All sorts of business was taken care of this weekend.

Friday night Jenn and I had a meeting at the Empress Palace with the wedding coordinator and the minister to flesh out some of the wedding plans and see what is left for us to do. They're great people up there and I'm glad we chose them. That all went very smoothly and they're totally helpful. Surprisingly, there's not much left for us to do - we just have to wait for things to slowly come together.

Saturday Jenn had to work and Stu had plans, so I was on my own, which is generally a dangerous thing. I went to the comic store and picked up my monthly comic haul, then I headed over to Tammie's Hobbies to look at helicopters since I was having fun with my last one but sort of broke it.

The folks at Tammie's Hobbies are really helpful and very knowledgeable about pretty much anything radio controlled. I spoke with a guy who recommended the Blade CX, but they were out.

At first I thought my hopes of flying on Saturday were doomed, but I stopped in at Hillsboro Hobbies (not far from my house) and talked to the owner there, and he also recommended the Blade CX to me. Fortunately, they had one in stock, so I picked that and a few spare parts up.

There were two key selling points on this one. First, the stability is amazing. Just getting to learn how an R/C helicopter generally moves without having to fight the tail rotor for compensation and stability is nice. Second, spare parts are cheap! You can get two sets of new upper or lower propellers for $4. New landing gear? $4. The body is Lexan, so it's pretty tough, but I think a new body is like $10. The expensive bits are the main engine controller and the battery, but those aren't what breaks when you crash.

So I picked the chopper up for $190, which is standard list price, some upper and lower blades ($4 each set), a set of training landing gears (they help you keep from crashing when you're starting out - $10), and a spare battery ($35). All told, I came out just under $250, which is pretty reasonable when you look at other models out there.

I got home and charged up the batteries (1.5 hours of charge time for about 15 minutes of fly time). By the time those were charged up Jenn was home so we went to the nearby park for the first flight.

It's noticeably more stable than the last chopper I had, and I actually felt like I was getting the hang of it. Of course, I took a pretty hefty crash and destroyed a set of lower blades and cracked one of the upper ones, so we ended the flying there for a while and went home to replace the blades. Thank goodness the blades are cheap. (It was actually pretty breezy, too, so it wasn't all my fault...)

Once I got the blades replaced, I decided to try the thing out indoors. Yeah, I know, it's asking for trouble, but we don't have any furniture in the living room and I'm only flying a few inches off the ground, so I figured what the heck.

That actually worked reasonably well. I found I was more in control than when I was in the breeze, but that the training landing gears throw off the balance of the thing enough that you can't really hover the way the guy did in the store. (The guy at Hillsboro Hobbies was super cool and trimmed everything up so it'd fly straight and hover nicely, but he did it before the training gear was attached. Now I can't get it to do the same controlled flight, so I'm sure the training gear is affecting it somehow.)

The only downside to flying it in the house is the cat. My little cat will not leave the helicopter alone. Blades spinning, chopper flying, she wants to be a part of it. I'm afraid she's going to get hurt, but she is absolutely fearless. What a bad cat.

Sunday Stu, Jenn, and I traveled around looking for a dining room set. Jenn has been wanting one for a while, and I figured I could ease the shock of the $250 in helicopter cost by caving on the dining set.

We ended up at Dining Rooms Unlimited and found this nice table with a butterfly leaf in it, but we didn't like the chairs... we liked the chairs from this other set. (The picture shows the chairs and the table we actually ended up getting, snipped from two different pictures.) Luckily, they let us mix-and-match a set for a package price of $800, so we ordered up and we should be getting that in four to six weeks.

Oh, Sunday we also went and picked out tux styles for the wedding and set it up so folks can get measured and such for them. One more thing off the list of things to do.

The sprinkler installation should continue today, and my understanding is they'll be done by Wednesday. Taking care of business!

The new version automatically rewrites links on the page that match URLs for contacts you have defined. This makes it zero-effort to implement - just link to various contacts, and their contact card will automatically be associated with that link.

Go get it!

