Why Do You Ask?
Since I had this conversation in passing with someone again this morning, it reminded me that I've meant to write about it for a while.
Them: How's it going?
Me: Hi.
Them: Good!
When it's someone I don't really know, I can tell that they don't mean it when they ask how I'm doing or how things are going, so I respond with what they mean, just a simple hello, not with what they say. Their response to what they expected my response to be further reinforces that they don't care because they clearly weren't listening. Why would you ask me a question you don't want the answer to or don't care about the answer to? I won't do that to you. If I don't really care how your day is going, I'll just give you a polite 'hi' and leave it at that. Conversely, if I ask how your day is going, I want an honest answer, not just your stock response of "OK" when you're dying on the inside or overjoyed. Why do people feel the need to cheapen everything including language? I wonder if it registers as odd to the other person like it does to me the conversation we had. I guess I don't really care, which kind of works out because they don't either.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
It's Like A Great Big Mystery
So it's been about a week since Teri announced to me that she has some blog post in mind that she's going to write, yet it still hasn't appeared. Does she still not know how curious (and impatient) I am? She does realize that the wait is only raising my expectations of what she's going to write, right? Meanwhile, her blog goes empty, unread and unloved. :(
Telling me that there's something on the way only makes me anticipate it more, which raises my expectations for that thing, which may further delay her writing to make sure it meets the expectations, which causes further delay, which further raises expectations, which...well you see where this vicious circle is going. How about this as a new strategy? You don't tell me that you have something in mind to write. You just write it and let me read it when it's up. I've been checking every day anyway on the off chance there will be something new (even before you told me to expect something). I like reading what she writes. I like knowing what she's thinking. I'm like a sponge for all things Teri, so why is her blog so dry? I prefer to keep things moist.
So it's been about a week since Teri announced to me that she has some blog post in mind that she's going to write, yet it still hasn't appeared. Does she still not know how curious (and impatient) I am? She does realize that the wait is only raising my expectations of what she's going to write, right? Meanwhile, her blog goes empty, unread and unloved. :(
Telling me that there's something on the way only makes me anticipate it more, which raises my expectations for that thing, which may further delay her writing to make sure it meets the expectations, which causes further delay, which further raises expectations, which...well you see where this vicious circle is going. How about this as a new strategy? You don't tell me that you have something in mind to write. You just write it and let me read it when it's up. I've been checking every day anyway on the off chance there will be something new (even before you told me to expect something). I like reading what she writes. I like knowing what she's thinking. I'm like a sponge for all things Teri, so why is her blog so dry? I prefer to keep things moist.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
I Feel Bad For Michelle Obama
With Barack Obama's foreign policy views vis-a-vis Iraq, I can't help but believe that his line of thinking might extend to other areas of his life. That seems like a less than ideal situation if you're his wife. Everyone knows that Obama wants to set a timetable to pull out from Iraq whether the job is actually finished or not. What if he has the same approach in the bedroom? When else does he pull out early before the job is done? How unsatisfied is Michelle Obama? If a man can't even keep his wife happy, how is he supposed to make the American people happy? Sure, we've all seen him bump her fist in public, but what parts of her aren't getting bumped long enough in private? Come to think of it, his fist bumping is pretty brief too. Perhaps there's a pattern here...
With Barack Obama's foreign policy views vis-a-vis Iraq, I can't help but believe that his line of thinking might extend to other areas of his life. That seems like a less than ideal situation if you're his wife. Everyone knows that Obama wants to set a timetable to pull out from Iraq whether the job is actually finished or not. What if he has the same approach in the bedroom? When else does he pull out early before the job is done? How unsatisfied is Michelle Obama? If a man can't even keep his wife happy, how is he supposed to make the American people happy? Sure, we've all seen him bump her fist in public, but what parts of her aren't getting bumped long enough in private? Come to think of it, his fist bumping is pretty brief too. Perhaps there's a pattern here...
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Finally
After a nearly week-long stretch of ridiculous heat, the cold front finally got here today. It really makes me look forward to the Fall, which is the best season of the year anyway. Is it a coincidence that the weather is giving a bit of a Fall preview on the same day that the Bears report to training camp? Hmmm. Speaking of which, I'm looking forward to the football season again this year as always, but my excitement is lower than last year at this time. That's largely because of how much of a failure last season was, thus lowering my expectations for this season, but it's also because I will have other things to hold my attention this Fall. Not that I haven't had other things in the past. It's not like I'm some sort of deranged buckeye fan or something. I just have even more good non-football things to hold my attention. I'm also not opposed to time going by quickly for the next 9-10 months either.
After a nearly week-long stretch of ridiculous heat, the cold front finally got here today. It really makes me look forward to the Fall, which is the best season of the year anyway. Is it a coincidence that the weather is giving a bit of a Fall preview on the same day that the Bears report to training camp? Hmmm. Speaking of which, I'm looking forward to the football season again this year as always, but my excitement is lower than last year at this time. That's largely because of how much of a failure last season was, thus lowering my expectations for this season, but it's also because I will have other things to hold my attention this Fall. Not that I haven't had other things in the past. It's not like I'm some sort of deranged buckeye fan or something. I just have even more good non-football things to hold my attention. I'm also not opposed to time going by quickly for the next 9-10 months either.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Hot Fun In The Summertime
A little over 3 months after Teri and I started dating, she finally got to meet some of my family. I guess that's how it works when they all live 400 miles from here. My parents came to visit last weekend, and as I expected, they really liked her. I knew she'd be nervous meeting them, even though I knew she didn't need to be. After all, I was nervous when I met her family. Granted, we had only been dating 3 weeks at the time, but still, it's just a nervous thing to be doing. I should also note that starting last Monday I had a summer head cold, and I'm still getting over the last little bit of it. I mention this because I was worried all last week about how well I'd be on Friday when Mom and Dad arrived. Thankfully, I felt fairly decent.
