Kim & Brian's Wedding Weekend, Part IV - Party Time!

I'm totally gonna use this picture more often than I should. Even though it looks like I haven't slept for weeks - I guess I always have that look - I like the microphone and tux look for me. It can work for almost anything!

Ok, enough about that, back to our story, wait, no, first...Yes, I'm a known slacker/procrastinator. It's taken me WAYYYYY too long to write about this wedding. It's been almost a month and a half now. I'm sure I've forgotten more than I should have, so anyone reading this, feel free to add to it by

adding it as a comment.

Now back to our story...So after all that, it was finally time for the reception. Again, the wedding party was kinda winging our entrance. We had no idea what we were supposed to be doing, where we were supposed to be going. I guess it all works out in situations like these. At the last minute we were told to make a U-shape around the dance floor for Kim & Brian's first dance. Ooops. We just kinda stood in a line against the stage by the band. It worked out ok I think. It was a little late, ok, it was during the dance but I had the idea to hold up signs to judge them during the dance (think Olympics) since the Cooper's are such a competitive family...it would've been funny. Oh well. They danced, you could tell that Brian was jogging his memory trying to think of what the next step was!

Next came some speeches. In a shocking turn of events, my mom actually was spotted with a microphone in her hand (I tried, but couldn't find any photographic proof) and said a couple of words. I think anyone that knows my mom was shocked...but it was nice. My dad may not have appreciated it though. It completely ruined his speech. He had all these things written down of what to say and wound up ripping up his speech (literally) and starting from scratch. Betsy (maid of honor) and Andy (Best man) gave their speeches. Then I had to poke in there, I don't think they remembered that I was planning on speaking, but I got in there in time. After all, I had been thinking of what to say for a couple of months by then! A couple of drinks helped my cause too! I really had been clueless on what I was gonna say. I started thinking about it after Liz's wedding when Rob, Danny and ummmm, uhhhhh, oh yeah, Jon had awesome speeches. And yes, I'll come clean, I really did go blank on Jon's name during my speech! I thought I played it off well though :) I knew I had to start things out with something of a mini sportscenter score update, so I happily announced that FSU beat Maryland (which I think is when Brian's Miami friend reminded me that Miami beat FSU, again, Kim's friend Lauren is the only non-obnoxious Miami fan there is). Some other important scores from the families of importance were that Kansas beat Iowa State...by a lot. And Missouri beat Kansas State, which was good and bad apparently. And that ended the fun part of the speech for me! So a couple nights before the wedding I was laying in bed at about 2am and I was finally coming up with some good ideas on what to say. It reminded me of Mitch Hedberg's quote, "I sit at my hotel at night, I think of something that's funny, then I go get a pen and I write it down. Or if the pen's too far away, I have to convince myself that what I thought of ain't funny." It totally applied to my situation. It was pitch black, it was 2am and I had to decide if this stuff was worth writing down. But these days, who uses pens? I got my laptop and starting typing. I thought a couple of my favorite quotes were worthy....first, "Don't ever take anything I say seriously...unless I say it twice...Don't ever take anything I say seriously...unless I say it twice." (which I later remembered was from a neighbor of ours in Roanoke, Mrs. Kempster). and my other favorite quote that Grandpa used to tell me when fighting with Bubbie..."Stay Single". Then I bragged about Kim being the smart one, finally realizing that maybe Grandpa was kidding. She really is the smart one though, technically she's my younger sister, but I completely look up to her. Hell, I'm something of an accountant and she still does my taxes! I've come to her for help when I bought my condo, anything resume related, and any time I need advice. She really is basically my big sister that I technically don't have. Not to let Brian feel left out, I made sure to thank him for introducing me to my new shaving cream of choice, and that I was excited to get the chance to take some pictures with Wilt Chamberlain. I've never had a brother, and I think Kim did a pretty damn good job at finding me one.

