thisischris.com -- This is Chris dot Com -- the website of Christopher Grant Harris

Yesterday (Tuesday) I wanted to get up really early in order to be able to shower, shave, and work a little tiny bit on the BF party pamphlet. I ended up getting up only early enough to shower. I made three eggs and a bowl of Raisin Bran for breakfast.

XANDER: "How do you make cereal?"

BUFFY: "You put the milk next to the box."

Geoff brought some fun stuff to listen to in the car, including some Trevor Peach and some Frou-Frou, which I hadn't heard before but like muchly.

Work happened. For lunch (one I ate while I was still working, mind you) I had a leftover barbequed chicken sammitch that Carrie packed me. She's so cute.

Jokes on the way home: I can't remember, but they were funny.

Geoff had me drop him off by Brandy's apartment, and as I was doing so I got a call from Carrie saying that the handout she needed wasn't in the store's computer. So I got home in time to print out what she needed so she could go photocopy it before her class. I was most dismayed to discover that Viki did not have my BF moneys ready. The car insurance gets taken out tomorrow; I hope Carrie can take my check to the bank tomorrow morning in time.

After Carrie went to class I made a cheese enchilada for din-dins and happend to notice that Tobe Hooper's old movie Lifeforce was on the Action Channel. I hadn't seen it for, gosh, fifteen years or so? At least! You know what? It's really a kickass movie. Nonstop action and all that. And the fact that Mathilda May is nude in almost every scene she's in doesn't hurt none!

Tuesday, June 29, 2004

...on da spit!

Yesterday (Monday) Geoff had me listen to a song that one of us wrote, but he didn't know who, and he thought it was plenny cool. It turned out it was a Botany Bots song. In the car ride home the troy of us came up with an hilarious joke about a chef named Mr. No, whose entire audience chants a complicated combination of "no" and "never" whenever somebody does something wrong.

Work was more fun today because we got to use our brains more than the usual assembly-line fun. It was more like trying to figure out a puzzle box.

Carrie made barbequed chicken for din-dins. Bar-bee-que... on da spit! All right, just on the grill. Man that was tasty fish. I had to go buy my expensive pills after dinner, then do some BF work and help Carrie clean up from the aftermath of Natalie (although she'll be back in like a week and a half).

Neighbor Gary came over for rasslin', and I talked a little about getting NMVGPTS's music for sale online (other than emailing someone). We also played quite a bit of the Pac Man Card Game. Mary came over as well, and she and Carrie played backgammon in the bedroom. Then I had a hard time falling asleep for some reason, and vaguely remember Conan O'Brien and the Ghost Pizza and "Sorry, Stallone, we only have one sound effect." Vaguely.

Hey, for those of you who haven't been notified (sorry), Carrie and I are having a party here on the 4th of July. It's a much more casual affair than usual. Come any time in the afternoon and stay as late as you want... or don't leave at all.

Monday, June 28, 2004

"I should put on pants, huh?"

Hello! Well, the whole weekend happened. Let's see what I can remember out of it.

Friday

I went to work and had sushi for lunch. A bento box full of flavor taste. Carrie, Natalie & I all went to Panamonica's for dinner, but in the last couple of days they'd developed an insane and unexpected lunch rush, so they were out of some stuff. Like lettuce and fresh mozarella cheese—the two things that Natalie wanted to eat. Oh, well. Devon and Mary and Eddie (!!) stopped by as well. Eddie is so supercute.

After Panamonica's we all went to Chris & Heather Lovejoy's house for Chris's 27th birthday "party." It was very low-key. Not very many people, but a good glass of red wine, and their kitchen was awesomely big.

Saturday

I slept in until about 12:45. As soon as I woke up Mary called to let me know that the only showing of The Saddest Music in the World was at 1:00—in 15 minutes. Could I make it? Sure, I said. Then I looked down.

"I should put on pants, huh?" I asked.

"Probably," said Mary.

So I put on pantalones and brushed my teeth and dragged my sleepy, greasy, unshowered ass down to The Grand Cinema to watch The Saddest Music in the World with Mary. What an f-ed up movie. It probably didn't help that I was still half asleep. In fact, I was really, really foggy all day on Saturday, and I had an awful pain right where my neck joins my skull. Neckskull I call it.

When I got home from the movie I quickly developed a migraine headache. One of those that gives you a blind spot right in the middle of your vision so you can't actually see anything or read anything except what's in your peripheral vision. Oh, and also the pain happens. Can't forget that. I took much Tylenol and plopped down on the couch. I was late for Fools Play because of it.

Fools Play was "Theme Night" and the theme was Politics (thanks to Taisha). It was kind of a sloppy show, and we were all pretty low energy. Afterwards I went straight home on account of I was feeling plenty lousy.

Sunday

Sunday afternoon we went to Lindsay's wedding. Holy crap she was freakin' gorgeous! I've always thought she was gorgeous, mind you, but this was over the top ridiculously gorgeous.

Carrie & I left a little early. I was feeling strangely stir-crazy, like I needed to get away from people or something. I went from working alone several hours a day to NEVER being alone. But then I got a call that everybody was going over to Viki's place for an after party party. And for some reason I really wanted to go and be around people. So we went, and it was much more fun than the actual wedding because I was only around people I knew. That's what it was; it wasn't that I was around people all the time, it was that I was around STRANGERS all the time. That's why I didn't have as much fun at the wedding, because there were so many people there I didn't know.

I always feel stifled around strangers. Like I have to "behave." But when I'm around only friends and family or whatnot then I feel wonderfully relaxed and happy and surrounded by love. I like that a lot better.

Friday, June 25, 2004

Takes some getting used to

Hello! Well, getting up in the morning and writing in this 'blog takes some getting used to. I have to get up somewhere between 6:00 and 6:30 in order to get ready to leave for work in time. That's pretty freakin' early if you ask me. I might have to change this whole thing so that I write in the evening instead of the morning. Or I might just be able to adjust to getting up early enough to write in here. We'll see.

So what happened this week? Well, each day I go up to Seattle and work 9:00 to 5:00, then I come home. Tuesday night Carrie had a class so I didn't get to see her until she got home at almost 11:00 at night. Wednesday my body was kinda shell-shocked from this new schedule. I had a headache so I plopped down on the bed at around 8:30, and ended up falling completely asleep. Oops.

