Happy Hallowe... Where is everyone?

We took Ryann out trick-or-treat'n in her Grandma's neighborhood, and I was shocked to see how few kids were out. I understand how some parents might be paranoid because of recent terrorist attacks and what not, but it was down right ghost-townish. We then took her to her school's Harvest Festival and it was packed with kids. She had fun and I got to snatch some of her candy.

Long Drive

Met my sisters at Universal Citiwalk today to talk about my Grandma. We ate at Buca De Beppo and walked around for a while.

Then Tricia, Ryann and I made the drive to the Chapel and the restaurant to test out the maps and directions I made for the invitation. They turned out pretty good. You guys shouldn't have any problems finding the place.

The Wedding DJ

Went to see this DJ that Ashlee recommended. He does most of The Madison's parties. He seemed pretty cool and is giving us a sweet-ass deal... I mean really sweet, because we're friends of Ashlee's. But we still have to see him in action.

Creapy Approach

Ok, you are not going to believe what happened today. Tricia and I went to the Brea Mall, which is way across town, because they were the only ones to carry these special wedding shoes. We had some time to kill so we were browsing around in the book store. All of a sudden, this woman approached us asking if we knew of any good Chinese food restaurants in the area. We said, "no... sorry" thinking they would go away or something. She went on to ask if we were from this area. Tricia said, "no, we're from the Cypress area which is pretty far." She said, "That's perfect! Do you know of any over there?" Ok, red-flag #1. We were like, "uh, no not really". Then the husband came over to join the so-called 'conversation'. The woman then asked if we were engaged. Engaged? Uh, red-flag #2. How in the hell do you know if someone is engaged? So she started to ask about the wedding while the dude was trying to separate me into a different conversation. Meanwhile, Tricia and I are pinching each other, trying to signal each other to get the hell out of there. We finally ended the conversation, walked out, and couldn't believe how uncomfortable that was. Tricia says 'Christians'... I say 'Swingers'... What do you think?

The Wedding Invitations

Worked on the wedding invitations tonight. I think they are going to turn out pretty cool, but this has to be the last print design job I do. I'm so tired of print design work. I enjoy digital design so much more.

Tenacious D

Went to see The D tonight at the Wiltern Theatre in LA. They rock! This is the third time I've seen them, and it's a blast every time. The first time was at the Actors' Gang Theatre, which holds about 40 people tops. It was amazing to see how big the crowd got in less than three years. The Naked Trucker opened. I can't even explain how funny these guys were. They did a Snoop Doggy Dogg rap that had us on the floor laughing.

My Grandma

My Grandma Hartman passed on this morning. She was 91 and a great woman. The last time I saw her was when I went back to visit Cleveland in January 2001. I got to spend some time with her, my Aunt Mary and Uncle Tom. It was a great visit and a great last memory. My sisters and I were going to try and go back to Cleveland for the ceremony, but I don't think we're going to make it. We're going to have a ceremony here when my mom gets back in town.

A Special Day With the Girls

Slept in today... I love to sleep in.

Tricia and I played a little tennis this morning. Then Ian and I took our women out on a special bike ride around Huntington Beach for Sweetest Day (Heather insists that we celebrate this lame-ass east coast holiday). I say it's a special bike ride because Ian and I are the ones that do all the pedaling. He has a tandum bike and the Rasticle, a red, black and green beach cruiser with an extra back seat on it... very cool. We had wine around sunset, ate sushi at a new place on Main Street, then went home and watched O Brother Where Art Thou. The movie was pretty good but the sound track was great. I just might go buy it.

What's New

Had another doctors appointment to check out the cut on my leg. It's all good. Still can't get it wet for another 5 days.

Feeling a little under-the-weather today, so I stayed home from work. I still got some work done, and I was able to finish this "what's new" page. Everything before today is from memory or from my calendar.

Tricia insisted that we watch HeartBreakers. I guess it was better than I thought it would be.

The Wedding Invitations

Started working on our wedding invitations tonight. I've been putting it off for weeks, but I now have a pretty good idea of how they should look. Got to get them done by November 1st... Yikes!

Tape on the Shin

Had a doctors appointment with Dr. Punim (Tricia's doctor) to look at the leg. He said it was healing pretty nicely and there are no signs of infection, but to keep the tape on there for a few more days. Have to come back on Friday.

Also played a kick-ass game of Ultimate Frisbee with the gang (we've been playing once a week for 3 years). Despite the big bandage on my shin, I still kicked Jerry's butt.

BTW, it's a pain in the ass to sit in a jacuzzi with one leg hanging out.

Monday Night Football

It was probably the worst football game in NFL history. Both Washington and Dallas were 0 and 4.

Not much into football, I mean, I don't really have a favorite team or anything. I only root for the Browns because I grew up in Cleveland. However, we do participate in Fantasy Football and we're actually doing pretty well this year.

The best thing about having everyone over was that it forced us to finish unpacking, at least the front of the house. We still have the bedroom to do, and that should be about it. Hopefully we'll get it done this weekend.

Who Would Buy That?

People will buy just about anything!
Disturbing Auctions
Who Would Buy That?

Still Bleeding

Well, my cut was still bleeding this morning so I went to the emergency room to get stitches. I felt so stupid in there with a little cut while people were bent over in pain, moaning. Any ways, it was too late to get stitches. Apparently you have to get them within 6 hours because bacteria starts growing. So basically, they just taped it up.

