I’m still whipping together November’s colors and an explanation for it as I’m juggling catsitting, a lack of sleep, a slew of things to do plus the general fatigue cold weather brings.
However, here’s a little cat levity to kick off the weekend.
Here I am with Dr. Forrester's mom!
Last night our friends Leslee and Michael took us to Master Pancake Theater’s presentation of Halloween, the original John Carpenter version, not the Rob Zombie re-make. MPT is Austin and Alamo Drafthouse’s version of Mystery Science Theater 3000 but it’s done live with the actors sitting in the front row. I anticipated to chuckle from time to time, express some amusement since the original MST3K gang were hard to beat. These guys were actually pretty good. They were genuinely funny and they made me laugh unlike most films branded as comedies. Plus you get a goodie bag with Kerbey Lane’s pancake mix! It smells really great raw, I imagine the finished product will be even better.
Besides ripping on the slasher flick that started the trend, MPT had a special guest participating in the fun, Mary Jo Pehl. You may remember her from the last few seasons of MST3K as a writer, Jan in the Pan and by the end, Dr. Forrester’s mother. She answered questions before the screening, threw in her jabs at the movie and had a skit at the intermission. I got to talk to her afterwards only to find out she moved to Austin. Another Midwesterner sick and tired of the cold, wet weather. The other great piece of news was her upcoming work with Joel Hodgson’s new project Cinematica Titantica. No release dates yet.
He’s still one of Austin’s favorite sons despite attending Texas A&M.
I was going to whip out a short entry until I suddenly remembered that I had already written a big spiel about him last year. Well at least he put out a new CD this year (haven’t listened to it yet, it’s in queue) and my acquired taste for his material hasn’t faltered while seeing him in concert around Austin is impossible (right there with Willie Nelson). Lyle’s big show in Chicago 15 years before he became a more famous star is still one of my better memories of 1992 because the majority of that year sucked.
I thought this picture kills many birds with one stone since I’m rather sleepy from the appearance of cold weather and I have to go to work a tad earlier while my friend Adam is on vacation: his three cats (Jezebel, Taube & Celeste) won’t feed themselves, let alone empty their litter boxes. It also means I get lost in hours of distraction through his Wii; Super Paper Mario would be cooler if it weren’t flooded with exposition.
Trying to put a costume on our cats would result in numerous cuts on our hands, arms and probably faces.
I sent him an e-mail yesterday as part of my usual correspondence routine and I rudely forgot that today is his birthday. Practically not a day goes by when I don’t miss Doc (his nickname) for his part in bringing me to Austin in 1994. My life didn’t take a turn for the better immediately but he laid down the foundation to get me to build up the life I have now.
Things are going pretty well for him over at his job in Knoxville. Hopefully, he’ll have some vacation time to fly or drive down with Masami to visit. I still can’t convince him to move back here because his current position with the university is decent, he likes to be close to his mother as she has grown older and I think he’s still building a house of his own.
If you know him, drop him a line and wish him well. If you don’t, you still should, Doc has done much for me besides getting me the starting gig with University Towers.
Alaire sent me this cartoon originally but it was in the inferior Windows Media format. Thankfully Adam found it on YouTube which is more accessible to everyone. I think Nemo trained this animated cat on the various techniques of annoying humans in order to get fed.
Meanwhile, I wish our cats were more like Mikey instead. I could handle the whining, standing on my face and even the biscuit making, it’s just Nemo’s destructive tendencies that irk me: pulling down books, tearing up the carpet and banging on the blinds.
Halloween is coming up this week which means the annual episode of “Treehouse of Horror” on The Simpsons delayed by the ever boring World Series (go Boston since I dislike Colorado more) on Fox. Little do most people know that the same tradition has been going on for 13 years with the comic book but it’s retitled Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror probably for copyright reasons. This Comic Annual is always a treat since the publisher has guest writers and artists do a batch of horror-related stories with the characters drawn outside the style guidelines, if it suits the plot.
