Best Vacation Ever

Melissa and I went to my cousins wedding in San Diego and the Las Vegas last weekend, and it was awesome. On thursday night (we left friday at 5:00AM) we discovered that my official wedding shirt we'd just purchased still had the RFID tag on it. I have a drill, but that's a big tool for a delicate job. Anyway - it took a while, but it came off after much stressing out by Melissa.

Friday morning when we left it was raining, and it kept raining and kept coming down harder as we headed down 101. Somewhere north of San Luis Obispo we stopped at a rest area, Melissa started driving and the car started shaking hard whenever we'd try to accelerate. In the middle of nowhere we tried a few times to get going, but it was really bad so I called the mechanics who had done my engine work back in January and they tried to help me troubleshoot the problem. We couldn't find anything but a loose wire on an air intake valve, so we tightened that and tried to get going again. The car was better, but still shaking.

We made it as far as Santa Maria when the car made a sound like something fell out, we got off the freeway with just as the car died. It started again and got us two hundred feet into an Office Depot parking lot. They let us use their internet there and we tracked down a mechanic who would work on BMWs, he was two miles away, which took about fifteen minutes with the slow and dying car that sounded like a lawnmower.

The good folks at Rizzoli's Auto Repair had a look at the car even though they were supposed to be going to lunch and determined within fifteen minutes that none of the spark plugs from back in January had been properly tightened, one had come loose, shattered the coil, stripped out its socket, and was making the noise that made the car sound like a lawnmower. We started stressing out about rental cars and local hotels and stuff because we had to get to the wedding, but within four hours they'd tracked down the parts they needed and fixed it, one of the guys even drove thirty miles to Santa Barbara and back to get the last piece they needed.

We were only four or five hours off schedule so we kept on down the coast, driving through Point Mugu, Malibu and Ventura, so it turns out that not all of Los Angeles is horrible - just 90% of it. We stayed in downtown San Diego, had lunch in La Jolla the next day and went to my cousins wedding at the Prado in Balboa park. This post has gone on long enough I think, I'll let Melissa fill you all in on the wedding and Las Vegas.

For Marla, Love Rocky!

Ball Game

Last night Melissa and I took Kevin and Josue out to the A's opening game. We got the best seats I've ever been in, just a few rows back from first base, right next to the Sox dugout. The A's lost, which sucked, but really, the last few games I've been to have been complete blowouts for the visitors, so this wasn't too bad.

Anyway, in the eighth inning people started to jump ship in our section and a couple of pretty girls in their early twenties showed up and sat right in front of us. They seemed kind of odd, and after ten minutes Melissa determined that they were trying to hook up with the Sox players. Sure enough they were constantly fixing their hair and trying to get the attention of the players, but really only got Ozzie Guillen's attention. At one point the blond one was talking and turned so I could hear her and she was telling her friend: 'these guys cheat on their wives all the time. I know, I used to be one of their girlfriends.'

People are weird.

FYI

We haven't posted in a while. Things have been going better for us. I (Melissa) am starting to feel a lot better. I haven't taking any drugs for a while. Still a little stiffness in my neck but overall I'm feeling a hundred times better. I even started to work out again, yeah!

Jesse's been feeling a little sick lately, but he's happy I'm feeling better. We are both happy because it seems like our noisy, pot-smoking downstairs neighbor has moved out. So no more weed smoke coming into my house.

We are going to San Diego in a couple of weeks for Jesse's cousins wedding and then we are driving to Las Vegas to have some fun. Jesse's never been to Vegas and I love it there so we should have a lot of fun.

Rocky is enjoying his new haircut. He got shaved and now he can see through the hairs around his eyes. Now we can see his eyes and we've noticed that he has sort of a lazy left eye.

Dear Mr. President...

I work for the government. I have worked in the private sector in the past and it’s a WHOLE different world than the government. I only have two things to say:

1) I've had my job for over three years now, (my longest and first real job ever) and a few weeks ago and I was thanked for doing something good. I was taught that in the government to never expect to be appreciated or thanked for doing something good, but that if you are noticed by your superiors it was because you did something wrong. I was thanked and it made my day, which is pretty sad if you really think about it.

2) There is so much irony in the government that it just makes me laugh. Some irony is good and other irony is bad, but today the government irony went my way it was good, real good.

I’ve been having a tough time at work for a few months due to my car accident, other dumb issues and having to work too much, but overall I think things are going to get better.

Bass

I got a new bass yesterday. The Peavey Millenium 5 AC BXP, it's a five string with some 'active' pickups, so I get even heavier notes and more punch, it's pretty cool. It's the red kind and it lives in a coffin case - now it needs a name.

Any ideas?

Dog Tricks

Rocky can now play dead if you point at him and say *bang.* It's pretty funny.

A Weekend Retreat

Jesse and I took a small weekend retreat to Yosemite this weekend. Here are some pictures.

Mirror Lake.

Bridalviel Waterfalls.

Rocky is being amazed by the majestic views of Yosemite. He's so cute. Rocky got really wet in the snow and rain, lets just say he was very tired by the end of the day.

This was our small walk up to Bridalviel Waterfalls. It was somewhat chilly and rainy on Sunday.

Jesse and Rocky frolicking in the snow. It didn't snow while we were there but there snow in some areas.

The Man

Just so the world knows -
Ben Vose is the man.

Doctors Visit on Valentines Day

Yesterday I went to the doctor because I could not stand the pain in my back and neck anymore. The night before I only slept 3 hours due to the pain, which causes Jesse not to sleep well. I had a pinching sharp pain at the end of my neck near the vertebrae and shooting pain from there down my back and out to my arms.

We waited a little over an hour for my 2:30 p.m. appointment at Kaiser. When I finally see the doctor I explained all my ailments and he decides that I should received trigger point injection. Trigger point injection is where the area of pain is anesthetized with a very thin needle. The doctor also pulled a cramped muscled in my neck forward and pushed down on my shoulder muscles, which was very painful that is forced tears to my eyes.

The doctor proceeded to prepare the injection into MY NECK NEAR MY SPINE! It wasn't a quick injection, it took almost 3 or 4 minutes. There was only one entry point but he moved the needle around in my neck to numb hurting muscles. That was also very painful. At least Jesse was with me to hold my hand. After he finished I felt most of the pinching pain go away. It should last a couple of days or maybe a week.

The doctor gave me Darvocet and and Flexeril. Darvocet is a narcotic and Flexeril is a muscle relaxant. Let's just say I slept EXTREMELY well last night, which I haven't had in a long, long time. I just feel a little weak and sleepy right now. That was my Valentines Day

Melissa

The Rock Man

Rocky likes to sleep on the floor with his little doggie. He's awfully cute when he is not being bad. Overall he is a really good dog. He loves people and is getting over his fear of other dogs. He is almost completely socialized. I think he will be pretty small because he is almost 7 months old and he weighs 7.8 lbs. I hope he stays small so I can sneak him into stores. Now I need an expensive purse to carry him in!

Melissa

Injuries

I have soft tissue damage to my neck and back. My physical therapist told me that the pain will probably last nine months. The pain will decrease as the months will go by but I will have pain for at least nine months due to the severity of my accident.

My physical therapist gave me some electrode things that give my muscles tiny massages, because my muscles are so damaged. I can only start with small exercises like moving my head. The pain is also causing me to lose sleep and will continue for a while.

Melissa

Yay for Jesse!

I'm proud to announce that my husband Jesse has passed his state certification for the Engineering-In-Training exam. Jesse you are so smart! Now on to the Professional Engineering exam in 3-5 years!

Melissa

This Morning

If you were on 880 South this morning around 8:30 to 9:00ish. I'm sorry.

I was in a car accident when I was going to work, which caused a lot of traffic. Someone rear ended my car really bad, but I'm o.k. I just have a big bump on my head and was very dizzy for most of the day. I was taking an office chair to work, which ended up slamming into my head. I went to the emergency room and was checked out, but nothing too serious except for the pain and swelling that awaits me the next few days. My neck, shoulders and back hurts right now.

Melissa.

Andrew, Little Belle and Me

I just like these pictures of Andrew, Belle and me. Andrew and I were playing lucha libres. Belle and I were hanging out taking beauty shots.

The Dog

I like having a dog, even if he's a girly wimpy dog. He's forced Melissa and I to get up before 11 on the weekends and he gets us out walking more. It's great. I came home early for work the other day and wanted to be lazy, but I figured that Rocky had to go get exercise, so I went running around the lake with him. Everyone should own a dog.

