Author: Josh

Elise came home from work on Saturday and we were dead set on doing something. Anything. Something new. Something fun. Something adventurous. We went to Blockbuster and rented Raising Arizona. We came home and instead of watching the movie, we sat on the back patio and talked. So not only did we not do anything new and exciting, we didn’t even watch the damn movie we rented that night.

We got up on Sunday and shopped for bedroom furniture. Again. I gotta tell you, I’m not really liking what I’m seeing out there. Hear that, furniture making people? Make something cool and inexpensive and timeless and rugged and rustic and classic and some other things. Surprise me. As of now, I’m letting Elise proxy vote for me. I want to get our bedroom done so we can take the existing furniture and use it for the guest bedroom.

Victor met up with us at the Oak and Pine Superstore. Nothing there. So we went to Rooms to Go. Nothing there either. So we went to Bone Daddy’s, thinking we could get some hot wings. No hot wings. I heard Bone Daddy’s was a Hooter’s knock off, so why not try some knock off wings? We all had a beer and went up the road to Pluckers. Elise pointed out that she preferred the hot waitresses over at Bone Daddy’s (pretty slick, eh? See, I made it sound like Elise was checking out the waitresses but really it was Victor) but the wings at Pluckers made up for the lack of scenery. Pluckers’ wings were mighty fine. Mighty hot too.

After dinner we went to the theater and watched Napoleon Dynamite. Again. It was Victor’s first time seeing it. Again I found myself grinning and nearly peeing myself due to laughter throughout the movie. Elise’s and my vocabulary have changed significantly. We now find ourselves saying, on a regular basis, things like: “Gosh”, “Idiot”, “Sweet”, “Dang”, “T.O.’d” and “Peace out”. Elise and I have decided that Kip is our favorite character. I think Napoleon Dynamite is a movie that everyone can somehow relate to. I just watched some of the clips on the the website and want to see it again. But I won’t.

Anyway. Elise and I came home on Sunday and watched Raising Arizona. Monday came all too early. Again.

In other news. My ten year high school reunion was supposed to be this upcoming weekend. A small group of us that I will refer to as the Bellville High School Class of 1994 Ten Year Reunion Planning Committee Meeting Team Association (BHSCO1994TYRPCMTA for short) met many months ago to plan the reunion. We did all of the typical work that goes along with planning a reunion. We contacted people who contacted other people so we could compile a list of classmates to contact and inform them of the reunion. We made invitations. We built a website. We did everything in a timely manner. We received 12 responses. We waited. We waited. We talked. We decided to cancel the reunion. When we did that, everyone chimed in. Anyway – not to get into it but some classmates are going to Bellville and having a picnic. Others (myself included) are going to New Braunsfel to float the river on Saturday. The class has been divided. There have been disgruntled e-mails that have been exchanged. There have been mumbles beneath breaths. There is subtle hostility. I don’t know how the Bellville mini-reunion is going but I hope it goes well. The river trip for the weekend started out being over-managed. At one point I was a little “T.O.’d” with the divided situation. I thought about sending an e-mail to the other side, but I didn’t. I guess the moral of the story is you can’t please everyone. Of course, you can’t please anyone if no one bothers to RSVP.

So if I don’t update the website before the weekend, I wish both sides a joyous mini reunion. No I don’t. What am I saying? I want to tight-roll the legs of my Bugle Boy jeans, do the Cabbage Patch and accidentally say something to piss off my best friend’s girlfriend who happens to be best friends with the girl that I’ve had a crush on since Ms. Damel’s 7th grade English class whose brother is the smartest kid in class and usually lets me borrow his homework so I can copy it during lunch but now probably won’t because I pissed that one girl off and because of all of this a rumor started that I was making out with a pair of drumsticks behind the bleachers during a pep rally and so suddenly I become the ostracized stinky kid on the bus and the other fellas will no longer let me be in there plastic trash can drum circle during lunch which will ultimately leave me to cry and make mix tapes for someone who will never understand.

Yes, it’s been ten years. Peace out.

