11 posts tagged “jason”
29 is the atomic number of copper. 29 is also the age I have been since Saturday.
Eva got spayed on Thursday last week, so I took Friday off to stay home and care for her. We spent all day playing Street Fighter IV (yes, she played... maybe), cuddling and napping. It was great. Other than the scar on her stomach, which they sealed with surgical glue rather than stitches, she was in great shape from day one. Her behaviour hadn't changed a bit - she wasn't feeling sorry for herself or moping, she was just as happy and excitable as ever. This cheered me up, because I had read a ton of spaying horror stories before we took her in.
I had a great, but quiet, birthday. On top of all the cards and messages from friends and family, I was spoiled and received...
- Lots of money to spend on nice things
- Saints Row 2: Collector's Edition for Xbox 360 (it's the game, a USB stick shaped like a bullet, a money clip, a poster and an art book in an embossed tin)
- New jeans
- An awesome t-shirt: www.isteamphone.com
I felt very spoiled and very loved. Today, I came into work to find chocolate from my friends Jason and Brad, too.
Jess was very good to me. On top of my presents, I got a tasty breakfast in bed (biscuits and gravy) and she suffered Indian food with me that night. The place we went to was shockingly good, I would say the best Indian I have had in the US so far.
This week, I'm back to work. Rather than sending her to daycare, where she might over-exert herself and mess with her scar, Eva is staying with her aunty Lindsay every day. This kills two birds with one stone - Eva gets one on one care, Lindsay gets all the puppy kisses she wants. WIN!
It's crazy times right now. Lots happening. After the surprise birthday party last week, we were somehow more manic this week.
On Thursday, Jess and I got out of work early, went to see WALL-E and had dinner together. Afterwards, we met co-workers at a bar as it was the day of Laura's birthday. They had been there since they got out of work, so we were by far the most sober people there. Until Lindsay's Doug showed up. Poor guy. We ducked out of there early.
I... can't actually remember what we did during the day on Friday. I do know we got lunch and did a bunch of shopping at Target, but other than that, I think we bummed around. At 7pm, we met up with Laura with a mini-picnic then went to the harbour. Lindsay and Doug met us there and we all sat on the waterfront to have our picnic. Eric and Mitchell showed up shortly after, just in time to watch all the fireworks going off along the lake.
We dumped shit off at home, then went to a nearby bar for a couple of drinks.
On Saturday, we had a ton of errands to run. We paid our economic stimulus cheque into our bank account, went through the pre-approval process at AT&T (ahead of the iPhone 3G release on Friday!), then Jess went to the dentist while I took a faulty item back to Target. We were going to go to a barbeque, but after having a long nap, we just went to our favourite Mexican place and chilled out.
Today, we went for lunch and did more shopping. We needed more sporty clothing as we've been asked to fill in on my office softball team. Yes, me, playing sport. I know, right? Anyway, we got all of that stuff, got it home then got ready for our first softball practice. There were only a handful of people there, but we got a good go of it. Neither of us was as bad as we expected - I connected with the ball a lot, and wasn't a total washout at catching. Bowling (sorry, pitching), however, was another matter.
This week is going to continue the activity. We're taking tomorrow off as we have a lot of chores to do. We have Wolf Parade on... Tuesday? I can't remember. I need to listen to their new CD more. Hopefully this means we get to see The Josie after what seems like forever. Thursday is the Big Kahuna - my green card interview. After aeons, it's finally a reality. Jess is currently wading through a file of paperwork the size of Alaska so we're ready. Then Friday is possibly iPhone day, if they have enough in stock.
Busy busy busy.
On an unrelated note, one of my favourite albums of last year - Heresy & The Hotel Choir by Maritime - came with a bonus 7" featuring two songs. One of those songs was called 'Boy From School', and was pretty awesome...
It turns out, it was a cover of a Hot Chip song...
Which was also covered by Portastatic...
This was a good weekend. I am going to mention a bunch of people's names - they're mostly co-workers, don't worry.