This year’s guest writers are comedians and comic fans Brian Posehn and Patton Oswalt doing parodies of Jaws and They Live respectively. The two remaining stories are written by regular Bongo staffers that carry on the horror theme excellently with Mr. Burns looking for the Fountain of Youth and Comic Book Guy’s cursed movie props. Posehn and Oswalt do excellent jobs because they know how to marry their love of geek culture with their comedic professions but not go over the top. I only wish Oswalt’s story were longer since he’s also known for doing script doctoring on the side.
The DVD of the Simpsons movie won’t be out until December 18 and Fox has postponed the Halloween special as always. So if you need a quick Simpson fix, I sincerely endorse Bongo Comics because it has been the exclusive source of any further Futurama adventures.
Before you lecture me, I know that JR scored his third goal of the season last week. It happened while I was on vacation and I didn’t have Illustrator installed on my MacBook. Then there was all the post-vacation junk to tackle which put the site’s banner adjustment on the backburner until last night. Not bad though, if Roenick keeps scoring goals at his current pace, he should hit 500 by Thanksgiving and maybe beat Joe Mullen by Christmas. ESPN.com can then put that in Burnside’s pipe for him to smoke.
I haven’t been as vigilant over the NHL this season because we ended our Dish subscription in the Spring. When an a la carte system appears with them (or cable), then I will sign up ASAP since Somara and I only watched 30 channels at most. As for the Flyers, I pick up bits and pieces of their progress. I actually received a personal answer from Tim Pannachio of the Philly paper on why his company stopped doing their podcasts; layoffs and budgets issues sadly.
What I have caught of the Flyers is exciting despite their winning streak turning into a two-game losing skid in Florida. They’re an impressive team again but they continue to be plagued by the Lightning and Panthers when they should’ve finished at least 1-1 on the trip. The new players GM Holmgren acquired are proving to be worth every dime so far. I readily admit my skepticism on Briere’s effectiveness, mainly over his size compared to other successful forwards in the league. After researching more of his background on the Internet, it turns out he was a great player in Canada, he just never lived up to his potential with Phoenix—same goes for Gretzky as a head coach. Isn’t it always the case though, the one year I don’t buy the hockey package, my team is impressive again.
Outside of the Flyers, the Atlantic Division will be tougher this season. The Pens and Islanders are formidable plus I think the Rangers are only off to a slow start, they’ll be around to torment everyone at playoff time. The Devils’ time is over until next year. The remaining teams I’m going to be watching since they could knock the Flyers out of the Cup race will be the Senators, Hurricanes, Red Wings, Wild, Flames and Sharks. It is nice to see the Blackhawks out of the cellar yet Chicago fans have had their hearts broken many times by the team’s owners so I share their skepticism about any alleged “new era.” Next month will shore up with a better picture of where my Flyers stand versus the other 29 teams.
Finally, I was contemplating going to an Icebats game since they were at home last night. Instead, I was too tired. Work dragged on over the release of the new Apple OS, the cats hadn’t been fed and they started off on a losing skid since opening day; even my patience has limits with my home team. Then I found out they won 5-2 which is only a big deal for the free chicken from the nearby Wings n’ More but upon further reading, the ‘bats scored three of their five goals shorthanded! Looks like I will be checking out the next home game when the chance arises.
Forever to be known as the voice of Bart Simpson, she was the only professional voice actress brought into the show when it all began.
If you check out her entry in imdb.com, you’ll see she has quite a resume of Saturday morning cartoons but also live cameo appearances on Cheers and the mediocre teen comedy Heaven Help Us during the Eighties with Yardley Smith.
I think the most interesting part about her is how she was trained by the legendary Daws Butler.
From left to right: Chris, Dirk, me, Dana, John, Doug, Denise, Aunt Colleen and Somara.
