No, not Twilight the movie—actual twilight before movies, books and vampires gave it such a poor reputation. Though, admittedly, my wife seems to love those films. I, however, enjoy the natural sort. I've always been fascinated with night-time-ish photography: streams of light across deep blueish purple skies. Mmm mmm MMM! Tonight, as I journeyed the two blocks home from work, I pulled out my iPhone and attempted what I thought would be some pretty cool shots—rotating the phone as the picture was taken, gently tipping it left to right to create horizontal streaks, or panning up to create vertical ones. I "edited" these in iPhoto (used the built-in effects panel) in an attempt to make them more dramatic. I doubt it worked, since the overall quality diminishes much from the implied dramatics. 2 2010-01-19T18:17:41-08:00 false 28 2010-01-19T18:01:00-08:00 2010-01-19T18:17:41-08:00 For the (nearly) last and sweetest leg of our journey, we said "adieu" to my Uncle Mike and Aunt Paula in Meridian, Idaho and headed (nearly) due north to McCall, Idaho and the home-sweet-home feel of Camp Ida-Haven. We spent New Year's Eve and the rest of the weekend up there, just hanging out with Douglas and Darla, the camp's directors, and miscellaneous staff members (past and future). I believe I won one game of Frustration (it truly is frustrating) and one game of Cribbage. Amidst those two victories, I lost a host of games including several bouts of Cribbage (grr…), a few rounds of Frustration (grr…grr…), and a couple of games of "Carcassonne":carcassonne, all-in-all a very fun-filled weekend. I probably would have taken a _lot_ more photos of our time there, but I dropped my iPhone in the toilet, 1am, Jan. 1, 2010, and it sat in a bowl of rice for the rest of the weekend. It did, however, make a miraculous recovery and I am still using it to this day (so…11 days and counting). Also, it is now referred to as "the toilet phone". [carcassonne]http://www.riograndegames.com/games.html?id=48 1 2010-01-12T21:01:38-08:00 false 27 2009-12-31T20:42:00-08:00 2010-01-12T21:01:38-08:00 As I mentioned in the last post, we saw some amusing signage on our voyage through Nevada. I think my favorite is still "…Butt Harry Reid", but that is definitely letting my adolescence show. Not to worry, kids: There's _always_ vacancy at the Shady Motel. Come on in! The last one reads "RESTROOM'S", in case you can't quite see it. As if their restroom somehow owns that doorway. Anyway, I hope you get a kick out of these signs as well. Enjoy! 1 2010-01-12T20:38:55-08:00 false 26 2009-12-30T20:41:00-08:00 2010-01-12T20:41:47-08:00 bq. I'm Leaving Las Vegas; Lights so bright; Palm sweat, blackjack; On a Saturday night; Leaving Las Vegas; Leaving for good, for good; I'm leaving for good; I'm leaving for good ??Sheryl Crow?? Well, I don't know if we left it for good, for good, but this song was playing on the radio at 8-ish in the morning as we drove up Highway 93 toward Boise, Idaho. Along the way, I took random snapshots as the landscape changed from mild temperatures, neon lights, municipal insomnia, and a vast, snowless desert to intriguing cliffs dusted with snow and misty rolls of fog. I played "this game":minisquad _a lot_ and sang along to random tunes on the XM Satellite Radio in Dan's rental car. It was a long 12 hours driving to Boise, but we saw some interesting things along the way (look for that post coming right up!). [minisquad]http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/minisquadron/id339514220?mt=8 0 2010-01-12T20:25:21-08:00 false 25 2009-12-30T20:26:00-08:00 2010-01-12T20:26:33-08:00 After our stint in southern California, we headed out on the open road to Las Vegas, Nevada. I'm not going to lie, we put some money into those infernal machines and never saw it again :( We did have some fun during the one full day we were there, however. We drove around the strip, and I mean we drove around it, purposefully avoiding it. Something like 8 full lanes across, both ways, on a number of streets perpendicular to the strip as well as the strip itself, of course—and all lanes are *packed*. We visited a number of the huge-normous casinos, walking throughout their main level of casino pits, random shops (including an Apple store in Caesar's Palace), and tempting restaurants. I have a few shots taken, once again, with my iPhone. And yes, that's a roller-coaster around, through, and underneath of the New York, New York Hotel & Casino. 