Elise and I went on a date last night. We had an early, comped (catering favor) dinner at Rounders – great pizza. Food tastes better when it’s free. After dinner we saw a sneak preview of the movie Napoleon Dynamite. That was the funniest, most feel good movie I can remember seeing in a long time. If I wasn’t cracking up, I was grinning from ear to ear for the entire movie. I’m seriously thinking about going to see it again this afternoon while Elise is at work.

We came home and watched part of Jay Leno and then Headbanger’s Ball featuring Metallica. Very cool evening.

We got up this morning and scoped out the Westlake Farmer’s Market. We bought some peaches. I’m home alone. I need to change the oil in my truck but it’s somewhere near 475 degrees in my garage.

On another note: people just kill me sometimes. We have community mailboxes in our neighborhood. Everyday when I’m driving into the neighborhood from work, I stop and pick up the mail. Twice now someone has stopped their car behind me, waited for me to get out, get my mail, get into the truck and driven off so they can move their car five feet forward to get out and check their mail.

This past weekend was probably one of the best that I’ve had in a long time. Friday evening started off with a top notch experience in fine dining. Elise and I sat at a picnic table that was attacked by flies and ate dry hamburgers at Sandy’s on Barton Springs and S. 1st. The burgers were okay once we doctored them with condiments. After splitting a frozen custard, we drove up the road to Peter Pan Mini-Golf to play a very competitive 18 holes on the east course. Elise beat me by a stroke. We had bubble gum raspas after turning in our clubs. We drove home and sat on the back patio and talked about nothing for the rest of the night and into the wee hours of the morning.

Saturday was a lazy day. We did absolutely nothing. I think we watch Back to the Future 3. I don’t remember. That evening I made fried rice and a watermelon and mango salsa. I taught Elise how to grill sesame crusted tuna steaks. The salsa topped the steaks. We sat on the tailgate of my truck in the driveway for the rest of the evening. I’m really getting used to Elise’s downtime at work. I like it much better when she can be at home with me on the weekends.

We woke up at 6 a.m. on Sunday. That was due mainly to me setting my alarm for work on Saturday night. That was stupid, but it made for a productive Sunday. We hopped out of bed, showered and headed out for breakfast. We had migas breakfast tacos at Taco Xpress on South Lamar. I thought they were the best breakfast tacos I’d had in a long time. I think the homemade chimichuri sauce was fantastic.

After breakfast we drove up Lamar at a whopping 30 mph. This because nothing opens until noon and we had two hours to kill. Our mission: to spend large sums of money on a king size mattress and twin box springs and possibly bedroom furniture. Our first stop was at Capital Mattress. Seeing how Elise and I have never shopped for mattresses before, this was an educational mission. We were introduced to the Simmons Beautyrest – the patented single pocket coil mattress that will allow you leave a fragile glass of red wine on your mattress and throw a bowling ball onto the mattress without spilling your wine. Seeing how we find ourselves, quite often, bowling drunk in bed, we both agreed that the Beautyrest would be a good purchase. We’ve learned to avoid impulse buying so we shopped at other stores throughout the day. We shopped for mattresses and bedroom furniture. We really couldn’t decide on any furniture, so we focused on the mattress. After many sales consultations, we finally decided to go back and purchase the Beautyrest from Capital Mattress. To save ourselves a few hundred dollars, we went to Sam’s and bought a king size Memory Foam mattress cover. The new bed will be delivered on Tuesday afternoon. Now the cats will have more room to shed hair, sleep and barf up hairballs.

We drove over to John and Christine’s for dinner later that evening. John and I went to HEB to buy ingredients for jambalaya. Then we, uh, made jambalaya.

We got home late after having to drop off some boxes for John to be recycled. I immediately plopped down in bed and fell asleep. Monday morning came all too early. “Sounds like someone’s got a case of the Mondays!”

I’ve found myself checking the website to see what I’ve been up to and have been disappointed because the submissions are less frequent than they used to be. This is due to Josh having less time to write because of more responsibility at work. The sad thing is I think I’m just as disappointed as my Grandma and parents because I haven’t been able to read about what’s been happening in our lives…never mind that I’m living it. I decided it’s time for me to share some of the responsibility of documenting our lives so here goes:

I love being a homeowner, or maybe the term should be home borrower seeing as how the lender still owns the majority of our house. Josh and I were looking at pictures the other day and remarking at how much has changed since we moved in. It definitely feels more like “our home” now. It’s still a slow process, but how does the saying go? “Don’t count your Rome before it’s hatched,” or is it “Chickens weren’t built in one day?” Something like that…

(Sorry guys. I just don’t have the wit that Josh does.)

