Monday, March 28, 2011
For all of you cooking experts.
This weekend I decided I was going to attempt to make lemon bars from scratch. It all went well until I cut into them and...it was all runny. I am fairly new at the whole baking thing but would love to get better. I have made plenty of box things but want to be able to do them from scratch. Does anybody have a great lemon bar recipe that they love? Or have any suggestions on how to fix the runny problem.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
The Proposal pt 1 - Ring Shopping
Proposing is not a simple process. Yes, I mean process. Asking the actually question is the conclusion to a long drawn out thought provoking, stress inducing process. Step 1 happens in your head. It is that first moment where you allow your brain to consider the possibility of living with this person forever. Forever is not exactly a time frame that eases your conscious when making ANY decision, especially one that requires you to choose the human being that you will be able to tolerate forever, as well as hopefully have them tolerate you and all your wonderful idiosyncrasies. I know it might not be romantic (I love you Courtney!), but love isn’t all roses, and long walks on the beach, and whispering sweet nothings into her ear. It is deciding that this human being annoys me less than all the others I have met, she is good looking, and seems to find me amusing, I might want to hang on to her!
and based on that video, I give you…
Like I said, not exactly text book romance, but sometimes reality is brutal. There is a moment of internal shock when you discover that this thought has passed into your conscious and you are surprisingly ok with this conclusion. The next thought is…now what? Ring shopping? Holy crap.
Now see, guys don’t sit around and plan this little transition. For me I was sitting on the couch most likely watching SportsCenter or the latest Discovery Channel show on the Universe or Theoretical Physics (side note: it is called theoretical physics, because it is a theory, meaning unproven. Similar Ref: Theory of Evolution…) when this little thought process occurred to me. I went through the 12 step mental process where the first step is: admitting I had a problem. The second step was…I have no idea what the other 12 steps are, but I hear that there are 12 of them and I am sure I went through all of them. I eventually concluded that I wanted to propose marriage. So, just to we recap this little moment, I sat down to watch a show on why there might be life under the frozen oceans of Saturn’s Moon Titan, and concluded I wanted to get married. I am pretty sure that was not one of the objectives set out by the producers of this show.
I decided to call my Dad about how to go about buying a ring. Now my Dad is part genius. He is like a walking Bible. He can quote you scripture no matter what the situation calls for, provide context and commentary on the drop of a hat. He can hold his own in scientific discussions about Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Cosmology, and he is Geophysicist. Ask about the devaluation of the dollar and the housing bubble, he can go there. He probably has opinions about the process of terra forming the Planet Mars for future human inhabitation. So logically I figured by asking the question, how do I buy an engagement ring, I would get a 30 minute Master’s thesis about how to do this. Nope. I got a pause and “uh….I don’t know”. Thanks Dad! Not Helpful.
So I decided to start looking online, I self taught myself about the 5C’s, Cut, Clarity, Certification, Color, and Carat. Yeah, um…diamond experts?, ya forgot the biggest C…COST! Now what I was really doing was preparing to go into battle. I had to go into battle with the diamond sales people. So suddenly this proposal process now became a battle of wills. It became a game. I was going to win. This is one of the most endearing qualities I have that Courtney absolutely loves. She always asks me if we can just go out and talk to sales people on the weekends for fun because she just loves watching me interact with them. Or more accurately, it is guaranteed to turn into a fight. I call the sales person out for some random stat that sounds fishy, or ask them why it is cheaper online (because I came prepared! Like the boy scouts baby!) and I am usually met with 1 death glare from Courtney, and the sales person is left grasping at weak answers and explanations that basically only confirm that I am winning (I can smell the victory!) Negotiation ensues. It is almost always guaranteed that the first place we go into I low ball them and they give me some line about not having the authority to lower the price so let me go ask the manager. Rarely do they agree and after a few smart comments without sufficient explanation we set out for the next place. This likely will lead to discussion in the car about why we don’t just get it, and me explaining the completely logical reason why we will save “x” dollars by doing it this way etc. Now it becomes a determination to proof I will save us money. She is rarely convinced despite my STELLAR track record. Basically, Sales people annoy me. This same principle can be applied to telemarketers or door-to-door sales people. May I present an example: (warning: adult language)
Now in the case of the ring, I was running solo. I was convinced that there was no way proposing and then bringing Courtney along for this little journey was gonna be good for my wallet. I picked out the ring myself (awww, that is so sweet) because it would be cheaper this way (cheapskate…). I knew I was going to get a round cut diamond, and I knew the facets and all the little things that were going to be thrown at me by the sales person. The sales pitch is basically the same.
Salesperson: “Hi, How can I help you?”
Jon: “Looking at Engagement rings…”
S: “Very nice! Congratulations!”
Jon: “For what? I am about to be poor and she hasn’t even said yes yet.” (Courtney just loves these encounters…did I mention that?)
S: “True, right this way sir.”
(I usually laugh to myself ‘cause at this point they have no idea how to deal with me, which was sort of the intention)
S: “What kind of ring would you like?” The say this as the pull out the craziest looking diamond coated piece of metal they have and continue “Look at this one, isn’t it gorgeous?”
Jon: “I think that looks pretty tacky, don’t you? Who buys something like that?”
Again, they are caught off guard as I walk to the engagement rings further down and find a few that look interesting. This is when the next pitch comes in as predictable as the Houston Humidity.
S: “Oh that is a wonderful choice!” (I could of picked out a turd on stick and this guy would of thought it was wonderful) “Now may I recommend this one…” (and he hands me essentially the exact same ring with a larger diamonds)
Jon: “Of course you would, that one is huge! You see commission; I see conversations about debt with my new fiancé after she says yes…if she says yes!”
S: “Oh but sir, Love is forever, this is the only time you are going to buy an engagement ring for the one you love, you should make it memorable!”
Jon: “If the size of the ring I give her is going to determine her answer, then I probably shouldn’t be proposing in the first place. Don’t ya think? No wonder the divorce rate is so high…”
Eventually, I tell the sales person I think I am going to continue to look around and see what I can find. The magic response to this every time, is:
S: “Well, today we are having a 10% off sale on this ring, but it ends today, just so you know.”
Jon: “Man, that is too bad, ‘cause the store I just came from said they have a 20% off sale today. I should probably go back there then huh?”
Which is followed by the inevitable…
S: “Yes, but you just don’t know the quality of those diamonds. Here we only sell quality diamonds of the best ratings…”
And this is where I usually bust out some of that diamond knowledge on the guy about the Cut Clarity and Color I am looking for and the price (COST) I am willing to pay for that, and the other store has the same range blah blah blah….This is where I usually get the blank stare from the sales person that indicates I won! This is all that really matters. Victory. Right now you are thinking, I can see why Courtney loves these little encounters!
Eventually I found a ring that was classic enough, but unique enough to work. I knew she would like it, but I had no idea when I was going to give it to her.