We got this voicemail last night from Dennis' Seven Dees, the folks we contracted with to get our sprinkler system put in. The message was, "Tomorrow morning at 8:00 a crew will be out to start your irrigation system project."

I just signed the contract a couple of weeks ago and the guy I talked to said they were booked five weeks out and they'd let me know when they'd be coming. I was under the impression I'd need to call the utilities to get them to mark their buried lines, get permits from the city for the development, and do some additional prep work. I've done none of that, and that was sort of worrisome.

But looking out the window... someone has already come along and painted the utility markings. What the...?

Jenn is off today (having to work this weekend) so she was there this morning when they showed up and let them know that we hadn't prepared. They had taken care of everything. They called for the utilities to be marked, they got the required permits, and they'll be done by Wednesday.

She sent me a text message mentioning how organized they are, too, which is cool. It's always nice to see an organized, professional team at work.

It's costing me a bit - $5600 for the whole job - but the majority of that cost is due to the funky shape of the yard and the placement of the water pipes (there's a lot of extra work that will have to be done to get the water where it needs to go). Could I have gotten it for cheaper? Maybe, but I got a couple of quotes and they all came in around the same ballpark until you really started cutting corners or omitting full sections of the landscaping. Could I have done it myself? Maybe, but I don't know the first thing about sprinklers, and I'm sure there's more to it than I'm willing/able to grasp. There's a reason people get paid to do what they do - I don't expect anyone off the street to be able to code like I do; it shouldn't necessarily be expected that anyone off the street can just come in and do a sprinkler system.

On the other hand, with things like this, I've found you really get what you pay for. It might sound expensive, but you don't have to fight with the pipes, dig the trenches, wire everything up, calculate where the sprinkler heads will go... and having the parts and labor warranty doesn't hurt, either.

That "you get what you pay for" lesson has been learned by Jenn and I several times over, and much as we'd love to cut corners and cost on things, we usually find it better to save up for a little longer and make the investment in the higher quality product which is inevitably more expensive. (Which isn't to say "more expensive == higher quality" - just that if you want a decent product or service, you really need to be willing to pay for it.)

I'm anxious to see how far they get in a day. And I'm stoked to get this thing in - the yard is really starting to look like crap, and it's mostly due to the inability of us to get the water where it needs to be. Once this bad boy's in, it's time to call in ProGrass to come in and do some soil treatments and fertilization. Then it's going to look gooooooood.

Just got wind that Kevin Downs of the NDoc project is removing himself from the development of NDoc, leaving no one actively developing NDoc. Further, that means there's no NDoc 2.0 on the way.

That's bad news in a lot of ways. First, I feel bad for Kevin since it sounds like he's done a lot of widely used but not-directly-appreciated work and got a lot of abuse for not moving faster on NDoc 2.0. Second, that means folks who currently use NDoc in a lot of extended ways - via NAnt build scripts, in other automated utilities, etc. - are screwed for .NET 2.0 functionality. In a particularly personal bit of bad news, that means I've got to figure out what will happen with CR_Documentor - if .NET 2.0 isn't supported in NDoc, what do I render? (Input on that topic is welcome...)

I guess Microsoft has some sort of less-feature-complete documentation rendering engine codenamed "Sandcastle" they're coming out with that will generate MSDN style documentation similar to NDoc but in a more cumbersome-sounding process. It obviously won't have instant NAnt support, meaning there's going to be some hacking around to get that to work.

I feel like MS is showing up late to the party on this one. If you're going to release a product, at least make it full-featured enough to be competitive with similar products. I've thought about writing my own blog engine for a while now and I wouldn't release it until it did all the stuff standard blog packages do today; if you couldn't leave comments, for example, it's not a full blog package.

Of course, it will most likely become the de-facto standard with the vacuum that NDoc will be leaving. Which is unfortunate, but c'est la vie.