In other news, I’ll be traveling to Des Moines in August. Unfortunately Josh has to work so I’ll be traveling solo. The scary thing is I may be flying on Friday the 13th. Do you think the airlines give airfare discounts to people brave enough to fly on that day? I’m really looking forward to going home (my other home). This year is the Iowa State Fair’s Sesquicentennial. Believe it or not the Iowa State Fair was ranked 2nd best place to travel this summer by USA Weekend Magazine. For all of you jealous Texans out there…ahem…my husband…ahem…never fear, Guadalupe River tubing, Texas Hill Country was ranked 6th.

Not much else I can think of right now. It’s past my bedtime so I’ll try to write again before the next year has come and gone.

– Elise

Elise and I had a nice 4th of July weekend. I rushed home from work on Friday, ducked into a store to buy some flowers and went home to pick Elise up for our date. We hadn’t gone out on a date for a while so I figured I’d arrange for dinner and a movie. We went to Mirabelle for dinner. The food and service were both great. Elise had the Herbed Crusted Halibut with a Chive-Asparagus Fondue with a glass of Conundrum chardonnay. Yours truly had the Roasted Duck Breast with Fennel-Merlot Jus. Both entrees were excellent. I really wanted to stay to try the Peanut Butter Mousse Cream Torte (I’m not a dessert person but heard this torte was a must-have) but we were in a hurry.

We rushed out of the restaurant and drove to Barton Creek Cinema to see Dodge Ball. You can save yourself a little money by watching the trailer. The movie wasn’t good. All of the funny parts are in the trailer – the rest of the film is filler. I found myself watching the couple in front of us playing with their baby more than I was watching the movie.

We woke up on Saturday and packed up for a trip to New Braunfels. We stopped at the grocery store for the toobin’ essentials and then stopped for a hamburger. We made it to New Braunfels around 1:30 – just in time for the temperature outside to get hot enough to make the frigid Guadalupe River a relief. We floated. And we floated. Floated some more. At one point we hit some rapids. I hit my tailbone on rocks. That hurt. We floated. And we floated some more. At another point we hit some rapids. I hit my tailbone again on rocks – only this time I hit the rocks harder.

Towards the end of our float, we had a friendly conversation Matt and Christine, two Army nurses who recently returned from the Middle East. After losing my flip flops, finding them, flipping out of my inner tube, losing the cooler, reacquiring the cooler and soaking up a lot of sun, we hopped in the Jeep and headed back to Austin. We stopped at El Arroyo for a late fajita dinner before calling it a night.

We woke up early on Sunday and washed the Jeep and the truck. While Elise washed the Jeep, I mowed and pulled up some bad backyard landscaping that was left by previous owners. That made for a nicely sun burnt back. We spent the rest of the afternoon finishing the paint job in our bedroom.

Later that evening we scooped up Victor and drove to Auditorium Shores to watch the Fourth of July fireworks display. We all agreed that this year was the best display we had collectively seen. Elise and I drove home, sat on the tailgate of my truck and shot bottle rockets from a beer can and listened to that Lee Greenwood song.

To most: have a nice Independence Day After – the rest of us have to work.

Job is stressful. Commute to Marble Falls is bumpy. The Black Cat (affectionate term for Toyota truck) is trooping along. Elise works all the time. My brother was shot and has been in the ICU for the past couple days. My parents are in for Dad’s day weekend. That’s news for now.

I’m tired. I’m beat. I’ve been kissed by the sun. Elise and the other girls woke up at 5 a.m. and all gloriously completed the 2004 Danskin triathlon. It was a long day for Marc and me. We sat out in the blistering sun for the majority of the day, complained about how a triathlon is far from a spectator sport and how we were both stupid for not bringing any beer to help pass the time.

I’m very proud of Elise and the other girls.