Last night (Thursday) I got home and Carrie sent me to Fred Meyer immediately for supplies. See, Natalie Cohen was flying in for some bead show up in Seattle, and she is going to be staying with us. So I went to Fred Meyer and bought stuff, then I came home and cleaned the bathroom and vaccuumed half the living/dining room when Natalie showed up. Then a while later Devon showed up. And then Missa and Travis. And then later on Mary. It was like a party. Heck, it was a party.

Carrie made antipasto and salad and bruscetta. Devon brought over brie with a honey/lavender sauce. He also brought over caviar and crackers. I don't think I'd ever had caviar before. I like it; it reminds me a little of salmon roe sushi, except much more salty.

I spent just over an hour at the very end of the day prepping the Bead Factory workshops for upload this morning. Don't let me forget to do that!

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

Second day !

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

Armchair Arcade

Armchair Arcade: It's pretty much kickass.

First Day!

Well, yesterday (Monday) was the first day of my big new job. I had showered and shaved the night before, but I still had to get up at like 6:30. Geoff came by around 7:15 and we went up to my folks' place to pick up mine brother at 8:00. Then we drove up to Seattle and got there in plenty of time, but spent almost a whole half hour driving around looking for parking. We eventually settled on a pay lot that was pretty close.

Then we all learned the ropes of our job. There are eight of us total, so knowing 2/7 of the other people already ain't bad. 'Specially considering I've known them both for at least 25 years.

We got off an hour early because we kind of ran out of things we could do until the place was more set up for us. So I drove back to my folks' place and dropped of my brutha, then drove back down to my house to drop Geoff off at his car.

Carrie had just started the grill when I showed up. She cooked some cheddar sausage and tater tots. Man-o-man them's the yums.

After dinner we went out to a movie. We saw Saved starring Jena Malone. Carrie absolutely loved it because it was so much like her life before me. Kind of like how 10 Things I Hate About You seems totally real to Carrie because it was filmed at her high school. With this new job I'm not sure when I'll have time to review it. I think probably tomorrow or Thursday (depends on if I make any plans or not).

What a great evening! I love seeing movies in the theater with Carrie, and we get to do it so seldome recently it seems. Well, mostly because Carrie doesn't often feel like it. But it was so hot in the house that spending a couple hours in an air-conditioned theater sounded like a great plan.

There was a little cleaning and just a touch of BF work done after the movie, plus a little more cheddar sausage and tater tot eating (why does that sound so dirty?), and then we were basically ready for bed. Apparently I was snoring like a muthafukka all night, for which I am incredibly embarrassed and feel bad for keeping Carrie awake so much. In a bad way.

Monday, June 21, 2004

The Future is Now...

First-Of-A-Kind Private Rocket Plane Heads to Space

Sunday, June 20, 2004

It was fun

Yesterday (Saturday) morning Carrie & I drove down to Lacey to meet with a potential DJ. We liked him a lot and he was very professional and organized, but also too expensive. Oh, well. It also would have been better to meet somewhere closer to the freeway probably.

After we got home I left right away to go up to Federal Way. I had lunch with my dad at Godfather's Pizza in Kent, which was fun. We talked about a lot of varied things, like school integration and weird stuff like that.

I looked briefly through my folks' garage and found a box of paints that my art teacher had given me upon graduation from high school. Now I have a TON of paint and brushes and cool stuff. I just gots to find me a canvas (and some free time) and I'll be in business... the ART business!

I came home to find that Mary was over hanging out with Carrie, which was cool. We dug through my box of art stuff. It was really frikkin' hot, so they had the front door open and were just keeping an eye on Fantastico to make sure she didn't make a break for it or anything. Carrie drove up to her folks' house, and Mary left a few minutes later, and then I was tired so I sat out on the dish chair on the front porch and let Fantastico wander around and roll around on the front walk. At one point a leaf fell from a tree and she shot across the front yard and got it in her mouth, and then streaked back into the house to eat it. At another point she almost walked right out the front gate (naughty).

I got sleepy so I went back inside (shutting the front door behind me) and put on "The Ultimate Doom" saga of The Transformers and dozed off. Carrie came home a little after that and we ate the leftover pizza from Godfather's. Then I left for Fools Play.

First, though, I had to stop by the Gibbs's house so Ed, who has the same cold that everybody in the state has right now, could give me the cash box. I almost forgot I had to do that and almost went to Oly without it. That would have been a bad. The show was fun, but we'll have to tweak that format (Fools Play Shopping List) a little the next time we do it; the show ran pretty long. Afterwards people were talking about going out to eat or not and it got all confusing, so Taisha said she's buy me something and the two of us went to Red Robin and hung out. It was fun. Then I came home and watched She Spies with Carrie.

Saturday, June 19, 2004

The place was packed

Yesterday (Friday) I did not get up when I wanted to. In fact I got up an hour later than I wanted to. I had some Grape Nuts (or rather the generic Fred Meyer version of them) and took care of poor, sick Carrie by making her breakfast of eggs over easy on toast with sausages. I ate two of the sausages.

I got to work on the New Bead Factory Online Class Schedule, because the paper version had been mailed out and I wanted the website to match. Carrie stayed in bed pretty much until around 2:00, when she had to get up and go to work. I kept working in the afternoon on BF stuff. Then around 4:00 I got crazily sleepy, so I put on some Transformers and started a load of dishes and plopped down on the couch for a while.

Carrie called and said that she didn't have to teach her class anymore because Viki had agreed to teach it for her. Only thing was that Viki had developed a migraine headache. Could I bring some painkillers for her when I picked up Carrie? Sure could. Could I stop at Starbucks on the way and get a grande mocha frappaccino? Sure could. I popped some Busdriver in the car and headed out.

It was Marigold's last day at Starbucks. She leaves the country in like a week from Sunday. Crazy. Anyway, I picked up Carrie as well as some more books and a CD full of new BF pics for the new classes so I could finish that up. We got home and I made some macaroni & cheese (from a box—sigh), then I went back to work on more BF stuff, finally finishing off everything that I needed to finish off. Carrie & I then played a good, hearty round of Mario Kart. She whupped my ass on many of the tracks, including Bowser's Castle, a track she almost never beats me at. I think this was maybe the second time ever. I'm so proud of her.

