Tag: dad

A renewal of vows

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Posted at about 5:30 PM local time, on July 9

Mom and Dad had their vow-renewal ceremony this afternoon before dinner. We all got dressed up and then met outside the chapel at 5:30 PM. Jen and Jason had just finished up their couple’s massage and they had to rush to get dressed, but they were up to the chapel on time, and in fact, we were able to start a few minutes early.

The ceremony was brief, but private, with the ship’s captain presiding over it. I video-recorded the whole thing on my camera and the entire ceremony lasted 3-1/2 minutes but it was really very nice. After, we went back to my parents suite to have some champagne.

Snails and Frogs and Creme Brule, Oh My!

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Posted at about 9:27 PM local time

When we last saw our Fearless Hero, he was about to kill a few hours after making his last post and before going to dinner. And so he did. I grabbed my book, ordered up an Ultimate Mai-Tai from one of the bars, and then headed out onto Deck 7, starboard side. It was quiet and warm outside and I quickly found a comfortably cushioned seat on which to relax. Drinking my Mai-tai, I tried to read my book, but the view of the islands in the harbor and the light blue water was pretty distracting, to say nothing of the approaching planes (of which I took several pictures). Eventually, I dozed off out there and by the time I woke up, it was nearly dinner time.

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An evening in Venice

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View from my hotel room
Originally uploaded by jamietr.

9:18 PM local time.

We did some roaming around Venice this evening. I met Mom and Dad at 5:30 and we headed out into the streets of Venice. It’s really so cool. I’ve never been in a city quite like this. Lots of people everywhere and a labyrinth of wide and narrow passageways. I had this image in my mind of running through the city on a night when the entire city was deserted.

And speaking of images, I have posted a set of pictures from Munich and Venice for those interested in checking them out. (The pictures are on my Flickr account, so feel free to post comments to the pics.)

I was eager to see Piazza San Marcos since vickyandnorm had built it up so much in my mind. I was not disappointed. It was exactly as they described it, full of people and pigeons and music from the sidewalk cafes. I wanted to go up in the Campanile, which is the tall tower in the piazza which gives a birds-eye view of the city, but I decided to wait until tomorrow to do that. Instead, we wandered about the maze of canals and passageways, taking photos, window-shopping (Mom, anyway), and delighted in the fact that I was in a city as old and famous as Venice. (Shakespeare wrote about Venice; he never wrote about New York*.)

After wandering around the city for a while, we came back to the hotel and then decided to go find a place to have dinner. We wandered a short distance from the hotel and finally settled on a quiet, canal-side restaurant called Restaurante da Raffaele. We sat outside and had a great meal. Spaghetti and meat sauce, bread sticks, and an Italian beer called Sans Souci. I had ice cream for dessert and I managed to clean my plates.

We came back to the hotel and I was pretty wiped out at this point. I came up to the room, posted pictures and now, I’m about to read myself to sleep. I’m beat and I need a good night’s sleep so that I can be ready for a full day tomorrow. We board the cruise ship at 1 PM-ish but the ship stays docked in Venice for 24 hours after that so we still have time to explore the city. And he11o_sunshine and jkashlock arrive tomorrow as well.

* Steve Martin might say Shakespeare wrote about Los Angeles, but I’m not sure I believe it.

He comes home a winner (Las Vegas, Day 2)

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Yesterday was a long day and today felt even longer. You already know that yesterday (Sunday) started at about 6 AM for me, when I headed to the gym for a light workout (arms and shoulders). Well, eventually, Jen and Jason got up and we all scrambled off to First Breakfast. I had a massive waffle with a hunk of whipped cream the size of a softball on it. After breakfast, we went back to the room, but with Doug still sound asleep, we figured we needed to be elsewhere.

Las Vegas, Day 2

Saturday surprise!

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[Written on May 27 and backdated to May 26]

Saturday was a long day! I was up at 5 AM because I couldn’t sleep any longer. I packed up the remainder of my stuff and headed off to LAX to catch my plane to Las Vegas. There were no lines. I checked in at the Premier check-in counter, went through the premium security “line” (there was no one in line) and was at my gate 10 minutes after arriving at the airport.

I had some time to kill so I watched the season finale of Heroes which I hadn’t seen yet, and which I thought was terrific! I made sure I was the first person on the plane because I didn’t want to run into Mom and Dad, who were taking a flight about 2 hours after mine. Mom was still in the dark about the big surprise in Vegas. She thought I was flying home today.

The flight was short and uneventful. So short, in fact, that I couldn’t complete the crossword puzzle in the magazine. When I got to the gate, I found that he11o_sunshine and jkashlock‘s flight was getting in early, so I walked over to their gate to meet them. We then headed to baggage claim so I could get my bag. We were also able to check into the hotel. All that was left was to wait for Doug.

His flight got in early but we couldn’t find him and he wasn’t answering his phone. Finally, at close to 11 AM, Jen spotted him wandering around upstairs. We found out that his phone was broken and he had been wandering around looking for us. We caught a taxi to the hotel, checked in, and then headed to another hotel for lunch so that we didn’t run into Mom and Dad prematurely.

Finally, around 2 PM or so, Dad called and told us to meet him at the Bally’s sports book. We walked over there (in the near 100 degree sun) and met him. He led us to where mom was sitting at video poker. He told her he had a surprise for her, while we all hung back. She closed her eyes as instructed and we all stood around her. Then she opened her eyes. From her reaction, I think she was pretty surprised!