That was the gist of the speech, or at least what I think I remember from it! I had to include that so that some of my friends who weren't there can get this one chance to see my cheesy side (why is cheesy a bad thing? I love cheese!)

The rest of the time was just a big party, dancing (yes, I danced...seriously! Kim threatened me if I didn't) lots of drinking - by the way, how great is my Bubbie??? 80+ years old, and still can act like she's my age. She did several shots with us (there's pictures somewhere in one of these blogs), and even had one of Brian's friends asking for a dance!

It really was a fun time, it was great meeting the Cooper side of what is now our family. It was great catching up with people I hadn't seen in years and hanging out with Kim & Brian's friends.

As if I haven't put enough on here, below are some more random pictures from the weekend.

Oh, and I have a request of Kim & Brian...who are currently on their honeymoon in Hawaii. Write about it!!!! I know you guys have been surfing and wandering through jungles so far. I'm very jealous!

A Moment of Silence

Georgia brewheisters steal 2,600 cases of beer
Thieves on the lam after taking loaded tractor-trailers and swiping the suds

ALBANY, Ga. - Sounds like some south Georgia crooks have been stocking up for a big holiday bash.

Thieves took tractor-trailers loaded with beer and swiped the suds twice within the past week, authorities said.

Dougherty County authorities are investigating a report of a missing 53-foot-long trailer that was loaded with more than 2,300 cases of beer. Police said the beer disappeared sometime between Dec. 21 and Thursday.

Also on Dec. 21, more than 300 cases of beer were stolen from another tractor-trailer, which had a tracking device. The trailer was driven about three miles before it was emptied, according to police.

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I'll do some math for you guys...2,600 cases, 24 beers in a case...carry the one...that's 62,400 beers have been kidnapped!!!! What a heinous (yes I had to get help from my friend Mr. Spellchecker) crime! It's good to know that the beer trucks had tracking devices. Hopefully the beer can be recovered and sent to my fridge where it belongs before it gets too skunky!

The Most Boring 36 Hours of my Year has Begun

Although I'm definitely looking forward to some Chinese food tomorrow!!!




It's hard to be a Jew on Christmas
My Friends won't let me join in any games...
And I can't sing Christmas songs
Or decorate a Christmas tree...
Or leave water out for Rudolph
'cause there's something wrong with me...
My people don't believe in Jesus Christ's divinity...
I'm a Jew, a lonely Jew...on Christmas.

Hanukkah is nice, but why is it,
That Santa passes over my house every year?
And instead of eating Ham
I have to eat Kosher Latkes...
Instead of Silent Night
I'm singing hou-hazch-tou-gavish...
And what the f**k is up
With lighting all these f**king Candles, tell me please?

I'm a Jew, a lonely Jew...
I can't be merry, 'cause i'm Hebrew...on Christmas.


*-Note - the lyrics of the above song are not necessarilly the views of this blog and is not meant to be taken seriously, unless you are an 8 year old jewish kid in a cartoon in South Park, CO.

Thanks,
management.

ATL Noise: Volume 5, Issue 2

It's been a while, kind of a crappy list of concerts recently, and the trend continues. Of this list I'd really like to see Hot Hot Heat, Louis XIV show...and the Bravery...in case anyone's listening. And I'm always up for seeing a standup show!