After that I left Carrie on the couch and went to Panamonica's because they were having their "official" grand opening party. First I called Neighbor Gary to see if he wanted to come along, but he was otherwise occupied. But I went anyway. Devon was there, and we hung out for a while. Mary was there working, but then she got off right about when Devon left, and then she and I hung out for a while. It was cool seeing the place practically packed. Especially the deck outside (where I spent most of my time seeing as how the two people I hung out with both smoke) was packed. When we left Mary and I agreed that we needed to hang out more often.

I came home and munched on some snack-type stuff and Carrie & I played two rounds of Skip-Bo before hitting the sack.

Friday, June 18, 2004

So much mucous

Yesterday (Thursday) I actually got up at the time I wanted to and had all my morning chores done by 10:00 like I've always thought I should. Well, except I didn't shower, but that's okay because I showered on Wednesday. I made some li'l smokies for Carrie for breakfast and then drove her to work because she's still feeling very sicky.

When I came home I put on Buckethead's Monsters and Robots CD and did a little BF work. I spent most of the rest of the morning calling caterers and DJs and things like that for the wedding. Actually, first I had to run to Bartell's because I'd run out of Prednisone, so that took about 45 minutes while they filled my new prescriptions. Then I came back and made phone calls. Oddly enough I only was able to talk to the DJ live; everybody else just had message machines (or people to take messages). I spent a good deal of time after that poking around the Video Game Museum website. Lots of stuff to poke there. Then I made myself a lunch of PB&J sammitch and a banana, and had taken exactly one bite out of the sammitch when Carrie called to have me pick her up from work. Which I did.

In the afternoon I got a few call-backs from people I had called in the morning, including one from Taste of the Town Catering. The lady, Kara, was able to meet us immediately, so I got Carrie out of bed and we drove down to the USA of Yesterday Classic Car Dealership (kind of across the street from The Grand Cinema). Kara was very nice and the prices were excellent, but the office we met in was a complete shambles. Horrible presentation. Carrie loved the price but was very off-put by just how ghetto the whole experience was. She said, "If they could just let me re-do their office, I could triple their business!" Seriously, the place looked worse than my home office here.

Anyhoo, the rest of the afternoon I worked on a brand new article in between getting phone call after phone call while Carrie rested on the couch. I equal a popular boy, I guess. I made some grilled sammitches and ramen for din-din. Carrie drove back to the BF to teach her class.

I finished up the article (They Did "The Bash"), and also put the article on Flying Omelette's message board under the "Game Reviews" section. I did some more BF work, but then I don't remember exactly what I did for the rest of the several hours Carrie was gone, except for some reason I found myself digging through The Castlevania Dungeon and thinking to myself, "If only the Castlevania games were actually fun." Oh, I remember doing the new ANGRY BEEF Sighting, but that only took like ten minutes.

Carrie eventually came home way after 11:00 at night (I was starting to worry a little bit). I sent her to bed and gave her some Bartell's brand nighttime liquid cold medicine and made a big plate of nachos for the both of us. The combination of cheese and chips and drowsy medicine had Carrie falling asleep rather easily. I on the other hand was producing massive amounts of mucous for some reason. At one point after midnight I went into the bathroom and blew my nose continuously for about five minutes before finally clearing it out. That was nuts!

Thursday, June 17, 2004

What did they do?

Hey, all, I just wrote and uploaded a brand-spanking-new article for your amusement. Go read it! It's called:

They Did "The Bash"

The Video Game Museum

This place is pretty cool. I think I'll add it to my links page... soon.

That's better. Well, I'm better.

Well, I got almost no sleep at all on Tuesday night. Seriously, I got maybe two hours of sleep. And when I woke up I had beaten my cold. Seriously, I felt better. I just had a lingering cough and drainage problems, but I didn't feel like someone had beat me about the head and face with a wooden paddle. I was going to go to the doctor in the morning to make sure it wasn't something serious, but now I didn't have to. Hoo-ray!

Carrie, on the other hand, was still feeling plenty terrible. I made her breakfast of sausages. It was going to be sausage and eggs, but we were out of eggs. We were out of pretty much every food. I spent most of the morning fixing up little things around this website, reading stuff at Flying Omelette's Kitchen, and deciding to write a new Article (watch for that later today... or tomorrow).

Then I showered and headed up to Federal Way for a(nother) bone density scan at the Women's Health Center. This is one of my favorite medical procedures because you just lie on a table while a laser pokes around your crotch area. Seriously. I almost fell asleep during this one. But I didn't. On the way home I bought a Jumbo Jack wit' cheese using only change I had scrounged from around the house.

When I got home I had a strange urge to clean. So I did a load of dishes and dried a load of clothes and cleaned up the dining room and coffee table. It's lucky I felt like cleaning, because I had completely forgotten that Jenny and Lisa were coming over to meet with Carrie about jewelry stuff after Carrie got off work! They were only here briefly, and then they went to dinner at Panamonica's. I, meanwhile, cooked up a hamburger patty and sauteed some mushrooms and since we were out of bread ate it a-la-carte. I worked for about an hour on BF stuff while listening to Harry Connick Jr before Carrie came home. When she got back we immediately went to Fred Meyer's so that we would actually have stuff like eggs and bread in the house.

When we got back Carrie was feeling all exhausted and sick, so I sent her to bed while I unloaded the groceries. Then I brought her some cereal. And then two slices of toast with two eggs over easy covered with cheese. And some tea. And some milk. Meanwhile I ate some Grape Nuts. And some Girl Scout cookies. And a PB&J sammitch. I guess we were hungry, huh?

Wednesday, June 16, 2004

The future is now...

Teleportation breakthrough made

Mostly Sleeping Tuesday

Yesterday (Tuesday) I woke up really early in the morning. Like 4:00 early. And I couldn't go back to sleep. So eventually I put on The Rundown in the bedroom and fell asleep right about in the middle of the third act climax. Thanks, Rock!

Carrie had to go off to work, but I didn't, and I stayed in bed asleep until somewhere around 11:30. Eventually I got up and did some changes to some PSBF classes. Carrie had a split shift so she came home around 1:00. Being that we both were still sick, we took a nap in the afternoon from about 3:00 to 6:00. So let's see: that makes about three-and-a-half hours that I've been awake since the sun's been up. That's not very much.

