When I got my Nintendo DS, one of the first games I got with it was a Castlevania game, Dawn of Sorrow, and I haven't regretted it - it hasn't left my DS in weeks. (I also got New Super Mario Bros - cool, but I'm on this Castlevania kick; Spiderman 2 - it's Jen's and I'm not interested; and Polarium, this cracked-out puzzle game I don't get and may turn in for credit towards the next Castlevania game.)
I've been playing Castlevania games for years, but I'm not that big a fan. The first Castlevania was mediocre at best, and the third one wasn't much better. Maybe a graphical update. The second one, on the other hand - now, these were all for the original Nintendo - was a great game. It pretty much set the standard for the kind of adventure game I'd come to like. A game where the character can grow, with a customizable weapon set, enabling different playing styles to offer a slightly different experience. Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest was limited, but hey, this was late 80s. I didn't play the Game Boy Castlevania games, though due to the technological marvel that is Emulation, I may someday. I like to pretend the Nintendo 64 never happened and that all of Nintendo's systems (also forgetting Virtual Boy, everyone does) were good. (The jury's still out on the Wii.) And thus the Castlevania games on the N64 are also overlooked.
Then the Game Boy Advance came out, which received one Castlevania title: Aria of Sorrow. This was a great game as well, probably my favorite to be released on a Nintendo system. (The fan favorite is Symphony of the Night, which was on the Playstation. I can't say it's my favorite, but it's up there.) AoS was a pretty good game, but it changed what Castlevania was about. Rather than having a member of the Belmont clan going after Count Dracula (or Dracula's son Alucard, in Symphony), we met this guy named Soma Cruz who has the power to steal the souls of his enemies and use them as weapons or enhancements. The castle was different, but then again, it changes with every game. And the good-ole 80s feel was replaced with an Anime overhaul. I don't much care for the Anime aspect of the game, or Soma's love life or friendships - but I find that you can skip most of the plot, and it still makes for a fun game.
Dawn of Sorrow is much the same, a sequel to Aria of Sorrow. The name cleverly carries the initials DS, and it makes decent use of the DS' touch screen. Soma still steals souls, but to defeat a boss, you have to trace a symbol on the screen using the stylus. In some parts of the game, you can break blocks with the stylus. And as a purely cosmetic touch, you name your save file by writing your name or drawing something on the screen, much like signing for a credit card purchase at the supermarket.
I love how the religious right jumps on the popular games, whether there's anything wrong with them (Grand Theft Auto) or not (Dungeons & Dragons), but something like Dawn of Sorrow is overlooked. Let's see, from the point of view of a religious fanatic. (Also considering Nintendo's family-friendly reputation.) First, you kill enemies over and over until you get their soul. You hardly ever get it on the first try - some enemies it takes hours. The reward for collecting all the souls is a ring which continually draws energy from Chaos (which we could interpret as Hell). Basically infinite spellcasting. Second, to kill the more powerful enemies (except the last one) you have to draw sacriligious runes (not really, but it could be interpreted so). And if you get the second ending, you become the Dark Lord (they mean Dracula, but this could be interpreted as the Devil). So this is a pretty dark game for Nintendo (to be fair, they didn't make it - it's from Konami).
And no, as far as I know, the infamous "Konami Code" (Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A) doesn't work on any of the Castlevania games. I know it works on Life Force and Contra, but from time to time I try it on Konami's other titles, to no noticeable effect.
I love this game, though. It's a huge castle to explore, there are well over 100 different kinds of monsters to learn how to deal with, and there are a few side things to do. I already mentioned getting all the souls. You can also synthesize weapons by fusing souls with existing weapons to make new, better ones. (To make the best weapons, you have to synth boss souls, which can't be replaced - and therefore you can't get your Chaos Ring.) I mentioned that one ending has Soma becoming the Dark Lord. Doing so unlocks a new game, Julius Mode, where Julius Belmont has to go in after Soma and eventually defeat him. Fans say this mode is most like Castlevania 3. I've played it a little, and it's fun enough, but I prefer the main game. Also if you like a challenge, there's Boss Rush - fight the bosses one after the other. There are some cool prizes if you can do it in a short enough time. I won't mess with it until I've maxed my character to level 99.
There's a new Castlevania for the DS - Portrait of Ruin. It's got nothing to do with Soma, and I hear there's a heck of a lot more stuff to do - and it's harder. Dawn of Sorrow is too easy once you learn it. Oh, I know it's a spoiler, but the second to last boss is the easiest one in the game if you know the secret. One soul, Beur, has a fireball spinning around you. Max it out (get 9 Beur souls) and you get six fireballs. The boss, Abaddon, its main attack is to summon a swarm of locusts at you. With maxed Beur turned on, not a single one will hit Soma, and all Abaddon can do is run into Soma, and that doesn't do much damage. Pick a powerful weapon and go to town. Only the seal used to kill it is the hardest in the game, and if you fail, Abaddon gets more life. I got the seal on my 5th try, and still had a third of my magic and half my life, no potions used. That's pathetic. Even some of the bosses killed with the first couple seals will have you using at least one potion, unless you're really good.
If you have a DS, I can't recommend this game enough. 2, 3 years down the road I imagine it'll still be a favorite. I said before Symphony wasn't my favorite Castlevania title. Dawn of Sorrow isn't, either, but it's because I can't name just one. Simon's Quest for the classic gameplay (a Belmont going after Dracula), Symphony of the Night for the inverted castle (after you "beat" the game, a new castle is created which is basically the first one upside-down, and that's where Drac is), and Dawn of Sorrow for the soul system - it barely one-ups Aria of Sorrow - which, if you have that in when you start a Dawn of Sorrow game, you get a bonus item. Wish I still had it, it's still worth playing.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Sunday, July 15, 2007
In sickness and in health
While we were on our Myrtle Beach vacation last month (see the last half dozen or so entries), Jen had on her left upper thigh (right below the rump) what she first thought was a pimple. Then as it grew, she decided it was a spider bite. She was OK with it and content to let it run its course until last Tuesday, when she tried to go to work. She got to the end of our driveway, and had to turn around and come right back home.
We didn't want to mess with Beaufort County Hospital - we've had a bad experience with them not seeing our nephew for over 3 hours despite him having a fever of over 103 and being at risk for seizures. So I called in 'sick' (told my boss I needed to take care of my wife), and we went instead to the Urgent Care in Washington on Jen's doctor's recommendation, where they told us the doctors weren't seeing anyone else that day (apparently they wanted to get their golf game on, y'know). So we drove to Greenville's Pitt County Memorial Hospital (henceforth PCMH) to the emergency room.
