May 21, 2007

Josh and Lindsay Get Married!

So Friday, after offering my services to Josh all day, it was apparently unneeded, but I headed up to the White Oak Vineyards. Relatively short drive, easy and fun. I did feel a bit under dressed at the rehearsal, since I dressed up slightly. It was pretty simple, we ran though things a few times. Especially easy on the ushers...

The place was very pretty, though not all the way manicured yet, I think. sparse grass in places, and the vines next to the building are still a little immature, though it is still early in the season. Occasionally, because of the wind, I swore I got a faint hint of pig farm...but that may have just been me. After being explained exactly what we should do to some extent, and then hearing others (Lindsay's Mom and Sister) talk about what they may assign us to do the next day...

Anyways, after that was done, we were told to be there by 3 the next day and headed over to Trostel's Greenbriar in Johnston. I stopped at home and picked up Shannon first and headed over there (we took her car).

So the appetizers there were pretty good. Not astounding, but good. The crab legs (never really had them like that before, were tasty. Kinda makes me wonder what happens to the rest of the crab. The baked Brie was...well..I've had better Brie, but it was still pretty good. The bread was good, but not outstanding. While the appetizers were happening I got a chance to have a few glasses of the Johnny Walker Blue, which was fantastic. Very mellow on the heat and complex it the flavors.

They had a Salad, which was a combination of tasteless iceberg and other much better greens. The dressings were OK.

I switched over to a red wine after that. There was quite the selection of main courses for dinner, from prim rib to a New York strip, to Chicken to pasta. Shannon had the chicken, which was good and I had the New York strip. The strip was...it tasted very good, but the meat was a bit tougher then I thought it should be. Now I do give some credit, since it is hard to get out meals for 20 or 30 people with such a large group such as ours in a small amount of time, but, I'd have expected better.

Now don't get me wrong, The food was good, the company was good (sitting near Josh's Mormon friend (Brent, Brett?) and the pastor guy led to some interesting location, though I think the topic avoided religion when I went on a tirade about Mitt Romney's recent statements about Guantanamo Bay...I even almost lectured Drew about what I thought was wrong with his statement that was something like "I don't really pay attention to politics, but I'm a republican."). I had an interesting conversation with the Pastor's wife about how she wouldn't eat baby animal meat (no veal, no lamb, etc) and she stated that she likes to think that the meat that she eats dies of natural causes (which is ridiculous, cause it would be almost not worth eating if you let the animals live their entire lives). But it was interesting to say the least and I enjoyed it.

For dessert we had a choice of tiramisu, cheesecake, and a chocolate torte. Shannon had the torte and I had the cheesecake. The cheesecake was good, though again, not fantastic. The torte...well...personally I would've made it with a darker chocolate OR added a bit more sugar. It kind of left a mildly unpleasant aftertaste. Though the first taste was still pretty good.

Anyways, it was a place I've wanted to try for a while, but never have gotten to. Thanks Diane Zamzow...and...uh...Josh's dad!

I was a bit intoxicated (why we took Shannon's car), so Shannon drove home.

Saturday I got up bright and early and got all cleaned up....And then proceeded to play Supreme Commander most of the morning, while vaguely watching some stupid movie in the background. When time grew neigh (and Shannon was mostly done getting ready), I got dressed. The problem being that I had no idea where the hell my shoes were. I realized I hadn't seen them since we had gotten back from Texas for Dan's Wedding. So searching through the suitcases (put them back in such a fashion that they would take up a lot less room in Shannon's second closet), closets, and various places...and then I finally remembered the bag from the hotel we stayed at in Texas and there were my shoes.

After the mystery was solved, my dressing continued. I wasn't too thrilled about standing outside in the sun in an all black tux (though it did look nice). I was already sweating before I got out the door. Spending 20 minutes or so in the car was nice, with the A/C on and all that good stuff. I think it also got me adjusted to the suit, or maybe it was the wind, but it wasn't too bad after that (warm but not uncomfortable).

We chatted and took pictures (one of the groomsman was latish) and got ready as the things were still being setup. The wind blew the chairs outside over and even after resetting them, they would go over again. It was kind of silly. We got a reminder of what we were supposed to do as ushers.

The wedding was beautiful (though hard to hear, other then the pastor, who had a mic). Josh was handsome and Lindsay was beautiful in her dress. They looked happy up there. Shannon got some really good pictures.

Afterwards, we, the ushers, dismissed the rows of people and took some more pictures.

I headed in, got a couple of bottles of water and then proceeded to drink them. I felt much better. I sat down at a table with Chris and Holly, Shannon, Ryan, Tiff and Savannah, Jerry and Ahnaka and Will.

Dinner was interesting.

Now I will have to give them a bit of a break. Apparently they had a few of the waiters not show up for service. So instead of having 2 or 3 like they did they had scheduled 5 or 6...So it meant that services was...well...obnoxiously slow. Now I hope they learn a lesson and have backup plans in case this happens in the future, but they seem new, so I'll cut 'em a bit of slack here.

The appetizers were fun. They had a cheese fountain and meatballs, grapes and bread to cover in cheese. It worked pretty well and was actually kind of tasty (the meatballs especially). and it was a fun idea. I started sampling the wines and I started off with one of their whites (wasn't a big fan), switched to a red (better), and then a white again (it was sweeter, Shannon almost found it acceptable, but I wasn't a huge fan). After the gambit, I switched to drinking the red for the rest of the night.

They brought around baskets of bread, which was good, cause by about this time people were started to get hungry (see above). They brought out butter and an orange butter. The orange butter was...interesting. I could see putting it on something sweet, but just on bread it struck me as odd.

They served a salad and I had it with Ahnaka Ranch (she got her fingers into it earlier)...it was ok.

For the main course we had a plate of something like scalloped potatoes, vegetables, a chicken thing that was fried, kinda reminded me of a chicken keiv, and what I can only assume was pot roast. By the time we got served, the tables around us were all served and most done eating. The potatoes were the only thing on my plate that was actually warm, and they were pretty good. The chicken, I imagine, would've been good, had it been warm, but since it wasn't, I wasn't dreadfully impressed. The pot roast was...well..tough, stringy and tough to eat.

The cake was...very good. There were, to my understanding, three kinds from Glorious Desserts: Almond (the actual wedding cake), Strawberry, and lemon. Shannon got the cake and both of them were very good. The strawberry tasted like a strawberry champagne cake...though I can't be sure.

The started passing out bottles of champagne (d'asti....I don't remember for sure, but I took a picture). There were several toasts and the champagne was fantastic. Even in my state, I could tell that it was quite good.

Afterwards, me being a in an advanced state of inebriation, we said our good byes to the bride and groom and Shannon drove home.

Congrats Josh and Lindsay!

Posted by SammyD at 9:55 AM | Comments (0)

March 12, 2007

Chris and Holly get married

So Shannon and I headed down to Cumming to go to a retired church that was converted into a wedding Chapel. We left a bit later then we meant to and looked around the small streets for parking. I let Shannon out, so she didn't have to walk through the car and then parked and got out to myself. The church was old, and needs some repair to get back to a more pristine level. Still beautiful, just a few rough edges.

Most of the Cribbers were near the back we got pushed off near the middle and the side (away from the center). The chapel had wonderful old fixtures and some new ones (not so wonderful, more practical). It had some beautiful stained glass and an ornately carved alter. I can see why they picked it.

The ceremony was very heartfelt. You could tell that the pastor (a long time family friend of the Bidney's) had deep feelings for the entire family. The ceremony was very beautiful. Holly was gorgeous in her dress and Chris was very handsome and the bridesmaids and groomsman (including Dave and Tinker) were very nice looking. There was no receiving line, which made me wonder why the line took so long to get out of the church. I did see Dusty, and strangely enough, he was wearing a tie.

After a bit, we headed towards the reception at the Hyperion Field Club. Now I've been to a few country clubs in my life, but I've never really seen the point in belonging to one....and I really still done. I guess I've had experiences with three. Cedar Rapids country club (my sister worked there for a short while), one in Chicago (a friend of mine worked there) and this one. I guess if I golfed it would make more sense...but I don't know...*shrug*

Anyways, the building is nice and where we sat had a superb view of town. Initially over a golf course and at night, seeing most of the lights of downtown. Quite fantastic actually. The cake (done by The Bake Shop, where we had our cake done) looked very good (and ended up tasting fantastic...I only got to try the lemon cake though).

We ended up sitting way in the back (the close tables looked like they were taken) and couldn't really see much of anything over the people. The wedding party did, however, make their entrance near our table.

Shortly afterwards they started feeding us. The salad was pretty good, a nice mix of greens and I had it with the balsamic vinaigrette, which was good. The main course was a chicken breast stuffed with mushrooms, cream cheese, spinach and asiago cheese with a twice baked potato and green beans with bacon and onions. The twice baked potato was good and the green beans were also nice. The chicken was good, after you got through the tough top. It was like it was heated from the top for too long, or sat in a dish or under a heat lamp for just too long. After the upper layer, the quality greatly improved.

See, that wasn't so bad of a critique...

Seth and Brianna showed up (yay!) So we had lots of interesting conversations.

Chris and Holly both had video programs that showed them growing up, which were fun to watch and they also had special music for the dances with their parents. They put in there what they admired most about the parent. It was pretty cool.

We did the dollar dance (both said they were tired). We also took pictures of Pat dancing with Chris too...it was funny...I was curious as to what Chris's dad said to them.

After a bit, we called it a night and headed home, only to be joined up by Seth, Briana, Dusty, Drew, and Ryan. We chatted, caught up and what not and had a good time.

Beautiful Bride, Handsome Groom, Beautiful wedding.

Posted by SammyD at 5:36 PM | Comments (0)

March 10, 2007

A Few things

Work has been challenging and interesting lately. Because I've been prodded a bit by Brandon, we've gone in to use Medseek's Sitemaker's language to produce the new modules we're working on. After some annoying inconsistencies between what they say to do and what they do in their actual modules based on this system, I've gotten down to where I've basically figured out what they do. The way they do things has barely changed (as far as presenting data, they just keep it standardized so it all looks at feels the same because it ends up using the same code. I've had a few late nights, but I think I'm moving forward pretty well.

Chris and Holly get married today. I hope the day goes well and everything goes off without a hitch.

Shannon's birthday is on Monday. She turns 29...again...at least that's what she is claiming. I'll be making lobster Alfredo and a nice chocolate torte...at least I assume it's nice, since I've not made it before. It has lots of chocolate in it, so I'm sure Shannon will be happy with it.

We went and saw 300 last night. I thought it was really good (even though our seats kind of sucked), but Shannon wasn't as thrilled about it. It really felt to me like reading a graphic novel, and a good one at that. She did say that the gore seemed more cgi/cartoony so it didn't offender as much as other gore in movies.

We've decided to go on a diet (excluding Shannon's birthday)...well more like change our lifestyle, The pasta that we had earlier in the week is just a start. More fresh fruits and vegetables is the long term goal here. Shannon wanted us to join up something like weight watchers, but to me it seems a bit silly. If we really take it seriously, then we will support each other (which is pretty much the goal of WW). We just both pick bad things sometimes, and it kind of rolls from there. But I think if we both push forward, then we'll end up better...although this does mean more work for me, since a lot of the "I don't feel like cooking" foods that we have are high fat and calories (hello pizza). I've also started using much less cheese too (sigh).