Carrie had a class to teach, and while she did that I worked on the new BF workshop schedule some. I also put up the newest ANGRY BEEF Sighting.

For some reason we couldn't sleep very well at night. Gee, I wonder if it was because we slept all day? Naw, couldn't be. We played a couple of rounds of Skip-Bo, though.

So to recap Tuesday: I was sick and I slept. Except at night.

Tuesday, June 15, 2004

Not really

Yesterday (Monday) I was very sick. Seems like this thing is getting worse instead of better. In the morning I took Carrie to el dentisto, came home and showered, and then went back to pick her up. I then had to run to Bartell's, and then Jack in the Box for a milkshake. In the afternoon I created the Gem Knotting handout for Viki. I had to go down to the store to talk it over with her before I finished, because the notes she gave me didn't really make all that much sense ("Was I on crack when I gave these to you?" was her way of putting it). So then I came home and finished it up and took it back.

Carrie was in a lot more pain this time than last time. She had to go to the BF for a store meeting at one point, and I fell asleep on the couch. She came home and we lazed for a long time before making burgers for dinner. Afterwards we were still hungry, so I melted cheese for her and ate chips and salsa myself. Then we went to sicky bed. Not really all that fun of a day.

Oh, and Michael Tanner pointed out to me that the "Those who would trade freedom for security deserve neither" thing that I mentioned in Susan's Graduation is actually attributed to Ben Franklin, not Twain. Thanks for the correction.

Monday, June 14, 2004

Sicky Sunday

Yesterday (Sunday) Carrie & I felt even sicker than the day before. I was especially hit hard. So I didn't get much work done, nor did I go to practice. I did, however, go to Party World & Paper Zone to look for wedding stuff (and so that Carrie could buy balloons for Lindsay's bridal shower). We bumped into Leilani at Party World, which was pretty funny.

Anyhoo, in the afternoon I watched Ghostbusters, which I realized I hadn't seen without commercials or censoring in about 15 years. I still say that when The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man appears is one of the single funniest moments in film history ever. EVER. When I turned off the DVD, Ghostbusters 2 just happened to be on Comedy Central. What a wacky world, eh?

Carrie left for Lindsay's bridal shower and I did some work on the new class schedule for the BF. I saw that The Seven Year Itch was on, and I've never actually seen it, so I watched probably the last two-thirds of it. I'll have to see the beginning of it some time before I can legitimately review it.

Then I put up a BRAND NEW SECTION of this website: The SHOP. Basically whenever I mention a DVD or album or book or game or whatever in this here blog thingy, I'll add it to the Shop section as well. Sounds like fun, eh? I tink so as well.

Carrie came home and we soon went to bed and had a miserably sick night of coughing and sneezing and whatnot. Fun!

Sunday, June 13, 2004

The Future is Now

Japanese invisibility cloak

Congratumaphone: It's for Susan

Yesterday was ein grande day. It started out in the morning when Carrie & I went to the bank so that Carrie could put $100 in my account (on account of me being a little on the low-low) and also so we could get a $50 bill. We then stopped by Bartell's, and I ran in and bought a congratulations card into which we stuffed the $50 bill. Carrie then ran me up to Federal Way and dropped me off at my folks' house so that I could be a part of the whole "Susan's graduation from College" thing. Whatever.

The gradumation ceremony was at Husky Stadium. It was really sunny for the first half, and I think I might have actually gotten some color! Crazy! The backs of my hands especially look a little darker than usual. Not so much my neck, unfortunately. It's like I've got this nicely-tanned face sitting on top of this stark white pole coming out of my shirt.

There were some fun things about the ceremony. The crux of one of the speeches was a quote from Heinlein (the "specialization is for insects" quote that can be found in either Time Enough for Love or The Notebooks of Lazarus Long). I, of course, recognized it right away. The special guest speaker guy was really a good speaker, and got tons of applause. He talked about the whole "Those who would trade freedom for security deserve neither" thing (althought I believe that's a quote from Twain... I think). There was an airplane flying around with a "Will you marry me?" banner. Mike and I had many funny gig-gigs, my favorite being that instead of saying that the following people are being awarded doctorates, the speaker says, "The following people need to calm down," and then reads the list of names.

For some reason we left gradumation before it was completely over, although people claim that they got to see Susan walk (I had no idea where she was sitting). We went to her apartment to wait for her, but lo and behold no one had a key to it so we had to wait outside, which made many of us wonder, what made waiting here better than waiting for gradumation to end back in the stadium?

Susan showed up and changed (her shoes had made her heel all bloody) and then we went outside and took pictures of everyone giving her stuff. Besides the $50 from me and Carrie, she got a digital camera from G-ma (which she had actually received a long while ago), some more money, and a Dodge Neon. Yikes! I wish I'd gotten a car for gradumation.

After that we went to Ivar's Salmon House for din-dins. Rachel and Carrie met us there. I had coho salmon stuffed with crab and brie and goodness. Carrie had a bisque and a salad. All sexcellent. Mike did "impressions" of the various faces carved in the walls.

Then Carrie & I went home for a brief moment so we could put on more comfortable shoes, and Carrie could change into a super-sexy top, then we picked up Mary and went to Bob's World Famous Java Jive to watch Neighbor Gary and NMVGPTS. We sat at an old Arkanoid coctail game, and I discovered much to my surprise that there were like three credits in it. Arkanoid is hard—I'm all out of practice. Java Jive is a really, really strange place. Very dumpy. Weird layout. But what do you expect from a giant coffee pot?

We left after NMVGPTS performed on account of it was already like 11:00 at night and I'm sick.

It was a fun day, although towards the end of the whole gradumation stuff I was getting plenty tired of my family and their strange inability to have any sort of "wait and see" attitude about anything.

Friday, June 11, 2004

The Future is Now...