PCMH is usually pretty good. We trust them, and they're one of the most modern hospitals I've seen, rivalling the best in my hometown back in CA. Actually, I'm more impressed with PCMH than any other hospital I've been to (which isn't many). However, it took them about 6 hours to get to us - apparently there was a prison riot/fight, and you know prisoners get priority treatment (sounds wrong, but otherwise it's cruel and unusual punishment and therefore unconstitutional).
So they finally saw us close to midnight, and told us it was not a spider bite but instead an abscess - basically, a pimple/rash from Hell. They put her on an antibiotic IV, but the first nurse couldn't find a suitable vein on her right and more easily accessible arm. (Oddly enough this happens with me as well, but on my left.) So they called in an expert, a real cool lady who said all kinds of things, like that she could get a vein in the dark, stuff like that. Of course she gets it on her first try, and Jen became a pincushion.
That wasn't the worst of it, though. The prescribed treatment involved them cutting it out (the friendly hospital term is lancing). The first part was the worst, where she had to be stuck with this huge needle, a local anesthetic to numb it. She about broke my hand a couple times, but once she was numbed, it wasn't so bad when they went to the cutting, although she still felt pressure.
When they discharged her, they told her to see her regular doctor on Thursday. This was almost 4 in the morning! We stopped at a Walgreens and got her perscriptions (and these bomb-*** Whoppers made with coffee), and got home.
So she saw her doctor, who told her that PCMH hadn't done everything right, and someone would need to go in there and open more 'pockets' which hadn't fully drained. They couldn't find any free surgeons in Beaufort or Pitt counties (golf should be banned) but told us to go back to the ER at PCMH and have their on-call surgeon take care of it. And then this doctor changed her packing (her new hole was stuffed with gauze) and poked around inside without using any anesthetic, so she was in some pain. I only wish I was there, but when she had to leave, I had like 3-4 hours of sleep, so I was just out of it.
Thursday night, I'm at work, and I knew I'd have to take her in, but I thought I was going to drop her off. I had to work that night and couldn't really afford to take another night off. Well, Jen wanted someone there with her. So I agreed to go with her, and call out if I needed to. I didn't. We were in and out of there in like 2 hours. No prison riot, and basically a slow day for them. So it was cool. Anyway, they told her that it was in fact doing good, healing nicely - to cover their end they actually had a few people look at it. And we trust PCMH pretty much over the doctors in Beaufort County, in general (knock on wood, because I'm going to one tomorrow, but that's a story for later).
So far it's been doing good. Her sister changed it yesterday (I couldn't because of the kittens, but that too, is a story for later) but I changed it today with the help of a Sprite to settle my stomach. It wasn't too bad, but yesterday this hole was the size of your average adult nostril, maybe 1mm wider, a little deeper, and round. It's closing fast, though - today it was almond-shaped, and a little more shallow. But still - I had to remove a gauze bandage, and then a piece of tape holding the excess gauze down, and slowly pull the packing out. I rubbed the outer rim of the hole with hydrogen peroxide (every kid's favorite cut/scrape treatment), then carefully repacked it with more gauze, and put a new gauze bandage on it.
She can mostly sit on it, but it's a little sore. She's not feeling great, but she'll make it, and I'm there as always to take care of her the best I can. I vowed to be there for her in sickness as well as in health, and damn it, I meant it.
We didn't want to mess with Beaufort County Hospital - we've had a bad experience with them not seeing our nephew for over 3 hours despite him having a fever of over 103 and being at risk for seizures. So I called in 'sick' (told my boss I needed to take care of my wife), and we went instead to the Urgent Care in Washington on Jen's doctor's recommendation, where they told us the doctors weren't seeing anyone else that day (apparently they wanted to get their golf game on, y'know). So we drove to Greenville's Pitt County Memorial Hospital (henceforth PCMH) to the emergency room.
PCMH is usually pretty good. We trust them, and they're one of the most modern hospitals I've seen, rivalling the best in my hometown back in CA. Actually, I'm more impressed with PCMH than any other hospital I've been to (which isn't many). However, it took them about 6 hours to get to us - apparently there was a prison riot/fight, and you know prisoners get priority treatment (sounds wrong, but otherwise it's cruel and unusual punishment and therefore unconstitutional).
So they finally saw us close to midnight, and told us it was not a spider bite but instead an abscess - basically, a pimple/rash from Hell. They put her on an antibiotic IV, but the first nurse couldn't find a suitable vein on her right and more easily accessible arm. (Oddly enough this happens with me as well, but on my left.) So they called in an expert, a real cool lady who said all kinds of things, like that she could get a vein in the dark, stuff like that. Of course she gets it on her first try, and Jen became a pincushion.
That wasn't the worst of it, though. The prescribed treatment involved them cutting it out (the friendly hospital term is lancing). The first part was the worst, where she had to be stuck with this huge needle, a local anesthetic to numb it. She about broke my hand a couple times, but once she was numbed, it wasn't so bad when they went to the cutting, although she still felt pressure.
When they discharged her, they told her to see her regular doctor on Thursday. This was almost 4 in the morning! We stopped at a Walgreens and got her perscriptions (and these bomb-*** Whoppers made with coffee), and got home.
So she saw her doctor, who told her that PCMH hadn't done everything right, and someone would need to go in there and open more 'pockets' which hadn't fully drained. They couldn't find any free surgeons in Beaufort or Pitt counties (golf should be banned) but told us to go back to the ER at PCMH and have their on-call surgeon take care of it. And then this doctor changed her packing (her new hole was stuffed with gauze) and poked around inside without using any anesthetic, so she was in some pain. I only wish I was there, but when she had to leave, I had like 3-4 hours of sleep, so I was just out of it.
Thursday night, I'm at work, and I knew I'd have to take her in, but I thought I was going to drop her off. I had to work that night and couldn't really afford to take another night off. Well, Jen wanted someone there with her. So I agreed to go with her, and call out if I needed to. I didn't. We were in and out of there in like 2 hours. No prison riot, and basically a slow day for them. So it was cool. Anyway, they told her that it was in fact doing good, healing nicely - to cover their end they actually had a few people look at it. And we trust PCMH pretty much over the doctors in Beaufort County, in general (knock on wood, because I'm going to one tomorrow, but that's a story for later).
So far it's been doing good. Her sister changed it yesterday (I couldn't because of the kittens, but that too, is a story for later) but I changed it today with the help of a Sprite to settle my stomach. It wasn't too bad, but yesterday this hole was the size of your average adult nostril, maybe 1mm wider, a little deeper, and round. It's closing fast, though - today it was almond-shaped, and a little more shallow. But still - I had to remove a gauze bandage, and then a piece of tape holding the excess gauze down, and slowly pull the packing out. I rubbed the outer rim of the hole with hydrogen peroxide (every kid's favorite cut/scrape treatment), then carefully repacked it with more gauze, and put a new gauze bandage on it.