We weren’t able to attend the post-wedding brunch the next morning since we needed to get Nelson to the airport by 10 AM; I talked him into staying at the same hotel as us and share our rental car, getting him home was the least I could do. By now I had also mastered the I-4 route through the airport’s turnpike, no more driving the stop-and-go, construction-laden Sand Lake Boulevard despite it going in a straight line.
Then we got breakfast at the world’s tackiest McDonalds on International Drive, some rest in the hotel lobby using the free Wi-Fi before the other big event of this vacation…seeing members of the Maggi family I haven’t seen in over 22 years. I hadn’t been avoiding them, I just dropped off the face of the earth around college and became pre-occupied with myself for two decades. After being told by Brian about Uncle Skip’s death this Summer, I sent a card to Aunt Colleen letting her know how he’d be missed, how to contact me and since I would be in Orlando in the near future…was there a chance we could get together? The phone call I received from her in September with follow-up e-mails from Cousins Dana and Leesa really raised my spirits. Thus I was equally excited over this reunion; one can look forward to two events in one vacation.
Dana appeared first and I stupidly called her Denise; I know what they look like in my memory when we were teenagers, I just didn’t extrapolate adulthood changes. I met her husband Chris and her son Dirk (I could be wrong here). Denise and her husband John arrived with son Doug and Aunt Colleen! So much catching up! We treated them to dinner at a nearby Indian restaurant which was nice because Dana and Chris are vegetarians. The revelation of Denise and John being Lightning fans was rather amusing—when I pulled out my MacBook, they saw the Flyers logo and groaned over my choice team.
There were too many stories discussed to post and they’re too personal for a Web page. However, it was an awesome feeling to see these people, reconnect and, brace for the corniness, regain a piece of myself I felt was missing. I am really looking forward to seeing them again in the near future since Tampa isn’t very far from Orlando.
Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Martinez!
Pardon me for the two-day delay, Sunday was busy for reasons you’ll read about on the Day Five story and Monday was spent flying home; I just had no energy left by the time I walked through the door. But here’s the belated scoop over the wedding, this trip’s primary purpose.
Saturday evening at St. Paul’s Church, Nancy and Jose became officially married in front of their families and friends. It went down pretty smoothly despite us being a few minutes late; I could’ve sworn the ceremony began at 6 PM, not 530 PM. Our 510 PM arrival didn’t ruin anything terribly critical, most people prefer to seat themselves and my usher duties dovetailed into being a groomsman (same went for Nelson). I still say we would’ve made it if it weren’t for the moron holding up everyone on the turnpike because she didn’t have enough money. The little boy as the ring bearer brought the house down for the Spanish speakers as he stated the obvious during the mass; something about “are they married yet?” Kudos to the priest for having a great sense of humor and rebounding on the wrong letter to the Corinthians getting used for the second reading; does anyone really use that one about wives having to be obedient to their husband’s anymore?
First dance always goes to the new couple.
Then came the reception, everyone’s favorite part of a wedding. Nancy’s parents provided the location courtesy of their retirement community’s clubhouse. With Jose’s family being Puerto Rican, you bet there was dancing and paella. I dig paella but it didn’t diminish the other great dishes offered with the open bar. The siblings gave their speeches to wish the new couple well. Hernan’s bit on the Greeks’ specifics on love was impressive. (How the West became ambiguous with the word is as puzzling as it is irritating.) Nancy’s sister had a nice one on feathers.
Is that AC/DC’s drummer Chris Slade? No, it’s my long lost friend Phil!
