Today is our 8 year anniversary.  Eight years seems like a really long time!  This past year has been a crazy year for us.  We've moved across the country, away from all our friends and family.  And, through it all, Becky's put up with all my crazy shenanigans.

Thanks, Becky.

Not to diminish the previous post so immediately, but today is Becky's birthday!  As luck would have it, Becky's brother Andy is moving to Vancouver, BC, which is only a couple of hours away.  And, even more luckily, Becky's dad and Andy are driving through Seattle today on their way to move him in. So, due to several remarkable coincidences colliding with perfect timing (more likely God doing what he does best), for the first time in about 8 years Becky gets to be with some of her family on her birthday, and in Seattle of all places.

So, they are to arrive just after lunch today, and we'll have a pleasant afternoon of visiting and touring and some yummy dinner somewhere.

Here she is trying on a new scarf.  It's a little big.

Happy Birthday Becky!

This is more or less a test to see how this works.  This is not the first time she's laughed, nor the first time we've caught it on video.  It IS pretty funny though.  Enjoy.

Today is our 7th anniversary.  This year, our anniversary is during a particularly hectic time as we prepare to move to Washington.  Becky's been a real trooper, putting up with all the work I'm having to do to get things ready for the move.  Things are coming together though.  The haze is clearing and we can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  It's so much fun to have such an adventure with such a good friend.

Anyway, my parents came up on Saturday and helped us with some projects to get the house ready to sell.  That evening, they watched Jenna while Becky and I went to see the latest installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I was a little confused about a few plot points, like why was Jack looking for the key before he found out that Davey Jones was after him?  Maybe it was part of the whole compass counter-story, and him not realizing why or what he wanted. Personally, I think they rearranged the scenes so they could use the openning scene as the openning rather than where it originally was in the story.  I also hadn't realized that it would be such a segue to the next movie.  Unlike me, Becky saw the ending coming a mile away, which is opposite of the way it usually is.

I'm also glad we had watched the original on TV the other day rather than our DVD.  The TV version had the extra "monkey scene" at the end.  Much of the second movie wouldn't have made sense if I hadn't seen that extra scene.  I wonder when they added it.

This weekend, Becky had her masters recital.  She's been at UT for the last two years getting her masters in French Horn performance.  It was fabulous! She played what was, in my opinion, an incredibly hard program.  One piece was difficult enough that she went through about a dozen accompanists before one could commit to the piece, which was modern and weird, but exceptionally performed. Congratulations Becky!

Her parents and brothers were in town, as were my parents, brother and sister-in law.  It was a great time.  Jen and Dave were there as well.  Since there were 3 Flickr-ers there, I created a Flickr group to share all the photos.  Check it out.  There are some great shots from everyone. Our mothers brought a huge spread for the reception after the recital.  Thanks again for that you guys. After the reception, the gang came back to our place for some fajitas a la Mark and Dave, which seemed to be well received.

The weekend was exhausting overall and left me feeling sick Sunday morning.  But I'm feeling better now.  Bring on the new Halo maps!

Becky and I spent this weekend in Victoria Texas.  Why you ask?  Becky was playing in the Victoria Symphony!  I was really impressed with the fine arts culture of the small town.  Becky did a great job, and got to play one of the most famous 2nd horn excerpts (Beethoven's 3rd Symphony).  I got a "comp" ticket, and was basically the closest person to the stage.  I had stayed up all night Friday playing Halo 2, so I was overly tired at the concert.  I was enjoying the music quite a bit, but fighting hard to keep my eyes open.  It was very strange.  It was like my brain wanted to shut down all unecessary cycles except for listening.  I never fell asleep, but I did listen to much of the second half with my eyes closed, employing the standard techniques to not look as though I was sleeping of course.  Becky did great.  Perhaps she'll get the permanent gig!

After the concert, we went to the Sonic.  They had a credit/debit card machine built into the menu, which also conveyed useful information like "your order is being prepared" and "your order is being delivered".  It was really useful.  No fumbling coins in the food exchange.  It was sweet.  I hadn't seen those before anywhere, and I didn't expect to find it in a small texas town.  Bravo.

Today is Becky's birthday.  I'll refrain from revealing her age, as that would be detrimental to my health.  (She has a black belt in Kung Fu, you know)

Today, Becky and I celebrate our 5th anniversary!  Pretty hard to believe it's been that long.  Happy anniversary Becky.  I love you more each year.

Well, Ben's wedding was today and wouldn't you know it, Becky had an allergic reaction to something in the sea water.  She started to break out, so we went inside, and she swole up like a balloon.  When it was time for the wedding it was better, but her eyes were still really puffy.  But she went on anyway.  She just looked kinda oriental.

The wedding went great, and hopefully she'll be back to normal tomorrow.  It's late, so I'll just end it there.  We're having a great time.

This week, I received a check in the mail from some kind of CitiBank class action settlement.  I'm always skeptical of envelopes that say “check enclosed” on them, but it was legit, and on top of that, it was for a grand total of eight cents!  What a waste! Nevertheless, It was the most news-worthy check I've received recently...until today.

Today, Becky received a check from the Screen Actors Guild for $64 for the infamous Unsolved Mysteries episode she “starred” in back in 1990.  Evidently, they played that part of the episode again on some cable special.  My check is crap compared to that!

So no, the title of this entry is not a typo.  We received multiple checks in the mail, not a single check that is currently in the mail.

For those that are not aware, my wife Becky has a black belt in kung fu.  They had a tournament this past weekend.  Becky wasn't as involved as she normally is since she is going back to school, but she managed to get first place in the “two-man set” event.  She and her friend performed their spear vs. broadsword kata at the public exhibition Saturday evening.  I got it on video.  I may put a few choice frames up.