I've been on a mission for spare parts for this RC helicopter I got. A mission, I tell you! I found the manufacturer in China (good luck tracking that down), I called the store where my dad bought it... all to no avail. Spare parts don't seem to be locally available, and shipping them from China directly in the quantity I'd have to purchase in would be more expensive than just buying a new chopper.

So... I guess it's time for a new chopper. Maybe something just slightly higher-end, possibly a three-channel entry-level thing that has spare parts available. Looks like a trip to Tammie's Hobbies is in order this weekend.

The kind of helicopter I have is an "HX Dragonfly 251."

It's looking like the only place online that sells the thing is in Japan. Hmmm. This is going to make finding replacement parts tricky.

UPDATE: The HX Dragonfly 251 is the equivalent of the Syma 9093 Dragonfly helicopter. You can get spare parts at Raidentech.

I took the RC helicopter out last night to adjust it a little more and get my practice on. There was just the slightest bit of wind, but for the most part, it was a clear night and I really wanted to get it going.

I flew several shorter flights, trying to fine-tune this little potentiometer on it to get the thing to stop tail-spinning. I think I had it, too. Took it up for a bit, got it under a reasonable amount of control (very mild spinning, probably more me just over-correcting) and was bringing it down when this tree in my front yard violently attacked the helicopter, bringing it crashing down.

Either that, or maybe I sort of flew into the branches there... you choose. My vote is for the Whomping Willow version.

Anyway, that wasn't the first time I had hit the tree, but it survived all the other times. Not this time. This time this little bar that balances out the helicopter's main rotor broke cleanly in half, bringing my flight to an end. Just when I was getting good, too! (Jenn can attest to the fact it was flying with some mild amount of control.)

So now I have to go searching for replacement parts. The owner's manual says you can get them, I'm just not sure where. ("Items to be purchased are lined below. You can order them by their item name, purchase them from local distributors." The owner's manual is in Engrish. I think my favorite is the warning about flying in wind - "Do not fly in strong winds. It can limit the helicopter's fly and confuse your control. Flying in strong winds. The chopper will be missing or cause damage.")

Time for a Google search.

This weekend was my 30th birthday weekend, and a hell of a time was had.

Friday night our friends Jason and Tracy took Jenn and I out for a great dinner at Applebee's where I had a pretty tasty steak and shrimp plate that really didn't leave any room for dessert. Hung out there for quite some time and had a good time seeing them again.

After that, Jenn and I hit the store for some last minute supplies in preparation for Saturday. While we were there, I picked up the KT Tunstall CD Eye To The Telescope (which, as it looks, I should have bought from Amazon since the price is like half of what I paid). It's a pretty decent album, but while there are a couple of real stand-out tunes on there, most of it feels pretty same-y. Sort of like the James Blunt album Back to Bedlam - good, but many of the songs feel a little redundant.

Saturday Jenn, Stu, and I headed out for the Wild Waves/Enchanted Village theme park in Washington. It was record heat and only a couple of hours north, so we figured that sounded like a lot of fun.

It was a long but fun day - we left the house at 8:00a and got back at 7:00p. Jenn's face got sunburned pretty bad (she didn't put lotion on her face), and Stu and I both got burned on our shoulders and back where we missed getting suntan lotion (which just goes to prove that the lotion actually works). They have some really cool water slides and except for the pretty long lines, it was really awesome.

Wild Waves really gets you coming and going. It's $30 for a ticket to get in, then $12 to park. Oh, and if you want a locker to stick your stuff in, that's another $11. (Thank goodness we parked close enough to the door that we could leave our stuff in the car and just go out and get it as we needed it.) Lunch was a $3 hamburger and fries basket that cost $8.50 including tax. You'd think that'd be cost-prohibitive to a lot of people, but this place was packed. I suppose folks just come to expect that.