0 2010-01-12T20:04:48-08:00 false 24 2009-12-29T19:44:00-08:00 2010-01-12T20:04:48-08:00 Mmm…Nicole and I love perusing around the clothing and housewares boutique "Anthropologie":anthro. More than that even, we really love getting gifts from there. Nice stuff but a bit pricey. Anyway, a lot of their tidbits of furniture used to display their housewares are some of my favorite items. A few of them even look easy enough to recreate, if I just had the right skills, tools, and spaces. So, I thought I'd take a few pictures of them—keep them as inspiration so someday, when we have our own house with delicious wood flooring and a shop, I can attempt to make us some awesome furniture. [anthro]http://www.anthropologie.com/ 0 2010-01-12T19:32:42-08:00 false 23 2009-12-29T19:15:00-08:00 2010-01-12T19:32:42-08:00 While down in southern California for Christmas, we went to see the lights of Mission Inn. It was actually on our last night there, the same night that Nicole's cousin got engaged—while taking a carriage ride around Mission Inn, no less. It was actually Nicole's dad, Dan, who suggested we go check out the lights of Mission Inn. He's a very big people person and he was actually hoping to catch his nephew in the act of proposing, which Nicole and I knew wasn't the best of ideas, so we kept him occupied. These are a few of my iPhone snapshots from that trip. The whole building was basically covered in lights—especially the front of it, of course. All the palm trees in the vicinity were done up as well. They even have old-school, Disneyland-style, animatronic carolers (which are actually a bit menacing). 0 2010-01-12T19:14:17-08:00 false 22 2009-12-27T18:50:00-08:00 2010-01-12T19:14:17-08:00 While down in southern California for Christmas, we visited a _lot_ of Nicole's family and friends from when they used to live in Banning (or Beaumont, wherever it was). One such family we visited was that of Ojechan and Obachan (Japanese for grandma and grandpa, I believe). They live with their son, Hajimay (probably spelled that wrong) who goes by Jim (much easier), his wife Aya (I think I spelled that one correctly), and their adorable 3-year-old daughter Chloe. Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures of them with my iPhone, I think Nicole got some pretty good ones, though. If so, I'll try to get some of those up on this post. The pictures I do have, however, are mostly of their awesome Frank Lloyd Wright style home. Enjoy :) 1 2010-01-12T18:43:39-08:00 false 21 2009-12-26T18:49:00-08:00 2010-01-12T18:49:48-08:00 On our way from BOI to DEN, 7-something in the morning, everything covered in snow: gorgeous! 0 2010-01-12T18:17:59-08:00 false 20 2009-12-24T18:12:00-08:00 2010-01-12T18:17:59-08:00 For Christmas this year, Nicole and I got each other our new 27" iMac computer. We've been eyeing one ever since they came out and we've been saving and saving and it was finally time. We thought we had bought it with plenty of time for it to arrive just before we left on vacation for the holidays, but a few days later it appeared it wouldn't ship from China until the 23rd and, only traveling on business days which I assume excludes holidays, wouldn't arrive here until the 27th. I called an Apple rep and asked if there was anything they could do, she was extremely helpful but she said there was nothing they could really do to expedite the shipment. And yet, the very next day it said that the shipment would arrive within the coming week—way before we expected it the first time around. At any rate, it's home now. I'm watching The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien as I write this, in fact. It's big. Surprisingly big. Officially it is Nicole's computer, but I also have an account on there and it actually spends most of its time acting as our television thanks to technology like "Hulu":hulu. [hulu]http://www.hulu.com/ 1 2010-01-12T18:11:40-08:00 false 19 2009-12-16T17:41:00-08:00 2010-01-12T18:11:40-08:00 This is what I'd like my office to eventually