Lots of activities the rest of the day. We had drinks at a bar in the Bellagio. Then we decided to go to the pool, which we did. I would be remiss to mention the fact that at one point, I was spirited away by a bunch of bachelorettes, as a part of a bachelorette party, which Doug and Jason would have no part in. I didn’t mind. After, I went back to the hotel room to rest for a little while. At 6:30, we headed to Emeril’s for dinner. More drinks. And excellent food. Doug and I shared some tuna steak tartare for an appetizer and I had–you guessed it–the copper river salmon for the main course.

After dinner people wanted to go gamble but I was beat. I headed back up to the room and went to sleep. I don’t even remember Jen and Jason getting back. But I did hear Doug come in just before 3 AM. He had lots of beads and he said he’d lost $100 all told. It was a fun day.

A (windy) day at the Yard

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Dad and I headed to Camden Yards at about 11 AM, getting to the ball park just after 11:30 AM. It was sunny but cool and very windy, and Dad was not dressed for the occasion. Our seats, which are usually perfect because they are in the shade, were much cooler and very windy; so much so that Dad really couldn’t sit still and had to spend a good portion of the game wandering around the stadium, looking for splashes of sunshine in which he could stand.

The highlight of the game for me came at 3:15 PM, when I received a text message from Doug that read: “The Yankees just announced they signed Clemen’s.” At first, I thought Doug might be having some fun with me. They was nothing about it on any of the boards at the stadium. But then I thought that he wouldn’t text me about it if he was joking (he would have called). And sure enough, when I got home, we discovered it was true.

It was a fun game. In the 7th inning, Bill, the usher for our section told us we could move down behind home plate and we sat in the sun for the rest of the game, which was nice. I kept score throughout the game. And although the Oriole’s lost, we had a good time.

Dad is in town!

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I picked up Dad from the metro station last night at around 7:30 and we made straight for the Outback Steakhouse for dinner. It was surprisingly empty for that time on a Friday. We were seated almost at once and had a very nice meal.

When we came home, we watched TV for a while (we were watching the Orioles game) but when 10 PM rolled around, I was beat and had to head off to bed.

I was up at 7 AM this morning, read for a while, and caught up with some blog reading, and Dad was finally up at 8 AM. We headed to IHOP for breakfast. Afterward, I did some quick laundry and then headed to the gym for an arms/shoulders workout. After that, we decided to head downtown and walk around them Mall.

We headed to L’Enfant plaza, and then made our way up and around the Capitol building, past the Library of Congress, and Supreme Court, and finally to Union Station. It was windy and had cooled off considerably and there was a light drizzle as well. We ate lunch at Union Station and then headed back home. Dad wants to watch the big De La Hoya fight tonight, so I ordered it for him on Pay Per View (I won’t be watching. I will be working on more novel outlining and see if I can figure out a way to make “If By Reason of Strength…” work for me.)

Weekend visitors

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The last time someone was at my house was on September 12, when rubysnina was here to visit. Believe it or not, since then, while I have been visiting all over the place, no one else has been in my house in all that time!

That comes to an end this weekend when he11o_sunshine comes to visit. jkashlock will already be in the DC area for a birthday celebration. It will be nice to have guests for a change.

And these guests are followed next weekend by Dad, when he comes into town for his first Orioles game of the season.

I guess I need to think about getting the house in order.

Saturday night wrap up

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I’m getting ready to get into bed and read for a while. I was fairly productive today. I got my passport. I wrote some thank you notes (although I still have more to write). I got some work done on the book collection database, including a cataloging of all of my SCIENCE FICTION AGE magazines. I went to the gym to workout. I did some laundry. Now I’ve showered.

The house is a bit of a mess, but I’ll get it cleaned up in the next couple of days. My desk here in the office is brimming over with stuff. I need to get that cleaned up too.

I gassed up the car tonight, 10.5 gallons, so I shouldn’t need to fill it up again for another couple of weeks.

jkashlock and Dad called me for a video iChat this afternoon. They were at the Apple store in Simi Valley and had hijacked one of the display computers in order to video chat with me. Dad showed me his Mets shirt and I showed them my new passport. Somehow, I think I will go farther with my passport than the Mets will go this coming season. This was my second video iChat this weekend. Jim and I spent about 30 minutes video chatting yesterday evening.

I’ve been listening to Aerosmith for much of the day today. I haven’t listened to them in a while and it was fun to hear them again.

That’s a wrap!

Great minds

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Last night at 8:30, I sat down for a video chat with Mom and Dad. We had arranged the video chat because they wanted to watch me open the gift they sent me. I was eager to do so as the package had been sitting in my living room for two days and I was wracking my brain trying to figure out what it might be.

So there, on a live video chat, I opened it up with Mom and Dad looking over my shoulder.

You’re not going to believe what they got me

Happy Birthday, Dad!

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Today is Dad’s birthday. Growing up, whenever I asked Dad how old he was, his answer was always the same. “I’m a hundred years old,” he would say. I grew up thinking my Dad was a century old, telling the kids at school he was a century old, and in general, believing he was a century old. To this day, while he doesn’t look to be 100 years old, who am I to argue with my “old” man.

So, Dad, here’s to a very happy 100th Birthday! I hope that Mom can fit all those candles on the cake for you!

Writing and wrapup

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Throughout the Comcast Saga, I did managed to get some work done on “If By Reason of Strength…” I did about 500 words and I’ve now completed the first 3 sections of the story. More tomorrow.

The Comcast Saga screwed up my workout plan for today. Not only did I not end up getting a chance to workout tonight, but I didn’t get a chance to go out and grab my dinner! I can’t make up the dinner, but I’m going to try and add an extra cardio session to my lower body workout tomorrow morning.

Dad just called–he got the birthday gift I sent to him and he was calling to say thank you. It sounds like he really liked it.

Now I’m off to pack my lunch, gather my things together for the morning, and head off to bed. G’night!