Random Access

Thursday – 29 October 2009
Welcome to a new NBN Thursday. The sun is shining. The snow is… well, it’s not really warm enough for it to continue melting yet, but the day is still young.

Yesterday was Comics and Sushi Wednesday. It’s a day that usually brings me great joy. Yesterday was no exception. I went to Dr. Volt’s and saw that Superman: Secret Origin #2 was on the shelves. Blissfully, I went about picking up a few other titles that weren’t part of my hold service.

Fast forward to last night…

I started going through my books, sorting them from “least interesting/read first” to “I’ve been waiting for this.” I got down to the Blackest Night and Green Lantern books and realized that there was a great disturbance in The Force something amiss. I couldn’t find S:SO #2. Hm. I checked the bag. I checked to make sure that it hadn’t gotten shoved between a couple of other books. Nothing. So, I get to wait even longer to read a story that I’ve been waiting all month to read. *sigh*

On the “good things that happened last night” side of things, we reinstated a tradition from SaraRules’ childhood. and SaraRules’ brothers came over and we decorated sugar cookies and then watched Disney’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, narrated by Bing Crosby.

It was a great change of pace and it was a lot of fun, too.

And today is “Meeting Day.” Yay.

Stray Toasters

• The “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file is chock full of goodies today:
  • Teens cited after rapping order at McDonald’s, courtesy of
  • Coyotes kill Canadian folk singer
  • Goat Rentals for Clearing Brush
  • Bees That Drink Human Tears
• I still haven’t had a chance to fire up my Silhouette, but I will… I will…
• Star Trek Uniform Onesies
• 
• GDP Grows by 3.5%
• Intel Solid-State Drive (SSD)
• Google Wave as an RPG environment
• The Life and Times of Martha Washington: The Whole Frank Miller ‘Give Me Liberty’ Saga

And…. it’s time for our team meeting.

Namaste.

Monday – 26 October 2009
That time of year has rolled around once again: It’s my birthday.  I just realized something, too: Not only does my birthday fall on a Monday this year, but I was born on a Monday.  Fortunately, I have had better luck than Solomon Grundy – this one, not this one… although I guess it’s really been better than either of them.

Once again, I have taken International Day off from work.  It’s been a good – though short, so far – day, as I slept in this morning. Way in. And it was good. Selah. I have no “big plans” for the day, aside from running a couple of errands. Tonight, we’re heading over to SaraRules’ parents’ for “Birthday Dinner 2: Electric Boogaloo” and Monday Night Football.

Yesterday, SaraRules and I had a low-key Sunday. We slept in. We watched football. We went to the grocery store. She made an excellent beef stew, served in bread bowls. Logan came over for dinner, after which we plugged in one of the VCRs (old school, that’s right!) and watched Event Horizon. I’d never seen the movie before; it wasn’t bad. After I had some time to think about it, I realized that aspects of Sunshine reminded me of this movie. Maybe it’s me; maybe it’s Maybelline.  *shrug* Either way, it was a decent movie.

After Logan left, I decided to watch another episode of Fringe. I’ve almost caught up with the regular broadcasts now; I think that I’m only one – maybe two – episodes back.

Instant Replay: Football Recap
It was an odd day of football. There were some good games, as well as some real sleep-inducers. More importantly, there are fewer undefeated teams than there were last week. Here’s how the day wound up:

New York Jets at Oakland Raiders
38 – 0
We didn’t see this game; maybe that was a “good” thing. Sorry, SaraRules.

.

Buffalo Bills at Carolina Panthers
20 – 9
Another game that we missed. And, once again, one that I think I’m glad that I didn’t see. Maybe the Panthers will be good again, someday…

.

New Orleans Saints at Miami Dolphins
46 – 34
Not even the Dolphins could bring me any joy this week. To their credit, they hung in there pretty well – keeping the lead, even – until the fourth quarter started. Then the Saints racked up twenty-two unanswered points. And that’s how you lose ball games. In today’s Boilermaker Watch: Mr. Brees threw for 298 yards in today’s win.

.

Green Bay Packers at Cleveland Browns
31 – 3
Another game that we didn’t get to see. Sorry, … but thanks for keeping us out of the bottom of the division!

.

Minnesota Vikings at Pittsburgh Steelers
17 – 27
This game we did watch. Wow.  Brett Favre and the Vikes dropped their first game to the Steelers. The game started off as a good contest, but the Vikings started making mistakes – fumbles and dropped passes – late in the game that cost them the win. Sorry, .

