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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.
Clash of the Titans Trailer
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.
2016/2012
So I’m watching the International Olympic Committee vote on where the 2016 Summer Games will take place. Ol’ Wacky Baracky’s been busy forgetting he’s no longer a US Senator representing Illinois (whoops, did I say that out loud?), so obviously the news has been all over this particular round of voting.
Personally, I’m divided. On the one hand, Chicago’s a mess right now. If you’ve done any digging lately, you’ll see that crime there has just been hideous right now. BUT, if Chicago wins it, they’ve got a little over six years to clean up the mess before everyone comes over. And hey, anything to help clean it up has to be a good thing, right? So heck, more power to ’em. My vote’s for Rio, though, just because South America has never hosted before.
So let’s see what happens… Voting has closed, so now they’re tallying… Whoa, there goes Chicago! There’s a shocker. Tough luck there, BO. Now Tokyo’s eliminated. Tough break. And the winner is. . . going to be announced in an hour.
D’oh! Oh well.
Anyway, I also watched a scene from the 2012 movie this morning. In it, John Cusack is racing to get his family out of California as it’s sinking into the ocean. They barely escape on their plane, after driving them in a limo through the destruction of Los Angeles.
In other words, SWEET! LOL! I so can’t wait for this movie! I loved The Day After Tomorrow, so I’ll prob’ly love this movie even more. Very cool. I mean, yeah, cheesy. But come on, you know all that chaos is gonna look awesome on the big screen.
Taking it easy this weekend. Not really doing much tonight, but tomorrow’s a big day! I’ll mention the main reason later, but the other reason is because I’m taking a big step in reducing the clutter in my life. I’m going to go through my stuff tomorrow and get ready to sell off a whole bunch of my toys that I’ve collected in recent years.
I know, right? Didn’t see that one coming, didja? But yep, it’s true. Time for me to drop some baggage and hopefully make a little coin while I’m at it. Yes, I’m going to keep one or two things. But the vast majority is going bye-bye. I think I’ma try Craigslist for most of it. Might see if some of you guys, ie. my LEGO pals, are interested in buying via one of our online communities. So stay tuned and I’ll link ya through here, if you’re interested.
Oh, one more thing I wanted to share. I was watching Monday’s episode of Heroes on Hulu, and there was this deaf lady who has discovered she has the ability to “see” sound. Random noises produce pretty pretty lights that only she can see, and the effect is pretty cool to watch. She finally… I dunno, embraced(?) her power towards the end of the episode, and she played a cello so she could see the trippy lights.
Now, obviously, she was faking it. I doubt she really knows how to play. Which is fine, of course. It still looked cool! My only real beef was that instead of going the extra mile and actually bringing in a real cellist to play the music dubbed over this scene, they cheaped out and use a flippin’ synthesizer. LAME. Come on, it’s not like it was a difficult piece to play! Were all the professional cellists busy on the day you recorded this? Heck, call me. I’ll be happy to help you out. LOL
Have a good weekend, friend!
iPSotD:
XKCD comics. The teachers are usually the ones who get them.
“A Jedi Warrior.”
Oh my gosh. Seriously, you have to go watch this movie trailer right now. This could potentially be one of the funniest movies in the history of cinema. Coming out November 6th:
It has Ewan McGregor, George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, and Kevin Spacey in it.
Seriously, go watch it now. I’ll wait here.
Does that not have “classic” written all over it? I am all sorts of giddy about it. First thing I did after watching the trailer was call Allen and my dad and tell them all about it, and they’re both excited about seeing it now, too. LOL
And how about that poster? Is that not a riot!? I so want it!
Anyhoo, it’s a nice day today. Lab’s nice and cool, which is just marvelous because I had to go move computers this morning, and I was all sorts of sweaty afterwards. The administrators had to borrow some machines from one of my labs for student registration this week, so I had to go break them all down and move them back to the lab this morning. At some point I sliced my finger open (see below), and I didn’t even realize it until I sat down here at my desk and saw that my hand was covered in blood. Fortunately, my new location is just down the hall from the clinic, so I was able to go clean it up real nice before it got swine flu or something in it.
Oh, and I was able to find a flat panel monitor to switch out with the crusty old CRT on my desk. So I have much nicer monitor now that’s a whole lot easier on my eyes. Yay!
Guess that’s it for now. Jenn and I are gonna take it easy big time this weekend and unwind from the crazy week we both had. We’re going out to eat somewhere tonight, taking Maddie to Petsmart tomorrow, maybe hit a bookstore so I can pick up a book or two for my Pirates class, and that’s pretty much completely it. Looking forward to relaxing and napping. A LOT.
Have a fantastic weekend, friend.
iPSotD:
Owch. Not a good place to slice my finger open.
Back To Work.
Here we go again. 🙂
Back at work today. Everything’s where I left it, except for the pile of camera cases that someone left on my desk. No big deal, of course.
Jenn has jury duty today. Fell on a pretty bad day for her, considering she’s in the middle of trying to get everything ready in her classroom, since the first day of school is next Monday. We’re hoping they’ll excuse her once she explains her situation, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that doesn’t work so well. She’s got her mom with her to keep her company, at least, so she won’t get too bored.