Fri 12/28/2007 - Appetite For Destruction - Trib. To Guns N' Roses @ Peachtree Tavern
Fri 12/28/2007 - Shiny Toy Guns, The Futurists @ Park Tavern; FREE!!!
Sat 12/29/2007 - White Leppard Crue (Def Leppard tribute, I assume?) @ Andrews Upstairs
Fri 01/11/2008 - Hot Hot Heat, Louis XIV, Editors @ Coca-Cola Roxy Theatre ; 7:30pm, $24
Tue 01/29/2008 - Ween @ Tabernacle; 8:00pm, $30
Fri 02/01/2008 - Saliva @ Masquerade; 7:00pm, $20
Sat 02/09/2008 - The Bravery, Switches @ Coca-Cola Roxy Theatre ; 8:00pm, $16
Sun 02/10/2008 - Van Halen, Ky-Mani Marley @ Philips Arena
Thu 02/14/2008 - Edwin McCain Band @ Coca-Cola Roxy Theatre ; 8:00pm, $20
Sat 03/08/2007 - Jim Norton (Comedian) @ Roxy; 8:00pm, $27.50
Fri 03/21/2008 - Chris Rock (Comedian) @ Fox Theatre
Mon 03/24/2008 - Avenged Sevenfold, Bullet For My Valentine, Atreyu, Blessthefall, D'espairsray, Idiot Pilot, Mucc, The Underneath (Japan) @ The Arena At Gwinnett Center
Fri 03/28/2008 - Frank Caliendo (Comedian) @ Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre
Fri 03/28/2008 - Paula Poundstone (Comedian) @ Ferst Center For The Arts
Wed 04/30/2008 - Bon Jovi, Daughtry @ Philips Arena
Sun 06/15/2008 - The Cure @ The Arena At Gwinnett Center

(Kinda sorta) Meeting Tom Glavine

Tonight I went to one of the best games I think I ever saw the Thrashers play. They played the (arguably) NHL-best Ottawa Senators. This season the Thrashers have gotten out shot (by alot) in all but 2 games. Tonight they come out and manage to get 21 shots in the first period...a franchise record. Of course, they were losing 1-0. They wound up winning 3-2 while getting another franchise record 45 shots.

You're probably wondering, isn't Tom Glavine a baseball player? Yep. But, did you know...he was drafted into the NHL as a goalie* by the L.A. Kings? In the 4th round! Brett Hull, a future hall of famer was drafted 2 rounds later. Luc Robitaille, another future hall of famer was drafted by the Kings 5 rounds later! True story! Anyways, Tom Glavine recently signed with the Atlanta Braves, which is where he belongs and where I hope he has a miserable season!!! He was also sitting 3 rows in front of me at the game tonight with his wife and two kids (as you can see by the terrible picture from my phone). My last memory of Tom Glavine was on the last day of the regular season when he single handedly blew it for my Mets by allowing 8 runs in 2/3rds of the first inning. If the Mets would've won that game, they would've had a shot at making the playoffs. But they didn't and they completed one of the biggest choke jobs of all time. And I remember being with my family in New Jersey driving and listening to that crap on the radio. I was soooooo PISSED.

I had to at least say something to him though. When I first realized he was there, I was gonna actually try and talk to him, but he had a HUGE thing of nachos he was shoving in his face. So, I didn't want to bother him. I didn't get a chance til the game was over, I just asked him if he was up for suiting up to play goalie if the Thrashers needed him. He laughed and said no way. And that was it. I didn't have the balls to tell him I was a Mets fan and incredibly mad at him!!! :)

EDIT: I was wrong, I learned today (01/08/08) that Tom Glavine was NOT a goalie, he was a center. Or, as they say up north, a centre. My bad!

Coming to the Defense of my 'Noles

An academic cheating scandal could leave Florida State without as many as
25 players for its Music City Bowl game against Kentucky on New Year’s Eve,
coach Bobby Bowden said Tuesday.

The university reported its findings in a letter to the NCAA in September
after a six-month investigation by the school revealed at least 23 athletes in
various sports were interviewed in regard to cheating on an online music history
exam.

So there it is. I'm awaiting the call to actually suit up and play defense in the Bowl Game on New Years Eve, but until then, I'll just defend them. I actually took that Music History class when I was in school. Ironically, the professor at the time (not sure if its the same guy) was a man named Tommy Wright. He wrote the FSU fight song and is alledgedly the face that the Seminole head logo is modelled after. Anyways, I took the class while I was at FSU, obviously it wasn't online, but it was probably one of the easiest classes around. I'm almost positive I never studied and still managed at least a B in there. I'm not condoning cheating, but for them to make that class an online class...thats just asking for trouble. I'm convinced that this goes on at every school, but that doesn't make it ok. They got caught, up to 25 athletes (not just football) are gonna get suspensions. And that sucks for me, because my life revolves around FSU football and now they're gonna suck again next year and I'm gonna suffer right there with them!