.

Chicago Bears at Cincinnati Bengals
10 – 45
I didn’t see this game, but I had hoped that the Bears could pin an “L” on the Bengals. No such luck. Apparently, the Bengals – and more importantly, Cedric Benson – had a few things to prove the the boys from the Windy City. And they went about it in a big way. Congratulations to and .

Stray Toasters

• Thanks for all of the birthday wishes and good tidings!
  (There’s a lot of crosspollination between LJ and Facebook, it seems…)
• SaraRules woke up feeling poorly this morning. (Physically, not “Oh, no… it’s swine flu!”) Please send well-wishes her way.
• Listening, Party for Two: Ella Fitzgerald Live
• I used to be a fairly regular reader of The Gods of Arr-Kelaan. Then, it kind of fell of my daily radar. I now go back every few months and catch up on the story. Last night, I stumbled across this strip, which made me chuckle, especially the middle and last rows of panels:

  

• Reversing the brain impairments caused by sleeplessness
• World’s smallest working model train set unveiled
• I should probably try to avoid The Apple Store, Best Buy, The Garden of Sweden and Toys ‘R’ Us today…
• Detroit house auction flops for urban wasteland

He gets right on to
The friction of the day…

Namaste.

Friday – 23 October 2009
It’s my prerogative… 9/80 “on” Friday.
That means that it’s vewwy, vewwy qwiet around here.
I might just have to break out the DreamCast in a little while…

::: lunch break :::

I went to lunch with Paul (Boss⁺¹).
Five Guys.
Good.
Filling.
Nearly food coma-inducing.

It was still quiet when we got back.  That was good.  I’m getting a 3-day weekend, as Monday is International Robert Neal Day… and I’m taking the day off. So, all things considered: Win.

Stray Toasters

• I still want to build one of these someday. You know, when I have a yard.  And some woodworking equipment. And a welder. And… And… And…
  • I was discussing this in a chat… which, in turn, led to today’s Quote of the Day (below).
• I could pretty much add all of the stuff from this site to the O-Scale Railroad/HeroClix Covet List.
• Woman with dystonia can only walk backwards
• I stumbled across Bowling for Sandercoe on Oblong Pictures last night; I thought it was amusing:

• posted a link to Prince Armory earlier. Nice stuff… nice, spendy stuff.
• From the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Ice skating bear kills Russian circus hand
• I watched part of Whose Line Is It Anyway? last night for the first time in… in… well, let’s just say “a long time.” They did “Greatest Hits” as one of the sketches; as usual, Colin Mochrie made it fun:

• The Creepiest Thing You’ll Ever See

Quote of the Day
The aforementioned BattleMech conversation:

[12:36]     Ahpuc: r0b: Better not have an HOA when you have a yard. They are bitchy about cool stuff like that.
[12:37]     r0b: “What part of ‘rocket launcher’ and ‘flamethrower’ did you not understand, Mr (or Ms) HOA President?”
[12:38]     r0b: ….as I power up the weapon systems.
[12:38]     r0b: 😀
[12:38]     r0b: Wait.
[12:38]     r0b: That leads to “terrorist action” police reports.
[12:38]     r0b: Hm.
[12:38]     Ahpuc: Not just that, but if YOU can do it, so can your neighbors.
[12:38]     r0b: Have to remember to install trap doors and cells.
[12:38]     Ahpuc: I mean, sure, you can be trusted with an operational battle-mech. but what about the jerkoff who can’t even be bothered to mow his lawn noce a month?
[12:38]     r0b: Well, DUH!   Then we could have a full lance of ‘Mechs.
[12:39]     r0b: Think about it.
[12:39]     Ahpuc: You think he will remember to rotate the rocket propellant and service the engines?
[12:39]     r0b: If he can’t deign to mow, what is the workmanship of the mech going to be like?
[12:39]     r0b: *power on*
[12:39]     r0b: *SPLODE*
[12:39]     r0b: -problem solved-
[12:39]     Ahpuc: Then he gets methed up one night, tries to use it to shoot an invisible cat that is inside his left eyelid, and blows up the whole neighborhood.
[12:39]     Ahpuc: Property values rapidly decline.
[12:40]     r0b: Okay… you might have a point with that one.
[12:40]     r0b: “Miles doesn’t know it, but we’ve secretly switched his rocket propellant with decaf!  Let’s see what happens…”
[12:40]     Ahpuc: This is the problem I have with the “right to bear arms” branch of the libertarians…They all think THEY should be able to have RPGs if they can afford them, but they don’t think through the implications when it comes to the average retard.
[12:42]     r0b: Hm.  So maybe I shouldn’t start with a Mech.  Maybe I should just start with Elemental armor, instead.
[12:43]     Ahpuc: How about you start with a bomb shelter?
[12:43]     r0b: Of course, finding someone 8′ tall to pilot it might be a bit difficult.
[12:43]     Ahpuc: Cause then you can do whatever you want indside it without the neighbros seeing.
[12:43]     r0b: Bomb shelter…. Mech Bay….
[12:43]     r0b: It’s “same brand, different flavor,” isn’t it really?
[12:46]     Ahpuc: If they neighbors cannot see inside, call it whatever you want.
[12:46]     Ahpuc: “Now that I have a shed up, with power, I need to put a lattice around the bottom to cover the “crawlspace” thing.”