Boffins invent grenade vaporising �electric force field�

Dorky duel

Yesterday (Thursday) I had a gut doctor's appointment at 9:00 in the morning. But first I showered and felt a little under the weather—sore throat, kinda congested. Anyhoo, the doctor just adjusted my meds a little and then they took my blood while I watched. Nothing biggie. I came home and read a whole bunch of I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay before doing some BF work on the Wholesale section. I seem to remember making a hot pocket for lunch and doing some dishes, and then around 2:00 I got really sleepy. So while Interstella 5555 was playing on the TV, I fell asleep on the couch only to be awoken by Carrie at 2:25 when she got home (from shopping with Nicole), saying that we had to leave. So I groggily got up and printed out directions to Occasions Catering in Olympia.

We drove down there. It turns out it's just like a few blocks up State from Studio 321, but the directions had us coming from the other way (Pacific). We thought we'd driven past it the first time, but we still had a couple of blocks to go. Anyhoo, the woman (Jennie) was like the opposite of the last caterer we had. She was easygoing and to-the-point and didn't try to hard sell us. The only weird thing is that she didn't show us any pictures (and we didn't think to ask) of actual setups they'd done. But if the price is good I'd like to go with them I think (just 'cause it's getting soooo late in the game now).

When we got home I went to poo in the baffroom (TMI?), then while Carrie zonked on the couch I made us some grilled cheese sammitches and soup (chicken noodle for me, creamy tomato for her) for dinner. After dinner she took a nap and I read more of I, Robot, until I finally had to wake her so she wouldn't be late for the class she was teaching.

While she taught class I worked on creating the template for the HTML pages of the Temple of Worship. I'm really, really liking the way these templates are turning out. They're super classy and cool. They're also not online yet, so I can't show them to you. I also worked on setting up the Fools Play Message Board. It's coming along. I need to make a background and a banner for it, tho. I also hung out at Flying Omelette's Kitchen quite a bit.

I finished I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay. I have to say that the climactic "duel" is really, really dorky and comes COMPLETELY out of nowhere. If I were ever to make this film I'd have to do something about building up the Four-Worlds War some more (I don't think it's even mentioned until a few pages before the end) and just how MUCH of a threat it was, and just how much Byerly saved the world et al. Oh, well, it's rather good until then.

Carrie had driven the old Ford to work in the morning, but she had left it there all day, and she couldn't find her keys after class. Well, they were in her coat, which was back here at the house. So I drove down to the BF and delivered her keys to her. She traded them for a box full of tassels and little boxes (wedding stuff) that UPS had delivered to the BF because the UPS guy knew Carrie worked there. Weird.

Carrie drove Leilani home and then swung by Taco Bell and picked up some cheese quesadillas for us. I got home, then she got home, then we ate them quesadillas and watched Kim Possible in bed and that was the end of the day.

Thursday, June 10, 2004

Registered

Forgot to do this earlier this morning. Oh, well. Yesterday (Wednesday) I forget what happened in the morning. It's just gone from my head. I remember making breakfast of eggs over easy, sausage (leftover from dinner), and toast, and then Carrie left for work, and then... oh, yeah! Now I remember!

I went to the BF at 10:00 to pick up some new books they just got in to scan for das website. I also brought Carrie her brown shoes on account of the red shoes she was wearing had destroyed her feet on the walk to work. I was to meet with Missa to discuss webby stuff, but she had to go to the bonk to do a deposit, so I went along with her to the bonk. We mostly talked about her cat. That's what happened in the morning.

At noontime I was at my folks' house eating cookies and potato salad. I was there for a four-fold reason:

I had to give the CD of the Fools Play Photos to my brother so he could make the appropriate rooms in the Yacht Club
There was a TOP SECRET project from Diamond that Mike wanted me to get in on the ground floor of.
I wanted to see/get the most up-to-date experience of Fools Play Island.
A whole bunch of my stuff had been unearthed in the garage, and I was to go through it.

After that was all taken care of I started to head back home when I was called by the plumbers who had come to look at and see why the washing machine caused brown gunk to come up in the tub. I met them at the house. They smelled of smoke and had bad teeth and poor facial-hair-grooming habits (like I'm one to talk). They dug a hole beside the house and pulled a metric ton of tree roots out of our pipes. Yikes! Stripes! Pipes!

Carol came by and paid them, and shortly after they left Carrie got home from work. We had no food in the house, and didn't feel like going shopping at the time due to the fact that Fred Meyer would be at its utmost busiest at that time of the day. So we ordered pizza from Papa John's instead. Good pizza, of which I ate too much.

Later in the evening the twain of us went to Chez Target and got one of them phaser-looking things and went around and shot a whole bunch of bar codes in the store. That's right; we registered for our wedding at Target. It was fun, although the pizza dehydrated me so I had to buy a root beer at that little Taco Bell/Pizza Hut corner of Target.

CLICK HERE FOR OUR TARGET REGISTRY! NOW!!

After Target we went to Fred Meyer and bought stuff. Around this time Carrie started to feel really bad, so we only ended up spending like 60 bucks on groceries because nothing looked good to her. That's okay, though, 'cause I started getting a sore throat. I ate my leftover piece of pizza and we went to bed, although we got up at one point and Carrie put together some cereal for us. She had more trouble falling asleep than I did.

Wednesday, June 09, 2004

This strange gurgling sound

Yesterday was Tuesday, right? Okay, let me think. I woke up kinda early because we thought that Greg was gonna come over and try to fix the pipes "first thing" in the morning. But there was a message on the telephone saying that he and his dad would be coming around 5:45 that evening.

Carrie had a 10:00 meeting with Blitz & Co Florist to iron out the final details of the flowers. Flowers are done now, baby! Yee-haw! She went to work after that.

I made a new link to Flying Omelette's Kitchen, and spent much of the day dinking around that site. I did some BF work as well (mostly class stuff and PSBF stuff). I had lunch around noon and watched pretty much the whole middle act of The Rundown in the bedroom. Then I showered. This all sounds pretty boring, huh? Well, my mind has been kinda foggy the last couple of days. It's like I'm sitting on a beach, just looking out at the ocean, not thinking about anything. I know there's plenny I should be thinking about, but right now it's just kinda "La, la, la..."

Anyhoo. When Carrie came home from work she informed me that in the evening she would be going to Trevor's 6th grade band recital and asked if I wanted to come. While I do love hanging out with Carrie as much as possible, the thought of sitting through a 6th grade band recital, even Trevor's, didn't really fill me with excitement, so I declined.