On Monday, the PC Support people came and told me I was getting a new laptop, since mine is going off lease at the end of the month. They wanted to take pictures and what not, but I said, no, I'll clean it off and have it ready by the end of the day, and they said they'd come back today or tomorrow (Monday or Tuesday). So I still don't have my new laptop. The laptop has been cleaned off, so it's basically worthless to me and I'm dreadfully annoyed now. Hopefully early next week, cause I may just have to start installing stuff back on it.

Posted by SammyD at 8:24 AM | Comments (0)

February 19, 2007

Dan's Wedding

Written 8:35 PM on 2/14/2007 while driving

So the Matta's arrived around 9 or so last night (tuesday) and pretty much settled in to go to bed shortly after that. Cali was a bit grumpy cause she had slept most of the way and apparently didn't want to go back to sleep. So Jenny, Shannon and I chatted while Nathan tried to get Cali to sleep..it didn't work so well, but when he took her upstairs, after a bit, she settled down and the rest of us went to bed.

This morning, we headed out to breakfast, dropped all the girls off and then I led Nathan back a ways to get the mini-van's oil changed. We left it there and headed back to Perkins.

Breakfast went OK and was Perkinsish. I took Jenny to get the mini-van and then headed to the bank and then home myself, to get all our things ready to go. I did a quick backup of this computer (macbook) and brought our luggage and other things down.

Nathan quickly loaded things up and we were almost off, when Shannon reminded me to get Dan and Marissa's present. I rand back in, grabbed it and off we went.

Jenny was driving and shortly most everyone (except me) was sleeping, or at least resting their eyes. I read for a bit (catching up on cooking magazines still) and then decided it would be a good time to catch up on my watching of my video podcasts.

South of Kansas City, we stopped at a McDonalds to allow the kids to stretch their legs...which they did. Shannon and I had some Orange Juice and some water.

Our next real stop was in a city called El Dorado. It was about time to feed the girls so we looked for a place to eat...It didn't look like there was much of a selection so we ended up at this "Chinese" Buffet called China Star Buffet. It was...well...it wasn't good. When we walked into the humidity from the not so well covered water wells. It was so humid that my glasses fogged up and after I cleaned them off, they started to fog up again

It didn't look very good, but what can you do? Anyways wondering around the strange mix of food, from the very American to the very Americanized food I picked things out that looked the least likely to kill me. The food wasn't warm by the time it got back to my seat. The fruits tasted a bit off...kinda like they were fermented. The desserts were very dry...the hot tea was very bitter. The only redeeming thing about the place was a sort of sesame seed peanut brittle which was actually kind of good.

So I went up and paid, headed back to the table, got my coat, left a tip, got Nathan's keys and attempted ot go out and start up the min-van to warm it up a bit before the girls got out there. On Shannon and my way out, the lady that had just, not 3 minutes before, taken money from me to pay my bill, asked me if I had already paid. This made me a bit confused...and I told her that I had.

Headed out, started up the car, got situated limbo style in the back seat (I swear these seats are more intended for kids and not adults) of the car and waited for Nathan, Jenny, Taylor, and Cali to come out to the car.

They came out and buckled everyone in and then we headed toward Wichita. No I can't be much of a judge now, since it's dark, but the scenery in Kansas has been...well...obnoxiously the same...People say Iowa is boring, but sheesh...maybe I'm a little biased..

Written at 7:38 on 2/15/2007, while driving

So we stopped at the Super 8 in Perry, Oklahoma. Decent room rate, relatively clean and free wireless internet access. It was nice to get out of the car. We only have 3 or so hours left in our trip, since we covered the vast majority of it yesterday. I was thinking this morning that this toll road trip is a lot like the toll road trip to Chicago. Where most companies and towns avoid the road like the plague, where in Iowa on I80 there are lots of things next to the interstate. Does the road being free attract business? When we stopped for gas in Kansas, and this hotel here, we had to trek off the road to find anything. I find that kind of annoying, especially when you are trying to cover ground. If you are taking it easy, side trips can be fun...but we do have a sort of time frame that we're working with.

So Jenny had thought about not going to the wedding, because she would have to had taken care of the girls...and the wedding was late and then the reception was even later...so when it comes right down to it, she wouldn't have been able to really participate at all. I can understand that. Nathan asked some of his coworkers (since his company is actually based out of Dallas) to help out and they'll be watching the girls while we all go to the wedding. So that's pretty good..

Written at 7:05 AM on 2/16/2007 at the Courtyard at Marriott in Addison, TX.

So For breakfast yesterday morning we went and ate at the restaurant right next to our hotel. It was called Braum's. It was actually pretty good...but maybe that's just in comparison to the meal the night before. It was kind of like a fast food joint, but the sausage on their morning sandwich was very good. They advertised a lot of ice-cream and frozen yogurt based products, and I was curious to try them, but for breakfast? and in front of the girls? Probably not the best idea, so we skipped out.

We got back on the road and drove towards Texas. The ride started off a bit bumpy, since I think both of the girls were cold and so that upset them a bit which started a bit of crying. But after the car heated up, Cali calmed down and then Taylor calmed down.

After entering Texas (My first time, not Shannon's), we stopped for lunch at a Cracker Barrel. It was actually quite a bit better then the one in Des Moines. Not that it was great, but it was better. And certainly an easy place to feed the kids. It was kind of funny because everyone (except me) had chicken and dumplings. Afterwards, Taylor got a little playtime (she decided it was a bit too cold). We tried to buy some bottled water and a Mt Dew for Nathan, but they old sold Coke products so we loaded back up and started headed south again.

The last part of the drive was pretty short. We saw a huge cross (I think we saw them in a documentary on HBO, recently). Which reminds me, at the terrible Chinese place, there were scripture references on the walls, as graffiti...It was a bit weird. But it wasn't the actual words, just the references...so book, chapter: verse. Like that's gonna help people that don't know it very well.

We crossed a point where apparently the George Bush and the George W Bush turnpike come very close to each other...not the best naming scheme there...

We worked our way through traffic and to the hotel (Courtyard by Marriott) and Checked in. It was a bit weird, since the entrance was under construction (apparently to meet ADA requirements). We got settled in and then Shannon and I went out in the mini-van to find some inexpensive water (both to drink and for my CPAP machine). After going a few different ways and getting a bit confused, we finally found a Kroger Signature (oh so special). We had passed a Sam's Club (no Wal-mart next door) and then talked about not seeing any Targets in a long long time...(we made a trip later with the whole crew and apparently there was a target right next door to the Kroger that we just missed, but could see when it had it's lights on at night). Picked up some water and a few other things and headed back to the Hotel.

After chatting with Jenny for a bit, we found out that Dan probably wouldn't be available for the night to go out (I didn't even know there was a plan to do that, until we had gotten down here). So we made plans for dinner and ate at a BrewPub called BJ's Brewhouse. The food was actually pretty good. My burger that I ordered was a bit more rare then I ordered, but still pretty good. The beer there was pretty nice. Nathan and I sampled 6 of them (3 samplers, I had two pints, and Nathan had 1). The Jeremiah Red Ale, PM Porter, Tatonka Stout were the standouts. The IPA (Piranha Pale Ale), was good but not done in the style that Nathan likes (and that's the one he really likes). Nathan did comment that he no longer thought that Texas seemed like a beer wasteland (probably due to limited experience down here).

We headed back to the hotel, Nathan and Jenny put the kids to bed, brought the baby monitor over and proceeded to hang out. We were visited by Dan and we chatted with him for a bit and offered to do anything we could, to help get the wedding going...

After a bit, Dan ran off to get some stuff done with plans on coming back, but when it came down to it, it was pretty late by the time that he could get back, and the Matta's had already called it a night, so we told him to just get some sleep (which he thought was a good idea).

I think I'll be helping him out this morning by picking up a van (to drive the girls in the wedding from the dressing room in the hotel to the wedding). So we'll see what happens.

Our room here looks pretty much the same as my room in Pheonix. the only diffrences, really are that in this one they have a microwave and mini-fridge, but they don't have a book (with suggestions as to where to eat, how the hotel works and what not). This one also has a nice view of the courtyard and a gazebo, rather then the parking lot.

Written at 5:14 AM on 2/16/2007 at the Courtyard at Marriott in Addison, TX.

So we had breakfast at the simple but ok buffet. Afterwards we lounged around a bit and then Dan came and got us. We drove across town to pick up a great big (I think brand new) rented Ford van, which Dan then drove over to Marisa's Sister's House (I followed in Marisa's truck) and dropped off a few things from the truck and then headed over to a rental place, picked up a van load of things for the reception and then headed back to the sister's house to drop off the van. It was quite the adventure getting to the rental place, Dan got a bit confused and we made a few wrong turns. Lets just say it this way. It took us 30 or so minutes to get there and 15 to get back...so...

Afterwards we headed back to the hotel. We drove a bit and since it was lunch time we drove through Whataburger and Dan bought us lunch. I had a Bacon & Cheese Whataburger with jalpenos. The fries were ok. They seemed to be a bit under done, not very crisp...like they could've used another bit in the fryer. The burger was a bit different it seemed like it was more focused on the toppings, rather then the meat of the sandwich. So the bacon was crisp and good, and thin, but not paper thin, like you get at a place like Denny's or IHOP. The tomatoes and lettuce were fresh and tasty and the bun was thick and good. Maybe if it had a second patty, but it wasn't very messy, which is good when you are driving in the car.

Dan dropped us off at the hotel, and shortly afterwards, I headed down to Al's Formal Wear to get a final fitting for the tuxedos. Sort of a modern take on a throwback with low collared buttonless jacket and a deep read vest. The way that Dan had described it to Nathan, it seemed a bit weird, but it did look pretty good. The people there weren't very helpful. When I tried to leave the shoes there, they wouldn't let me. I told her that I could almost guarantee that the shoes wouldn't fit me...but apparently I couldn't NOT rent them...And with Ray asked about a pick up service, she not only didn't tell us what number to call, she didn't set it up for us either...She just told us that we would need to call.

So after waiting for Bret's coat to be redone, we headed back to the hotel and I came home to find the clothes I'm wearing to the rehearsal tonight all nice and ironed. Gotta love the wife :-) I must say they do look nice. Maybe there is something to this ironing thing.

Anyways, we head off to the rehearsal and then dinner here shortly.

Written in the Car (currently in a DFW area CVS) on 2/18/2007 at 12:12 PM.

So we headed to the rehearsal. We were running a bit late, but we got over there. But it didn't so much matter. Apparently almost everyone was running late.

So before I start describing the next few days here, I want to say I love Dan like a brother and I wish nothing but Marisa and Dan the very best for the rest of their lives. And I want to point out that I'm not being critical of them, just probably more the wedding planner.....

We showed up to a growing mass of people, since there were over 20 people in the wedding party (including the two ring bearers, two flower girls, 3 matrons of honor and Best Men (Nathan and Richard being in the best men group) and 7 bridesmaids and groomsman (Myself, Scott, Clif, Bret, etc) and some other people having to do with the wedding. So by far the largest bridal party that I've every seen, let alone been in. So eventually, people got organized enough for a run through...the only problem was we were missing about 30% of the wedding party and the bride and groom. Not a big deal though, I suppose, but it did make things hard for those of us who didn't have people to walk down the isle with. After the run through we tried to get another one started when the bride and groom arrived. Apparently the priest had left. The wedding planner was having trouble getting the run through started (she apparently couldn't get the attention of the crowd). Nathan helped her by projecting over the crowd. Afterwards, we quickly ran through another time and then headed off to the rehearsal dinner. We rode with Richard and Elana (since we then didn't have to climb through to the back seat of the mini-van all dressed up.