Namaste.

Thursday – 22 October 2009
Another NBN Thursday kicks off in the valley.

It was a slow-starting morning, though. After sleeping poorly two nights ago, I slept reasonably well last night, but I did wake up a couple of times, for no apparent reason. Once I woke up, I wasn’t in a “get up and go” kind of mood, so I was rather lazy and slow about getting ready for work. And, as the cherry on top of it all: I cut myself shaving. On the back of my head. It didn’t hurt much; it was more of a “Really…?  Really?!? *sigh*” kind of thing.  And, it’s going to make the next few mornings’ shaving less-than-fun. Yay.

Last night, SaraRules and I went to a Cub Scout fundraiser that Mr. and Mrs. were part of. It was a fun change of pace. They had grilled chicken skewers, rice and salad as the main course and there were baked goods, too. They had games for the kids and there was even a jungle-themed photo board where you could have your pictures taken.

Once we got back home, I decided to catch up on episodes of Fringe that I’ve missed. I watched the last two episodes from last season and this season’s premiere. Good stuff.

Stray Toasters

• Even though no one else went to sushi yesterday, I did.
• Rules of Thumb
• SaraRules just pointed this out: The Counter restaurant closes at The Gateway.  That’s a shame.
• OnStar Ends First Police Chase
  I’d heard about this last week, but had forgotten about it… until I saw a commercial about it last night:

• ‘Black Dynamite’ pays homage to blaxploitation films
• The Weekly Crisis: A Collection of Random Thoughts, Vol. 17
• Boom De Yada… Boom De Yada….

  I Love xkcd from NoamR on Vimeo.

  Based on the I Love the Internet comic from xkcd.com

And now… meetings! Yay!

Namaste.

Wednesday – 21 Oct0ber 2009
Midweek and all appears to be well.

And it’s Comics and Sushi Wednesday, to boot.

Last night was my night to cook dinner. I pondered the issue all day and came up with “Fish…” as an idea. Then I came to the realization: I’ve never cooked fish – other than Van de Camp’s fish fillets or fish sticks – before and I wasn’t sure that SaraRules wanted to play guinea pig. So, I went with chicken instead. I made a dry rub, put it in a plastic bag, tossed the chicken in the bag to season it and threw the pieces of chicken in the oven.  Then I went to work on the rest of dinner: Green beans, cooked in chicken broth, and pasta (angel hair and thin spaghetti). When the chicken came out of the oven, it smelled good. It tasted good, too… at least my piece did. SaraRules had gotten a piece that was VERY heavily seasoned and was very salty. Looking at it, I realized that she had gotten the first piece of chicken to which I had applied the rub; it got the lion’s share of the dry spices, despite my attempts to remove most of them. She ate it quietly, suffering in silence. I traded pieces of chicken with her, as mine was nowhere near as salty-tasting as hers. That seemed to go over better. Other than that, it was a good dinner, though. I just need to remember to watch out for the first piece of meat that gets seasoned with a dry rub next time…

Stray Toasters

• For SaraRules and – Dolly Parton: NPR Staffers Celebrate ‘Dolly’
• If you ever wonder what “Fighting for freedom” means, take a listen to this testimony from an 86-year-old World War II veteran, speaking at a public meeting on Maine’s marriage equality bill:

  He wins today’s “Human of the Day” award.