We had wanted to see WALL-E on Friday, and even arranged to do so with our friends Jason and Brad, but two things transpired to prevent us. First, the showing we wanted to go to sold out right before I could order tickets online. Then Jason had to stay late at work because of a production issue. In the end, we just ate at Chili's (mmm, bacon and beef in a bun) then watched an entire disc of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia.
Saturday was chores day, so we tidied the crap out of the house, got lunch then Jess went home while I got a haircut. My mane was growing increasingly impossible to deal with and horrible to look at, so it had to be removed. We didn't get long to bum around before we met Doug, got in a cab and headed to Lindsay and Laura's surprise birthday party... at WHIRLYBALL!!!
Whirlyball is awesome. You're in a dodgem car that has a foot pedal and a crank for steering. While steering with one hand, you hold a plastic lacrosse-style net and attempt to throw a small ball at a circle of mesh on a baseball backboard with the other. As well as Jess, Doug, Lindsay, Laura and myself, there was Jeff, Lindsay's husband Doug and a ton of their friends and family. I felt slightly odd crashing into a cousin or brother in an attempt to get the ball, but it was wicked fun. I think I have found my "sport".
Also, for the record, Lindsay's dad owned.
From there, we headed to a bar called Schoolyard for the drinking. More and more people came along as the night progressed - Kristian, Jason, Brad, Brandon, other Jason, Mike and Betsy, and more of the birthday girls' family and friends. Everyone seemed to get along, and we were out till after midnight, at which point we turned into (very drunk) pumpkins and made our way home.
I woke up feeling as fit as a fiddle, possibly aided by drinking piss weak Miller Light all night, but Jess seemed mucho hungovero. Despite that, we managed to get our shit together and walk on up to the corner near Jason and Brad's place to watch the Chicago Gay Pride Parade. The parade had only just started when we got there, and it turned out to be a long old haul. People joined us - Kristian and his brother Kristopher, Jason and Brad's friend Karen, Doug and his friend Jess, another girl called Shelly... I have no idea who she was.
Several hours and two rain-induced interuptions later, we headed to get food, eating at a pizza place called Purgatory Pizza. We were ravenous, and after waving other people's food by our faces for what seemed like forever, they finally brought our pizza out... except they got it wrong. In the end, they gave us the wrong pizza, a smaller version of what we actually ordered and all our drinks for $6. We felt bad, though, and left a huge tip. The pizza itself was tasty... with a really crispy base.
And that was our weekend.
What's making you smile today?
Making fun of Jason - a common pasa tiempos.
But it is. Bo. At least it's been a fun, productive weekend.
After the cable was installed yesterday, we got some lunch, set up the various boxes in our lounge how we wanted them then headed out to a nearby-ish bar to meet some of my co-workers - Jason, Laura, Kristian, Lindsay, Mike, Peter and various spouses/friends/partners. Jason turned 33 so we all got him tipsy enough to slap people:
There are more photos of the mild debauchery, but I'm only sharing a cute one:
Being the lightweights we are, we ducked out early (but then, we had started drinking before 5pm). Jess ended up watching Bridget Jones while I passed out.
I felt very manly.
We got that home, and then spent the day tidying up the apartment, going on a huge grocery shop (in which more than 50% of the items we bought were vegetables or fruit), watching the hilarigross reunion special of Rock Of Love With Bret Michaels and generally bumming around.
It's a shame it's over already.
What a week.
Tuesday marked the one year anniversary of my getting on a plane at Heathrow with two big bags, a guitar and a smaller bag and stepping off at O'Hare to begin my new life in America.
I still remember that day. I could barely sleep - partially because I was on the floor at my parents' house, and partly because I was so nervous. My mum refused to come as she didn't want to cry in public, so it was just me and one of my two dads in the car.
I don't remember the flight, but I do remember getting off, getting through customs with my shiny new visa and meeting Jess. We got a cab back to our place - a place I had never seen before as Jess had only just moved in a few months prior.
Since then, it's been a busy year: we got married (twice... sort of); I got a job that has kept me plenty busy; we've had ups and downs with US Immigration; we've been to gigs and movies and restaurants; I've made new friends and somehow kept in touch with old ones. I won't feel fully settled in until I get my green card, but it wasn't as hard as it could have been.
