When the Mouse is Away…
Posted on July 12, 2010 by Ching under Life, Things to Do.
Here’s a quick recap of my activities while Brian was away.
I took a vacation day on Tuesday to drop Brian off at the airport. After dropping him off, I planned on having lunch with Jennifer Teves. After our lunch at at Manna Wok, I got to play with the simulator…
While Mikki played Scrabble on her iPad.
That was the day we confirmed that my driving sucked. No thanks to Bobby’s driving simulator and my complete lack of driving ability.
On Wednesday night, I played racquetball at South Y with Jay and Ronnie. And this guy named Chuck who we just met that night. His friend hadn’t arrived so we invited him to play doubles with us. It was Jay’s idea. Chuck was way above our league. We did learn that we’d been playing doubles wrong, though.
On Thursday, I drove to WSU straight after work to participate in a SURL experiment. I was there from 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm and made $50. I’m not allowed to say anything more because I signed a gag order. The software application I tested isn’t on the market yet and they don’t want the general public and, most of all, competitors to know about it. All I gotta say is, it was the easiest $50 I’ve ever made.
On Friday night, I went to Sunny’s remote at Linkhaus. It was fun seeing people I hadn’t seen in forever.
Jan would have won the REO Speedwagon/Pat Benatar tickets, but you have to be present to win. Jan left before they started drawing for winners, though. I didn’t win any tickets, but I did win a CD. I ended up taking two because JW gave his to me. I love Sunny’s remotes because everyone is a winner! I’ve decided I’m taking Brian to Linkhaus this Friday since he missed the first one.
Most everyone went to Stooges afterward, but Brian made me promise not to drink. So no bars or drinking of any kind, unless I had a designated driver.
On Saturday morning, I met mom at Sam’s Club after working out. I bought a huge tub of roasted red pepper hummus and an extra large bag of pita chips for the movie party that Kurt told us about. It was the only Brian-sanctioned activity available to me that night. The other thing I could have done was watched The Fabulous Fleshtones perform at Automobilia. I think Jan and her friend Janet went to that. Brian wouldn’t let me go downtown, though.
They created this awesome outdoor theater environment similar to what you’d find at a drive-in, sans cars. Just needed to bring your favorite lawn chair.
There were a ton of people at the movie thing.
It was probably the neatest activity I’d done this summer (besides Cory and April’s wiener party because that was simply out of this world).
Jay and Becca came too. I’m not sure if Brian asked them to watch over me, but they were awesome. Jay brought is ladder golf game. Kurt’s sister Julie and I decimated him and Becca in the ladder golf match. And to think it was Julie’s first time playing.
I told Brian I wish he could’ve been there because this outdoor movie party was right up his alley.
Brian loved the movie Airplane! which was one of the movies they showed. They also showed “A Fistful of Yen” from Kentucky Fried Movie, an old cult classic.
Before the movies, Doug (Kurt’s brother in law) showed us some very old commercials on celluloid that he had spliced together. Ronald Reagan was even in one of the commercials. We also got treated to What’s Opera, Doc? a Merrie Melodies cartoon from 1957. Oh, and I almost forgot about Little Rascals!
I got to see so many neat things that I’d not been exposed to before. I wished that I would’ve written all of this stuff down.
Shane and Kurt left early. Jay, Becca and I left around midnight. I’m really glad they were there because I didn’t know anyone at all. I hope we get invited to it again next year so I can bring Brian. He would so love it!
Today was the day of Logan’s 10th birthday party. There are too many pictures to post so I thought I’d just post a slide show instead.
I got through the week without any hitches. The only thing I really didn’t like was driving. And pumping my own gas, which I’d forgotten how to do. I’m so spoiled, I know. Now that Brian is back, I don’t have to worry about it. LOL.
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He’s Back!
Posted on July 11, 2010 by Ching under Family, Travel.
Seemed like only yesterday that I dropped Brian off at the airport. Now I’m back at the airport again. I’m not even caught up with posting all of the pictures yet!
Our first stop when we got back into town on Monday afternoon was Great Clips for Brian’s haircut. Then we went to Fazoli’s to have dinner with Brian’s parents and grandparents.
It was a “going away” dinner of sorts.
I took Brian to the airport the next day.
And off he went with his shiny, new haircut.
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I’m So Out of It
Posted on July 11, 2010 by Ching under Life.
So this morning I decided I would go out to the gym to workout. I was totally thrilled to find only half a dozen cars in the parking lot when I got there. I had gotten a text from my sister as I was driving in the parking lot, so I decided to check it as soon as I got the car in park. Jenni said that mom had food at the house.
Not having eaten any real food in almost 24 hours, the tempation was too hard to resist. I decided to drive out to Derby to my mom and dad’s house. Before leaving the Andover YMCA parking lot, I sent off a Twitter update pretty much saying how pleased I am with myself for finding a new workout time when there’s hardly anyone at the gym (because it’s always overcrowded any other time).
When I got to my parents’ house and was able to check my phone again (I don’t check it while I’m driving — safety first), I saw a reply from Jess. It simply stated, “I thought they didn’t open until 12 on Sundays.” That would explain why there were no cars in the parking lot. Doh?!
I could have sworn that I saw a workout class that started at 9:30 AM. I must have been looking at the wrong schedule or wrong day or something. =P I probably would have realized my error had I actually walked to the locked doors. I did check the schedule just now and it looks like they open at 10:00 AM (unless I’m looking at it wrong). Either way though, I was there way too early for them to be open.