• Turtles prefer ‘city life’
  Of course, this isn’t exactly news, as we have long known about sewer-dwelling, pizza-eating ninja turtles.
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Yahoo hires lap-dancers to entertain at its open, inclusive Hack Day event
  Be sure to click through the links at the bottom of the article (before the comments)
• Vatican welcomes Anglicans into Catholic Church
• Amelia Earhart: Pioneer of Style
• From xkcd: “More Accurate”

  

• has an interesting take on “a fundamental difference between Australians and Americans.”
• Essential plot twists for writers
• Bionic Eye Opens New World of Sight for Blind

Hm… it looks like it’s just going to be “Comics Wednesday.”  Oh, well.

Namaste.

Tuesday – 20 October 2009
This morning is rather grey and dreary… but it’s also without precipitation, so far. I think that maybe – just maybe – Fall weather has (finally) settled in over Utah.

Last night was a quiet evening in. There was football and a horror movie, 30 Days of Night. According to SaraRules and Reverend Tom:

“The goal isn’t just to watch ‘good’ horror movies or ‘bad’ horror movies; the goal is to watch ALL horror movies.”

And, after all: It’s October, the month made for horror movies. Or something like that.

Workout
Wes and I hit the gym today:

• Lower Back Extensions: 3 sets/12 reps
• Sit-ups (incline): 3 sets/20 reps
• Bench Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 205 lbs
• Flys: 3 sets/12 reps, 120 lbs
• Dips: 3 sets/10 reps

Pre-workout weight (morning): 184.5 lbs

Instant Replay: Football
Last night’s match-up between the Denver Broncos and Sandy Eggo Chargers wound up being more of a slugfest than I had originally expected:

Denver Broncos at San Diego Chargers
34 – 23
Any game where you have three (3) kicks/punts run back for touchdowns is a good game… especially when both teams get in on the action.  This game was not an exception to that. It was a definite back-and-forth struggle, until the Chargers started fumbling the ball in the second half. After that, Denver forged ahead and never looked back. All-in-all it was a good game, from start to finish.

After the Patriots’ 59 – 0 beat down of the Titans on Sunday, I decided to look up a couple of football facts:

1. Highest-scoring game in NFL history: November 27, 1966, when the Washington Redskins defeated New York Giants 72-41
2. Widest margin of victory in NFL history: December 8, 1940, in the NFL Championship Game, the Chicago Bears beat the Washington Redskins 73-0

So…at least the Titans don’t have the distinction of “the worst loss ever.” That’s gotta count for something, right? But, on the other hand, the Redskins have the (dubious) distinction of being part of the both the highest-scoring and widest margin of victory games… which qualifies them for the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file.

Stray Toasters

• Apple unveils new hotness
• At the centre of time – A look at the Greenwich Prime Meridian
• Car seats can be dangerous outside the car
• How forensics use Photoshop to find missing children
• NASA’s rocket roll-out complete
• How do you solve a problem like IKEA?
• From Threadless: The Horde t-shirt
• Chillits 2009 ambient music mixes online

Okay…. lunch beckons.

Namaste.

Monday – 19 October 2009
Another week begins… and this one is starting off in shades of grey. Apparently, there was even a bit of morning lightning (!lightening) to accompany the clouds. I, however, was wandering around The Dreaming, so I missed it. And I’m alright with that, to be honest.

Yesterday was a good day, despite the Ravens’ loss, which I’ll get to in a minute. Following that game, SaraRules and I headed out to pick up a couple of things that we needed to go with dinner. Logan came over and we started watching the Patriots blow out the Titans. When that became boring – it didn’t take long at all – we decided to watch a movie, instead. We watched Rec, the Spanish movie upon which Quarantine was based.

Too bad we didn’t see this one first – it was a better film, on the whole… despite the fact that Quarantine almost lifted the entire movie shot-for-shot. Although, had we seen Rec first, I think that we might have been let down by how derivative Quarantine was.

After the movie, I started dinner – spaghetti with sauce I made. We ate and watched the Bears-Falcons game. Logan left after the first half; I half-heartedly watched the second.  Later, I decided to play a little City of Heroes. I logged in… and discovered that my cursor decided to reset its location whenever I tried to click on people or objects. Hmm. I logged out and hit the forums. Sure enough, it’s a known issue with Mac clients – it started with the live roll-out of Issue 16. *sigh* So, no City for me until it’s fixed. Around this time, SaraRules decided to watch a movie; she selected 28 Weeks Later. Good choice.