The past five days have been amazing and crazy. Thursday was the last full day of work at the Austin office. I came to work at 6 a.m. on Friday to meet my boss, pack up up computers, networking equipment and the file server and I hauled off to the new Marble Falls office to start networking the consolidation (fulfillment and the Austin office) of computers. We worked 12+ hours. Most of our staff were there helping out. After everyone left for the day, my boss, his wife (who also happens to be the V.P.) had a meeting at which I was offered a promotion. I had to bite my lip so as to maintain some form of professional appearance and not grin from ear to ear.

We worked all day Saturday as well. I made sure our network of eight printers and ~10 computers were ready for the beginning of the work week on Monday. We’re operational as of now, but I’m going to have to go in this Saturday and rebuild the network infrastructure from the ground up.

Shortly after I got home from work on Saturday evening, I heard a voice on our answering machine from ten years ago. Matt, my best friend from elementary school called to let me know that he was in town for the weekend for a family reunion. Elise and I met up with Matt, girlfriend Gabrielle and brother Rusty downtown and dropped into Casino El Camino for drinks. It was awesome seeing and talking to Matt after ten years but was really bummed that we had to end the night early. It was a shame too that Matt was only in town for a couple days. I’m really hoping he and I can see each other again soon.

I worked on my truck all day Sunday. I say “worked” – really I just cleaned it. I removed the rack from the bed, cleaned the inside, washed and waxed the exterior. After hours of truck time, I drove over to Philips new apartment out in Steiner Ranch. Very nice crib. We sat outside in the hot sun with some cold ones while Philip grilled steaks and sausage. That was a good way to end a long weekend. I left Philip’s around seven so I could get home in time for the first game of the NBA finals. I fell asleep around nine. Luckily I did because I don’t think I would have liked to have stayed up to watch the Pistons beat the Lakers.

This week has been a blur. My boss announced my promotion to our staff on Monday. After that, the work just started trickling in. Trickling is an understatement – it gushed. I can’t believe tomorrow is Thursday already.

Postcentral Gyrus Let’s see… On Friday I came home from work and watched the Pistons and Pacers game. On Saturday I cleaned the inside of my truck and helped Elise cater a wedding. It’s been a long time since I’ve been on the server side of a wedding. I came home that night and watched the Timberwolves beat the Lakers. Elise had to work all day Sunday. I woke up and wanted to mow the yard but it was raining. That light rain eventually turned into humidity and made it completely impossible to spend any significant time outside. So I guarded the TV all day. I sat on the couch for probably nine hours. I didn’t do a damn thing except watch TV. It was actually kind of nice. When 8 p.m. rolled around I started feeling sorry for myself. I had missed out on a lot of Memorial Day adventures. John called around 10 p.m. so I went to his house for a couple hours.

Elise and I woke up early on Monday. I was finally able to mow the lawn. I met Ray, one of my neighbors across the street. Elise cleaned the inside of the house and planted a few flowers in the garden. John and Christine came over later that afternoon. We went to Ski Shores for a late lunch. We then went to watch the NASCAR IMAX movie. John liked that. We then went to Serranno’s for really crappy food and service. I’m yet to have anything decent at Serranno’s so I’ve put them on my restaurant blacklist.

Tuesday felt like Monday. Going back to work after a long weekend is rough. Today was a bad day. I became really upset with my job so I only worked for a few hours. I talked to my boss and things be better come Friday.

In financial news. Spurred by subtle advice from my mom, I’ve decided to postpone purchasing an iBook. Instead I’m taking that money and paying things off. That’s a kick in the yarbles but I decided that it was the right thing to do. And I was soooooo close too. The road to financial independence is paved with a lot of “Damnits!”

The school year is coming to an end. The only reason I know this is because a coworker has two daughters, one of which is graduating from high school. I think I may also be suffering from some sort of subconscious nostalgia. It was around this time ten years ago that I graduated from high school. That whole time I kept thinking to myself: “Man, it’s going to be great to breeze through college, get a degree, get a good job and life will be so much less stressful”.