look like... !http://cdn.polyvore.com/rsrc/img/logo_embed_alt.png!:http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/profile?.mid=embed-find-1186941&amp;id=1186941 <br style="clear:both" /> n 0 2009-12-11T11:06:52-08:00 false 18 2009-12-11T10:02:00-08:00 2009-12-12T10:02:49-08:00 So…a lot has happened in the last 7–10 days. Quite a lot indeed! Nicole has been creating decorations for her cousin's wedding for months and months and that all came to fruition on Sunday, Sept. 6 in a cute little park in Wallingford / Seattle. Unfortunately it rained so the would-be outdoor wedding got moved indoors. On the way to Seattle to prepare and decorate for that momentous occasion, Nicole and I got _text messages_, yes *text messages*, from my little, baby sister (well, she'll always be that to me) about her engagement. So congratulations to her and her-now-fiancée Brian. Monday, the day after Nicole's cousin's wedding, Nicole's mother, June, picked us up and drove us to get a quick bite to eat before dropping us off at the airport. We flew from Sea-Tac to Las Vegas to John Wayne in Orange County. Then we spent 2 gloriously fun-filled days at Disneyland and California Adventure. We highly recommend Bear River Run (weather permitting) and Mulholland Madness. Though our days were indeed filled to the brim with fun, I had started feeling like I was getting sick on Monday as we flew down to Orange County, and I felt a bit worse on Tuesday at the end of our first full day in Disneyland. I felt even worse by the end of the day Wednesday, I even broke a fever. We flew back to Seattle via Sacramento on Thursday and rode the light-rail back to Ben's apartment with Ben and Dennis who had flown into Seattle from Cincinnati earlier that day. We went out on the town with a few Seattle friends and then back to Ben's apartment where Nicole, Ben, Dennis and Heather (who had driven up from Portland) played Nerts (a fast-paced card game similar to Dutch Blitz). I, however, took some CVS Pharmacy brand NyQuil knockoff pills and tried to get some rest. We woke up as early as possible on Friday as we all had to shower and get ready so we could zip down to Uwajimaya (an Asian market) for brunch and then up to Bellingham for the rehearsal of Adam and Diana's wedding. We arrived in Bellingham about 20 minutes late so we rushed to rehearsal and made sure we payed close attention and followed directions well. Friday evening was the rehearsal dinner, naturally. Once we got some lodging confusion all sorted, I took some more NyQuil knockoffs and attempted peaceful sleep once more. Saturday morning we were late again. We showed up at the wedding site to help decorate and did all we could to both stay out of the way and be as helpful as possible. In the afternoon I got into my groomsman's outfit and headed out with the rest of the wedding party to take photos. Then, before we knew it, it was time for the wedding. We lined up, walked in, stood for what seemed like eternity (as I was still coughing quite a bit and got kind of sweaty due to my illness), and then performed our choreographed and decently-rehearsed dance down the aisle. The reception food and entertainment were both supremely enjoyable but I really couldn't wait to get back in the car and sleep as we were planning on driving back down to Seattle to stay with Ben in his apartment once again. Sunday morning we decided to do brunch with the boys of Garage Voice since we hadn't gotten to hang out with them much so far and we hadn't yet seen their new house. We had delectably fluffy eggs made by Ben Blood and dynamically delicious potatoes made by Tommy. We hung out at their pad for quite a few hours, even making a small town out of paper and promptly lighting it on fire. We then headed back to Ben's apartment to pack up our week's worth of stuff, and head back towards Walla Walla. On the way we made a fairly quick stopover in Yakima to eat dinner with Nicole's dad and brother at her dad's house. We had manicotti, salad, bread and a delicious selection of all-natural juices. We arrived home at around 11:30 or midnight, unpacked all of our stuff, piled it in our entryway, and then we both took NyQuil knockoffs as my illness has, of course, been shared with my