The reception was my opportunity to catch up with the people I couldn’t talk to during the mass. We all got together at a table with Phil, Glenn, Becky (Glenn’s fiancee) and Nelson. Meeting Becky for the first time was great; she and Glenn will be marrying next Summer. Somara exchanged New Jersey stories with the future couple. Glenn had some new adventures in tech support with his employer; my favorite was the newsroom that thought it could physically migrate the entire setup a dozen miles and have it running within a five-hour window. Phil was more challenging as he got to tell his side of the Real Chili incident, pretty close to my version except he still defends his claim to being a deadly unarmed fighter. Didn’t matter though, Phil had his stories of my foibles to tell Somara which didn’t bother me. These things happened over 15 years ago, neither of us are the same people. However, I don’t know where he got the memory of my driving being awful. Overcautious? Yes. Stiff? You bet (Paul and Helen say I have the body language of a bus driver). Hitting the curb with my rear tires frequently? I think the hub cabs on my grandmother’s car would have had visible damage of such a thing. No skin off my nose. Bringing up the sarcastic nickname of Captain Happy, I had forgotten that yet I didn’t deny it to Somara when she mentioned it. Phil’s current career with Abbott is going well; couldn’t convince him to transfer to their facilities in Austin so we could play D&D again. He said Abbott doesn’t do research or manufacture anything in Austin. Besides gaming and work, Phil has recently taken up SCUBA diving. He enjoys it so much he recently became a certified instructor. Certainly more impressive than my acquired love of hockey. I brought him up to date on all the people we know from Marquette and GDW. He gave me the scoop on his family and wife (sadly, soon to be ex-wife). Phil was in good spirits over his upcoming divorce, he feels these things happen, no point obsessing on it. Knowing me, I could do it for him. Hopefully, he’ll stay in touch a bit more now that he has a more reliable e-mail address.
The center piece of the reception’s food.
The festivities carried on through the evening to 11 PM. We scored an extra CD/wedding favor for the Silders who couldn’t make it, left the tuxes with Jose since Altamonte Springs was nowhere near our hotel and said our goodbyes. It certainly was a bash to remember. I think Nancy and Jose are going to be a great couple, more on that another time. How they coordinated the bulk of it themselves without going insane will always remain a mystery to me. I tried to convince Jose into choosing Vegas instead yet I think the results of this proved me wrong in a good way.
Somara’s nice dress for the wedding and yours truly in his Express shirt since he couldn’t wear the tux all evening.
The details of Jose and Nancy’s wedding are still coming together so there will be a longer delay. If you’ve been by the site in the last 24 hours, you’ve noticed I made a formatting error in my rush to post. Sorry, I fixed it after I discovered it wasn’t a java issue.
Currently, I’m busy waiting to meet the FL faction of the Maggi clan, but here’s this great breaking news story…
Evelyn was born yesterday! She is the daughter of our friends Kelly and Ethan Lowry. I haven’t received an official picture from Ethan yet so I stole the one off his brother Michael’s site. When we get back from our vacation, I hope to meet her soon. A picture of her wearing the prank shirt I bought can sit on the backburner.
Friday was the day to pay the piper for our hotel (Somara still says motel) room at $78 for five days…sitting through another timeshare pitch. Our guy Tom was very nice but we dodged the bullet this time but I seriously admit, the offer was tempting. This one had a four-bedroom setup that was 300-square feet larger than my house. The psychology of it must have been working because all I could think was “how cool it would be to invite my brother, sister-in-law and their two kids down for an Orlando getaway with this!” Still would need a rental vehicle due to its distance from the theme parks. They offered to roll over my equity from Vegas, refinance it at a better rate thanks to our bitchin’ credit score (according to Nelson, I’m shy of the “perfect” range). The bigger deal was how having more bedrooms in the unit creates a stronger position when trading which didn’t matter to me, I keep it simple by thinking this is just prepaid lodging for Las Vegas. We still said thank you, but no thank you, we haven’t used our one in Vegas, we like Vegas more as a childless couple so the Mouse has no hold on us (we didn’t tell them we have friends and relatives to crash with). Maybe we’ll consider it in the future, there were counter arguments yet I think they knew I wouldn’t budge.
Nancy is laughing about the possibility of having to attend confession a second time due to Jose’s tardiness.