Richard...well...his driving scares me a bit. I was ok with it for the most part, but there were a few times where my heart picked up the pace a little bit. The dinner was at Cantina Loredo. This was, to quote their menus, "Gourmet Mexican" food. And I must say that the food was something else. I was quite impressed. even if the food was in a buffet it was still some of the best fajitas I have ever had in my life. The beef and chicken in the two mixtures were both a bit charred on the outside, but juicy and tender on the inside giving a wonderful mixture of the two. The sour cream, tortillas, salsa they had on the table (two kinds, both fantastic), refried beans...all just wonderful. Just a nice end to the day.

Somewhere in here, my camera was working and then...stopped... It was focusing fine, I went to take another picture and then it was blurry...I figured maybe it was the lighting or movement or something, so I tried something close, and not such luck. So I turned it off and the lens didn't retract all the way. It almost did, but it was just slightly open and then would give an error message after being off for a while. (Later I realized that it was the dreaded E18 error, which there are apparently whole websites dedicated to). So I was a bit miffed by it, but we did take almost 6000 pictures with that camera and it was out of warranty, so I guess that's what one can expect.

Afterwards there was some talk about going out to a bar and maybe getting Dan to come out, just for a drink or two, but Dan had quite a bit of stuff to do, and wasn't able to get out. And when it came right down to it, I didn't much feel like going out and Nathan thought that he should probably return to help Jenny with the girls.

So we ended up going back to our room and Jenny came in and finished off the girl's dresses. After a bit we all headed to bed, but planned on a fairly late breakfast, since we (Nathan and I) weren't too sure when we'd get to eat the next day after breakfast (Dinner for after the wedding wasn't until 9).

After getting ready, eating breakfast with the Mattas and Richard and Elana, We headed over to a park to allow the girls to play and then Shannon and I headed up north a bit to go to Fry's to buy a new digital camera. Nathan gave me directions how to get up there, and they were easy enough to follow. We got up there with little trouble and then went into the wonderfulness of a Fry's. This store is amazing. Huge but they have everything. Computer parts (fans, cases, motherboards), tvs, etc etc. Just something else. I was impressed. We headed in and found a few case fans for Nathan and then got myself the Canon SD800 IS (image stabilization) and a spare battery for it (since the style of battery for the SD550 that we have is similar but just enough different that it's pretty much impossible to use those batteries. So we headed up to checkout and did so. We headed back to the park...or at least thought we were. We stayed on the frontage road (to go slower and avoid tolls) but missed our turn. I don't think we even say the sign, but suddenly we were required to get on the road...so we immediately exited and called Nathan, who with the help of someone in the park, was able to (after a while) get us turned around and going towards the park. It was quite annoying. I turned the keys back over and told them, no more driving for me in Texas. We headed back to the hotel to drop the girls off.

The men (Richard, Bret, Nathan and I) headed into Richard's rented Dodge Charger and headed over to the reception area. We were not the first to arrive (we were a bit late because of my escapade in driving), but went right to work. We tired on black bows to gold chairs, put on table cloths, center pieces and what not. We helped put up candelabras and columns. Some point in there, Richard and Bret ran off to get us a Burger at BurgerHouse (I think that's what it was called). When they came back we took a bit of a break to eat our food. The burger was pretty good (the bacon was better then Whattaburger's) and this was the second time where I commented that I didn't understand why they had everything in styrofoam containers. Not like a great burger, but a good one none the less. We were found lounging around finishing up our dinner and were then put to work again by Marisa's aunt.

So we did a few final things and then headed over to the Renaissance hotel to get changed and take a few pictures. As we were leaving we saw them remove a few of the center pieces that we put in, apparently, as we found out later, to replace them with bigger ones. (Yay for unnecessary work). On our way over to the hotel, we stopped at a liquor store (where one of the items they had was a 50 ml bottle of Remy Louis the XIII Cognac for a surprising price that I could justify to myself (though Shannon couldn't so much justify it)). They had a wonderful set of scotches and cognacs and other fine liquors. I ended up buying Dan a half bottle of Patron Silver Tequila, since he had mentioned that he may want to do a shot for the day. Nathan got a big bottle of Jack Daniel's and Richard got a smaller one (almost coat pocket sized) and we headed over to the hotel.

We found out where people were in this very nice hotel (which according to Clif went up in a bout 3 months, during the time that he lived there, it was on his way to and from work). We went in the room at it was warm in there...and that was even before I put the monkey suit on. Finally someone found the thermostat and turned 'em on to cold. But it really wasn't in enough time to really cool down the rooms. the room had a great view of the city's skyline. And in the bathroom they had a few things which were interesting. They had mint and thyme shampoo and conditioner and a note on there that they had a complementary shoe shine service, so if you got them your shoes by 9:PM they'd have 'em shined by the next morning.

There was a bit of confusion as to when people were supposed to arrive. The schedule that we had gotten the night before said 2, Dan thought 3, and we were told 4 at the reception hall (while we were setting up).

So we eventually dressed up and I helped Dan with his cufflinks and Bret and Dan (one of Dan's best men). Who knew I had so much experience in getting all fancy dressed? Anyways, there was a wedding photographer in there with us taking candid photos and the planner came in to pin on boutonnières. Nathan commented that she didn't pin them on very well, and the photographer agreed. It was a bit silly and kind of hit or miss as to who got them on well and if they were at an angle or not.

We did do a few shots around the room between the Tequila and the Jack Daniel's. Certainly not enough to impair us, but just to relax us. We were told 15-20 minutes to pictures and that someone would come and get us. The wedding planner came back, after about 15 minutes, and told us another 15-20 minutes. Eventually we had a young lad come up and tell us 5 minutes and we headed down to the lobby. We took a few candid shots (but when you are arranging 20+ people it takes a while). And it was much cooler out here in the lobby then it was in the room (which was good for those of us who were sweating in the room. After the pictures we headed to the church (big beautiful Catholic church) to get ready for the wedding (photos before the wedding had been postponed to after, because of the timeframe given).

We were directed to go back behind the Sanctuary to a small prep place (where they had the cup that people drink wine out of along with some of the books and other things) and we just kind of hung out. There were a few jokes (Nathan was looking for a bathroom and I found one and told him to go pee for Jesus) and others that would happen when you get a bunch of guys around. We talked about a few things and then found out that Dan had forgotten the marriage license (which is one of those things you just can't forget) and had to trek back to his apartment to get it. His apartment was about 30 to 45 minutes away (depending on traffic) when you go the speed limit. In our boredom, a few of us put down $5 a person in a pool to call when the wedding starts. Yes, it was silly and stupid and a bit obnoxious, but we're guys... And by start, we decided that meant when the Priest came out. So when Dan got back (a surprisingly small amount of time later), we kept an eye on the door to find out when the Priest would come out. A little after 7:45 PM, He came out and Scott won the pool.

The question is where was the wedding planner in all of this?

The wedding was very beautiful (if a bit long) and Marisa was a vision of beauty and Dan as very handsome. I must say that Marisa's dress and the flower girls dresses (which seemed to be a slightly simpler and smaller version of Marisa's) are probably the most intricate dresses I've seen in person.

After the wedding many of us thought that we were free to go to the reception, but found out that we were mistaken and were left behind for a bit to get more pictures taken. We weren't there to long and Shannon and I hopped in Wade's car with Clif to head to the hotel (to pick up a bigger memory card, since I had forgotten to put it in our new camera, the memory card that it came with, pretty much allowed for 3 or 4 pictures taken at the top resolution and detail before the card would be full). From the hotel we took the short trip to the Addison Event Center to the reception. Wade had a pretty serious curb check on our way there.

So Shannon got to go sit down, but I had to hide in the back hallways to make the grand entrance. When we passed a mask to wear, it became abundantly clear that the theme was based on the Phantom of the Opera's Masquerade scene. Dan's dad Ray told me that he had picked them up masks from Venice (I think) where the style of party originated from (I think). Anyways, wearing the mask made it fairy difficult to see, for me, since I couldn't wear my glasses and the mask at the same time. I explained this to those around me and the bridesmaid I was paired with, told me she'd be my guide (which was very nice of her). So we would have waiters go by with the appetizer, which turned out to be the highlight of the evening. They were pieces of chicken and beef that were tossed with what might have been Chinese 5 spice, but probably not. They were quite good. fairly tender meet spiced well.

As for the rest of the food, I was fairly underwhelmed. The fruits were nice, the alfredo pasta was ok, the chicken marinara was...well..ok the crust was a bit less then I would've thought it should be. The beef brisket was a bit tougher then it should've been (according to Nathan) and the flank steak was pretty good, but could've been more tender. The sauce for the brisket was supposed to be horseradish but if there was any horseradish in there, it was a tiny amount. The cake was a bit dry (both the angel and chocolate) and had way to much frosting for my taste. The chocolate peelings on the cake were good though (I was able to grab a bit away before Shannon consumed them).

It still was a beautiful reception and after I got some food in me I felt quite a bit less grumpy and felt more social (especially after getting off my feet for a bit). They had a mariachi band for a while which was pretty cool and they were pretty good too. The DJ was fairly good at the organization (which was good, since, again, the wedding planner was at best incapable). The music was cheesey at times and a mix of Phantom, country, classics, and mexi-pop. Jenny and Nathan took the dance floor (Taylor and Cali were being taken care of by one of Nathan's co-workers) and they were quite good. On asking Shannon if maybe she wanted to do that and maybe take some lessons and she said she would...so maybe we'll be doing that...

During the Dollar dance, I danced with Marisa and Shannon danced with Dan.

Shortly after that, we said good bye to Marisa and Dan and our friends there and headed back to the hotel.

After changing out of the monkey suit and Shannon out of her dress, Nathan, Jenny, Shannon and I unwound a bit and then went to bed.

So there was a lot of missing direction and planning and coordination (again, where was the wedding planner, she was actually LATE for things at times). Things that had to be redone, because people weren't sure what needed to happen initially.

Oh well...After all the confusion, It turned out beautifully.

This morning, since Taylor enjoyed knocking on our door so much, we ate breakfast with the Mattas This morning. After packing up, we heisted some bread from the breakfast buffet and headed to the park.

Taylor and Cali got some playing time and feeding ducks time at park (as did Shannon and I). There were some odd looking ducks in there (I may just not recognize them).

Written in the car, Somewhere in Oklahoma on 2/18/2007 at 5:05 PM

So after the bread was gone, we played with the girls a while, swung on the swings and had some general silliness before we got on the road.

So we stopped for lunch at an On the Border. I was surprised to find that it was actually pretty good. It was a good change of pace. The salsa had some heat to it, the food was done right..our waiter kind of sucked...I asked for guacamole and cheese twice for my lunch fajitas, and didn't get them. For play time we wondered around the large store strip mall area and ended up in a Toys R Us...where Taylor had a bit of an accident. Jenny was not exactly pleased. I did check in a bed bath and beyond for the 8" omelet pan that I've been looking for. They had it, but only in a set of 13 other things, and I'm not dreadfully thrilled about that...anyways, Nathan suggested Ebay and Shannon suggested I try their website...so maybe I'll be able to find it...

Our Journey continues.