I saw GI Joe on Monday night with my dad, Brad, Allen, and Kevin. It turned out WAY better than I expected. I’m actually leaning towards liking it better than Transformers 2, in terms of the action and the dialogue. Honestly, the acting was way better. It’s all relative, mind you, but still. 🙂
Purchased all my textbooks online yesterday via Alibris and Half.com. It was a bit cumbersome trying to compare prices all over the place, but in the end I saved at least 100 bucks as opposed to just buying them all from UTA. So yeah, not complaining. Woo-Hoo! My classes start Monday, the same day that school starts in Arlington and GP. That’ll be quite a day. I’m PRAYING that this Fall semester will be more fun than the summer sessions were. I just checked my Summer II grades, and I actually passed the Political Parties class with a C! But, somehow, I freakin’ failed my American West class. AUGH. That’s, like, the exact opposite of what I was expecting to happen. Freakin’ sucks. I LOVED that class. And it was a History class, too! So frustrating. Crap happens, I guess. But I shouldn’t have failed a class that’s a part of my major. That’s just inexcusable.
*sigh* Oh well, can’t do anything but focus on what’s next. I’m taking 15 hours this Fall, but on paper it looks like it’ll all be fun stuff. Pretty sure I’ve posted it before, but here’s my schedule:
Monday/Wednesday
5:30 – Business & Professional Communications
7:00 – History of The Renaissance
Tuesday/Thursday
3:30 – Intro to Archaeology
5:30 – Intro to Criminal Justice
7:00 – Pirates of the Caribbean
Seems like a heckuva fun lineup, right? God, please let this go well…
Photo Booth Shot of the Day:
Back in the saddle.
An update just for you, Kilo.
Man, what a summer this is shaping up to be. Classes have been kicking my butt, and I am beyond ready to be done with school. Summer I at UTA was pretty rough, but I think I emerged unscathed. Summer II is shaping up to be pretty cool, with my Political Parties and Images of the American West classes. TCC is kinda the exact opposite, though. Summer I was a lot of fun thanks to the people and the teacher in my Spanish III class. But now Summer II kinda sucks, because Spanish IV and Intro to Architecture just aren’t tickling my fancy so much. BUT, I’ll get through it. Have to.
Jenn and I (with Misty) took our annual trip down to Galveston this past weekend. Despite what some people said about the devastation caused by Hurricane Ike, it actually looked really great down there. True, there was a field full of destroyed boats right as you crossed the bridge onto the island. And true, there’s a huge gaping hole in the side of the Flagship Hotel on the Seawall, along with the entry ramp being completely washed away. But aside from all that and some minor cosmetic damage to various stores, it really wasn’t that bad at all. Stewart Beach was in better shape than it’s ever been. This is the first year we’ve been able to go there and not have to deal with massive amounts of washed-up seaweed. It was clean and beautiful. We were able to get out there on the beach two days in a row this year, and I’m paying for it right now. I look like the Leper of UTA or something here.
Oh, there was one MAJOR downer about the trip. A good chunk of the Strand is still closed due to damages, namely LaKing’s Confectionary, which is (or was) one of the greatest ice cream and candy shops to ever exist in the history of the universe. It was completely shut down, and that made Jenn and I really sad. 😦 But we made up for it by having a blast on the beach, and checking out some amazing restaurants that we’ve never been to before, so it was okay.
Speaking of the restaurants, O.M.G.. Fish Tales, Miller’s Landing, and Salsa’s. DO NOT go to Galveston without eating at these three places. Wonderful stuff, friend. Life-changing.
Oh, and then there was Buc-ee’s, the greatest travel stop EVAR. If you ever run across one in your Texas travels, you absolutely must stop there. You’ll love it, I guarantee. I can’t even put into words the awesomeness of Buc-ee’s. Lemme put it this way… do you like jerky? Ever wished you could order just about any kind/flavor of jerky imaginable, fresh from the deli? Yeah, go to Buc-ee’s. And don’t forget to get some Frostie’s Root Beer. It’s on tap there. OH YEAH.
So yeah, all in all and excellent weekend.
In other news, I’m geeking out like a… geek… about Green Lantern right now. Variety is reporting that Ryan Reynolds has been cast as Hal Jordan for the new Green Lantern movie coming out in a year or two. To me, Ryan Reynolds is one of those awesome actors who tends to get stuck in crappy movies, ie. Wolverine and Blade: Trinity. But the man can act, and I think he can totally pull off Hal Jordan. Can’t wait. On top of that, I just preordered “Green Lantern: First Flight” on DVD, and I get to go pick up my copy of Blackest Night #1 tomorrow from Lone Star Comics. Freakin’ awesome! 🙂
Guess I’ll wrap this up by telling you something that most of y’all already know, and has been a long time coming: I finally got an iPhone! Yay!
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.