Saturday night we were pretty beat from the water park all day, but when we got back home we sort of hung out and had a good time relaxing and talking about the craziness that is Wild Waves. That's going to be a hard one to top for next year. We tried to play some Xbox 360, but the drive on it died and it won't read discs (games or DVDs) anymore. (I called the support line Sunday morning after we got up and the support person who helped me, Julie, was super nice. As I'm still under warranty, they're going to send me a box via UPS to send the Xbox back in, then they'll either repair or replace it and return it in 10 business days. I ended up filling out the extended warranty order form after I hung up with her since I've heard some of my friends having mechanical trouble with their 360s, too. Time to get extra coverage.)

Sunday we woke up late, cleaned up a bit around the house, then went to the store and got some stuff for an afternoon barbecue. We also went to Rose's Restaurant and Bakery and picked up a tiramisu cake that was so big it was "ricakeulous."

Around 2 or so, Tracy, my parents, and Stu came over to enjoy some burgers and hot dogs fresh off the grill. Jenn did a great job cooking that up (and big kudos to her for going out in the heat with a sunburned face and doing that for me). We all had a slice of cake (caketastic!) and sat for a bit in post-cake coma.

I got some nice stuff from folks, too. Stu got me Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter for my Xbox 360 (which we couldn't play because the drive was out). My parents got me an RC helicopter, which is cool because I've been wanting to get into that for a bit, so this entry level one is a good place to start. Jenn got me Fraggle Rock Season 1 on DVD which I can't wait to watch - I love the Fraggles.

After everyone headed out, I got a call from my sister Tori, who recently got married and moved to Hawaii. It was good to hear from her and see how she's doing, and it was really cool of her to call.

Once the battery for the helicopter charged up, I took it out for its maiden voyage.

They say that if you can fly an RC helicopter, you can run any RC toy you want. I quickly figured out why.

The model I have has two channels - one for throttle and one for yaw (increasing or decreasing tail rotor power). The thing is, the tail rotor power is proportional to the main propeller throttle - that is, the more power you give the main propeller, the more power the rear propeller has available. The trick is to increase the main throttle while correctly compensating with the rear propeller so the helicopter flies straight.

The description sounds simple. Actual execution is akin to balancing a ten foot pole on the end of your finger. When you start out you kind of have it under control, but once you start losing control it's pretty much over.

The typical flight goes like this:

First, you place the helicopter in the middle of the driveway because the grass is too long and ends up blocking the rear propeller from spinning. You increase the throttle of the main propeller and the rear starts spinning around, so you jimmy around on the rear propeller to stabilize it. Here's where it gets tricky. Since you don't have control over pitch on this model, it automatically flies "forward," which equates to actually flying sort of generally in a forward direction. I'm gathering it flies sort of at an angle, like about 10:00, not really straight forward.

Anyway, once you sort of get it stabilized, you increase the power to the main throttle, then you run like hell. The reason you run is that you've now lost the delicate balance of rear propeller to throttle and the helicopter is undoubtedly chasing you at roughly waist level, set on smacking you square in the nuts with its primary propeller. Barring that, it will fly in an arbitrary direction with the intent to injure or maim as appropriate until you either let off the main throttle (bringing it crashing to the ground) or run it into the neighbor's bushes (full stop).

I was able to get it to fly in a generally decent controlled fashion and land softly precisely once. That was the point at which my neighbor from two doors down, Tim, came busting over wondering "how I did that" because he's had a copter for two and a half months now and crashes it every time. He has a more advanced model with throttle, yaw, and pitch, so maybe it's just that much more complex. You're supposed to be able to hover those, though, and I would think that's actually what you'd start trying before moving forward... but he's started with forward motion and can't figure out how to hover.

I wonder if the one I got is stereotypical for difficulty or if it's so entry level that it doesn't have any of the automatic stabilizer features that more advanced helicopters might have. Not having a frame of reference, I couldn't say. I ran the battery down fairly quickly and went inside to call my dad and thank him again for the RC hedge trimmer. I think I need a lot more practice.

All in all, a caketastic birthday weekend.

I have to have one of these. A USB hub that looks like a working self-destruct button? Who doesn't need one?

I should probably add this to my Interaction Preferences entry, but I'll throw it in here for now.