Written at the Wyatt Earp Inn, somewhere in Kansas 2/18/2007 at 10:15 PM.

Well after passing up the Universal Hotel, since it looked similar to the Bates Motel (and with nothing around it either), we went to the next exit. At this exit they had a few restaurants a truck stop and the Wyatt Earp Inn. It looked less scary and with the things around it, we thought it seemed to be less likely to be murdered in our sleep. We got something, checking in, that we haven't gotten on this trip so far...a key. Yes...a key for a room, not a card. It seems odd to me. But I guess that's when technology moves forward, some get left behind. The carpet has stains on it...I had to search for outlets to plug in all my devices (I had to unplug a lamp to get my laptop, cellphone, iPod and CPAP plugged in. We checked for bed bugs and Shannon checked for mouse droppings, so I guess we'll see what happens.

I was hoping to post this through the truck stop's wireless internet, but every time I try to connect, I get rejected. So...that kinda sucks...

Written at the Wyatt Earp Inn, somewhere in Kansas on 2/19/2007 at 4:51 AM.

So I did sleep some, but not very much. I think I'm up for the day. But I can't do much, since Shannon's sleeping. Pulling the covers back on my bed, I found crumbs on the bed. Shannon had suspicions and checked to see if it was flea droppings. She took a couple of crumbs in a tissue and washed them, because apparently flea droppings will leave a rust color (because of the iron in the blood they eat I suspect. No...they were just crumbs.

One of the things I noticed that was kind of odd was the clocks. They were set to be a similar time, but they were slow. By about 15 minutes. Most clocks in hotels are not particularly right, but they usually are fast (probably so you are not late for wherever you are going).

I am looking forward to being home later today.

Written on the road in Kansas on 2/19/2007 at 10:32 AM

So we skipped the truck stop, even though in the advertising paper in our room it said that it had won the the best restaurant in 1996 in Trucker magazine...We headed down the road to find somewhere else to eat and ended up at the Old 56 Family Restaurant.

The food was pretty good. Nathan said the pancakes felt done texturewise, but tasted underdone. He said it was weird and I agree that it was. The english muffin I had was fantastic. It tasted like it was grilled on the griddle, rather then in a toaster. Shannon and I also split a cinnamon roll which was pretty good. So a pretty good way to start the day.

The funny thing was that even though they had a table tent posted stating they use no trans-fat in their cooking, they do allow smoking in their restaurant...which is a bit funny.

To give the girls a bit of play time, we hung out in a Walmart (ewww). We spent some time looking around. We bought Shannon a cheap tetris game so she could play that in the car...which she is doing right now. After playtime was over, pottytime happened and we got back on the road.

Only a few more hours till home.

Written on the road in Kansas (less then 5 miles to the Iowa Border) on 2/19/2007 at 1:57 PM.

So we stopped at this truck stop Dinner Bell Restaurant ("Eat Well at the Dinner Bell"). The food was fairly lackluster. The fries were good, but there was too much thousand island dressing on my ruben. Mostly the food was pretty blah. I tried to convince Shannon to just split a piece of pie, but she wanted her own. The pie was actually pretty good. I had a slice (that I couldn't finish) of lemon cream cheese pie (a layer of whipped topping, lemon (like from a lemon bar), and then whipped cream cheese and sugar) and shannon had a slice (which she couldn't finish) of peanut butter chocolate pie. Both were worth the paltry under 3$ price we paid for them.

So we are in Iowa now and tearing up the distance to Des Moines. I've caught up on all of the video podcasts that I've been so far behind on and it actually freed up quite a bit of space on here. Of course now I have 11.2 hours of audio podcasts, but I listen to those at work, so I imagine after a day or 3 I'll be all caught up.

We never got a call from our cat sitter, so I imagine they are doing good, at least I hope so. I guess we'll find out in a few hours. We decided not to take 'em in for boarding since last time they freaked out so much and it took them (especially Gracie) quite a while to get back to normal.

Posted by SammyD at 6:42 PM | Comments (2)

February 10, 2007

I am Stuck in Phoenix

So yesterday, I got up fairly early and lounged around a bit and then got dressed up a bit and rode along with the family to the Mount Timpanogos Temple (LDS). Since I wasn't allowed inside, I wondered around, took lots of pictures and what not...One of them, that I just found kind of funny, was a big Gold's Gym H2 vehicle in the parking lot. And I thought, the way Gold's Gym advertising usually targets your vanity and an H2 is just excessive and a sign of needless extravagance...It just struck me as funny in the parking lot...

Anyways, after wandering around for a while, I finally sat down and started to Text message Brandon (Shannon wasn't home from work for her lunch break yet). And through those text messages, I realized that for a religion that touts families so much, it seems really divisive...But on the other hand I do support their right to have sacred and holy places that us normal people can't go...I don't know...I just felt like I was missing out on something.

Afterwards we headed over to the Rose Room at Thanksgiving Point for a family luncheon. It was...interesting I guess. My brother-in-law Brent (Cara's) told me that it was one of the Wordperfect guy's thanks for being so successful...So that's interesting I guess. The Lunch was OK. The salad wasn't properly mixed (but still good) All the additional components were on the top and not throughout the salad, and so myself, being one of the last. The Potatoes were pretty good, but the the chicken was a bit overdone (not like burnt, but just a bit less tender and juicy then it could have been). But for a free lunch, it was pretty good. Alissa and uh...her...uh...I forget his name...husband I guess, introduced everyone in the room and then treated us all to a couple of musical numbers, which were both loving and sung and played very well... They had cheesecake for dessert...which was...well the crust was good and the blackberry and whipped cream was good...but the cheesecake part just seemed a bit off to me...like it had sat out too long or the cream cheese was about to turn or something...I don't know, but it didn't taste right.

Afterwards, we headed back to Cara and Brent's to get ready for the wedding reception that was hosted at their house. I went up to Camden's room (where I was sharing the room with Joseph) and just got some quiet time to myself and then after taking a little nap (I had a late night chatting with Joseph and Cara), headed downstairs to help setup. I helped make a nice cheese, cracker and tomato tray. It turned out pretty nice, I liked the way I did it. It wasn't want I originally wanted to do (which was kind of a flower theme in my head) because I realized that if I did that I wouldn't have much on the tray at all. I ended up with little rotating piles of cheese (7 per stack, just seemed like a good number). With the cheese around the platter on the outside, the crackers in a nice circle on the inside and the middle filled up with tomatoes. I helped out a bit more where I could here and there, and then we were ready...

It was a nice spread, from mints to nuts to sandwiches, hummus and cheese and crackers. People came in and out of the house for most of th night. By the end of then night something like 100 people had gone through the house. I took a break or three to just get some quiet time and to talk to Shannon and after the night was done, we all chilled out a bit and then most people started going to bed. I stayed up chatting with mom, Joseph and Hyrum. It was interesting.

The next morning (Saturday), I got up bright and early and started making breakfast. I wasn't able to get the bread I wanted (a French bread with too many ingredients), and forgot to buy butter (my sister had a surprising lack of it, but has plenty of vegetable oil based spreads) and the vanilla was kinda crappy (had corn syrup in it as a sweetener, none they had at Albertson's were acceptable as far as I'm concerned). But it all worked out. I made bacon, sausage and cinnamon encrusted French toast for about 2 hours or so. Fed 6 kids and 10 (including myself) adults, which is by far the largest group that I've cooked for. It turned out good...some of the toast in the middle didn't have the amount of cinnamon that I intended to have on them, but over all it was pretty good for small little toasts. I got good complements, the best, I think was Brent who said (even though he's fairly proud of his French toast), "I think this is even better then the French toast I make" (or something close to that).

So I didn't eat much for breakfast. I had some sausage and bacon and the ends of the French bread that were too small or hard to cut for the and a couple samples of the toast.

For lunch, Cara and Brent got a babysitter for the kids and we headed to Tucanos Brazilian Grill. While we were waiting for a table, I wondered around a bit and ended up buying Shannon some chocolates at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory...and now that I have the internet I have seen their stores before. I did buy myself and Joseph a chocolate soda which tasted something like bad chocolate syrup...so not very pleasant. So the grill is all you can eat... So they have a salad bar, but that's not what is important, although I did have a pickled egg of some sort (which was pretty good), but the meat was cooked on skewers and they would bring them around, ask if you wanted any and cut you off a slice or portion of the meat and then move on. They also had grilled pineapple (fantastic), vegetables (pretty good) and fish (this lunch it was mango cod) (pretty good). So the highlights for me were the Picalho (Garlic Parmesan Beef), Peru (Turkey Wrapped in Bacon) and these wonderful battered fried bananas. I don't think I've ever eaten so much meat in my life in one sitting...so many varieties of meat...so many things to try. Anyways it's night time, and pretty late and I've had no desire to eat yet...so it's still in there I guess.

Mom took me to the airport...She was going to meet up with a cousin of hers in SLC, so we headed up there. She dropped me off, and I checked in...

Easy enough. Called Shannon, told her I was on time, and the plane was on time...or so I thought. Oh no, it was a bit late getting to our gate. No big deal...we all loaded on the plane.

And waited.

and Waited...

AND WAITED.

It got a bit obnoxious. they claimed it had something to do with luggage, but that just sounded like a load of crap. So we took off. things were going fine and then when we landed they told us that people should pay attention to who needs to make connecting flights and let them off first. When we touched down, I had about 15 minutes between our landing time and when my connecting flight was supposed to be in the air. Now I wasn't sure I heard it, but I thought I heard them say that the Des Moines flight had already left the gate...and it had. I headed up to the counter, asked and then proceeded to get a ticket to stay in the Courtyard by Marriott. So I told the person at the counter that I didn't need my bag, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought that yes, I would need it. So I ended up going to the luggage services place. In front of me was a couple of Canadians who apparently had a bag lost and tried to get a search started, but they had to go (they were in a tour group of some sort). So they were in a rush...but as soon as they left...one rep said to the other that if they're going to leave, don't do anything about it...like people don't have things to do...but they were nice enough to me. They said that they'd have my luggage found and put on the first luggage return...so I sat there. Called Shannon, call Chris (to tell him that I probably couldn't host movie night and make the dinner I planned), called my mom. I heard an announcement about luggage from my flight, so I figured I'd go check it out and in walking down there, I saw my suitcase...not where they said it be...but I found it. They check my request and gave me my bag, I headed out to get picked up by the shuttle and out here to the hotel.

Check in was easy and I've been chilling out up here for a while.

I'd rather be at home...but it's better then being in the airport waiting I guess...

I miss Shannon.

Posted by SammyD at 11:01 PM | Comments (0)

December 12, 2006

Music played on my iPod during the day of our Wedding (Including the reception)

You are gonna have to click in on this one...