When I got to my mom’s house, she already had pancit ready. My sister was also up. We’re the only three people I know who consistently get up at the crack of dawn. My mom and I more so than my sister. I think she only started doing this recently, so there must be something wrong with her. It’s normal for me to get up at 6:00 AM without an alarm. Although, yesterday I was up by 4:30 AM. Today, I got up at 6:30 AM. My mom does the same thing. I guess I must have gotten it from her.
Anyway, I was telling mom and Jenni how I had gotten these two CDs the other day when I was at Linkhaus for Sunny’s remote. Sunny drew my name and my friend’s name so we both got to pick CDs. I ended up with both of them. My pick was Kings of Leon, which I’d been listening to in the car since Friday night. I heard them for the first time when their music was used in the 2009 Victoria’s Secret fashion show.
This morning, I finally unwrapped the other CD. I put it in the CD player and started listening. I really liked the music although (a couple of minutes into the first song) I did tell myself, “I think this is Country.”
So I asked mom and Jenni if either of them wanted this Country music CD that I’d won. “Who is it?” Jenni asked. I said, “It’s a band called Lady Antebellum..” Mom was like, “I want it!” While Jenni was like, “How do you not know that Lady Antebellum performs Country music?”
“I don’t know. I don’t listen to Country,” I replied. “I don’t listen to Country either, but they’re all over the TV. You can’t miss them!” Jenni thinks I’m a do-do head because this is something that I obviously should have known. I’m just out of it, I guess.
This is what happens when Brian is away. I turn into a bumbling fool. I also blame it on the lack of sleep. Usually waking up early (they way I normally do) doesn’t bother me because I’m in bed early also. Falling asleep in a Brian-less bed has proven to be quite a challenge. Excuses aside, I’m just not hip and I’m also not immune to ocassional “stupid” moments.
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My Perfect Future
Posted on July 10, 2010 by Brian under Life, Travel.
In my limited, yet varied travels, I have noticed that there is a wide variety of technological differences in the world. I find it hard to believe that in this day and age, there is not some form of uniformity across the board.
For example, I first started to notice the technological differences when I went to Jamaica. They had English TV but it was limited and not very good. I know what you are thinking, if you are in Jamaica, you better not be watching TV and I totally agree. However, think of those people that travel there for business that are not there for the sites. Those poor bastards have to come back from a long day of negotiations or selling and have limited or no means of relaxing. You have to agree, that TV is one of many form of relaxation. I also took note of the internet speeds. It slays me that we still have places in the world that have no broadband internet access.
Now before you all start tearing me apart, I am not counting those countries that are underdeveloped or under privileged. I understand that there are places in this world that still don’t have electricity.
I continued to take note when I first went to Germany. There they have government run television that is rolled into your taxes. Of those channels, only 1 is in English, the rest are all in German or Dubbed in German. I was told that it used to not be that way. At one point most re-televised American programs were just subtitled. However, in recent years, there are more and more shows that are dubbed. You would think that Germany and Other European countries would jump on the Uniformity band wagon because it would give them a leg up on the tourist industry. Just think of the brochures, advertising to the tourist “American TV, Never miss any of your favorite shows”.
The same goes for the internet. They have it here in Germany, but its very spotty, underpowered and unreliable. You pay 4 to 20 Euros a day depending on where you are in the country to get this kind of service. It’s so poor that you can not run applications like Skype or Google Talk. If you do get it to work its not very good and you drop connection often.
And forget about streaming. Besides the poor internet access, there is the licensing agreement. It amazes me that the networks are not trying to push there products across the seas. I mean BBC has made it to America but CBS, FOX, NBC and any number of other stations, including HBO, MAX, SHO and the other cable movie channels are nowhere here. It’s a prime market; most of these people (especially the younger ones) eat up anything American. They have music stations that play nothing but American music but no Television or streaming sites.
In my perfect future, it would not matter where you went, you would have the same options available to you. The same services that you get in New York are available in the Netherlands. If you jump to Japan, you have the same feature as Johannesburg.
I just feel that the companies are missing out on a global industry and they could be making not only more money, but improving the life of so many by exposing them to American standards that should be available to everyone.
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Some Pictures from Last Weekend
Posted on July 10, 2010 by Ching under Travel.
JC Nichols Fountain
Brian and I were amused by this sign. We understood the necessity for the first two warnings. But the third one? Seriously? Boating has really been such a problem at the JC Nichols Fountain that they felt the need to include it in the warning? Really?
They must have really eccentric people in the area to want to go boating in the fountain. Hmm… I always knew there was something off about Kansas City folks. =P
We took a ton of pictures. Mostly of food.
The sculptures and plants are a constant fixture at the Plaza. They always have great looking plants. I had to take a picture of this hibiscus because the flowers were enormous. It reminds me of Chi-Chi on steroids.
Its leaves are like five times the size of Chi-Chi’s leaves. Brian thinks that if we were to plant Chi-Chi in the ground or in a larger pot, she would grow to be the size of this hibiscus plant also. I think they might be two different varieties, though. I just can’t imagine Chi-Chi ever getting this big.
I took a picture of this corner because Brian and I ate here on our very first trip to Kansas City, over ten years ago (before we were married). The restaurant occupying the space at the time was Canyon Cafe. I think it’s changed a few times since then. Now 810 Zone is there.
Click here for more pictures from last weekend and here for pictures from a Kansas City trip we took six years ago.
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