She can mostly sit on it, but it's a little sore. She's not feeling great, but she'll make it, and I'm there as always to take care of her the best I can. I vowed to be there for her in sickness as well as in health, and damn it, I meant it.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
First Anniversary Vacation, Day Three (Monday)
MORNING
Checkout time at the Quality Inn & Suites in Myrtle Beach was 11am, a fairly common time, but Jen and I aren't common sleepers by any measure. We'd stayed up at least to 2 or 3 Sunday night, and getting up at 10 just seemed too early. I was having a terrible dream which I won't describe, but it touched on the past and some deep fears, and unfortunately it was a precursor for things to come. No, Monday wasn't our best day by far.
It started out OK, with a shower and getting ready, but we forgot a pillow I'd brought (it was buried under the others, to be fair). I'll miss that pillow. Then we check out, get in the car and Jen realizes she's not wearing her engagement ring, on the right hand. She remembers putting it in the suitcase, checks that, and hears metal on glass or metal, figuring it fell. So she spent about 15 minutes looking for it. So far we have not found it. She was upset about that, but at least it wasn't the wedding band. The engagement ring didn't cost as much as some people spend on theirs, but it did set me back some. Oddly, I wasn't very concerned about it. We knew it wasn't on the ground, so we decided to look for it later.
We went to breakfast at Plantation Pancake House, which was better than Dino's, but to be fair, we didn't order the biscuits and gravy, just pancakes and sausage for me and an omelette for Jen, and grits for both of us. Almost done, Jen said she felt sick. Shortly after, I found myself nauseous, so I got up. I saw an exit door, and ran for it. I made it there, but it was locked - so I hurled. Nothing much came up, but I made a bit of a scene going for the bathroom. I wanted to make more of a scene for them having the door locked, but didn't. We paid and left, and I felt fine as we were going up the road.
Plantation Pancake House in Myrtle Beach, SC.
I think we planned to do the miniature golf today that we'd planned for yesterday, but I instead suggested this place called Barefoot Landing, a bunch of shops on a lake with a few bridges crossing the lake. Real nice place, and this is where the Myrtle Beach House of Blues is located, but we didn't make it that far. We got there, checked out a few shops - and then we just got hit by some real hard rain. We couldn't just get to the car, we had to navigate a course from cover to cover. On a side note, my mother's been looking for any kind of Jack Russel Terrier knickknacks to display as she owns two. The breed was only recently accepted as a pure breed by the AKC, so places that sell dog stuff rarely if ever cater to JRTs - they're considered a mutt, not so common, but one store there did have JRT stuff of all kinds. Unfortunately every single thing they had was 2-4 times what it was worth, and our money was running out, so Mom isn't getting anything from there. We did find a JRT head magnet at a magnet place, but don't tell her - it'll be a surprise.
Jen at Barefoot Landing in SC; shops along the lake.
View to the right of the previous lake/shop picture, and the huge fish everyone was looking at (3-4' long).
We then stopped at a gift shop I had noticed a couple times, but it was completely unimpressive on the inside. We left, and almost got hit by a drunk or otherwise distracted driver.
POISONED
Jen wanted a seafood lunch, but I just wasn't feeling like seafood, so I told her we needed to find a surf n' turf place, maybe somewhere that had burgers. She rejected my first few suggestions, and we settled on this place called Ocean Garden, a Chinese/Seafood place. Once we saw their selection, we should have left. Shoulda, coulda, woulda... Didn't. Nothing was real good. Even their chopsticks were splintery. All of the food had probably been sitting there all day. I tried a piece of shrimp - which I had tried before, elsewhere, with no problems - but spat it up because I just wasn't digging the taste, and it was hard to swallow. Next thing I know, my mouth started to tingle, followed by nausea and a sharp pain in my stomach. Allergic reaction or food poisoning. I asked one of the people who worked there if they cooked their stuff in peanut oil - which would be a problem. The man assured me they only use soybean oil. I didn't ask if they cooked with nuts, but I may have gotten some. I was throwing up in their bathroom for what Jen described as 20-30 minutes, although to me it felt like 10 at most. The employees were a little sympathetic, but were very glad to see us go.
I took a Benadryl pill - it does help - and Jen drove. The pain was still there and I couldn't really get much water down, so I sipped a bottle of water. Later, I opened a Sprite (lemon-lime soda is great for upset stomachs - 7-Up is the best but Sprite tastes better) and sipped that, too. Mostly I kept my eyes closed and rested my head on my free hand. I know Jen was worried, and I missed most of South Carolina. By the time we got to Wilmington, NC, I was doing a little better. By Jacksonville, I was fine - for the most part.
The sign says "Barstow, Calif, 2,554". There's a similar one in Barstow, CA that says "Wilmington, NC" and has a number of about the same. I'm proud to have seen them both - both ends of Interstate 40, that is.
Remember when I said Saturday we stopped at this one gas station, which had great coffee outta their machine? I had told Jen that on the way back I wanted to stop there. She pointed it out but didn't slow down. I told her a couple times to stop, but she ignored me, and then for the next half hour or so wouldn't even look at me. She later claimed she didn't hear me and denied ignoring me, so I guess it was just a misunderstanding. But damn, that was some good coffee.
This guy's lost! As you can see in the insert, he's from California, and the tag is current. I blanked out the number to protect our fellow motorist's privacy.
END OF THE LINE
Anyway, we stopped at a rest stop and got some good pictures. Jen's sister called and wanted us to pick up some beer and cigarettes. We got to her place (with the drugs, lol) just in time to watch Monday Night RAW, which was pretty unimpressive. But then, they're still reeling from the Benoit tragedy and can't use their "McMahon Murdered" storyline, so they're scrambling to come up with something.
And, that's the end of our vacation! It was over much sooner than I'd thought, but we both enjoyed it for the good parts.
Although that is the end of the story, I do intend to post more pictures, so stay tuned for that.
Checkout time at the Quality Inn & Suites in Myrtle Beach was 11am, a fairly common time, but Jen and I aren't common sleepers by any measure. We'd stayed up at least to 2 or 3 Sunday night, and getting up at 10 just seemed too early. I was having a terrible dream which I won't describe, but it touched on the past and some deep fears, and unfortunately it was a precursor for things to come. No, Monday wasn't our best day by far.
It started out OK, with a shower and getting ready, but we forgot a pillow I'd brought (it was buried under the others, to be fair). I'll miss that pillow. Then we check out, get in the car and Jen realizes she's not wearing her engagement ring, on the right hand. She remembers putting it in the suitcase, checks that, and hears metal on glass or metal, figuring it fell. So she spent about 15 minutes looking for it. So far we have not found it. She was upset about that, but at least it wasn't the wedding band. The engagement ring didn't cost as much as some people spend on theirs, but it did set me back some. Oddly, I wasn't very concerned about it. We knew it wasn't on the ground, so we decided to look for it later.
