The Official Site for the Lackluster Goings-On of Michael Kaiser
Posts tagged holidays
New Year’s Wishy Washes
Jan 7th
Another Wordpress update! Let’s start keeping track.
Christmas came and went. I think we celebrated it four times, between The Kid, my parents, The Girl’s parents and then various in-laws. It’s all a whirlwind now in my head. The Girl and I hosted dinner aka I sat around and drank while she cooked all day. As far as loot, the best thing I got was a rocking chair and high chair from my parents, which isn’t necessarily for me specifically, but it means I don’t have to buy either of those things, which pleases me immensely. Favorite loot given? A custom CD of The Kid singing over some tracks, given to the grandparents and created courtesy of Audacity, which just rocks, BTW. Here’s the cover:
New Year’s resolutions? Well I feel like I’m channeling Fat Elvis again, which makes sense as I’m eating and drinking whatever I want and not exercising in the slightest. Seems like I do this every year; get vigilant in the summer and fat in the winter. Perhaps I was a bear in a previous life. I’m liking the idea of P90X, but that would require me cleaning out the garage and buying accessories, so maybe I’ll just try across the street again. Of course, another resolution is to actually clean out the garage, so perhaps I should do that at some point! Otherwise I can’t think of much I want to do or change. I got a baby coming, I figure that will take up most of this year’s time. I don’t need to add more hobbies or missions to my agenda.
Speaking of baby, The Dude has yet to arrive still. Not that he’s late, but I think The Girl assumed she would not go to term because The Kid escaped early. But nope, it looks like he’s going to wait until the last minute, probably because he’s lazy like his old man.
Speaking of old man, lookit:
Yep! Can’t see no more. The doctor said I have an astigmatism, which isn’t necessarily an old age thing and probably something I should have addressed a long time ago, but maybe she was just being nice.
Up To Date
Dec 21st
Once again, logged into Wordpress and there is another update. Just like last month. Six plugin updates too. Guess I should log into Wordpress more often, eh? Damn that Facebook. Seriously, it’s so much easier to write, “Man this month went by fast!” as a Facebook status update over writing five paragraphs about it on this journal. But then it’s a lot easier to look up my past adventures here than on Facebook, which doesn’t have an archive feature other than “Click Here for Older Posts.” But do I look at my past adventures? Not really. So maybe I’ll turn this journal into something else, but until I figure out what “else” is…
Here is the 2009 Year End Catchup, brought to you by iGoogle – helping me remember what I’ve done lately since 2006:
We celebrated Halloween much like we did last year, only with a few more kids and adults. I still find it funny that the adults outnumber the kids on this holiday. I don’t remember it being like that when I was a kid. Maybe my family needs to produce more children. (Working on it!) Anyway, here are the kids:
And here are the bored adults:
Good times. Next up, we had a faux-Thanksgiving at my parents house because my long-lost aunts were in town. That was the original plan anyway, but instead we just got some deli trays because visiting is more interesting than cooking. Here’s a picture of the original Kaiser clan where almost everyone is looking in the same direction:
Then my mother-in-law celebrated her 20th anniversary of her 21st birthday. I have pictures but I will not post them because she doesn’t like when I do that without her signing off on the picture first, and she’s not here right now.
Then at some point last month The Girl got The Dude’s side of the room complete. Isn’t she talented?
Wait, didn’t I already post that? Maybe it was on Facebook. Oh well, next! Still in November. My brother and his long time gal decided to get married. Shocker, I know. I thought they were going to do the whole “engaged forever” thing too. Most of us didn’t see the ceremony because they don’t like public displays of affection, I guess? But the dinner afterward was nice and everyone had a good time. Here’s a picture where they both look about as happy as they get.
Congrats little brother! Now we’re in December and The Girl gets the tree up ASAP because that’s how she rolls.
