2 Days To Go
Posted on 10/14/2002:

Picked up my other brother, Scott, at the San Jose airport. Kirk, Cheryl, and Daniel arrived this evening after Maria and I had already gone to bed. They were delayed 4 hours at their Houston connection due to weather. They flew in to the Oakland airport to save money, but had to rent a car to get down to us. Cheryl's sister lives in Oakland. 

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3 Days To Go
Posted on 10/14/2002:

My parents arrived this afternoon. 

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4 Days To Go
Posted on 10/14/2002:

Faxed airport driving directions to my brother Kirk, who is flying out from Alabama. Discovered that he is retiring this Friday! Lucky fellow is three years younger than I am. He is adding a koi pond at his house.

Crystal showed me a tattoo on the outside of her right ankle, which was done this past Sunday. Daughter's first tattoo. Mother Maria already knew about it. To everyone's surprise, and my credit, Daddy did not "shit a brick". Maybe I'm not as anal as everyone thought. Yes... I am. Maybe I'm just finally realizing that you have to pick your battles.

Used the chain saw to trim 2 trees in front of our house along the street. Men like noisy toys: cars, guns, motorcycles, and chain saws. New motto: he who dies with the loudest penis substitute, wins.

Today is the birthday of one of my college roommates, Beau.

WebTrendsLive is discontinuing their free personal-use service. I will need to revise my various web pages, both personal and for Maria's department at the college, to remove the tracking code.

 

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5 Days To Go
Posted 10/13/2002:
Maria cleaned all day, prepared directions to and from the church, and made "save for the toast" notes for the bottleopeners. After work, I found and test-started the chain saw that I'll need tomorrow. Washed our mailbox (and our neighbors) and repaired newspaper holder. Cleaned all carpet spots in my office and on garage stairs. Printed 10 copies of the engagement photo. 

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The Home Stretch
Posted 10/13/2002:
Entire day a blur of further cleaning, furniture rearranging, and wedding preparation. Garden work, watering and bathroom cleaning. Knew I'd forget the details if I did not blog them at the time, and... I forgot. 

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Just Another Day For You And Me In Paradise
Emo Phillips. "Some mornings it just doesn't seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps." [Quotes of the Day] 

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a mad tea-party
My favorite 2L in Boston says

"I really wish I had blogged my first year."

I've enjoyed her blog while I continue developing my public version. I don't remember who pointed me in her direction, but it was probably Ernie the Attorney. I've neglected my links to other bloggers for most of the last month, focusing on personal items. I need to remedy that. I may not be a "faithful" reader of a mad tea-party, but I'm at least a "semi-regular" reader. A good read. Try it... you'll like it. 

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Time To Find Out
"The U.N. will either be able to function as a peacekeeping body as we head into the 21st century, or it will be irrelevant. And that's what we're about to find out."
- President G.W. Bush, Camp David, 2002-09-14 

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One Week To Go
By this time next week, daughter Crystal will be married.

Maria and I spent the day shopping, cleaning rooms, trimming branches, cleaning the deck flooring, and placing food orders. Early dinner at Stuart Andersons and then put our feet up at home. An even busier day is planned for tomorrow.

"I Want A New Drug" - Huey Lewis and The News 

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For Limited Times
 

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More Makeup and Hair Testing
Crystal went for makeup consultation this afternoon. Then mother and daughter spent about 4 hours getting hair done in final styling test. 

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Instant Leach Field
Neighbor's septic work is complete, hole filled in, and new bark mulch is spread. Minor clean-up is all that remains. I was surprised to see it finished when I returned home this evening. The mini-backhoe was still digging trench this morning. 

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Digging Next Door
Our neighbor across the cul-de-sac had a contractor start digging a leach field addition yesterday. Everything should be finished before out-of-town guests arrive next week. Those of you without a septic tank probably don't know what I'm talking about. 

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Wedding Dress and Dinner
Crystal went for third and final dress fitting today. She and Nate are cooking dinner for some friends at their new apartment tonight. Crystal has already called twice this evening to get cooking advice. Nice to hear she doesn't know everything yet. Told her that I loved her. 