wife. 0 2009-09-14T14:28:48-07:00 false 17 2009-09-14T15:25:00-07:00 2009-09-14T15:29:49-07:00 Actually, we just haven't written anything in a really long time and our "friends":friends are traipsing through Europe right now with tons of deliciously beautiful photos to show for it, so we're really just feeling lazy, poor, and jealous. But, we make the most of what we've got. We've got iPhones, and those take pretty sweet photos—am I right!? Also, we have my laptop (without whom I would be so very lost) which has this sweet application called Photo Booth so we thought we'd just take a few quick snapshots of us lounging on the sofa and upload them into this post here. They're no "London":london or "Bruges":bruges, but they'll do (for now). [friends]http://www.stopgawkandroll.com/ [london]http://www.stopgawkandroll.com/blog/31/portobello-street-market-notting-hill [bruges]http://www.stopgawkandroll.com/blog/34/brewery-tours-and-belgian-canals-ii 8 2009-06-25T22:25:33-07:00 false 16 2009-06-25T14:50:00-07:00 2009-06-28T14:51:35-07:00 <embed src="http://blip.tv/play/AfrUHoLcIQ" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="390" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed> Show your true appreciation for America: advance to 2:50 and honk like you've never honked before! 1 2009-04-16T12:24:09-07:00 false 15 2009-04-16T09:04:00-07:00 2009-04-17T09:04:16-07:00 Nicole and I just received a Save-the-Date in the mail today. I am reminded of the impending wedding season to come. I wonder how many more wedding seasons we will actively be a part of until either all of our friends and family have gotten hitched, or…maybe we'll just have kids of our own and eventually the whole cycle will start again, only with them and their friends and relatives (though we'd have the same relatives, just… their cousins, I guess I mean). Anyway, just wanted to jot a quick little note about that. 4 2009-03-02T22:21:56-08:00 false 14 2009-03-02T22:22:00-08:00 2009-03-02T22:24:29-08:00 And that has historical been a bad thing—mostly for me. I despise Mondays. Sorry, Monday, you're just a victim of wrong-place-wrong-time. For some reason I woke up feeling rather chipper this morning. I don't really know why. I didn't achieve as much as I think I should have yesterday. Nonetheless (and boy do I _love_ that word!) I am excited and happy for the week(s) to come! So, on this apparently adequate Monday, I give you a theme song for the day (or possibly the whole week): "_White Winter Hymnal_ by Fleet Foxes":/media/White-Winter-Hymnal.mp3 0 2009-02-23T08:07:56-08:00 false 13 2009-02-23T07:25:20-08:00 2009-02-23T08:25:20-08:00 This is what I've been doing with a good chunk of my time. Some friends of mine from Seattle have started a clothing company called "Le Grand Cru":blog. I have been helping them set up their blog as well as develop their designs into the working, functioning, fun-looking specimen it now is. These guys are totally awesome. And although they've only been able to pay me in t-shirts so far, I have enjoyed every minute of this exciting venture. Currently the company known as Le Grand Cru calls Seattle its home. The ever daring "Tommy":tommy (NO THEFT) and his partner in this apparel endeavor Michael (Mdot) have developed a stellar line of t-shirts with the hopes of, first of all, making it a profitable pleasure and, secondly, advancing into other fashion territories—like sweatshirts, coats, jackets, shoes, belts, you name it. Their blog is up. We are collaborating on their online store presence, and, in the meantime, they have plenty of shirts just begging to be bought. To see a product line or to place an order, you can contact them at: "questions(at)legrandcru(dot)us":email [blog]http://blog.legrandcru.us/ [tommy]http://panigot.blogspot.com/ [email]mailto:questions@legrandcru.us 2 2009-02-16T22:01:22-08:00 false 12 2009-02-16T21:47:00-08:00 2009-02-16T22:01:22-08:00 I first heard "Bon Iver's music":BonIverMusic from the website "Virb.com":Virb (which is currently undergoing its 2.0-idness). He was a featured artist on there for months and months and finally I just gave in—if he's the featured artist for that amount of time, he must have something going for him. I was completely blown