Instant Replay: Football Recap
The games of the weekend shook out this way:

Baltimore Ravens at Minnesota Vikings
31 – 33
I don’t know exactly what Coach Harbaugh said to the team at halftime, but the second half of this game turned into an actual football game. Even though the running game was still “off,” Joe Flacco started making passes down the field. Receivers ran their routes. Points were scored – including three TDs in the fourth quarter – and there was much rejoicing. The game came down to a field goal attempt by Steve Hauschka, which went wide to the left. It was a disappointing way to lose, after such an amazing comeback, but I am happy with the way the Ravens played the game… at least, the second half of it. Congrats, .

.

Philadelphia Eagles at Oakland Raiders
9 – 13
The Raiders won. Wait… let me make sure I got that right. Yep. That’s not a typo. The Raiders hosted the Eagles and won the game. Huh.  Miracles really do happen, I guess. Congrats, SaraRules.

.

Cleveland Browns at Pittsburgh Steelers
14 – 27
Ben Roethlisberger and company handed the Browns another loss. Sorry, .

.

Houston Texans at Cincinnati Bengals
28 – 17
The Texans went to Ohio and rode herd on the Bengals. Sorry, and .

.

Carolina Panthers at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
28 – 21
The Panthers were able to hang on against the Bucs and eke out a win.

Added Bonus – Boilermaker Watch: Drew Brees

New York Giants at New Orleans Saints
27 – 48
Former Boilermaker Drew Brees and the Saints went marchin’ in on the Giants yesterday.  Brees threw for 369 yards and went 23/30 on the day, as the Saints go 5-0 in the NFC South.

Stray Toasters

• Why All The Wonder Woman Hate?
• All-male college cracks down on cross-dressing
• just discovered to joy of Badass of the Week this morning.
• Rosie the Riveter bookends
• Amiga and Hyperion Settle Ownership of AmigaOS
• From the “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot…?!” file: Man finds missile launcher in Comal County
• They Shoot Porn Stars, Don’t They (Not too surprisingly, this contains some NSFW content)

Namaste.

Thursday – 15 October 2009
NBN 9/80 Thursday = ‘Technical Friday’
Nothing has blown up yet, so I’m counting the morning as good. So far.

Last night, I headed over to Chris’ to help him get his Windows machine up and running. It had a hard drive crash, so we had to reinstall the OS on a new drive and get drivers and… well, the usual stuff associated with an OS installation. All things considered, it went fairly smoothly. He still needs to install some programs, but he has a working box once again.

Stray Toasters

• There are many things in this article that are being placed on The Covet List. Many things, indeed.
  • In a related note, DC Comics has a rather decent Blackest Night site up, as well.
• Mormonism and the Negro
  I found this yesterday after a brief search, based on the articles that sent me. I am not casting aspersions about it, I merely find it interesting and curious.
• Reality TV’s Thoroughly ‘Modern’ Mistakes
  (This caught my attention because they mentioned Project Runway, specifically, when discussing this.)
• Lost in space race: Female pilots
• , you might be interested in the fact that this, this and this are now available as prints.
• 
• Social Security Makes It Official: No COLA in 2010
• Cool and Classic – Enlivening a Dallas Cultural District
• Kid ‘n Play – Rollin’ With Kid ‘n Play

• A G.O.P. Agitator Not Named Palin
• The Monty Python circus keeps rolling on
• From KUER’s RadioWest: The Art of Making Money
• In Texas, a Police Officer for Everyone?

Namaste.

Wednesday – 14 October 2009
Midweek and all’s well.
As if that wasn’t enough, it’s Comics and Sushi Wednesday!

Last night was a laid back night. After a few post-work errand with SaraRules, we stopped at Dask’s to pick up dinner and then headed home. NCIS and Greek food isn’t necessarily a combination that most people would put together, but you know what? It works. After NCIS went off, we headed up to the in-laws’ for a quick visit and then headed back home – Project Runway for SaraRules; foamcore cutting for some WWG terrain for me.

