Major Announcement!

No, we're not going to have a baby (now that would be a major miracle wouldn't it?), nor did I get a raise, nor did anything like that happen.  Okay, I guess it's really not a major announcement then, but here it is:

This is the end of THIS blog.

What?  Yes, you heard it right.  I have created a NEW blog like I should have done the day after we were married.  Instead of making a new blog that day, I just changed the header at the top of this blog.  While that accomplished what I wanted it to, it also changed the whole blog all the way back to its beginning to this:

Remember?  You probably didn't even notice that the top of this page looked different now that I removed it did you?  Yes, this entire blog has been returned to "Part V" status like it was in the beginning.

What this change means:

There is a new URL to my blog.  Sorry, but yes--You have to change your shortcut to reflect it.  The new web address is:

http://rixlifepartvi.blogspot.com

Don't worry--It's also at the top of the links list over on the right.

I moved all the posts from June 7th, 2009 (the day after our wedding) and newer over to my new blog.  Okay, that makes this blog ends in a silly place now, but oh well.

Grab your hat and come on over!

Runaway Mannequin

It was a strange thing. I came home yesterday just like any other day, but something was amiss. I didn't catch it at first, and went about the immediate business at hand in the kitchen. Afterward, I grabbed a beer and headed up the stairs to check my email.

I stopped dead in my tracks.

Mona had run away! My beautiful (although rather oddly skinned), quiet guard of my foyer had disappeared. I couldn't believe it--And after I had given her some of the best years of her life. Yes, she was gone. And that wasn't all--She was apparently feeling a little overheated and left with no pants on! Here is the scene that greeted my eye:



Yes, as if to rub my nose in it, she had just peeled em down and stepped out:



Okay, the truth is that Suzie stole her. Why? Well, let's just say that people that are coming to our wedding that have never been to Suzie's house might need someone to, uh, help point the way...

'Nuff said...

Another Year Passes

In my life anyway. It's my birthday today!

I don't mind saying: It's a little weird to have my birthday so overshadowed by another event. The wedding has pretty much commanded all that goes on around here. Suzie and I went over some things last night and I feel a lot more organized now. My trusty iPod now contains several lists of things that I need to do, where to do them at, and times I need to do them. It feels good having them all jotted down and at my disposal. My previous blog of wedding nervousness had an unintended result: It instilled uneasiness into Suzie. I'm certainly sorry for that. It was never my intent to cast doubt--Only to portray my jitters.

OMG, we're down to the final week! (the crowd gasps)

I ordered a belt for my wedding outfit online and it showed up yesterday. It wasn't what I had in mind when I ordered it though. Okay, the belt and buckle were, but their idea of brown was not per Crayola. It was more of a rusty orangish-tan sort of a conglomeration. Basically, it was hideous. (Notice I said "was") Suz and I made a couple of calls around the area and went to a little shoe repair shop the next town over and bought a can of spray leather dye. A little work with that and some skotchbrite pad action and presto: Just the belt I was looking for. I ended up putting the whole wedding outfit on for her her last night and got the thumbs up. I must admit: It was pretty good. Nothing outlandish (medieval clothing can vary a lot), but very well done. She's quite the seamstress!

I've been working very hard at work (sounds kind of redundant doesn't it). While some parts of the shop have been slowing down, my job has been ramping up steadily. Mostly because I have been thrust heavily into the new computer system our company adopted recently. My job is now very reliant on the new system. I really like having a computer and printer at my disposal--It was a long time coming. A birthday present to me (whether they knew it or not) was that my email at work was finally made operational just before I left yesterday. Even if it's only for within our company network, it will still be a very useful thing. If there's one thing a manufacturing company needs, it's communication.

Today will be the last time I pay rent on this place. I was hoping I had paid extra when I moved in here, but I checked my records and apparently didn't do that. Shoot, I was hoping I didn't have to pay this month and it would be like a bonus. Oh well. You know, I would like to see someone I know get this place when I move out. It's a very nice place, a great price, and in a good location. A 1200 square foot place with a woodstove and a garage for $750 is getting awful hard to find nowadays.

I haven't ridden the Harley to work in probably over 3 weeks, but that will come to an end today. Two wheels and 80+ degrees of sunshine: Sounds like a good recipe for a (gasp!) 53 year-old, doesn't it?

A Blog of Nail Biting

It's been quite a while since I've blogged... And who knows how long it will be until the next time? While we have had some time here and there to just relax and fart around, the pace around here will be ramping up quite a bit in the next few weeks.

It's getting close--Very close--To wedding day, and I don't mind telling you I'm nervous.