We went to breakfast at Plantation Pancake House, which was better than Dino's, but to be fair, we didn't order the biscuits and gravy, just pancakes and sausage for me and an omelette for Jen, and grits for both of us. Almost done, Jen said she felt sick. Shortly after, I found myself nauseous, so I got up. I saw an exit door, and ran for it. I made it there, but it was locked - so I hurled. Nothing much came up, but I made a bit of a scene going for the bathroom. I wanted to make more of a scene for them having the door locked, but didn't. We paid and left, and I felt fine as we were going up the road.
Plantation Pancake House in Myrtle Beach, SC.
I think we planned to do the miniature golf today that we'd planned for yesterday, but I instead suggested this place called Barefoot Landing, a bunch of shops on a lake with a few bridges crossing the lake. Real nice place, and this is where the Myrtle Beach House of Blues is located, but we didn't make it that far. We got there, checked out a few shops - and then we just got hit by some real hard rain. We couldn't just get to the car, we had to navigate a course from cover to cover. On a side note, my mother's been looking for any kind of Jack Russel Terrier knickknacks to display as she owns two. The breed was only recently accepted as a pure breed by the AKC, so places that sell dog stuff rarely if ever cater to JRTs - they're considered a mutt, not so common, but one store there did have JRT stuff of all kinds. Unfortunately every single thing they had was 2-4 times what it was worth, and our money was running out, so Mom isn't getting anything from there. We did find a JRT head magnet at a magnet place, but don't tell her - it'll be a surprise.
Jen at Barefoot Landing in SC; shops along the lake.
View to the right of the previous lake/shop picture, and the huge fish everyone was looking at (3-4' long).
We then stopped at a gift shop I had noticed a couple times, but it was completely unimpressive on the inside. We left, and almost got hit by a drunk or otherwise distracted driver.
POISONED
Jen wanted a seafood lunch, but I just wasn't feeling like seafood, so I told her we needed to find a surf n' turf place, maybe somewhere that had burgers. She rejected my first few suggestions, and we settled on this place called Ocean Garden, a Chinese/Seafood place. Once we saw their selection, we should have left. Shoulda, coulda, woulda... Didn't. Nothing was real good. Even their chopsticks were splintery. All of the food had probably been sitting there all day. I tried a piece of shrimp - which I had tried before, elsewhere, with no problems - but spat it up because I just wasn't digging the taste, and it was hard to swallow. Next thing I know, my mouth started to tingle, followed by nausea and a sharp pain in my stomach. Allergic reaction or food poisoning. I asked one of the people who worked there if they cooked their stuff in peanut oil - which would be a problem. The man assured me they only use soybean oil. I didn't ask if they cooked with nuts, but I may have gotten some. I was throwing up in their bathroom for what Jen described as 20-30 minutes, although to me it felt like 10 at most. The employees were a little sympathetic, but were very glad to see us go.
I took a Benadryl pill - it does help - and Jen drove. The pain was still there and I couldn't really get much water down, so I sipped a bottle of water. Later, I opened a Sprite (lemon-lime soda is great for upset stomachs - 7-Up is the best but Sprite tastes better) and sipped that, too. Mostly I kept my eyes closed and rested my head on my free hand. I know Jen was worried, and I missed most of South Carolina. By the time we got to Wilmington, NC, I was doing a little better. By Jacksonville, I was fine - for the most part.
The sign says "Barstow, Calif, 2,554". There's a similar one in Barstow, CA that says "Wilmington, NC" and has a number of about the same. I'm proud to have seen them both - both ends of Interstate 40, that is.
Remember when I said Saturday we stopped at this one gas station, which had great coffee outta their machine? I had told Jen that on the way back I wanted to stop there. She pointed it out but didn't slow down. I told her a couple times to stop, but she ignored me, and then for the next half hour or so wouldn't even look at me. She later claimed she didn't hear me and denied ignoring me, so I guess it was just a misunderstanding. But damn, that was some good coffee.
This guy's lost! As you can see in the insert, he's from California, and the tag is current. I blanked out the number to protect our fellow motorist's privacy.
END OF THE LINE
Anyway, we stopped at a rest stop and got some good pictures. Jen's sister called and wanted us to pick up some beer and cigarettes. We got to her place (with the drugs, lol) just in time to watch Monday Night RAW, which was pretty unimpressive. But then, they're still reeling from the Benoit tragedy and can't use their "McMahon Murdered" storyline, so they're scrambling to come up with something.
And, that's the end of our vacation! It was over much sooner than I'd thought, but we both enjoyed it for the good parts.
Although that is the end of the story, I do intend to post more pictures, so stay tuned for that.
First Anniversary Vacation, Day Two (Sunday)
BREAKFAST
We woke up around 11am on Sunday, the "big day" which we were considering the real anniversary celebration, albeit a day late. We had looked through the restaurant directory the night before and all I could get think of was "16 varieties of pancakes". I didn't even remember the name of the place. So I flipped through again, and found Dino's. Oddly enough, despite all those choices, I ended up with buttermilk pancakes I could have gotten anywhere. Mine came with sausage; Jen also got sausage but with a Belgian waffle, which had the place's logo cooked into it - you'd have to see the picture to believe it. We each got grits and we got a plate of biscuits and gravy to share. The pancakes were OK, the sausage and grits average, but the biscuits were a little below average, and the gravy must have been canned. After a couple bites neither of us touched it. Everything else we finished.
Dino's House of Pancakes, and their branded waffle. Click these and other images to see them fullsize.
MID-DAY
Dino's was pretty far from our hotel, but we knew the Planet Hollywood was farther yet, so we pressed on, to see what there was to see. We were surprised to come upon the Colonial Mall of Myrtle Beach, as we have a Colonial Mall in Greenville (NC). We had to check it out - and found it was much, much better. We looked at a couple novelty shops, didn't really find anything there. I found a shoe place, and found myself a nice pair of sandals. The problem with me buying shoes is that the right side of my body is slightly larger than my left side, so my right side needs a half to whole size larger shoe. Since I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to mix and match, I do it on the sly. So my left sandal is size 10 and my right one is size 11, but to look at my feet they both look like a good fit. (They had no half sizes.)
The Colonial Mall in Myrtle Beach.