Greg and his dad Dale came over (with Buddy the big cute dog) and set about trying to fix pipes and whatnot. Carrie made breakfast for dinner (which I always like) then headed out with Brandy to watch the band show. I stayed around to make sure that nothing got broke in the house and that Fantastico didn't escape (which she did anyway). While I was working on the computer here I heard this strange gurgling sound from the bathroom, and upon investigating discovered this dark brown gunk coming up the tub drain. I informed Greg and Dale about it and they were fascinated and confused as to how it was physically possible.

They eventually left and Greg came back with this black plastic bottle of highly toxic stuff that he poured down the tub drain. It said to let it soak down there at least an hour but preferably overnight. I didn't really want to wait around so I decided to head on down to Panamonica's. First, though, I took the old Ford to the nearby gas station (learning which backroads to take in the process) and filled its front two tires with more air. It drove better after that, and I continued to my favorite speakeasy/cafe/art center and hung out at the bar there, drinking Mike's Hard Lime and eating a Crazy Turkey sammitch. I was going to bring I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay and just kick back and relax and read, but I realized that I had left it in the Toyota, which Carrie had taken to Fife. So instead I brought my notebook and made some Static notes and some sketches for some painting ideas I wanna do. 'Twas fun. I was talking to the bartender lady and I noticed that her earrings looked kinda familiar. That's because Carrie had made them, and the bartender lady had bought them. Coo-ool!

I'd accidentally left my cell phone at home (which I've been doing a lot recently—what's the point of a cell phone if you leave it at home?), and Carrie tried to call me after the band show was over. She showed up at Panamonica's right before I was about to pay up and leave, so we left together. In separate cars. But we ended up at the same place: our house.

Tuesday, June 08, 2004

Bird? Plane? Omelette?

FLYING OMELETTE'S KITCHEN

You should so totally check this site out. I just added it to my links page, too (under "My Daily Grind").

At no extra charge

Yesterday (Monday) I had to be up by 8:00 because someone from Roto Rooter was coming by to see why whenever we use the washing machine, water comes bubbling up out of a pipe in the laundry room. He couldn't get ahold of Carol, though, so left. That meant that I had time to take carrie to the dentist for... a Root Canal.

Yes, poor Carrie had a Root Canal done. I dropped her off, then got gas and went to the Fred Meyer bank to put $300 into her account so that bills could get paid. I bought some apples and bananas and milk and Grape Nuts while I was there, then came home and ate an apple (with some peanut butter) using my magic apple corer. I then drove back up to the dentist place and got out I Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay and read about 80-90 pages before Carrie came out. I thne paid for her dental work and took her home.

Well, almost. First I took her to Bartell's so she could get some painkillers that would make her drowsy, then swung by Jack in the Box for a milkshake and some curly fries for her.

Then it was home and sleepytimes for her. I worked on ANGRY BEEF a bit, making the sightings for the rest of the week just to get that out of the way. In the late afternoon a different plumber came by (actually the same one that fixed our sink before Christmas) and took a look at things. He had a different solution than the Roto Rooter guy. He also killed a GIGANTIC spider on the way down to the basement--at no extra charge. He found a pipe in the basement that had been repaired with duct tape, which was kind of embarrassing. But it had been working for the past five years, apparentely, so I can't complain.

Anyway, Carol stopped by after 5:00 and I gave her the estimate and everything. Carrie came out from the bedroom and slept some more on the couch. I also got sleepy, so I went in the bedroom and put on The Rundown and was alseep within 15 minutes. I didn't wake up until Neighbor Gary came by for rasslin'. Carrie moved to the bedroom, and after rasslin' I moved there as well and actually slept pretty quickly. Bill Murray was on David Letterman, but I was asleep before he came on. That ain't too shabby.

Monday, June 07, 2004

No sleep 'til Brooklyn!

Yesterday (Sunday) I woke up in some sort of a funk. I took a 40-minute walk down to the old apartment neighborhood and back. Didn't really help, but at least I got some exercise.

Fools Play Practice was a lot of fun on account of we took tons of photos (see Sunday's entry), then worked on character stuff with Taisha (jibba-jabba mostly).

Last night neither Carrie nor I could sleep for reasons as yet unknown. I was just not sleepy; Carrie was both unsleepy and horribly restless (I would have been just fine laying in bed watching the TV until falling asleep). Eventually we did fall asleep for a while during Home Movies on Adult Swim, but only for like an hour. Carrie woke up and couldn't go back to sleep, and I kept on waking up sporadically for the rest of the night. I finally got outta bed around 7:30, and Carrie came back and slept for another hour or so around that time. Horrible!

Some such stuff as I want for mine own self

Who will buy me these when they become available? Volunteers, line up now!

Finally, I can have the Poopsmith on your desk. Finally!

Sunday, June 06, 2004

Fools Play Photos

We took a whole mess of photos (over 150) at Fools Play practice today. I thought I'd share some of the better ones. A surprising number involve hooch in some way or another

Taisha looks the only way you can around us. Amused and exasperated and embarrassed at the same time.

"Tim" beats up zombies.

"The Nerdics" don't know the lyrics (or melodies) to any songs... except Jump.

"Fotomoto," a member of "Uncle Dave's Clubhouse," looks creepy.

"Uncle Gavin" of "The Solvers" solves mysteries and plays in a band!

A "Cave Brother" discovers hooch.

One of the "Firehouse" firemen rushes to the scene of a fire... with a ukulele. That ukulele will be overdubbed with an axe in the final version.

"Bob Renerdic" goes crazy and tosses papers around.

"The Ref" slams a jobber through a table. In the final photo it will be me and there will actually be a table.

"Uncle Dave" teaches young boy "William" the joys of liberating hooch from behind a bar.

"Escaped Liberace" dances in the way of someone.

This is our illusion of having "Daredevil" be flying through the air on a bike. It'll look good; trust me.

Technorati

I just signed up for a Technorati Profile. I really have no idea what that means, though.