In the last week or so I've been running across some particular email things I absolutely hate:

• Don't send me an email and then show up before the email arrives in my inbox to discuss the contents of that email. Give me at least 15 minutes to receive, read, and digest what you've sent before incurring further conversation on it.
• Don't send me an email with half of your response then come tell me the other half in person. Send me the whole response - with all of the required details and context - so I don't have to mentally assemble the complete response and somehow get that filed for later reference.

Jenn and I saw The Devil Wears Prada yesterday and I liked the soundtrack so I picked up a copy. I listen to my iPod and not CDs, so I tried to rip it this morning So I could have it for my commute.

No luck.

I have two CDROM drives at home. One didn't recognize the CD at all, the other recognized it as audio but wouldn't play it (all tracks zero length).

Reboot, try again (just in case it was a fluke), still no luck.

Did some research in how to figure out what kind of copy protection I was up against and found that most copy protection detectors need an ASPI layer to be installed in order to work, something that doesn't come with Windows XP by default.

I installed the one at ForceASPI 1.8 (tried the one at Adaptec and it didn't work... at least it wasn't recognized by ClonyXXL) and rebooted. Put the CD in the drive (the drive that didn't even recognize it to begin with) to inspect it...

...And it totally knew how to play it. No copy protection circumvention needed. Just installing the ASPI layer fixed it.

I've never heard of an ASPI layer fixing a drive against copy protection, so maybe the installation just corrected something that was wrong - replaced a corrupt driver or something. I'm not going to question it - the ends justified the means for me. Might be a simple first step for people having CD ripping issues, though. YMMV.

Saw The Devil Wears Prada on Sunday. I had heard it was good from a couple of friends and I wasn't disappointed.

Normally I'm a summer blockbuster sucker. I saw Pirates of the Caribbean and had a great time with it. This was a fantastic break from overblown special effects and computer imagery.

Anne Hathaway (who is totally on my list) plays Andrea, a new college graduate looking for a job in journalism. She gets a job as the assistant for the ultra-demanding editor-in-chief of a Cosmopolitan-style publication, played by Meryl Streep.

The movie plays out somewhat predictably, but that makes it no less entertaining. Both Hathaway and Streep play their characters wonderfully, and you soon overlook the predictable plot and care about the characters regardless.

The soundtrack is also pretty good. It's got a peppy, light, jazzy feel to it that makes you feel sort of "summery." I picked up a copy after the show.

A light, fun movie, it was the perfect distraction on a Sunday afternoon. You don't have to see it on the big screen, but you won't feel like you were cheated out of your matinee money if you do.

In preparation for the wedding, Jenn and I are running around registering for stuff. We don't need a lot since the house is pretty well set up already with appliances and such, but we do need silverware that didn't come as a mismatched set from Goodwill and we want new, nicer dishes.

The problem is most standard dish sets are these heavy, clunky things that look like rejects from a beginning pottery class and make me feel like I'm in kindergarten.

For a while I considered just eating on fine china every day (why not?),
but the thing stopping me is you can't put most fine china in the microwave. I don't need oven-proof dishes, but they do need to be dishwasher- and microwave-safe. Enter the notion of "casual china."

To that end, we went Saturday to Macy's and registered for some awesome kate spade casual china from the Gramercy Park collection. Not the standard five-piece sets, though, since we never use saucers and rarely use teacups, so we custom crafted a set together. They're pretty sweet.

That was pretty much the high point of the weekend. Planted some stuff in the backyard. Saw The Devil Wears Prada. Cleaned stuff up. The usual.

Next weekend is my birthday, so I should probably figure out what's going on for that...

Ever wonder how much propane you have left for your barbecue? We have this pressure gauge thing that mostly works to let us know, but these new transparent propane cylinders have been a long time coming. I have to have one.

Update: Looks like they're between $80-100. You can get one here or here.

It's going to be a long day today. I am every shade of aching, from my head down to the small of my back. I can type well enough, which is good, but I can't write because I can't frickin' grip anything. Just goes to show how much of a desk jockey I am, that the fireworks show on the fourth took it out of me that badly. In my defense, it is a lot of hard work. I normally don't go out digging trenches and whatnot.