From there, we headed back to the hotel. The idea was to change into shorts and go play miniature golf, but the rain had let up (it rained most of the trip) so plans changed, I was going to hit the weight room and Jen was going to go swimming. But I didn't want to split us up, so we compromised and settled for the hot tub. It was rather large and I did a bit of playing around in it. After about half an hour (the sign said a max time of 15 minutes) we moved on to the pool, where we were alone at first. Swimming was OK until we got some company. A middle aged couple and what at first appeared to be a good-looking girl, until we got a look at her face. Jen later estimated her age at 16-18, but I was thinking more like 14-16. I love swimming alone or with people I know. I don't like swimming with strangers. It was OK for a bit, but then we headed back to our room.
Me in nothing but shorts and a smile but covered in bubbles.
DINNER
At this point we decided we didn't have time for golf, so we cleaned ourselves up and headed out for dinner. Our destination was the Planet Hollywood in Myrtle Beach, a good ways away. We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe in Gatlinburg, TN, and Hard Rock and Planet Hollywood are supposed to be the coolest places to eat, and I wanted to try both. I made the mistake of thinking a destination like Planet Hollywood would be marked, that there would be signs, that there would be ads in the stuff we had at the hotel. None of that. It was pretty hard to find. We went farther than we should have, had to double back, but we found it eventually.
The outside of Planet Hollywood Myrtle Beach. You go up the covered stairs - then back down more stairs inside. They have a menu so you can decide before you go in. And that's me you can barely see.
The place looked nice from the inside and outside, I'll give them that. On the outside were hand prints from various celebrities - we saw Demi Moore, Charlton Heston, Paul Newman, Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, and Johnny Depp. Their hand prints, anyway. Inside, we were seated right away, but in a side room. My first thought was that it was the nonsmoking area, but I happened to notice that only families were in our area - the main area was reserved, it seemed, for hip, good-looking college kids. (Maybe they were doing photographs, I don't know.) No children or middle-aged folks in sight out there. The waitress did her job, but we kind of felt like the treatment was generic and they were hurrying to close. We got our drinks, but we weren't offered refills. The food was mediocre at best, and we weren't offered dessert. Maybe Planet Hollywood is good elsewhere, but not in Myrtle Beach. Still, I'm glad I experienced it. Someone's getting a shirt from there, but I can't say who because it's a surprise.
The left is me pointing at Rocky's (Sylvester Stallone's) prints; the right, John McClane's (Bruce Willis').
Jen looking up at the Terminator, from back when Arnold was the man.
When we left, Jen acted like she was mad at me, wouldn't talk to me - I thought I'd done something wrong, but I couldn't think of what. Turns out she was just really disappointed with dinner, and to 'thank' them for their 'great' service I spent $25 in their gift shop. Well, I didn't buy anything for us, but I can see where she was coming from. She doesn't hold grudges, and was fine by the time we got to the next place, which I won't post about, but it was a waste of time regardless. Then we stopped at a gift shop and blew about $50 in gifts. I got a laser pointer (always wanted one since my youngest brother got the first one I bought confiscated) but I think the rest was gifts. Oh yeah, we got ourselves Myrtle Beach license plates - the little ones - to go with the Tennessee ones we'd gotten a year before.
After we got back to the hotel, sleep followed shortly. The next day, I would get sick both places we ate in Myrtle Beach, get rained on, and ultimately have a real bad day.
TO BE CONTINUED...
We woke up around 11am on Sunday, the "big day" which we were considering the real anniversary celebration, albeit a day late. We had looked through the restaurant directory the night before and all I could get think of was "16 varieties of pancakes". I didn't even remember the name of the place. So I flipped through again, and found Dino's. Oddly enough, despite all those choices, I ended up with buttermilk pancakes I could have gotten anywhere. Mine came with sausage; Jen also got sausage but with a Belgian waffle, which had the place's logo cooked into it - you'd have to see the picture to believe it. We each got grits and we got a plate of biscuits and gravy to share. The pancakes were OK, the sausage and grits average, but the biscuits were a little below average, and the gravy must have been canned. After a couple bites neither of us touched it. Everything else we finished.
Dino's House of Pancakes, and their branded waffle. Click these and other images to see them fullsize.
MID-DAY
Dino's was pretty far from our hotel, but we knew the Planet Hollywood was farther yet, so we pressed on, to see what there was to see. We were surprised to come upon the Colonial Mall of Myrtle Beach, as we have a Colonial Mall in Greenville (NC). We had to check it out - and found it was much, much better. We looked at a couple novelty shops, didn't really find anything there. I found a shoe place, and found myself a nice pair of sandals. The problem with me buying shoes is that the right side of my body is slightly larger than my left side, so my right side needs a half to whole size larger shoe. Since I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to mix and match, I do it on the sly. So my left sandal is size 10 and my right one is size 11, but to look at my feet they both look like a good fit. (They had no half sizes.)
The Colonial Mall in Myrtle Beach.
From there, we headed back to the hotel. The idea was to change into shorts and go play miniature golf, but the rain had let up (it rained most of the trip) so plans changed, I was going to hit the weight room and Jen was going to go swimming. But I didn't want to split us up, so we compromised and settled for the hot tub. It was rather large and I did a bit of playing around in it. After about half an hour (the sign said a max time of 15 minutes) we moved on to the pool, where we were alone at first. Swimming was OK until we got some company. A middle aged couple and what at first appeared to be a good-looking girl, until we got a look at her face. Jen later estimated her age at 16-18, but I was thinking more like 14-16. I love swimming alone or with people I know. I don't like swimming with strangers. It was OK for a bit, but then we headed back to our room.
Me in nothing but shorts and a smile but covered in bubbles.
DINNER
At this point we decided we didn't have time for golf, so we cleaned ourselves up and headed out for dinner. Our destination was the Planet Hollywood in Myrtle Beach, a good ways away. We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe in Gatlinburg, TN, and Hard Rock and Planet Hollywood are supposed to be the coolest places to eat, and I wanted to try both. I made the mistake of thinking a destination like Planet Hollywood would be marked, that there would be signs, that there would be ads in the stuff we had at the hotel. None of that. It was pretty hard to find. We went farther than we should have, had to double back, but we found it eventually.
The outside of Planet Hollywood Myrtle Beach. You go up the covered stairs - then back down more stairs inside. They have a menu so you can decide before you go in. And that's me you can barely see.
The place looked nice from the inside and outside, I'll give them that. On the outside were hand prints from various celebrities - we saw Demi Moore, Charlton Heston, Paul Newman, Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, and Johnny Depp. Their hand prints, anyway. Inside, we were seated right away, but in a side room. My first thought was that it was the nonsmoking area, but I happened to notice that only families were in our area - the main area was reserved, it seemed, for hip, good-looking college kids. (Maybe they were doing photographs, I don't know.) No children or middle-aged folks in sight out there. The waitress did her job, but we kind of felt like the treatment was generic and they were hurrying to close. We got our drinks, but we weren't offered refills. The food was mediocre at best, and we weren't offered dessert. Maybe Planet Hollywood is good elsewhere, but not in Myrtle Beach. Still, I'm glad I experienced it. Someone's getting a shirt from there, but I can't say who because it's a surprise.
