Jay-N-Gwendolyn

This weekend was great. It couldn’t have gone any better, even with an unexpected ending. Friday night Gwendolyn and I had to prepare for Saturday as we were hosting a party for Jake and Beth, who recently got engaged. Saturday morning was also spent doing the final set up and preparation of the food.

Around 7 oclock everyone was showing up, and the party instantly came alive. Everyone seemed to enjoy the fajitas we grilled. We also had a nice rum punch to go along with it. Our deck and newly crafted pick nick table seemed to be a great success, as the whole party was mostly spent outside.

A couple hours into the party, my good friend Jonathan wanted to show off his unicyling skills. So everyone flocked out to the front yard and watched him unicycle his way down the street. He sooned had another following from all the neighborhood kids. They came riding on bicycles wanting to race and ride around Jonathan. I personally think they might have thought Jonathan was a clown as he was wearing a bright yellow shirt and he does have the crazy hair. I of course had to give this amazing contraption a try. It looks so easy, how hard could it be right? Hard…very hard… After about 10mins I was able to get on it rather easily, but could not actually go anywhere. I think I may have gone possibly 2-3 feet unassisted. My dad on the other hand, who hadn’t ridden one in about 40+ years, got right on and cycled on down the road for about 20-30 feet. Not too shabby for an old fart!

Check out the rest of the photos from the party here.

Later that night when a few of us were left, something amazing happened. Jake, Brian and Myself came up with a great idea. Being that we all had too much to drink, we knew we would have to wait till the next morning, to act on it. But it was one of those things where if you actually slept on it, you might not have the balls to do it the next day. Alas, with too much to drink, we were going to have to wait. The next morning we woke up, the conversation still on the same topic of last night. We were a little more hesitant today, but we all thought it would be a really cool thing to do and we talked each other into just going for it! Before we could do it, we wanted to get some food, so we headed to Jasons Deli for a bite to eat. After lunch we went through what we thought we couldn’t do and now we are all marked as friends forever, as you can see once you follow the link below:

(more…)

Time for some more links.

• Friday vs Monday – Thanks Sarah
• Wooden Binary adding machine using marbles! (check out the video at the bottom)
• The customer is always right is wrong – I do believe that the customer is not always right and here’s some reasons why.
• Awesome tree – Just randomly throwing this one in there as I want this tree in my backyard.
• pinkieandgg.com – Don’t forget about pinkieandgg.com!

My favorite, is of course the binary adding machine. Simply genius.

Friday was a great day.  Having the day off, I made myself get up early to take Gwendolyn, who unfortunately did not have the day off, to work.  This lead to lots of play-time for Jay.  I started the day off watching the series finale of Breaking Bad, which is a new series I’ve been enjoying on AMC.  After that, I decided to finish another game.  For some reason Call of Duty 4 was calling out to me.  It was a good choice.  I was instantly drawn back into it, and finished the game in a few hours.   I loved the game and definitely one of the best FPS’s I’ve played in a while.  For the rest of the day I kept my self entertained with reading, oil changes, enjoying the back yard, and playing WoW.

That night Sarah picked up Gwendolyn from work and brought her home.  I tried to get them to do something ‘fun’ and life changing, but as nothing came to mind, so we ended up going to Rao’s for some ice cream.  I guess I can’t complain about ice cream.  We did have a wonderful night though, and we stayed up until the wee hours working on Gwendolyn and Sarah’s new crafting blog.   You can check it out at pinkieandgg.com.  Gwendolyn and Sarah did most of the work on the site, including the creating the title in photoshop, and uploading pictures of their first project together.   So be sure to bookmark it and check back often to see their creations.

Saturday Gwendolyn and Sarah, spent the day shopping.  Meanwhile I spent the day again reading and enjoying the day.  I met them for lunch at Jason’s Deli and enjoyed a nice lunch outside.  When the girls finally got back home we had some dinner outside.  Afterwards Sarah headed home, and Gwendolyn and I got ready to meet my parents for church.  We were going to meet my parents at Annunciation downtown, where Gwendolyn used to goto church.  It was a nice service, albeit a tad long.  Afterwards my parents followed us home, and we chatted for a bit before calling it a night.

Sunday morning started with one of my favorite breakfast’s, crepes!  Delicious strawberry crepes with whip cream and powdered sugar.  Gwendolyn’s family and Grandparents came over a little later.  They brought with them brisket for lunch, and a magnolia tulip tree for our back yard.  We all had a great time chatting, eating, and enjoying the beautiful day in our rapidly changing back yard.  When everyone finally left, I ended up crashing hard.  I know it was a sugar induced coma.

Check out the photos.

Game talk time. Amazingly in exactly one month since I received my last netherwing dragon for Melyne, I now have a 2nd netherwing dragon for Zuria! This time around I went with Onyx. I’m amazed by how fast the gold came for my epic flying mount, and how fast the reputation grind went. I did the grind in 12 days or so, the secret is in the netherwing eggs.

Unfortunately, while trying to get my other netherwing, I’ve slacked off in my other gaming. I was playing both Super Mario Galaxy and Bioshock for a while, but they slipped off the schedule. I think it’s time to put them back on, and I’m going to start with Bioshock.