I'm also vastly undercaffeinated, so it's time to fire up the ol' Mountain Dew train and get on board.

Greg was awesome enough to get Jenn and I some Western Display Fireworks crew shirts so we'll look all official next time we're working (Western is who we do the shows for).

In other news, I have been playing Hexic on Xbox 360 and finally got a black pearl cluster, giving me 20 pride-filled Gamerpoints. It's been a long time in the works getting there, so I'm pretty stoked. You should have seen the [pain-ridden] victory dance last night.

Once again, as is the seeming custom for the past three years, Jenn and I trekked out to Clatskanie to do the fireworks show with Greg.

This time, I got some photos of the trip, so folks who aren't native Oregonians, or even folks who are, who somehow always tell me about how "beautiful the drive is" around these parts... I got photos to show you it's not all that.

First, we packed up the car with all nature of interesting things:



We updated the list from last year, removing a few things we didn't end up needing and adding a few we decided we did:

• Two (2) shovels - One scoop, one spade
• Two (2) pairs leather gloves (one for each of us)
• Two (2) folding camp chairs
• One (1) folding camp table
• One (1) cooler filled with:
  • Six (6) bottles water, two (2) frozen
  • Six (6) bottles Gatorade (fruit punch flavor)
• Two (2) moist wash cloths in plastic bags
• One (1) army surplus canvas jacket (for Travis to wear during show; Jenn to borrow fire uniform)
• One (1) pair knee pads (for Travis to wear during show; Jenn doesn't own any)
• One (1) digital camera
• Two (2) books (for reading during off-times)
• One (1) iPod
• Two (2) cell phones with car chargers for each
• One (1) bottle Excedrin Migraine
• One (1) box pseudoephedrine
• One (1) box DayQuil
• One (1) bottle SPF 45 sport sunscreen
• One (1) can of spray mosquito repellant
• Two (2) pairs sunglasses (one each for Travis and Jenn, respectively)
• One (1) beach umbrella
• Two (2) hats (one each for Travis and Jenn, respectively)
• One (1) pocketknife
• One (1) metal rake
• One (1) container Wet Wipes moist towelettes
• Assorted boxes dry food (crackers, granola bars, etc.)

To that list next year, we need to add one (1) box Imodium (don't ask) and we will probably have to substitute some pseudoephedrine analog since Oregon has screwed all cold and allergy sufferers with their new anti-meth laws and now pseudoephedrine, the only working decongestant, requires a prescription. Thanks, Oregon, that's really solving the issue. But I digress.

We packed up shop and set out for Clatskanie.



The next two photos show what the trip looks like. Again, this is for those folks who keep insisting the drive is "so beautiful" or whatever. The whole trip is one of these two ways:



Either you get "beautiful" rolling brown grass fields, or you get the "excitement" of seeing trees trees trees trees trees for miles on end. Let me tell you, you grow up in Oregon, the drive's not so awesome. Been there, done that.

Once you get to the small town of Clatskanie, you are welcomed with a sign:



The sign - "Welcome to Clatskanie Heritage Days" - is interesting because it's only one day, to my knowledge. Just the Fourth. Not "days," but "day." Heh.

Okay, so you get into Clatskanie and you have to wait to go down to the fireworks site because people are lining the streets to watch the parade go down the only major street in town. The town's effectively shut down because you can't get to an entire side of it, due to the parade.



So Jenn and I end up eating at Subway. When the lunch rush shows up to Subway, you know the parade is over and you can get down to the fireworks site.

The wastewater treatment plant is through town and down a gravel road.



In that picture, you can kind of see the yellow fireworks truck in the field on the right. If you can't make it out, that's okay - here's what it looks like when you get there:



The dirt is the trench we get to fill with mortar tubes. The black pile is a few of the tubes - the rest are in the truck.