The left is me pointing at Rocky's (Sylvester Stallone's) prints; the right, John McClane's (Bruce Willis').
Jen looking up at the Terminator, from back when Arnold was the man.
When we left, Jen acted like she was mad at me, wouldn't talk to me - I thought I'd done something wrong, but I couldn't think of what. Turns out she was just really disappointed with dinner, and to 'thank' them for their 'great' service I spent $25 in their gift shop. Well, I didn't buy anything for us, but I can see where she was coming from. She doesn't hold grudges, and was fine by the time we got to the next place, which I won't post about, but it was a waste of time regardless. Then we stopped at a gift shop and blew about $50 in gifts. I got a laser pointer (always wanted one since my youngest brother got the first one I bought confiscated) but I think the rest was gifts. Oh yeah, we got ourselves Myrtle Beach license plates - the little ones - to go with the Tennessee ones we'd gotten a year before.
After we got back to the hotel, sleep followed shortly. The next day, I would get sick both places we ate in Myrtle Beach, get rained on, and ultimately have a real bad day.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
First Anniversary Vacation, Day One (Saturday)
DEPARTURE
We left North Carolina pretty much according to plan, which was between 3 and 4PM Saturday. Jen woke me up at 11:30AM, having already started the laundry at her sister's place. We got our stuff ready, headed over there, and each had a piece of the top tier of our wedding cake, which had been frozen for the past year. It wasn't bad, despite Jen not sealing it properly (we didn't know...). Every now and then a bite would be kinda sour, but mostly it was good. Not as good as it was a year ago, but at least the frosting was still the same, if memory serves. We stopped at Hardee's (Carl's Jr., on the west coast) and picked up six 99¢ spicy chicken sandwiches - four for me and 2 for Jen.
Jen cutting the cake - Click this or any image to view it full-size.
At about 3:55PM, we were out of Chocowinity, NC (first chicken sandwich down, Jen ate her first one too) and on our way down Highway 17, which oddly enough, we stuck to the whole time. In New Bern, NC (before which I had my second sandwich), a turn was badly marked and we found ourselves on 70 heading west. There was only one exit, and our mistake was not revealed to us until after that, when we saw the first indicator we were on 70. With no place to exit and get back on, we took an emergency path. If they're not in your area (e.g. you have a lot of exits every so often) it's a dirt path connecting the two highways (north and south, or east and west). They're intended for emergency vehicles and illegal for civilians to use, but what were we gonna do? Go 60-75 miles out of the way? I don't think so. And it's real funny, if you ever have to do this... the other drivers get all vigilant and do their best to prevent you from getting back on, I guess hoping a cop will come along and see what you're doing. I mean, they'll slow down, speed up, change lanes, whatever to give you the hardest time getting back on. Had the third sandwich.
After New Bern came Jacksonville, NC, which we passed through with no hassle. I wanted coffee, so we came upon a Shell/Scotchman station (the latter is the name of the mini-mart), scored some coffee - best I've had from a machine (I get the French Vanilla cappucino - tastes better and I think it has more caffeine). Shortly after but well before Wilmington, NC, I turned the wheel over to Jen. My foot had been bothering me since we left, but I was hoping it would go away. Nothing major, but my driving foot just didn't want to stay steady, so I handed it over to the wife, who incidentally did most of the driving the whole trip. After this, fourth one down. Jen never ate her second one - it got thrown away Monday!
As such, Jen took us into South Carolina and North Myrtle Beach. It is important to note that we did not actually stay in Myrtle Beach itself. North Myrtle Beach is a whole other place, just like South San Francisco. It's a cheap trick, but there you have it. NMB and MB, as I shall call them sometimes, are tourist traps, although not as much as Gatlinburg, TN, where we honeymooned.
ARRIVAL
We were both very tired, so when we found our hotel, the Quality Inn & Suites, we checked right in. Jen booked the rooms on Travelocity via Yahoo! Travel one night while I was at work, so I had no idea how things would work. It was very easy. I gave them my name and they gave us the keys. I didn't have to show the card used... I might have had to show my drivers' license - yeah, probably - but I don't remember that I even took out my wallet. Room keys in hand, Jen and I hauled our stuff up. What we could carry, anyway. A lot of it stayed in the car, but that was fine. Jen hit the bathroom, I crashed on the bed. When she came out, we both decided we were hungry, so we looked at the information packets.
Me unpacking my shorts in the hotel room
While Jen was looking at restaurants, I examined the room. In the Gideon bible (which I was just looking over for the heck of it) I saw the coolest sticker; this is what it said: "Warning: Literal belief in this book may endanger your health and life!" and referenced an organization called "Freethought Today", which upon searching for that on Google, turns out to be from the "Freedom From Religion Foundation", which supports the Constitutional separation of Church and State. I never thought I'd see a defaced bible (though such thoughts were in my head) but I do agree that the church and its ideas (not all of which are good) should be optional for the faithful, not mandatory for those who are more enlightened.
Sticker on the inside front cover of our room's Gideon bible
DINNER AND BEYOND
Of all the local and exotic restaurants, we settled on Applebees of all places, which had burned me once before with - you could call it false advertising or bait-and-switch. I knew they had good food, but the dishonest tactics of the Greenville, NC location and/or the chain's marketing department had turned me off. But we went, and though it was within walking distance of our room, we drove. The Walmart was about a mile down the road, and I like to walk off a meal whenever possible. Jen had a steak meal, and I had a chicken sandwich. I remember her steak came on an iron plate (still sizzling!) placed in a wooden plate, on something else, so it was a pretty impressive dish.
Jen at Applebees. Not eating but on the phone with her sister.
From there, we went to Walmart. Mostly just picked up some things, got some cash out (but I'm getting ahead of myself). I felt I had to ask about the alcohol laws in SC, and one guy told me they're available 24/7 (which turned out to be not entirely accurate, but we got what we came for anyway). We picked up some souveneirs as well. But when we went to check out, the line was halfway through the store. I noticed a cashier checking someone else out, and went over there, and was pretty much told that was the employee line, and that yes, only one line was open in the middle of the night. It took us about 20 minutes to get to the one cashier who was working, and she was pretty incompetent. It was almost funny how many of them were just standing around talking on the phone. We decided that Walmart sends its lowest-performing associates to the tourist trap towns as an alternative choice to termination.
We got back to the hotel late - close to 2am. We stayed up another hour or so, flipping channels on the TV. We watched a show on VH1 playing Web clips from YouTube and other sources, and I found out about something people were referencing on the Net but wouldn't explain when asked. This guy gets all emotional at a Q&A with WWE wrestlers, and all of a sudden blurts out "It's still real to me, dammit!". I about fell over, and I've been quoting him all weekend.
