I got back from Iowa late Sunday night after a long, exciting weekend in the Des Moines area.  The event was Sean and Jenn’s wedding and I think it went off quite smoothly.  Early Friday was breakfast at the groom’s house, then the groomsmen and ushers tried on tuxes, had lunch, visited the newlywed’s apt, rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, hang out with Justin and Virginia, sleep, whew!

The big day started with breakfast and some light US Open watching with J and V, then off to the church where sitting around commenced/wedding pictures.  There’s no worse place to idle about than church pews in a tuxedo, but once that finally ended we got onto a very quick ceremony, especially compared to the 1st rehearsal.

The wedding party loaded into the Escalade limo and commenced with puttering around DSM while drinking a variety of wine, beer (Fat Tire!) and cheeses as the reception hall filled up:

The reception had a chocolate fountain and open bar, very nice, so I only made it until about 10pm.  I don’t even think I got a taste of the cake.  Still managed to embarass myself since the groomsmen sang “A Whole New World” (see Aladdin) to the bride on the dancefloor, lyrics provided thank goodness.

Overall, a fun time that celebrated a great couple’s future.  I wish you guys the best!  now go and make pancakes with that gridle.

Inspired by JC’s (with or without periods?) recent blog post and some prodding, I’ll give a little update.  Now that I’ve logged into Wordpress, I should probably update the blog software.  I haven’t had much fun with software updates at work recently though, so maybe I’ll wait for karma to swing back in my favor first.

Since August I’ve got a few new toys.  #1 is the iPhone 3g.  I had to wait a couple months for my old AT&T/Cingular/AT&T phone to become upgrade eligible, but when it did I promptly got the 16GB version.  I recently got a case for it as well since it’s in my pocket all day and I was wary of scratching from my car keys.  The iPhone became especially usual when getting directions across northern Indiana over Thanksgiving weekend.  While visiting family and eating turkey we had to go into town (South Bend, home of Notre Dame) and it was definitely reassuring to have GPS tracking us across rural roads.  #2 is an HD LCD Tv.  It’s my Christmas present to myself and yes, I did deserve it.

Now I’m back in Eugene and back to the grind.  I should be able to finish a major IT project this month, along with usual PC and server maintenance.  Throw in some holidays and before you know it the year will be over.

It’s been a while since the last post, so there’s a lot to talk about. Firstly, I hope Kevlar is having fun in NYC. I have never been to the Big Apple, but I’m sure it will happen as my list of contacts there continues to grow.

This last weekend I traveled to Klamath Falls, OR and then Bend to visit relatives. I saw my cousin Marcy for the first time in about 10 years and her husband Kevin for the first time ever. They live near my uncle Mark and aunt Darlene. The weather was great, about 65 degrees and sunny. I got to see the ever-growing Bend suburbs and city and eat at the famed SuperBurrito. It’s fairly comparable to the Burrito Boy of Eugene, but the prices are a little cheaper and the burrito is bigger, if you can believe that. I got to see Marcy’s office and their company SmartCar.

Update: Las Vegas

I keep getting pictures in from John and James of the Los Angeles/Las Vegas trip over New Year’s. Below is the chicken pasta dish from Hash-House A Go Go. The picture doesn’t do it justice as it contained a bowl of pasta with a skewer of 2 pieces of fried chicken and half of an apple standing in the middle. We all got the same dish and ate it all I got crap for not eating the dried vegetable foliage garnishing the plate. Either way it was good stuff and I recommend the Hash House (not that kind fockers) to those wanting lots of good food for a decent price.

Finally, I have two movies to recommend: Children of Men and The Departed.

I saw Children of Men on my laptop while riding to Bend and loved it.  It was high-energy, a good story, great acting and wonderfully shot.  The premise: It’s 2027 and humans haven’t been able to procreate for 18 years, until rebels of the British government find a pregnant woman and try to smuggle her out of the country for protection.  There’s great twists and turns and the story feels real even in an improbable world in the near future.  4.5 out of 5

The Departed has been on my NetFlix queue for a month or so and it was finally released to DVD after winning the Oscar for Best Picture.  The film was quite good, not as good as Children of Men, but the stars were out in force.  The cast was Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin and Ray Winstone (awesome in The Proposition).  The movie is a big cat-and-mouse game between Matt Damon, a corrupt Boston cop working for Nicholson’s mob boss, and Leonardo DiCaprio, an undercover cop moving up the ranks of Nicholson’s mob.  The movie starts to feel long, like all Scorcese ‘epics’ but the story is good and twists are believable.  4 out of 5

It’s one week into the new year and things are already exciting. Technically the most exciting event so far was over the New Year’s holiday. I flew to LA last Friday to visit high school friends and take in the warm weather. The sunny weather was a nice respite considering the cloudly and rainy cold of the northwest. Right after touching down at LAX, we drove to Newport Beach and the Fashion Island Mall for shopping and lunch. We ate at the Cheescake Factory, molto bene!, and returned to the rental car to find that right-rear wing window was broken and my friend’s company laptop was stolen. The thief(s) passed up my iPod on the seat for the bag underneath the seat that might or might not have anything of value. Suffice it to say, we spent the next few hours talking to rent-a-cops and real cops.

The truly exciting part came when the ‘CSI Unit’ was called to lift fingerprints. I was sitting in the seat where the window was broken, so there was a chance that the fingerprints were mine. So, I had to give finger and palm prints to rule out my prints. I just heard yesterday that the prints found were NOT mine! Hopefully they catch the scum who stole my friend’s belongings, and his company’s, and discard my prints. I’m not sure how helpfully my prints would be for the official record considering they took my name and birthday only.

Other than that, work is going well as temporary DSL has been setup until the #$(*@# at Qwest get us the T1 line they were supposed to have provided, THREE WEEKS AGO! People are getting settled in after the office move and there is definitely less stress. Although all of the moving has helped me my find my new calling, running Cat5e ethernet cable above the ceilings.