Wedding planning is going pretty well and as such, we have a pretty firm date and reception location.
Date: Saturday, October 27, 2007 (yes, next year)
Reception Location: Tsakopoulos Library Galleria (Sacramento)
Other information to follow!
Firstly, a little bit about the trip to Vancouver.
We flew up to Seattle and drove up to North Vancouver, staying at Hamersley House (where filming for the L-Word took place on our last day there…which was great as the production crew paid for our last night).
We spent a lot of time in and near Downtown Vancouver, Gastown, Granville Island, English Bay (for the fireworks) and Yaletown. We also took a short side trip to Cypress Park for a hike…more on this later.
Finally, on the way back to Seattle, we stopped by Columbia Winery for Jenna’s wedding. Pictures of the gorgeous couple are in the gallery.
Also pictures of Vancouver 2006 are in the gallery as well.
And the big announcement is…Shareena and I got engaged in Vancouver! Without further ado, here is the story:
We took a short side trip on Wednesday morning (August 2nd) to Cypress Park. What was suppose to be a short, relatively easy hike turned out much tougher as they are building the 2010 Winter Olympic Freestyle slope in the same area as the beginning of the hiking trail. Therefore, Shareena and I had to basically hike straight up the skiing slope for the first part of the hike. Shorter, yes, but steeper and the trail was basically loose gravel (being used as a road for construction trucks).
We did manage to get to the top of Black Mountain and at a lookout point, we stopped and while I was getting down on my knee and fetching the ring, Shareena was getting mobbed by mosquitos! Which, as it turns out, was a good thing because when I opened the ring holding box, the ring fell out onto the ground (due to much jostling on the hike up), but Shareena did not notice this (I had to tell her later).
Anyways, she said yes and now we are a happily engaged couple.
That’s it…now the fun begins. Oh, and here are some pictures of the ring. It is a sapphire centered ring held in place by two dragon claws.
Yes, it has been quite a summer of little trips for me. About a week after my trip to LA, I was off to Boulder for the Educause Management Program. No, I am not a manager, but I am just checking out what it might take and what the challenges are to manager people. I am not much of a control freak, but it is scary to think how people might react and what you have to do to deal with problematic situations.
Certainly, there were many tools that were helpful and it was quite a good conference. There were also many stories of problematic situations and it was certainly fun to hear some of them (like say, this one at the University of Wisconsion). Networking (people terms) was certainly one of the big things that everyone got out of the conference and we even got some free time to tour around and hike and buy Smorkin Labbits as our unofficial mascots.
In any case, we shall see how things go. I am not in a rush to become a manager. One of the things that I learned is that you will have to let go of some of your day-to-day responsibilities and delegate…I guess I may not be ready for that yet.
Well, I certainly do not have to think about it for the next couple of weeks. I will be off to Seattle/Vancouver next week for a nice short vacation (plus my old friend, Jenna’s wedding) and a week off (probably supervising our bathroom remodel in some way) after that.
I know it has been awhile, but I finally have a moment to catch my breath. So here it goes.
Another Bathroom Remodel Delay
Well, shockingly, this time no one had to back out due to strange injuries to their contractors. Instead, it was merely a simple case to total incompetence.
So now, we are set for mid-August with another contractor…hopefully, this one will go well!
LA Trip
Shareena and I headed down to Los Angeles (we stayed in Santa Monica) over the fourth of July weekend for a little getaway and my cousin Vivian’s wedding reception at Cafe Bizou.
Of course, nothing ever goes as planned and I was pretty much sick (I have concluded that it was some bad mushrooms in my ramen that I had for lunch prior to flying down to LA), so I was pretty much not eating more than a few bites and feeling weak all trip.
Nonetheless, Shareena and I managed to mix in family and some time away from the family. In addition to seeing my cousins at Vivian’s wedding reception and other going-ons (like lunch and dinner with family on Sunday), Shareena and I managed to spend some time in Santa Monica and Hollywood (we took my cousins Jack and Angie with us).
For pictures, here is the Santa Monica 2006 gallery.
Some other highlights included Eugene and Natasha’s five month old triplets (pictures will be posted whenever I get them) and a very lovely day at the beach on Monday.
Well, that’s it for now. Tune in next time for my business trip to Boulder and plans for August in Vancouver/Seattle.
Hey Jason, if you are reading my blog, check this out…
http://www.secretlevel.com/
Looks like it is only coming out of XBox 360 and PS3 though.
Ah, the days of Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder
http://www.classicgaming.com/goldenaxe/Games/Arcade/gatroda.htm
So hey, I am posting an update less than a week after I returned from vacation…I guess either a) I am not busy or b) I am not that tired from vacation.
Pictures can be seen in the Las Vegas 2006 album. Also, added a few new pictures of the cats in Resident Cats, Part 2.
Thursday
Things certainly did not get off to an auspicious start. Shareena and I (and another unlucky person) managed to nab seats in front of three frat boy wannabees. Drunk, loud and obnoxious, these three managed to turn the flight into their own personal rant time and convinced us to stay away from the Monte Carlo.