That’s right fellas, I did that too her! (High Five!) The Kid helped with the tree too, and I took pictures per usual. Then my Best Good Friend and I went to Star Trek: The Exhibit. It was fun, if not a bit small, and renewed my love of Trek for about three days. And of course, I bought a bunch of overly priced photos. Here’s one of them:
Season 3 Captain Kirk gut totally on purpose. (cough) Then The Kid had part one of her December spoilifercation process by celebrating turning six with a blow out at Chuck’s:
And that about covers October through December, not counting Christmas of course, which hasn’t happened yet. We’re having Christmas at our house this year, assuming The Girl doesn’t go into labor first. Should be fun. It feels like the last arc of this year has really flown by, and I guess I can see why now that I’ve lay it all out for myself. I’m a lot busier than I used to be, but it’s fun. The Girl and I have been ready for Christmas, gift-wise and decoration-wise, since November 30th. Not sure I’m feeling it yet though. Maybe because I’m more interested in this:
He’s not due until next year, and let’s hope that’s how it plays out but…stand by!
One If By Land, Two If By Sea
Jul 7th
And apparently it was two, at least according to NATIONAL TREASURE, which I watched again last night. Man The Girl loves that movie. Good thing her next husband, Nick Cage, is getting weirder looking in his old age, or I’d be worried.
(So how does everyone else format their titles? Online-wise, I’ve generally done the ALL CAPS THING, but maybe that’s garish and italic would be easier on the eyes, or bold perhaps, or maybe both? Thoughts? Maybe it depends on what kind of title I’m typing about. Maybe I should look it up in that fancy formatting and grammer book I have floating around somewheres. )
Went to a “party” that turned out to be more of a get-together in Santa Cruz with in-laws for The 4th. Swam, ate a ridiculous amount of food. Like a TON. And that was apparently just appetizer because after I couldn’t eat any more, they brought out the actual food. Gah. But it was good and I didn’t have to eat again for 48 hours, so it worked out. Went home while it was still daylight and crashed early. Or tried to anyway, as I ended up tossing and turning on the couch until about 4am. Didn’t see any fireworks, but that was fine, I’ve seen them before and still had the “joy” of hearing them all night. Otherwise, uneventful weekend spent with The Girl and no kid, which was nice. Not that The Kid isn’t nice too, but the mini-vacation felt good.
Listening to the Michael Jackson funeral in the background. Someone’s talking nice things about him, not sure who. Funny how the press and famous people have been about trashing the “child molesting freak” for the last decade or so, but now that he’s dead, it’s all about how awesome he is again. I bet he faked his death and is living on Celebrity Island or something. Good for him. Man he was big when I was kid. I forgot how big. I used to break dance at lunch in grade school. THAT’S how big he was. I have a scar on my thumb from the time I really stupidly tried to cut the fingers off a pair of cotton gloves with a kitchen knife. THAT’S how big he was. It’s a trip to see all the old footage and videos and stuff, seeing back in the day. My uncle was asking a car full of us a couple days after he died whether he was really that big or not (not out of sarcasm or pessemism or anything, he honestly didn’t know) and I got to thinking…um…YES! I had forgetting how YES he was, but yeah he was everywhere. He was the King. Oh well. R.I.P. Michael.
Someone just sang his favorite song SMILE, (I’m betting the format of a song title should be different from a movie title?) which of course is a great song, but I had no clue it was written by Charlie Chaplin. Please someone revoke my Useless Geek Trivia Knower license.
My Wittle Blogs All Growed Up!
Feb 20th
Eh, not really, as I’m still the writer, but I did change the theme to something less geek-tastic. I guess I’d rather brand myself these days, rather than Paramount properties, especially when I’m not feeling said properties lately, anyway. Why plug something that hasn’t excited me for some time, eh? Besides, this way I don’t have to pay LiveJournal for the pleasure of customizing my theme and allowing me mucho userpics. Wastes of money in these trying economic times must go. Just ask the news, they’ll tell you!