Meanwhile, at the bat cave…
The day I did all this conquering of sales people, Courtney was trying to get a hold of me to find out if I was going to meet her for dinner with her parents. I remember ignoring a few phone calls from her in the middle of these little battles I was winning, thinking “honey, if you only knew what I was doing right now…” Well, as I discovered later, what she was doing was considering breaking up with me because she was so mad that I wasn’t answering my phone. She thought I was at Home Depot or something and figured there was no reason to not answer the phone. I probably could have looking back, but I had my game face on. So apparently the closest we ever came to breaking up was the day that I bought the engagement ring.
Now I have the ring, but before I pop the question, I have to ask the dads for permission to ask her to marry me. Yes. Dads. Plural.
My lucky stars decided that I would get to have the “ask the dad” conversation twice!
Jon
and based on that video, I give you…
Like I said, not exactly text book romance, but sometimes reality is brutal. There is a moment of internal shock when you discover that this thought has passed into your conscious and you are surprisingly ok with this conclusion. The next thought is…now what? Ring shopping? Holy crap.
Now see, guys don’t sit around and plan this little transition. For me I was sitting on the couch most likely watching SportsCenter or the latest Discovery Channel show on the Universe or Theoretical Physics (side note: it is called theoretical physics, because it is a theory, meaning unproven. Similar Ref: Theory of Evolution…) when this little thought process occurred to me. I went through the 12 step mental process where the first step is: admitting I had a problem. The second step was…I have no idea what the other 12 steps are, but I hear that there are 12 of them and I am sure I went through all of them. I eventually concluded that I wanted to propose marriage. So, just to we recap this little moment, I sat down to watch a show on why there might be life under the frozen oceans of Saturn’s Moon Titan, and concluded I wanted to get married. I am pretty sure that was not one of the objectives set out by the producers of this show.
I decided to call my Dad about how to go about buying a ring. Now my Dad is part genius. He is like a walking Bible. He can quote you scripture no matter what the situation calls for, provide context and commentary on the drop of a hat. He can hold his own in scientific discussions about Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Cosmology, and he is Geophysicist. Ask about the devaluation of the dollar and the housing bubble, he can go there. He probably has opinions about the process of terra forming the Planet Mars for future human inhabitation. So logically I figured by asking the question, how do I buy an engagement ring, I would get a 30 minute Master’s thesis about how to do this. Nope. I got a pause and “uh….I don’t know”. Thanks Dad! Not Helpful.
So I decided to start looking online, I self taught myself about the 5C’s, Cut, Clarity, Certification, Color, and Carat. Yeah, um…diamond experts?, ya forgot the biggest C…COST! Now what I was really doing was preparing to go into battle. I had to go into battle with the diamond sales people. So suddenly this proposal process now became a battle of wills. It became a game. I was going to win. This is one of the most endearing qualities I have that Courtney absolutely loves. She always asks me if we can just go out and talk to sales people on the weekends for fun because she just loves watching me interact with them. Or more accurately, it is guaranteed to turn into a fight. I call the sales person out for some random stat that sounds fishy, or ask them why it is cheaper online (because I came prepared! Like the boy scouts baby!) and I am usually met with 1 death glare from Courtney, and the sales person is left grasping at weak answers and explanations that basically only confirm that I am winning (I can smell the victory!) Negotiation ensues. It is almost always guaranteed that the first place we go into I low ball them and they give me some line about not having the authority to lower the price so let me go ask the manager. Rarely do they agree and after a few smart comments without sufficient explanation we set out for the next place. This likely will lead to discussion in the car about why we don’t just get it, and me explaining the completely logical reason why we will save “x” dollars by doing it this way etc. Now it becomes a determination to proof I will save us money. She is rarely convinced despite my STELLAR track record. Basically, Sales people annoy me. This same principle can be applied to telemarketers or door-to-door sales people. May I present an example: (warning: adult language)
Now in the case of the ring, I was running solo. I was convinced that there was no way proposing and then bringing Courtney along for this little journey was gonna be good for my wallet. I picked out the ring myself (awww, that is so sweet) because it would be cheaper this way (cheapskate…). I knew I was going to get a round cut diamond, and I knew the facets and all the little things that were going to be thrown at me by the sales person. The sales pitch is basically the same.
Salesperson: “Hi, How can I help you?”
Jon: “Looking at Engagement rings…”
S: “Very nice! Congratulations!”
Jon: “For what? I am about to be poor and she hasn’t even said yes yet.” (Courtney just loves these encounters…did I mention that?)
S: “True, right this way sir.”
(I usually laugh to myself ‘cause at this point they have no idea how to deal with me, which was sort of the intention)
S: “What kind of ring would you like?” The say this as the pull out the craziest looking diamond coated piece of metal they have and continue “Look at this one, isn’t it gorgeous?”
Jon: “I think that looks pretty tacky, don’t you? Who buys something like that?”
Again, they are caught off guard as I walk to the engagement rings further down and find a few that look interesting. This is when the next pitch comes in as predictable as the Houston Humidity.
S: “Oh that is a wonderful choice!” (I could of picked out a turd on stick and this guy would of thought it was wonderful) “Now may I recommend this one…” (and he hands me essentially the exact same ring with a larger diamonds)
Jon: “Of course you would, that one is huge! You see commission; I see conversations about debt with my new fiancé after she says yes…if she says yes!”
S: “Oh but sir, Love is forever, this is the only time you are going to buy an engagement ring for the one you love, you should make it memorable!”
Jon: “If the size of the ring I give her is going to determine her answer, then I probably shouldn’t be proposing in the first place. Don’t ya think? No wonder the divorce rate is so high…”
Eventually, I tell the sales person I think I am going to continue to look around and see what I can find. The magic response to this every time, is:
S: “Well, today we are having a 10% off sale on this ring, but it ends today, just so you know.”
Jon: “Man, that is too bad, ‘cause the store I just came from said they have a 20% off sale today. I should probably go back there then huh?”
Which is followed by the inevitable…
S: “Yes, but you just don’t know the quality of those diamonds. Here we only sell quality diamonds of the best ratings…”
And this is where I usually bust out some of that diamond knowledge on the guy about the Cut Clarity and Color I am looking for and the price (COST) I am willing to pay for that, and the other store has the same range blah blah blah….This is where I usually get the blank stare from the sales person that indicates I won! This is all that really matters. Victory. Right now you are thinking, I can see why Courtney loves these little encounters!
Eventually I found a ring that was classic enough, but unique enough to work. I knew she would like it, but I had no idea when I was going to give it to her.
Meanwhile, at the bat cave…
The day I did all this conquering of sales people, Courtney was trying to get a hold of me to find out if I was going to meet her for dinner with her parents. I remember ignoring a few phone calls from her in the middle of these little battles I was winning, thinking “honey, if you only knew what I was doing right now…” Well, as I discovered later, what she was doing was considering breaking up with me because she was so mad that I wasn’t answering my phone. She thought I was at Home Depot or something and figured there was no reason to not answer the phone. I probably could have looking back, but I had my game face on. So apparently the closest we ever came to breaking up was the day that I bought the engagement ring.
Now I have the ring, but before I pop the question, I have to ask the dads for permission to ask her to marry me. Yes. Dads. Plural.
My lucky stars decided that I would get to have the “ask the dad” conversation twice!