Saturday, June 05, 2004

Hungry, thirsty, what a day what a day; a hungry, thirsty, thirsty day

Quite the day occurred yesterday (Friday)! Let's see if'n I can remember quite all what happened. Around 11:00 I started to drive up north to Seattle to have an interview with The Cobalt Group about a Web Developer position. The place wasn't too hard to find, even with my automatic "turn at the wrong street" ability. It's just two blocks south of SafeCo Field on 1st Ave S. I parked in a one-hour parking zone just a couple blocks south of it and walked in the hot sun up to the building. The signs inside directed me to the elevator to the fourth floor. I went up and was given a visitor badge and a brochure about the company and told that Ken would be right out. Sure enough, Ken came out in a couple minutes and led me back through the cubicles to a little room where he said basically nothing that I didn't already know about the job. Then he left, and a few minutes later a tall British man named Michael came in and told me a little bit more about the specifics of the job, but not much more than I didn't already know. Then he left and a couple minutes later a woman named Jamie came and told me basically the same stuff that Michael had told me. They all said I had the required skillset and more.

So afterwards I drove down to my folks' house and hung out there for a while, eating some incredibly fatty chicken and sugar cookies. My brother had been cleaning out the garage and had found a whole bunch of my stuff, so I'll have to go through it all at some point.

Then I drove to the Bead Factory so I could drop off that book that I'd scanned at the beginning of the week but kept forgetting to bring back to the store. Carrie reminded me that there was a Bead Party happening that day, so I ran back home and got my camera and gave it to Christine with a couple extra batteries so that Nicole could take the pictures.

Then I came home and put on Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah - Giant Monsters All-Out Attack and watched it from the point where I'd left off. I fell asleep during the giant climax right after Mothra gets it good from G-man. Carrie came home and woke me up and almost immediately afterwards I got a call from Ken offering me the job, which I accepted.

Holy... crap... I gots a job. A REAL JOB.

Anyhoo, to celebrate, Carrie & I went to Panamonicas because, you know, we weren't there on Thursday (what were we thinking). I had an italian sammitch and a couple Mike's Hard Limes. We ate out on the deck and it was most relaxing. Carrie sold a piece of jewelry, which was bought by someone who gave it to the bartender. Tee-hee!

Carrie took me home and then she took Mark's Basic Soldering & Antiquing class. She came home all excited because she discovered that she kind of had a knack for it. Next week she's taking the Metalsmithing class and is totally stoked. I'm totally stoked for her to teach me how to do all this; I think I might have a knack for it as well, and then I could make little robot sculptures.

After all of this we drove down to Olympia for Josh Sanders's retirement/start-of-summer/leaving-Olympia shindig. We sat around a fire and ate tofu dogs and smores and had beer. People were playing banjoes and similar instruments. Missa was the only person there we knew (other than Josh & Amanda). Geoff was supposed to come but apparently his truck caught on fire and he couldn't make it. We finally left around midnight and came home to sleep.

What a day, what a day...

Friday, June 04, 2004

Nothing too spectacular

Yesterday (Thursday) wasn't quite as eventful as previous days. In the morning we drove down to Panamonicas to pick up the old Ford we had left there. Carrie drove it straight to work and I drove home and did some BF work type stuff. I made some brown-and-serve sausages for breakfast and a bowl of Raisin Bran and some string cheese while watching the first half of Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah - Giant Monsters All-Out Attack.

I spent a good deal of the morning cleaning up becaues our cute pal Linnea was going to come over and use our laundry services because of some crazy mix-ups with her house, but she had to go to her mom's and so just brought the laundry over there instead. Carrie came home a little grumpy from work, but after I made her a grilled cheese sammitch and some butter nut squash soup she felt better and wanted to take a nap. So while she did that I drove out to Michael's and bought a set of paints with my %40 off coupon, then swung by Fred Meyer and deposited the Diamond check in the bank (that's, what, the third or fourth day in a row I've been to that bank?), then bought some more pretties for the garden (plus some peanut butter). I came home and planted them immediately.

Carrie had class in the evening; I did not. I did some more BF work and then watched rasslin' and did laundry and dishes and stuff during the commercials. Nothing too spectacular. I considered going down to Panamonicas again, but I don't have what is known as the moneys. So I stayed home and ate a peanut butter & jelly sammitch, some snack mix, and a bowl of Grape Nuts before Carrie came home. We played some Skip-Bo before turning out the lights and going to sleep. Actually I didn't sleep too poorly last night. That's a good thing, I think?

Thursday, June 03, 2004

Like I said, "More pretties."

Here is the result of my buying more pretties today. It's coming along quite well.

More pretties

I can't really remember what happened in the morning yesterday (Wednesday). I put up a new ANGRY BEEF Sighting, I remember that much. I wrote in this here blog and all that. I had a late breakfast that consisted of a sammitch and an apple. Umm... yeah, I can't really remember. I finally took a shower around noonish and then headed down to Ever After to pick up Carrie's commission checks. Lisa and her mum were there, and it's always goot to see her.

I got home and called Carrie on the cellular phone to tell her how much the checks were, and as I was talking to her the front door opened and in came Sofia Lareau. Surprise! She was hanging out at the store today, and so Carrie brought her home with her on her lunch break. I typed "her" too many times during that sentence. She played with the Spider Man 2 Tripe Action Web Blaster quite a lot. She was really good at shooting my neck. We listened to Flood and I tried to make a copy of Lincoln for her to listen to, but the copy wouldn't stick for some reason. Kept on getting error messages. Ah, well.

After they left I drove up to Fred Meyer and deposited Carrie's checks for her. Then I bought some yogurt smoothies, some garbage bags, some hand soap, and a couple of impatiens for the backyard. I figure every time I go to Fred Meyer I should pick up a couple of pretties for the backyard, and soon it will be spectacularly pretty back there.

When I got home there was a check from Diamond, so I'm gonna have to go back to Fred Meyer today. More pretties!

Carrie came home after work but left pretty quickly thereafter to have dinner at Galanga with Raelynn Axlund. At least I think that's how you spell her name. I made another sammitch and ate a whole bunch of snack mix while watching Teen Titans (the Puppet Master episode). Then I headed down to Panamonicas where, lo and behold, Carrie and Raelynn were already there at the bar. Cool! I had a couple of vodka tonics, and then Carrie drove me out to Borders so she could buy bridal magazines, and I could buy a nerd science magazine. Then we went back to Panamonicas and hung out and listened to the music (the music of Kelly Johnson) and read magazines. Gary showed up later on, and even Nicole showed up as a surprise. Lots of surprise meetings at Panamonicas. We had some sammitches and I had a Mike's Hard Lime thing (they're really good). Eventually we drove Mary home and came home to bed ourselves.