A quick cat nap back at the room and then the joys of Central Florida rush-hour traffic to Leesburg for the wedding rehearsal. Personally, I am glad we did the Vegas thing and not the Catholic or Mormon mumbo jumbo. I know nothing regarding LDS’s hoops yet this parish made Jose and Nancy attend confession before the priest (a very nice man) walked us through the basics. My altar boy past came in handy for remembering all the key locations of where to stand.
A very joyous Señora Garriga flanked by Nelson and me.
Then came the bigger highlight, eating and drinking on of Jose’s mother’s dime! It took some effort tailing Jose’s Mustang from Leesburg to Mount Dora hotel/restaurant, he has a lead foot and I handle like a bus driver (description courtesy of our mutual friends Paul and Helen]. We were all introduced to the Puerto Rican faction of Jose’s family who live all around the world: Spain, Germany, St. Louis and Detroit. Jose also had a video presentation he pieced together with his Mac showing pictures of Nancy and him growing up, meeting and events leading to the wedding. Yours truly was in several. Thankfully, any involving us mooning people at Marquette were omitted. There were speeches, toasts and dancing; I really enjoyed his Uncle Paco’s story about a young Jose flying a kite.
That’s it for now. Today is the big day (really evening). It was pouring rain this morning so no hot-tub time for me, wah! There may not be a post tomorrow due to other plans…okay, hangovers and the rush of getting Nelson to the airport on time. Enjoy your weekend and keep your browser pointed to here on Sunday evening/Monday morning for the latest. I have to get a nice shirt for the reception once I’m out of the tux.
Nancy and Jose didn’t need to rehearse this, they’ve got it mastered.
All you free ladies had your chance!
At least Somara is having more of a vacation on this trip, she hung out with her sister for the day. Meanwhile, I have proven that the Bermuda Triangle extends to Central Florida because the ongoing theme of yesterday was getting lost right after we picked up Nelson from the airport. Finding the tux place and getting back to the hotel in a thunderstorm was formidable. One would think I would get it right at least once since I’m failing on a 50-50 proposal with directions. It put off any kind of schedule adherence we could stick to for Hernan (Jose’s brother). It didn’t matter anyway, Jose was bigger on having a low-key celebration with friends like mine was in Vegas; food, drinks and cigars courtesy of Universal, Hard Rock Cafe and City Walk. I guess I scarred my friend with the “horror story” of Paul’s bachelor party in 1993; how Helen found out was probably someone else blabbing to save his own butt.
"Somara, take the picture! We can’t hold in our guts much longer."
Hernan gave Jose a slug of gag gifts to send him on his way. We’ll find out how generous Nancy’s sense of humor is should we see these items again in a year. Most of the time was spent blathering over old experiences at Marquette because four of us had it in common. It always comes back to the Real Chili Fu incident from 1991 to get the laughter rolling. I only hope my story-telling skills put Nancy in stitches at the rehearsal dinner.
Loose End: I figured out how to make the rental car’s XM radio function once I discovered it had a satellite antenna. No more lame Orlando radio, it’s Fred, Lucy, Ethel and Watercolors when I drive.
I’m sure Osama is quaking in his cave over this inspection.
Greetings from fabulous Orlando! Our first day was rather eventful even if it did get off to a late start (the flight didn’t leave Austin until 1 PM) but it didn’t matter, vacation time is still time away from the grind. This morning it also sank in about how this wedding trip isn’t a true vacation because I have an itinerary to stay on; I’m an usher which makes me a member of the wedding party. Normally when I take a stretch of a time off, say Las Vegas, there’s no schedule, just a short list of things I would like to do and the remaining time is spent lying around unwinding. Fear not, I am going to enjoy this trip, it may not have as much sleep and web entries.