Well it’s February already, and I almost didn’t post. Whoops! The in-laws were staying at our place for a while. They worked on our place while we were at work. Part of me feels guilty that they didn’t just relax, part of me is happy that there was less laundry and the crown molding got painted. Hey, I didn’t ask them to work, so I guess I’m guilt free!
My birthday came and went. I don’t feel different, except maybe more lethargic, but that’s lack of exercise more than lack of youth. My parents and uncle came over and The Girl cooked everyone a great dinner, then we showed off wedding pictures for the umpteen time. (We should have had a wedding pictures viewing party or something.) On Valentine’s Day, both sets of parents, myself, The Girl and my sister’s family went to a fancy grill across the street from my house. Good food, good booze, a nice time was had by all. Maybe next year The Girl and I will do the more romantic route with just the two of us, but the goal this year was to be thrifty and sociable.
Got money back on taxes this year, so w00t! But daddy needs a new car, so boo. Seems like this is going to be the year of money issues, but then we’re not alone on that front. Just ask the news, they’ll tell you! My goal this year is to be smarter and tighter with the wallet, but then I say that every year, so what do I know?
The Girl is thinking about going to wedding planning school, or whatever it’s called. Apparently planning one wedding created a junky and now she wants to do it all the time, only with other people’s money, so that’s good. I’m thinking about going back to school too, but per usual, am torn as to what I would like to accomplish.
I think I might be abusing the comma.
Here Comes The Groom
Jan 13th
Christmas was a blur. The Kid made out like a bandit, otherwise I remember little. The usual get-togethers, the usual dinners. The in-laws stayed at our place, (I have in-laws now -weird!) so that made it more interesting, but in my head at least, it was all about the impending wedding, and Christmas was just a hurdle to get through, especially financially. Simple, fun, and then done.
Rehearsal was the next day. It went much quicker and more chaotically than I thought it would. For one, it was freezing, (for California anyway), which wasn’t a good sign, since the rehearsal was around the same time as the wedding was going to be the next day. So everyone was shaking and shivering while we did a quick walk through of the “here comes the bride” bit. It was fairly easy, though the flower girls pretty much ran around ignoring everyone. I was surprised we didn’t go over anything else like announcements, food, dancing, toasts, etc., but what did I know? After rehearsal we went home where take out had been ordered from a Mexican place in Morgan Hill, and we ate and drank and then I took off for a hotel, because I couldn’t see the bride on the morning of, and none of my family have allergy free houses I can stay at. (Cats! Lots of cats!)
The hotel was fairly ungood. I actually got my hotels confused when I booked the room online because I thought I was staying at a different place that probably would have been better, but oh well. It was for one night, and after a week of a full house and various family events, it was nice to have a quiet night to myself, where I could toss and turn all night. I don’t think if I was nervous in the “oh man I’m going to be committed for life tomorrow” sense, but more in a “I hope everything goes right and I don’t trip and fall on my face or something” kind of way. Whatever it was, my brain and stomach wouldn’t shut up, so I didn’t get much sleep. Somehow I doubt most people get much sleep before their wedding day.
The next morning, I went and got The Girl’s car washed and then got ready to go in time for check out, at which point I had about three hours to kill before I had to be “at the church” (aka the golf course), so I went to my parents house and chilled with them and my brother and his girlfriend, who had just flown in the night before. My nervousness had turned in to a surreal calm by that point, and it seemed odd to me that all this talking and planning for the last six months was finally going to pay off today.
Went to the golf course, so I could hurry up and wait. The Girl and her party were already their, prepping in their area, and it was really weird knowing she was in the same building as me but we couldn’t say howdy or anything. I hid in the boy’s lounge until it was my time to take Groom pictures, which were as tedious as the engagement shots, but I guess that’s what we’re paying for.
