occasion,” not “Occasions.” You thought that was a typo? Think again, friend! We just happen to have the most awesomely named party barn in the UNIVERSE!

I digress. I’m just ready to get this done. There’s been entirely too much drama surrounding this wedding, and it’s beyond old. I’m at the point now where if they really are happy to be getting married to each other and spending the rest of their lives together, then I wish nothing but the best for them and pray that it all works out for both of them.

We had our first Refuge Bible Study of the semester last night at Laura’s house. It was GREAT. Kilo did a great job starting us out in 1 Kings, aka the Book of Awesome Names. We’re looking at the life of King Solomon… or rather, THEY’LL be looking at the life of King Solomon. I was able to skip classes last night, but I definitely can’t do it every week. 😦 But maybe I’ll get lucky a few more times this semester, so we’ll see what happens. At any rate, we had a blast reading God’s word, eating baked potatoes, and catching up with some friends we haven’t talked with in a while. I wish we didn’t have to come back to to work today, otherwise we could have stayed longer and made a Whataburger taquito run like we enjoy doing with our friends occasionally. 🙂

Don’t you love making that late-night run to your favorite fast food joint? For me, Whataburger taquitos are at the top of the list. Getting a bag of sausage, egg, and cheese taquitos at 1 in the morning is just nothing but a blastie blast. And make sure you have the picante sauce, too. They just aren’t the same without the picante sauce.

But really, my absolute favorite (and most of you know this already) is Jack in the Box tacos. I mean, holy mackerel, those are the BEST. Something about about the greasycrispychewiness of it all just makes me ever so happy, especially when it’s late at night. I used to get them all the time when I was living on my own at my apartment. Even now, sometimes when Jenn and I are out late, we’ll swing by Jack in the Box for a bag of tacos. And I have to have Sprite with them when it’s late at night. Don’t ask me, because I have no idea. But for some reason, I don’t like drinking Dr. Pepper with my tacos when I’m getting them late, or even for dinner. Now, lunch time? Anytime before dinner? Perfectly okay. But once the sun goes down, I have to have Sprite with my tacos, and I have no idea why.

So what’s your favorite late-night goodness? Do you like to go out and get something like tacos, or is there something you keep stashed away in the cabinet/fridge for such an occasion?

iPSotD:

"Bless you, my child."

Fun Fact:

The longest fart ever officially recorded was some dude in London who ripped a two minute, forty-two second long fart.

Anyway, last final tonight. Western Civ seemed to go pretty well, so I’m confident about it. Reformation might be a little harder tonight, but I’ll be all right.

Jenn and I went to Olive Garden last night and had soup, salad, and breadsticks for dinner. We hadn’t done that in quite a while, so that was a lovely treat.

This is prob’ly one of the weirder blog entries I’ve made. Sorry. I think I’ve finally snapped when it comes to dealing with stuff at work. I’m now in my happy place.

Photo Booth Shot of the Day:

This is me. Gone.