I was nervous before coming out for two reasons though. Firstly, my annual review was moved up to October (this actually applied to everyone at Apple). It has been 15 years after the entire debacle of GDW yet the psychic scars never completely go away, they only fade. Contrary to my worries, I had my last one with Juan (he’s been recently promoted to manager of the managers) and I did well again. It always pays to have an immediate boss who actually knows you and how you operate. I received good marks, strong compliments from customers (I still think the one who said I was knowledgeable about the mail server must have been talking to the other Steve on the team) and a decent pay raise. We celebrated the increase of money at Wings n’ More; we’re also too lazy to cook when we have serious packing to complete. Second source of nervousness? Flying. It didn’t help that the forecast for Orlando over the next several days had thunderstorms. I’m scared enough and the plane bumping around in the clouds, darkness, rain and lightning heightens my anxiety. Taking Southwest as often as possible improves the odds yet my nerves never did do well with statistics in college. There was a silver lining to Flight 2052 which ties Jose’s wedding to mine. The 737 originated from Las Vegas, where we were married four years ago.
The flight ended up being only bumpy in a couple stages. Despite how much my stomach is churning, I always watch the attendants. If they’re moving about, then it isn’t serious. It did take a while to get the rental car since Enterprise isn’t at the airport, you have to take their shuttle. We got a decent car, a Hyundai Sonata; better than the underwhelming Aveo or Alero I’ve had in the past. As for the hotel room (or motel as Somara prefers to call it), let us say I’m glad it was only $78 for the entire five days via our timeshare company. The Metropolitan Resort is being renovated and it’s really equivalent to a Holiday Inn with a Holidome. It’s primary strength is being near Universal which isn’t why we’re here. At least I’m glad it doesn’t smell like piss as most of the Internet reviews Somara read claimed. I think I’m easier to please than my wife on accommodations; the room has a mini-fridge, a microwave, it faces the pool, hot tub and tennis court and it’s near a convenience store for us to get snacks. We did have to get a couple light bulbs replaced, only Hans Moleman would like the weak lighting in here. The free wireless Internet access is only available in the lobby which is better than Las Vegas (a daily trip to the Apple Store in the Fashion Mall).
I received a great surprise while unpacking, the TSA, a division of Fatherland Security, left a note in my suitcase saying they opened it and inspected its contents. Nice. At least I know who would give me the official run around if something were stolen; thankfully nothing this time. I avoid politics on my site as much as possible but this intrusion is bullshit. On top of being practically strip searched to get on the plane and the continued erosion of our civil liberties by this inept, greedy administration, we’re less safe than we were six years ago. Despite the counterargument I had with a friend yesterday, the real and financially sound solution will be a change in US foreign policy and (sadly) profiling passengers as Israel does. This current nonsense never makes me safe, it just irritates because it’s the same logic as those teachers you always hated grade school; they punish everybody when one jackass can’t behave. When the country gets its next punch the nose, we’ll see that all of the so-called precautions proved to be a waste of effort. Especially when private jets flown by the executive caste remain exempt from probing and Mexican semis will get to terrorize the highways via I-35.
Enough editorializing.
Once unpacking was completed, we started enjoying the time off. Finding the free wireless access, using the hot tub (we were too cold for the pool), walking around to see what’s in range without the rental car and eating. We only ate some fast food before leaving Austin so by 7 PM EDT, we were starving. The downside of hunger is the indecision accompanying it. Nothing appealing was in walking distance and I was in the mood for a steak and beer to calm my nerves and irritation from flying. While looking for the Outback I saw on the way in, we stumbled upon a Black Angus. I had only heard of this chain from a Patton Oswalt bit. Good thing he was only kidding, we had a great meal. It had been a while since I had a steak with some “personality” too. Our waitress Kim was an additional bonus. She would fit in waiting tables around Austin with her gregarious nature.
Day two (now) is going to be crazy.
I think Hernan has good ideas, a little out of order and maybe a tad excessive for us “old farts” (compared to his age). However, I’ll go along, as long as it doesn’t involve strippers or needing handfuls of fives.
Loose End: I got a Southwest pilot to explain why some of their 737s have those funky fins on the ends of the wings. He said they provide improved lift and fuel efficiency for the newer planes. Pretty cool to see those fins from the cars of the Fifties actually having a practical purpose.
