Tuesday, January 28, 2003

You know what sucks? When you shake hands with someone, and their hand is all hot and sweaty. I can't help but think that I'm going to get ebola from that.

Posted by Keeper @ 10:30 AM CST [Link]

Saturday, January 25, 2003

I woke up today and went into the kitchen to make myself some scrambled eggs. This is a pretty big deal, since I've never actually made scrambled eggs before, but the urge was there, and I just followed the urge. I got out a frying pan thing and some eggs and some milk. Put four eggs and a bit of milk in a bowl, whip with a fork until it's a teeny bit frothy, and then I lubed up the pan with a bit of butter. I then poured the eggs into the pan and poked at the glop with a spatula for a few minutes until it resembled the standard scrambled egg product that I'm used to seeing delivered unto me at Denny's.

It tasted pretty good, so I decided that it would be REALLY cool for me to make some of these egg things for Wife. A quick run to the store provided the cheese that she likes on her eggs, as well as some orange juice (Tropicana Grovestand, extra pulp) and four eggs later I had another mound of scrambled egg product with melted chedder on top.

With a glass of orange juice on the side of the tray, I delivered the breakfast unto Wife, and lo, there was much delight. I never thought watching someone else eat eggs could feel so good.

I think I'm going to like this marriage thing.

Posted by Keeper @ 12:45 PM CST [Link]

Tuesday, January 21, 2003

First off, I hope everyone is having a great time over at the new forums! They are shiny and spiffy, and they need your love.

I am most definitely back from my honeymoon, and I have a something I want to get off my chest that's been on my mind for the past week--eastern time. Eastern time screws me up. Like anyone who grew up in central time, I long ago schooled myself to instantly and without thought deduct one hour from any preview on TV dealing with programming times. When I hear "Tonight, on Fox--WHEN CARS ATTACK! See it at 11, after Banal Reality Show!" I automatically understand that I will be able to see When Cars Attack at 10pm. So, for the entire vacation, I would see a preview for something I really wanted to watch, and then when I turned on the TV to watch it, it would just be ending. D'oh.

Ugh. I'm just not as talkative as I thought I would be. Gotta go work out.

Posted by Keeper @ 05:43 PM CST [Link]

Tuesday, January 14, 2003

Well. Keeper has gone and done the deed.

I just wanted to let everybody know that he didn't cry, or try to escape. He was surprisingly calm and collected for most of the affair. He did get kinda spacey there at the end, with his goal of getting Mistress out of her clothes in sight, but his way barred by the fact that she had forgotten to bring something to change into and wouldn't come out of the country club's bathroom because, ironically, she had no clothes.

We had several hours to kill before the actual ceremony, wherein we were confined to the men's room of the church so that we wouldn't see the bride and then 'accidentally' tell Keeper what she looked like. We passed the time by wheeling a little cart into the bathroom and gambling in the Lord's House (the church, not the bathroom), which I have on good authority is a sin. Good thing it wasn't a Catholic church.

It was a nice ceremony. Very...ceremonious. There were about fifty or so people in attendance. No fires broke out on the altar - which was a real possiblity since I was in charge of lighting all the candelabras up there. The reception was both more/less formal than I expected. More: It was at a country club, which lent it this air of sophistication that surprised me. They did a good job. Less: They didn't announce anything, so if you weren't paying attention, you would've missed all the important things like the cutting of the cake and the first dance. The groom's cake was fuckin' good. I never got a chance to try the bride's cake, but sure it looked mighty tasty. Overall very nice indeed.

Although, at one point, Mistress's mother mistook me for a server; this despite the cheap rented tux with the black vest that looked nothing like their no-vest-wearing-selves. I got her back, though. It was a Mexican buffet, so when I went through the line, I piled up a giant mound of beef onto my plate. That sure showed her.

Anyway, Keeper and Mistress should be in their cozy little cabin by now, passing away the unending hours of boredom by naming the mice and other good, wholesome activities. Yeah.

Posted by massurah @ 07:28 PM CST [Link]

Saturday, January 11, 2003

This'll be my last entry until I return from the honeymoon, but my regular readers--all three of you--ought to be used by now to long waits between updates :)

This morning so far has been terribly busy, which is a good thing, because concentrating on set tasks keeps me from being nervous. I am now 98% packed, with the only items still unpacked being personal hygene items that I will need to use before I head off to the church (toothbrush, comb, stuff like that). I love being a man--all of my needs for the entire week fit into one moderately-sized duffel bag and one regular-sized backpack (and the backpack is full of books).

This is real. This is really happening.

Woah.

I'll see you guys on the other side.

Posted by Keeper @ 12:26 PM CST [Link]

Friday, January 10, 2003

Nineteen hours left until the wedding, and I'm feeling very strange.

We had the rehearsal tonight, and we ran through the entire ceremony from beginning to end. It was a fascinating experience, and it went off entirely unlike the wedding I attended as a groomsman last year. The part that really grabbed me by the throat, though, was when the pastor had Laura and I clasp hands and repeat the wedding vows to each other, while staring into each others' eyes--exactly as if we were actually getting married. Up until that moment, I was on top of things, laughing, smiling, and havening a great time. The moment I looked into Laura's eyes and spoke those words, though, I was gone. My mind detatched from the rest of my body and wafted out above my head, and it's still up there.