Alas, how the mighty have fallen…
From KFC.com…
We are so sorry, but due to the overwhelming response to our FREE Kentucky Grilled Chickenâ„¢ meal coupon, we can no longer redeem the free coupon at this time. But we will honor our commitment to giving you a free Kentucky Grilled Chicken meal.
Please visit a participating KFC restaurant for a rain check form. Complete the form, attach your original coupon , and give it to the KFC restaurant manager or postmark per the form’s instructions, by May 19, 2009, and we’ll send you a rain check for your free Kentucky Grilled Chicken meal at a later date, plus a free Pepsi with our compliments. Your participating KFC restaurant will provide you with the form you need.
Please note that the redemption periods of the rain checks will vary. All other terms and conditions of the original free Kentucky Grilled Chicken coupon will apply.
Thank you for your understanding,
Roger Eaton
KFC® President
Such a sad state of affairs. What has the world come to when restaurants will no longer accept coupons for free food!? ¡¿POOORRRR QUUUEEEE?!
*ahem* Okay, enough of that.
I’ve been running updates in one of my computer labs this morning. We’ve got End Of Course tests going on starting next week, so I gotta make sure Microsoft isn’t going to interrupt anyone using the computers for testing. It’s not as mundane as it sounds, running Windows Update on 25 computers at once. I’ve got a computer for my personal use off to the side in that lab, so I can sit there and chill while supervising the updates. Good times. I would be there right now, but I’m about to go next door to see my boss for my summative evaluation in a few minutes. Wish me luck with that.
In other news Star Trek tonight! WOO-HOO!!! Show starts at 8:00, Jenn and I have a decent little group going together, including my brother and my dad. This is gonna be so much fun, I can’t freakin’ wait. 😀
Photo Booth Shot of the Day:
Dr. Pepperz. Is a good morning.
Mmmm….. chikin.
So, in case you didn’t know, Oprah gave away coupons for free meals at KFC, in an effort to get people out there to try their new grilled chicken. So you’d go to unthinkfc.com (don’t bother, the download time has expired), print out this coupon, and take it to KFC to get your free meal. Pretty sweet, huh?
Well, not so much. Apparently there have been a lot of issues all over the place with KFC not accepting certain coupons. Apparently, the coupon is generated with a new UPC every time someone downloads it, in order to avoid counterfeiting (mmmm, counterfeit chikin…). BUT, for some reason, at one point the coupon was offered as a downloadable PDF… so you have a bunch of people with the exact same UPC trying to use their coupons. So, because of this, many KFCs stopped accepting any coupons ending in 1234, much to the displeasure of many patrons. Apparently there have been screaming customers, screaming managers, sit-ins, and drive-by cow-tossings. That last one was a lie. But long story short, a whole lotta people are pissed over a really stupid promotion that obviously wasn’t thought through very well. Never underestimate the lure of some good chicken, people. They should know better.
Despite all the problems, you should see the crowds… the offer doesn’t actually expire until the 19th (“excluding Mother’s Day, May 10, 2009“), but they were still out in droves last night. Jenn and I tried to go to a local KFC joint for dinner at around 8:00 last night. After we finally managed to find parking spaces, we then proceeded to go to Whataburger instead. I’m pretty sure there were about eighteen different fire codes being violated, due the crush of people in that blessed restaurant. It was RIDICULOUS. And what’s really hilarious is that most of those people probably have the PDF coupon, which means they will probably be there EVERY NIGHT until the 19th (“excluding Mother’s Day, May 10, 2009“) using multiple copies of the coupon. What a mess, huh?
At any rate, Oprah’s website (or as I like to call it, the altar to the false god) is now saying that the PDF coupons WILL be accepted now. So I’m gonna go try my luck at the KFC by work here in a couple hours. And I tell you what, after all this, if this ain’t the best grilled chikin I’ve ever had in my life, I’m gonna laugh hysterically…. Which means I’ma go ahead and go strap on my laughin’ shoes.
*whew* Anyway, dead week’s just about done. We’re reviewing in Western Civ and *shudder* Trig tonight, and then that’s it until finals. My Trig final is from 12-2:30… THIS SATURDAY. Frickin’… whose idea was that!? I mean, on the bright side, I can go ahead and get it out of the way, so I can go study for my other finals. But on the down side, it’s MATH. On a SATURDAY. Frickin’…
Oh, there is another bright side. My History of US Law teacher decided last night that we weren’t going to have a final in there. So we had a class discussion about modern US Law, and we all got A’s for our final grades. Woo-Hoo!!! She’s notorious for doing that, so I’m not totally surprised. She gave us a take-home final in my Ancient Egypt class last semester, which was almost as awesome as not having to take a final at all. So yeah, that’s one less class to worry about next week. One less essay to write too, thank goodness. Reformation and Western Civ will both have essay portions, though, so my writing hand will probably be dead to the world after Wednesday night.
Bought mine and Jenn’s tickets for Star Trek tomorrow night. I have no idea who all is coming with us, though I’ve invited a lot of people. Hopefully plenty of them will be joining us, it’s gonna be a blastyblast!
Photo Booth Shot of the Day:
Teacher Appreciation Brekfust! Nomz!
Big C's Blawg, est. 2009 