Tag: denisse

Another Rock Band day

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We slept in this morning, which was nice.  I think we were finally up at around 9 AM.  Kelly made waffles, with the waffle-maker we received from AJ and Denisse.  After breakfast, I went to the concierge to collect the package we received yesterday.  I turned out to be the stroller that Jason and Logan got for us for Christmas.  Kelly insisted I put it together right away and I did.  I looks pretty cool.  I’ll post a picture tomorrow.

Later in the morning, we went for a walk.  It was cold out, but the sun felt warm and it wasn’t too windy, which actually made it feel comfortable.  When we got back, I called Mom and Dad to wish them a happy new year (they were still in Vegas).  I dozed off for a little while, and then had a quick sandwich before we headed over to Kevin’s to play Rock Band.

We got to Kevin’s at about 1 PM and we played Rock Band for 4 hours straight.  I did guitar the whole time for a change.  I actually liked it.  The last big set we did was a 7 set gig and I played guitar at medium level and somehow managed to make it through.  As always, it was a lot of fun, and I couldn’t believe how fast those 4 hours flew by.

On our way home, we made a quick stop at the grocery store and then met AJ and Denisse at Pentagon City.  We came back to the house and hung out for several hours, talking, and playing Wii.  AJ and I played Lego Star Wars for a while, and then the four of us played Mario Cart (which was the first time Kelly and I played it).  That was a lot of fun

At about 11 PM, I took AJ and Denisse back to the Pentagon City metro and they took a cab home.  I’m about to call it a night. 

Shopping day

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We were up at 8 AM and on our way to Tyson’s Corner by about 9 AM.  We wanted to get to the mall before things got crowded.  Indeed, when we got there, things were not bad at all.  We had to stop in a few stores to do some holiday shopping (I can’t reveal those stores lest, we give away what we were shopping for).  We then wandered into Ann Taylor Loft (I say "wandered", but I suspect that Kelly somehow directed us in there, and just made it seem natural).  They were having a big sale on maternity clothes.  We found out that they were no longer going to carry maternity clothes in the story, only online.  Kelly managed to find several pairs of pants that she got at a steal.  I saw some cute pajamas that I thought she’d like too, and we picked up those as well.  The discount that we got on the maternity pants paid for all but $3.50 of the pajamas.  We felt good.  vickyandnorm  would be proud.

By the time we left Tyson’s it was crowded and the parking lot seemed full–and we were only there 1-1/2 hours!  We stopped home briefly and then headed up to the Pentagon City Mall to meet AJ and Denisse for brunch.  We had brunch with them at Harry’s Tap Room, and then proceeded to wander around the mall and do more shopping.  AJ needed to go to GNC to get some flack seed (not flack seed oil, but flack seed.  I don’t even know what that stuff is).  We then headed to Victoria’s Secret, followed by Baby Gap.  On the way to Baby Gap, AJ was waylaid by people doing "free" massages.  AJ took them up on his offer.  His "free" massage cost him only $22 for 22 minutes.  Next, we headed across the street to Costco, where Kelly and I picked up a Humidifier.  After Costco, we said goodbye to AJ and Denisse and headed home.  I set up the humidifier for Kelly and then went upstairs to read.  I ended up falling asleep for 90 minutes and waking up all out of sorts.

Kelly was in bed early and I stayed up reading more of The Hard SF Renaissance, finally calling it quits just before 10 PM.

Halloween and Taco Salad

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Halloween today, but unlike last year, there was no dressing up or Halloween parties this year.  There was work, and then after work, I headed home and started preparing dinner.  AJ and Denisse came over around 7 PM and I made a taco salad using one of strausmouse’s recipes.  I think it came out pretty good, even though I made one mistake.  (The recipe said to slice up a tomato.  Later it said to add the tomato to the food processor.  I didn’t read it carefully and added all the tomato, rather than 1/4 cup.  That’s okay, it still came out pretty good.)

Earlier in the day, I picked up 2 games for the Wii:  Monopoly and Tiger Woods 2009.  When Denisse and AJ were over this evening, we played Monopolyon the Wii.  It was fun, but it took a long time.  Ultimately, AJ was the winner.