-Jesse

New Haircut

Jesse decided he needed a new haircut. Last night, at my parent's house I shaved Jesse's head. Then my cousin Daniel decided he liked Jesse's new haircut, so I shaved Daniel's head too. Pictures will soon be posted.

Rocky

I'm crazy!

My Goal

My new goal is to survive the next couple of weeks. Think of a happy place...

A Hint

Mission Peak has a hint of green. I love it. I can see Mission Peak from my house and from my office window.

Tomorrow, Turkey Day! Time to bring out the fat pants!

Oops! Not Down Your Pants...

I thought this was kind of funny and painful.


WICHITA, Kan. - A botched kidnapping ended with one of the assailants shooting himself in the groin, police said.

The man had just stuck the gun in his waistband when it fired, shooting him in the left testicle, authorities said. He cringed, causing the gun to fire again and strike him in the left calf, they said.

The 23-year-old man managed to walk into a hospital for treatment. He and his two alleged accomplices, ages 18 and 20, were arrested on attempted kidnapping charges. They were accused of trying to kidnap a teenager in a dispute over stereo speakers.

The Rain and The Day From Hell

I once lived in Georgia where it rained all the time. Apparently, mostly everywhere outside of California it rains in the summertime and all vegetation dies in the wintertime. When it rains in California I sometimes get irritated because people forget how to drive, I’m stuck in traffic and everything is wet. But then I remember how I loved the rain in Georgia. In the beginning it was irritating, but then I would walk in the rain everywhere I went. When it rained it was relief from the 110 degree weather and 100% humidity. I hated physical training when the actual temperature was 120 degrees (it was actually 100 degrees but with the humidity factor it was 120 degrees). When it rained the temperature would drop like 30 degrees and I could run in the rain forever, even though I was so wet I weighed 10 pounds more. I just didn’t want the rain to stop because if you’ve ever been in the South after it has rained you know what I’m talking about.

The Day from Hell was the first day I had physical training. I don’t know if it was because it was my first physical training day or it was just really the day from hell. Our instructor was like the bad cop in The Terminator 2. He just wouldn’t stop. Two minutes after we started doing calisthenics there was a lot of thunder and it started raining, but no lighting. If there was lighting we would have stopped, but no we went on for about 1 ½ hour of CRAZY calisthenics. If you slowed down our instructor stared at us with piercing eyes and somehow found the strength to continue.

At one point I had dirt on my face, in my teeth, and my arms were collapsing and thought to myself, “What am I doing?!” Then I thought to myself, “Thank God it is raining or else I probably would have fainted.” I’m not physically strong but I pushed myself to do it but there were some guys around me that were in so much pain, it was kind of sad. Later we stretch for about ½ hour and it hurt. Let’s say the only thing that didn’t hurt later that night was my hair. I woke up in the middle of the night to roll over in my bed and I had a wave of pain went through my body.

A few months later our instructor actually apologized because he even thought that day was really harsh.

Dog

Melissa and I are the new and proud owners of an 11 week old Shih Tzu. Please observe it's cuteness. His name is Rocky.

Last Saturday

Last Saturday I spent a few hours with my little nephew, Daniel, alone. I tried to bring along Andrew (my other nephew) but he didn’t want to come with me. I took Daniel to PetSmart, where we saw lots of little dogs, fishes and cats. After that I was thirsty so I decided to take Daniel to Jamba Juice, but the line was out the door. We started walking over to Baskin Robbins, then all of a sudden Daniel sees Starbucks and screams, “Yo quiero café!” (I want coffee!)

Let see, a 3 year old, who can’t even read wants coffee from Starbucks. Starbucks must be doing something very right or very wrong since even my 3 year old nephew wants coffee.

Of course I don’t get him coffee but I did get two tall vanilla bean fraps (which are still loaded with sugar, but hey what are aunts for). Then Daniel wants to sit on the patio with all the other people and drink his frap, which I would have gladly done because it was so cute of him for asking but there were a bunch of smokers. So we went to Barnes and Nobles and looked at some books. Fun times!

A Long Ride

Yesterday, I had to go up north for work. Total it was a six hour drive (back and forth). I have never been car sick in my life (This is Melissa) Well I was sick the WHOLE time. It was the worst feeling ever, but I feel fine now. I don't know what happened.

Web Site

I made a web site for church. It's a little unfinished right now, I'm still trying to get some pictures and stuff. It's my first attempt of any kind at web design, so if you're an experienced hand and can offer some advise - go ahead. Go check it out.

17 Miles

It really bothers me that it takes me one hour to drive 17 miles to San Jose. If I don't leave at the crack of dawn, then I'm stuck for one hour whether it's 880 or 680.

Ensenada Vacation

For my dad's birthday, Jesse and I decided to take my parents and my two little brothers to Ensenada, Mexico. My dad needed a vacation so we went last weekend. We had a very good time. We visited the mission site (the clinic) that we go to every year, the Bufadora (the blowhole), ate some good food and hung out at the beach. We stayed at a vacation rental home right on Punto Estero which is a pennisula a little south of Ensenada. That is where all the Americans own their nice homes.

So on Friday night we left Fremont and drove down to Oceanside until the sun came up. After some breakfast at Denny's, we crossed the border Saturday morning. We got to Ensenada way before our check-in time so we went to the Gigante bought some drinks and a phone because I had to call the doctor. We visited the Doctor at the clinic. I found the neighborhood kids, three of them in particular Jesus, Sylvia and Isaac.

The doctor invited to eat carne asada, my dad's and Jesse's favorite food. There was a lot of food which was delicious although Kevin and Josue (my little brother's) didn't want to eat anything. Jesse and my dad ate alot, alot.

Then we went to Costco, yes there is a Costco in Ensenada. We went to Costco because my dad wanted to find a bilingual dictionary for my little cousin but instead we bought some jeans for Jesse. We were extremely exhausted by then so we decided to go to the house we rented even though it wasn't time check. But fortunately when we got there the lady was very nice and allowed us to check in a few hours early. So we slept.

It was about 6:00 p.m. when Jesse and I woke up. Everyone was hungry so Jesse and I left to the city to buy some food. It takes about half an hour to get to the city from where we were. So we got to the Calimax (the supermarket) around 7:00 p.m. and the place was busy. It took about one hour to shop. They have the best bread ever. They have "El Pan del Muerto" meaning the "Bread of the Dead" for The Day of The Dead. It was a giant bread. Jesse had a miniature version of this 1 kilo dessert.

Back at the house, my mother was freaking out because it had almost been 2 hours since we left. She thought maybe we had gotten lost or someone had abducted us. My mom wanted to call us on our cell phones but they didn't work in Mexico. My dad said that my mom would walk to the window every five minutes to see if we were coming home. We arrived a little later and had some dinner.

Sylvia and Isaac told me that it was there brother's birthday the following day so on Sunday after church we had cake and ice cream with the Jesus' parents, brother and sister and some other kids.




After that we went to the Bufadora and bought some trinkets and ate at Habana Cabana's. We had some good food there and the band was great. We played Scrabble for the rest of the evening. Monday we had some breakfast and stopped at various places to shop including in Rosarito. We arrived at Fremont around 1 a.m.

Fremont A's Update

Apparently the land which has been purchased in Fremont for a future A's stadium belonged to Cisco systems, employees of which are highly involved in the design of a "State of the Art" baseball stadium with 40,000 seats.

According to Fremont Mayor Bill Wasserman he expects a deal with the A's before Thanksgiving.

I heard that statement from Mayor Wasserman on NPR this morning. Fremont gets attention from NPR. Awesome.

Evidently if the A's move to Fremont they'll be the Silicon Valley A's of Fremont, or something like that. Now that would suck.

Surgery

My cousin Daniel had his eye surgery on Friday. They were able to extract two of the three pellets in his eye. He is recovering well but a little groggy from the vicodin. When we arrived at the surgery center, Daniel was only scheduled to have an eye surgery but ended up having his hand fixed too. Daniel was supposed to have the four lead pellets removed from his hand which was going to cost an extra $3,000.00 but my family couldn't afford it.