This weekend, we spent every minute outdoors. We took advantage of the lovely weather, and with the help of Gwendolyn’s family, we built a picnic table and did a lot of gardening. Gwendolyn and her parents freshened up our back garden and made two new flower beds on either side of our deck. They include a lovely spread of flowers and plants ranging from calla lilies to prim roses and bougainvillea to marigolds. The hydrangea is Gwendolyn’s favorite.

While all the garden work was being done, Patrick and I were busy designing and building a picnic table. It took us all day Saturday and Sunday morning to get the table and benches built. We had a basic design decided upon (pictured here), but made some customized changes to the top which gave us some problems when we actually started to put it all together. In the end, we got it all worked out, and we now have ourselves a nice-sized picnic table.

After all that hard work, Gwendolyn and I are ready to crash. We wish we had another weekend just to recuperate, but all the hard work was worth it. Our backyard looks great! Gwendolyn’s down in the garden right now, wrapped in a blanket, sipping coffee, and reading a magazine. I can’t get her to come in!

Many thanks to Mom, Dad, and Patrick for helping us get it all done!

View all the photos here.

Today is a mathematicians favorite holiday. 3-14, also known as pi (3.14 159265) day! So go grab a slice of pie and enjoy.

Time for some pi fun:

A great palindrome: “I prefer pi.”

Pi joke:
Pi say to e: Get real!
e says to Pi: Get rational!

Pi mnemonic (count each letter in each word for a digit of pie):
Pie
I wish I could determine pi
“Eureka!” cried the great inventor.
Christmas pudding, Christmas pie
Is the problem’s very center.

Another one done to Poe’s The Raven going over 700 digits: Near a Raven

Figured I’d share a few links I’ve found around the internets. I might turn this into a weekly thing. It will give me more reason to come here and post.

• Death Metal Puppy
• Who Cut the Cheese – Bud Light commercial that didn’t air

That’s all I got this week.

I hope it was worth the wait…
Pictures (from Beth’s Flickr)
and the video:

This had to be one of the best weekends in a long time. It started Thursday night after work. We heard Jake, Beth, and Brian were going to have some friends over and play Rock Band. We wanted to do something fun and get dressed up as rock stars for the party. So Thursday night we planned our outfits and had them ready to go for Friday. Gwendolyn and I both got off work early, and we really needed that extra time, as we had to make a pit stop to Hot Topic to pick up a few accessories, before taking off to Austin. Close to Austin we pulled over in a rest stop to get into our Rock Star garb. When we arrived at their house, we weren’t entirely sure how many people would be there, and if anyone else would be dressed up. As it turns out, there was quite a few people there, and we were the only ones that dressed up. It was all good though, as everyone loved our costumes, and soon Beth and Andrea joined us wearing wigs and capes.

Saturday we went out for breakfast to North by Northwest. The food was great, and afterwards we wanted to take advantage of the beautiful day, we headed over to a park. We went to Mayfield Park, which we soon saw was also home to beautiful peacocks. They really are some of the most magnificent birds. Their colors are just so vibrant, its just amazing.

The rest of the day we just tried to relax. We played some more Rock Band of course. We then tried to have dinner at the Hula Hut, but found it too crowded. Plan B lead us to P. Terry’s, which is a drive through hamburger joint, that had some awesome hamburgers, fries and shakes. I will definitely be going back there next time. After food, we went back to the house and got ready for the concert.

Since the Austin Music Hall was fairly close, we decided to walk it. We got there in time to see the opening band, Ours, which wasn’t too bad. The worse part about the concert was then having to wait another hour for Manson to come on. On top of that, about 30mins into waiting, they turned off all the lights, which made everyone think the show was going to start, and so the mob pushed forward. Now for the other 30mins, we were tightly packed together with no room to move. Gwendolyn didn’t like that very much so she had to head to the back, while I stayed with Jake Beth and Brian. Finally the curtain fell and the show started. Although Manson’s set list could have been better, I still enjoyed the show, and watching the people. It always amazes me the diversity of people that listen to his music. After the show we walked back, and stopped to get some ice cream at Amy’s. When we arrived back at the house, we had a few drinks and played some more Rock Band.

For some reason, Sunday we woke up not feeling too well, with headaches and body aches and I had no idea why. We decided to try and have brunch at South Congress Cafe. We had a long wait, so we walked up Congress St, and into a few shops and stopped and got some coffee to tide us over. The menu sounded delicious and it held up, as the food was great. When we got back to the house, we rested a bit more, and finally started to pack it up. We said our good bye’s and headed home. :’(

Arriving back home, we unloaded everything and tried to rest and relax for the rest of the night. I had one mission though, and that was to finish Harry Potter and the Goblet of fire, to which I succeeded. So far it’s my favorite book of the series. So much has happened in it, I can’t wait to see what’s coming. Tonight I’ll have to start book 5.

As if the weekend wasn’t enough excitement. Brian messaged me Monday asking if I’ve heard the latest Nine Inch Nails news. It turns out Trent just released a full album of instrumental songs called Ghosts online! He released it in multiple formats, and is only charging $5 for all 36 tracks. Although you can listen the entire album online for free. It also released under the Creative Commons License, which allows you to share, and remix his music. The music industry is changing, and I believe you will see more and more bands do the same as Trent.

Sorry we don’t have any pictures. My camera finally decided to die at the party Friday night. However, Beth did get some good pictures and a video, which you must see. I’ll make a post with those links as soon as I get them.