I got the January issue of ASIMOV’S in the mail today.

Today’s reading: SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN.

There will come soft rains

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Hannah hit Saturday early afternoon with lots of rain and wind, but not much of anything else.  It was a lazy day for us.  We didn’t sleep in late, but we took a lengthy nap in the middle of the day.  It was pleasant listening to the rain pound on the roof and wind whip through the rafters.  In the morning, I actually sat through 1-1/2 hours of VH1 Classics watching "Totally 80s" videos.  About the best video I saw was Def Leppard’s "Armegeddon It".  About the only thing I actually did during the day was fill my car up with gas.

Lazy, lazy, lazy, and then, around 7 PM (after the rains had stopped and the skies had mostly cleared up), we headed over to Pentagon City to pick up AJ and Denisse.  We headed to Shirlington, where we had dinner at Capital City Brewery.  We then walked to the movie theater to see the 9:10 PM showing of Vicky Kristina Barcelona.  Something about the introduction made me think it was a Woody Allen movie, and sure enough, it was.  It featured Scarlet Johansson, which was a plus, but it also set a personal record for me.

It was the first Woody Allen movie I’ve ever seen that I really didn’t like.

This lead to minor controversy after the film.  I tried to explain what bothered me about the film.  The characters didn’t really change, for one thing.  They ended up exactly where they started off.  I didn’t like the narrator.  It seemed like the narrator should have been Woody Allen, but it wasn’t.  Furthermore, the narrator’s dialog read like a Hemingway novel, with these terse sentences that seemed to talk down to the audience.  All of the performances (including, yes, Scarlet’s) were muted, and the best performance was provided by Javier Bardem.  As is often the case when I don’t like something, I’m sure it’s more my failings than the films.  Nevertheless, I really didn’t like this one.

After the movie, we headed back to our place and sat around chatting until almost 1 AM.  I took AJ and Denisse back to the metro station and when I got back home, we went to bed.

Saturday

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We spend Saturday morning around the house. I lazed around a bit, listening to some jazz on the excellent iPod speaker system that strausmouse got me for my birthday. Kelly was productive around the house as usual. More productive than I. We did head over to Macy’s to pick up the bridesmaids dresses, which had come in. From there, we headed over to Trader Joe’s to do some shopping. We picked up some free-range chicken for Kelly. I also bought some frozen Copper River salmon which I am going to attempt to cook.

AJ and Denisse came over around 1 PM. We chatted for a while, and then went back over to the clubhouse so that they could look at some apartments. They met with the person that they talked to last week, and we went with them to see two different apartments in the complex. They now have some decisions to make. Afterward, we walked to the Arlington Diner for a light, late lunch.

Around 7 PM, Kelly and I headed over to Shirlington to meet her friend Kevin for dinner at Guapo’s. We had a nice dinner and then dashed over to Maggie Moo’s for ice cream. We walked around Shirlington for a little while, eating our ice cream, before calling it a night and heading home.

We closed out the evening watching the rest of some movies we’d Tivo’d.

Cleaning day

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Today is Kelly’s first day at her new job! We drove to Pentagon City together this morning; Kelly got on the Metro and I headed up to the office.

I’ve been cleaning this morning. Friday (August 1) was the first day of my 7th year in the Washington office, and this morning, I decided I needed to clean said office. I’ve had the same posters on the walls for 6 years and it’s time for a change there, too. So I took down my posters of the U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence and M.C. Flagg “I Want You” U.S. Army posters. Between Kelly and I, we have more than enough framed pictures for the walls of our new place, so I plan to bring in some of my framed NYC art and put that on the walls here. Feels good to get the office cleaned. It’s kind of like cleaning out all of the clutter in your head. The move is good for that kind of thing, too.

I didn’t sleep well last night. I’m not quite sure why. I felt like I kept Kelly up half the night. I felt okay when I woke up this morning, although now, I detect the slightest of scratches at the back of my throat. I’m hoping it’s just my imagination.

The bike shop called yesterday afternoon. My bike is ready to be picked up. I’ll head over there after work. Maybe go for a bike ride this evening. It’s then my intention to start riding my bike into work this week.