I feel right now like I'm having this strange, out-of-body experience. After the rehearsal, the wedding party went back to my parents' house for the rehearsal dinner, which was excellent (catering by Mario's), but I floated through the meal feeling more and more detatched. There was gifting and...I feel like I'm babbling. I feel strange.

Next, the bachelor party; Laura's brother took the boys of the wedding party out to a pool hall and we played a whole bunch of rounds of pool. It was wonderful and strange at the same time. I know I'm usually a bit more descriptive, but it's difficult to write while I'm feeling so incredibly detatched.

My favorite part of the evening, though, was after the pool-playing, when my best man stopped by my apartment to pick up the rings. I've known the guy for fourteen years--I've known him since the fourth grade, when he played Spock to my Captain Kirk every day at recess--and I'm closer to him than to any other guy. We hugged, and there wasn't anything more to say.

Tomorrow, I will be complete.

Posted by Keeper @ 11:40 PM CST [Link]

Wedding preparations are reaching a fever-pitch. Mistress and I stopped by Al's Formal Wear last night to pick up my tuxedo, which for Peter's wedding took all of ten minutes. This time, my visit transformed into a forty-five minute Extravaganza of Pain, which included such niceties as a broken vest, incorrect jacket size, and missing cuff links! With any luck, this will be remedied today when I return.

I'm making this huge list of stuff to do after work today--gotta go to a whole butt-load of stores and buy things, buy stuff for the honeymoon, stuff for Mistress, stuff, stuff, and more stuff...there's a lot of stuff on my mind right now.

The Plan, to which I have alluded many times over the past weeks, has come to fruition, and can now be told! I have contrived with Bob of NANC, gracious provider of the Chronicles web site and my blog, to create my own set of forums, running phpBB on the Chronicles web server! No more will we be subjected to the whims of EZBoard! The boards are up and running and are undergoing a bit of beta testing by Sig and Idle, our superhuman moderators, and after I return from my honeymoon on January 20, I will be inviting all of the members of the CoG forums to hold a vote on when to move to the new forums--after all, we DID pay for EZBoard Gold status for several more months.

So, in another week and some change, the new forums will be operational and ready to be used. In the mean time, after I get done with work today, I will be going full-on into Wedding Mode and will probably not be posting any more before the wedding--except possibly to relieve some pre-wedding jitters that arise in any free time I might have on Saturday.

I thank everyone for the kindness, love, and support you've shown me. A more amazing group of people has never before been assembled in the history of the world!

Posted by Keeper @ 08:52 AM CST [Link]

Wednesday, January 8, 2003

Music video just watched: Judas Priest, "Breaking the Law" (1980)
First thought upon completion of video: That was freaking cool. In a quaintly absurd kind of way.
Second thought upon completion of video: People actually thought this kind of thing was serious back in 1980?
Third thought upon completion of video: That guy was gay?

Days until wedding: Three.

Nervous level: Not too bad.

Stuff left to do: Uh--a bit.

Posted by Keeper @ 08:55 PM CST [Link]

Friday, January 3, 2003

Engrish. All of us, it is the affects. The page of the web "LHA World" Engrish is having the big say! Tonaka!

Posted by Keeper @ 08:37 PM CST [Link]

Thursday, January 2, 2003

I saw my brother off today--he's leaving to begin Airborne training at Fort Benning. Problem: how to tell a brother that you love him and you're so proud of him that you at times have trouble seeing straight? Solution: come right out and tell him. He grinned like nobody's business and we hugged, so I think we overcame the whole "vaguely uncomfortable heterosexual male" thing and had that important emotional connection. You poor bastards on the forums are probably going to have to put up with another round of me bragging about him as soon as I hear about whatever he does next.

Nyah nyah!

Posted by Keeper @ 08:53 PM CST [Link]

First day back at work, and already I'm dog-tired. I had one of those moments this morning when my alarm went off where I was jolted out of a deep sleep and for probably ten seconds I had no idea who I was, where I was, or what I was doing there. For those seconds, even the concept of up and down were strange and foreign, and I felt disoriented and out-of-body. Wiggy. Very wiggy.

There were very few cars in the parking lot at work today, which is a good thing. I'm hoping that today and tomorrow will be nice and slow, because I don't think I can stand very much at this point--I am a fragile person indeed.

This would be a good time to say how much I love Mistress, because, damn, I do. January 6 will mark the beginning of the sixty-fourth month that we've been a couple, and then--as I'm sure you're all sick of hearing!--January 11 will mark the first day that we are husband and wife. I wonder, for you married couples, how long does the "incredulous gazing" stage of marriage last? That's the stage where you just kind of stare at each other and say things like, "We're married!" or "You're my wife!" I suspect it will last a long time indeed, and that's just fine with me.

I feel as if soon, I will be a complete person, but I am not one yet.

Posted by Keeper @ 08:39 AM CST [Link]

Wednesday, January 1, 2003

My blog is now one year old. Huzzah, huzzah.

This New Year's day was different in character from last year's. My friends and I all gathered at Steve's house, same as last year, except that this year we spent a large amount of time playing Outlaw Golf on a rented Ninetendo Gamecube. Steve's brother's girlfriend has one of those Homedics wax-melter doodad things, and so we all dipped our hands into the wax and waved them at each other. There was alcohol, there were cookies, and much good-natured conversation.

(Revisionist historian in action, watch your step please...)

Posted by Keeper @ 01:10 PM CST [Link]