Mom and Dad arrived a little before 5 pm on Friday, and Teri arrived at Team Hudson Headquarters (THHQ) between 5:30 and 6. I don't remember exact times because that was a few days ago and, well, because I'm Matt. We went to P.F. Chang's for dinner, and the food was teh awesome! We all got water to drink, and as is the case in any decent establishment, there was lemon in the water. One nice touch is that there was also a little orange plastic sword stuck in the lemon wedge. Teri had a great deal of fun stabbing me in the arm with her sword. She and I were going to have a mini sword fight, but the waitress took all but one of the swords off the table. Boo waitress!! After dinner, we walked around Easton and just looked around. I was surprised that Teri was able to walk past a Victoria's Secret that had some sort of sale going on without ever walking in. Perhaps it had something to do with my parents being there. The world may never know the exact reason. It will be a mystery much like the Loch Ness monster. Later in the evening, we retired to the hacienda where Teri took the opportunity to look at the pictures of me when I was a kid that my parents had brought. This was a period of big fun for her. Great big fun for her. She's been looking forward to that for a couple months now, which is understandble because she is a self-described picture whore. I also noticed that I was good at winding up in pictures with a cheesy grin or just a generally ornery look on my face from a very early age. I guess I'm pretty advanced like that.
Saturday morning Teri took her long run to continue preparing for the marathon, and my parents and I ran some errands, some of which involved procuring the supplies for dessert that evening and for lunch on Sunday. We then picked up Teri when she was ready and headed to Chick-fil-A for lunch. Since it is right next to the Caribou coffee that Teri and I met at, we headed over there for some delicious coffee beverages and sat outside to enjoy them. There was even a re-enactment of my handshake and her hug attempt. Teri was having great fun with that as well. We then swung back to THHQ to pick up the supplies for the evening dinner with Teri's parents and headed over to Team Kautz Headquarters (TKHQ) so we could all finally meet Liea. She's way cute and still looks to be in good shape, so it's clear to me that Darren isn't treating her like a corkscrew. Really Darren, how did you get that corkscrew to jump a few teeth like that? I'm still baffled by it.
When it was time, we went from TKHQ to Teri's parents place, stopping at Teri's apartment to pick up Sparky on the way. Saturday evening having dinner and hanging out with Teri and all of the parents was the highlight of the weekend. When I've spent time with Teri and her parents before, it's felt like I'm hanging out with her and her family. This was different though. It felt like we were three couples hanging out and, more than that, like it was just our family hanging out. Our parents seemed to really hit it off and to really like each other, so it's nice to not have to worry about that. Honestly, that's the only thing I had any worries about for the weekend (other than my aforementioned illness). I need worry no more. Also, I realized on Saturday night that a delicious application for the brownies from Melissa's grandma's recipe is for brownie sundaes. I don't know if Jarrod and Melissa have ever utilized them for that or not, but they've been cheating themselves if they haven't. If you don't think that a brownie topped with vanilla ice cream topped with hot fudge isn't a tasty treat, then you are completely retarded...or Celine Dion...or both. Here's a pic from the brownie sundae construction period.
Sunday morning Teri met us at THHQ, and off to church we went. We actually got there on time and were able to get four seats together that weren't even in the front row. Afterwards, it was back to THHQ where Teri and I fixed lunch. Despite a brief detour from the recipe, everything turned out just fine and I even have delicous leftovers. Of course, we then had to use some of the leftover brownie sundae supplies to have brownie sundaes for lunch dessert because the only thing better than deliciousness is more deliciousness (okay, so Teri is even more better than more deliciousness). Here's pictorial proof that the cooking did in fact happen.
It wasn't long after that that my parents headed out for their trek back to the HC and Teri and I went to her place so Sparky could be let out to do his bidness before we went to see The Dark Knight. If you haven't seen it yet, you are cheating yourself. Not only is it a good superhero movie, but it is just a good movie in general. Whether he wins or not, Heath Ledger should at least get some Oscar consideration. Since I had found out just last Thursday that Sonic does indeed serve their breakfast food all day, we had to stop there for dinner. I then proceeded to get a delicious breakfast sandwich. As Sonic is a drive-in, we headed back to Teri's where we dined on her veranda. The food was delicious, and my dinner companion was gorgeous as always. We then spent the rest of the evening enjoying each other's company and trying not to think about how the weekend was already over, yet again, and we'd have to get through another work week. One of these days we're just going to have to get married so we can skip all the being apart during the week crap. I can already do without that.
I don't quite remember when, but at some point over the weekend, Mom and Dad also found out what Teri's last name is. I thought I mentioned it to them, but I guess they never asked, and giving out such information tends to slip my mind so I wasn't shocked that I hadn't told them. I guess it probably didn't seem terribly important to me either since it won't be staying that way much longer anyhow.