Jon
Thursday, March 24, 2011
YOUR Thoughts
I figure this Blog space is a bit like an open journal. I admit that most of what I put in here will have a humerous spin to them, because that is generally how I look at life.
You have seen the phrase on decorative placards hanging in entryways, living rooms, and kitchens, "Live, Laugh, Love". You might even have it in your house! This might be the most truthful (and sometimes wishful) cliche I have seen. I am not one for cliche's, tradition, the norm, or status quo. In fact I seek out the opposite in many occasions. During the wedding prep, my favorite phrase I coined was "tradition just means outdated". Never the less, tradition has its place.
Live. Laugh. Love.
If we all actually did this, wouldn't life just be so much better?! You'll notice over time that I enjoy the awkward, and humerous way more then the sentimental. I will, however, sit down and discuss theology, science, and the latest sports drama with anyone, Especially over a nice wine, smooth spirit, occasional cigar, or the hot tub. In the end though, I try and find the humor in ever situation.
This post isn't one of those.
It is simply a brief statement, and a quote.
"Be careful of your thoughts,
they become words.
Be careful of your words,
they become actions.
Be careful of your actions,
they become habits.
Be careful of your habits,
they become character.
Be careful of your character,
it becomes your destiny..."
-Unknown
Your thoughts of today become your character of tomorrow. When you see someone who has great character, it originated in his mind. So I am struck by this, If we want to "Life, Laugh, Love", it must originate in your thoughts.
If we would eliminate the thoughts of hate, gossip, and deception, perhaps our future character will reflect this.
Live. Laugh. Love.
Jon
You have seen the phrase on decorative placards hanging in entryways, living rooms, and kitchens, "Live, Laugh, Love". You might even have it in your house! This might be the most truthful (and sometimes wishful) cliche I have seen. I am not one for cliche's, tradition, the norm, or status quo. In fact I seek out the opposite in many occasions. During the wedding prep, my favorite phrase I coined was "tradition just means outdated". Never the less, tradition has its place.
Live. Laugh. Love.
If we all actually did this, wouldn't life just be so much better?! You'll notice over time that I enjoy the awkward, and humerous way more then the sentimental. I will, however, sit down and discuss theology, science, and the latest sports drama with anyone, Especially over a nice wine, smooth spirit, occasional cigar, or the hot tub. In the end though, I try and find the humor in ever situation.
This post isn't one of those.
It is simply a brief statement, and a quote.
"Be careful of your thoughts,
they become words.
Be careful of your words,
they become actions.
Be careful of your actions,
they become habits.
Be careful of your habits,
they become character.
Be careful of your character,
it becomes your destiny..."
-Unknown
Your thoughts of today become your character of tomorrow. When you see someone who has great character, it originated in his mind. So I am struck by this, If we want to "Life, Laugh, Love", it must originate in your thoughts.
If we would eliminate the thoughts of hate, gossip, and deception, perhaps our future character will reflect this.
Live. Laugh. Love.
Jon
Monday, March 21, 2011
Meeting The Parents...All of them.
Ah, meeting the parents. How can you not find humor in that no matter what your story is? Whole movies have been made on the topic, and of course, they are comedies. This post will highlight a few of the lighter moments of when we had to meet the parents. After all, how awkward could meeting the parents be?
My previous post left off when I was about to meet Courtney’s Mom Marie for the first time. Looking back, the encounter was as I would expect it to go. For those who know Marie, you know that she is a “hugger”. This means if you enter a room with her and share even the slightest hint of a conversation with her, you will get hugged when you make your exit. If you have met before, you will get a hello hug, and a good bye hug, and maybe a hug in the middle just for good measure. I love this about her, but was not given the rule book on this prior to meeting her. She was at Courtney’s apt helping her do some spring cleaning of Courtney’s clothes. By spring cleaning, I mean get rid of enough clothes to take care of the country of Zaire for a good 9 months. Yet, her closet seemed to be full still. It is an amazing gift of stuffing that men will never quite fully grasp. Give me a hammer, some power tools and a 6 pack, and I can redo your entire kitchen. Closet organization? No chance.
I don’t remember all the details of that meeting, but I remember knocking on the door and then getting the dreaded, “Come in!” Just so we are clear on this, no one wants to self enter an apartment when you are meeting a parent for the first time. You are already mentally trying to deal with enough stuff, that having to address whatever might await you on the other side of the door does not need to be added to that mix. Mind Chaos happens. “What If I see her mom before I see her? How do I introduce myself? Boyfriend? Friend? Just Jon? We haven’t had “the talk” to determine if we were “exclusive” or not, so skip the boyfriend thing. Maybe friend? But then she might think I am gay. Not that there is anything wrong with that, well actually…the bible says…doh focus! Maybe Courtney will be there to handle the introduction…” At this moment I turn the corner of her stairs and wah lah…Marie is standing there. More mind chaos. “Ah crap. Where the heck is Courtney?! Her mom is right there and I have never met her before. Should I take the stairs 1 at a time or 2. 1 would indicate relaxed and deliberate. 2 would signal I am fit and healthy… but too eager? Ah hell. Holy smokes that is a smile!? She is one happy lady…” She sticks out her hand and introduces herself as “Marie, Courtney’s mom”. I am pretty sure I just shook her hand and said “It is nice to meet you, I’m Jon”. Where the hell is Courtney?! Finally from her bedroom I hear Courtney say she is coming. She apparently was putting the final touches on that whole “Save Zaire” foundation she was about to start.
So we had our nice little awkward chit chat about the weather, or the humidity outside, or how to best brew coffee…again, no idea. I finally move to sit down on the couch and Courtney eventually joins me on the couch. Marie at this point got a bit flustered cause I know that she really wanted to stay but didn’t want to intrude and so she asked me if I wanted a beer. The answer to this question is always yes. Then with a few hyper all run into one string of thoughts Marie said “Is it alright if I stay? I don’t want to intrude? I should go, maybe I should go.” Courtney told her mom not to go and to sit and chat. So within about 5 minutes of meeting Marie, we were sitting on the couch drinking beer and probably discussing the finer details and implications of the 3 laws of thermodynamics. At least that is what I imagine we talked about. All I was thinking the whole time was; her mom drinks beer, and gave me a beer. This is good. No complaints! Little did I know that this little meeting would be a preview to the rest of my life!
The next time I saw Marie was when I went over to their house one weekend. Hugs all around this time, because we had already met once! I got to meet Rick, and Courtney’s friend Sarah from Kansas City. It was a regular introduction fest for Jon. Yeah! I am pretty sure we had gone through a pitcher of Marie's Margaritas when somehow the time line between when my ex and I split up to when Courtney and I started chatting online came up. Needless to say, this amount of time was not sufficient in Marie’s mind after leaving a 1.5 year relationship. She asked with a bit of desperation in her voice, "So wait, Courtney is a rebound?" My straight faced answer, because I just couldn’t resist the moment was, “absolutely.” I wish I could have videotaped this moment because I am pretty sure Marie had some awesome mind chaos going on. “Wait. What? Is he serious? But I liked this guy, he seemed so good, but now he is just looking to rebound from that relationship…a year and half is long time. But Courtney seems happy, but I don’t know. This was going so well and…I need another margarita…really? He is just joking…but still..Oh my gosh! This can’t be happening! My only girl is a rebound!!! Why me god? Why me!....” At some point Courtney noticed this and calmed her mom down to explain that essentially, I am just a brat and I just wanted to see the reaction I would get. This is essentially true. Not gonna deny it, and to this day, I can’t say it’s changed a whole lot.