Continue reading "Music played on my iPod during the day of our Wedding (Including the reception)" »

Posted by SammyD at 1:35 PM | Comments (0)

December 10, 2006

After Wedding Music

Wedding After
Title	Artist	Album
McAllistrum's March	The Chieftains	The Celtic Harp
Calliope House-The Cowboy Song	Various Artists	Celtic Odyssey
Alasdair Mhic Cholla Ghasda	Various Artists	Celtic Odyssey
Da–s-Tro Fisel	The Chieftains	Celtic Wedding: Music of Brittany
Heuliadenn Tonio Breizh-Izel	The Chieftains	Celtic Wedding: Music of Brittany
Jabadaw	The Chieftains	Celtic Wedding: Music of Brittany
Studentersang (Vi f¾rdes med Lyst)	Einar Steen-N¿kleberg	GRIEG Piano Music Vol. 5 - Norges melodier, EG 108 Nos. 1 to 63
Ho Astrid (Og hev' du set Aastrid)	Einar Steen-N¿kleberg	GRIEG Piano Music Vol. 5 - Norges melodier, EG 108 Nos. 1 to 63
Halling fra ¯sterdalen	Einar Steen-N¿kleberg	GRIEG Piano Music Vol. 5 - Norges melodier, EG 108 Nos. 1 to 63
Friluftsvise (Se Norges Blomsterdal!)	Einar Steen-N¿kleberg	GRIEG Piano Music Vol. 5 - Norges melodier, EG 108 Nos. 1 to 63
Springdans fra Nummedal	Einar Steen-N¿kleberg	GRIEG Piano Music Vol. 5 - Norges melodier, EG 108 Nos. 1 to 63
Gamle Norge (Der ligger et Land)	Einar Steen-N¿kleberg	GRIEG Piano Music Vol. 5 - Norges melodier, EG 108 Nos. 1 to 63
Ciaccona	Arianna Savall, Bjorn Kjellemyr, Guido Morini, Marco Ambrosini, Pedro Estevan & Rolf Lislevand	Nuove Musiche
Planxty Burting (Live)	The Chieftains	The Celtic Harp
Sonny Brogan's Mazurkas (Live)	The Chieftains	The Celtic Harp
Rubina's Blue Sky Happiness	Joe Satriani	The Extremist

Posted by SammyD at 3:28 PM | Comments (0)

Music during the wedding

Wedding During
Title	Artist	Album
Wedding March (Loehengrin)	Richard Wagner	25 Wedding Favorites
Always With Me, Always With You	Joe Satriani	Surfing With The Alien

Posted by SammyD at 3:19 PM | Comments (0)

Pre-wedding music

So I meant to get this stuff up a while ago, but never got around to it, so here it is, the music that played before our wedding.

Wedding Before
Title	Artist	Album
Shalom/Saalam	Matisyahu	Youth
Wedding Day at Troldhaugen	Edvard Grieg	25 Wedding Favorites
Hornpipe (Water Music)	George Frideric Handel	25 Wedding Favorites
Johann Pachelbel, Canon	Orpheus Chamber Orchestra	Albinoni- Adagio - Pachelbel- Canon
Johann Sebastian Bach, Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring	Orpheus Chamber Orchestra	Albinoni- Adagio - Pachelbel- Canon
Air on the G String	Bach	Bach - Greatest Hits
Sleepers, Wake	Bach	Bach - Greatest Hits
Brandenburg Concerto 3 - Allegro	Bach	Bach - Greatest Hits
Sinfonia, from Cantata No. 29 ('We Thank Thee, Lord'), BWV 29	J.S. Bach - Michael Murray Organ	Bach Organ Blaster
Prelude and Fugue in G Major ('Great'), BWV 541	J.S. Bach - Michael Murray Organ	Bach Organ Blaster
Studentersang (Vi f¾rdes med Lyst)	Einar Steen-N¿kleberg	GRIEG Piano Music Vol. 5 - Norges melodier, EG 108 Nos. 1 to 63
Ho Astrid (Og hev' du set Aastrid)	Einar Steen-N¿kleberg	GRIEG Piano Music Vol. 5 - Norges melodier, EG 108 Nos. 1 to 63
Halling fra ¯sterdalen	Einar Steen-N¿kleberg	GRIEG Piano Music Vol. 5 - Norges melodier, EG 108 Nos. 1 to 63
Friluftsvise (Se Norges Blomsterdal!)	Einar Steen-N¿kleberg	GRIEG Piano Music Vol. 5 - Norges melodier, EG 108 Nos. 1 to 63
Springdans fra Nummedal	Einar Steen-N¿kleberg	GRIEG Piano Music Vol. 5 - Norges melodier, EG 108 Nos. 1 to 63
Gamle Norge (Der ligger et Land)	Einar Steen-N¿kleberg	GRIEG Piano Music Vol. 5 - Norges melodier, EG 108 Nos. 1 to 63
Prelude In C	Stuart Hamm	Kings Of Sleep
Sonata In D For Two Pianos	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)	Mozart For Your Mind
Swan Lake - Waltz	Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky	Tchaikovsky's Greatest Hits
Four Seasons- Autumn- Guitar concerto in D - Adagio	Antonio Vivaldi	Vivaldi Greatest Hits

Posted by SammyD at 3:04 PM | Comments (0)

October 25, 2006

I <3 my food processor

So I used my food processor for the first time (we got it from my co-workers at our wedding).

It's fanfreakintastic.

Cutting veggies and meat that would've taken me probably 20 minutes or so, I got done in 5.

It went, pepper, pepper, pepper, half an onion, two piece of pork and bam, a nice mixture for pitas.

wheeeee!

Thanks Co-workers!

Posted by SammyD at 11:05 PM | Comments (0)

October 10, 2006

Fun with cards

So we sent out some thank you cards yesterday (parents, big wedding helpers, etc) and a big chunk today (pretty much almost everyone except those in the metro (figured it'd be bad to have thanks sent to some in an area but not others)). We're also out of stamps...so that kinda stopped 'em.

But after watching one printer eat 15 or 20 envelopes and the other one have to be loaded one at a time (for addresses), I'll be glad when it's done.

Also the hand writing sucks...I hope people can read mine...and between the two of us we can't spell, so watch out for those, it should prove interesting.

Funtastic.

Posted by SammyD at 2:00 PM | Comments (0)

October 8, 2006

Wedding Cost

Spent 3.8 times original Wedding Budget
Spent 1.9 times updated wedding budget.

1.02% of total cost spent on Makeup
1.44% of total cost spent on M&Ms
3.61% of total cost spent at the Irish Shoppe
3.62% of total cost spent on wedding venue
4.48% of total cost spent on reception venue
6.32% of total cost spent on Photographer's time (excluding final per roll charge)
12.95% of total cost spent on rings
16.39% of total cost spent on Honeymoon
17.04% of total cost spent at Joseph's Jewerler
32.00% of total cost spent on Food at Reception
42.93% of total cost spent on Reception and Reception related things (including food)

(some percentages overlap others)

Posted by SammyD at 10:30 AM | Comments (0)

Disney World Summary

Mornings, right when the park is open is the time with the least lines. We theorized that this was due to the fact that kids can be hard to wake up in the morning.

Service at Disney World, ranged from excellent, all the way down to fairly poor. We had excellent service and the Bistro de Paris and there was a girl who when we got change for the penny pressing machines, picked out all the shiney ones to give 'em to us. But then there was also the incident where I was basically chastised for not talking loud enough. Overall though, the service was better then average.

Even though they say to hit the shops on the way out, that can end up costing a lot of money...but it does avoid the rushes for the bus.

Be prepared to walk. A lot.

Wet shoes suck to walk in (Kali River Rapids was the only time we got soaked).

Everything is overpriced. 20 oz of Water was $2.50. And since Disney apprently has a contract with coke, the only water that was availble was Dasani (which has salt in it).

Make reservations for eating at sit down places on the weekend (Friday through Sunday, this is during off peak times).

Some of the sit down meals aren't so good. Most of them were places that were good, but not great. Bistro de Paris was an exception, the food was excellent. The Sci-Fi Dine in theater was...well..way overpriced, and not that good (bread was dry mixture of foods were...well...very plain).

Planet Hollywood sucks! The food is bad, the service is ok, and the prices are way to high.

If you take pictures, make sure you have a place to off load your digital pictures to. Although we took more then the average, I suspect, we still had to empty our camera every day and sometimes twice in a day.

Lines for taking pictures with the Disney charecters build quickly, so if you see a short line and want a picture, take it.

There are lots of kids....lots of them...everywhere.

Posted by SammyD at 9:25 AM | Comments (0)

October 3, 2006

Honeymoon day 8 (10/2/2006)

On Monday, October 2nd, we got up pretty early to head home. It was nice to think about heading in that direction. We ate breakfast (service was lousy) at the Maya Grill, and we didn't get served our drinks until...well...we had almost finished eating. Oh well...we were there right when it opened, so maybe something just got lost there.

We had insta-checkout so we already had our bill and only needed to call if we actually wanted to challenge anything on the bill (we didn't). They even had checkin at the departure area, so we didn't have to check our bags at the airport, but only at the resort. Which was nice, cause there was a long line for the ticket counter when we got there.

They had free Wi-Fi in Orlando's Airport, which was nice, so I hopped on and checked a few things (nothing too important over the unsecured wi-fi). It was nice to feel connected to the world again.

The Flight from Orlando to Atlanta was pretty smooth (and short), and the flight from Atlanta to Des Moines was very uneventful...except again, being in the last row, right next to the toilet....where the noise and the traffic were fairly annoying.

When we got to Des Moines, we were picked up by My boss in Shannon's car and we dropped him off, dropped off our luggage and got the kitties.

Apparently they had not been on their best behavior while we were gone, and George was having trouble keeping food down (nerves maybe?) and gracie went on a hunger strike. They both lost weight there.

We got them home, and they were very quick to get comfortable around the house (Even with all the wedding presents and luggage all over the place.

It feels good to be home.

We took 10 Photos, today, for a grand total of: 2131 Photos.

Posted by SammyD at 9:42 AM | Comments (0)

Honeymoon day 7 (10/1/2006)

We were both getting tired of Disney. But luckily we had bought tickets earlier in the week to the House of Blues (Orlando) Gospel Brunch. Food, gospel music, good venue? How could it be bad? It wasn't, it was amazing. I was moved. I'm not really all that into the whole God thing, as most people know, but I was touched and I would have to say that if church was like this, I'd go once maybe twice a month. The food was good too...The cornbread muffins, which were laced with some peppers, were quite tasty. It was a mixture of Sunday Brunch type food, and southern comfort food (creole, bbq, etc). They had us get up, dance, clap our hands and do what the spirit moved us to do. It was something else.

Before and after, we went to the Disney arcade, called Disney Quest. They had classics there, and newer modern games, including some VR games...which...we tried...or at least tried to try. I don't know if it was the head gear or the vision or what, but most of the VR games made me feel like someone was stabbing me in the back of the head, so we avoided them. After we got tired of playing video games (and it got crowded, we called it an early day and went home to pack. We spent most of the rest of the day being lazy.

We did discover, however, that in all that we bought, we didn't have enough space in our luggage and carry ons to actually pack all of the things that we had. Even trimming the fat where we could, we still didn't have near enough room, so I wandered over to the gift shop and bought another suitcase...a nice disney one too *sigh* Oh well, we were able to bring back all the things, which is good.

We went to our final Dinner at the Maya Grill, and we were so full from brunch (even eating as late as we were), we didn't even make it through the main course before we had to throw in the towel.

We went back to the room and finished packing.

We took a paltry 18 photos on the 7th day.

Posted by SammyD at 9:39 AM | Comments (0)

Honeymoon day 6 (9/30/2006)

On Saturday September 30th, we took it easy, and woke up relatively late, compared to the rest of the week. We decided to cover the things that we had missed (cause of lines or time) and go back to the parks to do this.

First up, was the Animal Kingdom. We wandered around the Tree of Life, which had many shapes of animals blended into it, which was pretty cool looking. We went into the Bug's life 3D show, which was actually pretty neat. They also had smell, touch and water effects.