I liked high school a lot more than most of my college experience. College was a tough time for me. I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to study or what I wanted to do with my life. I thought it was going to be a great experience. I was really excited in May of 1994 – my life was about to change drastically and I was going to embark on some new and fun adventures. Those next four years were a big let down. I can only blame myself though. The best thing that happened to me was when I met Elise. I was still with my ex-girlfriend at the time but even just having met Elise as an acquaintance seemed to change my life. Devine intervention. Fate. I knew things were going to change. And they did.

I’ve always liked May. It reminds me change. School would end for the summer and I would try to squeeze as much nothing into my vacation before I started a new chapter in my life. I wish I could go back in time and find myself preparing for graduation. I’d take Elise with me this time.

Since I’ll soon be commuting to Marble Falls for work everyday, I’ve been riding the bicycle to the Austin office while I still can. I won’t have that luxury for much longer. I tried plugging the iPod into my computer this morning. iTunes didn’t recognize it. I’ve been listening to the same playlists for over a month. No new songs on the iPod. When I was approximated one mile from work, Morning Song by Jewel began playing. At this same time I began declining a slope in my route which allowed me to stop pedaling. I usually stand while riding a bike. I took in some of the morning air and took a gaze to my left. A non-descript bird was flying along side me. Keep in mind, a Jewel song is whispering sweet folk yodel in my ear. I look back at the bird. The bird looked at me. Jewel’s singing. The bird flew off. I thought to myself: “Man, I’m a goon”.

I read today that Wayport is putting wireless Internet in 8,000 McDonald’s. That’s good. Maybe people will spend more time in McDonald’s reading about bad carbs on their notebooks with free hi-speed Internet access. That’s one more reason for me to pinch pennies for the iBook fund. I used to hang out with a couple back in college. They liked McDonald’s. I remember one time the three of us were driving some place. The (then) new McDonald’s on Burleson and 71 had just been completed. The girl says: “Oh, sweety, we haven’t eaten at that McDonald’s yet”.

I thought that was funny. I’m more of a Dairy Queen man.

I had to fire someone last Thursday. I had been thinking about doing it for a few weeks. This person was only going to be working with us until the end of July. After learning that we were going to consolidate offices in Marble Falls, he decided to put in his two weeks notice. I really saw no purpose in keeping him onboard. My boss felt the same.

Having to fire someone is like having to shoot your favorite dog who went off and got all sickly on you. It’s necessary. I’m guessing it would have been easier to let this person go had he stole something or groped a coworker. I had to fire him because of productivity issues and an overall bad work ethic. It was a hard thing to do because he and I had hung out outside of work. There was a personal relationship that I had to sever as well.

I guess what they say is true: If it hurts, it’s good for you (or the company).

We finally went to the grocery store yesterday evening. This after having gone a week with no food. I think it was Wednesday evening when I ate the last package of Ramen noodles. Once we run out of food, we end up eating out. We like dining out as a treat, not as a means of survival. Brick Oven, Wendy’s, Texadelphia, Chick-Fil-A, Double Daves. Those establishments kept us alive for the past few days. We now have food in our refrigerator and pantry. Elise made a dewberry cobbler that I snuck a bite of this morning. Lasagna, shrimp kabobs, burgers, chicken and popsicles are on the menu for the rest of the week.

On Friday I took an extended lunch to get my truck inspected. It wouldn’t pass because I needed a new tail light lens. I drove around to places where cars go to die trying to find a tail light lens. I finally found one. I came back to work and looked online to find that I could have saved $20 had I shopped eBay first. I went home, installed the new lens, replaced a brake light and got my truck inspected. I watched the Lakers beat the Timberwolves.

We woke up early on Saturday and worked in the yard all day. Elise and I went to lunch at Texadelphia and went to HoPot for mulch and flowers. We came home and worked until the sun went down. We showered and met Mark and Terri for drinks at Applebee’s.

I changed the oil in my truck on Sunday and bought more rocks for edging one of the oak trees in our front yard. I went back to HoPot for more mulch and tomato cages. I came home and saw a bicyclist plow right into the front of a parked truck. After realizing that the guy was okay, I couldn’t help but die laughing on the inside. I then put a few things up for sale on eBay in an effort to raise funds for an iBook. Elise came home from work and we went to HEB with an on-the-fly grocery list. We always spend more when we go to the grocery store half cocked. Luckily we weren’t hungry.