Kim & Brian's Wedding Weekend, Part III - Mr. & Mrs. Brian Cooper

I think I let this wait long enough, hell the wedding was 1 month ago today and I promised myself to get this done before their honeymoon, so without for uhhh due...

So by now you're probably dying to know if we made it back in time for pictures!!!! No? Oh well, I'll end the suspense anyways...we did. I cut myself shaving about 4 times, but I made it! And it turned out that the photographer didn't even get started with us for another half hour or so, so we would've had plenty more time to wait at the bar for some more food and drinks that we'd probably never see! Ok, enough bitching about that place.

I guess this would be a good time to let everyone know that there are gonna be many pictures scattered throughout this blog. They're not exactly in chronological order, but it's too much work for me to rearrange them, and everyone knows that laziness is one of my best qualities!

I do have a new-found appreciation for photographers. Who knew that taking pictures would be such hard work? Well, when you're up against the clock and trying to get about 50 people gathered for specific planned pictures. Its tough! I got to play the role of Kim's bitch for a couple of hours...Emily tricked me into it!!!! So I had to make sure everyone was where they needed to be. Which was also tough, considering some people (I won't mention dannyone's name) hadn't even arrived at the hotel yet! After family pictures were done, Kim and Brian were officially getting married...I think. The wedding party, parents and two witnesses were all in a conference room while the rabbi actually married them. The end.

Just kidding!

So now comes the actual ceremony. Remember how I said during the rehearsal dinner that we never actually rehearsed?? Well, nothings changed. Still haven't rehearsed. I had no clue what I was supposed to be doing. First I was told that I was gonna be walking Bubbie to her seat then come back outside. Simple enough. Then I got back in line, in some order that may or may not have been randomly determined while I was gone. Everything wound up working out just fine. All us groomsmen were able to figure out where to go...then the bridesmaids and all the other normal wedding stuff. Brian came out...then came Kim. Everyone stood, I assume to block my view. Thanks guys! So Kim walked down the aisle, and started walking circles around Brian. Needless to say I was confused, but apparently there's a Jewish tradition that I didn't know about:

There is a longstanding tradition among Jews that when the bride first arrives at the Chuppah, she walks around him seven times. Circling is a magical means of protection. By walking around the groom, the bride creates an invisible wall to protect him from evil spirits. Her circuits symbolically create a new family circle, demonstrating that her primary commitment has shifted from her parents to her husband and that her husband is now bound to her more intimately than to
his parents.

Learn something new everyday, huh? So they got married (again?) then after the ceremony, we totally winged the walking out portion. And the wedding party got to rest up, eat a little, drink a little and take some more pictures downstairs during the cocktail hour. At this point I was absolutely exhausted, I'm not used to being on my feet for more than 10 minutes at a time! (Kidding! But seriously, I was running around standing for a couple hours, and as I mentioned earlier...I'm way too lazy for that! I took this time to do some research for my speech, it was a college football Saturday and I hadn't seen any score updates in HOURS!!! People were counting on me for me for updates! Most important game was first...for Brian (and Emory), Kansas beat Iowa State, for whatever reason someone was disappointed to know that Miami lost to Virginia Tech (sorry Lauren, although you are the only non-obnoxious Miami fan I've ever met...more on that later).

Turns out this is gonna be a four-part story, hell, maybe five at this rate!!!! Keep checking!!!!

A Me Update

I swear, I haven't forgotten Part 3, its at least halfway done!!!!

