Sheep Guarding Llama

Min and I actually managed to get up early this morning and actually made it out to church. We actually managed to beet my parents to church. That never happens. After church Min and I headed down to Leicester to visit with my relatives from Ohio that didn’t already head back home. We hung out for a couple of hours and then drove up to Mt. Morris to get a late lunch at Brian’s USA Diner. The food was good but they didn’t have much for us to eat. To many restaurants in this area don’t offer anything without meat in it. But the place was pleasent anyway.

After lunch we came back home and I took a much needed nap for a few hours and Min started going through all of the new stuff from the bridal shower. There is so much nice stuff. Min also made a pot of coffee from our new Cuisinart Combo coffee grinder and maker. It is really cool because it grinds your coffee and then makes it all at once. For those of us who are pretty hardcore coffee drinkers, it is perfect.

After my nap I got up and started working. Min and Andy went out to McDonalds for dinner. After they got back (it takes forever for fast food in this town – it is almost like being in the south) we popped in Father Ted Series Three and watched it the whole way through. That is just the funniest show ever. After the show was over, Min and Andy went to bed but I finished watched the Godfather Trilogy. I had never seen the entire trilogy before so it was really nice to get to see the whole thing. I am really glad that I own it.

Speaking of amazing movie trilogies… Once Upon A Time In Mexico or El Mariachi III is releasing to theatres on September 12! No one has called around yet to tell me what the plans are for the gang but I am assuming that we are all going to be going to someone’s house to watch El Mariachi and Desperado prior to the trip to the theatre. I would say that we should do it here but since we don’t have any kind of stereo or surround sound hooked up so it is a little bit flat watching a movie here. And there isn’t much room. But if no one else is able to host, everyone is welcome to come here. Phil and I have been waiting for almost ten years for EM3 to release so this is a really big deal. And Antonio Banderas, Selma Hayak, Johnnie Depp, Willem Dafoe and Johnny Trejo are all in it.

I have finally got a website up for the wedding. You will notice the presence of a new button in the menu on the left. There isn’t much there yet but at least there is something and there is a place for people to go to to get information about the wedding. I will be adding the RSVP system shortly (or so I say.) At least I am catching up on this site too.

Today is the big day. I am heading down to Trumansburg later for the annual “Party at the Pond” and Dominica has her bridal shower at Letchworth State Park. Danielle came over early and helped get Min ready for everything today. She is driving Min over to the shower and coaching her throughout the day to keep her stress under control. Min got out the door (Danielle is driving Min over to the park) around 10:30. I did a little bit of cleaning since a number of our family members will be over to see the house for the first time later today. I hit the road for T-Burg around 11:15.

The party was really good. The crowd was small but it was all people I know which was fun. The weather was a bit chilly but not too bad. Plenty of vegetarian food… it is nice that there are more and more of us around so that it is easily to deal with. I headed back home around 5:00.

On the way home I spent some time on the phone. NTI now has a new Account Manager working from Albany. We are attempting to solidify Upstate New York.

Min had a good time at the shower but she was fast asleep by the time that I got home. Minutes after I got home, about a dozen or more members of my family stopped by to see the new house since just about no one has seen it yet. Min was too sleepy to be able to get out of bed to visit, though. Andy came out and spent time with everyone. Min gave me her engagement ring to show off to the guys since none of the men have seen it yet except for Andy.

After everyone left Andy and I went down to Main St. and got some subs from Aunt Cookies. The girls working there had, apparently, just got a huge load of onions and the air in the restaurant was so full of onion fumes that we both started to cry and ended up crying all through our meals. It was really hilarious. The subs were completely loaded with fresh onion too and we both completely reaked of onions by the time we got back

I worked on the laptop and I watched a couple of movies, Deliver Us From Eva, which was awful and The Godfather Part II which is one of the best movies ever. I am not sure if I have ever seen it. If I did, it was so long ago that I didn’t remember the exact story line. So I didn’t end up going to bed until 4:00 am.

The end of the work week. It has been a really busy week and there is no work to be done over the weekend with parties and showers and relatives. I went up to Rochester this morning to meet with my account representative at the Berry Company about putting an ad in the Rochester Metro Yellow Pages. Today is the final day to get ads submitted so I had to get it done very quickly. I decided on getting two ads, one slightly larger ad with our company emblem and a small one with just text under two different headings. So, when the pages come out in December, you can see us listed there. It is kind of excited to know that you are going to be listed in the phonebook going out to a million people. We will be putting ads in the Southern Area directories early next year when they come out. Leanne works at the Berry Company so she joined Eric and I for lunch at Jay’s Diner.

Dominica worked last night so she slept during the morning. After lunch, she drove up to Henrietta to meet Eric and I at the Gem Lab to pick up her real engagement ring. So we finally have it and she is actually wearing it now. So everyone can bug her about it, I know how all the girls are. Quick description: 18 small diamonds and 20 small sapphires set in an ornate platinum band with a round center diamond. It is a really neat 1930’s style ring. It is nice because it is very different from anything that anyone else we know has which is always a problem.

I loaded up my car with as much trash from the garage as I could fit (mostly papers and cardboard) and drove over to my parent’s house with it and burned it. The garage is a lot emptier now. What a difference that made. There is still another load that needs to go but the bulk of it has been taken care of. We still don’t have trash service at the house because we don’t know how we turn the service on. I need to talk to Linda, she knows everything. I visited with my relatives for a little while before running back over to Geneseo to get some dinner and Andy and Min at the Omega Grill (that is Min’s favorite.)

Arti went out and picked up a copy of Age of Empires after playing Age of Mythology last night. So now we have another player. That makes eight of us. Enough to play a totally maxed out game. We are really excited. There is Bob, Josh, Andy, Min, Eric, Arti, Jeremy (my cousin) and I now. The house network isn’t totally together yet, in fact, there is no way to support eight players in house yet, but we can support a few. There will be five stable video gaming stations in place soon (three basement office spaces, Andy’s room and Min’s room) and the wireless system will support a few players in the living room or out on the deck plus one or two in the future “theatre room” space. Everyone is pretty excited about the prospects of a huge gaming party.

Busy day of work. Danielle came over to work at the house today and Arti and Michael came over to hang out while we worked. Danielle and I worked on advertising and promotional materials while Michael and Arti played. Then Danielle helped Min get things ready for the bridal shower (they are wrapping chocolates) while Arti played Age of Mythology on my computer and I worked on the laptop. Arti has played turn-based strategy games and really likes them but has never played a real time strategy game before. So this is an adventure for him. He played a whole game (we took a break for dinner, the girls picked up subs from the new Wegmans sub shop around the corner) and beat it on easy.

More work around the house today. Tons of work needs to be done to get the company up and running in its new capacity. Danielle, Arti and Michael came over this afternoon to get some work done here. After they went home, Min and I drove up to Henrietta and went to the Gem Lab to look for engagement rings. We were there for a while and finally, finally found a ring that we both really liked. We ended up buying the ring and it is supposed to be ready for us on Friday afternoon. Min has had a ring for a while but it was just a temp ring waiting for us to get the house all taken care of so that we could go and get a real ring.