Lots more waiting and pacing and then all of a sudden “it’s time” and I’m on my way down the hallway passing familiar faces who all greeted me and threw words at me I don’t remember and then I was on my way to the alter locked arm in arm with my parents, and flower girls were walking down the aisle looking all cute and behaving themselves, and I got choked up when I saw The Kid come down the aisle for some reason, which wasn’t good since the ceremony hadn’t even started yet and I was already losing it, and then The Girl came around the corner with her father and she looked beautiful and my head started floating about four feet above my shoulders wondering how the heck I suckered her into all this and then I was shaking her dad’s hand and he passed her over to me and I couldn’t take my eyes off her as the minister started saying stuff, who knows what it was, and I caught a look from The Kid who gave me a wink and thumbs up and I found that funny and odd because I didn’t know she knew how to do either of those things, and then we repeated our vows to one another, who knows what they were, and The Girl got all choked up which made me choke up and then we were pouring sand in a vase thing with our mothers and her daughter and then we were man and wife and I was kissing her and she was telling me to slow down as he walked back down the aisle together.
In other worlds, it all happened so fast! After that though, we had a brief moment to breath and talk to each other as everyone went to the bar while we hid in the hall, waiting for the photographer to take more pictures. It was cold outside so we limited the family shots to a few big group shots, and then The Girl and I spent a loooooong time outside taking photo after photo. Ultimately I’m sure we will not regret this, but at the time, I wanted to be in the bar drinking something to warm me up. At least I had a jacket, by the end of the shoot The Girl’s sleeveless arms were going to fall off, I think.
Finally it was over and we got to go inside and have a quiet moment at the bar, get a few drinks to warm up and wait to be announced. Got to watch the photos or our childhood we collected and scanned rotating on the tv screen, which was cool. Then we were announced and inside the reception area and sat down for all of two seconds before we were up going to table to table saying hi to everyone. It’s weird how, despite being the guests of honor, it seemed harder for us to socialize than anyone else. I guess that’s just how weddings work. I want to see the pictures of all the stuff we missed while we were away doing bride and groom stuff.
Got a few bites of food, two great toasts from both dads, and then it was on to the first dance. I don’t dance, never have. We took lessons to get me through this. Five lessons, and we didn’t practice outside of these lessons, so I was pretty nervous about how we’d do. The dance floor seemed much tinier than I thought it was going to be, and the crowd much bigger. I don’t think we took a single step right, at least it didn’t feel like we did, but The Girl was happy with it, and everyone else seemed happy with it, so I’m happy with it. At least it was over quickly. Then off to more dancing with parents, and money dance, and then just general dancing. I think I made up for the “never dancing in my life” thing on that dance floor, and The Girl danced twice as much as I did. Of course, now that I’ve done it, she’ll expect it from me at future weddings and events, but oh well.
After the first dance, it was pretty much all fun for me. It’s still a blur, but I got to see lots of people I haven’t seen in a while, and managed to talk to most of them. It was a much better time than I thought it was going to be honestly, since I usually don’t do these things well. I think neither of us could have asked for a more perfect day. It went off without a hitch…well except for the one.
After that we were off to Carmel for an all too brief honeymoon and then back to reality. Still don’t have the professional pictures yet, but other people brought cameras and my Facebook was flooded with tags when I got back.
Life is now pretty much the same, except I have an itchy ring finger, and we’ll get a nicer tax break this year. And I get to say “my wife” in sentences now, which is still taking some getting used to.
So I’m married now…to the love of my life…two and a half weeks strong…w00t!
BTW, this is the cake topper The Girl surprised me with! Cool eh?
And actually…shouldn’t I be upgrading “The Girl” to “The Wife?” Still weird!
At Long Last
Dec 19th
In which the author updates his blog with personal stuff for the last time as a single person.
The Kid had a birthday party at my parents house on the 6th. It had a bounce house, face painting and a pony to ride. Boy things are sure different then when I was a kid. Whoops, that sentence made me officially old. Oh well. It’s like the standard now to have all that stuff at a birthday party. Back in my day, we had cake and presents and um…yep that’s it. We also walked to school uphill both ways, so I guess it’s better to live in the now rather than the then. The party went off pretty well, though it was a bit chaotic and I had to run a few errands. (My new job position, I guess.) The Girl got stressed out for a little bit, but in the end, I think everyone had fun. The kids did especially, and that’s the important part. I took advantage of the bounce house a few times, and I have to say, kids must be in amazing shape! I bounced about three times and was ready to die. Maybe rebound training isn’t a horrible idea!
