Back to the Fyootcha!

So I figured to commemorate the last months of this blog’s existence, I’d go back to the theme I started out with. Sweet memories. Or something like that.

This Christmas break was just awesome. Got spoiled with all the lovely gifts from my family, the future in-laws, and Jenn. Got the LEGO Grand Carousel, a safety razor shaving kit from Jenn (I am all that is man), some killer binoculars with a built-in digital camera, assorted gift cards, and some very comfy slippers, among other things. I got Jenn the Eternal Love Cross pendant from James Avery, and she wears it every day now. It looks amazing on her. Oh, and we got a Wii! And Jenn got Wii Fit+ and that Jenny McCarthy workout game that comes with a camera that watches to make sure you’re doing the exercises right. Kinda creepy, but it should be fun. Haha!

One of the best things about Christmas this year, hands down, was that we finally got a White Christmas!

It snowed like the dickens on Christmas Eve. Like, blowing sideways and prohibiting your vision… dickens. Yeah, anyway, it calmed down overnight, but it was still BEAUTIFUL for Christmas Day. That was such an awesome treat. Wish it would snow again, as cold as it is outside. We’re supposed to see the coldest temperatures in a loooooong time around here starting tomorrow night. Like, wind chills around 0 degrees in the evenings. Yay!

We went to City Streets in Sundance Square for New Year’s Eve. It was fun to do some dancing with Jenn (and Misty made a friend that she danced with all night, hehe). And at midnight, Jenn and I looked at each other and said, “Now we can finally say ‘We’re getting married this year!'” LOL

Speaking of that, we got the tuxes picked out for me, the groomsmen, the dads, and the ringbearers. They look pretty dang slick, I can’t wait to see how we all look together. Along with that, over the holiday, Jenn’s also been working on some paper mache letters for a couple of the tables at the reception. She has some that spell out “WE DO” for the cake table, and “love is sweet” for our candy buffet table. They look really pretty, she’s done an excellent job with them.

Got some pretty big stuff ahead of me in the next couple months. Not only am I applying to graduate, but I’m going to be taking the TExES on February 6th. For those of you who don’t know, that’s the state certification exam that all Texas teachers have to take. And I’m taking it a month from tomorrow. Whoa! Talk about surreal, huh? I can’t believe I’m finally at this point. I get butterflies thinking about it. After ten years of jackin’ around and not knowing what to do with my life, I’m finally about to step into not only married life, but a full-on professional life. I think I may go get some of those paper mache letters, spell out “paraprofessional” with them, and burn them in a celebratory bonfire. 🙂

Anyway, say a prayer for us. These five months leading up to graduation and the wedding are going to be completely crazy, and Jenn and I are gonna need all the support we can get.

Oh, and we saw Sherlock Holmes. Frickin’ SWEET movie. I so want the soundtrack.

Legoland Discovery Centre Coming to Grapevine!

$12 million Legoland planned for Grapevine Mills

BY ALESHIA HOWE
October 27, 2009

+ enlarge photo

A new $12 million entertainment venue soon will be built at Grapevine Mills shopping mall – in more ways than one – as the property has announced the addition of Legoland Discovery Centre, a two to three-hour indoor Lego experience.

The latest addition to Grapevine’s growing entertainment, shopping and educational venues was announced on Oct. 27.

Global leisure giant Merlin Entertainments will build the attraction as part of an aggressive worldwide growth strategy.

Work is expected to begin on the project in June 2010, with the Legoland Discovery Centre set to open in March 2011. Models for the Grapevine site will be made in Merlin’s specialist studios and shipped in during construction, although plans and designs are already being drawn up, according to a release. According to the announcement, Legoland Discovery Centre will offer an interactive and educational experience aimed at families with children 3-12 years old. Based on the Lego bricks, Legoland Discovery Centres provide a range of interactive play areas including 4D cinema; master classes from the Lego Master Model Builder; Lego rides; special party rooms for birthdays and other celebrations; as well as a Miniland exhibit

Merlin currently holds 59 attractions in its portfolio – eight of those in the United States including Legoland California and Legoland Chicago as well as Madame Tussauds attractions in New York, Washington, D.C., Las Vegas and Hollywood, and a Sea Life aquarium alongside Legoland California and Underwater Adventures Aquarium in the Mall of America in Minneapolis. The Grapevine attraction is one of three Merlin projects set to open in 2010 and 2011.