Upon arrival at Las Vegas airport, we grabbed our bags and took a shuttle to Bellagio. This was mostly fine, although the shuttle driver really likes to talk as well. Of course, our hectic day did not calm down upon arriving at Bellagio as we discovered that our room was not cleaned! Oops, I guess that happens when you have thousands of rooms to manage…
Anyways, we phoned housekeeping first and the housekeeping lady did a great and quick job our cleaning up our room, though with the timing of everything, we felt pretty rushed as we had to get to dinner at Emeril’s Fish House at the MGM. In the end, we did get $50 credit to our hotel bill due to this inconvenience and were able to relax once we got to our dinner.
The food at Emeril’s Fish House was pretty good, though much effort had to be made to keep me from eating anything with shellfish in it (I could not have anything deep fried as they deep fried everything in the same oil).
After dinner, Shareena drifted quickly to sleep and I went off to the poker room at Bellagio (nice, but a bit crowded) and won enough money to cover everyone’s breakfast on Friday.
Friday
As Jansen and Rebecca got into Las Vegas quite late on Friday, we did not meet up with them until Friday for breakfast buffet at “Le Village” in the Paris Hotel. The food was pretty good (though unfortunately, some idiot decided to get 6 omelettes for his whole family and caused quite a lengthy delay) and it was an interesting small European village decor.
For most of the rest of the day, we shopped (though Jansen and I managed to escape to the poker tables at Harrah’s) until everyone’s legs were tired. Unfortunately for me, a very lucky drunk was at the poker tables mid-afternoon and without looking at his cards (and still raising like a maniac), he still managed to luck out and beat me out of quite a lot of money.
Oh well, all was not lost as Friday was date night and Shareena and I were off to Olives for dinner, followed by the late performance of “O” while Jansen and Rebecca went to a steakhouse (sorry, I don’t remember which one) for dinner followed by Mystere. The food was very good and unfortunately, it was too much for our small stomachs! The show was quite amazing, though I am not sure if anyone can follow the storyline.
Saturday
While Shareena was getting a massage, Jansen and I set off at 11am on a poker tournament (rebuy) at Harrah’s and though Jansen did not rebuy and was down to almost no chips at the first break after one hour of play, I managed to bust out (and down $40 more due to a rebuy) at the same time. Oh yeah, note to self, you cannot bully a player who does not understand what is going on at the table.
Anyways, after a bit of lunch, I set off to play some more poker while everyone else hotel-hopped on the strip. After about 3 hours of 1-2 no limit (this was around 5:30pm), I was down and everyone else was tired from walking so much and fortunately (in this case), I was able to continue playing as everyone else needed a break from walking and were not quite hungry enough to eat.
So thanks for tiring yourselves out so that I can win back all my money plus another $120!
We ended the day by going to Rio for the World Buffet…yummy, so much food, so little time and attempted to check out some of the free shows, but only managed to catch a couple of the Bellagio fountain acts before retiring for the night.
Sunday
Not much on the last day. Eat breakfast (crepes and tarte at Paris), fly home, sleep.
In any case, it was a great trip…I think I was pretty good as I did not play that much poker! While Bellagio did have a hiccup (and some odd delayed draining noises in our bathroom), it is a beautiful place and the service is definitely top quality. Now if we can just get that price down a bit…
As you can see, my blog presence has changed and I am ready to write more than usual. A few things went away – my bio page, my friends page – but hey, I think it looks better.
The comments section is back, so for all 2 of you who actually check out my page, feel free to comment away.
Hmm, should I keep doing the advisory column? It’s not always easy coming up with topics…
Anyways, you’ll see that I have embedded the gallery into the main theme, while the forums are pretty much its own theme. It’s just too bad that I am too lazy to integrate everything, but such is life.
As for my normal life, things are going well. Shareena and I just celebrated our 8 year anniversary. We went to one of our favorite places – Napa Valley Grille – and well, let’s just say that it wasn’t the ideal restaurant experience. Let’s count the ways:
I guess we will be looking for another place in Napa to dine the next time we are there. Della Santina’s in Sonoma is quite nice and very well priced as well.
Otherwise, our next trip will be Vegas! More on this in the near future.
I know that I returned from vacation three weeks ago, but I am still feeling tired and cannot seem to get back into the groove of things. I am not sure I know what is going on, but at least I have finally managed to put up some photos of my trip (though comments are still in order…with help from Shareena as I don’t want to mis-name anyone). The pictures in the gallery are just a sampling…of the ones that I liked the most. If you want to see the rest, just catch me at home or when I have my iPod and I will be sure to go through all 1000+ with you. Many of them are repeats as I have pictures from four different cameras.
I also promise to write about my fun and exciting trip this coming week…most likely, I will have to break it into pieces…and I really need to organize my life and get motivated. Anyone with a suggestion?