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One Year Ago, Remembered Quietly

My page from last year 

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Tolkien Quotes

From Lynn Sislo:

... from The Fellowship of the Ring:
"I wish it need not have happened in my lifetime," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide.
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

From Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit:

... from Eowyn: "It takes but one to make a war, not two, and those who do not take up swords can still die upon them."

where he also says that

Michael Drout sends this:

This one, from The Return of the King, is what I sent to several of my
students last year who wanted to turn to literature:

"Other evils there are that may come; for Sauron is himself but a servant or emissary. Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule."

A fairly good answer to those who suggest that we have to solve every other problem (i.e, Israel / Palestinians, poverty in the third world, racism, etc.) before we can tackle terrorists.

From Bigwig at Silflay Hraka: 

...for those who take up arms in this age against the West.

"All were slain save those who fled to die, or to drown in the red foam of the River. Few ever came eastward to Morgul or to Mordor; and to the land of the Haradrim came only a tale from far off: a rumour of the wrath and terror of Gondor."

 

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Memorial to September 10, 2001
Brad attributes his source as http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Styx/5592/sept10.html

GREAT PHOTO over at Brad Delong's. [InstaPundit.Com]

 

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Nate News
Nate received 18% raise and promotion to lead custodian. He works full-time while taking web design classes. 

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Guest Count Decreasing
Now expecting maximum wedding attendance closer to 150. Original forecast was 200. 

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Roommate Flashback
While searching for something else, I found this picture of JoAnn, Larry, and two of their three kidlets. This was taken at our place in California on July 4th, 2001. As mentioned yesterday, JoAnn was one of Maria's college roommates.

 

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13 Days To Go
All combatants retreated to neutral corners overnight. Maria and Crystal met for breakfast this morning. Hatchets were smoked, peace pipes were buried, and all was forgiven. Real life in full swing. 

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Happy Grandparents Day
None of my grandparents are still living. I never knew my Dad's parents, but I remember Mom's parents fondly. I have very dim memories of their house in Chicago, and working memories of their place in Fort Lauderdale. Long drives from New York to Florida for summer vacations. Fun, combined with the gut-wrenching agony of seeing "Back To School" signs in all the stores.

My own loving parents, grandparents of our two children, are both active and reasonably healthy. I look forward to seeing them in two weeks at Crystal's wedding. I've never been any good at telling them how much I love and respect them. Still can't; must be a recessive gene.  

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Two Weeks To Go
Spent several hours emptying my home office to make space for guests. Maria, Crystal, and Nate met with wedding coordinator at church, which went badly. Disagreement over placement of tables in widely separated areas and in the sun. Additional undertones related to flowers and dress selection. Tension increasing as wedding draws closer. Real life in full swing.

Here is the pre-wedding beach photo mentioned yesterday.


In the evening, Bryan and Katie brought over a VHS copy of High Fidelity, a "romance / comedy / drama about fear of commitment, hating your job, falling in love and other pop favorites" with John Cusack. 

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LiveTopics Tool Waiting In The Wings
I hope this is finalized soon because I'm looking forward to using the liveTopics tool. The more I blog as "backup brain", the more I need organizational aids.

Radio Tools Licensing. Matt is looking for the perfect license model for his Radio tool. If you want to get your hands on liveTopics 1.0 before Hell freezes, you'd better join the discussion at http://www.quicktopic.com/16/H/tVkeJYmT2Wr/p-1.-1 and help Matt make up his mind fast. [read more] [s l a m]

 

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Old-Time Original Weblog Directory
This resource does not get mentioned enough. It was where everyone went in "the good old days" to find the latest blogs. It is sad that some of the trail-blazing sites are taken for granted by many of us. So much so that we forget to mention them to newcomers...

Are you listed?. eatonweb portal.  A major improvement was implemented recently that adds bigtime value to Brig's alternative portal -- a new database is in place and all listed weblogs are now being tracked by "weblog name, url, description, country, state, region, language, category(s), keywords, birthdates, parent/children/sibling weblogs, author's sex, author's birthdate, ratings and reviews" -- needless to say, the site is now one super resource which will get better and better as more weblog authors respond to Brig's campaign to get people to edit their listings.  [Coolstop Daily Pick] [jenett.radio]

 

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What Is This Thing?
For those of you new to web logs, the following might be helpful. The tweney article covers a few of the reasons I blog.