away by every single song—one after another they kept besting themselves. Recently I was traipsing through "Karli Fairbanks'":KarliMusic "blog":KarliBlog and saw in "one of her posts":KarliPost that "Bon Iver":BonIver came out with a new EP ("Blood Bank":BloodBank) early this year. I was so excited I immediately headed over to my pal iTunes and gave it a little test drive. After listening to the 30-second clips a couple of times over, I knew I needed to have the full songs. I've been listening to it (along with "For Emma, Forever Ago":ForEmma) on shuffle and repeat as I "work":AmericanWinery away the hours. —Dallas "_The Wolves (Act 1 & 2)_ by Bon Iver":/media/The-Wolves-_Act-1-_-2_.mp3 [BonIver]http://www.boniver.org/ [BonIverMusic]http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtist?id=273428126 [ForEmma]http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=273428119&s=143441 [BloodBank]http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=301395492&s=143441 [Virb]http://www.virb.com [KarliMusic]http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=268386946&s=143441 [KarliBlog]http://karlifairbanks.com/ [KarliPost]http://karlifairbanks.com/?p=98 [AmericanWinery]http://www.americanwinery.com/ 0 2009-02-16T16:03:22-08:00 false 11 2009-02-15T08:18:00-08:00 2009-02-23T08:18:40-08:00 I was going to post today. A nice, fat, juicy post with pictures and everything. But due to a lack of time and preparation and due to some disheartening circumstances I didn't. Or did I… —Dallas 0 2009-02-12T22:14:42-08:00 false 10 2009-02-12T16:12:00-08:00 2009-02-16T16:13:10-08:00 I was cyber-tagged by Bruce. I haven't filled one of these things out since the glory days of MySpace. I am sure I will be removing questions that I feel are either ridiculous or provide little substance (such as "Would you kiss the last person you kissed again?"*—my wife? yes. obvious.) # *What color is your favorite hoodie?* ash & charcoal # *Do you plan outfits?* sort of… # *How are you feeling RIGHT now?* very lazy! # *What's the closest thing to you thats red?* the top of one of those Starbucks "Pick of the Week" cards # *Tell me about the last dream you remember having?* Oh man, it was crazy weird. Cars could handle themselves, you just plugged in your start and end coordinates and they just drove. The roads, however, were like giant billboards of video advertisements so it's a good thing people didn't have to drive because it was super distracting! # *Did you meet anybody new today?* nope # *What are you craving right now?* tater-tots # *Do you floss?* not as often as one should # *What comes to mind when I say cabbage?* sauerkraut—Reuben sandwich—Germany—Märklin—Ticket to Ride—Games—Freeze Tag—North Pole—Polar… that's right folks: BEARS! # *Have you ever counted to 1,000?* Oh sure. We play extreme Hide-n-Seek all the time! # *Do you bite into your ice cream or just lick it?* Mostly lick it… but occasionally one must bite! # *Do you like your hair?* Sure. # *Do you like yourself?* Yep. # *Have you ever met a celebrity?* Probably. # *Do you like cottage cheese?* Not really… but it's okay. # *What are you listening to right now?* The cacophony of our built-in heaters muddled with the hum of the refrigerator. # *How many countries have you visited?* 3, including this one. # *Would you go sky diving?* I really don't know. Probably not. I'm a total chicken when it comes to heights. # *Would you go out to eat with George W. Bush?* Hmm… # *Would you throw potatoes at him?* Yes. That's the answer I was looking for. Thank you. # *Is there anything sparkly in the room you’re in?* My wife's jewelry. # *Have you ever been in a castle?* Disneyland Castle? (still no) # *Do you rent movies often?* Yes. # *Do you own a gun?* No. # *Can you count backwards from 74?* Not only that, but I can count backwards from 73 as well! # *Brown or white eggs?* Scrambled! # *Ever been on a train?* I don't think I have been, no. I should. Could be cool. # *Do you have a cell-phone?* Yes. Yes I do. # *Are you too forgiving?* Probably. Wait. No, not at all. Yes. # *Do you use chap stick?* Lip gloss? Lip _balm_! # *Can you use chop sticks?* My wife is 1/4 asian. I guess that doesn't really answer your question. # *What was the last question you asked?