I'm not sure exactly why. I know a major part of it is worry that's I'm going to drop the ball. There are a lot of preparations that have been made and a lot are still in the works, which is pretty much the way weddings and other special events go. Suzie is doing almost all of it. That's where my worry comes in. She is doing a fantastic job, don't get me wrong, but I'm worried about my part of it because I'm not exactly stellar when it comes to doing a lot of things at a frantic pace. If she's doing 90% of the stuff that has to be done, that leaves me with 10%. I don't mind the uneven stack of duties--After all, she has more hour in the day at her disposal, and quite frankly, she's much better at getting things done than I am anyway. No, what bothers me is that I might drop the ball somewhere in the 10% that I have. While I have a small amount of duties, they are very important ones. Most of them are food and shopping related, and our list is fairly substantial. I worry about the things that I am going to be cooking. The amounts, the start times, the cooking times, the seasonings, the, the, the. Every time I think about it I get nervous all over again.

I'm nervous also that I'm going to be leaving my home. This is my home. This was my sanctuary when I escaped the bounds of a troubled marriage, and now I'm going to be giving it up--To go the other direction. I'm going to miss this place. I like this place. When I leave Suzie's house on the evenings that I'm visiting, I still always feel good to come home. To my home. To my bed. It's just hard. Even Sue has thought of this place as an escape. I'm going to miss the great water pressure, the two bathrooms, and the big rooms, and the nice driveway.

I'm nervous about having to move all my stuff and not having room to put it. My stuff is pretty equally split between house and garage, and it's going to be a tight squeeze in both departments. Sure, a lot of my stuff is crap--Purely functional and nothing more--But it's my crap.

I'm nervous about the impending confrontations that will undoubtedly surface when it comes time to decide which of our pots and pans stays and which ones go.

I never really thought much before about the ease of vehicle parking, but that's another thing that makes me feel weird (I'm using nervous a lot). Here where I live, I don't have to "juggle" vehicles if I want to take the Harley to work in the morning, but obviously that will have to change. There will be no more going to work on two wheels "on a whim". I will have to plan such a morning departure the previous evening. I know I'm going to catch hell for using the "C" word again, but I am a considerate person, and starting a Harley up in the back yard in suburbia just doesn't sit well with me. Trouble is, that's about all you can do really--Pushing a Harley across wet grass, through gravel, a gate, and between cars is a recipe for disaster.

Yeah, I'm nervous. On the other hand, so is Suzie. She is welcoming me into her home--A home that she has groomed and built into a place she could be proud of. When you stand in her home and look around, evidence of her hard work is all around you. She will most likely have trouble allowing me full freedom--Husband or not.

It's going to be hard, and I'm nervous.

Getting Mail and Sarah's Prom

That's a strange title combination isn't it?

So what's the big deal about getting mail? Well, yesterday I received my first actual mail at Suzie's mailbox, and it was kinda weird. Well, it's kinda weird from two perspectives really:

1. It was the first mail I've received at what will be my new address. (Hey, I still sometimes hesitate when it comes to reciting this address, and I've lived here for how long?!) I'm confident that I have finally memorized my new address though. Go ahead--Test me.
2. The content of the item received in the mail. It was my new driver's license. Coincidentally, my license expired this month, and it was a no-brainer to have the new one show my upcoming address.

Okay, enough of that... Now let's get to the real meat of the post.

A milestone for Sarah happened this last weekend: Her senior prom! She and her boyfriend came up to Sue's house on Saturday to get some help from Rachyl on the corsage and the... The... Well, whatever that other thing is called. Apparently, Rachyl had some experience in her past with such things and offered her services. While Sue and I were up at her house working on some things in the back yard, I was telling her how glad I was that I didn't still live in their household during such times of preparation, because when nerves and the clock crash together for any event she was gearing up for, she and her mother created an awful lot of shouting and frustration. Anyway, everybody's timing was fine. We both got our chores finished by the time they showed up, and Rachyl got their things done for them.

I provided a little chauffering service for them too. Sarah asked me a week or two ago if I (we) would take pictures of them on prom night. What was agreed upon by all her friends was a meeting in Seattle along the Alki waterfront for a photo session. Sarah, being a new driver, really didn't have much of a concept about distances and relationships between areas of Seattle, and wondered how far away from Alki the famous "Troll Under the Bridge" was. I assured her that they were not even close. The more I thought about it though, the more I decided I could pull it off if we went there before we met everyone at the waterfront, so that's exactly what we did.

Both photo sessions turned out well, and our timing was perfect. I guess it was fortunate that we made no wrong turns--That's how close it was. In the end though, we delivered them safely to their first destination of the evening at El Bistro in downtown Seattle. From that point on they rode another couple from place to place. Apparently the evening went well, which is good. All I know is that Sarah looked beautiful, and her boyfriend was dressed handsomely as well. They were a great looking couple.

I uploaded all the pictures that Suzie and I took. Usually, we only upload the good shots, but because it was a special event and there would be a lot of laughing and pointing and sharing, we opted to upload them all. There are some pretty good ones. Some are from Sue's back yard before we left, some from the imfamous Troll, and the rest are from the Harbor Island side of Alki point in Seattle. You can get to them via the Our Pictures link over on the right, or click the link below for a shortcut.