And from one anniversary to another as yesterday as the anniversary of my being born. 28 years old... Jebus. Although I was at work and busy, it was a good birthday. I got money, vouchers and presents up the wazoo; I got to eat Indian food (double nice as Jess hates it) and a tasty, giant banana cupcake; I went for a nice lunch with Leslie and Jason at work. I feel spoiled, but old.
Today is the piece de resistance. A project that started back in November; that has caused plenty of long days, late nights and weekends; that has seen myself and several co-workers amassing wrinkles, grey hairs and scruffy facial hair... this project that has been our lives finally launches today. It's a huge deal: we launch the latest version of our platform, written from scratch, with a massive site for Comcast - one of the biggest cable TV companies in the US - and a smaller one for Bresnan. Right now, we're just finishing the final preparations after a couple of test runs before our five hour launch at 6pm.
If we get through this, we can get through anything.
As I've mentioned before, when I moved to the US, I had to leave all my CDs behind so I ripped all 11,000+ songs to my portable hard drive and back them up to a second hard drive I bought here. Any new CDs bought since the move have also been ripped to the hard drive - whether Jess bought them or I did - and the number of songs is creeping up.
Today, we both bought a handful of CDs. I got...
- Juno (Official Soundtrack)
- Origin Of Symmetry, Absolution and Black Holes & Revelations by Muse
Jess got...
- Chase This Light by Jimmy Eat World
- The Con and So Jealous by Tegan & Sara
The best part of having such similar tastes is that we can split the cost of buying CDs. So I ripped them and the b-sides to the recent Radiohead single, Jigsaw Falling Into Place, before deciding today was the day to start tackling something I had put off for so long: ripping all the CDs Jess owns that I don't.
There's albums I don't have by bands I like, albums by bands I've never heard of, and albums by bands I personally would never by albums by (I won't mention names in case Jess is embarassed by some of them). I'm guesstimating that there's around 100 CDs to rip in here, at least. By the time I'm done, I'm sure the number of songs wll be over the 14,000 mark.
This is how I'm spending my Sunday.
I spent my Friday at work. I didn't leave the office until 2am as we had to get the two sites we're working on into the staging environment and working ahead of a client demo on Monday. That was fun. I have a few issues to fix tomorrow morning, but nothing scary.
My body wouldn't let me lay in yesterday, so I got up and played some Burnout Paradise. After cleaning the house and watching Waitress (a great film made more poignant by the fact writer/director/co-star Adrienne Shelley was murdered before she got to see the finished product), we went out for dinner and drinks with our friends Jason and Brad.
All in all, it's been a fairly relaxing weekend. Now we're just waiting for Rock Of Love to come on before getting an early night.
I don't think I made a tit of myself. Hooray!
I left work early with Jason - we decided to meet up with Jess and Brad somewhere for food before the party. We ended up going to English, which was very busy. All four of us got a selection of their slider burgers (I had two beef and one pulled pork, but there were various others on offer for $2-$3.50 each), washed down with beer.
We then headed to Martini Park where the party was being held. It was a short walk up the road from English, so we got there dead on 7pm: the time the party started. As we checked our coats, other co-workers arrived.
The venue was a huge, open space, and our company had a corner of it roped off with our own dedicated bar. As the name might suggest, their speciality was a selection of Martinis, but they also served normal booze. I started on beer then ended up on Bacardi and Diet Coke as beer makes me full.
We had a really good night, all in. Jess got to meet more of my co-workers and their partners, there was no aggro, and everyone enjoyed themselves. I spent a lot of time chatting in Spanish with Mayella, Eduardo's wife, the poor girl. The only downside to any of it was the live entertainment - two blonde girls on acoustic guitars with a backing band, singing everything from the Jackson 5 to Christina Aguilera to ABBA to The Temptations. Jess was very vociferous about her hatred, poor girl.
At around 11pm, we left with Eduardo and Mayella, sharing a cab home. We weren't too wasted, and as the venue was non-smoking, we didn't stink of crap either.