With how well things went this weekend and how much my parents like Teri, I'm looking forward to Labor Day weekend even more now so she can meet the rest of the family. I know Lucy's looking forward to it too since she's already said she wants to play with Teri (though she'll have to come to C-bus to visit Sparkley). I think they'll get along quite well. The only thing about Labor Day weekend is that I won't be able to joke with Teri about proposing to her anymore because after she meets my family I'm allowed to propose for real. If there's a chance it's real, I won't joke with her about that. That clock is already ticking though, and it's the best clock ever...even better than Flavor Flav's neck clocks.
A little over 3 months after Teri and I started dating, she finally got to meet some of my family. I guess that's how it works when they all live 400 miles from here. My parents came to visit last weekend, and as I expected, they really liked her. I knew she'd be nervous meeting them, even though I knew she didn't need to be. After all, I was nervous when I met her family. Granted, we had only been dating 3 weeks at the time, but still, it's just a nervous thing to be doing. I should also note that starting last Monday I had a summer head cold, and I'm still getting over the last little bit of it. I mention this because I was worried all last week about how well I'd be on Friday when Mom and Dad arrived. Thankfully, I felt fairly decent.
Mom and Dad arrived a little before 5 pm on Friday, and Teri arrived at Team Hudson Headquarters (THHQ) between 5:30 and 6. I don't remember exact times because that was a few days ago and, well, because I'm Matt. We went to P.F. Chang's for dinner, and the food was teh awesome! We all got water to drink, and as is the case in any decent establishment, there was lemon in the water. One nice touch is that there was also a little orange plastic sword stuck in the lemon wedge. Teri had a great deal of fun stabbing me in the arm with her sword. She and I were going to have a mini sword fight, but the waitress took all but one of the swords off the table. Boo waitress!! After dinner, we walked around Easton and just looked around. I was surprised that Teri was able to walk past a Victoria's Secret that had some sort of sale going on without ever walking in. Perhaps it had something to do with my parents being there. The world may never know the exact reason. It will be a mystery much like the Loch Ness monster. Later in the evening, we retired to the hacienda where Teri took the opportunity to look at the pictures of me when I was a kid that my parents had brought. This was a period of big fun for her. Great big fun for her. She's been looking forward to that for a couple months now, which is understandble because she is a self-described picture whore. I also noticed that I was good at winding up in pictures with a cheesy grin or just a generally ornery look on my face from a very early age. I guess I'm pretty advanced like that.
Saturday morning Teri took her long run to continue preparing for the marathon, and my parents and I ran some errands, some of which involved procuring the supplies for dessert that evening and for lunch on Sunday. We then picked up Teri when she was ready and headed to Chick-fil-A for lunch. Since it is right next to the Caribou coffee that Teri and I met at, we headed over there for some delicious coffee beverages and sat outside to enjoy them. There was even a re-enactment of my handshake and her hug attempt. Teri was having great fun with that as well. We then swung back to THHQ to pick up the supplies for the evening dinner with Teri's parents and headed over to Team Kautz Headquarters (TKHQ) so we could all finally meet Liea. She's way cute and still looks to be in good shape, so it's clear to me that Darren isn't treating her like a corkscrew. Really Darren, how did you get that corkscrew to jump a few teeth like that? I'm still baffled by it.
When it was time, we went from TKHQ to Teri's parents place, stopping at Teri's apartment to pick up Sparky on the way. Saturday evening having dinner and hanging out with Teri and all of the parents was the highlight of the weekend. When I've spent time with Teri and her parents before, it's felt like I'm hanging out with her and her family. This was different though. It felt like we were three couples hanging out and, more than that, like it was just our family hanging out. Our parents seemed to really hit it off and to really like each other, so it's nice to not have to worry about that. Honestly, that's the only thing I had any worries about for the weekend (other than my aforementioned illness). I need worry no more. Also, I realized on Saturday night that a delicious application for the brownies from Melissa's grandma's recipe is for brownie sundaes. I don't know if Jarrod and Melissa have ever utilized them for that or not, but they've been cheating themselves if they haven't. If you don't think that a brownie topped with vanilla ice cream topped with hot fudge isn't a tasty treat, then you are completely retarded...or Celine Dion...or both. Here's a pic from the brownie sundae construction period.
Sunday morning Teri met us at THHQ, and off to church we went. We actually got there on time and were able to get four seats together that weren't even in the front row. Afterwards, it was back to THHQ where Teri and I fixed lunch. Despite a brief detour from the recipe, everything turned out just fine and I even have delicous leftovers. Of course, we then had to use some of the leftover brownie sundae supplies to have brownie sundaes for lunch dessert because the only thing better than deliciousness is more deliciousness (okay, so Teri is even more better than more deliciousness). Here's pictorial proof that the cooking did in fact happen.
It wasn't long after that that my parents headed out for their trek back to the HC and Teri and I went to her place so Sparky could be let out to do his bidness before we went to see The Dark Knight. If you haven't seen it yet, you are cheating yourself. Not only is it a good superhero movie, but it is just a good movie in general. Whether he wins or not, Heath Ledger should at least get some Oscar consideration. Since I had found out just last Thursday that Sonic does indeed serve their breakfast food all day, we had to stop there for dinner. I then proceeded to get a delicious breakfast sandwich. As Sonic is a drive-in, we headed back to Teri's where we dined on her veranda. The food was delicious, and my dinner companion was gorgeous as always. We then spent the rest of the evening enjoying each other's company and trying not to think about how the weekend was already over, yet again, and we'd have to get through another work week. One of these days we're just going to have to get married so we can skip all the being apart during the week crap. I can already do without that.