And, of course, for those curious, here's the wastewater treatment plant proper (this was taken later, when the truck had been moved away from the trench):



So the big part of the day is putting mortar tubes into the trench that the city dug out with a backhoe for us. Here are the mortars getting set up at various stages of progression:




Once you get the mortars buried, you load the shells into them. Here's the whole thing, set up and ready to go:



The ones at the end have aluminum foil over them to ensure they don't go off inadvertently during the show due to debris accidentally lighting them. In the middle of the show, if one goes off early, folks won't generally notice. If the finale goes off early, you'll notice.

Greg actually kept a decent running blog of the loading process and has some good pictures, if you're interested. Definitely worth checking out. I think he'll later be putting up a time lapse video of the setup. I'm stoked to see that. Anyway...

The rest of the day is spent "camping," sort of hanging out waiting for the show to start. Here's the group of us in front of the trench. You can see how big the trench really is in this one. It's gotta be a good couple of hundred feet.



Camping there isn't too exciting, hence why you bring a book or whatever. I spent some time harassing a nearby llama (talking to it, walking around calling to it, etc.), which was kind of fun.



10:00p was showtime, and the show went well (as usual). I lit several and also stood back to supervise some and make sure all the people who wanted to light shells got to, helping Greg swap people in and out.

Cleanup was a pain (also as usual) and my back and neck are sore today from pulling the mortar tubes out of the trench. We ended up getting home about 1:00a, exhausted, dirty, ready for shower and bed.

I'll definitely be doing it again, but I'm hoping Greg gets off his lazy ass and gets his commercial driver's license so we can do a different show. The Clatskanie show is fun (and hard work), but it'd be neat to see something different next year.

I've taken a loooong weekend, from June 30 - July 5, for a couple of reasons. The first is my sister's wedding. The second is fireworks... but that'll be a different entry.

My sister Tori was married to a fellow named Brandon on Saturday, July 1. The ceremony was held in the Mormon temple in Bellevue, WA, so I didn't actually get to see it. Instead, Jenn and I made the three-and-a-half-hour-each-way trip up and back on Saturday to be at the reception, also held in Bellevue, on Saturday afternoon.

Friday (the 30th) was Jenn and I getting things done so we were ready for the trip Saturday.

Saturday around 11:00a we left so we could be there at 3:00p for pictures (and maybe stop on the way for something to eat). We got there in time to have some lunch at Burgermaster (Jenn's first time!) and did, in fact, make it for the pictures.

At the reception we got to meet a lot of Brandon's family and we saw a few folks from ours that we don't normally get to see, which was good. It was hot, so we mostly tried to stay in the shade, but there was a nice garden setup with some tables and such in shady areas, so Jenn and I relaxed and enjoyed the festivities.

At about 6:30p, the reception was over, Tori and Brandon left, and Jenn and I were once again on the road for a long drive home. We got home a little after 10:00p.

Congratulations, Brandon and Tori!

We haven't done a Traffic Asshole of the Week for a while, so let's give you two in one shot.

The setup: Once a year in my neighborhood they advertise in the paper for a development-wide garage sale. Everyone with something to sell can pop their garage doors open and hawk their wares. This causes a parking nightmare as everyone in the neighboring states floods into my development to buy up junk.

The photo: Taken through my front window blinds. Let's study this one:



There are two (2) assholes in this one.

The first one is the blue minivan clearly parked right in front of my driveway. That's parked - not "we let someone off and kept the engine running," but fully "we shut off the engine and don't plan on moving while people with us are walking up and down the block." (These folks watched me stare them down through my front window and ignored me... until they saw me pull the camera out, then decided maybe parking illegally in front of my driveway wasn't the greatest idea and pulled out.)

The second asshole is the green SUV across the street. Two issues with this guy. First, he's parked facing the wrong way (at least in Oregon, you must park in the direction cars travel; this is a two-way street, so he's parked facing the wrong way). Second, he's facing the wrong way whilst (and at the same time) being parked on a block marked "No Parking."

Sometimes, you have to wish you drove a tow truck.