Workout
For the first time in… two weeks, I think… Wes and I hit the gym for a quick workout:

• Sit-ups (incline): 3 sets/20 reps
• Lower Back Extensions: 3 sets/12 reps
• Bench Press: 3 sets/10 reps, 185 lbs
• Flys: 3 sets/10 reps, 110 lbs
• Curls: 3 sets/10 reps, 25 lbs
• Reverse Punches: 3 sets/10 reps, 10 lbs

Pre-workout weight (morning): 183.5 lbs

Stray Toasters

• Wonder of Wonders: Star-Spangled Panties (not nearly as NSFW as it sounds)
• continues to send things that entertain/amuse me:
  • Best of IKEA for the Kitchen
  • 1964 letter “…not in my official Church position, but as a friend…” on the LDS Church’ stance on “The Negro Problem”
    • …and an interesting follow-up
      
• What actual Mayans are saying about 2012
  I think that “What actual Rush fans are saying about 2112” would be an appropriate follow-up to this article.
• Soda Tax Could Shake Up Industry
• 
• ‘Twin Towers’ warship sets sail
  • USS New York (Wikipedia article)
• Wild Cherry – Play That Funky Music

• Airlines that charge fees lost more money than airlines that didn’t
• Comics cover artist Greg Horn’s take on Wonder Woman (full article can be read here).

Namaste.

Sunday – 11 October 2009
This has been a good – and relaxing – weekend.

Yesterday, we slept in a bit and then went to the Downtown Farmer’s Market, where we picked up a few things. On the way to the car, my super power kicked in, as we ran into our friend Lawrence. We came home and did a bit of cleaning. Chris and Mary called to see if we were interested in joining them for seeing Zombieland. We were. And it was a riot. We had a lot of fun watching it. Seriously. If you’re looking for a fun way to pass an hour-and-a-half or so, you should go see this movie.

After the movie, the four of us had dinner at Spaghetti Mama’s. Kate was there, but off the floor… so we got to see her for a bit, but she didn’t wait on our table.

Back at home, SaraRules and I watched Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, the latest DC Animated Feature, based on the graphic novel of the same name. There were a few differences from the book, but on the whole, it was decently-adapted. And, while it did have many of the good lines from the book, it did miss the a couple that I expected to hear, including:

Superman: “Your butler guards the cave with a shotgun? You didn’t have a spare Mr. Freeze gun lying around?”
Batman: “This coming from a man who protects his fortress with a flying dog in a cape.”

On the whole, I thought that it was a decent adaptation and worth a viewing or two.

Today, we slept in again and then headed up to Park City for brunch at Cisero’s. After that, we went to the Kimball Art Center to see The Art of the Brick, an exhibition by LEGO Master Builder, Nathan Sawaya. It was interesting to see how someone can express themselves through such an… unusual… medium.

We came back to Salt Lake for Canadian Thanksgiving with friends of Sara’s family. They put on a nice spread and it was nice to hang out with friends and family. After dinner, we did some grocery shopping and then came home to watch some football.

All-in-all, I’d say that this has been a good, low-key weekend… and one that was definitely needed following last week’s festivities and hullaballoo.

Namaste.

Friday – 09 October 2009
Waking up wasn’t so bad this morning. Staying awake, however, was an entirely different matter. So, I didn’t really fight it. All told, I probably logged an extra forty-five to fifty minutes of sleep. Not a bad way to kick off a Friday.

Last night, SaraRules and I headed down to The Bayou to meet , , , OnlyAly and and to celebrate ‘s birthday (before she headed back to the Eastern Reaches). It was a lot of fun. And loud. And the people-watching was pretty good, too. The food was good, too – SaraRules had the Shrimp Etouffe and I had the Jambalaya.  It was also nice, as we weren’t able to go to Cafe Orleans while we were in Cedar City; it had closed down sometime in the past few months.

Stray Toasters

• Barack Obama Wins the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize
  The BBC’s article starts off with an interesting take:
  

  “In awarding President Obama the Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian committee is honoring his intentions more than his achievements. After all he has been in office only just over eight months and he will presumably hope to serve eight years, so it is very early in his term to get this award.”

• Why the FBI Director Doesn’t Bank Online
• Girl, 12, slugged back at Phillies slugger
• SaraRules noted that we hadn’t made any pretzels in a long time. We need to change that.
• LEGO Transportation Exhibition in Ottowa
  • Wheels, Wings and Waves – A LEGO History of Transportation (Flickr set)
• Left 4 Dead 2 Approved in Australia After Edits
• Punk Animals Photoshopping Contest
• I still haven’t watched Superman/Batman: Public Enemies yet.

Lunch time!

Namaste.

Thursday – 08 October 2009
Having a week off was good, but it’s back to the grind for another NBN Thursday.