I don't quite remember when, but at some point over the weekend, Mom and Dad also found out what Teri's last name is. I thought I mentioned it to them, but I guess they never asked, and giving out such information tends to slip my mind so I wasn't shocked that I hadn't told them. I guess it probably didn't seem terribly important to me either since it won't be staying that way much longer anyhow.
With how well things went this weekend and how much my parents like Teri, I'm looking forward to Labor Day weekend even more now so she can meet the rest of the family. I know Lucy's looking forward to it too since she's already said she wants to play with Teri (though she'll have to come to C-bus to visit Sparkley). I think they'll get along quite well. The only thing about Labor Day weekend is that I won't be able to joke with Teri about proposing to her anymore because after she meets my family I'm allowed to propose for real. If there's a chance it's real, I won't joke with her about that. That clock is already ticking though, and it's the best clock ever...even better than Flavor Flav's neck clocks.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Well That Was Weird...
I know that I'm really starting to sound like a broken record here, but I had yet another great weekend with Teri. I was able to go watch what might be her last softball game of the season Friday night and her mom and her friend Jazz (aka Jen) were there for conversation during the game. After the game, Teri and Jazz hung out since Jazz has been out of town for a while. While they were catching up, the car got a much needed bath so I could take my mind off of missing Teri. Hi, two birds. In case you were wondering, that was one stone I just killed both of you with.
Saturday was the normal morning exercise routine for me, but Teri got up extra early to get her whopping 16 mile run in (she's very impressive) before running some errands before our date. It was a double date for 2 (because there was double the amount of normal date activities), and it was also the weirdest date we've had so far...and also a very fun time. We started off dropping Sparky off at Teri's parents' place so they could watch him since we'd be gone so long and unable to feed him or let him out. I don't know if having her parents babysit for us so we could go on a date makes us an 'old married couple' already or not, but whatever.
We had to take a massive detour because of road construction to actually get to their house, which added about 30 minutes onto our travel time that I hadn't planned on. Since we were running so late, I wasn't in the best of moods. That kind of got the whole date off on the weird foot. Our first destination was COSI, which closes at the ridiculously early hour of 5 pm on Saturdays (what's wrong with 8 pm on a summer weekend?). Instead of getting there at 3 and having a couple hours to explore and enjoy, we got there at 3:30. At least it was free since Stephanie was nice enough to hook us up with free passes. It was a good time, but we just needed more than an hour and a half to see everything. It was too rushed. While we were at COSI, Teri captured this picture of me taking a 'space poo'.
I also feel that I should give some advice to the guys who might be reading this. In case you ever, hypothetically, find yourself in a confined space with your girlfriend in a public place, you will want to know everything you can about said confined space before you kiss her. For example, let's just say, hypothetically, that there happens to be a camera in said confined space that is hooked up to a monitor in a separate room where people, including children, may or may not be watching. If that's the case, your girlfriend might be embarrassed when you walk into said second room after having kissed her. You've been advised.
They also had a Science of Big Machines exhibit outside, and that's where I snapped this picture of Teri and I in the rearview mirror of a Caterpillar bulldozer. You can tell it's a Caterpillar bulldozer because of the warning sticker in the reflection. Okay, so that's a load of crap. You could tell it was a Caterpillar bulldozer because of the Caterpillar logos on the side of the bulldozer (not pictured). The only things you can tell from the picture is that Teri is way cute and I oftentimes forget to turn off the flash on the camera (all the bright specks in the picture are from the flash going off). What you can't tell from the picture but that is a fact (and my butt will back me up on this) is that Caterpillar makes a very comfy bulldozer seat.
After closing down COSI at 5, Teri and I took a trek (that covered a whole 2 blocks) to The Spaghetti Warehouse for dinner. This was the best part of the whole weekend. Teri and I were both in a weird/goofy mood, and we had really good conversation during dinner that was surrounded by us joking around and just generally acting like kids. It was way fun. The food was also quite tasty, especially the spinach/artichoke dip we got as our free appetizer. If you haven't had it before, you really should try it sometime. Also, since Teri likes the moose head on the wall, she snagged this picture of it before we left.
The original plan for our after-dinner date activity was going to be Waterfire. Now, the reasoning behind why I picked that activity was good (Teri is a bit of a pyro), but the execution was a bit flawed. We got done with dinner a bit earlier than I expected, and we had some time to kill before the proceedings got underway. That's not a problem. We could have just walked around downtown Columbus for a while to kill time. The problem with that option is that it was really hot and humid on Saturday, and it also started to rain. We ducked into my car to avoid getting soaked, and it was a bit reminiscent of our first date after we talked in my car for 2.5 hours after we closed down the Caribou. After the rain stopped, we ventured out for a walk, crossing the bridge next to the Santa Maria's parking spot. Here's a fun picture of Teri being a pirate in front of her ship. Unfortunately, her booty is missing from the frame.
The original plan was for the fires to get lit about 8:45, but at 8:20-ish, they announced that there was a storm coming and that they'd wait until 9:15 to light things. As it was very humid out and boring to just sit around waiting, we headed back to Casa de Hudson for the remainder of the evening until I took Teri home for sleeping purposes.