We headed to the Asia area to see if we could ride expedition everest again, but the line was just way to long, and we weren't planning to stay in the park, so we didn't get a fast pass.

We then headed to Dinoland...or whatever it was called, and we saw Pooh and Eyeore. We both love Pooh, so we had to stop to get our pictures taken with them. We got Eyeore first, and while we were doing that Pooh apparently was a bit of a randy bear and kept hitting on the group of young ladies and trying to sneak off with them. It was quite funny. After the disney photographer lured him back with the promise of honey, we were able to get our picture taken.

In Dinoland they had a silly ride or two about going back in the past and seeing dinosaurs, one indoors, one more like a carnival ride.

We headed to the Mickey and Minnie camp, which is apparently a great place to get your picture taken with disney characters. We got pictures with Goofy and Donald and then headed out of the park.

We then headed to Epcot to have some lunch. Epcot, due to the food and wine fest, I suppose, was quite busy. So we walked through a few places without stopping and one that we did, it took so long for them to even talk to us (which they actually never did, by the time we left), that we took off. We ended up in a sort of hidden restaurant called Marrakesh in the Morocco area of Epcot.

The building was done in a middle eastern style with many columns and arches and designs in the walls. It actually had the coolest bathroom door I have ever seen (I even took a picture). But we were favored a good meal (there is, as it has been proven to me, good food at Disney world, but there is also really crappy food too).

So we started off with a puff pastry with a chicken meat mixture on the inside. It was an interesting combination of powdered sugar, chicken and spices and pastry. Certainly worth having again. I seriously thought about getting the cookbook they had there. It crumbled in your mouth. I had lamb as my main course and Shannon had a chicken dish. Mine was fairly evenly spiced, but fairly lightly, but the lamb remained very good. Shannon's chicken was a bit thicker in the spice with a delightful mixture. But the highlight of the meal for me had to be the iced green tea with mint. It was fantastic. If it was sweetened, it was just barely. So the combination of bitter and mint was just wonderful. I'm gonna have to make that.

While we were eating, two people came out to play music, which was lively. In their second or third song, a belly dancer came out to entertain the crowd. It was actually pretty good.

After a bit more wandering, we headed out of Epcot, and headed over to the Magic Kingdom. Shannon wanted to see the lighted parade, and we figured, since our local restaurant had a 45 minute wait, we thought we might have better luck at the Magic Kingdom. We went to the three sit down restaurants in the magic kingdom, and well, all of them said they had no space, they were only serving by reservations. This kinda pissed me off, considering the second restaurant that we came to was half empty. Yes yes, I know they say to make reservations, but I personally think you should always reserve a small portion for walk up clients, even if they have to wait for quite a while...but that's just me.

So we went to one of the quick service places, which smelled awful (it was a fried fish and chicken place), so we headed a bit further down the road to go to a burger and fries type of place. This is a prime example of their overpriced nasty food. If we would've paid for the meal it would've been probably some where between 30 or 40 dollars (we used our food plan). It was worse then food that I could get at a Wendy's or Burger King or the like. Apparently you can screw up burgers and fries.

After "dinner" we headed down to camp out for the parade. We hadn't done this yet, and previous nights had kinda gotten screwed on picture taking because of where we are. So we checked the parade route and sat and watched people for around an hour or so. We were joined on both sides by other people, and when it looked like people would take our places at the parade barrier, we got up and guarded our spots.

We had a couple of families on the left of us that seem pretty good natured (which is how most people are at the parks). They took a picture of us, and we took a picture of them, it was nice. There were actually lots of people willing to do that (and not actually run off with your camera).

Written at home (10/02/2006 at 9:26 PM or so).

So the lighted parade was actually pretty cool, I got some good pictures. And they way they setup for it is actually pretty neat too. They have places to setup poles to hold ropes, and devices to extend rope, so it takes 3-4 people to rope off a side of a street. They can do it pretty quickly too.

After the parade, we headed back to the hotel to call it a night (even though it was relatively early.

We took 259 photos on the 6th day.

Posted by SammyD at 9:35 AM | Comments (0)

Honeymoon day 5 (9/29/2006) Food Day

Friday, September 29th was more my day. We went to Epcot. We even dressed up a little (khaki shorts and a shirt I wear for work, and Shannon looking as pretty as ever). We had some time before the event that we paid for (The Cook, the Book and the Bottle (first one they've done for the festival and ever)). So we rode a few rides.

Mission Space, which is a simulator ride, was much better then the star wars ride, and was actually kind of fun. They have an ride called Inside Track, sponsored by GM. This ride was lame. LAME LAME LAME. Even though it goes the fastest of all the Disney rides, it doesn't do it in a fashion that makes it actually seem like more then it is. It goes 50 or 60 something miles an hour, but who cares, when it's just like riding in a car with the top down. I can do that, and I don't have to fly to florida to do so.

We were pretty close to our time when the TCTBTB started, so we headed over where it was to wait for it. Eventually they let us in, giving us a gift pack (each), which included the program, the recipies used for the day and a bottle of Etude Carneos Pinot Gris 2005 (the wine guy from there said it's from a very limited stock, where they only have 1500 cases worldwide for distribution).

Our Chef for the day was Francois Payard of the Payard Patisserie & Bistro in New York. Our wines for the food were from Etude Winery. So he was talking about his new book, which was coming out in two weeks (which means that these are of the very first first printing of it). The man had a thick French accent, but he said he'd speak slow so he'd be understandable.

The whole idea was to make food for parties. So you can always have a glass of wine in one hand and eat and get a wonderful taste experience with another hand just pop it right in your mouth. No utensils necessary. Certainly a good idea.

So first up, we had Crispy Polenta with Pistou Sauce and Parmesan Shavings and this was paired with the Etude Carneos Pinot Gris. So we watched the chef prepare the items and plate them as well. And how easy it looked to do such a thing. I suspect though, when I get around to actually trying this, it'll be a bit harder then it looked (considering he does this for a living). But the presentation was a little cylinder of the polenta toped with the pistou (thicker then normal pistou (pesto)), with a small triangle of parmesan on the top. Very pretty and very good. Which was one of the points that Payard made, was that it was extra disappointing to eat something that looks so good, and yet doesn't taste good. The taste was fantastic. A bit warm and soft, the combination of the polenta, basil and parmesan was the taste that really stood out.

Second up was the Lime Marinated Salmon on a Potato Crisp pared with Etude Carenos Rose of Pinot Noir. This, for me, was the winner of the evening. He talked about ways to crispen up the crisps (sometimes using the oven, if they don't come out right). And how you'll need to make a a few extra of the chips, because of the way they tend to fry and bake, they don't always come out in a fashion that will make for good presentation. He talked about using white pepper, since the french don't want little black flecks of pepper in their white sauces or whatever, so you cook with the white, and garnish with the black later. So the salmon he used, was raw....well it had been frozen, which kills bacteria too, but he froze it and let it thaw a bit, so that he could get thinner slices of salmon to make into rolls, and then topped with a piece of lime (between the segment markings) and dusted with a microplane zested lemon and chives and Fleur de Sel. So you can just pick up the crisp and pop it in your mouth. And let me tell you, the lime just bursts out along with the salt and chives and salmon...it was fantastic I think the only thing I've ever put in my mouth that has tasted better is the French Onion Soup at the French Cafe in Omaha.

Third was the Eggplant, Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart pared with Etude Carneros Pinot Noir. This was probably the prettiest of the 3, and was very good too. So it's basically puff pastry (which he says you can buy anywhere), Eggplant mixed with some olive oil, sherry vinegar and lavender honey, a tomato compote, and goat cheese mixed with parsley and basil. He also added a little sprig of a herb on the top of the tower of goodness, to add a bit of dressing to the top.

Afterwards, we got our books signed and our pictures taken with Payard. and left. I don't think I could've been happier. It was like watching a cooking show, but you are right there, so you get to look at what you want, taste it, and smell it. My mouth is watering just thinking of it.

We went back to the hotel to changed, took a little nap (I had all of my wine and most of Shannon's too, so I was feeling pretty good) and headed back to Epcot. While we were the hotel, we made reservations at Bistro de Paris at Epcot.

Then we went on Spaceship earth, which broke down while we were on it. It took a while of them saying, please remain seated the cars will begin to move at anytime, before they actually did. It was pretty much a version of history from caveman times to present. Mmmm...educational.

Then we went to their aquarium (Fishes!) and looked at the various animals. Got some good shots of the manatees. We then trekked off to take the world showcase tour. There were a lot of extra people in for the Food and Wine fest, and extra booths for wines and beers and etc. So it was a bit crowded. We walked through a few countries and hung out in France for our early dinner reservations (which was good, cause even though we had some lunch, it wasn't much and during a party he says he makes about 10 of the finger foods per person there, and we had, maybe 5 and a really light breakfast). It was also the only time they had available for the evening. We went with the tour of French Foods, I had mine with the wine parings, and shannon had it without the wine. We started off with a little tart and bread with butter...real butter. It's crazy how much I missed the taste of butter. At the restaurants we've been to, they don't even have butter as an option, the disney places have this 70% vegetable oil mixture that's just no good. The bread was great and makes me want to buy a big loaf from La Mie when we get home. I miss their bread. The tart was very good. It reminded me of the Payard food that we had earlier.

First course:

Sam: Medley of snails and frog legs with garlic butter on a juice of Italian parsley, vegetable "tartare" and a watercress salad.
Shannon: Heirloom tomato and pesto soup with "Royan" Comte cheese ravioli, vine tomato confite and goat cheese mousse with crusty bread.

It does make me sad, cause the third choice for the first course was Foie Gras, which is something that I've wanted to try. My first course was pared with Rose, Cuvee du Golf de St. Tropez 2004. So this is the first time I have had snails. I gotta say they were pretty good. I liked the taste. Our wonderful server showed me how to use the snail shell holder and the snail fork. Shannon was a bit off put by the texture of the snail, which I will agree is odd and not something that I'm used to, but over all it was still quite enjoyable. My frog legs were really good. My only other experience with the frog legs had been at Sage in Windsor Heights, and they were a bit...well...gamey, I guess the word would be. These were much smaller but they were fantastic. I tried Shannon's tomato and pesto soup and that was amazing. I mean just fantastic. A wonderful balance of tomato and salt. The crispy bread and goat cheese was fantastic too.

Second course:

Sam: Seared Scallops with "fleur de sel" on spinach potato gnocchi and dry goat cheese Shavings and tomato Coulis with Espelette Pepper
Shannon: European Dover sole "meuniere" on fresh egg pasta, pan seared golden chantreelle and fava beans, bay leaves creamy sauce.

My course was paired with a Muscadet (not on the menu). My scallops were fantastic and the tomato coulis was great too, the wonderful heirloom tomato taste that just stood out. Shannon's sole was quite good as well, it was very good mixed with the pasta. And here's what I found that our server was quite amazing. Shannon didn't so much like the chantreelle mushrooms, and by did like, I mean she made quite the disgusted face when she put it in here mouth. This is where our server (who is from France) showed his skills. He was there in under a minute and was asking if there was a problem. And when we explained about the mushrooms, he also warned us that if we ever went to France they use chantreelle mushrooms as a basis for many sauces, so that we may want to be careful. The fava beans were very good along with the cream sauce. For me, I was ok with the chantreelle mushrooms, but wasn't a huge fan of the texture of them.