“We believe Grapevine is exactly the right location for a Legoland Discovery Centre,” said Glenn Earlam, managing director of Merlin’s Midway Attractions Operating Group, which includes the LDCs, in a release. “It is ideally situated between Dallas and Fort Worth, and is already a popular destination for family visitors.”

Grapevine Mayor William D Tate said the attraction will “become one of the most unique and best family attractions in Texas. In developing Grapevine as a top destination city, we have pursued very unique and exclusive attractions and hotels. Clearly Merlin Entertainments is one of the best visitor attraction companies in the world, and the Legoland Discovery Centre will be recognized as a unique and integral part of Grapevine’s visitor appeal.”

Simon Property Group, which is working with Merlin Entertainments on a number of projects in the USA, helped to facilitate the deal.

Original story here.

Nathan Sawaya

(click for gallery)

This is Nathan.

(click for gallery)

Nathan is a professional LEGO sculpture artist.

(click for gallery)

Pretty sweet, huh? Well, check out what I just found on his site.

O SNAP! (click for gallery)

How friggin’ sweet is that!? I totally wanna build one of those.

Steak ‘n Dawgs.

How was your Memorial Day weekend? Mine was pretty nice. Friday night, Jenn and I went to the Parks Mall so she could find a dress. She managed to find exactly what she wanted at the very first store we went to, which was just awesome. Had dinner at Buck n’ Loon’s after that. Tried their Frito Pie, which was quite delicious. Tried their queso for the first time, too. It was VERY good.

Saturday, Jenn went to a wedding shower for a girl at church. I had some “man time” while she was gone. Munched on leftover Frito Pie while watching “Band of Brothers” on the History Channel. Yep, MAN TIME. LOL! It was a nice relaxing afternoon. After the wedding shower, she and I went back up to Frisco to the LEGO Store, so I could get my bag of goodies for volunteering at the grand opening event. I got a gift card as part of my swag, so I used that toward a couple of LEGO sets for Jenn and me. I’ll have a post about the big set we got later on, because I’m waiting on an email from her with what she wants to say about it. 🙂

Anyway, had dinner out there at California Pizza Kitchen, which was pretty sweet. I had their Buffalo Chicken Pizza. It was pretty amazing, except for the celery. Made it taste, like, Chinese. I wasn’t really feeling it, so I picked them off. The best part, hands down, was that the pizza had Gorgonzola cheese on it instead of mozzarella. WOW.

Sunday was a pretty good day. We met Misty, Chris, Sarah, and Amber (w/baby Wyatt) for lunch at the new Which Wich? in South Arlington on 360. I had The Wicked, which consisted of five meats and three cheeses, along with the veggies I had added on. Definitely my new favorite. I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to convince myself to try anything else there from now on.

Yesterday, Jenn’s parents and aunt and uncle came over to eat for Memorial Day. Jenn’s dad and I grilled steaks and hot dogs, and we had quite a spread like we always do on holidays. Plenty of leftovers too, so Jenn and I are gonna have chili dawgs for dinner tonight. 🙂

Well, now that I’ve pretty much done nothing but blog about food, I’m going to get eat lunch. Adios.

Photo Booth Shot of the Day:

Ooooh, Poooong.

You’ve got the touch… you’ve got the POWAAAH!

First of all, as promised, here are the pictures from the day the hardwood floors were installed:

Click the picture to see the entire gallery!

So, I didn’t mention it here yet, but Jenn’s computer got fried last week. Her mom was over at her house doing some work on it, and a delivery truck outside snapped a power line and caused an outage on her block. When the power came back on, the computer wouldn’t. 😦 I opened it up and poked and prodded at everything. But since I’ve never really done any hardware removal or installation (I can identify the guts, but I’ve never moved ’em around), I wasn’t sure what to do. Finally, after process of elimination, I figured out that the power supply was receiving power, but it wasn’t sending that power to the components. Which meant, thankfully (cuz they’re cheap), she needed a new power supply.