The next weekend, we went to see The Nutcracker at the San Francisco Ballet. The Girl and I did this last year, when we first started dating and it was great, so we decided to try it again this year, but up the ante and bring The Kid too. (She could use some culture.) It kinda worked, kinda didn’t. We went on a work day, so the rushing to get read sucked. The drive bored The Kid to tears, so there were lots of “are-we-there-yets. We went to a kid specific show because it was supposed to be less formal and because the dancers were supposed to be in the lobby at the beginning of the show and we thought The Kid would enjoy seeing ballet dancers. But they weren’t there, and “less formal” actually meant “super obnoxious kids everywhere,” so it was hard to concentrate on the performance. The Kid liked the show at first, but after intermission was pretty much done, so we ended up leaving early. So, it ended up being okay, but I think next year we’ll go back to an adults only trip. Also driving up and back in the same day was dumb, so if we can’t afford a hotel next year, we just won’t go!
The Girl and I have been tight on cash because of the wedding, so we waited until the last minute to Christmas shop, and then busted it out in one day. That’s how I prefer to roll come Christmas time anyway, so that was fine with me. Despite being a bit frugal, I think everyone is still going to make out. I sold more geek stuff on eBay to help pay us back a bit, which has worked out pretty well. Course I’m running out of stuff to sell, so that trick won’t work much longer. Next year we’ll have to be tighter about finances if we want to recover from this year’s fun.
Grandma was checked into the hospital for lack of insulin. She’s since been checked out and moved in temporarily with my parents. They watched her take her medicine last night and she tried injecting herself with air because she couldn’t see that her syringe didn’t have medication in it, so that explains the lack of insulin! She really can’t live alone anymore, but is fighting the idea of moving, which I find odd since she’s been telling me her whole life how, when she gets old enough, she’s going to check herself into a home so her kids don’t have to worry. I guess it’s different when it’s theoretical.
The wedding is one week and one day away. I’ll steal a label from stage people and dub the next seven days “hell week,” not because it will be horrible, but definitely quick and busy. All the last minute details have to be remembered and ironed out, and we have to fit in family visiting, Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas day somehow. Should be fun! Everyone keep asking me if I’m ready and if I have cold feet, (one person even asked me if I had wet feet, but I don’t think that’s right), like they’re dying to catch me scared out of my mind. I’m a bit nervous, but not about the commitment. Just about the ceremony itself going off without a hitch, (well except the one hitch but…never mind).
Stuffed and Other Stuff
Dec 1st
So what have I been up to?
Had to attend the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation convention to hock wares for work. Sounds pretty cool, huh? But no, not really. Fairly boring, especially when the show was slow, which it was often. Didn’t see much of San Diego either, but it seemed like an interesting town. My hotel room had an ocean side view, but also came with a train that had to blow it’s horn every time it came by my window, which was every hour or so all night long, so it was a sleepless weekend. But at least food and drink were comped, and my co-worker and I went to town the day before we had to leave, so that was fun.
Turkey Day came and went, and was great. The Girl and I hosted it this year, which is to say that she cooked and I answered the door. I think I got the better end of the deal. I did clean the place the night before, so I didn’t get out of everything, but oh well. I was worried that our place would be too small to support everyone, but it worked out. Helps when half the cast is kids, I guess. It was crowded, but in a good way. I’m glad it’s over, but it was fun. Probably a good idea that it’s only celebrated once a year. Now on to Christmas and then a wedding. Gah. I hope 2009 is super boring. I need some boring.