Today, a lot of my co-workers were very clearly suffering. A girl I work with called Lindsay, who started off bubbly, was sitting on the floor near my cube by this afternoon; and there were lots of very sore, tired-looking faces. There was a tasty tidbit of gossip, which it's pointless to share, so instead I will share a story one of my team members told me.
So this guy, Chris, went into the men's room at one point. There were a couple of chaps laughing about something, then one of them said to Chris: "Your mum!" A little bewildered, Chris replied: "What? No, YOUR mum." Suddenly angry, the guy said: "My mum's dead. Seriously." and then tried to beat Chris up, causing the toilet attendant to step in.
Americans!
It's snowing today. It settled all around our apartment, obscuring the parking lot below our window so it almost looks pretty. I'm writing this with the smell of pumpkin pie filling the place. It's officially winter.
Last night, after necking a few beers at our company's monthly party, I met Jess at home before we braved the cold to meet Jason and Brad for dinner. This was the first time Jess got to meet them, and I think it went well. We went to a restaurant called Ping Pong which had a tasty array of food, animal heads on the walls and a strange mix of contemporary RnB, dance and pop blaring out of all nooks and crannies. It took a while to be seated but the food was totally worth it.
From there, bellies full, we finished the night with beer at a newly-opened bar called Wilde (named after Oscar, and suitably Irish pub themed). There was a guy who looked at least at foot taller than me, and several guys the same height as Jess. I figured it must have been a visiting circus or something.
Today, Jess slept in while I played more Mass Effect. After mentioning it on here many times, I can safely say it's worth the anticipation. It's pushing the Xbox 360 to its limits, but it looks nothing less than stunning - coming across as Star Wars without the flimsy plot and rubberised aliens.
We braved the snow to grab lunch, cat food and other supplies (as well as dribbling over mobile phones briefly) and now Jess is cooking those pies ahead of us going to a potluck dinner with my co-workers and their partners. It should be fun, even if Leslie (my manager) lives a trillion miles north east of us.
Tomorrow I'l finish off my Christmas shopping so all I have to do is wrap and mail items as they arrive, as well as sleeping off two days of alcohol.
The title is pretty apt right now. It's taken from the song 'Unravel' by Bjork (which featured on Homogenic, one of my all-time favourite albums) that Radiohead recently covered on a webcast.
Original...
Radiohead cover...
Jess returns home in two days, we've been apart for four, and it's a very strange sensation. After all that cross-Atlantic bullshit, I hoped we would never spend ridiculous amounts of time apart ever again. Not that a week is very long, but I miss that stinky cheesehead.
After my last update, I napped ahead of going out for the midnight screening of Donnie Darko. I met Jason, his boyfriend Brad and their friend Valerie at the cinema. We weren't sure who else was coming, so after fifteen minutes, we headed to a nearby bar where we bumped into Laura and Mike. After a few drinks, Laura and Mike stayed on while the rest of us went to see the film.
It was a different version to the version I own - there was extra footage and better explanation of the bizarre plot. Having not seen the film for a long while, I really enjoyed it and it was worth staying out till 2.30am for. Especially as it reminded me of how much I love 'Head Over Heels' by Tears For Fears. I had also forgotten who was in the movie - Donnie's girlfriend Gretchen is played by Jena Malone (if you haven't seen the film Saved!, do it); one of the two bullies - although not the one named Seth - is played by Seth Rogen (The 40 Year Old Virgin, Superbad, Knocked Up); and crazy Christian teacher Kitty Farmer is played by Beth Grant, who was the pageant official in Little Miss Sunshine and Ralph's mum in My Name Is Earl.
Yesterday, I spent much of the day in bed - playing Command & Conquer 3, napping, watching Comedy Central. Doing as little as possible pretty much. I went to sleep quite early, waking (randomly) just in time to watch Metalocalypse before dozing off again to my iPod. My only contact with the outside world all day was when I ordered in some Thai food.
Tonight it'll be more of the same, but tomorrow I'm going out for dinner with Josie and Gaz and Wednesday I get Jess back.