At this same gathering, Courtney’s friend Emie, who took us to that original Texans game was there and had just gotten engaged and was planning a wedding. Apparently she was frustrated with the amount on her to do list, and so Marie out of the kindness of her heart offered to help her out. So she went and got the wedding planning book she had and brought it to the table to help her. I know I kind of glazed by that. Let me explain what my mind was thinking. ”Holy smokes! This lady already has a wedding planning book? Did she buy that like yesterday?! Courtney and I have only been dating for like a few weeks! What have I gotten into!” I believe what I managed to stumble out was, “um, why do you have a wedding planner?” Again, I wish you could of watched the facial expression on Marie’s face. It went from utter joy and happiness to seeing my face, hearing my question to “oh crap, this is giving him the wrong impression”. At this point, I am not sure anything she could of said would have been a good enough explanation, and when you are trying to explain something like that away in a logical fashion, you really only manage to dig a deeper hole then you are already in and eventually just give up, sigh, and move on. I’m pretty sure Courtney was just laughing the whole time at both of us.
And then I had to go visit the other parents. Ah, the Kansas City family.
Before we go to KC, Courtney informs me that her KC family has never met a person she has been dating. Again, for emphasis, never. So this is about how I imagined this little encounter was going to go:
So we got on the large coke can with wings that they call a plane to fly to KC and set out on this adventure. It was thanksgiving break, and I knew we were going to be going to a family thanksgiving reunion of sorts as was their tradition. No problem. So we got off the plane late Wednesday night, and essentially that night can be summarized in this; “nice to meet you, we are so excited you were able to come down. We have a 3 hour car ride tomorrow and we are leaving really early. Goodnight!” What you don’t know is that the KC crew are giants. They are all 6’ plus, and we weren’t making this trek in a Tahoe. Nope. A Chrysler 300. Basically a fancy Taurus, with 5 adults. At this point, this is what I am preparing for in my head the next day:
The trip was 3 hours there and 3 hours back. So we drove for 6 hours and we only spent about 1.5 hours at the place we were at. That isn’t what I remember most though. What I remember the most about this trek through the middle of Kansas was that Kansas had hills! What the crap! Houston is flatter than Kansas! Whoever said that the surface of a pancake as more hills than the surface of Kansas obviously has not been to Houston, because he would of said that about Houston rather than Kansas. This is greatly disturbing. I am still bothered by this fact today.
On this same KC trip, we managed to get tickets to go to a basketball game at Allen Fieldhouse, home of the University of Kansas Jayhawks. Now for sports fans, KU is where basketball was invented; it is akin to the mecca of basketball. This is like getting to go to Wrigley Field or Fenway Park to see a baseball game. I was all over this. This was turning out to be an awesome little trip. Little did I know the experience that was waiting me. Now I understand that almost every University has their weird quirks and “traditions”, but only a few have reached the infamous cult status. Living in Houston, I am surrounded by the Gig’em Cult aka Texas A&M and the Hook’em Cult aka University of Texas. I was about to be endoctrined into the inner workings of…the Beak’em Cult. Yes, that is correct, they use the term Beak’em.
Now again, if you are a sports fan, you have probably heard of the famous Rock Chalk cheer that KU has. It is supposedly the most intimidating college cheer there is. So they do this little “cheer” before every game. I’ll let you judge for yourself:
Rock Chalk Jayhawk...
Don’t ask me what the little hand signs are when they do the chant. I have no clue. Don’t ask them what Rock Chalk is. It is better that you don’t know. Don’t ask me what a Jayhawk is. For that matter, don’t ask Kansas what a Jayhawk is, and I am still trying to figure out why he has pilgrim shoes on…
Now you just watched a video of this little “ritual”. I had to be in the stands to experience the full brunt force of this trauma. Truth be told, I could only think of one thing the whole time they did this:
Now having said all that, of course I picked KU to win this years March Madness, and yes, I own a shirt that says The Fighting Manginos, (Google Mark Mangino if you don’t get this reference) because at least they can make fun of themselves! Or at least I hope that is what they are doing…So I am now a KU fan by marriage, which actually works out well. Everyone knows I am a USC Trojan fan, and come football season, it is very easy to root for USC and not have a lot of conflict with KU football, “A tradition since October” as one sign read during their miracle Orange Bowl run in 2008. Come Basketball season, USC is excited to just make the tourney, KU is disappointed if they didn’t make the Final Four. So it all works out well. When push comes to shove though, I'll take Traveler as a mascot over the Jayhawk. Is that a onesie the KU guy is wearing?
If only I could get them to reconsider the Waving of the Wheat as a celebration. Wait, you don’t know the Waving of the Wheat? Well let's let KU enlighten you on this intimidating celebration…
Notice the part where they say "no one knows when this tradition started." I can only imagine this started when they tried to start the wave, but had one too many adult beverages in the 4th qtr (cause that is probably how long it took KU to score!) and so the ensuing chaos of unorganized waving resulted in what you see in the video. Someone more sober (or the opposite) than the others probably said it looks like wheat fields…and thus…Waving of the Wheat was born. Sad really. Alas, it is now a part of my family and I embrace it with all the passion I can muster. Rock Chalk Jayhawk!
Needless to say, I couldn’t be more happy about the new family I have. Meeting my Family was less adventurous in a funny story kind of way. We went to visit my brother in Vegas over that Christmas. The joke here is that I have family in Hawaii, Southern California, and Vegas (well, I did at the time) and she has family in Kansas, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nebraska. Pretty sure she married me for my family.
I couldn’t be happier with my new family. I know there will be more stories in the future! But the real reason I went up to KC was to meet the parents before I had to pop the question. But before I got to that, I had to buy a ring.
Who knows anything about buying a ring?!
Phew…for another day then…
Jon
My previous post left off when I was about to meet Courtney’s Mom Marie for the first time. Looking back, the encounter was as I would expect it to go. For those who know Marie, you know that she is a “hugger”. This means if you enter a room with her and share even the slightest hint of a conversation with her, you will get hugged when you make your exit. If you have met before, you will get a hello hug, and a good bye hug, and maybe a hug in the middle just for good measure. I love this about her, but was not given the rule book on this prior to meeting her. She was at Courtney’s apt helping her do some spring cleaning of Courtney’s clothes. By spring cleaning, I mean get rid of enough clothes to take care of the country of Zaire for a good 9 months. Yet, her closet seemed to be full still. It is an amazing gift of stuffing that men will never quite fully grasp. Give me a hammer, some power tools and a 6 pack, and I can redo your entire kitchen. Closet organization? No chance.