(By the way, you can click these pics if you wanna see the bigger images)

So, we went to Fry’s Electronics last night… and I made the mistake of talking to an employee. Look, don’t get me wrong. I’m certainly not insulting the intelligence of Fry’s employees, because they most definitely know their stuff. But let’s face it… most of them are real jerks about it. I don’t know if it’s intentional or not, but many of them have a bad habit of talking down to their customers and making us feel like crap no matter how much we know about what we’re looking for. Seems like every time I walk into a Fry’s and try talking to an employee, I’m left feeling like a big fat dummy when it’s all said and done, when in reality, I should be walking out of the store feeling pretty dang awesome because I just bought myself some sweet new bit of tech. It’s ridiculous! And not only was this first guy we talked to the epitome of what I’m talking about here, but he scared the living daylights out of Jenn by saying that the power surge probably wiped out her entire system, including the hard drive. I thought Jenn was going to faint when she heard that, because all of our wedding plans are on that computer. So, the guy says this, but then says that if we want to try replacing the power supply and see if that works (which he said in a very snarky manner), they’re “right down that aisle.” Yeah, he didn’t offer to help us find the right one. He just basically told us that we were idiots for thinking we could fix this computer, but hey, give it a shot. *sigh* Anyway, I found one that I thought would work, so Jenn bought it and we took it back to her house.

Once we got back, I opened the computer back up and removed the old power supply. Which is kinda hard, by the way. Let me think… there were… at least six different places where that power supply was plugged into something. And each connection had a lovely and colorful bundle of wires accompanying it, which made it hard to separate each connection and make sure everything was unplugged before trying to pull the box out. But anyway, did that, and I opened up the new power supply… only to find that it had the wrong connections. I didn’t even know that power supplies could have different connections! See where the employee could have helped us out here? AUGH.

Now let me digress here for a second. I’m 100% sure that not all Fry’s Electronics stores are staffed with jerks. I’m positive that there are a few out there that are chock full of some of the nicest darn people on the planet. The one in Arlington? Not so much.

BUT, there are a few. And after I brought the power supply back and got a refund (thank goodness Jenn paid with cash), I was fortunate enough to have not one, but two nice employees help me out. Here’s the best part: I told them about what happened to the computer, and one of the guys was like, “Oh, yeah, I’m sure your hard drive is fine. It should just be the power supply, and incidents like this almost never fry the other components. Especially the hard drive, those things are pretty resilient.”

I looked at him, and I could have started to do a jig. Never in my life have I been so happy to talk to a Fry’s employee.

So, once we (yes, WE, because they helped me find one) found one that would work, I took it back to Jenn’s house, popped it in, plugged in the eight billion connections, and hit the power button. The fan whirred to life, and the power button glowed a lovely shade of blue. We had POWAAAHHH! Hallelujah! So I took it back in the computer room and plugged the monitor in, 100% sure that we were going to see the desktop with everything there.

The screen stayed black.

I thought Jenn was going to start crying. We were both like, “What’s wrong? Why won’t it come on? Is the hard drive dead? We’ve lost everything!”

So I’m sitting there just, like, beyond pissed off. I thought I had fixed it, and that I was right the whole time, and that my first “surgery” was a success. I was SO mad at myself for not being able to fix her computer, and that she had lost everything.

Then, the nerd side of my brain kicked in and thought “… I wonder if I really plugged everything in?”

So I unplugged the monitor and took the computer back to the kitchen table where I was working on it. Opened it back up and got my flashlight out. I perused the entire motherboard from every angle. Sure enough, tucked back in behind the CPU fan, there was a little 4-pin connection that I had forgotten about. I plugged that in, took it back to the computer room, plugged in the monitor, and turned it back on. While I was sitting there waiting for it to turn on, I told Jenn to come in there with me.

Just as she walked in, the desktop with all her stuff came up on the monitor, and I turned around and said to her, “Welcome back.” We were both SO happy and relieved that everything was just where she left it. The second guy was right, the hard drive was totally fine. Praise the Lord!

*whew* What a story, huh?

So anyway, this weekend, Jenn’s wanting to go shopping for a new dress for something we have coming up soon. We’re gonna hit the Parks Mall tonight and get some food somewhere out there. Tomorrow, she’s going to a wedding shower for one of the girls at our church, and then we’re gonna drive on up to Frisco so I can go to the LEGO Store and hopefully get my bag o’ goodies for helping out last weekend. She’s gonna look for a dress out there, too. Also, hopefully, we’ll be swinging by North Park Mall to pick up the models for that LEGO Store, because they accidentally got shipped there instead of to my house. … She’s gonna look for a dress out there, too. LOL!

Dunno yet what we’re doing for Memorial Day. What are your plans?