They decided that it was more important to fix his eye, so the hand would have to wait until later. Daniel, my aunt and I went into the patient prep room to wait for the doctor. The eye doctor came in and ask some general questions then left the room. The doctor came in a little later and told us that the hand surgeon was going to be in the surgery center and that he was going to do Daniel's hand surgery for free! We are all so happy that Daniel is mostly completely fixed and so glad that God provides for our every need.

We Are Still Alive

We've just been a little busy. I was away for a week for work training and Jesse was busy helping Jared remodel his house. That's all. We'll post more later. I'm going to bed, I'm sleepy.

And the Award for Least Manliest Man in the World Goes to...

And in other news this is sadly funny

Polygamist Jeffs Moved to UtahTo Face Charges
Meanwhile, in Beverly Hills, Hugh Hefner (right) celebrates his half-birthday.

Insurance

Melissa and I consolidated our insurance yesterday. I wanted to add her to my AAA policy, so I called the AAA people and tried to get a quote. The first thing I had to do was give them the song and dance that confirms that I am who I say I am. It turns out that they still had me living in New York, and the fact that I was living in Fremont was going to save me $8 every year. Fantastic.

They don't have a current membership for me, they say I never renewed. Despite that I have a receipt for renewal with a confirmation number and everything, in addition to the card that says I'm a member until May 2007. Also wonderful.

After going over that for ten minutes or so I got a quote to add Melissa and her 1999 standard V6 baseline Mustang which is driven maybe twice a week. It was going to be for her alone over double what I currently pay, bringing us up to three hundred and something every month.

I am now insured by Progressive.

Ugh....

I love waking up at 3:00 a.m. and working for 15 hours straight...

Benji is Here!

We have a new pet! It's another goldfish. He is a Black Moor (the ones with bulging eyes) and his name is Benji. He is TINY compared to all of our fancy goldfish.

Our other Black Moor, named Max, is so big now that his bulging eyes giggle as he swims.

Boise

I was just in Boise for work. Nothing too exciting but at least I was able go to a state that I probably would have never gone in the first place. Sadly, I was not able to eat a really good potato. I strolled along downtown, the river, ate at a brewery or ale restaurant, saw the capital building, read a book and watched Willy Wonka and the Chocalate Factory. I ended up finding the mall, not to impressive but it satisfied my needs. Oh! I also had a Route 44 Cherry Limeade at Sonics!

I'm always amazed how beautiful the land is when I'm able to see it from the plane. And I'm always amazed of how happy I am to live in California.

Profile

We updated our profile if you want to check it out.

My cousin Franz got a job! I just wanted to post a picture of how cute my nephew Andrew is.

Wedding Planner

I want to start my own wedding planning business.

Happenings

It’s been a while since we posted. Let’s see what has happened since July 27th. We went camping with our church at Manresa State Beach. That was a lot of fun. The weather could have been a little warmer but it was still great. Jesse and I actually went into the ocean and the water was REALLY cold. I was probably in the water for 10 minutes. Jesse stuck it out a little more. Jesse played a lot of volleyball, while I hung out with my baby nephews, cousins, and Joshua. There was soccer, volleyball, singing, bocce ball, BBQ, games and much more.

The following week was my little brother Josué's 10th birthday. We had cake and ice cream at my parent’s house. Every time there is cake, all three babies (Daniel 3, Andrew, 2, Ivana 3) go crazy. Every birthday babies are crying, screaming that they want to blow out the candles even though it’s not there birthday. Here’s a picture of my two girl cousins (Vanessa 10, Ivana) Josue, and my nephews. I wanted a group picture.

That weekend was my friend Lupita’s wedding. She asked me to do her makeup so I did. The wedding was nice, my sister-in-law Nohema did all the flower and church decorations for Lupita. Nohema is the most creative, hard-working flower arranger I know. Nohema made all her own decorations for HER OWN wedding!! We took our nephews to the mall, so Nohema could be left alone to make her flower arrangements. Let’s just say, there was some crying but only for a little bit. At one point (when I was buying shoes) I saw Jesse with a horrible look on his face, wearing Andrew's baby hat, trying to prevent them from getting hurt while they were playing with the stroller. Anyways, Lupita and Jesus Nieblas are now married!

Five days later, Jesse and I attend Kevin Schlichter and Robyn’s wedding. It was beautiful. They got married at Kevin’s father house in some golf course in Alamo. The ceremony was short and very casual. They had a string quartet!! I was so excited because I hardly heard any music from the string quartet at my wedding. I loved it. The food was the best catered food I’ve ever tasted. They served appetizers before and after the ceremony, but dinner was delicious. Kevin and Robyn are now somewhere in Alaska!!

Then the next day, Jesse and I got up early and went to Santana Row for breakfast. Santana Row is a very nice shopping mall. We walked along the whole area and saw some very trendy bars and restaurants. Next we drove down Steven’s Creek Blvd. looking for the Toyota dealership. We want to buy a Prius probably sometime next year. The salesman was very nice, and helpful, unlike the Fremont Toyota dealership. We didn’t buy a car but decided to come to Steven’s Creek Toyota when we want to buy the Prius.

In the afternoon, as Jesse studied for his engineering exam and I went to Janelle’s baby shower with my mom.

Somewhere in those couple of weeks Jesse and I saw Pirates of the Caribbean and went to the Fremont Arts and Wine Festival. Other than that we’ve been working and just having a good time with our families.

Hilarity

For those of you who haven't seen 'Baby Got Book' please go and enjoy it now. Particularly you Frances and Marla.

Mad Dogs and Englishmen

I am neither a mad dog nor an Englishman, to the best of my knowledge, but I do enjoy the midday sun. I like it when it's hot, it's a really good time.

I won't go on about that, I wanted to complain briefly about all that global warming jazz. I just wanted the world to know that there is another - perhaps even more insidious - theory as to why it's so freaking hot outside.

Ay Muy Caliente!

It was at least 106 degrees today. Boiling Hot! Thank God we have AC in our apartment. Too bad we out most of the day, but it still feels nice.

Here's a picture of my little cousin Ivana and me. She's 3 years old.

Still Alive

We are still alive... We've just been very busy. It's been fun having so family members around. I love having an large family. Jesse is also speaking spanish more, so that always makes me happy.

Today Jesse and I worked, came home, made lasagna, went swimming with my brothers and cousins, and now going to bed. Hopefully we can start posting more often again.

Can't wait to go camping next weekend. We are going on a church camping trip at the beach at Manresa State Beach.

Flying Across The World

My family is flying right now to San Francisco from Lima, Peru. They will be here later tonight. I'm so excited!!! I can't wait to meet my cousins.

Back

We're back from Mexico, it was a good time, we'll share stories shortly, right now there are some pictures from the trip uploaded in the picture section.

¡Ensenada Here We Come!

So we are leaving for our church mission trip to Ensenada, Mexico this evening at 8:00 o'clock. We are embarking on a 12 hour drive to Mexico. The rest of the team will be leaving at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow morning. We are going ahead of the group to scope out good places to set up our tents and hopefully visit the clinic that we've been helping to build.

Can't wait to see the BEAUTIFUL sunrises and starry nights! Can't wait to have a good time in Ensenada! We'll be back next Friday. Pray that everything goes well, for our safety, and that my fishes don't die.

Peru

Milca flew yesterday from Lima to Iquitos, which is probably about the distance from San Francisco to LA or San Diego. When the plane got to the airport in Iquitos it was so overrun with birds that the plane couldn't land, so they circled for a bit and after the birds didn't clear up they flew all the way back to Lima. That's funny.

Coming to America!

So my family from Peru are coming to the United States of America on July 5th. I'm so excited and relieved that they are finally coming. It's been a really tough on my family the past two weeks. As Jesse explained earlier, my cousin Daniel got shot in the face with a lead pellets my other cousin Frank almost got jumped by the same gang members that shot my cousin. We are still not sure if Daniel is going to go blind in one eye, but yesterday he actually started seeing from his injured eye.

I have also been worried for my mom's safety since she is visiting with them, but my mom says she is fine. My mom is going to Iquitos (which is in the Amazon) so all she has to worry about is yellow fever and malaria....

It has been 2 years since my family won the Visa Lottery, but finally they be able to come with us. I'm so happy that they can come to be with us and be a part of the American Dream, so they don't have to suffer or be scared anymore. I'm am so happy I live here.

Father's Day and Cheesecake

For Father's Day, I made my dad a Cheescake. Since my mom left for Peru on Sunday morning, I thought I could make my dad feel a little better by making him breakfast and a cheesecake. I hope it did. Anything for my dad, he is the best!