Sunday morning we went to church and then met up with Jazz for the Clippers baseball game that Teri had snagged free tickets for at work. Our seats were in the fifth row off the field, but that also means they were in the sun. Since all three of us were sweating before the game even started, we moved back to seats that were in the shade since plenty were available. It was a really fun afternoon. After getting back to Teri's place and letting Sparky out to do his bidness, we met up with her parents for a nice dinner. Then we took a nice walk afterward to work off some of what we just ate and to let things settle a bit. After some brief hanging out time, it was time for me to head home so Teri could get the weekend wrapped up and get to bed to start the week off right. Why are the weekends so short? There's just never enough time. Is it Friday yet?
P.S. Happy Bastille Day everyone.
I know that I'm really starting to sound like a broken record here, but I had yet another great weekend with Teri. I was able to go watch what might be her last softball game of the season Friday night and her mom and her friend Jazz (aka Jen) were there for conversation during the game. After the game, Teri and Jazz hung out since Jazz has been out of town for a while. While they were catching up, the car got a much needed bath so I could take my mind off of missing Teri. Hi, two birds. In case you were wondering, that was one stone I just killed both of you with.
Saturday was the normal morning exercise routine for me, but Teri got up extra early to get her whopping 16 mile run in (she's very impressive) before running some errands before our date. It was a double date for 2 (because there was double the amount of normal date activities), and it was also the weirdest date we've had so far...and also a very fun time. We started off dropping Sparky off at Teri's parents' place so they could watch him since we'd be gone so long and unable to feed him or let him out. I don't know if having her parents babysit for us so we could go on a date makes us an 'old married couple' already or not, but whatever.
We had to take a massive detour because of road construction to actually get to their house, which added about 30 minutes onto our travel time that I hadn't planned on. Since we were running so late, I wasn't in the best of moods. That kind of got the whole date off on the weird foot. Our first destination was COSI, which closes at the ridiculously early hour of 5 pm on Saturdays (what's wrong with 8 pm on a summer weekend?). Instead of getting there at 3 and having a couple hours to explore and enjoy, we got there at 3:30. At least it was free since Stephanie was nice enough to hook us up with free passes. It was a good time, but we just needed more than an hour and a half to see everything. It was too rushed. While we were at COSI, Teri captured this picture of me taking a 'space poo'.
I also feel that I should give some advice to the guys who might be reading this. In case you ever, hypothetically, find yourself in a confined space with your girlfriend in a public place, you will want to know everything you can about said confined space before you kiss her. For example, let's just say, hypothetically, that there happens to be a camera in said confined space that is hooked up to a monitor in a separate room where people, including children, may or may not be watching. If that's the case, your girlfriend might be embarrassed when you walk into said second room after having kissed her. You've been advised.
They also had a Science of Big Machines exhibit outside, and that's where I snapped this picture of Teri and I in the rearview mirror of a Caterpillar bulldozer. You can tell it's a Caterpillar bulldozer because of the warning sticker in the reflection. Okay, so that's a load of crap. You could tell it was a Caterpillar bulldozer because of the Caterpillar logos on the side of the bulldozer (not pictured). The only things you can tell from the picture is that Teri is way cute and I oftentimes forget to turn off the flash on the camera (all the bright specks in the picture are from the flash going off). What you can't tell from the picture but that is a fact (and my butt will back me up on this) is that Caterpillar makes a very comfy bulldozer seat.
After closing down COSI at 5, Teri and I took a trek (that covered a whole 2 blocks) to The Spaghetti Warehouse for dinner. This was the best part of the whole weekend. Teri and I were both in a weird/goofy mood, and we had really good conversation during dinner that was surrounded by us joking around and just generally acting like kids. It was way fun. The food was also quite tasty, especially the spinach/artichoke dip we got as our free appetizer. If you haven't had it before, you really should try it sometime. Also, since Teri likes the moose head on the wall, she snagged this picture of it before we left.
The original plan for our after-dinner date activity was going to be Waterfire. Now, the reasoning behind why I picked that activity was good (Teri is a bit of a pyro), but the execution was a bit flawed. We got done with dinner a bit earlier than I expected, and we had some time to kill before the proceedings got underway. That's not a problem. We could have just walked around downtown Columbus for a while to kill time. The problem with that option is that it was really hot and humid on Saturday, and it also started to rain. We ducked into my car to avoid getting soaked, and it was a bit reminiscent of our first date after we talked in my car for 2.5 hours after we closed down the Caribou. After the rain stopped, we ventured out for a walk, crossing the bridge next to the Santa Maria's parking spot. Here's a fun picture of Teri being a pirate in front of her ship. Unfortunately, her booty is missing from the frame.
The original plan was for the fires to get lit about 8:45, but at 8:20-ish, they announced that there was a storm coming and that they'd wait until 9:15 to light things. As it was very humid out and boring to just sit around waiting, we headed back to Casa de Hudson for the remainder of the evening until I took Teri home for sleeping purposes.
Sunday morning we went to church and then met up with Jazz for the Clippers baseball game that Teri had snagged free tickets for at work. Our seats were in the fifth row off the field, but that also means they were in the sun. Since all three of us were sweating before the game even started, we moved back to seats that were in the shade since plenty were available. It was a really fun afternoon. After getting back to Teri's place and letting Sparky out to do his bidness, we met up with her parents for a nice dinner. Then we took a nice walk afterward to work off some of what we just ate and to let things settle a bit. After some brief hanging out time, it was time for me to head home so Teri could get the weekend wrapped up and get to bed to start the week off right. Why are the weekends so short? There's just never enough time. Is it Friday yet?
