Let's see. On Wednesday the 2nd my family had a farewell dinner for my sister. Why Farewell, you say? Well, because she left for Australia for six months on the morning of the 5th. We had dinner at Anthony's, and as always there were some doses of fun/crazy like whenever my family gets together. I made Susan promise to get me Kangaroo Jack's autograph (or phone number!).
On the evening (dinnertime) of the 3rd I made a very special trip to the airport. See, it's Carrie's dad's birthday on July 7th (I'm pretty sure), and I went to the airport to pick up Carrie's Ohio-living brother and brought him over to Carrie's folks' house. Oh, who knew he was coming? Why, just me and Carrie!
SURPRISE!
Happy birthday, here's your son who lives thousands of miles away! So that was kind of neat. Then we all, the whole family, spontaneously went out and saw Ang Lee's Hulk, which I will Review here soon, I promise.
On the 4th Melissa had her annual 4th of July party. This is always a good time. There weren't really any surprise guests this time, although Josh Sanders showed up, which was cool. Damn he's lost a lot of weight! At any rate there was a lot of drinking but very little debauchery (although Geoff was doing martial arts without his shirt on at one point, must to the delight of some lovely ladies).
On the 5th we had the actual birthday celebration for Carrie's dad (kind of). We went to Emerald Downs and bet on the horsies. Unlike last time I'm actually kind of proud of myself, because I went there with a 20-dollar bill. I came back with $20.05, but I had also bought a hamburger and an ice cream cone. So basically I won enough on the horsies to get a free lunch and a nickel. Oh, and also enough to play a whole bunch of Moon Patrol (I got past the entire first world). I like Moon Patrol.
Let's see now. The first half of the next week is kind of hazy. On Monday the 7th I made a secret trip up to Tukwila for a secret reason...
On Tuesday the 8th I made a secret trip to Carrie's folks' house for a secret reason...
On Wednesday the 9th I made a secret trip to a small restaurant in the Proctor district of Tacoma for a secret reason… you want to know more? Read on...
On Thursday the 11th I made another secret trip to that restaurant in Tacoma...
On Thursday the 10th we also had another family get-together thing to celebrate my brother's birthday, which is really on the 12th. We went to Appleby's. I had a steak salad and amused myself (and others) by making a joke involving that metal basket thing that holds the salt and pepper shakers and the dessert menus and things. It involved a Creed song. This year Carrie got Mike the Punch-Drunk Love DVD. I got him a couple of tapes of Saturday morning cartoons from 1980 (six hours total), which I borrowed from Neighbor Gary.
Friday the 11th I made another secret trip to Tukwila...
The 11th was also the 6th anniversary of the first time Carrie and I kissed. How did we celebrate such a momentous occasion? Why, by going to a taping of Northwest Afternoon, of course! I've been a couple of times before. Basically here's the deal: Every year The Bead Factory goes on Northwest Afternoon so they can make an announcement to the entire state of Washington that the Puget Sound Bead Festival is happening soon and everyone should go. But in order to be able to make such an announcement, you have to bring 15 people to be in their live studio audience. Otherwise nobody would ever show up to that show. So I sometimes get recruited to go along, as was the case on the 11th. Unfortunately it wasn't an enjoyable topic, but Brandy and Nicole rode with Carrie and me, so it was a pretty fun time.
That evening Carrie and I went out to dinner at a certain small restaurant in the Proctor district of Tacoma...
And we got freakin' engaged.
SURPRISE!
That's right, I'm finally making an honest woman out of her. Here's what happened:
- Those secret trips to Tukwila were to go to The Shane Company in order to finalize and then pick up an engagement ring.
- The secret trip to Carrie's folks' house was to ask her dad's permission (I'm kinda old fashioned sometimes).
- The secret trips to the restaurant in Tacoma were to conspire with the owners and workers there to setup a nice, romantic environment and finalize my plan…
And it worked. Duh! Carrie ain't stupid. What was she gonna say? No? Don't be ridiculous.
Here's the really freaky thing, though. The next day we were driving around looking for garage sales and also checking on house prices (which we're always interested in). We drove by our friend Cat's house and she just happened to be standing outside in her driveway. So Carrie honked and pulled over, and stuck her ring hand out the window.
"Oh, my god," said Cat. "You're never gonna believe this, but I got engaged last night too."
Cat's fiancé's name? Why it's Chris of course. Cat and Carrie are always saying how similar their lives are...
Here's a funny thing about the ring. I had no idea what size ring she wore, so I just kind of made a stab in the dark. It was a size to small, but Carrie jammed it on there anyway. Well, on Monday the 14th it started hurting so she had to use dishwashing liquid to get it off. We'll have to go up to The Shane Company after The Puget Sound Bead Festival to get it resized. The other funny thing? Cat's ring didn't fit either... but it was a size too big...
Anyway (no, I'm not done yet), on Saturday the 12th, my brother's actual birthday, Fools Play did a "Surprise" Birthday Party for him (which he helped plan). It was a really cool show, and the audience brought presents for him, which he opened on stage during the show and everything. Quite the hoot.
Oh! And on Monday the 14th Brandy started her new job as Mark and Viki's nanny. That's pretty crazy. She's also working at The Puget Sound Bead Festival with us. One of us... one of us...
Okay, I think that's about it. So as you can see I've been much too busy to actually work on this website. I'm pretty sure I've missed something major, and if it involves you who is reading this, then I apologize. Things should start to calm down after The Puget Sound Bead Festival is over. But I ain't counting my chickens before they hatch. Plus I still can't get my scanner to work. I kinda need that. Maybe I'll just buy one of those all-in-one dealy jobs.