Pissed Off

One of Melissa's aunts and her whole family is coming to the United States some time very soon, they won the Peru lottery and got all their paperwork in order and they're on their way to citizenship, it's fantastic. In the last week however a gang that hangs out in the neighborhood where they live has been harassing the two boys - they're seventeen and nineteen.

About a week ago the seventeen year old got shot in the face by an IED shot by one of them, he got lead lodged in his hands and his face and one of his eyes. The doctors aren't sure if he'll regain vision in his eye, but he's coming to the US so hopefully he'll get some quality help here.

The older one got jumped a couple of days ago and got punched once or twice before escaping, and last night a group of ten of the gangsters came at him and a couple of his friends with baseball bats and all that crap.

It makes me so mad when people prey on other people and the authorities won't do anything, it's just real nice that they're coming to Fremont soon. If you're the type please pray for the family, they're the Barrantes and the boys are Frank and Daniel.

Want

I would really like to have this shirt.

I'm sick

Well, I'm sick.... really sick. We did not sleep at all last night. I would get up every two hours with bad stomach pain, only to be relieved by vomiting. I'm just glad Jesse isn't sick. He's been wonderful taking care of me. I feel like crap.

Wedding

We went to my uncle Tom's wedding on sunday. It was up on Highway 1 north of the Golden Gate Bridge along a stretch of freeway where some eight years ago Adam Richman and I tried to find the Point Reyes Lighthouse and nearly ran out of gas. The location was the Pelican Inn, which is just above the beach, and the plan was to have the wedding on the beach there. We were an hour late arriving and as we were walking out to the beach we found the bride and then a slew of other people who told us that the beach was a no-go, evidently there was too much cold and too much wind, so really, we missed nothing but being cold. They finally had the ceremony up on the lawn of the Inn.

After that we sat around and ate and talked and generally had a good time. They had a small band there with an upright bass, a clarinet, and the lead singer with a ukalele and a kazoo. They were great, we'll post some pictures later. They even dedicated a song to my wife.

Numbers 22-28

Update note: Melissa and I have a Bible study at our apartment on Thursdays and I saw someone else blogging the Bible, so we wanted to write about what we talk about and get some feedback on questions and ideas from you all. We're finishing up with Numbers now, so here goes:

Numbers 22:
Balak (a king) tries to get Balaam to go curse the Israelites, because there's a lot of them and they're getting ready to invade Canaan. Balaam doesn't want to because he doesn't want to go against the Lord his God, the Lord talks to him when he sleeps and tells Balaam not to curse the Israelites, but Balak sends more people and the Lord tells Balaam that he should go with the people if they ask him to (v. 20). A few chapters pass and Balaam blesses the Isrealites four times, saying each time he can't say anything that the Lord doesn't tell him to. Why then does Balaam get compared to false teachers in II Peter 2:15, loving the wages of wickedness? Is it because he goes with the people when they don't come and call for him? Because that's when the donkey talks to him - in the King James by the way, it's a dumb ass. Reminds me of Red Foreman every time I read it.

It's also interesting that Balak lives in this place with all these worshippers of Baal and Molech, and probably other ones I'm not remembering, but when he actually needs something done he goes to the guy who follows the Lord.

Numbers 25
There's a plague and I don't know when it starts or who's getting killed. The people of Israel commit whoredom with Moab, that's bad, OK. Plus they start worshipping Baal. I think it's been some thirty eight years since the last time the Lord stood against them, so maybe they forgot the price of this kind of thing. Anyway, the Lord tells Moses all the people that have been joined to Baal need to be killed. While Moses and the rest of the leaders are prostrating themselves in front of the tabernacle and they see some prince of the Simeonites brings one of the daughters of the Midianite leader into the camp. The priest Eleazar goes and spears through the man and the woman in one shot, I guess they were engaged in some up close and personal activity for that to be feasible... At any rate that stays a plague that we only learn there was afflicting the Israelites and it kills 24,000 of them. Can someone tell me what's going on there? Was this not the first time he brought her into the camp? Was the plague just the Lord's way of dealing with those who were making nice with the Midianites instead of letting the judges do it? Or was it a separate punishment for the Israelites letting a Baal worshipper into their camp?

Anyway, that's what we got.

Dan Simmons

This message from Dan is fantastic. Skip down to the part that says 'Enemies of Civilization.' Dan Simmons talks about American 'fundamentalism' versus the European variety, as well as transformational theology/thinking and what's really going on. Being no friend to organized religion, and featuring the catholic church as villains in one of his series, makes his critique of those who critique Christians seem a little more compelling.


If this stuff isn't interesting to you, please don't read it, you'll just get mad at me.

Dave Barry

Dave Barry has accurately described my experience of the Everglades:

"We rented our houseboat at a place called Flamingo, in Everglades National Park, waaaaay down on the bottom of Florida. At that point, Florida has totally stopped pretending to be a normal United State such as Pennsylvania, the kind of state that has been constructed in compliance with the Official State Building Code on a solid foundation of dirt and rocks. Lower Florida looks like solid ground in places, but it's actually a gigantic floating clotted mass of decaying vegetation and shed snakeskins, drifting on a sea of aromatic water and muck. You get the feeling that you need to keep moving, because if you stand still too long, you'll sink into the clot until the only thing sticking up is your head, which a bird will come along and build a nest on.

There's wildlife everywhere down there. Maybe too much of it. For example, when we arrived at the Flamingo marina, we drove into a parking lot, which sloped down gently to a boat-launching ramp into the water, and lying on this ramp, watching us, were three major alligators. They were lined up parallel to each other, halfway out of the water, as though a National Park Service employee had been in the middle of launching them, but then he stopped for some reason, such as they ate him.

That evening, we dropped anchor maybe 100 yards from a mangrove island, many miles from any sign of civilization. We stood on the deck, and, as the sun set, we experienced a sensation that I will never forget: the sensation of being landed on by every mosquito in the Western Hemisphere. There were so many of them that they needed Air Traffic Control mosquitoes to give directions (''OK, No. 86,742,038, you have clearance to land on his left elbow, but make it quick, because he's almost out of blood'')."

Thanks for that Dave.

Saturday Night

Melissa and I had a long Saturday night. Her cousin Jessica was graduating on Sunday morning and we couldn't find the tickets, so we were in the process of tearing up the apartment at ten thirty or eleven, when we hear yelling from out in front of the leasing office/pool area. We have a pretty good view of that area so we turn off the bedroom lights and watch what's going on.

A rather large man is yelling and posturing at two asian guys and a girl. The man's wife is yelling at him to drop it, but he won't, and a short, portly woman security guard is nervously trying to keep them separated. After repeating things to the two guys like: 'You're going to jail a**hole!!' and 'F***ing gangsters!!' and 'You pushed me, you going to jail a**hole!!' The guys wife throws her hands in the air and storms off. I hear one of the asian guys yell at the belligerent man that he's going to jail for abuse. This goes on for several minutes and someone yells from one of the other apartments 'Shut Up!!' The big guy starts to get tired (and likely was a little drunk) so he goes and sits down, but keeps yelling, calling the others gangsters and drug dealers.

Another security guard shows up, this one a very tall muscular man. The big guy stands up again and starts yelling all over again, the same three things, with the addition that he wants the asian guys' car searched because there are drugs in there.

A few minutes later four squad cars show up, one of them a K9 unit. The dog in said unit starts to bark, so all the dogs in the vicinity also start going nuts. The police question both groups of people as the big man yells that they're drug dealers, and the girl is a prostitute, when he says that one of the other guys starts to come after him, but is of course restrained. The big guy is arrested in a few minutes and everyone leaves.

I figure based on where the asian guys' car was parked and the way everyone was acting that the big guy was coming back from the pool and was in some was being abusive to his wife, verbally or physically, or whatever. The asian guys saw it and stopped to restrain the guy before the security guard showed up. So kudos to them.

This post is getting long, but that wasn't the end of our night, around eleven thirty we decided to go check for those tickets in San Jose at Melissa's desk. I knew that San Jose closed Market street on Friday for Cinco de Mayo, but they did the same thing on Saturday night. It was easy to get in, but it took nearly an hour to get out, dodging drunks and gangsters and all that whatnot, someone even yelled 'white boy' at me from a low rider next to us.