I think it was about 4am when we finally turned off the TV and closer to 5 when we got to sleep. Although Saturday the 7th of July 2007 was our actual anniversary, the actual celebration wasn't until the next day, when we visited Myrtle Beach Planet Hollywood.
TO BE CONTINUED...
We left North Carolina pretty much according to plan, which was between 3 and 4PM Saturday. Jen woke me up at 11:30AM, having already started the laundry at her sister's place. We got our stuff ready, headed over there, and each had a piece of the top tier of our wedding cake, which had been frozen for the past year. It wasn't bad, despite Jen not sealing it properly (we didn't know...). Every now and then a bite would be kinda sour, but mostly it was good. Not as good as it was a year ago, but at least the frosting was still the same, if memory serves. We stopped at Hardee's (Carl's Jr., on the west coast) and picked up six 99¢ spicy chicken sandwiches - four for me and 2 for Jen.
Jen cutting the cake - Click this or any image to view it full-size.
At about 3:55PM, we were out of Chocowinity, NC (first chicken sandwich down, Jen ate her first one too) and on our way down Highway 17, which oddly enough, we stuck to the whole time. In New Bern, NC (before which I had my second sandwich), a turn was badly marked and we found ourselves on 70 heading west. There was only one exit, and our mistake was not revealed to us until after that, when we saw the first indicator we were on 70. With no place to exit and get back on, we took an emergency path. If they're not in your area (e.g. you have a lot of exits every so often) it's a dirt path connecting the two highways (north and south, or east and west). They're intended for emergency vehicles and illegal for civilians to use, but what were we gonna do? Go 60-75 miles out of the way? I don't think so. And it's real funny, if you ever have to do this... the other drivers get all vigilant and do their best to prevent you from getting back on, I guess hoping a cop will come along and see what you're doing. I mean, they'll slow down, speed up, change lanes, whatever to give you the hardest time getting back on. Had the third sandwich.
After New Bern came Jacksonville, NC, which we passed through with no hassle. I wanted coffee, so we came upon a Shell/Scotchman station (the latter is the name of the mini-mart), scored some coffee - best I've had from a machine (I get the French Vanilla cappucino - tastes better and I think it has more caffeine). Shortly after but well before Wilmington, NC, I turned the wheel over to Jen. My foot had been bothering me since we left, but I was hoping it would go away. Nothing major, but my driving foot just didn't want to stay steady, so I handed it over to the wife, who incidentally did most of the driving the whole trip. After this, fourth one down. Jen never ate her second one - it got thrown away Monday!
As such, Jen took us into South Carolina and North Myrtle Beach. It is important to note that we did not actually stay in Myrtle Beach itself. North Myrtle Beach is a whole other place, just like South San Francisco. It's a cheap trick, but there you have it. NMB and MB, as I shall call them sometimes, are tourist traps, although not as much as Gatlinburg, TN, where we honeymooned.
ARRIVAL
We were both very tired, so when we found our hotel, the Quality Inn & Suites, we checked right in. Jen booked the rooms on Travelocity via Yahoo! Travel one night while I was at work, so I had no idea how things would work. It was very easy. I gave them my name and they gave us the keys. I didn't have to show the card used... I might have had to show my drivers' license - yeah, probably - but I don't remember that I even took out my wallet. Room keys in hand, Jen and I hauled our stuff up. What we could carry, anyway. A lot of it stayed in the car, but that was fine. Jen hit the bathroom, I crashed on the bed. When she came out, we both decided we were hungry, so we looked at the information packets.
Me unpacking my shorts in the hotel room
While Jen was looking at restaurants, I examined the room. In the Gideon bible (which I was just looking over for the heck of it) I saw the coolest sticker; this is what it said: "Warning: Literal belief in this book may endanger your health and life!" and referenced an organization called "Freethought Today", which upon searching for that on Google, turns out to be from the "Freedom From Religion Foundation", which supports the Constitutional separation of Church and State. I never thought I'd see a defaced bible (though such thoughts were in my head) but I do agree that the church and its ideas (not all of which are good) should be optional for the faithful, not mandatory for those who are more enlightened.
Sticker on the inside front cover of our room's Gideon bible
DINNER AND BEYOND
Of all the local and exotic restaurants, we settled on Applebees of all places, which had burned me once before with - you could call it false advertising or bait-and-switch. I knew they had good food, but the dishonest tactics of the Greenville, NC location and/or the chain's marketing department had turned me off. But we went, and though it was within walking distance of our room, we drove. The Walmart was about a mile down the road, and I like to walk off a meal whenever possible. Jen had a steak meal, and I had a chicken sandwich. I remember her steak came on an iron plate (still sizzling!) placed in a wooden plate, on something else, so it was a pretty impressive dish.
Jen at Applebees. Not eating but on the phone with her sister.
From there, we went to Walmart. Mostly just picked up some things, got some cash out (but I'm getting ahead of myself). I felt I had to ask about the alcohol laws in SC, and one guy told me they're available 24/7 (which turned out to be not entirely accurate, but we got what we came for anyway). We picked up some souveneirs as well. But when we went to check out, the line was halfway through the store. I noticed a cashier checking someone else out, and went over there, and was pretty much told that was the employee line, and that yes, only one line was open in the middle of the night. It took us about 20 minutes to get to the one cashier who was working, and she was pretty incompetent. It was almost funny how many of them were just standing around talking on the phone. We decided that Walmart sends its lowest-performing associates to the tourist trap towns as an alternative choice to termination.
We got back to the hotel late - close to 2am. We stayed up another hour or so, flipping channels on the TV. We watched a show on VH1 playing Web clips from YouTube and other sources, and I found out about something people were referencing on the Net but wouldn't explain when asked. This guy gets all emotional at a Q&A with WWE wrestlers, and all of a sudden blurts out "It's still real to me, dammit!". I about fell over, and I've been quoting him all weekend.
I think it was about 4am when we finally turned off the TV and closer to 5 when we got to sleep. Although Saturday the 7th of July 2007 was our actual anniversary, the actual celebration wasn't until the next day, when we visited Myrtle Beach Planet Hollywood.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Saturday, July 7, 2007
First Anniversary: Married One Year
It's been a long year but now I can say that I have been married to the woman I love for one whole year. We're leaving for Myrtle Beach, SC, where we plan to eat at Planet Hollywood tomorrow night (technically, a day late, but the honeymoon was "late" too) and... Well we have no other plans, but we'll find something, I'm sure.