Oh, and one more quote from my coworker. I’m sitting here working on this entry. It’s dead quiet in here. All of a sudden, I hear him tell the chat room he’s in (via microphone):

“ARR! I’m in my pirate suit! ARR!”

Photo Booth Shot of the Day:

Uh...

So, how was your weekend?

Oh, it was pretty good. Thanks for asking. Today kinda sucked, though. We had a power outage for about thirty minutes this morning, and when the power came back on, the network was all sorts of wonky. I’m only now able to use the internet in a normal fashion. Lame.

Jenn and I (with Colin and Misty in tow) went out to Frisco on Friday night for the grand opening of the LEGO Store at Stonebriar Centre. From what the managers told me, it was an epic grand opening, to say the least. Apparently it was the best grand opening of any LEGO Store evar, which is pretty freakin’ sweet. Colin and I volunteered to help break apart some bricks that were used to help build the eight foot tall R2-D2 during the day, and we’ll be getting gift cards and some other goodies for our service when we go back up there next Saturday.

On Saturday, Jenn finally got her hardwood floors! The workers from Home Depot came out around 9:00 that morning, and they worked hard until and got everything done by around 1:30. The result is just absolutely stunning. Between the maple floors and the gorgeous tan color we painted the walls with, it’s like a whole new house. Everything feels so much warmer in there, and it’s real easy to just kick back on the couch and take a nice nap. Easier than before, at least! Anyway, I’ll upload some better pictures soon, because these cell phone pictures just don’t do it justice. Though my fiancé looks pretty cute in this one: 😉

How you doin'?

So yep, that’s FINALLY done. Jenn was starting to get antsy having all her furniture stacked in the kitchen for two weeks (between painting and the floors), so it was a tremendous relief (for both of us) to finally get everything back where it belongs.

Oh, and a big pat on the back for Erin S., Jana C., and everyone else who coordinated the absolutely adorable children’s choir performance at church last night. Y’all did an excellent job! “I know a Noah, I knowww a Noooah….” 🙂

Photo Booth Shot of the Day:

A g-g-g-ghost! (I think I used this caption before)

A Heavenly Chorus.

That’s what I heard when I went into the stock room of the new LEGO Retail Store in Frisco last night. So… much… LEGO. It was beautiful.

Now, why didn’t I take any pictures? Your guess is as good as mine.

Anyway, yeah, Jenn and I went out to Stonebriar Centre last night to drop off the models I had to build for the store displays. Got to see the store in its incomplete form, which was still pretty sweet. All the sets were out on the shelves and the Pick-A-Brick was stocked (same stock as the Houston store, dangit). Basically, the center of the store wasn’t done, and neither was the front window displays. Still a lot of work to be done, but I’m sure it’ll all be ready by the time the store is supposed to open on Thursday. We’re going out there on Friday, and I’m going to volunteer during the big building event they’re gonna have to celebrate the grand opening. Basically, kids who want to participate use bricks to build a single large brick, which is then used to help a LEGO Master Builder build an eight foot tall statue of R2-D2 out in the court in front of Dillard’s. Should be pretty fun.

I just found out that the inventory sheets I’m supposed to do for my computer labs are due tomorrow. So umm… I’ll be right back.

… Apparently pressing “Save Draft” equates to publishing it on the blog. Awesome. Anyway, I gotta few minutes while my laptop brings up my inventory list, so I’ll wrap this up.

So after we hung out at the LEGO Store for a while, Jenn and I walked around the mall a bit and took in the sights. Drove around for a bit after that looking for something Mexican to eat for dinner. Finally found an On The Border, so we had some yum-yums there. And on the way home we got some ice cream from Braums, which was quite the delicious treat.

I’ve got my World Civ final tonight, and my Reformation final tomorrow night. Then I’m done for a couple weeks until summer school starts. I’m definitely looking forward to having a few evenings where I can just sit back and relax immediately after work for once. Yay!

Photo Booth Shot of the Day:

My nose is hawt.

Monnday Monnday…

Well, Star Trek went far and beyond my expectations. I had heard tons of great things about it, so I went in with pretty high hopes. I was still completely blown away by how AWESOME it was. Everything about the movie was pitch-perfect. The characters, the plot, the visual effects, the humor, the music, and especially the sound effects. The opening shot of the USS Kelvin was accompanied by the updated-yet-still-totally-old-school nav buoy chirp from the old Star Trek TV series, and it couldn’t have been done better. From the sounds to the vehicles to the overall look of just everything, they took all the stuff that was cool about the old TV show, and completely updated it. Normally, it would be so incredibly cheesy. But somehow, they made every single aspect of it work. Absolutely perfect. I wanted to watch it again the second the credits were rolling.