Congratulations, Becky!!!

Since I've been on a diet, I've been bagging my lunch much more often.  Actually, I should say Becky has been bagging my lunch much more often.  She does a fantastic job of putting that together just about every morning, and I would like to thank her publicly for that.

She is also becoming very resourceful.  For instance, we must be out of plastic sandwich bags because my carrots, sandwich, and multi-vitamin were all encased in Saran Wrap today.

I picked up Becky from DFW last night at about 11:30. She's got 332 pictures of Germany for us to sift through. I'll try to get some of those up her so you can see them. Right now...I'm tired. I'll get everyone caught up with my anniversary suprise antics (which were very well received) as well.

As Jenkies's internship comes to a close, I also am reaching the end of a similar episode. Becky returns from Germany on Monday night. I share some of Jason's feelings with regard to the end of the duration. It's been a tough, lonely time during which it felt like I was in a new place where I didn't quite fit in. For me it feels like a part of me has been missing. In many ways, it's been an enlightening experience after which I feel like I know myself better. Of course, I didn't meet anyone with bullet holes, and I don't have to preach on Sunday. It's not even my turn to teach Sunday School this week.

It really makes me appreciate Becky that much more to see what my life would be like without her. For one thing, I can just barely make it out of bed on my own. The many years of training that Peter and I went through to sleep late and through anything have honed my sleeping skills to the point that it just about takes a freight train to wake me up enough to actually get up. I've been late several times in the last few weeks because of it. It's a million little different things that you don't notice until they're gone. I'm glad she's coming back soon.

She's taken lots of pictures, so maybe I'll post a few of the better ones. We got a 256MB memory stick for the camera before she left. Combined with the 64MB stick we already had, she's got enough room for well over 300 pictures of Germany. And if you come visit, we'll make you watch every single one...Just kidding.

That reminds me...You guys have an open invitation to visit us in Austin. Well, not just anyone off the street. You know who you are. (not you, B-Dub. You can stay in your own dang house)

Say, that reminds me, B-Dub. It's you and Jan's turn to come up North for dinner when Becky gets back.

Hey hey! remember me? The last few weeks have been some of the busiest of my life. Sorry for the prolonged absence. I've got to fill you in on several things, so to be efficient in helping you through them, I'll start with a list:

• I've been working on a skit/video for out church's youth-led worhsip
• Becky got her french horn "renovated" for lack of a better term.
• Becky is in Germany for three weeks
• My sprinkler system broke.

Josh (our interim youth guy, who is younger than Andrew) asked me to get some volunteers and come up with a skit for the youth led service that was this Sunday. So, it put together a sign-up sheet. I added an extra category for favorite Brady Bunch episode like Peter and I did in Cal II, which just confused people. They thought I wanted to do a Brady Bunch skit. Peter's probably the only one who understands that so I'll move on. So, as usual, I procrastinated until I thought we had just enough time to put it together and do it, at which point I found out I'd lose an entire week to the youth mission trip. Josh gave me a skit book, which should have been titled "Worst Skits Ever" and written by Webdell. (just kidding)

Anyway, it came down to last Wednesday, when we were going to finish filming our outdoor scenes. Why didn't I guess that that's when the hurricane would blow through. So, we went down to Wal-Mart and bought 12 sheets of that bright green posterboard and did all the scenes in front of a green screen. Needless to say, this added quite a bit of editing time. To make a long story short, I was up until 6am Sunday morning working on it. What I came up with was very similar to Blue's Clues, so I wished I had B-Dub to play the main part. I'll try to make some screen shots later if you're interested.

Ok, that was way too much, I'll try to keep my other points shorter. In fact, I'll combine the next two.

Becky is in Germany right now doing something called "EuroBrass". It's a christian group that tours the Germany area doing concerts and stuff and encouraging the German-based churches in their work. Since Becky is starting grad school in the fall doing horn performance, she's been wanting to get a new horn. (Don't worry the stories will converge). She did alot of research and tried out several horns. Her friend Janet (who is also in the EuroBrass thing) has a friend in Dallas who does custom horn stuff. He looked at her horn and gave her an estimate of the work that needed to be done and what he'd charge for it. We'd essentially get a new horn worth much more than we'd pay to have the work done, and we could sell it in the future to get a brand new one. Anyway, we wanted to get it taken care of before she left for Germany so she'd be used to it when she came back and had to do auditions for ensembles at UT. The guy did awesome work and the horn turned out very nice. So now she's in Germany with her "new" horn.

She has a horrible fear of flying, so she got some medication to take on the plane to help with anxiety. It must have worked really well because she said the flight was good.

I'm starting to think I should have broken this up into multiple entries. Oh well.

I had noticed that zone 1 of my sprinkler system wasn't spraying with quite the pressure it used to , so I turned it on this evening to have a look. When I did, up from the ground came a-bubblin' crude...water that is...clear gold...Texas tea...ingredient. One of the heads had broken off the main pipe and the water had created a tunnel to the surface. I dug it up and found that a large root had been pushing on the head and had finally forced it to pull away from the pipe. I got in there with my axe and chopped out a section of the root, which turned out to be about 6" in diameter. When I pulled the root out, the head came with it. The root has grown around the head so I couldn't even pry it out. The threads on the pipe seem intact, so hopefully I can buy a new head tomorrow and fill the hole back up. If there's more damage, there'll be more work for me.

Well, hopefully that brings everyone back up to speed. Our anniversary is this Thursday, so we'll miss it once again due to Becky being on a mission trip. Man, her priorities are screwed up.