P.S. Happy Bastille Day everyone.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Why You Gotta Be Like That?
So last night I watched a program I had DVRed from the History Channel about crude oil. Just over the first half of the program was quite interesting and informative. Then it just devolved into some sermon from The First Church of Al Gore, which was led by some big-wig at a solar power company, about "going green" and "greenhouse gases" and how fossil fuel pollution alone will bring catastrophe and calamity to us all.
I'm not saying that we need to go through gas like rappers go through Cristal in their videos. Being independent of foreign oil would be a very good thing for the U.S. What I don't cotton to is the assumption that humans alone are changing the global temperature by their actions or that we're the main cause of the change. That's an incredibly arrogant view. Don't people realize how insignificant we are in comparison to the other forces on this planet? Do people forget how much energy is unleashed in a volcanic eruption, an earthquake, a flood or a tsunami?
In spite of all the proselytizing in the second half of the program, there were still some interesting points made. It was a nice reminder of how much of our modern society revolves around petroleum. Even if we didn't use another drop of oil for energy, we'd still need the stuff for plastics and such. It's just a shame that those nuggets of information were buried so deep in the dross. Come on History Channel, you're better than that.
So last night I watched a program I had DVRed from the History Channel about crude oil. Just over the first half of the program was quite interesting and informative. Then it just devolved into some sermon from The First Church of Al Gore, which was led by some big-wig at a solar power company, about "going green" and "greenhouse gases" and how fossil fuel pollution alone will bring catastrophe and calamity to us all.
I'm not saying that we need to go through gas like rappers go through Cristal in their videos. Being independent of foreign oil would be a very good thing for the U.S. What I don't cotton to is the assumption that humans alone are changing the global temperature by their actions or that we're the main cause of the change. That's an incredibly arrogant view. Don't people realize how insignificant we are in comparison to the other forces on this planet? Do people forget how much energy is unleashed in a volcanic eruption, an earthquake, a flood or a tsunami?
In spite of all the proselytizing in the second half of the program, there were still some interesting points made. It was a nice reminder of how much of our modern society revolves around petroleum. Even if we didn't use another drop of oil for energy, we'd still need the stuff for plastics and such. It's just a shame that those nuggets of information were buried so deep in the dross. Come on History Channel, you're better than that.
Monday, July 07, 2008
Another Book-Sized Post About Another Great Weekend
I must admit that I'd been looking forward to another long weekend with Teri ever since Memorial Day weekend, and I finally got to have another one with her. It was nice to start the weekend off by both of us getting to leave work early on Thursday so we could get our exercising out of the way to see each other sooner. Since Teri had been wanting to see The Karate Kid for a while and since we both were craving General Tzo's chicken, we spent the evening at her place and watched/ate those things. The Karate Kid was delicious, though chinese food is super boring to look at; it just sits there and does nothing. Maybe we should try it the other way next time. When I was laying on the floor after the movie, Sparky enjoyed sitting on my chest. I think that Teri enjoyed him doing that more than he did though. It's super cute when Teri gets caught up in enjoying things. I really like that.
On Friday morning I met up with Teri and her parents (she stayed at their place Thursday night) for the Upper Arlington July 4th parade. The weather was considerate enough to not be raining too hard at the beginning of the parade and to actually stop raining entirely for most of the rest of it. I think you'll agree from the picture that Teri is indeed teh hawt!! Am I lucky or what? After returning to her parents' hacienda for lunch/scrabble/trivial pursuit, the rain picked back up considerably, and it was nice to be inside.
We then took Sparky back to Teri's place and hung out for a bit before meeting up with Team Kautz for cheese and crackers before heading out on a fireworks excursion to the Park of Roses. Darren had picked up a delicious Spanish blue cheese (because, well, Darren likes Spaniards), and I put a tiny bit on a club cracker for Teri to try. She really didn't like the cheese at all, but I don't care about that. I guess I didn't really expect her to like it anyway. I was super impressed with her for trying it though (she's way braggable). When we got to the park, we just made our best guess for a spot that didn't require a ton of walking and that was open because we didn't know where the pyrotechnics would be set off. We chose poorly and could really only see the higher fireworks. It was a classic rookie mistake, but we know better for next time. Lesson learned. At least we got to see some fireworks. How could you possibly ask if I'd rather be somewhere else Teri? That didn't even make sense to me.
Saturday we got our respective exercising and chores out of the way and Teri and Sparky came over to the house. This was Sparky's first visit to Casa de Hudson, so we took him for a walk before letting him explore inside so that his bowels would be empty and he could get as excited as he wanted. That was a good plan on Teri's part (again, she's pretty braggable), because get excited he did exploring the place. I don't think his tail slowed below what could be best described as a breakneck wagging pace. It was also fun to see him slide around unable to gain traction on the floors downstairs. There was some shopping and errand running in the afternoon before Teri and I rented Batman Returns (so we can be prepared for the next one to come out in a couple weeks) and picked up a sausage pizza and salad from Donato's (don't read that part Melissa, you'll just get jealous). It was such a nice relaxing day hanging out at the house. We should do that more often...like every day forever.