As if Thanksgiving wasn’t enough, my car decided to go crazy the same week. First the ignition switch got stuck in the on position, so I had to kill the engine by pulling out fuses. Took it to a shop and of course the estimate to replace the ignition switch key escalated once they found all these other very serious problems that I should definitely fix. I drive an old car, of course there are serious problems. I should have just fixed the switch, but I let them sucker me and fix everything and…it drives worse now! Dumb. And of course it’s not their fault because the problem it has now has nothing to do with what they worked on but geez the coincidence of it all. I think they wired something wrong, or jacked with it on purpose to eek more money out of me. But forget it, I’ve put in more money on the Princess Beast than she’s worth, so I think it’s time to find a steep cliff and get to pushing. I would like a Lexus LS Hybrid. Help a brother out? I should find a donate button to put on this site.
Speaking of buttons, I took the W3C compliant buttons off this site. YouTube embeds are apparently not compliant, which means this site isn’t compliant because I like embedding YouTube videos. Oh well! (Actually there’s a way to make YouTube embeds compliant, but I’m not going to deal with that hassle every time I want to post a video. No one cares if I’m compliant, do they?)
On the geek front, despite being excited about the Trek trailer, the followup commentaries and articles I’ve been reading about the context of said trailer are still leaving me ho hum. The excitement has passed and I’m back to thinking the movie will blow. Maybe I should stop reading about it and go in cold turkey, but too late for that anyway. Plus, what else am I going to browse?
Saw the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace last week, as well. I brushed off Good Buddy so I could see it with my dad, and then my dad saw it with my mom while I was in San Diego, so then I was going to see it with The Girl but she felt the need to prep for Thanksgiving and brushed me off, so I ended up seeing it by myself. I wanted to see it, and I’ve never really cared about going to to movies by myself. It’s not like you talk to whomever you’re with when you go see a flick anyway. (Or if you are talking with the person you’re with…I hate you.) The movie was okay, but somewhat disappointing. It didn’t really follow up on the last installment, and the pacing was weird and a lot of the plot made no sense, or didn’t seem to matter. Not a great follow up for the perfection that was Casino Royale, but then I still left the theater wanting to be a secret agent for a living, so I suppose the movie did have a Bond-ness to it. I Except You To Die! wrote a great review that pretty much sums up why the film didn’t work for me without me having to write it all out myself, which I appreciate because I am lazy. So just read that if you’re interested in what I think, but beware of spoilers.
The Kid has a 5th birthday party this weekend. Her mum and dad are worried few will show up, but here’s hoping IMO because the less kids who show, the more likely I’ll get some bounce house action!
Bone Daddy
Nov 3rd
Halloween has come and gone and went off pretty well. Luckily the weather changed to gloomy, just like I like. Had it continued to be in the 80s and sunny like it had been right up to 24 hours prior, I would have been bummed. But instead, overcast and cold, with a touch of rain. Awesome. Took The Kid trick or treating around the neighborhood, along with my sister’s baby we were sitting, The Girl, her ex-husband and his (boy)friend, who seemed like the kind of guy who’s been kicked in the head one too many times by a horse. It was a weird cast, four adults escorting one little Supergirl door to door, but she had fun, so that was the important part.
I didn’t dress up as anything this year. I do that more often then not, but didn’t regret it much this time around, as there seems to be enough on my plate. Next year I will go over the top and make up for this year’s laziness. The Girl was supposed to join me in my non-celebration but caved and came up with a horribly perfect golfer outfit to go to work in, complete with clashing colors and argyle socks. I have never found her less attractive, so mission accomplished!
The weekend was otherwise pretty relaxing. We were supposed to accomplish all these things, but instead used the bad weather an excuse to stay in, enjoy the fire, and watch movies. The Girl did get the wedding invitations done, so I suppose I’m the only one who truly accomplished nothing. Go me! And speaking of weddings, our rings just arrived via Fed Ex and are sitting on my desk as I type this, so think I shall stop typing this so I can open the box and check out its prizes. Peace!