* "Are you hungry?" # *What was the last CD you bought?* Oh my goodness—actual, physical CD? No idea. # *Is your hair curly?* Not really. But kind of. # *Do looks matter?* Absolutely. I judge nearly every book by its cover. And I am speaking about books, not using them as a metaphor for humans. # *Have you ever slapped someone?* Don't think so. # *Favorite time of the year?* If there is snow: winter. Otherwise: summer. # *Favorite color?* Orange. # *Are you sarcastic?* Oh my, no. # *Do you have any tattoos?* No. (not yet?) # *Do you sleep with the TV on?* We don't own a TV. Liberate yourselves! (actually we just watch too much "television" online—long live "Hulu":http://www.hulu.com/) # *What was the last picture you took?* Probably some picture of the 2.5 feet of snow on the tables outside of Starbucks, or one of some gigantic icicle clinging to the side of a building. (see photo at left) # *Do you hate or dislike more than 3 people?* Yes. # *How often do you talk on the phone?* Not very often. Not really a talker. # *What is your favorite animal?* Boston Terrier. I want one! # *What was the most recent thing you bought?* A game for my iPhone. # *Do you have good vision?* No I do not. # *Can you hula hoop?* Does that really matter? # *Do you have a job?* I do. # *Can you handle the truth?* Usually. # *What are you wearing?* PJs. # *Have you ever crawled through a window?* Yes. Several times. Different windows, too. Maybe I have a problem. I now tag my wife, Dennis, & Heather. 1 2008-12-24T11:33:05-08:00 false 9 2008-12-24T23:24:00-08:00 2009-01-25T23:24:48-08:00 One thing that Dallas and I decided was a very "adult" thing to do is to make our bed every day. Well, this last Saturday before heading off to church, we decided to not be adults and to do the very opposite of make our bed, which is jump on our bed (in our sabbath clothes none the less). We snapped some photos to remember the moment when we threw caution to the wind and became reckless children, again. Enjoy a bit of our adventure. 5 2008-11-11T22:00:51-08:00 false 8 2008-11-11T00:00:00-08:00 2008-11-11T22:00:51-08:00 The weather here has been characteristically unpredictable, but I think we've finally reached Autumn, just in time for holiday season. To celebrate le saison, here are a few pics from around Walla^2^. And no, it hasn't snowed yet, we live across the street from an ice-skating rink, so there is a perpetual mound of ice shavings within snow-ball throwing distance. Oh and if you're needing some good ol' holiday tunes, I would recommend Sufjan Stevens' "Songs for Christmas":sufjan. I know it's a little old, but it always makes me want to curl up next to a fire with a cup of hot cocoa. It might even persuade me to give in and buy a Christmas Tree this year…I'll keep you posted. Until then, Nicole [sufjan]http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=203057634&s=143441 4 2008-11-01T16:05:20-07:00 false 7 2008-11-01T00:00:00-07:00 2008-11-01T17:17:45-07:00 This past weekend was Parents Weekend at "Walla Walla University":wwu. My younger sister, Danielle, is in her fourth and final year at Walla Walla and my older sister, Rachel, lives in town with her husband and their two adorable little girls. With all three of the children living in Walla Walla, my parents thought it the prefect opportunity to come spend some time with us. They arrived on Friday and went to my cousin Chantel's house for tacos that evening. Nicole and I had a friend's birthday party to attend that evening, so we were busy all Friday afternoon making broccoli with pine nuts, Parmesan potatoes, and an "apple-pear galette":galette. On Saturday Nicole and I went to the Walla Walla University church while Mom & Dad went to the Eastgate Church where Rachel regularly attends. Saturday afternoon Nicole and I met up with Mom & Dad at "Lake Bennington":bennington for a brisk walk around the lake. That's where I snapped these two photos with my iPhone. I really like the first one. The color isn't that great (it's much better on my iPhone) but the composition is pretty sweet for a quick, candid shot with a cell phone. Saturday night Mom & Dad and Danielle came over for games at our apartment. We played Nicole's and my new