I don’t remember all the details of that meeting, but I remember knocking on the door and then getting the dreaded, “Come in!” Just so we are clear on this, no one wants to self enter an apartment when you are meeting a parent for the first time. You are already mentally trying to deal with enough stuff, that having to address whatever might await you on the other side of the door does not need to be added to that mix. Mind Chaos happens. “What If I see her mom before I see her? How do I introduce myself? Boyfriend? Friend? Just Jon? We haven’t had “the talk” to determine if we were “exclusive” or not, so skip the boyfriend thing. Maybe friend? But then she might think I am gay. Not that there is anything wrong with that, well actually…the bible says…doh focus! Maybe Courtney will be there to handle the introduction…” At this moment I turn the corner of her stairs and wah lah…Marie is standing there. More mind chaos. “Ah crap. Where the heck is Courtney?! Her mom is right there and I have never met her before. Should I take the stairs 1 at a time or 2. 1 would indicate relaxed and deliberate. 2 would signal I am fit and healthy… but too eager? Ah hell. Holy smokes that is a smile!? She is one happy lady…” She sticks out her hand and introduces herself as “Marie, Courtney’s mom”. I am pretty sure I just shook her hand and said “It is nice to meet you, I’m Jon”. Where the hell is Courtney?! Finally from her bedroom I hear Courtney say she is coming. She apparently was putting the final touches on that whole “Save Zaire” foundation she was about to start.
So we had our nice little awkward chit chat about the weather, or the humidity outside, or how to best brew coffee…again, no idea. I finally move to sit down on the couch and Courtney eventually joins me on the couch. Marie at this point got a bit flustered cause I know that she really wanted to stay but didn’t want to intrude and so she asked me if I wanted a beer. The answer to this question is always yes. Then with a few hyper all run into one string of thoughts Marie said “Is it alright if I stay? I don’t want to intrude? I should go, maybe I should go.” Courtney told her mom not to go and to sit and chat. So within about 5 minutes of meeting Marie, we were sitting on the couch drinking beer and probably discussing the finer details and implications of the 3 laws of thermodynamics. At least that is what I imagine we talked about. All I was thinking the whole time was; her mom drinks beer, and gave me a beer. This is good. No complaints! Little did I know that this little meeting would be a preview to the rest of my life!
The next time I saw Marie was when I went over to their house one weekend. Hugs all around this time, because we had already met once! I got to meet Rick, and Courtney’s friend Sarah from Kansas City. It was a regular introduction fest for Jon. Yeah! I am pretty sure we had gone through a pitcher of Marie's Margaritas when somehow the time line between when my ex and I split up to when Courtney and I started chatting online came up. Needless to say, this amount of time was not sufficient in Marie’s mind after leaving a 1.5 year relationship. She asked with a bit of desperation in her voice, "So wait, Courtney is a rebound?" My straight faced answer, because I just couldn’t resist the moment was, “absolutely.” I wish I could have videotaped this moment because I am pretty sure Marie had some awesome mind chaos going on. “Wait. What? Is he serious? But I liked this guy, he seemed so good, but now he is just looking to rebound from that relationship…a year and half is long time. But Courtney seems happy, but I don’t know. This was going so well and…I need another margarita…really? He is just joking…but still..Oh my gosh! This can’t be happening! My only girl is a rebound!!! Why me god? Why me!....” At some point Courtney noticed this and calmed her mom down to explain that essentially, I am just a brat and I just wanted to see the reaction I would get. This is essentially true. Not gonna deny it, and to this day, I can’t say it’s changed a whole lot.
At this same gathering, Courtney’s friend Emie, who took us to that original Texans game was there and had just gotten engaged and was planning a wedding. Apparently she was frustrated with the amount on her to do list, and so Marie out of the kindness of her heart offered to help her out. So she went and got the wedding planning book she had and brought it to the table to help her. I know I kind of glazed by that. Let me explain what my mind was thinking. ”Holy smokes! This lady already has a wedding planning book? Did she buy that like yesterday?! Courtney and I have only been dating for like a few weeks! What have I gotten into!” I believe what I managed to stumble out was, “um, why do you have a wedding planner?” Again, I wish you could of watched the facial expression on Marie’s face. It went from utter joy and happiness to seeing my face, hearing my question to “oh crap, this is giving him the wrong impression”. At this point, I am not sure anything she could of said would have been a good enough explanation, and when you are trying to explain something like that away in a logical fashion, you really only manage to dig a deeper hole then you are already in and eventually just give up, sigh, and move on. I’m pretty sure Courtney was just laughing the whole time at both of us.
And then I had to go visit the other parents. Ah, the Kansas City family.
Before we go to KC, Courtney informs me that her KC family has never met a person she has been dating. Again, for emphasis, never. So this is about how I imagined this little encounter was going to go:
So we got on the large coke can with wings that they call a plane to fly to KC and set out on this adventure. It was thanksgiving break, and I knew we were going to be going to a family thanksgiving reunion of sorts as was their tradition. No problem. So we got off the plane late Wednesday night, and essentially that night can be summarized in this; “nice to meet you, we are so excited you were able to come down. We have a 3 hour car ride tomorrow and we are leaving really early. Goodnight!” What you don’t know is that the KC crew are giants. They are all 6’ plus, and we weren’t making this trek in a Tahoe. Nope. A Chrysler 300. Basically a fancy Taurus, with 5 adults. At this point, this is what I am preparing for in my head the next day:
The trip was 3 hours there and 3 hours back. So we drove for 6 hours and we only spent about 1.5 hours at the place we were at. That isn’t what I remember most though. What I remember the most about this trek through the middle of Kansas was that Kansas had hills! What the crap! Houston is flatter than Kansas! Whoever said that the surface of a pancake as more hills than the surface of Kansas obviously has not been to Houston, because he would of said that about Houston rather than Kansas. This is greatly disturbing. I am still bothered by this fact today.
On this same KC trip, we managed to get tickets to go to a basketball game at Allen Fieldhouse, home of the University of Kansas Jayhawks. Now for sports fans, KU is where basketball was invented; it is akin to the mecca of basketball. This is like getting to go to Wrigley Field or Fenway Park to see a baseball game. I was all over this. This was turning out to be an awesome little trip. Little did I know the experience that was waiting me. Now I understand that almost every University has their weird quirks and “traditions”, but only a few have reached the infamous cult status. Living in Houston, I am surrounded by the Gig’em Cult aka Texas A&M and the Hook’em Cult aka University of Texas. I was about to be endoctrined into the inner workings of…the Beak’em Cult. Yes, that is correct, they use the term Beak’em.
Now again, if you are a sports fan, you have probably heard of the famous Rock Chalk cheer that KU has. It is supposedly the most intimidating college cheer there is. So they do this little “cheer” before every game. I’ll let you judge for yourself:
Rock Chalk Jayhawk...