Tonight, Jenn and I are going up to the Stonebriar Centre in Frisco. The new LEGO Store is opening this weekend, and this is going to be the only time I can drop off the sets I built for the displays. Should be pretty neat to see the store before it even opens, so I’m looking forward to that. Obviously, that means I don’t have class tonight. I have my World Civ final tomorrow night, and my Reformation final on Wednesday, and I’ll be done after that. Trig final was on Saturday, I think I managed to pull that off pretty well. I was shocked to see that I got a 93 on the last test we had in there before the final, so that should boost my grade pretty nicely, too.

Photo Booth Shot of the Day:

I'm ready for this school year to be over.

Picture-O-Rama!

Okay, here’s the pictures of the crawfish boil that I meant to post yesterday. 🙂 Click below to see the full set:

Crawfish Boil in Little Elm

Also, here’s some pictures of us building a LEGO set for the Frisco LEGO Store:

Behold the Emerald Night!

Last night we went out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse for my future brother-in-law’s birthday. Had a pretty incredible steak there:

The Dallas Filet. It's life-changing.

So yep, that about covers it.

Photo Booth Shot of the Day:

If you take a good look at each pic, you can tell whether or not I'm alone in my office when I take every day's pic.

Renaissance Man.

So I registered for Summer and Fall classes this morning. Look like it’s gonna be a pretty fun lineup…

Summer 1:
World Civ 2
Musical Traditions of the World
Spanish III (at TCC SE)

Summer 2:
Images of the American West
American Political Parties
Spanish IV (at TCC SE)

Fall:
(Real)Pirates of the Caribbean (YAY, I got in!)
Business and Professional Communication
Europe: The Renaissance
Intro to Archaeology
Intro to the Criminal Justice System

My schedule for the Fall is the reason for the title of today’s blog entry. 🙂

Anyway, I’m excited! Got some cool classes to look forward to. I just have to get through the rest of this incredibly blah semester. Only four more weeks, thank goodness.

Easter Weekend was fantastic. I skipped class on Thursday night to go the Maundy Thursday service with Jenn. It was very nice and simple. The Tenebrae service on Good Friday was pretty amazing. I got a lot of compliments on the duet I had with Gordon and the unaccompanied solo I played at the end. The service was very dark and somber, very typical for a Tenebrae service. Great service to commemorate the death of Jesus.

On Saturday, I drove up to Frisco (Jenn stayed home and went shopping with Misty) to meet up with the local LEGO club I’m kind of in charge of. The community development guy for the company asked me to get the group together to build a bunch of sets and models for the new LEGO Store opening in Frisco within the next several weeks, so we met for the first time in at least a couple of years. It was a lot of fun, and I got to meet one of my online LEGO pals, Nannan, for the first time in person. Click the pic below to see the rest from that day:

YAY for building sets that I don't have to buy!

That evening we went over to my parents’ house to have dinner and color eggs. Mom gave us some Easter goodies. Nom nom choklit bunny!

Then there was the Easter Sunday service, which was just the bomb. Christopher, our music minister, had this excellent little monologue that he started the service with, which consisted of the passage of the Bible where the angels tell of the resurrection of Jesus. The way he read it was very moving and generally just plain cool. It was a perfect start to the service. I had a lot of fun playing “And Now My Lifesong Sings” with Gordon, and apparently everyone liked it. 🙂 The only wacky part about the whole thing was doing two services back to back. I haven’t done that since I used to play for my old Methodist church, so that kinda wiped me out. Anyway, the rest of Sunday was just exquisite. Jenn and her mom cooked Easter supper for most of the afternoon, and I crashed in the living room for a good hour or so. That was some mighty fine napping.

Oh, and kudos to Ms. Erin Smith for being awesome and trying to serve as our impromptu Sunday School teacher when no one else would (ie. a certain ANDY in our class… :-P). Erin, that is why you are awesome.

Photo Booth Shot of the Day:

"They call 'em fingers, but I've never seen 'em fing. ... Oh, there they go."