Understanding weblogs. I've been spending the past several weeks messing around with weblogs. Last week, the light bulb went on: I realized that a weblog could be a useful tool for personal knowledge management as well as for public communication. (published in tweney report, 2002-08-28) [tweney.com]

 

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Another East Coast Reader
Greetings to another east coast JoAnn! One of Maria's college roommates has been reading this blog. Of all Maria's roommates, she is my favorite. JoAnn S. is the perky little Italian who hosted the July 2000 roommate reunion along with handsome hubby Larry. (Larry and I each managed to grab a cute Italian bride.) My photos of the roommate reunion are still available at my Yahoo site. After over 25 years with the same accounting firm, hubby Larry, a partner, decided to move on. Congratulations to him on his new venture.


Roommate Reunion, July 2000
Left to right: Maria and Bruce, Adrienne and Steve, Jacky and Gene, JoAnn and Larry. 

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Yet Another Wedding Update
Maria paid the photographer. Received very low-resolution proof copies of the other pre-wedding beach photos. I saw the final 11x14 print of Crystal and Nate's beach photo, mounted on 16x20 backing. Received two 5x7 prints for parents of bride and groom. I'll try to make a digital copy to post later.

Maria bought cases of Martinelli's Sparkling Cider for wedding reception tables. 

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Template Changes
Corrected standard page template, moving jenett radio randomizer button. Found and fixed bug which caused font differences between home page and standard templates. 

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Show Me The Money
Paid for the wedding cake last week. Today we paid the main flower vendor. Tomorrow we pay the photographer.

Crystal and Nate have the photo from their beach shoot, but I have not yet seen it.

Based on a reader's suggestion (Hi Mom!), we ran the numbers again on buying meat and cheese trays vs. making them ourselves. We'll have enough to do the day before the wedding; making flower arrangements for the tables, picking up food, rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, staying calm, etc. The cost difference on the food trays doesn't seem worth the headache.

Greetings to JoAnn W., one of my east coast readers! 

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Wedding Food, Apartment Furniture, Weight Training
Maria went to a different Costco to review meat and cheese tray costs. A full-service deli is not available in the Costco closest to us, but another store has one. After Maria entered the costs in our spreadsheet, it appears we can save almost $1,000 when compared with two other alternatives.

Crystal and Nate bought a hutch. They saw it in one Costco a few weeks ago for $700, which they could not afford. Maria saw it today, while doing the deli comparison, for $500 marked down to $400 due to some minor scratches. Luckily, neither of the kids worked today, so they were able to come to the store and examine it. They decided to buy it, but had to wait for Nate's dad to get off work and bring his truck. Costco does not hold items; it is "grab and go" only.

Crystal took her first weight training class tonight. 

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2002 Pulitzer Winner For Editorial Cartooning
Clay's Entry Portfolio

Clay Bennett's 2002 Pulitzer-winning Cartoons. He sees you when you're sleeping. He knows when you're awake. He knows if you've been bad or good, So be good for goodness sake. He's making a list and checking it twice. Gonna find out who's naughty or nice. John Ashcroft is coming to town. [kuro5hin.org]

Click the cartoon to visit Clay's site.


 

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Labor Day, Moving Day #2
Crystal worked from 5:30 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. today, Labor Day, earning triple time.

Nate and his dad moved the bed and headboard from our house to the apartment. Maria spent most of the day on a shopping trip for the wedding. I printed several photos Crystal wanted of the intended flower girl and ring bearer, the children of her dance teacher.

In the afternoon, Misty and I walked around the neighborhood. When Maria returned, we went to see how the apartment organization was proceeding. I took the digital camera, but discovered the memory card was full. Sigh... Turned off the pilot light in their wall heater as it was adding heat to an already hot room. Won't need the wall heater for several months. 

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Moving Day #1 and Movie Night
Late in the afternoon, Nate finally reached the landlord and got apartment keys. The departing tenants had already washed the carpets. Nate decided not to power-wash the deck, as it is too old. Nate, Crystal, and friend Matt started moving shower gifts and kitchen items to the apartment. Later they also moved the sofa from my office.

Nate starts college classes again on Wednesday. Crystal works tomorrow, Labor Day, getting paid triple time.

Bryan and Katie brought over Snatch on DVD to watch. Rather tough trying to understand the language due to heavy accents. Illegal fight promoter becomes involved in a diamond heist.

Katie is thinking of buying a Mac for school, possibly an iBook. 

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