Don’t ask me what the little hand signs are when they do the chant. I have no clue. Don’t ask them what Rock Chalk is. It is better that you don’t know. Don’t ask me what a Jayhawk is. For that matter, don’t ask Kansas what a Jayhawk is, and I am still trying to figure out why he has pilgrim shoes on…
Now you just watched a video of this little “ritual”. I had to be in the stands to experience the full brunt force of this trauma. Truth be told, I could only think of one thing the whole time they did this:
Now having said all that, of course I picked KU to win this years March Madness, and yes, I own a shirt that says The Fighting Manginos, (Google Mark Mangino if you don’t get this reference) because at least they can make fun of themselves! Or at least I hope that is what they are doing…So I am now a KU fan by marriage, which actually works out well. Everyone knows I am a USC Trojan fan, and come football season, it is very easy to root for USC and not have a lot of conflict with KU football, “A tradition since October” as one sign read during their miracle Orange Bowl run in 2008. Come Basketball season, USC is excited to just make the tourney, KU is disappointed if they didn’t make the Final Four. So it all works out well. When push comes to shove though, I'll take Traveler as a mascot over the Jayhawk. Is that a onesie the KU guy is wearing?
If only I could get them to reconsider the Waving of the Wheat as a celebration. Wait, you don’t know the Waving of the Wheat? Well let's let KU enlighten you on this intimidating celebration…
Notice the part where they say "no one knows when this tradition started." I can only imagine this started when they tried to start the wave, but had one too many adult beverages in the 4th qtr (cause that is probably how long it took KU to score!) and so the ensuing chaos of unorganized waving resulted in what you see in the video. Someone more sober (or the opposite) than the others probably said it looks like wheat fields…and thus…Waving of the Wheat was born. Sad really. Alas, it is now a part of my family and I embrace it with all the passion I can muster. Rock Chalk Jayhawk!
Needless to say, I couldn’t be more happy about the new family I have. Meeting my Family was less adventurous in a funny story kind of way. We went to visit my brother in Vegas over that Christmas. The joke here is that I have family in Hawaii, Southern California, and Vegas (well, I did at the time) and she has family in Kansas, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nebraska. Pretty sure she married me for my family.
I couldn’t be happier with my new family. I know there will be more stories in the future! But the real reason I went up to KC was to meet the parents before I had to pop the question. But before I got to that, I had to buy a ring.
Who knows anything about buying a ring?!
Phew…for another day then…
Jon
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Making our house a home
So we bought our first house in December, and many people thought we were crazy taking on something so big right before the wedding. I will tell you, it was a challenge. I think the hardest part for me was I wanted everything to be settled and there just wasn't time for that. We moved in the day I got out of school for Christmas. I was able to spend my Christmas break finding "a place" for pretty much everything and making it to where we could function. We knew there were many projects we wanted to do but they would all have to wait until after the wedding. Then, we spent the months of January and February entertaining and showing off our house. When we got back from our honeymoon it was a little bit of a disaster with all of the things from our wedding and then a massive pile of gifts :) Now that I have been out of school for Spring Break I have accomplished a lot. The house is picked up, semi organized and some things cleaned out. We have spent the week coming up with a plan of attack and a priority list for what we want to do with the house. Here is our active list
1. get new surround sound and stereo for downstairs (has been ordered should arrive this week)
2. get outdoor speakers to hook up to the stereo so we have music in the pool (has been ordered with the stereo)
3. get an art piece to hang on the main wall in our living room (has been ordered should be here Wednesday)
4. paint the back wall in the living room a mocha color as an accent before the art piece comes (done this morning)
5. paint my scrapbook room a fun pink and grey pattern (started last night)
6. hang all of the pictures we already have and get stuff on the walls (finishing up today)
7. decide what we want to do on redoing the surface of the pool (still a work in progress)
I am so excited to see it all coming together. I will post pictures as soon as we have some finished products.
Courtney
1. get new surround sound and stereo for downstairs (has been ordered should arrive this week)
2. get outdoor speakers to hook up to the stereo so we have music in the pool (has been ordered with the stereo)
3. get an art piece to hang on the main wall in our living room (has been ordered should be here Wednesday)
4. paint the back wall in the living room a mocha color as an accent before the art piece comes (done this morning)
5. paint my scrapbook room a fun pink and grey pattern (started last night)
6. hang all of the pictures we already have and get stuff on the walls (finishing up today)
7. decide what we want to do on redoing the surface of the pool (still a work in progress)
I am so excited to see it all coming together. I will post pictures as soon as we have some finished products.
Courtney
Friday, March 18, 2011
How We Met
For those of you reading this that were at our Rehearsal Dinner, some of this might be a repeat, but perhaps there is enough new in here to entertain. For others, this would be an unmodified recording of how we met. No embellishments or liberties were taken in this historical account. Ok, maybe just a few…
We met…online *gasp*. I basically stalked her until she finally gave in and conceded to one date…wait…that was an ex-girlfriend. I can’t talk about that here under advice of my lawyer since charges are still pending…
We did, though, meet on match.com.
It used to be that if you met through a dating service that you kind of made up another story on how you met out of fear of the ridicule that people would give you behind your back because somehow we were flawed and put into the “unwanted” bucket of online dating. I saw it as a way to save money by screening on the loonys out there. Trust me, they are there.
When we first met online, I was still self employed. So you can imagine my thoughts when we were chatting at around 1pm on a Wednesday and I asked Courtney what she did for work, and she replied that she was a teacher. Let me repeat for emphasis, 1pm, Wednesday. Now yes, my mom AND my sister are 3rd grade teachers so I kind of know how that life goes, but I don’t think I needed that experience to know that chatting online during school hours was probably not a part of the job description. So I am thinking, fantastic. A DELUSIONAL loony toon…NEXT! She quickly explained that she was on leave for medical reasons. Well THAT didn’t exactly dissuade my initial conclusion either. I then discovered that she had just had major surgery and was recovering at home. By recovering, I mean pretty much completely debilitated to the point she lived with her parents and going out in public was an exhausting ordeal.
So just to recap here. Never met Courtney, but she is a teacher who is not teaching, major surgery, living with parents, can’t go out in public without heaven and earth aligning just right. What’s not to love?! As it turns out, there was everything to love.
So my dilemma was figuring out how to ask her on a date, since going out wasn’t exactly a quick decision thing. I pondered when it would be appropriate and finally figured out that she was going stir crazy in the house with her mom, and needed to get out. I figured ok, let set a date in the future, gives her plenty of time to prepare. Next weeks Houston Aeros game should work. For the non-Houstonians, the Aeros are the minor league hockey team in town. One of my tests for dating a girl at the time was if a girl could enjoy a live hockey game then there was potential. She agreed and the date was set. 1 week to wait…
…until later that evening, about 10pm, she asked me if I wanted to go to the Houston Texans game the following day with her and some of her friends. Mind you, we haven’t even talked on the phone at this point. Why? I don’t really know looking back, we just chatted away on the computer and it never came up. So here is my dilemma. I have never been to a Texans game; the seats were like 20 rows back lower section 45 yd line. However, I’d never met this girl, and our first date was going to be with her and her friends? That sounds awkward, for me, her, AND her friends. If you know me though, you know that I strongly believe awkward equals awesome stories. So the logical conclusion here is to say; “absolutely.” The worst thing that can happen is I get a good story about the first date I had at a Texans game with this crazy girl and her friends! This would fall into that category of the first date with Hooter’s girl wearing a Prom dress at a Red Robin. Sounds like a bad joke doesn’t it? Nope. This would be a true story…but I digress!