The tickets were on the coffee table. In our apartment.

A Few Honeymoon Pictures!

Here are some honeymoon pictures that we took when we went to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. We stayed at a very nice resort called Casa del Mar. The resort was in between the two main cities ( San Jose del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas) so there weren't any Spring Breakers at our place. This first picture is of me in front of the beach which was right in front of our room. The waves would sometimes get really big and would wake me up in the middle of the night. Despite my smile, I was really scared because the waves were big and the currents were terribly strong.


Jesse and I went ATV riding in the Desert Park National Reserve. It was a two hour tour through a dirt road with lots of hills, bumps and a dry river bed, where the let us drive really fast. On our tour we saw some wild cows, lots of cactus and a desert oasis. Jesse and I had separate ATV's but the tour guide wanted us to take a picture together. Jesse's says that I actually got some air with my ATV but I couldn't tell. (Edit: At one point the back end of her ATV went up nearly two feet off the ground and it moved probably three feet to the right. I thought my wife of four days was going to die.)

I got really comfortable after a little while so I started to go somewhat fast but then I almost fell in a giant hole. I slowed down a little bit after that. It was really hot and my arms got really tanned from the ATV riding. Towards the end of the tour I really started liking the ATV's. I want one now.



This is back at the same place where there's pictures of myself. I tried taking a picture of Jesse running away from a giant wave but when Jesse went up to the waves they all died down. But I still like this picture a lot. Jesse got really sunburned and so did I for the first time in my life. We never actually went swimming at the beach right in front of our room because the rip tides were too strong. Even at the swimmable beaches it was really hard to swim. We went to this one beach where there we security protecting the druglords' houses. I guess I felt somewhat better. Even there, at the 'safe' beach, the current was so strong that we couldn't walk in thigh deep water when the waves were receding, we had to wait for one to come push us back in.

Jesse and I took a boat taxi here, we had walked three miles the wrong way around the marina trying to get to the beach. The smile you see in our faces is a smile of relief.

All the Mexicans didn't think I was Hispanic. They all thought I was Filipino. They were amazed that I spoke Spanish and asked where I had learned. Whatever at least they didn't think I was a prostitute...that's another story from some other time that I was in Ensenada, Mexico. Hope you like the pictures.

Palo Alto

Melissa and I both had physicals last week. I have high bad cholesterol and virtually no good cholesterol, but my overall cholesterol is still low. Hamburgers and pizza are now off the menu, which is unfortunate since I was considering Mountain Mike's for lunch. Mountain Mike's doesn't have very good pizza, but for six bucks it's a pizza and salad buffet, dangerous for a man who can eat almost unlimited amounts of pizza. But I digress... we were at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation getting out blood taken and I was sitting there with the little tube sticking out of my arm and the lady who's doing the work suddenly looks suspiciously at me and asks Melissa how old she is. Melissa tells her that she's twenty three. The lady looks a little relieved and says to me 'Good. I saw the rings but thought that she was fifteen. I thought, "Shame on that man, marrying a fifteen year old." But you're old enough.'

That lady was so wrong, Melissa doesn't look like she's fifteen. She looks like she's sixteen.

My New Goldfishes

These are my new fish. They are all goldfish but different varieties. The first picture is of a Black Moor and a Fantail Goldfish. The black one is called Max. Jesse picked this one because it reminds him of his dark heart and besides it was fiesty in the store. The orange one is called Patrick. I picked him because he is the same type as my first goldfish, I named him Patrick in memory of my other Fantail.




The second picture is of a Red Cap Oranda. His/her name is Star. I don't know what sex each of my fishes are, but I think this one is a girl. She is also name after one of my deceased fishes. The Oranda's grow a brain on their heads. Some day her brain will grow.







This is our alpha goldfish. He is at least four times as big as everyone else in the tank. He is really fat, so we named him "Gordo," Spanish for fat. Gordo tries to eat all the food before the littles ones can get to it.

I Have A Pet

But it is not a dog. I have four goldfish. I will post pictures tomorrow.

Snag 34

So our table cloths fell through. Now we need 46 table cloths by Saturday.

Time Change and Other Stuff

If you hadn't noticed, we change our clocks today. To bad we lost an hour of sleep.

My arm hurts. I (Melissa) got a tetanus shot last Monday and my arm still hurts. At least I can move my arm now and my toe doesn't hurt too much. I couldn't move my arm for about three days after I got my shot.

We're excited! We're getting married in about 6 days, and then a day later we will be on a nice beach resort in Cabo San Lucas, getting a tan, leaving this raining weather.

My friend Kate, got married yesterday. I wish I could have gone, but it was all the way in New York City. I like New York City, except for the driving.

It's my sister-in-law birthday on my wedding day. I have to get her a nice present because it's her birthday and she is doing all my floral decorations. I also can't wait to see my family friends that I haven't seen in a long time.

Hotel

It is rather late in the game, but for those of you who still haven't resolved these issues, the hotel where our friends and family will be staying is the Best Western on Farwell and Mowry in Fremont (hopefully new home to the Athletics). It is now the only link on the right to area hotels. Tell them you're with us, they might give you a discount.

Planning a Wedding

Planning a wedding is hard work. For those of you that have ever planned a wedding you probably know what I'm talking about.

We're lucky that we don't have twenty people breathing down our necks telling us how to do things, but we're also lucky that enough people care to help us out that we're not in this on our own. In fact, as of today there is a lot of stuff left to do, buying and preparing food, getting decorations ready, organizing the troops, etc. Yet there are reliable people in charge of all this that we didn't have to hire. It's fantastic. Despite all the help though we still feel like there's not enough time left in the next two weeks to get it all done. We only have one more weekend.

Then again, in two weeks we'll be in Cabo.

Note: I also just tore nearly half of Melissa's big toe nail off.

Lock n' Load

We're just a few weeks out now, I've kind of been ignoring the wedding in favor of moving in. We moved in last weekend to our new apartment and have been painting ever since then, I finally finished last night, so we now have to find places to put everything. We also got our bed, which wasn't really as gigantic as we had feared, so we'll have room for some other stuff in the bedroom.

Meanwhile the families have been hard at work planning the wedding. We'll have all the work done that we can get done early finished by the first of April. That's the table settings, which look great, the potporrie, the flower baskets, the kneeling pillows, the ring pillow, the guest book, the programs and all that good stuff. Right now we're just trying to square away things like singers and translators and a program and what's actually going to happen now that we have all the stuff that we need.

The good news is that now we have enough people helping us out that I am feeling zero stress right now. Thanks everyone.

In yo' face!

So I'm beating Jesse by eleven guests to our wedding. We sort of have a small competition to see which side will have more guests. So if you want me to win please mail in your response cards. I guess if you want Jesse to win you could mail your response too.

So please mail in your response cards even if you don't plan on coming, this also goes to our bridal party *cough*. Thanks for your assistance.

Honeymoon

It looks like the resort we're staying at is right next to and perhaps walking distance from the "Desert Park" National Reserve down there in Mexico, they have ATV tours and desert flaura and fauna and everything. That looks super cool. I need a tourist guide or something before we head down there, I wonder what other cool things await?

Updates

We met again with the wedding coordinator and got a ceremony program nailed down. It was a little stressful, but Milca says that she and her husband have a lot of experience in marriages. I believe it.

We need to check some stuff off of our "The Knot" checklist, like gifts for my groomsmen and the bridesmaids. Any good ideas out there?

I'm moving into the apartment tomorrow.

Furniture Shopping

Jesse and I are furniture shopping. I always tell Jesse that when I'm having a bad day all he has to do to make me feel better is take me to a furniture store and I feel much better. We ended up buying some couches from Ikea, so don't worry you won't have to sit on the floor when you come and visit us. like Jesse had promised.

Apparently, Ikea doesn't sell Cal King bed frames so we have to go look for some bed frame somewhere else. Yeah! More furniture shopping. Even though we are furniture shopping I think our apartment will still be a little bare for a while. Oh well, at least you won't have to sit on the floor.

Shower

We had our wedding shower yesterday, it was excellent. Lots of food and family and people who love us a lot. It's really nice to have a group of people helping us out and coming beside us. Thank you to everyone who came and thank you for your generosity.

Because I care

I'm going to grow a beard from sunday to my wedding. If I shave after a couple of weeks with facial hair I'm as smooth as *fill in appropriate metaphor here* so I'll be extra smooth for the wedding, and likely for several days following. So let it be known that I will have a beard because I care about my fiance and I care about my wedding.