AJ and Denisse came over yesterday afternoon. AJ had been out shopping and so he dragged along his new 32″ LCD TV, fresh off the shelves at Best Buy. I teased him that it was his kind of portable TV. We gave them the tour of the new place and then chatted for a while. Kelly and Denisse went out for a walk and AJ and I watched some of the Yankees/Angels game (in HD!) AJ and Denisse are considering a possible move and they were impressed with our new complex so we went to the office and got them information on the apartments. They talked with a rep there, and they are coming back next weekend to look at some of the apartments in person. Who know? They could end up being neighbors. We went to Shirlington for dinner and ate at Guapo’s. The food was pretty good. Went to Cake Love afterward for cupcakes.

I submitted by story, “The Golden Watch” to Strange Horizons 29 days ago. That’s significant because it marks the longest time I’ve had something at Strange Horizons before receiving a rejection. (I’ve submitted 5 items to that magazine and the previous record for rejection was 28 days, and I’ve gotten a rejection from them in as short as 16 days.) As anyone who has been submitting for a long time will tell you, when it takes longer than usual, it is often a good sign (but not always) because it often means the story has made its way out of the slush pile and to one or more editors for review. So we’ll see how that goes. I’m looking forward to getting started on the writing workshop, which now officially begins two weeks from today.

Productive Saturday

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We had dinner with AJ and Denisse last night at Bertucci’s and it was a lot of fun seeing them and hanging out with them for a while. Also, our “Save the Date” post cards arrived, and they look great! They were made by he11o_sunshine over at Buttercream Cards and we love them!

This had to have been one of the most productive Saturday’s we’ve had in a long time. We had a plan when the day began and both Kelly and I were surprised to just how well our plan worked out.

First, we went to the gym. I hadn’t eaten and my legs were sore from yesterday’s lower body workout so I only did 10 minutes of cardio, but I augmented it with a couple of sets of upper body and core work. After the gym and a shower, we packed up Kelly’s laundry (to bring to my house) and then headed over to Potomac Yard (driving past our new house) in order to stop in at the Men’s Wearhouse and arrange tuxedos for the wedding. We suspected that would take some doing, but it turned out to be incredibly easy. Both Kelly and I are equally decisive and don’t hem and haw over decisions. I saw what I liked, Kelly liked what I liked and we took it. We arranged and account whereby our groomsman can get fitted and either pick their tuxes up where they live, or locally here in our area.

With that task done, we headed to my house. We stopped briefly at the house to drop off Kelly’s laundry, and then headed back out. We went to Home Depot to pick up some canvas work gloves, and then headed to the grocery store to do the shopping for the week. Then it was back to my house. We made our lunches (we were pretty hungry) and watched the end of The Shawshank Redemption. We then prepared for the big task of the day: cleaning out the garage.

I have been dreading the task of cleaning out my garage for years now. Junk has accumulated in there to the point where it was pretty full. The garage is a one-car garage but it has what is essentially a fully workshop on one side. Aside from being filled with boxes that were put there 6 years ago when I first moved in, there was 6 years worth of dust, bugs, mouse and raccoon droppings. I estimated it would take me several hours on three or four weekends to get the job done.

Kelly and I got most of the job done in 90 minutes.

Again, decisiveness and teamwork were key. We’d look in boxes. I’d make a quick decision as to whether it was something I wanted to keep or not (90% of the time, the answer was “not”). Kelly would then quickly decide if it was in any condition to donate. If it was, we set it aside. If not, we bagged it as trash and moved on. When we’d gotten just about everything done, we swept the garage clean. I couldn’t believe just how well we worked it all out and how quickly we did it. I have some pictures which I will upload at some point to show just how successful we were. The garage is virtually empty. All that’s left is “bulk” trash which is picked up on Thursday’s in my neighborhood.

After cleaning the garage, we showered and then rested for a while. We then addressed just about all of the “Save the Date” cards well be sending out (I have three more to do but need some additional address information. We went to Boston Market to grab some dinner and while eating dinner (and afterward) watched Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

We worked hard today and got a lot done. Kelly even managed to do a ton and a half of laundry while all of this is going on. We don’t have nearly as much to do tomorrow, but it sure felt good getting a lot done today.