Sunday we went to Teri's church and I met a couple guys afterward from the local VW club. Not only was Teri not anti-social like one of the ladies, but she participated in the conversation with excitement and enthusiasm (do you see how braggable she is?). There is absolutely no doubt that I was by far the luckiest guy participating in that conversation. It wasn't even close. Then after lunch with her parents we went swimming for a bit. It was nice and relaxing. After that Teri took me to ride go-karts (golf carts?) (I really can't brag enough about how amazing she is...for reals). I should probably write that again for added emphasis. Teri took me to go ride go-karts. Then we got cleaned up and ready for Frontporch (whatever that is), and despite my best efforts to ruin the day, Teri reminded me yet again how amazing she really is and how much I need to quit being such an ass. She deserves so much better than that. After Frontporch was over, I set up her digital/analog converter box so she'll be all set February 17th, 2009 for the continued TV viewing, though she should only really have to worry about that for a few months. No Sparky, the remote is not your new toy. Neither are the cables.
Now I'm back at work inundated with the suck that is Titanic Pulbications. It's quite the stark contrast to the past few days. Thank you for such an utterly amazing weekend Teri. Nobody anywhere had a better holiday weekend than I did. If you think differently, you clearly haven't been paying attention. Teri, I miss you already. Is it Labor Day weekend yet? Why not?
I must admit that I'd been looking forward to another long weekend with Teri ever since Memorial Day weekend, and I finally got to have another one with her. It was nice to start the weekend off by both of us getting to leave work early on Thursday so we could get our exercising out of the way to see each other sooner. Since Teri had been wanting to see The Karate Kid for a while and since we both were craving General Tzo's chicken, we spent the evening at her place and watched/ate those things. The Karate Kid was delicious, though chinese food is super boring to look at; it just sits there and does nothing. Maybe we should try it the other way next time. When I was laying on the floor after the movie, Sparky enjoyed sitting on my chest. I think that Teri enjoyed him doing that more than he did though. It's super cute when Teri gets caught up in enjoying things. I really like that.
On Friday morning I met up with Teri and her parents (she stayed at their place Thursday night) for the Upper Arlington July 4th parade. The weather was considerate enough to not be raining too hard at the beginning of the parade and to actually stop raining entirely for most of the rest of it. I think you'll agree from the picture that Teri is indeed teh hawt!! Am I lucky or what? After returning to her parents' hacienda for lunch/scrabble/trivial pursuit, the rain picked back up considerably, and it was nice to be inside.
We then took Sparky back to Teri's place and hung out for a bit before meeting up with Team Kautz for cheese and crackers before heading out on a fireworks excursion to the Park of Roses. Darren had picked up a delicious Spanish blue cheese (because, well, Darren likes Spaniards), and I put a tiny bit on a club cracker for Teri to try. She really didn't like the cheese at all, but I don't care about that. I guess I didn't really expect her to like it anyway. I was super impressed with her for trying it though (she's way braggable). When we got to the park, we just made our best guess for a spot that didn't require a ton of walking and that was open because we didn't know where the pyrotechnics would be set off. We chose poorly and could really only see the higher fireworks. It was a classic rookie mistake, but we know better for next time. Lesson learned. At least we got to see some fireworks. How could you possibly ask if I'd rather be somewhere else Teri? That didn't even make sense to me.
Saturday we got our respective exercising and chores out of the way and Teri and Sparky came over to the house. This was Sparky's first visit to Casa de Hudson, so we took him for a walk before letting him explore inside so that his bowels would be empty and he could get as excited as he wanted. That was a good plan on Teri's part (again, she's pretty braggable), because get excited he did exploring the place. I don't think his tail slowed below what could be best described as a breakneck wagging pace. It was also fun to see him slide around unable to gain traction on the floors downstairs. There was some shopping and errand running in the afternoon before Teri and I rented Batman Returns (so we can be prepared for the next one to come out in a couple weeks) and picked up a sausage pizza and salad from Donato's (don't read that part Melissa, you'll just get jealous). It was such a nice relaxing day hanging out at the house. We should do that more often...like every day forever.
Sunday we went to Teri's church and I met a couple guys afterward from the local VW club. Not only was Teri not anti-social like one of the ladies, but she participated in the conversation with excitement and enthusiasm (do you see how braggable she is?). There is absolutely no doubt that I was by far the luckiest guy participating in that conversation. It wasn't even close. Then after lunch with her parents we went swimming for a bit. It was nice and relaxing. After that Teri took me to ride go-karts (golf carts?) (I really can't brag enough about how amazing she is...for reals). I should probably write that again for added emphasis. Teri took me to go ride go-karts. Then we got cleaned up and ready for Frontporch (whatever that is), and despite my best efforts to ruin the day, Teri reminded me yet again how amazing she really is and how much I need to quit being such an ass. She deserves so much better than that. After Frontporch was over, I set up her digital/analog converter box so she'll be all set February 17th, 2009 for the continued TV viewing, though she should only really have to worry about that for a few months. No Sparky, the remote is not your new toy. Neither are the cables.
Now I'm back at work inundated with the suck that is Titanic Pulbications. It's quite the stark contrast to the past few days. Thank you for such an utterly amazing weekend Teri. Nobody anywhere had a better holiday weekend than I did. If you think differently, you clearly haven't been paying attention. Teri, I miss you already. Is it Labor Day weekend yet? Why not?
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
That Looks Good On You
And no, it doesn't make your butt look big. To be fair, I've never been asked that dreaded question and she doesn't have a butt that lends itself to looking big anyway. I just couldn't pass up the joke. Sunday was Round 2 of information gathering for what Teri likes in jewelry because, well, I'm a guy and I can count on one finger the number of times I've picked out a ring. That time was my high school class ring, so that hardly counts as good practice. Even if I was a professional jeweler, there's still the matter of learning Teri's personal taste in rings. I did tag along with J-rod and Mom when he was looking at rings for Melissa, so I did learn some of the basics way back when, but now that I'm leading the proceedings it's a whole new deal.