Maybe you can join me again Borba?

Band

So there are a few hispanic churches around the Bay Area, and pastor Ricardo Bravo (my future father in law) knows most of them and their pastors. Sometimes bands from other churches, or just a musician or two come to our church and play, and today we got the call to go do a service at Iglesia Bautisa Ebenezer. After Esperanza Viva got out we didn't have much time to get over there, it's in Union City off of Decoto and their service starts an hour after ours finishes, so we had to pack up and high tail it over to Union City to set up and everything.

I was told that only Melissa and her brother had been to this church before, and her brother had to go home for something so everyone would follow us, so I waited at the church exit for people to line up behind me, but everyone just passed me. OK, so I assume that they all know how to get there and Melissa and I take off. Melissa guides me down to Primera Iglesia Bautisa, her brother pulls up next to me just as we get there and he carries one of our amps in. I carry another one in and say hi to the people that are there. Ricky goes outside to see where people are and Melissa starts calling people. One lady comes up to us and welcomes us and invites us to sit down. I go and ask the band leader there if they have any more music stands and go looking around the church for more music stands. Maybe fifteen minutes later a lady comes up to us and starts talking to us and Melissa asks if we're at Iglesia Ebenezer. The answer is no.

These people have no idea who we are, we barge into their church, put our amps down, walk around on the stage while they're trying to practice, go backstage and try to find their stuff. And they have no idea who we are. For fifteen whole minutes. It really could have come straight out of a sit-com.

We found the right church just down the street, and Melissa's brother shared his testimony, which was excellent, you should ask him about it if you see him. More on this later, right now I just wanted you to know what losers we are.

Disaster.

We need to recollect all of your addresses - so if you would be so kind as to send them to me at my yahoo account (svrmchn@yahoo.com), we would appreciate it.

Yorkies and Goldfish

This is a Yorkshire Terrier. This is the dog I eventually want to get. I ask Jesse to get me a dog all the time, specifically a teacup Yorkie. But I will have to wait until we move out of our apartment. I've never had a dog. So to satify my pet-needyness, we are going to get some goldfish, which I like very much.

I had four really big, pretty goldfish about 2 years ago, but they died. It wasn't my fault. My mom cleaned my fish tank with the wrong utensils, while I was in Las Vegas. She used a rag to clean the inside glass wall which had soap on it. My mom put the fish back in the tank and left the house to run errands. When she returned all my fish were dead, floating on a lot of bubbles.

Later that evening, I received a phone call from my little brother telling me what had happened. I almost started crying, but I didn't, I was just really sad. So I drowned my sorrows in Las Vegas Shopping. I couldn't even flush them down the toilet myself. Oh well, now I know how to take better care of gold fish.

I can't wait to get a yorkie!

Food

I think we pretty well completed our menu last night. Our wedding shall be very tasty, that should be reason enough for you all to show up.

Not Up to Pace Here

Sorry about that folks, we had a busy week. We're still awaiting word from the limo company we hope to use, the guy might end up being a little more flaky than I would care for. Mr. Richard Borba has received some kind of revelation about what to do with our video production, apparently we're going to be filming next weekend, that'll be fun.

The time is fast approaching and we keep on thinking of the wedding like we used to look at finals: we have to do all of this preparation, then go and perform, but afterwards whether it goes good or bad we get to take a vacation.

Also, I have now moved into an office that is no longer right next to the kitchen, but has windows and is about twice the size of my old one, it's nice.

Apartment

In the word of Nick Marshall: 'Joy.'

We signed our lease at the Benton over the weekend. Melissa, the self proclaimed 'Paint-Picking-Ninja-Queen' has been hard at work picking some nice colors for the apartment. Those of you who have seen Fools Rush In have a good grasp on how the hispanic women feel about white walls. We're going to be moving in on the weekend of March 10-12. It feels good, that was one major thing to get out of the way before the wedding.

Let me know if you want to help.

License

Today Melissa and I will be getting our marriage license. She's working in Oakland from pretty much now until the wedding so we get to go to the big fancy county clerks office in downtown Oakland. That'll be one more thing checked off of our very expansive 'stuff to do list' compliments of The Knot.

In other news we'll be going in to sign a lease at the aforementioned Benton in Fremont sometime in the next few days.

Out

All of our invitations but six are going out today. Enjoy.

Another Project

In a little over two months Jesse and I will be married. How exciting! All the rest of the invitations will be mailed out on Wednesday. I'll feel a huge load off of my back once they are out, plus there will be more room in my bedroom once they are gone.

My mom is working very deligently on decorating our 300 or so toasting glasses. They look very nice. My sister-in-law keeps on coming up with wonderful decorating ideas. This week Jesse and I really didn't do anything on the wedding except for addressing a few invitations.

Jesse is going to tile my mom's kitchen. So we spent an hour or so wandering Lowe's last night. I'm so glad Jesse knows how to do stuff when it comes to building/remodeling/constructing a house...and so is my mom.

There was an asian couple at Lowes. They were speaking another language, but it was obvious that they were arguing. They were both sitting on the floor. The husband was trying to explain something to his wife but she just sat there with her arms on her knees, pouting. A few minutes later I still see the husband talking to her and she finally lifts her head from her lap, glares at her husband and leaves him sitting on the floor. I felt bad for the guy, he just sunk his head as he sat there.

Friday Night

It's friday night. I noticed the other day that it was kind of light in the sky when I got to work, the days must be getting longer. Woo Hoo!!! Someday soon it won't be pitch black outside at six o'clock, and soon after that we'll be in Cabo.

In other news we have already begun receiving response cards and presents, and most of you haven't even gotten your invitations yet. Well done. Well done.

Almost Done...Yet Another One Begins

Last night we almost finished stuffing all our invitations. Only a few more invitations to go with addresses still AWOL. I'll be really glad once we are done with them and out the door. Only two more days until the weekend. That is when Jesse and I do our major wedding planning. I don't think we are going to do any more 10 hour days on wedding items. That was really tiring.

As of right now, I think my new project will be getting my favors ready and looking for flower girl dresses. I'm having four flower girls and possibly five. They look so cute! I think that is when most girls obession about getting married begins....though I hated being a flower girl because my dresses were always itchy.

By the way, I'm looking for a day spa around the area so if you know about one please let me know. Thanks!

Update a Day

The bulk of our invitations won't go out for a week or so, but now that people will start coming here Melissa and I will try to update the progress daily, or just tell you that there's nothing to update. We visited the church again last night and took pictures and measurements and had our decorator/florist look around. So we now know that we should be able to fit everyone we want into the sancuary. That's good.

We ran over our game plan with the Church coordinator and Jackson and Janelle, our most trusted advisors. We're looking good, we just need to nail some things down with the time and with people that are helping us out, and assign tasks and make sure they know what they're doing and that Janelle knows what they're doing. All is proceeding as I have forseen.

Also, thank you to whoever purchased a china set and also to whoever purchased a wine glass. You have made my fiance's day.

Off To Georgia

Melissa went to Georgia, we knew it was going to be rough, in theory we weren't going to see each other again until Thanksgiving, that's when her first vacation was going to be.

Melissa can fill you in on the details of training, sufficed to say it was really hard, emotionally more than anything being 3000 miles from home. Two weeks after she left on a Saturday she was experiencing the 'Day From Hell.' Physical training with a guy she said was like the T-1000 in his unstoppableness and mercilessness. Those are my words, but that's what she meant. I was in San Diego at the Shredd Dog surf camp that day... (Melissa: Let's just say I wondered if having my face in the mud all day was really worth it. The next day the only thing that didn't hurt was the hair on my head).

We wrote letters and talked on the phone a lot, really got to know each other. I started to learn Spanish and Pete (my employer at the time) started to make noise about going to New York to build a house or two. Melissa found a cool Baptist Church on the 'happening' place around her Georgia home, a nice traditional Church on St. Simons Island with good music and good preaching. A month or so after she got there she also found an unlisted Starbucks at the resort on St. Simons. It was a minimalist little stand, but it saw so little business that Melissa convinced the girl who worked there to make her a java chip frappacino (the favorite drink of Melissa Bravo). Everytime the Starbuck's girl saw her she would start making her frappacino.