Friday evening

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Kelly met me after work Friday at the Pentagon City Mall. We headed over to Champs to have a beer with Todd. We then had some errands to run before meeting AJ and Denisse for dinner. We decided to go over to Lebanese Taverna for dinner, and we ended up having a great meal. We caught up with AJ and Denisse, who we hadn’t seen in a little while. AJ treated us to dinner. After, we headed to Maggie-Moo’s for dessert. We wandered around the mall for a bit and finally, around 10 PM, headed home. We had a really nice evening.

Rainbow Room Birthday Bash 2008

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Saturday began early for I was anxious to see everyone and wanted to get an early start. Kelly and I had gone to bed around midnight and I was up at 6:40 AM. I showered and then headed downstairs to sit on the couch and read until everyone else woke up. Kelly was up early too, and so we waited for vickyandnorm (Norm and Vicky) and kruppenheimer (Lisa) to awaken and get ready. It didn’t take too long but it seemed as though it took forever. However, we were ready to go by 9 AM, which is what I was hoping for, and at that point, we hit the road.

How’s this for a great day…

Peruvian meals and mundane work

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Kelly and I headed over to Denisse and AJ’s last night where we gathered with some of their other friends for a Peruvian dinner that Denisse prepared. I can’t remember the name of the dish, but it was terrific! Lots of mojitos and beer, as well as snacks and desserts. Good company, too. We got there a little after 6 PM and finally headed back to Kelly’s around 11 PM.

After a good night’s sleep, I left Kelly’s at around 10 AM this morning. I got home remarkably quickly. My first task was cleaning up the place a bit. That took about an hour. Then I had work to do. I agreed to write some documentation for a beta-test we are conducting beginning this week, and I spent much of the afternoon on that, taking a break for lunch, and a bit of reading.

All told, I managed to write about 15 pages of documentation (a tad under 4,000 words) and I completed enough to be ready for tomorrow. But the day is done now, and it’s already 7:30 which means it’s nearly time for me to go to bed. I’m going to eat some dinner, make my lunch for tomorrow, and then hit the sack.

Rumors of my near photographic memory are, in fact, true

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Yesterday, we spent the afternoon with AJ and Denisse. We went into Georgetown for a late lunch at an Indian food place. In fact, we got in just before they closed the kitchen, but the food was outstanding. We lingered over the meal for a while and the folks in the restaurant were patient, but eventually, they started to vacuum and we figured we should probably leave.

So we wandered up the street to Barnes & Noble and browsed through the book store for a little while. Eventually, we made our way back to the front of the store, looking for AJ and Denisse. They were by the magazine section, skimming magazines. Kelly and Denisse began commiserating and when I tried to get in on the action, Denisse shooed me away. “Go read a magazine,” she said.

“I’ve read them all already,” I said.

“Oh yeah, right,” said Denisse. She glanced randomly at a shelf. And then she said, “So what’s on page 39 of Q magazine.”

I paused for a moment, thinking, and then replied, “An advertisement.”

“Shut up,” Denisse said, “prove it.”

I walked over to the shelf with issues of Q magazine. I pulled off the top issue and turned to page 39.

It contained a full page ad.

It took Denisse several minutes to recover.

Breakfast, anyone?

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Although we went to bed really late, we were up by 9 AM and almost my first act of the New Year was to cook everyone breakfast. That’s right: I made breakfast. I used the new Black and Decker grill-thing that he11o_sunshine and stubiebrother got me for the holidays to make pancakes. I also made scrambled eggs, including a batch of “egg whites” for A.J. We had juice and I had toast and a banana to go along with my breakfast. I think it came out pretty good. It was really the first time we tried to make anything for anyone other than ourselves.

We lazed around for a little while after breakfast and then decided to head up to the Arundel Mills outlet mall. We spent a few hours there, wandering in and out of various shops, with Denisse and Kelly doing most of the shopping. Late in the afternoon we stopped at Chili’s for an early dinner. Then, stomachs full, people toting their packages, we headed home. I dropped A.J. and Denisse off at their house in Washington Circle. I then took Kelly back to her house. Then I headed home myself. I was back in the house by 7 PM.

Packed my lunch for got everything ready for work tomorrow, and I’m off to bed.!