favorite game: "Ticket to Ride":ticket. Sunday morning we hosted a family brunch at our apartment. We baked biscuits while Mom cooked up some delicious gravy for them. Rachel and her husband, Absalon, brought apple juice and orange juice, and Danielle brought a delectably colorful fruit salad. Chantel and her boyfriend Nic came over as well. We had a blast just hanging out and watching little Alyssa-the-beggar make her rounds. At around 11 or so, Mom & Dad had to begin their journey back to Portland. Danielle left at about the same time, but the rest of us got out Ticket to Ride. After a long and, at times, confusing game of Ticket to Ride, Rachel suggested "Killer Bunnies":killer so we had Absalon pick it up from their place. We must have played one game of that for 3 hours or more. All in all we had a full week of family and fun. --Dallas [wwu]http://wallawalla.edu/ [galette]http://food.realsimple.com/realsimple/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1849825 [bennington]http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=107670513910017592236.00045207e51c3ab2805bb&ie=UTF8&ll=46.067142,-118.259175&spn=0.009201,0.022745&z=16 [ticket]http://www.daysofwonder.com/tickettoride/en/ [killer]http://www.killerbunnies.com/ 0 2008-10-29T23:47:02-07:00 false 5 2008-10-29T00:00:00-07:00 2008-10-29T23:48:22-07:00 I cannot believe that it has already been over a month since I wrote that post about "Thank You" notes. The good news is that we have our thank-you cards and soon (here's hoping!) you'll have one of them too. Right in your mailbox. I also cannot believe that Nicole and I have already been married nearly three whole months! It really feels like it was just last week that we got back from our honeymoon… or, at most, a month ago. I also cannot believe that it has been so long since I started work on this blog and we still don't have the ability to upload photos. That is all Nicole asks me about. I say, "Hey, honey, do you want to write a post?" And her only response is, "Can I upload photos?" Then she pauses as I fumble for some sort of explanation as to why she cannot yet upload photos, and then she turns and walks away. (Not really that dramatically.) One thing which I am currently finding it hard to believe and which also irks me to my core is the lack of text messages making it to my phone. I really do love my cell phone service provider (AT&T), but being on this family plan with coworkers is making it difficult to interface directly with someone about my plan (and, more importantly, getting those precious, precious text messages). Among the missed text messages of note was one from Nicole about something important (though I fail to recall what, exactly), and a couple from Cousin Brian: one which was about his cell phone number changing, I believe, and one asking us if we'd like to go backpacking with them. Wow! This really got to be quite the tirade, didn't it. I can hardly believe it. 0 2008-08-26T20:14:52-07:00 false 2 2008-08-26T20:41:04-07:00 2008-08-26T20:41:04-07:00 Nicole is getting on me about designing our "Thank You" cards. It is definitely a necessity, but I would much rather play around with this stuff ("this stuff" being our blog—which you are now reading). I'm not entirely sure what photo I want to use for the "Thank You"s, or how I want to design them. I'm really not sure that "Thank You"s is a proper way of saying it. Perhaps Thank-Yous? I'm sure there are a number of literary critics out there who could shed some light on the correct presentation of that (those) word(s). In somewhat related news, we have our photos! We got them on a DVD disc from our photographer, "Ben Blood":http://benblood.com/, who did an absolutely marvelous job, I might add. Anyway, I put the first DVD he sent us into my computer and it appeared to be blank. Finder asked me what I would like to do with the blank DVD I just inserted. What? Blank? I blurted out. I emailed Ben, and he politely sent us a second DVD. This one also appeared to be completely empty to my system. I even geeked out a little and attempted to list all of its contents from Terminal. No luck. However, Nicole tried this new disc in her computer and it popped right up, showing its contents as being a folder