The hurricanes came and a few times she almost had to evacuate a few times. Her phone didn't get any reception in her room so she only talked to me outside and she wasn't going outside during the hurricanes, so I had to wait a long time sometimes to see if she was OK. A few times water started leaking into her room on the 3rd floor.

Pete and I ended up going to New York, and I had scheduled out a weeks vacation to go visit the Peach State, and Melissa decided to come visit me in New York on her first 2 day weekend in three months. So after my first week in New York I drove down from upstate to the City and picked her up. We spent the weekend with my aunt down close to NYC, we visited Connecticut (don't ask me...), went to the very first legitimate mall she had seen in months, saw some New England sights, went to church and almost went to some kind of apple festival. On Sunday before her flight home we went to New York City on Polish day, this says Pete, is where they march down the streets in the wrong direction. It was hard to get around, but we did, we had New York pizza, saw 5th Ave. and even found the worlds greatest Macy's. I'm rather surprised that I was able to extract her before her flight. On our way out, once we found our way through the marching Polish, I was driving down a one way street that was really more of an alleyway with cars parked on each side. I was going thirty down this street, and it frequently crossed major streets where people were crossing - even on red. A guy got behind me and right up on my tail and started honking at me because I wasn't going fast enough. Crazy. He passed me by going in the little strip where cars were parked. Crazy.

Two weeks later I went down to Georgia, which for the record, is a lot warmer than New York. I came in to Jacksonville so we went to the downtown there, I kind of wanted to go to a place called Ruth's Chris steakhouse, best steaks ever, but only knew that it was on the river. We parked at the Riverwalk, figuring that we could find it from there. We found a Hooters, but it turns out that Ruth's Chris is on the other side of the river. We had dinner at a nice place anyway, right there looking out over the water. Melissa had warned me about service in the south and sure enough, dinner took some two and a half hours. After we ate we went to the square there on the Riverwalk and enjoyed some live blues for a bit.

Over the weekend we went to Anastasia State Park, where there are some nice beaches, only it rained 20 minutes after we got there, so we went to St. Augustine, home of the oldest fort in the country, there was free admission and they fired a cannon into the bay. It was pretty cool. We explored St. Simon's island the next day and I enjoyed some of the most delicious corn bread I've ever had. We went to Savannah the day after that and explored the historic (read: tourist) district. We got lost on the way out and ended up in some fairly frightening neighborhoods.

Melissa had to go to training for the rest of the week, so we stayed local, I explored Brunswick and the Wal-Mart. I went running near the hotel and almost stepped on a snake the first day. That was fun. I watched a lot of Magnum P.I. too.

The next weekend we drove an hour to the very south east part of Georgia and took a ferry out to Cumberland Island, which is an island where the Carnagies used to have an estate, so there is a giant ruined mansion and other estate things, stables, trellises, storehouses, etc. There are also lots of wild horses around, we saw some of those, but no alligators. I never see alligators, it's so disappointing. I had to go back to New York the next day, which was unfortunate, but it was a good trip.


She came and visited me again in New York when it was getting pretty cold, they lost her luggage and got it back just in time for her to go home. That trip we went to Saratoga Springs and saw some of the coolest houses I've ever seen, we had our very first dinner and a movie date, went to Johnny Rocket's and saw The Incredibles. We also went to downtown Albany on Sunday morning before her flight out and it was the most empty place I've ever seen in my life, in the whole downtown building, the whole city center, all the businesses around the Egg, even McDonalds and Starbucks were closed, there wasn't a person on the streets for a couple of miles in any direction. It was very strange. I saw Melissa on her way and started waiting for Thanksgiving.

We both came home for Thanksgiving and spent a good time together with Melissa's family and mine.

I couldn't afford a Christmas flight so I spent Christmas with my aunt Ann in Greenwood Lake, which was fun save the fact that back in California Melissa went to the Emergency room with a bad rash, sore throat, trouble breathing, horrible headaches, and exhaustion. On Christmas day. Turned out that some antibiotics they had given her in Georgia had reacted with her mononucleosis and it had gotten pretty bad. For the record Julia, this was the third time your state tried to kill my fiance. It tried to kill me once too, a tree almost fell on Daniel and I one night when we were camping in 2003.

She was in the hospital for almost a week, they almost delayed her graduation for three months and at one point they thought they saw a shadow in her lung. What the crap? Anyway, I flew down to Georgia to take care of her for a few days in very early January, we met in Jacksonville yet again and this time didn't quite have as much fun, what with Melissa thinking she was going to die and everything.

I went back to New York again only for a couple of weeks before Melissa graduated and we made our glorious return to California.

Weekends

Invitations to everyone in the state of California won't go out for another week or so, but we assembled nearly all of them in 11 grueling hours on Saturday. We printed the invitations, response cards, directions, hotel and travel information, cut everything up, assembled it, stamped them and addressed them. It took a while and I think we escaped pretty mistake free, but if you receive a Spanish invitation, or directions, we apologize.

So really all we still need to make are our table settings, glasses, favors and flowers. Most of that has been outsourced, but holy cow weddings are a lot of work.

I don't really want to complain the whole post, it was fun, just tiring, we're having a great time. There was a Mythbusters marathon on for most of the day and it turns out that talking on your cell phone while you drive is as dangerous, or perhaps more dangerous, than driving while drunk. I still don't believe it.

Invitations, Dresses, Paint and Pianos

We are almost done putting the wedding invitations together. They look nice but it been taking a long time to assemble them. Hopefully this weekend we can have an assembly line of postage stamping and envelope stuffing. By the way, postage has been raised 3 cents for our invitations so that was kind of a hassle, every invitation will now have no less than three stamps. At one point I thought I had thrown away all the stamps... I was not that happy. Not happy at all. But thankfully, my mom had hidden them away in her closet without my knowing.

I got fitted for my wedding dress, which was a lot of fun but it took over an hour. Which reminds me that I need to break in my shoes... The seamstress has to literally take apart the dress to hem it, she can have fun with that.

My mom, Nohema and Jesse's Grandma are putting together our silverware and favors. My sister-in-law, Nohema, is so creative. She is decorating everyone's toasting glasses with flowers and ribbons. They look so nice!

We are starting to kick things into gear like meeting with the wedding coordinator, limos, musicians, and cake stuff. We are also deciding on colors to paint our walls in our apartment, since I am the the paint-picking-ninja-queen.

On another note, don't let a piano stand fall on your keyboard because it will break it. *cough* Kevin. *cough*

The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am.

So we have three months now until the wedding and things are progressing well. We have, or know we have access to most of the stuff we're going to need for the ceremony and reception, we just need to make everything, invitations, favors, and table settings, and it all takes time. Thankfully Melissa's mom and sister in law have both volunteered to work for us while we're at work, so that should be done sooner rather than later.

In other news we bought a big fancy California King sized mattress today that promises to make us late for work on a regular basis. We also spent all afternoon looking at apartments, it's kind of amazing the difference in quality a couple hundred bucks makes. For right now we're looking to move into The Bentons, which are pretty cool, complete with a Starbucks downstairs. I think that's kind of like an alcoholic moving in over a bar... but I digress.

In short, we're getting stuff done and not really behind on anything so that's good right?

Holidays

We've recovered from Christmas, sort of. I have to go back to work tomorrow, Melissa went back on Thursday. We had an awesome week, spent Christmas Eve enjoying some tamales compliments of the Hermanas Corderos then watching in stunned silence as the nephews - 1 and 2 years old terrorized the living room in a crazed hunt for presents. At midnight we opened all of our presents too, with help from the nephews.

Andrew, the younger one didn't like the way everyone else was opening presents, so he just ripped at them with his teeth, pictures to come of that later.

The next morning we had a good Christmas morning with my family, sadly no children were there to liven the event up. We got lots of good loot, including a blender from our registry compliments of Melina, who wanted to get us the quintessential wedding gift.

We proceeded to three hours of church then had Christmas dinner at my house again. We got a waffle iron from our registry, awesome.

Pretty much since then we've been getting wedding invitations together and collecting dinner ware for said wedding. It's time to kick it into high gear now that we have only 96 days until go time.

More pictures are up, but only a few.

Happy Birthday Jesse!

Yesterday was Jesse's 26th birthday. Thankfully we were both able to take a day off from work to go celebrate. Our plan was to go ice skating in San Francisco and then have lunch at North Beach Pizza. Unfortunately, neither of these things happened. The ice skating rink was full school children and we didn't want to wait until the afternoon because it was going to rain.