Cut Leg and a Bike Ride

Went for the usual Wednesday night mountain bike ride. It's getting dark so early now, we have to use our lights about half-way into it... which is not as fun. Only two more weeks before we lose day-light savings.

While I was moving the old dishwasher out to the trash, it got caught on a sidewalk crack and cut my shin open. It started bleeding right away and was dripping down into my flip-flops... it didn't hurt but it looked really cool. Tricia took care of me by cleaning it and stopping the blood.

Handy Man to the Rescue

Installed my first dishwasher... all by myself. I know it doesn't sound like much, but when you're as mechanically DEclined as me, it's a huge thing. The weirdest part was finding out that new dishwashers don't come with a power cord, so I had to take it off the old one. Very strange.

Surrex.com

Finished the design of Surrex.com. Next, I'm going to do their Search Engine Optimization.

Moving

Finished moving my crap into Tricia's. Even after our huge yard sale, I have so much shit. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it all. Thank you Mitchell, Chris and Ian for helping me move. You can borrow my back and my truck any time.

Drive to Ventura

Tricia and I drove up to Ventura for Karly's first birthday. She's getting so big.

Cohabitating

Alright, I moved more stuff into Tricia's, including my clothes. So, uh, I guess this means I'm actually moved in.

Yard Sale

Had a very successful yard sale today. Those of you who didn't make it missed some KILLER deals. We made about 500 bucks and are putting it towards a new dish washer in Tricia's place. We are both very excited about not having to do dishes.

September 11th

I think everyone knows what happened today. So I thought I would just record where I was at the time of the terrorist attacks.

I was sleeping, as I usually am at 7:30 in the morning, when Tricia came in the room and turned on the TV. One plane had already crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers, so I got to see live on TV the second plane crash, then both towers crumble to the ground. I can easily say that this was the most surreal experience I've ever had, being it so early in the morning and me not being a morning person. Between wiping the eye-boogers out of my eyes and just simply trying to wake up, I had a hard time figuring out just what the hell was going on. It really didn't hit me all day. As I was getting ready for work, I was trying to comprehend what this all meant. Should I even go to work? Should I pack for Ultimate Frisbee like I do every Tuesday? Should I call my family to make sure they're alright? It was a very strange day to say the least.

Living In Sin

I started moving some stuff into Tricia's. I can't believe I'm doing this... I've never cohabitated with another female before.

Yes, that's right... We're going to live in sin for a couple of months.

Wedding Photographer

The wedding planning is going great. Today we chose Brian Glenn as our photographer, and went to the chapel for our planning conference, which included picking out our music.

Moving Along

Today we checked out The Madison Restaurant in downtown Long Beach. Wow, what an amazing restaurant. Tricia knows the director of banquets there, so we're getting a killer deal on the whole restaurant for our reception.

So, only after a few weeks of being engaged, we already have the locations for the ceremony & reception, the dress bought and a good idea on the photographer. My baby doesn't mess around.

Extra Cash

Decided to pick up a side project to help pay for the wedding expenses. I'm going to design a web site for a new company called Surrex Solutions Corporation. It should be done around the beginning of October.

We've Found the Chapel

We went down to the Wayfarer's Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes. This is definitely the place we are getting married. The chapel is simply incredible... Not to mention it has witnessed the marriages of the likes of Mash's Gary Burghoff (Radar), actress Jayne Mansfield, actor Dennis Hopper and the Beach Boy's Brian Wilson. Plus it's been in movies such as Innerspace.

I also found out that the chapel was designed by John Lloyd Wright (Frank Lloyd Wright's son), who also happen's to be the designer of Lincoln Logs.

SIGGRAPH 2001

Went to SIGGRAPH 2001 with Steve today. I usually go to these conferences when they come to Los Angeles. But this one was probably the best because Steve knew a lot of people there from when he worked at Soft Image. So we got to go to their party afterwards, which turned out to be pretty cool.

After the party, we drove down to The Wiltern to try and scalp Tool tickets... No dice.

Check out this other Tool page called DiSSECTIONAL.

Popping the Question

Well, people... I finally did it. I proposed to Tricia tonight and she actually said 'Yes'. I've never been so excited about anything like I am with this. We haven't set a date, but we're thinking soon.

The proposal went down like this. I've been researching and looking for the perfect diamond and ring style for months. I finally went to buy it and have it made last Tuesday and it was going to take about a week. I didn't know exactly where and how I wanted to ask her, I just knew she would want it to be private. So around Thursday, she started planning out our day for Saturday, which was strange because she always makes me make the decisions on what to do. She wanted to play tennis in the morning (that's about the extend of her exercises), go to Downtown Disney for a while, and have a bon fire on the beach. Friday morning I get a call from the Jeweler saying the ring is ready. I think "perfect", I'll ask her on the beach Saturday night. So Friday night I ask the parents for their blessing, and we did everything as planned on Saturday.

The beach ended up to be too crowded to have a bon fire, so we picked a big empty spot, laid down a blanket and chairs, and watched the sunset. We had chips & salsa and some red wine to loosen up. When it got dark I pulled out the ring box, which just so happened to light up when you open it, got on my knee and asked her. She started balling her eyes out and eventually said "yes". Overall, it was pretty cool.