Yesterday, I went to sushi with shockpuppet, , and .  Before heading over to Dr. Volt’s, I stopped at Evergreen Framing Co. & Gallery – I’ve been past it many times without going in. It’s a nice little shop, with art from local artists. If you’re in the 33rd South and 20th East area, check it out. Next stop: Dr. Volt’s and then… back home.

Later in the evening, SaraRules and I made a pilgrimage to The Garden of Sweden. We picked up a GORM storage unit for the pantry and a few knick-knacks.

Today has been mostly getting back into the swing of things. And, a tasty lunch at Taste of Punjab.

Stray Toasters

• We have Dunkin’ Donuts Munchkins.  Booyah!
• For SaraRules:

  

• What’s Inside a Cup of Coffee?
  Aside from life-giving (and/or life-saving) goodness, you mean…?
• Rock out to Spider-Woman’s Tangled Web
• Missile Silo Fixer-Upper Now Swanky Bachelor Pad
• Ctrl-Alt-Del‘s Tim Buckley has a few things to say about the Left4Dead 2 “boycott”
  • I boycott the boycotters
  • Boycott: From the other side
• Wondermark’s Genre Fiction Generator
• Finding Common Ground in a Tiny Barbershop

Namaste.

Wednesday – 07 October 2009
We’re back. It’s been an amazing weekend… long weekend, that is. And it’s been fun, exciting, too fast/too short, and a whole list of other adjectives that are slipping my mind. In short: It’s been wonderful. I took a lot of pictures of the weekend, minus wedding (natch) and there seem to be a few that others have taken floating around various places in the Interwebs.

The wedding went off, literally, without a hitch. Seriously. Heritage Gardens was nothing short of excellent at taking care of all of the details. We arrived Saturday morning at 0900 and had a brief walkthrough of the ceremony. Amber, our coordinator, ushered us through everything, even without a few family members there. Next the wedding party got dressed and we took pictures.

Let me stop here to note that I hadn’t seen SaraRules’ dress before Saturday morning. Not during the trip to L.A. to find it. Not during the past six months that it’s been at her parents’ house. I didn’t see it until she came down the stairs from the Bride’s Room.

It was totally worth the wait.
She looked amazing in it.

Twila, our photographer, wanted to get a picture of my reaction to the dress, as SaraRules came down the stairs. I can’t wait to see that picture, because I know what the reaction felt like: A total jaw-dropping “Wow…” It was also the first time that I’d seen her bouquet: It was made of glass, as was my boutonniere.

We took pictures with our families… wait, I guess that’s just “family,” now. Twila, once again, was right on top of things – she took three pictures for each setting, to ensure that she gets “just the right one.” Parents. Grandparents. Siblings. Blended family. Wedding party. Us with Ben (our officiant). You name it, I think we have a picture of it.

Then it was time for the ceremony. We lined up and walked in. When SaraRules came down the steps and into the chapel, it was another “Wow…” moment – she really did look fantastic in her dress. We stood at the altar with our sibs as our groomsmen and bridesmaids – my Godsister, Tammy, filled in as a “stunt bridesmaid,” since we weren’t sure what Rana would have to deal with, as far as Bit and Pixel were concerned. Ben, Tammy’s husband, officiated the ceremony… and it was lovely. A nice blend of a traditional, spiritual ceremony with a few insightful words and a little humor for a modern marriage. We couldn’t have asked for anything better.

The reception was equally fun. We had lovely toasts from Adam and Melissa. We mingled with the guests and even managed to get in a bite or two of lunch. Then we danced. All that anyone knew of our dance was that it had been choreographed by SaraRules’ former classmate, Mark Baker, the Ballroom Dance Coordinator for Southern Utah University. No one expected The Spanish Inquisition us to break out in swing dancing to James Brown’s I Feel Good (I Got You). It was a big hit. Next up, SaraRules and her father danced to Stevie Wonder’s Isn’t She Lovely. Then it was time for the mother-son dance; we danced to If You Believe, from the Broadway production of The Wiz. (Mom liked my choice of song. WIN!) After more mingling, things began to wind down. But, It was awesome to have so many members of our family and friends there to share it with us.