So we walked through the Embarcadero Center and China Town to get to North Beach Pizza. When we got to the pizza place it was closed or had moved to another location, so we had hamburgers instead at Moe's. At least we were able to go to the movies and watch The Chronicles of Narnia, which we both liked.

Later that evening we had dinner at Jesse's parent’s house. Both of Jesse's sisters (Melina and Wendy) bought him the same present without each other knowing. So Melina decided to get him another present. It was very funny how his sisters bought Jesse the same present. After dinner we went back to my house where Kevin, Josue (my little brothers) and I tried to beat up Jesse but to no avail since Jesse is pretty strong. My mom had to come and save us from Jesse's wrath by tickling him off of my brothers and me.

Anyways, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSE!

Sorry About the Bitter

I just wanted to let the world know that while Melissa and I may be sickening, we're not all about that. It has been brought to our attention from a couple of sources that these holidays must be so much nicer for us since we're in love and getting engaged and everything. Before I being ranting, let me just say that I'm very much looking forward to spending my holidays with my girl and I love her very much, however:

Where do people in the church get this idea that life sucks if you don't have someone to hold? We get this idea from the world (movies, books, TV) that when you've got someone suddenly birds fly a little slower, the sun shines a little brighter, the sky is a little bluer, etc. The problem is that in Christ our lives aren't dead and empty without a significant other. The world isn't right. As single people Melissa and I both were happy, fulfilled, and *cough* Purpose Driven. My life was good before I met her, and hers was good before she met me. People who center their lives in Christ should not need another person to bring joy and completion into their lives. I constantly feel this implicit stigma in church towards the 'unattached' as if somehow they're suffering and they'll be happy once they get someone to cook and clean and have sex with. Read I Corinthians 7. Marriage is a blessing, but so is singleness.

Once again, I think Melissa is great, and I'm really happy I met her and we're going to get married, but she doesn't give my life value any more than I give her life value.

Part II: The First Month

Melissa and I decided to go out the Tuesday after we got back from Mexico, leaving about three and a half weeks before she went to Georgia for training. I decided that it would be a good idea to have dinner and then go sit at Starbucks, so I called her that Monday as I went to get fitted for my tux for the Perdue wedding and asked her if she wanted to go to The Texas Roadhouse. She was very happy that steak was on the menu, and I was very happy that she was happy that steak was on the menu. A woman after my own heart.

I picked her up around five that Tuesday, a little nervous, she'd already told me that her dad and older brother were going to beat me up, plus she was all dressed up, and as most of you know, very beautiful. I brought flowers, because wisdom says you’re never supposed to go get a girl without bringing her something. Her brother and dad weren't there though, only Josué, Milca , and Nohema. So I met her little brother, her mom and her sister-in-law. Nohema was very very pregnant when I met her, and on all fours, in the process of cleaning the bathroom floor. Apparently the lady likes to clean. I don't remember what Milca asked me, just that she showed me their back yard for a few minutes, then we went to dinner. For those of you that know me, I'm not a real talker so it's saying something that I was at least entertaining enough to get a second date for nearly five hours that night. It was fun, I don't remember much, just that I enjoyed myself.

We went back to her house later, the door was locked and so she knocked so someone would let her in. Kevin, the 13 year old brother came to the door, we saw him look at us then leave to go get his beanie to look tough then he came back and answered the door. I said hi to her dad and older brother, both Ricardo. They paid me only passing interest, or maybe didn't want to admit that I exist, I couldn't say. We agreed to go out again the following Saturday, I was going to take her to the beach in Santa Cruz.

Two days later on Thursday I called her up again. Neither one of us wanted to wait for the weekend so we decided to go to Starbucks after I was done with Bible study that night. It was cold that night, and knowing what I know now, that was very uncomfortable for Melissa sitting out there for a couple of hours talking. By the time we were ready to go Melissa was wearing my sweater on top of her jacket. Anyway, it was really good to know that she liked me as much as I liked her. I came over to her house again on Friday night and talked with her older brother for a little while, he decided that he liked me after discovering that I had a degree in Electrical Engineering, which was better than the beating with a baseball bat that Melissa had often promised me. We spent that night looking for a church she could go to in Georgia and found the one I think she ended up attending for her six months there.

The next morning I picked her up and we stopped for breakfast at Jack in the Box. Come to think of if, we go to Jack in the Box for spicy chicken sandwiches all the time even now. The drive down to Santa Cruz was nice, but right when we drop down out of the mountains we hid the fog and the cold, and for those of you who don't know Melissa, she really doesn't like the cold. We ended up driving from the Boardwalk along the cliffs by the cliffs there until we got to the Natural Bridges Park. We walked on the beach and on the rocks and sat down for a bit to watch the ocean, she might not like the cold, but she does like the water, more specifically the beach. We left the beach and drove up Highway 1 to 92, checking out all of the cool (and cold beaches) along that stretch. Once again, and I say amazingly, we spent an extended period of time together and didn't really get bored.

That night she came to Crossroads with Roberto Thompson so we could go to the Mexico wrap up at Julia's house. It was kind of weird trying to interact with someone who might appropriately be called my girl friend around a whole bunch of people I didn't really want to be in the know quite yet. We spent the evening at Julia's house recounting our good times in Ensenada, I think everyone there knew we were going out and Kara of course told everyone she knew it. (except for Roberto, I think I actually told him and a look of great understanding came over his face and he told me that he though we were just really good friends)

The next day I was hanging out at the Starkey's for a Forth of July youth party and Melissa came by after church to play ping pong and see my people. She was alright at ping pong, not as good as me, which isn't really very good at all. Also awkward to trying to look like I was trying, but not trying to really kick butt. We talked to Andrea, and Nancy and Andrea seemed particularly pleased with herself over us as a couple. We left from there to go to the Circuit City parking lot and set off fireworks. Melissa's one year old nephew , Daniel, played with the bleached blond hair on my arms and called me a "mono" (monkey in English) . That was fun too.

I saw her again on Tuesday, we were taking her brothers to a baseball game, the Giants were playing the Rockies. I never know what I'm thinking when I go to SBC Park and I don't bring a winter parka, Melissa didn't really know what she was getting into either and we were both freezing cold for three hours. The only redeeming thing was that the Giant's lost (and I got to spend time with Melissa).

Before we were dating I had invited my parents over to the Nicolet house for some BBQ compliments of Nate, so I brought Melissa over to meet my parents. My mom was so tickled I think I could have been dating a seven foot five hundred pound troll and she would have been thrilled. Melina, relatively fresh off her Italy experience and in the middle of summer may have been darker than Melissa. I don’t remember what all happened. The important thing is that everyone met each other and it was a good time.

Next Saturday was Jackson's wedding. I didn't get to sit with her, but I did get to point her out to John Pack and Adam Richman. John correctly noted that she was beautiful. Then I watched her beat Nate Berge up in the food line. Finally, while people were eating I got to go see her and hang out. After that the wedding party had to dance, but then I got to go sit with her and introduce her to everyone who came by. She went to the bathroom, and while she was in there in the stall apparently Jackson's mom and Adam's mom came in and started talking about 'Jesse's new girl friend.' She then walked out and they quickly apologized for talking about her. Horrible awkwardness. After all the rounds had been made and the newlyweds jumped ship we said our goodbyes and went back towards home. We stopped at the Kaiser in Hayward to see Melissa's sister in law and the new baby, Andrew , who may have been the fattest, hairiest baby ever. After that we ended up back in Fremont, where Adam was passed out drunk on the couch at the Nicolet house after having consumed much champagne in fear of dancing earlier. We had dinner with the Pack's that night. John paid that night because he "felt like he owed us $100 dollars because just a month ago he said that he would pay a hundred dollars to meet the girl who would knock my socks off." And the socks had clearly been knocked off.

Some time after that I took her for Thai food. This was my first experience with the Melissa who just would not eat something that was clearly delicious. No matter how hard I tried to convince her that it was awesome she just wouldn't eat it. It was a little frustrating. Note to self: She already likes steak and potatoes, don't push your luck.

I don't really remember the rest, it just felt horrible knowing that she was going to be gone from the middle of July to the middle of January. We said our goodbyes and that was that, she was off to Georgia until Thanksgiving. Georgia is a long way from Fremont, California.