Needless to say, the date went well. She pulled the whole “I’m not putting my arm around you, I just need to stretch” move on me, which I am pretty sure was something I was supposed to do. You know, *yawn* oh hey it so much more comfortable with my arms spread out and…well whadya know…you just happen to be in front of my outstretched arm. Crazy! That move.
I did get a story out of it, but not the awkward that-didn’t-just-happen-did-it kind of story. On another date, we were sitting in her car in front of her apartment as she had finally escaped the parent’s house. We were doing the awkward, sit there and pretend to be fascinated by whatever we were talking about (I still have no clue, and we talked for at least 30 minutes). The whole time I was thinking, I’m gonna kiss her…now…no, not now…now…stop you moron…ok maybe…no…now…idiot! That sort of thing ran through my head during the whole time we actually had a verbal conversation about god only knows what. Pizza toppings? Preferred starburst flavor? Who knows…? The conversation hit a lull, and after both of us staring straight ahead for a bit, I finally decided it was time. So with anticipation of sparks and thunder claps and a spontaneous Hallelujah Chorus emerging from the back seat, I leaned across my car and kissed her. Virtually no reaction at all. Nothing. Like kissing a brick wall. Not sure if I caught her off guard, or what, but there was definitely no Hallelujah Chorus in the backseat. Just old trash I had tossed back there while driving. Awkward silence ensued.
Ok so it wasn’t quite like those videos, but I had to find some excuse to toss those in there! What ran through my head during that inevitable awkward silence, was chaos. “That was unexpected. How did that go so wrong? Maybe I am way off here. Maybe she thinks I am just creepy! Is Burger King open late? Stay calm. Pretend that was normal. I wonder if the Astros won tonight. Focus! Say something, idiot, say something!” What came out was really sophisticated and suave I am sure. I really have no idea what I said, but I imagine it was along the lines of when can I see you again? At least that is how I remember it. Courtney may tell you otherwise.
The Kiss must not have been too bad, or at least the expectations were so low I couldn’t screw it up, which is far more likely. We continued to date, things went well, things went fast. One day I decided to surprise her cause I was in the area and just called her and asked if I could come by. She paused for a second unexpectedly, and then said:
“My mom is here, is that ok?”
What are you supposed to say at that? “Oh hell no, I’m outta here!” Of course you say, “Yeah sure! I’d love to meet your mom!” You then spend the next 10 minutes in the car prepping for the inevitable meeting of the mom. This was not on today’s agenda! Do I look respectable? Mature? Just be yourself…the mind chaos came back.
Then I had no choice. I was at her apartment.
I was about to meet…”The Mom.”
But meeting the parents is a whole Blog post in itself! So that is how we met. The classic American Romance. Or not so much, but it is our story, and that is how we like it.
Jon
We met…online *gasp*. I basically stalked her until she finally gave in and conceded to one date…wait…that was an ex-girlfriend. I can’t talk about that here under advice of my lawyer since charges are still pending…
We did, though, meet on match.com.
It used to be that if you met through a dating service that you kind of made up another story on how you met out of fear of the ridicule that people would give you behind your back because somehow we were flawed and put into the “unwanted” bucket of online dating. I saw it as a way to save money by screening on the loonys out there. Trust me, they are there.
When we first met online, I was still self employed. So you can imagine my thoughts when we were chatting at around 1pm on a Wednesday and I asked Courtney what she did for work, and she replied that she was a teacher. Let me repeat for emphasis, 1pm, Wednesday. Now yes, my mom AND my sister are 3rd grade teachers so I kind of know how that life goes, but I don’t think I needed that experience to know that chatting online during school hours was probably not a part of the job description. So I am thinking, fantastic. A DELUSIONAL loony toon…NEXT! She quickly explained that she was on leave for medical reasons. Well THAT didn’t exactly dissuade my initial conclusion either. I then discovered that she had just had major surgery and was recovering at home. By recovering, I mean pretty much completely debilitated to the point she lived with her parents and going out in public was an exhausting ordeal.
So just to recap here. Never met Courtney, but she is a teacher who is not teaching, major surgery, living with parents, can’t go out in public without heaven and earth aligning just right. What’s not to love?! As it turns out, there was everything to love.
So my dilemma was figuring out how to ask her on a date, since going out wasn’t exactly a quick decision thing. I pondered when it would be appropriate and finally figured out that she was going stir crazy in the house with her mom, and needed to get out. I figured ok, let set a date in the future, gives her plenty of time to prepare. Next weeks Houston Aeros game should work. For the non-Houstonians, the Aeros are the minor league hockey team in town. One of my tests for dating a girl at the time was if a girl could enjoy a live hockey game then there was potential. She agreed and the date was set. 1 week to wait…
…until later that evening, about 10pm, she asked me if I wanted to go to the Houston Texans game the following day with her and some of her friends. Mind you, we haven’t even talked on the phone at this point. Why? I don’t really know looking back, we just chatted away on the computer and it never came up. So here is my dilemma. I have never been to a Texans game; the seats were like 20 rows back lower section 45 yd line. However, I’d never met this girl, and our first date was going to be with her and her friends? That sounds awkward, for me, her, AND her friends. If you know me though, you know that I strongly believe awkward equals awesome stories. So the logical conclusion here is to say; “absolutely.” The worst thing that can happen is I get a good story about the first date I had at a Texans game with this crazy girl and her friends! This would fall into that category of the first date with Hooter’s girl wearing a Prom dress at a Red Robin. Sounds like a bad joke doesn’t it? Nope. This would be a true story…but I digress!
Needless to say, the date went well. She pulled the whole “I’m not putting my arm around you, I just need to stretch” move on me, which I am pretty sure was something I was supposed to do. You know, *yawn* oh hey it so much more comfortable with my arms spread out and…well whadya know…you just happen to be in front of my outstretched arm. Crazy! That move.
I did get a story out of it, but not the awkward that-didn’t-just-happen-did-it kind of story. On another date, we were sitting in her car in front of her apartment as she had finally escaped the parent’s house. We were doing the awkward, sit there and pretend to be fascinated by whatever we were talking about (I still have no clue, and we talked for at least 30 minutes). The whole time I was thinking, I’m gonna kiss her…now…no, not now…now…stop you moron…ok maybe…no…now…idiot! That sort of thing ran through my head during the whole time we actually had a verbal conversation about god only knows what. Pizza toppings? Preferred starburst flavor? Who knows…? The conversation hit a lull, and after both of us staring straight ahead for a bit, I finally decided it was time. So with anticipation of sparks and thunder claps and a spontaneous Hallelujah Chorus emerging from the back seat, I leaned across my car and kissed her. Virtually no reaction at all. Nothing. Like kissing a brick wall. Not sure if I caught her off guard, or what, but there was definitely no Hallelujah Chorus in the backseat. Just old trash I had tossed back there while driving. Awkward silence ensued.
