(Native) American Graffiti - A West Texas MMP

[Taters]

We had a great time down in Oregon. It was hot as blazes and often windy, but all the same it was fun.

Our friend and his family created a wonderful 50th anniversary party for his parents. It was hawaiian themed and everybody dressed the part. The food was awesome and we met new people who were extremely nice.

Our first day there, cousins of our friend, had us come up to their place where we chatted and took a dip in their pool. Later, we went to a local bar to hear some live music. The hosts knew the band members. We actually heard two bands, and they were great. We left about 12:30 in the morning.

We got up several hours later, cleaned up, headed into the downtown area of The Dalles, and picked up our contributions for the party.

We headed to the party at the yacht club from there and spent several hours chatting with people and watching our friends’ presentations to their parents. They had a hawaiian prayer, a couple of hula dances, and then had a great presentation via proxima/computer showing the parents as children and moving up in time to present day. It was set to music and they had nice captions on the pictures.

Anyway, we left there and headed back to the hotel to cool down because there wasn’t any air conditioning in yacht club. We lazed around the hotel room watching TV and eventually fell asleep.

We got up this morning, cleaned up, grabbed some coffee, checked out of the hotel room and drove home. We were just past Hoodsport, OR when it started misting. By the time we hit Portland, it was raining.

When he hit Chehalis, WA it was raining hard and there was thunder and lightning. It’s sort of cloudy here in Puyallup, but it hasn’t rained since we’ve been home.

I need to get our bags out of the car and start cleaning up around the house now.

[Alastair_Moonsong]

@anyrose

Well, I supposed it depends what other, if any, conventions are concurrent - for example, Mensans, WorldCon (SF fans), and State Association of Psychologists all in the same hotel. We were mostly in jeans and t-shirts, the SF fans in assorted costumes, and the psychologists were the ones following the two groups around, scribbling notes, and muttering about book deals.

I would SO take a vacation to that hotel. Even if I’m too thick for Mensa and fresh out of Red Shirt costumes, it’d be a blast to just hang out in the hallways and strike up conversations with passers by. And I bet the psychologists could be cool to talk to as well!

@anyrose

As for the detainee, I’d heard it was because she, um, “used” in public the object she carried around with her (namely a litter box). Were there more than one detainee?

I have heard nothing about that, either while at the con, or while talking with friends who were there, or on various furry message boards. I’m going to call “rumor” on that one, but I can’t say for certain.

ETA: Yay, we made it to Page 5!

[gardentraveler]

@Mahna_Mahna

…gt, I can think of a few options. To start, there are several US-based companies with Canadian outlets… Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, Williams-Sonoma and Walmart all have stores in the Frozen North.

The only catch is that sometimes the US gift cards won’t work in Canada, for some strange reason. Best to ask before you buy.

If you don’t mind buying online or over the phone, additional options would be Canadian Tire or HBC (which owns The Bay and Zellers). Both companies have plenty of locations in the Vancouver area, and sell just about anything a young couple would need to set up house at reasonable prices.

Thanks! I was thinking of something that I could get online so that I’d be sure that they could use it in Canada. Worst case brother and I will talk to them at the wedding and e-mail them their present afterward. (The biggest part of our present is actually getting the lot of us there.)

I’m making progress. I’ve got all my laundry sorted, plastic bags put together to take to the grocery, and I’ve started shredding stuff. Yay!

Back later.

GT

[VunderBob]

Dinner delivered to the neighbors. They were muy tickled.

[Taters]

I posted a few pics of the shindig down in Oregon. Try hard not to laugh at me. I am not photogenic.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/album.php?aid=2028024&id=1404049232&ref=mf

[tarragon918]

BBBBBobbio, you are so sweet to your neighbors that I’d almost want to be one of them. Almost. (Because I know what that area is like down there … I have relatives who live there LOL) But seriously tres good on you for that!

Just had a steak sammich for dinner and boy was it good! Made at home, so with all the stuff I like. Ha, including stuff I shouldn’t have!

What a nice celebration, Taters! And yay to GT being a Whiskeypalian for a day! LOL Congrats on your niece, though, and the nephew too, even though they lost–he did have a near HR, right?

Well, my duty is to try to squeeze the most enjoyment out of the remaining weekend. So here goes.

[Sticks_and_Scones]

I’m taking a break from menu planning. No, I haven’t been working on it all this time. Yes, I did eat pizza while working on it. So there, swampy.

[swampbear]

CutiePie what you need to do is deliver the Weight Watchers menu while munchin’ down on some pizza.

I’ve been a lazy bear. I’ve been at the pool and just chillin’. I did water the crop so I can count that as productive.

BBBobbio you win the good neighbor award for the week.

gt how was it bein’ an honorary Whiskypalian? Yay on the niece for bein’ an acolyte. One of the good things is that we do let girls be acolytes.

One of the top ten reasons to be an Episcopalian is…

Male and Female created he them. Male and Female we ordain them.

Oh and the Church is meeting in General Convention in San Diego right now. Just in case anybody was wonderin’ when GC is. Now your mind can be at ease.

[Alastair_Moonsong]

Homework is done. I’m not entirely confident that it’s right, but it’s done. Oh, and I found out today that my Thermo final and end of class is this week, not next week… Specifically, Wednesday. That was a bit of a shock - everything I had planned between now and the start of school just got moved forward by a week.

Room will be cleaned later. Homework has sucked up all of my care for today.

Dinner was Chicken and Broccoli Stir-Fry in Thai Peanut Sauce. Served over rice. One of my favorite cheap dinners, but I’m not real hungry tonight. Stoopit Adderol.

[Mahna_Mahna]

My brain hurts.

Of course, watching six episodes of Lost back-to-back will do that.

Burritos were awesome, and received the thumbs-up from both The Boy and Crafty Friend. If anyone’s interested, I’ll try to post the recipe sometime tomorrow, as my brain is mush and I’d probably miss something important if I tried to do it right now.

Looks like everyone had a great time, Taters. Also, if those photos are meant to be proof of how unphotogenic you are, then you have failed miserably.

So does anyone want to do my laundry for me? I was supposed to do it today, but I got lazy and procrastinated… and now it’s much too late to do a load.

[gardentraveler]

It was…well…very Whiskypalian, swampy. I’ve been to lots and lots of services (my brother and ex-SIL were married in the Episcopal Church - although the pastor from our RC parish participated - and I’ve gone to church with them quite a bit over the years). The services are very similar to the RC mass, but the little differences still surprise me.

And, yeah, one of my biggest unhappinesses with the RC church is the refusal to ordain women. Also, I knew that the General Convention was happening…cuz we prayed for it this morning. So, there!

Cute pictures, Taters.

Today’s unpleasant surprise: our flights to and from Mexico have totally changed. Apparently United has chopped a bunch of flights to and from Mexico. Good thing we checked ahead of time. The most disconcerting part was that our flight from Mexico back to the States completely disappeared. My brother is going to try to fix all of our flights tomorrow. He’s logged umpty-bazillion miles in the past year and is hoping that counts for something. Everyone cross their fingers, please.

Gotta get to bed.

See everyone in the next MMP.

GT

[Catamount]

Work is kickin’ my behind. My introversion is being severely tested and I won’t be working with the cute guy until Friday. On the bright side, I think the cute guy was hitting on me last night.