Trou Normand:
Wild berries sorbet and French Melon Granite, Chartreuse liquor

This was sort of a palette cleansing course. It was quite cool and delicious, replacing the tomato taste with a light fruit and cold mixture. It was delightful. We both really enjoyed it.

Written on the plane between Orlando and Atlanta (10/02/2006 at 10:30 AM or so).

Third Course:

Both: Roasted rack of lamb with parsley crust, risotto with sun dried tomato and eggplant caviar, juice with lemon thyme

My dinner was matched with Laforet, Joseph Drouhin 2004. I thought seriously about having the other choice for the main course, but I love lamb so much, that it was hard for me to turn down the opportunity to have it. the lamb was delicious...if I wouldn't have felt self conscious about chewing the rest of the meat off the bones, I probably would have. It had a nice little crust to it that was hiding the succulent meat below the surface. The risotto was really good too, thought I've had better, but it certainly went well with the food that we were having. Creamy and delicious. The eggplant cavier was very good (being that I've never been a huge fan of eggplant, this came as a bit of a surprise to me. In the background on all of it was the thyme which was there but not over powering.

Fourth Course:

French assortment of cows and goats cheese served with mix salad, toasted bread, pine nuts and chives.

Neither of us were very certain as to what the cheeses actually were, but Shannon liked two out of three and I was only uncertain about one of them. We were pretty sure that one of them was a brie, which I believe is the best brie that I've ever had. The other cheese was fragrant and had a nice flavor to it, and the third was very fragrant and very strong of character. Shannon didn't like it, the taste was a bit to much for her.. For me, it was challenging. It did go well with what was left of wine from the third course. A strong cheese with a strong wine.

Desserts:

Both (small servings): Creme Brulee, Rice Pudding, Fresh Fruits soup with mint syrup, green tea and rosemary sorbet, warm chocolate cake with 70% dark chocolate.

We all got small portions of each of the desserts. We thought we'd have to pick (which would've been tough, but we didn't, which was pretty nice. They paired the desserts with a Marquis de Perlade, Blanc de Blanc, which was a champagne that was sweet and went well. It was almost to Shannon's liking (Most of the other wines didn't even come close to the narrow range that she is a fan of). We'll just go in order of the list. The Creme Brulee was really good. Certainly one of the better ones that I have...it reminded me of the first time I had it and how fantastic it was. The rice pudding was sweet but not too sweet, with a delightful texture. The fresh fruits soup with mint syrup was a bit too tart for Shannon, but I found the frust fruits to be delightful and coloful on the tongue . The green tea and rosemary sorbet was very nice. I've had green tea ice cream before, with a much stronger green tea taste, but this was very light and mostly the rosemary. For the highlight of the desserts, for both of I think, was the warm chocolate cake. It had a melted chocolate core that oozed out when you put your fork into the cake. It was heaven. and a nice crown to the meal...which was wonderful.

I just wanted to mention the view, we were on the second floor and had a direct view out the window. I was able to see the crowd across the way, which was fun.

Written waiting for the plane at Atlanta (10/02/2006 at 12:35 PM or so).

Our server, who was very attentive the entire night, showed me how to use the snail fork and holder, explained what the things were and what the dressing was and added a bit of insight, but the big thing for me was when he rushed over when Shannon made the face and made sure that everything was still good. He got the biggest, money wise, tip I've ever left. It was about 45% of the total bill, which wasn't on the cheap side.

Written on the plane to Des Moines (10/02/2006 at 2:46 PM or so).

Afterwards we explored Epcot a bit more, went on Soarin, their new ride, which was basically in front of a big screen with fans and what not, but it did feel like flying. Their fireworks show at epcot was pretty cool and pretty easy to find a good place to see them, since the world part of epcot is around a big lake and the fireworks go off in the middle. We spent a large amount of time exploring the various worlds of Disney interpretations of epcot. And because they had extra "Magic Hours" we were able to get a wristband that allowed us to stay in the park after most people had to go. Although it lessened the crowds, apparently a lot of people stay at the disney resorts. We ended up buying us a good luck kitty in the Japanese area of Epcot.

We look at a lot of things in the Norway part, but nothing really struck our fancy, but I did get a mushed penny for my dad. Speaking of mushed coins, we probably spent 5 or 15 dollars squished up pennies, because they are all over the park. I started doing this a few years ago, when I went to california, it just seemed like an easy and cheap way to get a little souvenir of a trip. We got many from the park, and Disney actually sells little holders for the squished coins. Though since everything is overpriced there, I suspect that we can get one for cheaper elsewhere. Some people would go to the machines and get all 3 choices out of there, but we usually only got the ones we liked.

By the time we left the park, I was in a fairly lousy mood, my feet were killing me and I just wanted to get off them.

Just as a note, we spent around 600$ or so on food and wine on this day (excluding admission to the park).

We took 425 pictures on our fifth day.

Posted by SammyD at 9:30 AM | Comments (0)

Honeymoon day 4 (9/28/2006)

Written In hotel room (9/30/2006 at 4:30 PM or so)

(Took a short nap)

On Thursday September 28th, we headed to the Animal Kingdom. Because we had to be there extra early, they wanted us to be there by 8:15, we woke up extra early and scheduled the night before to have a cab come and get us. After eating breakfast, we headed out.

We checked with the information booth to make sure as to where we should be, and then went over there to wait. We were shortly joined by a guest relations person and our tour guide for our Behind the Scene's tour of the Animal Kingdom. They didn't allow us to take pictures, because they said they didn't want to "destroy the magic for other guests". I can understand that, to some extent I suppose, so I kept to their wishes.

We drove around the park, and our tour guide, who was a retired teacher from Michigan, told us interesting things about the Animal Kingdom. The other three Disney world parks (Epcot, Magic Kingdom, MGM) fit easily inside the animal kingdom. I want to say that it's 500 acres, but I'm not sure...but that's the number that comes up in my head. We got to see the Elephant and rhino barn. We got to even pet the male white rhino (very dry skin, one of our other tour members said it felt like her exema). They told us how they only use positive reenforcement to train the animals. So if they lift their legs then they get treats, if they don't, then no treats. If they allow them to draw blood samples, etc. If the animal doesn't want to cooperate, that's their prerogative. They just don't get the treats.

In the elephant barn, we got an birds eye view to the newest elephant at the park (born around last Christmas) and her mom. We got to see them both dance a little (they were excited to get out for the day to roam).

They also talked about the breeding program, where a board of scientists decides which animals it's good to breed. Unlike before where it was all random and you would have a lot of family inbreeding (which isn't a good thing).

We also got a close encounter with a lesser tamir (sp?), a relative to the hedgehog. And got to see it eat a treat (meal worm).

We saw the diet center for the animals, where they prepare the meals a day in advance. Each diet is setup for each particular animal. They only actually have a few live things in the building (insects), but for the most part, everything else is "pre-killed" at the source. So they had bags of frozen mice and rats and various stages of growth (from baby on). They also grow many things on the grounds to help supplement the diets of the animals and use some vitamin supplements where necessary. Apparently, freezing fish, for example, takes a lot of the nutrients out of them, so they have to enrich them.

Written In hotel room (10/01/2006 at 6:40 AM or so)

We also went to a special area of the vet clinic, where Shannon noticed a lot of differences between her Jordan Creek and their clinic. The anesthesia machine was much larger then Jordan Creek's. I suspect it's a bit harder to put a gorilla to sleep then it is to put a kitty to sleep. It was interesting to me, and kept Shannon enthralled.

We actually got to see the tail end of a tumor removal of a skunk. I actually saw them take out the tumor and fatty surrounding tissue.

We then we back into the public part of the park. We went to a special area and boarded a Safari truck without having to wait in line. They have their park setup in a very interesting fashion. For animals that could be problematic (big cats) they have islands for them setup in such a fashion that looks like they could leave, but because of the distance of the sort of moat and the depth of it, the animals couldn't get out. For other animals, they have 'em set up in areas using the cow keepers in the ground and fences (hidden by bushes and fake rock formations) to keep them in their part of the park, but as far as a line of fences between the truck and the animals, there isn't one. It does allow for nice pictures, except that the truck is bouncing all around (like a safari would). We had a giraffe really close to the tour. Instead of having the pre-canned tour information, our guide went off of the script and pointed out things that people wouldn't really notice (the rocks as barriers, where the animal barns are and etc.

After that we filled out a survey about the tour and headed off.

We went over to the Asia area of the park to ride the Expedition Everest ride. They had a lot of Himalayan things and religious icons on the way up. The wait time was short, so we went. This was probably my favorite ride of all the parks. The Yeti they have near the end of the ride was actually very well done and a bit frightening (even though you know it's coming). It takes you forward and back and is a bit quicker then most of the Disney rides.

We then headed back and did the safari ride again (we wanted to be on the right side of the car, because we weren't able to get some of the pictures we wanted. This time it was the more standard Disney story line (on the look out for poachers, helping catch them). I got some great pictures of a gazelle, an ostrich and a zebra. The ostrich was actually blocking the road at one point.

They also have walking paths, where you can walk through their setup to see things. We took a few of these, took a train to the back of the park to Rafiki's Planet watch, which is basically a conservation station where they teach you about creating animal and insect habitats in your backyard. They also had a view into the vet clinic (we were on the back side of the view before). They had a Vet Tech talking about the imaging that they use for the animals. I found it dreadfully boring, but Shannon was fascinated, so I headed down the way, and found a seat and started dosing in and out of sleep.

Shannon got a little frustrated, because people came up and started talking over the Vet Tech, so she came and woke me up and we headed back to the main area of the park. We did do the splash ride, which, for the most part, was pretty lame. One big splash and fall and that was about it. We did get very wet though, which made walking in wet shoes, kind of obnoxious.

We hung out for the Parade, which had a large influence from the lion king Broadway show. The Animal Kingdom closes a bit early (I think because the animals stop being playful, so we headed over to the MGM park again to hit a few things that we missed.

We did the back lot tour, saw the actual plane that Walt Disney used to fly in, the saucer from the Navigator. We redid the Tower of Terror and Aerosmith rides. Then headed to disney downtown.

We had coupons for Planet Hollywood (free gift an one free meal) but on further exception they wanted you to come early or limited what you could buy.

So what can I say about the restaurant? I'll admit that the items they had in there from many movies (Terminator to Toy Story to Pretty Woman) was interesting and I'd be willing to pay to go to a museum with these things in them (though not to much). The food...was...well, I'd expect a whole lot better for what they are charging for it. We had these chicken fingers that were covered in Captain Crunch instead of something like corn flakes. These were actually the highlight of the meal. And they weren't really done right, they ranged from being crispy to soggy on the same piece of chicken. The coverage of Captain Crunch on the chicken was incomplete, so in some places you could see right through it. The sauce they served with it, was actually quite good. Our server was very attentive as well and it wasn't his fault that he was serving crappy food. The main course...Shannon had a chicken alfredo pasta, which was...well very plane. The chicken ranged from being a bit on the over cooked side to a bit more on the over cooked side. I had a fried lasagna. It was recommended, however, it was very bland. The garlic cream sauce, didn't taste like garlic or cream. The marinara sauce they used was blander then sauces that come out of bottles that I've had. The combination of the two was not pleasant either. I couldn't finish it.

Afterwards we went to the Ghirardelli Ice cream shop. These were actually pretty good. Certainly a way to cleanse my pallet from the awfulness that was planet hollywood. We also ended up buying somewhere between 3 and 4 pounds of chocolate.