Ok so it wasn’t quite like those videos, but I had to find some excuse to toss those in there! What ran through my head during that inevitable awkward silence, was chaos. “That was unexpected. How did that go so wrong? Maybe I am way off here. Maybe she thinks I am just creepy! Is Burger King open late? Stay calm. Pretend that was normal. I wonder if the Astros won tonight. Focus! Say something, idiot, say something!” What came out was really sophisticated and suave I am sure. I really have no idea what I said, but I imagine it was along the lines of when can I see you again? At least that is how I remember it. Courtney may tell you otherwise.
The Kiss must not have been too bad, or at least the expectations were so low I couldn’t screw it up, which is far more likely. We continued to date, things went well, things went fast. One day I decided to surprise her cause I was in the area and just called her and asked if I could come by. She paused for a second unexpectedly, and then said:
“My mom is here, is that ok?”
What are you supposed to say at that? “Oh hell no, I’m outta here!” Of course you say, “Yeah sure! I’d love to meet your mom!” You then spend the next 10 minutes in the car prepping for the inevitable meeting of the mom. This was not on today’s agenda! Do I look respectable? Mature? Just be yourself…the mind chaos came back.
Then I had no choice. I was at her apartment.
I was about to meet…”The Mom.”
But meeting the parents is a whole Blog post in itself! So that is how we met. The classic American Romance. Or not so much, but it is our story, and that is how we like it.
Jon
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
What is Soulful Gumbo?
The name Soulful Gumbo, truth be known, was the name we arrived upon after about 2 hours in our new toy. That hole in the ground full of water in the back yard that we heat ever so often and "chilax with our besties". (Is there a stranger phrase than "chilax with besties". I heard it on a radio commercial and it annoyed me to the point I feel obligated to share it with you...you're welcome.)
"Can I get a Hot Tub?!"
-State Farm Dude
I have a feeling many important family decisions will be made in the hot tub. Take that for what you will. I am not saying it is the wisest way to go about making major life decisions, it just might be OUR way!
Many Blog names were brought up, or should I say, I brainstormed and Courtney drank and exercised her veto rights. Some strange names came out of my head inlcuding odd drink names from our recent trip to St. Lucia like "The Fuzzy Pirate" and "The Dirty Banana." We will let you conclude for yourselves why Courtney vetoed these...
I threw out odd things like "People Watching is a Sport" or "People Watching for Dummies" since people watching might be the most entertaining thing EVER! Again, vetoed.
I finally stumpled upon (not literally @ www.stumbleupon.com but stumbled in my brain. For those of you who have never gone to that website, it is a time monster, we will not be held liable for your procrastination on this site...) the term Soulful Gumbo. She smirked at me and gigled and said that is dumb...ah, but there was no immediate veto! It grew on her. Which I think is just how women make decisions. It is a process of "NO!", "Ok, maybe..." "I have this great idea!", but I think this is another Blog post down the road...I digress.
The origin of Soulful Gumbo is actually the lyrics of the song "Funky Jesus Music" by Toby Mac (formally of D.C.Talk). The song kind of matches our attitude on life, and the phrase Soulful Gumbo just seems to be perfect. This Blog will likely be a mish mash of updates, stupid stories, commentary on life, dumb jokes, photos, video and essentially whatever we feel like posting. It's our Blog, we'll do with it what we want! For more context on the origin of "Funky Jesus Music" and Soulful Gumbo, see video of the song with lyrics.
"None of that mumbo jumbo
Give me that hip hop funk soul
Give me that funky jesus music
Give me that soulful gumbo"
It speaks to our Faith, the looser side of life and not taking things too seriously. We hope we can entertain, inform, and perhaps on occasion, enlighten you as this Blog develops.
Thanks for taking a peak!
and hopefully over time we will have you saying...
"Give me that SOULFUL GUMBO!"
Jon
"Can I get a Hot Tub?!"
-State Farm Dude
I have a feeling many important family decisions will be made in the hot tub. Take that for what you will. I am not saying it is the wisest way to go about making major life decisions, it just might be OUR way!
Many Blog names were brought up, or should I say, I brainstormed and Courtney drank and exercised her veto rights. Some strange names came out of my head inlcuding odd drink names from our recent trip to St. Lucia like "The Fuzzy Pirate" and "The Dirty Banana." We will let you conclude for yourselves why Courtney vetoed these...
I threw out odd things like "People Watching is a Sport" or "People Watching for Dummies" since people watching might be the most entertaining thing EVER! Again, vetoed.
I finally stumpled upon (not literally @ www.stumbleupon.com but stumbled in my brain. For those of you who have never gone to that website, it is a time monster, we will not be held liable for your procrastination on this site...) the term Soulful Gumbo. She smirked at me and gigled and said that is dumb...ah, but there was no immediate veto! It grew on her. Which I think is just how women make decisions. It is a process of "NO!", "Ok, maybe..." "I have this great idea!", but I think this is another Blog post down the road...I digress.
The origin of Soulful Gumbo is actually the lyrics of the song "Funky Jesus Music" by Toby Mac (formally of D.C.Talk). The song kind of matches our attitude on life, and the phrase Soulful Gumbo just seems to be perfect. This Blog will likely be a mish mash of updates, stupid stories, commentary on life, dumb jokes, photos, video and essentially whatever we feel like posting. It's our Blog, we'll do with it what we want! For more context on the origin of "Funky Jesus Music" and Soulful Gumbo, see video of the song with lyrics.
"None of that mumbo jumbo
Give me that hip hop funk soul
Give me that funky jesus music
Give me that soulful gumbo"
It speaks to our Faith, the looser side of life and not taking things too seriously. We hope we can entertain, inform, and perhaps on occasion, enlighten you as this Blog develops.
Thanks for taking a peak!
and hopefully over time we will have you saying...
"Give me that SOULFUL GUMBO!"
Jon
Monday, March 14, 2011
...And the life slows down
At the wedding I realized that our family and friends are spread from sea to sea and sometimes it is just so hard to keep in touch. I am hoping that this blog will be a place that we can post things and keep everyone up to date with our goings and happenings. We were so blessed to have so many of our very close friends and family attend the wedding. It was a wonderful time of fun and celebration. As we were sitting in the airport the next day Jon and I were expressing the fact that we just didn't get to talk to everyone there and we felt terrible. To those of you that came and we weren't able to make it around to your table, we apologize but thank you for coming. It has been so fun to see all of the snapshots come up on facebook, I can't wait to see the ones the photographer got. I am on spring break so I plan to spend the week working on one of my many scrapbooks.
We left the morning after the wedding to head to St. Lucia for our honeymoon and it was absolutely gorgeous. We had a wonderful time just enjoying the activities and each others company. Things got a little hectic before the wedding so it was nice to have some down time. While we were there I completed my open water scuba certification and we did 4 dives. It was a fun adventure, I would say the best dive was at the bottom of the Pitons.
Courtney
We left the morning after the wedding to head to St. Lucia for our honeymoon and it was absolutely gorgeous. We had a wonderful time just enjoying the activities and each others company. Things got a little hectic before the wedding so it was nice to have some down time. While we were there I completed my open water scuba certification and we did 4 dives. It was a fun adventure, I would say the best dive was at the bottom of the Pitons.
Courtney
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