Wednesday, June 02, 2004

About Me

I changed my "About Me" page so that now it looks more like the blog part of my website. I like it better this way. Do you? Check it out!

Puppet Jam

Watch Homestar Runner jam out with They Might Be Giants! NOW!

Very simple and classy

More horrible sleep. It's getting rather aggravating.

Anyhoo, yesterday (Tuesday) Morning I ran down to Fred Meyer to put my check in the bank before things started getting processed. I also bought some cranboy juice, drain-o, milk, and kitty litter. My exciting life, eh? For breakfast I made three eggs that were going to be over-easy, but ended up being scrambled by default when all the yolks broke. I also ate an apple using my awesome apple corer. See, I've never been able to eat an apple just by picking it up and biting into it. For some reason I can't eat an apple unless it's all sliced up and the core's been taken out. Now I have one of those utensils that does all that for me, so I can eat apples all the time. Apple a day and all that.

I napped in the middle of the day (don't remember exactly what time). I had a sammitch and a banana for lunch. Around 1:15 Carrie came home for her lunch break, and around 1:45 Christine & Geoff showed up and the three of us went to The Men's Wearhouse to pick out tuxes for the wedding. We got something we really like—very simple and classy, which is what we were going for. HERE is what my groomsmen will be wearing. My tux looks a little different (three buttons on the jacket, ivory vest & shirt). That was a lot of fun, and plenty easy as well. I have to go back down there today and put down the $40 to reserve them all.

For dinner I made nachos. A ton of really tasty nachos. Then around 8:00 we went to go pick up Leilani at her house. Carrie thought it was on South Sheridan, but it ended up being on North Sheridan (oops!). Then we swung by and picked up Mary and headed over to Panamonicas, where we met up with Devon and Gary. Geoff & Brandy and Nicole showed up a little later, and Marigold from Starbucks was there just out of serendipity. We all hung out for a couple hours in that really cool place. I think I'll go back there tonight. Tee-hee!

Tuesday, June 01, 2004

A few suggestions to help make CompUSA a better store.

Courtesy of the Best Page in the Universe.

Of the month: June '04

Hey, it's the first of June! So I've updated my "Of the Month" stuff. Let's take a wook

Link of the Month:

All Music Guide

This place is like the Internet Movie Database, except for music. Type in any musician who's ever been published, and it'll tell you all about him/her with discographies and everything. Pretty cool; I used it to look up Wu Tang and all of its subsidiaries once, and learned the entire history of that clan.

Album of the Month:

Cibo Matto: Viva! La Woman

Cibo Matto is a couple of Japanese ladies based out of New York. All of the songs on this album are themed around food in one way or another, and they're all catchy as hell in a Japanese-girl-pop way.

DVD of the Month:

Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem

Take the man who designed Star Blazers (Space Cruiser Yamato), and have him design the look of a movie based on Daft Punk's album Discovery, and you've got yourself a fascinating 65-minute silent movie. It's like a series of animated videos that all tell one story.

Friends & Family

I've been getting horrible sleep lately. Horrible!

Anyhoo, yesterday (Monday)was the last day of the month, and therefore the last day I could make money in May for doing BF work. So I spent the morning doing that while listening to LEN's You Can't Stop the Bum Rush. It's actually a good album to listen to while you work because you don't have to pay attention to it, although there are some major scratches on Track 6 and a couple others. And then I got really sleepy, so I sat on the couch and watched a couple episodes of The Transformers. Carrie came home for just a second to pick up her jewelry so she could take it down to Panamonicas and put it on display there. I got my April check from the BF, and after I dropped Carrie back off at work I was going to swing by the bank and deposit it. But, oops, Memorial Day means no banks. Tee-hee! Silly muntee.

Instead I went home and worked a little bit more on stuff. I then was going to drive to the BF to see if there were any more books lurking around that I needed to scan. But the people next door were moving out, and the ramp of their U-Haul machine was blocking my driveway. Instead of inconveniencing them, and seeing as how it was a pretty nice day, I decided to just walk the four blocks to the BF. Which I did. There was one book I hadn't gotten yet, so I picked it up and saw Lisa and talked to Christine and Missa. Then I walked back home and scanned it in.

Around 4:45 I tried and tried to get the barbeque started. I hate to admit this, but I really, really suck at getting charcoal to get anything over lukewarm. Out o

This is Chris dot com

Wednesday, June 30, 2004

"Making" cereal

Tuesday, June 29, 2004

...on da spit!

Monday, June 28, 2004

"I should put on pants, huh?"

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Friday, June 25, 2004

Takes some getting used to

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

Second day !

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

Armchair Arcade

First Day!

Monday, June 21, 2004

The Future is Now...

Sunday, June 20, 2004

It was fun

Saturday, June 19, 2004

The place was packed

Friday, June 18, 2004

So much mucous

Thursday, June 17, 2004

What did they do?

They Did "The Bash"

The Video Game Museum

That's better. Well, I'm better.

Wednesday, June 16, 2004

The future is now...

Mostly Sleeping Tuesday

Tuesday, June 15, 2004

Not really

Monday, June 14, 2004

Sicky Sunday

Sunday, June 13, 2004

The Future is Now

Congratumaphone: It's for Susan

Friday, June 11, 2004

The Future is Now...

Dorky duel

Thursday, June 10, 2004

Registered

CLICK HERE FOR OUR TARGET REGISTRY! NOW!!

Wednesday, June 09, 2004

This strange gurgling sound

Tuesday, June 08, 2004

Bird? Plane? Omelette?

At no extra charge

Monday, June 07, 2004

No sleep 'til Brooklyn!

Some such stuff as I want for mine own self

Sunday, June 06, 2004

Fools Play Photos

Technorati

Saturday, June 05, 2004

Hungry, thirsty, what a day what a day; a hungry, thirsty, thirsty day

Friday, June 04, 2004

Nothing too spectacular

Thursday, June 03, 2004

Like I said, "More pretties."

More pretties

Wednesday, June 02, 2004

About Me

Puppet Jam

Very simple and classy

Tuesday, June 01, 2004

A few suggestions to help make CompUSA a better store.

Of the month: June '04

Friends & Family