So yesterday I had a follow up appointment for my eye. (My radiation was 11 months ago!!! January sucked, but time I guess has flown by since then!) Everything's going really good! The remains of the tumor (please remember to use the Arnold voice) has shrunk in thickness by about 21% which is really good. The diameter apparently won't really shrink too much, but the thickness is what's important from what I've learned. The only bad news I got all day is that my doctor is leaving Emory!!!! I am SOOOOOOOO thankful that I got to be under his care while he was still there. He's a great man, and he even cracked a joke on me yesterday. I have a history of wearing slightly humorous shirts, as most of you know. My mom asked me if I still wear my glasses at all. So I said, rarely, only when I want to look smart. Without a pause, Dr. Aaberg comes back with "you'd look alot smarter if you stopped wearing those shirts." Ouch!!!!!! :)

The pressure in my eye also went down from 23 to 21 (whatever that means, but its a good thing). I had 2 separate doctors (including Aaberg) who mentioned that marijuana and alcohol (Hooray BEER!!!!) help lower eye pressure!

So in all, I had 4 hours worth of exams, including about 10 different eye drops, reading a couple of eye charts (I'm still 20-20!), a sonogram, about 4 sudoku puzzles and way too many digital photos that irritated the HELL out of my eye. But in the end, I got good news and that's all that matters!!!

Thanks to all of you for your prayers and good wishes, they worked!!!! And most of all, thank you Dr. Aaberg! I'll miss you!

The streak is over :(

(Yes, I'm still working on Part 3 of the wedding movie script...I've been busy!)

Tonight will mark the end of a mini-era. I will miss my first Atlanta Thrashers home game of the season. I have been to all 12 home games so far (they won 6 and lost 6 for anyone counting), and lucky number 13 will be the first one I miss. And it's the Thrashers debut of future hall of famer Mark Recchi who was just picked up off waivers from the Penguins! Yeah, yeah, I know, you guys don't care. I do! It's a sad day :(

But hopefully not too sad! I have a doctors appointment follow up today, which is why my parents are in town, and why I'm missing the game!

My 15 Seconds of Fame

So last night I went to the Thrashers game at Philips Arena, as I pretty much always do. Usually me and Matt are able to buy student tickets for $15 each (technically I AM a student!!!!). However, last night they were all sold out. Unless we wanted to sell our respective houses, we couldn't afford what seats were left. So our other option were Standing Room Only seats for $10 each. Done. So we head to the upper deck to the very top of the arena where we are supposed to stand. We noticed Jay-Bird (He's the guy who does all the contests during Thrashers games) standing around up there. Matt had the idea to ask him if we could use his microphone to ask anyone if they had a place for us to sit. I thought that was a great idea but Matt wouldn't ask...so I did. I asked him if I could use his mic to beg for a place for us to sit. He laughed, which is surprising because he usually only laughs at things HE says (which is pretty much the most obnoxious thing you can do, in my mind). Matt asked him if we could sit in his seat, since he's just walking around, we could keep his seat warm! Jaybird responded with some comment that made absolutely no sense and had something to do with drunk people. And of course, he cracked up laughing. I told him we weren't that drunk, then asked him how you sign up to do one of the in-game contests. He, again replied with something that had nothing to do with contests...and laughed...then walked away. We weren't really that surprised, I think that's about what we figured a conversation with Jaybird would go. Then I texted Erica, who was sitting downstairs, "We just chatted with jaybird...he's even worse in person!" As soon as I hit send, jaybird comes back, taps me on the shoulder and wants us to come with him. He's gonna put us on the big screen to do a contest!!! It was a Home Depot game called "Risk it All" where they tell you an item and a price and we have to decide if the actual price is higher or lower. If you get it right, you win that item. The first thing was a pair of heavy duty gloves...got it right. The second thing...I had no idea what it was, still don't...I even said, I have no idea what that is, but I'll say "higher"...and we got it right. The third item was an electric sander thing. Got that right. So then we have the option of keeping what we've won, or "Risk it All" in hopes of winning all that plus Thrashers stuff. We go to a lot of games...EVERYONE risks it all, so we did too, saying that I don't even know what some of those things are...and so then you pick a number from 1-9. We were surrounded by about 3-4 Thrashers girls...who were telling us not to pick #5, we've noticed that #5 usually says "lose all". So we knew better...we picked #3. What happens??? "LOSE ALL"!!! Of course. I think #5 was at least a $25 Home Depot gift card. #4 I think was "WIN ALL" We would've won the 3 items, free Thrashers tickets, $100 Home Depot gift card, and a signed puck or stick or something. Oh well, there went my 15 seconds of fame! Oh, me and Matt do get to split a $5 Home Depot card as our consolation prize.