Sarah's Prom Photo Extravaganza

What's This? Could It Be...?

Yes! Look! It's actually a new blog post! (some of the crowds gasps in amazement while the rest just shake their heads pathetically.)

Yeah, I know it's been a while. It seems like all the times that I do feel inspired to write a blog I don't have time, and when I do have time I don't feel inspired. Such is the way of 'the blog'.

What's new? Well, to start with, today makes it 30 days until I will be a married man once again. Am I looking forward to it? You bet! I've even almost got my new address memorized. Almost. I'm not going to lie--Suzie has done almost everything wedding related up to this point. It's partly due to the fact that she is, by nature, so much of a do-er, partly because she has the time to do it because she's unemployed (I'm so jealous), and partly because she is the one with the ideas for all that is taking place. She is truly a woman of action! We just hope that the weather will smile upon us on June 6th--That's all we ask.

Sarah just played her final tennis match the day before yesterday. There are a couple more this week, but due to other obligations (the busy life of a graduating senior!) she won't be able to make them. Among other things, she's been going gangbusters getting her art portfolio gathered together. She's even added several things to it in the last couple weeks.

It's hard to believe it's May--Partly because our weather here has been so weird. I remarked to Suzie last night that it was like we are about a month and a half off our usual pattern, and have been since the first of the year. Our snow lasted a month and a half longer than usual, and our usual springtime wind and rain has been hitting us about a month and a half later than usual. I hope our summer keeps the pattern and lasts well into October this year then!

I've been letting my mustache grow with wild abandon with the intent of adding some length for my wedding day. Why? I have this idea that involves mustache wax... Will it pan out? I really have no idea. The nature of my hair is curly, and that translates to my 'stache as well. The ends of it are doing anything they want to at this point. I'm getting kinda tired of it curling into my mouth all the time. It wouldn't be so bad if it was symmetrically bad, but it's really wonky on one side and not so much on the other. It's like a cow lick on my mustache!

I threw a "wrench" in Suzie's productivity the other day when I gave her an iPod Touch like I have. She kept feigning disinterest when I would have mine out and offer it to her to mess with, but I could see a spark of interest in her eyes from time to time. Does she like it? Sure! Whether it's practical or not remains to be seen because they can (and do) do so many things, but I'm certain she'll have fun with it. I had the back engraved with "Ricky and Suzie June 6th, 2009".

Work has been going very well. The new computer system our company has installed has been going smoothly. It's nice having a computer and printer at my disposal. Now when the notion hits me I can print off a mailing label, make a sign, make a spreadsheet--Whatever. I have been learning our dedicated manufacturing software pretty well too. It's quite involved, and of course requires a lot of steps to do seeming simple tasks, but it's working out so far. There are a lot of problems here and there, but like people at work have said from time to time, a year from now we'll probably look back and say, "Eh, that wasn't so bad."

I started going through boxes of crap in my closets recently, and it was an eye opener. I have computer parts that will never be used, stuff that should have never been kept to begin with, and most of it pretty much worthless in today's world. I'll be offering most of it up for free on Craigslist I'm sure. I don't have a problem taking stuff to the Goodwill, but I'd rather offer it to someone who actually has the knowledge of something first. Things that go to the Goodwill often don't even end up staying together when they need to. I customer might know about something, but the employee that divvies the stuff up might not.

I haven't even started going through my clothes yet... Time to get busy!

Proud Papa

I don't know where she gets it from really. Sarah is both smart and artistic. Neither myself or her mom are stupid by any means, but nor are we all that brilliant either. There is no way I ever came close to getting good grades in school, and I'm pretty sure her mom just scraped by also.

Sarah has maintained an almost perfect 4.0 grade point average during her entire life in the public school system, and that's never ceased to amaze me. It's been so long ago that I was really able to help her in her math studies that I really don't even remember it. She passed me by almost a decade ago.

Although it was no surprise really, imagine my pride and delight when I found out she had won a scholarship! I was even more proud when I found out that it was not exactly an "easy-to-get" scholarship either. Because her school website will most likely only have it up for a short time, I took a screen shot of it. Because it's only a screen shot, obviously none of the links on it work. (click for full size):


For people that like reading this sort of thing, here's the link to the state webpage that explains what it is and so on: http://www.wtb.wa.gov/WAVEWebpagenew.asp At the top right of that page there is a listing of the press release and the state winners too.

While I'm also proud of my son in Los Angeles who has really made quite a go of things in his life, I didn't have any part at all in raising him and have only known him for a few years. I watched Sarah born and therefore have known her for her entire life.

Times like this are pretty special to a proud papa!

Anyway, I just wanted to pass that on and thump my chest for a moment. Okay, I'm done. Now that I'm done, I want to give credit to Sarah's mom. Teresa hounds her and watches over her and pesters her and keeps her in line, making sure her homework is done and projects are handed in on time. Most of what Sarah has achieved academically is due in no small part to her efforts.

Congratulations Sarah, and thank you Teresa.