We then headed back to the hotel room and called it a night.

We took 379 Photos on our fourth day.

Posted by SammyD at 9:26 AM | Comments (0)

Honeymoon day 3 (9/27/2006)

Written In hotel room (9/27/2006 at 11:02 PM or so) (waiting for battery to charge on camera).

Again with the waking up bright and early (like I sleep long anyways) on Wednesday September 27th.

Wanting to use up our quick service meals on our dining plan, we went and ate breakfast at the pepper market. The quality of the food was meh, but they did have choices, which was nice. The one thing that I really didn't like was that when we were checking out. I handed the cashier the tickets, and my card and mentioned that I wanted to use the dining plan.

Apparently she didn't hear me. She charged the food to my room...which eventually will be fine, but being that we are trying to use up the dining plan items, it's not so good now.

I noticed as we were walking away, and I quickly turn around and tell her that that is what I intended. She told me that if I want to use the dining plan, then I need to tell them that I want to use the dining plan. One would think that since it says RIGHT ON THE CARD, that we are using disney dining, that maybe they should ASK to see if I want to use it and go off that answer. In fact, many of the other places that we've been to, ASKED right off the bat, "Will you be using Disney Dining tonight?" But to avoid conflict I said that I thought I had said that, when in all reality I knew that I did. So when the manager came over, and reinforced in a snarky sort of way, that I needed to tell them to use disney dining, I just accepted the snarky little lecture, because I was getting what I wanted. (credit back for the meal and a disney dining plan quick service meal taken off).

We headed back to our rooms, slathered ourselves in the wonderful sunscreen that Shannon had picked out (which isn't very greasy and neither of us got a burn from being out in the sun all day the previous day). And went out to wait for the bus stop. I was still a bit miffed over the disney dining thing, but was calming down rather quickly.

We had originally planned to go to the Animal Kingdom, since they had extended "Magic" hours for resort guests (which makes me curious as to how they keep/get the other guests out), but since we scheduled the behind the scenes tour for Shannon and they didn't have any open slots for Wednesday, but did for Thursday, we rearranged what we were doing.

So the Magic Kingdom it was.

In short order we were off on the short trip to the Magic Kingdom. When people talk about disney world, this is usually what they mean. It has tomorrow land, main street, etc. It has Cinderella's (or sleeping beauty's...one of the princesses) big castle at the center of the park, surrounded by the various other parks.

We headed to Tomorrow land first. On the way there was walking to the music in a fairly silly fashion, and was told by one of the "cast members" that I was officially a kid today. We then stopped by some roses and I took a picture of this beautiful light pink rose (almost white). The lady that had commented on my walk, came up and told us that since we had found youth and beauty in the park we were up for a prize. She gave us four tickets that were basically like super-fast pass tickets. Good for any ride that used fast pass, so we could hop in the fast pass lane, whenever. This was actually kind of cool...except the lines were short enough, except for one where they didn't have fast pass, that we didn't feel the need to ever use them, but it was cool anyways.

(Battery is done charging I can charge the other battery and go to sleep...yay! 11:35 PM).

Written In hotel room (9/28/2006 at 7:02 PM or so)

My feet hurt. That is all.

Written In hotel room (9/29/2006 at 10:56 PM or so)

My feet have been stabbed...I mean they hurt hurt. That is all.

Written In hotel room (9/30/2006 at 2:55 PM or so)

We headed over to Space Mountain first (being that we've been finding that it's best to hit the rides early in the day so that you don't have to wait in the lines. One of the things that I think that Disney has taken into account is that it is hot in Florida, so a lot of their rides the waiting area and/or the ride itself is air conditioned. It is kind of funny to walk through the maze of lines when there are really no other people waiting in line. Space Mountain was fun...I enjoyed it..thought with my tallness the carriage was a bit small, so I was a bit crunched in. It twists and turns and it's in the dark so you can't really see what's gonna happen next (they do this a lot).

Afterwards we did a few silly things (tram around Tomorrow Land, carousel of progress). We also got our picture taken with Stitch and then went on his ride. Obviously some of the things are targeted at a younger audience, but for the most part it is still enjoyable. We headed to another park, and hit the Pooh ride (used to be Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, according to Shannon), IT's a small world after all...which then was stuck in my head the entire day (doh!).

We checked out the Heritage area (hall of presidents), hit the haunted mansion (definitely dated) and then headed back to the Adventure land area, and went on Pirates of the Caribbean (the ride broke on us). Then the Tiki room, which Shannon says has been drastically updated, since they don't much do the Tiki song anymore. We hit Splash Mountain and hit the Train ride (in the mountain, which I'm having trouble coming up with the name). Watched a parade and the fireworks too. We thought we were in a pretty good place for the fireworks, but due to a tree, our place was pretty lousy. We moved on to a bridge and had a better view. Magic Kingdom seemed to really be geared, for the most part, toward a younger audience then we are. It was fun, and it was, I hate to say, a little bit thrilling to get my picture taken with mickey mouse.

We wandered around a few shops on our way out and eventually made it back to the hotel. We also went swimming. We headed all the way over to the big pool, but the water slide was off, so it was kind of pointless. We swam around for a bit and went back to the room.

We took 533 Photos on the third day (I even had to turn the resolution down so we didn't run out of photo space, which we did on the bus trip on the way home).

Posted by SammyD at 9:24 AM | Comments (0)

Honeymoon day 2 (9/26/2006)

Written In hotel room (9/27/2006 at 6:39 AM or so).

So we woke up bright and early on Tuesday September 26th and went down to the Maya grill for a breakfast buffet.

Written In hotel room (9/27/2006 at 9:54 PM or so).

It was decent, but no real standouts. I remember thinking that the sausage gravy for the biscuits and gravy was pretty weak (not enough sausage and the gravy wasn't near thick enough). Also that It'd be really nice if I could get some butter, rather then spread (70% vegetable oil), but that's just me.

After breakfast, we walked back to our room, got slathered in sunscreen and headed towards our bus stop (#2 of 4 at our resort) and waited to be picked up fro going to the Disney MGM park.

The bus ride there was a short one, and soon we were waiting in line to get into the park. Being that I've never been to the park before, I was confused as to how we get our tickets. Apparently our tickets are the same as our room keys, which makes sense, considering on it it says that the card is your key to the world...

So after being let into the park, they then proceeded to make you wait on the first street until it was time to actually go. There was a big mass of people, and with a 3, 2, 1, Action! they let us into the rest of the park.

We headed to the Tower of Terror first. In hopes to either get right in, or get the first "fast pass" of the day. We ended up getting right in. Our wait was pretty short and unlike some places (ex. Adventureland in Des Moines) they sort of dress up their lines so you have something to look at, other then the back of the person in front of you. We were quickly setup for our ride, and went through the intro and then proceeded to drop twice and then be told that there was a problem with the ride and that we would be shortly exiting the ride. Certainly not a great start to the day.

They slowly drove the car (I guess it was a car?) back to an area and then walked on the insides, took an elevator and were immediately put on the front of the line and actually got to ride the ride.

It was fun. They said at the beginning of the ride line area that the climbs and drops of the Tower of Terror had been randomized, so that the ride would never be the same twice, which was kind of cool.

We headed right next door to the Aerosmith Rockin' Roller Coaster, which was...pretty fun. Also, short line, little wait. Fun ride, lots of Aerosmith (could do without that, even though it did go with the ride).

We made our way around the park, missing a few things (back lot tour), and enjoying a few others (car stunt show was pretty cool), and getting rained out on another one (Indiana Jones got about 60% done before the rain stopped 'em), and feeling that one was very dated (Star Tours).

We ate lunch at another dining meal on the Disney dining. This was in no way equivalent to the meal that we had at the Maya Grill. Not even by a long shot (even though it cost the same against our dining plan). I've had better turkey sandwiches at mediocre deli style places. The only highlight of the meal was the actually seeing of the preview for Plan 9 from Outer Space. It also again, pointed out the flaw in the Disney Dining plan. If you are not that hungry, you feel like you are wasting money...Seeing the bill before the Disney Dining, I couldn't believe how much they were charging for this mediocre meal....even if it was in a theme park.

We wandered around for a bit after the rain, but Shannon was getting tired, so we decided to head back to the resort, for a nap. I typed, Shannon napped. So it all worked out in the wash. We ate dinner at the Pepper Market...which was...well...lets just say that my fajitas were not even close to the best that I've had...or even what I'm used to having. I don't know...smaller cuts of meat, maybe steak instead of some random cut of beef, is that too much to ask? How about separating my tortillas from my mean so they're not all soggy by the time I want to use them...Maybe I'm just being picky though.

We headed back to the bus stop. And back to the MGM park. It was quite the wait before we got a ride. We had planned to ride the tower of terror again or maybe the rockin' roller coaster, but by the time we got there it was about time to go in for their show. It involves lasers, and lights and projectors and live action and water. It was neat to watch, I took many pictures of it.

Slowly, afterwards, we headed out of the park, stopping at the shops (to miss the first way to the busses) and then back to the resort.

We decided to head out to the main pool this evening, which is a much longer walk. We thought that maybe the water slide would be open, but since there were no life guards, there was no waterslide. After cooling off in the pool, we headed back to our room, showered and called it a night.

We took 326 photos on the second day.

Posted by SammyD at 9:19 AM | Comments (0)

Honeymoon day 1 (9/25/2006)

Written In Atlanta waiting for the plane (9/25/2006 at 11:AM or so).

Atlanta Airport is the suck.

Written In hotel room (9/26/2006 at 6:19AM or so).

So we ate some sandwiches at Atlanta...I had some chicken and pesto and Shannon had turkey something or another.

The flight from Atlanta to Orlando was actually only an hour. so it didn't take to long.

We had trouble finding the Disney welcome center, but I really liked how the Orlando air port is designed. But once we did, we were guided to the bus we were to take to our resort.

This is where the fun started.

Written In hotel room (9/26/2006 at 3:32 PM or so).

So check in was relatively painless. The computer crashed once while she was setting us up. No big deal. We had a water facing room, like we asked for and it was all good. We did notice that there was a conference on "Offender Management"

We take the hike out to the room, and by the time we get there, get in the room, we already have a message waiting on the room phone. I'm thinking, hey, maybe it's just a welcome message, since they are trying to be friendly, but no, it's a message from the front desk, telling us that they had forgotten to add our meal plan to our room and we should call and have them either run us out to it, or we should come back. So I call back, I get someone else, I tell them what was going on, and then tell them the second thing I noticed.

Our room had double beds. two. double. beds. Far be it from me to complain about having double beds, however it is our honeymoon and I do like to have Shannon near me when I sleep, so I mention that to them.

They say they don't have any water facing rooms with king sized beds left, but they will get us one with a king size bed.

We head back to the front desk.

We get our new room keys, and head off to our parking lot facing room, with a king sized bed. Of the two things, I'm much happier to have the king sized bed.

After we were settled into our new room, we explored the rest of the resort (couple of swimming pools, buildings, etc).

So we were getting hungry. And it was around 5:PM local time, so we headed down to our Resort's (Coronado) fancy restaurant (Maya Grill). I was expecting something a bit dressed up and fakey, but basically average fare with a bit added to it.

I was a bit surprised by what we got. Not only did they have nice sounding food, but it was actually good. Not great or fantastic, mind you, but I wouldn't complain about going there again. With the Disney dining