Kim & Brian's Wedding Weekend, Part Deaux - The Rehearsaless Dinner

So after our tour of the Capitol, we all headed back to the hotel to get ready for the rehearsal dinner. I got in a good 30-45 second nap, so that was nice, but we had to get ready. I'm pretty sure the temperature dropped about 20 degrees in an hour or so. We walked over to the Italian restaurant that the rehearsal dinner was at and it was FREEZING cold outside! On the way I almost got my dad and I killed by walking across the street. It seemed clear when we started, but that didn't last long. We were standing on the double yellow line, ready to make a run for the sidewalk as soon as we thought we wouldn't die. Luckily we made it, and we realized everyone else we were originally walking with were smarter than us...they went to this thing they call an "intersection". I'll have to look it up on wikipedia.

I've been to maybe 2 rehearsal dinners in my day...on average I'd say they had about 15-20 people. Tops. I have no idea if that was the norm, but it certainly wasn't in Kim & Brian's plans. There were over 100 people at this thing! It was nuts! But it was a lot of fun. For the first time, I finally met Brian's family. They were beginning to think I didn't exist, but since they are apparently big fans of my blog - and here I thought 3 or 4 people paid attention to my rambling - I decided I would prove my existence...I think they bought it!

I'm sure most of you know how Kim & Brian originally met, but if not, time for a quick recap. Kim was with her friends at bar in Georgetown called Tony and Joe's. Some random guy bought her a bright blue Windex looking drink. Along comes Brian, staring at Kim's drink - not her. Kim then asks Brian if he'd like to taste it. He says he doesn't take drinks from strangers. Little did he know, they wouldn't be strangers for long!

So I think the highlight of the rehearsal dinner...wait, hold up, this is something I haven't been able to figure out yet. Why are these things called rehearsal dinners? We didn't rehearse anything! Ok, I had to get that out. Anyways, the highlight was Brian's Uncle Jay (not to be confused with me, because I'm "ay"-less) created an awesome slide show detective drama about the Mystery of the Blue Drink. It was pretty funny too, he had all the old 80's detective show music involved...including, my favorite...Inspector Gadget. It was really creative and funny. He went and found tons of old pictures of Kim and then of Brian. But the highlight for us Zaikov's was probably the video clip of our old Co-op in Howard Beach. Apparent Jay has a friend who lives in Queens. He sent them on a mission, first to buy a VHS Camera - to make it look like a video from the 80's...$15 at your local pawn shop. Then gave him our old address and off he went. He shot footage of our old place and a bunch of hot spots in the area. Brought back lots of memories from the old childhood!

So I mentioned in Part one that Kim had me and Alyssa draw some stick figures. Turns out she had a plan for them. Kim & Brian brought both sets of parents up and presented them with framed pictures...of our stick figures :) Apparently real pictures will replace them eventually. They also called up all the bridesmaids and groomsmen to give them little gifts. I'm not sure what the ladies got, but Brian gave each groomsman a very FSU-colored tie :) and we each got cuff-links with our initials on them in these cool boxes in the shape of a tux. Very cool. However, Brian felt the need to totally ruin it all by taking a cheap shot at my Noles though, questioning whether FSU was even gonna make a bowl game! pffftttt!!!! I believe his dad put him in his place for me, after all, Kansas has only been good for 3 months now!