We left the reception center… and headed to Beans and Brews for coffee. (It had been a long morning.) We went in our tux and dress. A patron came up and shyly asked if we had just gotten married; we told her that we had. She sweetly congratulated us and wished us well. Then we were off to our hotel. We changed into comfy clothes and proceeded to try and catch a nap before dinner. No such luck. We were far too wired from the day to sleep, so we chatted away the afternoon until time to head to…

…The Paris Bistro. It was our second trip to the restaurant and, again, everything was practically perfect. Our waitress, Lindsay, was attentive and quite sweet. The food was exquisite: We started with their Shrimp Paris appetizer, then SaraRules had their Bouillabaisse Provençal Fish Stew while I had the Grilled Mystic Wild Alaskan Silver Salmon. We had opted out of having dessert… but Lindsay, whom we had told that it was our wedding day, brought us a Bananas and Nutella Crepe dessert.

Leaving the restaurant, we decided to go in search of ice cream. The place I had intended to go wasn’t there anymore, so we cut our search short and opted to head back to the hotel and crash. And we did, in fairly short order.

Sunday morning, we got up and headed to SaraRules’ parents; they had decided to throw a brunch for the families family. If our count was accurate, there were fifty-three people there. It was nice to be able to see everyone once more before they took off for their respective parts of the country.

Back home to pack and then we were off for a mini-honeymoon in Las Vegas. We got under way around 1530. We stopped in St. George at the In-N-Out Burger and at the Dairy Queen and then were on the road again.  SaraRules had gotten us a room at the Luxor. By the time we got there, we were ready for dinner. After dinner and a little wandering, we were ready to call it a night.

Monday, we got up, got ready and got out. We had breakfast and then hit the road to visit Hoover Dam. The drive to Boulder City was nice, but traffic slows (to a crawl) a few miles from the dam. But, when we finally got there, I was amazed: It is an incredible feat of engineering. We walked along the front and back walls of the dam, from the Nevada side to the Arizona side and back. Naturally, I took a plethora of pictures (which are available from the link at the top of the post). Back to Vegas, where we drove around looking for Trader Joe’s, quilt shops and comic book stores. We were successful at finding all of them. We had dinner at Roy’s, a Hawai’ian fusion restaurant that SaraRules suggested. It was another fantastic place: The service was exemplary, the food was succulent. Everything about the place was spot-on. We started with a calamari appetizer, which came with a delicious macadamia nut pesto. Our main courses were: Hawaiian Style Misoyaki Butterfish (SaraRules) and  Chili Pepper Scented U-10 Scallops (me). Next came the “Roy’s Melting Hot Chocolate Souffle,” for dessert. And, were were sent a congratulatory mini-dessert of a berry custard on cake, as well. All-in-all, it was an excellent dining experience and one that I heartily recommend to anyone heading to Las Vegas.

We headed to Town Square to do a little shopping (we wound up only window shopping, though) and then headed back to the Hotel where Josh and Lish met up with us. It was nice to see them and catch up on some of the latest news from southern Utah and Massachusetts.

Tuesday morning, we got up, stopped to take pictures by the “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign…

…before hitting a nearby Dunkin’ Donuts for coffee and doughnuts (and Munchkins!) and getting on our way back to Utah. We stopped in Cedar City to watch a production of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). It was hilarious. Thanks to Josh for getting us tickets and for the in-play nod to our new marriage. And then, back on the road to Salt Lake City.

It was a wonderful (extended) weekend. Thanks to everyone who shared it with us.

Namaste.

Friday: Coda
We’re at just under ten-and-a-half hours now.
I’m exhausted from all of the running around of the past two days…

…but I’m also quite excited for tomorrow morning later this morning.

After leading six cars from Midvale to downtown Salt Lake City (which SaraRules likened to “herding cats”), I had a wonderful time at dinner with family, friends and soon-to-be-family. I also realized the this evening was the first time I’ve had my whole family – both sides of it – in the same place, at the same time, since I graduated from high school. Added bonus:Having SaraRules’ family there as well. On a side-/amusing note: It just dawned on me a few days ago that I’m about to have three sets of parents. And, I’m picking up a set of grandparents, as well. Win-Win.

Tonight’s dinner was at Biaggi’s, at The Gateway. The food was great – I had their Pork Chop al Forno, SaraRules had a Penne pasta dish – as was the company.

All-in-all, it was a great way to kick off the wedding weekend.

And now, sweet sweet sleep.

Namaste.

Friday – 02 October 2009
Another day of picking family up at the airport. (Grace has gotten big!)

And a trip to Men’s Wearhouse to get the tuxes.

And…
And…
And…

*whew*

And we’re about to head off to the rehearsal dinner.

By this time tomorrow, we’re gonna be married!

Namaste.