containing all of our wedding photos. She's currently attempting to copy them all over to her computer so that I can copy them from her computer to mine so that I can finally design the Thank-Yous and we can finally send them off to get printed so they can finally arrive back here so we can finally fill them all out with our expressions of gratitude so we can finally send them off to their respective receivers so we can FINALLY mark something off of our harrowingly ever-increasing to-do list. Whew. Unfortunately, even Nicole is running into difficulties. It seems as though only 225 of the 300-ish photos want to migrate over to her computer. The others hide behind claims of corruption. Oh when, oh when, will our wedding photographs finally be ours? 0 2008-07-17T01:03:13-07:00 false 1 2008-07-17T23:25:00-07:00 2009-01-25T23:25:25-08:00 To celebrate our nation's independence, Dallas and I headed up to Yakima to see my dad, so Dallas could play in a tennis tournament and to hold a yard sale and get rid of a bunch of our junk. Of the three, all were pretty successful. Both my dad and Dallas played in the tournament. Dallas and his partner won their first game after about three hours of play. The other two...not so well. But he had fun and his game really improved just with the little bit that he did play. Our yard sale went really well. We started out pretty early, but there were people waiting for us to get started. My first reaction was, "dirty scavengers" - I always have a hard time letting my stuff go, but we really needed to do this, so I got over myself and actually had a fun time. Towards the end of the sale a lady stopped by and asked if we would be willing to donate whatever it was that we had left over to her church who was going to have a yard sell the next weekend to help kids in her church go to camp. I was very excited not only because that would mean we would get rid of all our stuff and wouldn't worry about packing it up, but also because I'm a big supporter of camp. I loved going to camp, Pine Springs Ranch, as a kid and I especially love working at "Camp Ida Haven":http://www.idahaven.org/ (more about camp in an upcoming post). Overall it was a really fun weekend. Oh and we made over $200 at the yard sale... yippee, laundry money! Nicole 0 2008-10-30T22:10:27-07:00 false 6 2008-07-08T00:00:00-07:00 2008-10-30T22:10:27-07:00 Dallas and I spent our honeymoon or «lune de miel» at the Oregon Coast. Gold Beach to be exact, which is right "here":gold_beach. We stayed at the Salty Dog, a rental house right on the beach. We could tell by the decor and contents of the house that the owners were very patriotic, liked all things nautical and enjoyed British films and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The weather was a little chilly while we were there, but we still got out and explored the little town, ate breakfast at Grant's Pancake and Omelette House (apparently the best breakfast place on the coast - it was pretty good), went tide-pooling, and took a jet-boat ride up the Rogue River. Overall it was a fun time. The last weekend of our honeymoon we spent in Ashland, OR. I would highly recommend visiting Ashland if you get the chance. The town is very quaint and there are lots of shops and restaurants to enjoy. Dallas and I saw two plays at the Oregon Shakespeare festival, A Midsummer's Night Dream and The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler, a modern comedy which explores what happens after Ibsen's tragic heroine, Hedda, ends her life. It was great. This was the second time that I had been to the OSF, Dallas' first, and we would like to make it an annual event. Anyone else game? Click "here":osf. On the way back home we stopped at Ikea in Portland and filled our car to the brim with lots of goodies, stopped in to say hi to Dallas' parents and made it back to Walla Walla and our new life together! Nicole [gold_beach]http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Gold+Beach,+OR&sll=47.653544,-117.411263&sspn=0.26642,0.612488&g=Gold+Beach,+OR&ie=UTF8&ll=42.410657,-124.415874&spn=0.036502,0.076561&z=14 [osf]http://www.osfashland.org/index.aspx 2 2008-10-29T23:37:21-07:00 false 4 2008-06-17T00:00:00-07:00 2008-10-30T22:02:06-07:00