Saturday morning I woke up and headed downstairs because I was pretty sure I could hear some Zaikov's chattering all the way from the 9th floor. So I hung out with the family for a while, the hotel provided a lunch at 11:30 us in Bubbie's room. It was nice, but all I cared about was getting to a bar to watch the Maryland-FSU game. Priorities!!! I managed to grab dad and we Metro'd our way to an absolutely terrible bar called Buffalo Billiards. I've been there before, but it was always pretty empty. Keeping in mind that the University of Maryland is maybe 10 miles away I'd guess...there were NO TV's with the Maryland-FSU game when we got there at about 12:15 (kickoff was noon). Unbelievable!!! There was a huge crowd gathered for the Ohio State-Michigan game for some reason. I had to talk to a manager to even get the FSU game on a TV in the corner. It took him what seemed like forever and finally he turned it on right as I got to see a replay of FSU's first touchdown! Woohoooo. So, we were warned that we weren't gonna be getting any wait service in the section we were in. No big deal, the bar wasn't that far. Little did we know what we were in for! Eventually a crowd of Brian's friends and family showed up. I'm pretty sure Brett was the only Maryland fan in this PACKED bar. WTF? And that wasn't even the worst of it for Brett (neither was the fact that Maryland lost) he ordered a chicken sandwich from the bar...and after asking about it 2 or 3 times, it finally showed up, literally an hour later. By this time, we all had to leave really soon to get back in time for pictures. I also went to the bar to get one last beer and close my tab. Unfortunately I signed my check before he physically gave me my beer. He began pouring my beer, stopped the tap so that the head would clear...but he walked away. He was taking other people's orders, putting dishes away. My evil look in his direction was no match for his plan to completely forget about my poor little half filled Guinness. I was soooooo tempted to cross off the - already small - tip from my check! Finally I yelled out to him to ask him to finish with my beer already. He said he forgot. Great. I took my beer and ran off. Drank it way too quickly and as soon as FSU officially finished off Maryland, off we went. We were quickly running out of time before we were supposed to be ready for pictures.

Did we make it back in time??? Tune in for Part 3!!!!

Kim & Brian's Wedding Weekend, Part 1 - The Days Before

I don't think its really sunk in yet. It doesn't exactly roll off my tongue just yet, but its true...I now have a brother-in-law. For one day anyways...I was a BLOG (get it? Ok, Brother in Law Of the Groom) Oh come on, thats funny!!!!

Anyways, it was an awesome weekend, and I will now tell you all about, so hope you brought your reading glasses, and maybe some coffee...if you're into that sort of thing. Actually I'm gonna split this up into a couple of blogs, just so no one gets scared away from seeing an obnoxiously long blog! So here comes Part 1...

The weekend got started in typical fashion...my flight was delayed. I met my cousin Alyssa who had a layover in ATL. Her flight was an hour after mine. I tried to work it out to where we could get on the same flight, but Delta wouldn't have it. Oh well. I got into DC and was just gonna wait on her. My parents and Kim met me at the airport and wouldn't you know it...my suitcase was actually one of the first ones out! Figures...since I was in no rush. Alyssa got in about an hour later, in between, to kill time, my dad learned all about how Segway's worked from a cop in the airport riding around on one. Finally, Alyssa showed up - apparently her bags arrived on my flight, good thing they couldn't work that deal out for people! My parents then finally dropped us off at Kim's condo. Kim had me draw a couple of stick figures on two separate pieces of paper, but wouldn't tell me why. Alyssa didn't like my first attempt so she drew the 2nd one. Meanwhile, I made Brian watch the end of the Oregon-Arizona game, where #2 Oregon lost to unranked Arizona, which is good for his and my adopted Jayhawks. We were all pretty exhausted, so it was bed time.