I'm a little inspired by the pro wrestling world, where they have a theme for every event. The theme for our wedding and relationship was Nickelback's "Far Away" which we interpreted to being a whole country apart, coming together and staying together. The theme for our first anniversary is Rascal Flatt's "Bless the Broken Road" which is about, as I've said before, how each of our previous mistakes and relationships, such as they were, led us to where we are now. When one is happy, one must look upon past negative experiences as positive, because if they didn't happen, one might not be the person one is today - and might not be as happy now.
In late June of 2004, my aunt got married in our (my mom's) backyard. They are not still together, but my stepmother wrote a poem of sorts for the then-happy couple. On my own first anniversary, I quote it here.
Some may quote superstition that such a poem written for a marriage which did not last might taint or curse another couple who adopt it, but I am no more prone to superstition than I am to religion. I take responsibility for my actions; if anything goes wrong in my marriage, it won't be because of bad luck, necessarily.
I am not sure I have the entire poem. Mary read it aloud, and I was recording with my digital camera. I don't have a hard copy of the poem. Nonetheless, here is what I have:
Of course, I've blanked out the names. It wasn't written for us and I didn't want to just insert our names into it because it would be convenient.
Couple of notes: At the end of the "Marriage is..." paragraph, the groom tossed in "And knowing I have someone to cook for me!". After the "When times are hard" line, someone shouts "Money!" and the groom fires back with "Insurance policy!". It's a funny video overall, but the message is there and I feel that it applies to us in most ways.
Thanks again Mary. Much love and respect.
And, with this blog, we leave for our first anniversary celebration in South Carolina. Our phones will be on - if we'd want you to call, you probably have our numbers or can get them from someone you know. (If you only have one, you add one to the last digit of mine to call Jen's, or subtract one from the last digit of Jen's to call me.) And even if you do call, it's no guarantee we'll answer, depending on what's going on - but leave a message, we will return calls at the very least. The blog won't be updated, of course, either.
Ta ta for now...
I'm a little inspired by the pro wrestling world, where they have a theme for every event. The theme for our wedding and relationship was Nickelback's "Far Away" which we interpreted to being a whole country apart, coming together and staying together. The theme for our first anniversary is Rascal Flatt's "Bless the Broken Road" which is about, as I've said before, how each of our previous mistakes and relationships, such as they were, led us to where we are now. When one is happy, one must look upon past negative experiences as positive, because if they didn't happen, one might not be the person one is today - and might not be as happy now.
In late June of 2004, my aunt got married in our (my mom's) backyard. They are not still together, but my stepmother wrote a poem of sorts for the then-happy couple. On my own first anniversary, I quote it here.
Some may quote superstition that such a poem written for a marriage which did not last might taint or curse another couple who adopt it, but I am no more prone to superstition than I am to religion. I take responsibility for my actions; if anything goes wrong in my marriage, it won't be because of bad luck, necessarily.
I am not sure I have the entire poem. Mary read it aloud, and I was recording with my digital camera. I don't have a hard copy of the poem. Nonetheless, here is what I have:
Marriage is taking the good with the bad
It's doing something you may not want to do
It's doing everything because you want to
Marriage is sharing all that you have with the one that you love
It's waking up each morning knowing you have someone to count on,
to love, and to spend the rest of your life with.
_____ and _____, we wish you the best
We pray for you both
That you have long life, good health, and true happiness
_____, we welcome you to our family.
One word of wisdom: Love
Love each other; when you are mad, remember love
When you don't get your way... Love
When times are hard, remember the love
Life goes by so fast, and when we're all at the end of the trail
Love is what you should remember
I love you both, congratulations _____ and _____.
Of course, I've blanked out the names. It wasn't written for us and I didn't want to just insert our names into it because it would be convenient.
Couple of notes: At the end of the "Marriage is..." paragraph, the groom tossed in "And knowing I have someone to cook for me!". After the "When times are hard" line, someone shouts "Money!" and the groom fires back with "Insurance policy!". It's a funny video overall, but the message is there and I feel that it applies to us in most ways.
Thanks again Mary. Much love and respect.
And, with this blog, we leave for our first anniversary celebration in South Carolina. Our phones will be on - if we'd want you to call, you probably have our numbers or can get them from someone you know. (If you only have one, you add one to the last digit of mine to call Jen's, or subtract one from the last digit of Jen's to call me.) And even if you do call, it's no guarantee we'll answer, depending on what's going on - but leave a message, we will return calls at the very least. The blog won't be updated, of course, either.
Ta ta for now...
Our wedding in review, Chapter Three
For the third and final (?) chapter of our wedding in review, here are the pics we posted of the honeymoon, from places we'd stopped.
On our honeymoon, Jen and I stopped at a muscle car museum outside of Knoxville, TN. We looked at all the great cars from the 1960s, 1970s, and both before and after. But the one which really stood out, was of course the 1969 Ford/Shelby Mustang GT-500.And, well, that wraps up our wedding in review. Today we leave for our first anniversary celebration, to take more pictures.
Here's my wife, Jen, with the car...
...and me with it:
Here are some more pics from the honeymoon I'd like to share.
Being on Dialup, I can't share them all, and not all at once, but I found that if I resized, cropped, toned up an image, then hosted it - and while it was uploading, worked on the next image (to get it down to dialup size), by the time I was done with that, the first image would be uploaded. So... I give you, some of the rock memorobilia (and related stuff) from our honeymoon.
As you know, every Hard Rock Cafe has authentic memorobilia from bands of all kinds. Pop, Rock, Rap - they've got it all. I snapped pics of a few that caught my eye.
Here's one for the VAN HALEN fans out there. One of Eddie Van Halen's own guitars. In the flesh. Or the plastic, or the fiberglass - or whatever.
I doubt many of you have heard of Al Jourgensen from MINISTRY. They're a weird metal band from the early 90s. I only know their "Psalm 69" album. Anyway, here's one of Al's guitars.
But I'm sure most of you know GUNS N ROSES - only one of the most controversial bands (at least frontmen) of all time. The guitar is Duff McKagan's, from his other band, Neurotic Outsiders. (I've heard of them before - I was a big Gn'F'nR fan back in the 90s.) And a couple GnR posters, and their multi-platinum discs.
After we left the Hard Rock Cafe, we saw this shop on the way back to the car. I had to get a picture of this interesting coincidence, being a KoRn fan.
And this elevates things to a new level of wrongness. You all know Shakira, I hope. At least the males among you. Colombian belly dancer whose hips don't lie... Oh yeah. But how wrong is this?
Enjoy!
PS - And to top it all off, here's a video of two or three Hard Rock Cafe waiters dancing to Madonna's "Vogue". The source video was kind of dark (it was a still digital camera in video mode) and I've been told that YouTube further degrades videos... so with that in mind, here's the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAvMamzb0iw
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)