You might be saying "But Matt, you and Teri both know you won't be getting engaged until after she's met your family over Labor Day weekend, why are you looking now?". To that I'd say "Pay attention, you rube!". I'm looking now and getting the 911 now so that when it is time to be shopping for realsies Teri won't be any the wiser as to the goings-on of ring purchasery. She wants to be surprised but not shocked when it happens. I intend to make both of those happen.
I realize what a tangent I've veered off on, so I'll get back to the meat of the story (mmm, meaty story). So anyway, we're at the store looking at rings, and for the first time Teri was trying on the rings and we looked at different diamonds and whatnot. I had already told the girls working at the ring vendor establishment what my timeframe for purchaseration was so as to take as much pressure off of the situation as possible. I know that sales pressure is the thing Teri most wants to avoid on these excursions, so I try to eliminate as much pressure as possible up front and take what's left on me so she can relax and enjoy the bling. I hope I've been successful with that so far. Now, I've made comments to Teri prior to Sunday about how I'm pretty sure I'm going to marry her and how I really want to marry her but that I realize we need to get to know each other better first. Seeing an engagement ring on her finger, even though it wasn't her ring, made the idea of marrying her more real than it's ever been. I'm not sure if I was more excited about that or if she was. There seemed to be plenty to go around, so I'm fine calling it a draw. I already felt like I won when I met her anyway.
And how could I not get excited about that? There she is just sitting in the chair next to me smiling ear to ear, my gorgeous girlfriend who I've already thought about marrying, with a real-life engagement ring on. It was the first tangible preview of her as my fiancee. I've waited 31 years to meet her, and she's more right for me than anyone I've ever met (and, quite frankly, more right for me than I ever expected a woman to be). How would I not be looking forward to marrying her? As I am a generally impatient gent and as I am completely ass over teakettle for Teri, I have a feeling that waiting to marry her will be the longest wait of my life. How do people date for years before getting married? I have absolutely no desire for that brand of foot dragging. I suppose I might have felt differently about that if I had met her a decade ago, but her dad would have come after me with a shotgun, and rightly so, if I had started dating her then. Is it time yet? How about now? Not now? Crap. I guess I'll keep waiting. At least I can finally see the finish line in the distance, which is actually the starting line, but that's another subject altogether.
And no, it doesn't make your butt look big. To be fair, I've never been asked that dreaded question and she doesn't have a butt that lends itself to looking big anyway. I just couldn't pass up the joke. Sunday was Round 2 of information gathering for what Teri likes in jewelry because, well, I'm a guy and I can count on one finger the number of times I've picked out a ring. That time was my high school class ring, so that hardly counts as good practice. Even if I was a professional jeweler, there's still the matter of learning Teri's personal taste in rings. I did tag along with J-rod and Mom when he was looking at rings for Melissa, so I did learn some of the basics way back when, but now that I'm leading the proceedings it's a whole new deal.
You might be saying "But Matt, you and Teri both know you won't be getting engaged until after she's met your family over Labor Day weekend, why are you looking now?". To that I'd say "Pay attention, you rube!". I'm looking now and getting the 911 now so that when it is time to be shopping for realsies Teri won't be any the wiser as to the goings-on of ring purchasery. She wants to be surprised but not shocked when it happens. I intend to make both of those happen.
I realize what a tangent I've veered off on, so I'll get back to the meat of the story (mmm, meaty story). So anyway, we're at the store looking at rings, and for the first time Teri was trying on the rings and we looked at different diamonds and whatnot. I had already told the girls working at the ring vendor establishment what my timeframe for purchaseration was so as to take as much pressure off of the situation as possible. I know that sales pressure is the thing Teri most wants to avoid on these excursions, so I try to eliminate as much pressure as possible up front and take what's left on me so she can relax and enjoy the bling. I hope I've been successful with that so far. Now, I've made comments to Teri prior to Sunday about how I'm pretty sure I'm going to marry her and how I really want to marry her but that I realize we need to get to know each other better first. Seeing an engagement ring on her finger, even though it wasn't her ring, made the idea of marrying her more real than it's ever been. I'm not sure if I was more excited about that or if she was. There seemed to be plenty to go around, so I'm fine calling it a draw. I already felt like I won when I met her anyway.
And how could I not get excited about that? There she is just sitting in the chair next to me smiling ear to ear, my gorgeous girlfriend who I've already thought about marrying, with a real-life engagement ring on. It was the first tangible preview of her as my fiancee. I've waited 31 years to meet her, and she's more right for me than anyone I've ever met (and, quite frankly, more right for me than I ever expected a woman to be). How would I not be looking forward to marrying her? As I am a generally impatient gent and as I am completely ass over teakettle for Teri, I have a feeling that waiting to marry her will be the longest wait of my life. How do people date for years before getting married? I have absolutely no desire for that brand of foot dragging. I suppose I might have felt differently about that if I had met her a decade ago, but her dad would have come after me with a shotgun, and rightly so, if I had started dating her then. Is it time yet? How about now? Not now? Crap. I guess I'll keep waiting. At least I can finally see the finish line in the distance, which is actually the starting line, but that's another subject altogether.
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