Friday morning, Kim and my parents met up with Brian and his parents and the rabbi who was to marry them. I got to sleep in :) When they were done me and my dad left for our day of tourism. We were hoping to go see the Air and Space Museum along with getting a tour of the capitol, but ran out of time. We also had to pickup my tux, and that took way too long, so we only had time to go to the capitol tour. My cousin Rob works for Congressman Michael Honda (CA). We missed out on meeting him, but were told that he gets a kick out of people taking pictures from his chair. So...we did just that. Then we got a tour of the Capitol from a co-worker of Rob's. It got off to a bad start when Alyssa got caught with mace. Apparently they don't want you bringing mace on tours of the capitol. They were very against us just throwing it away, so Rob had to bring it back to his office. Finally the tour started and I've gotta admit...it was pretty boring. Our tour guide was pretty much worthless. To her credit, there were almost 20 of us on the tour, when I think they're used to groups of about 5-10. And even Rob admitted that she wasn't very helpful. The only fun part was this one room which was built in such a way where, at one spot on the floor, if you speak into the floor, you can hear that person in another spot on the floor across the room. That's kinda hard to explain, but thats the best I got. There were lots of statues all over the place - Samuel Adams for example. I enjoy his beer, so I took a picture pretending to be drinking a beer. I only mention that because its hard to tell what the hell I'm doing in that picture (below). The fun part was trying to emulate the poses of some of the statues, also seen below - from left to right - Beer Man Samuel Adams, General U.S. Grant, and Robert M. La Follette, whose name, ironically rhymes with toilet, which is where I believe this guy was sitting when they made this statue.

Vickie's Milestone!!!

As everyone knows, I have two special ladies in my life (please note - this means you mom - I only count ones that don't breathe), and they are my beautiful TV - Mitsa - and my car - Vickie. They are by far the most costly and best investments of my life to date (I guess some day my condo might overtake one, but my condo is a boy anyways).

This morning - November 21, 2007, at 9:11am ET - Vickie cruised (literally) to her 100,000th mile.

Ironically enough, to me anyways, on the J-Pod was Weezer's song "Slave".

*-Professional cameraman, do not attempt

Meeting Ray Bourque

So last night the Atlanta Thrashers were playing the Washington Capitals. It happened to be the debut of Chris Bourque, son of NHL Hall of Famer Ray Bourque.

I know alot of you aren't hockey experts, here's what Wikipedia has to say about him:

Raymond Jean Bourque (born December 28, 1960 in Saint-Laurent, Quebec, now a
district of Montreal) is a Hockey Hall of Famer who currently holds the records
for most goals, assists and points by a defenseman in the National Hockey League
(NHL) and has become near-synonymous with the Boston Bruins. He played for the
Bruins and Colorado Avalanche. Finally, on June 9, 2001, after 22 seasons, the
Avalanche—and Bourque—won the Stanley Cup, in what proved to be Bourque's final
game as a player. He had waited longer to win his first Cup than any other
Cup-winning player had in the 108-year history of Stanley Cup play.

Ok, so now you know he was a superstar. He was at last night's game since it was his son's NHL debut. He also just happened to be sitting in the same row as my friend Erica. So she texted me, "We are sitting next to Ray Borg". I had no idea who she was talking about until I said it out loud (seriously, try it!). Then when I cracked her spelling problems, I decided my gameplan. I picked up a free program, and snuck into their section. Borrowed a pen from a girl sitting in front of them and made my move.

I said, "excuse me sir, sorry to bother you, but I was wondering...is your son by any chance making his NHL debut tonight?". (clever, huh?). He said yeah, I said I was how great that was and I asked him if he would mind giving me his autograph and taking a picture. He paused, I was scared for a second, then he said "Not at all". i opened the program up to the page with the Capitals roster...unfortunately it wasn't updated with Chris Bourque's name yet, but I had him sign that page anyways. Then took a picture. I told him I was a huge fan and it was an honor meeting him, all that stuff, and wished his son the best of luck. 7 minutes later Chris took his first ever NHL penalty.