Category: Clearing the Cache

Perhaps an over-spiritualization of the situation, but we got to bed around 1:30 AM after organizing and facilitating the Portland Swing Dance Club’s Spring Swing weekend. It had been a long day and we had no trouble falling asleep.

We woke up to a drum pattern rattling outside. Then it was a full on Mariachi band playing somewhere near the outside of our apartment at 5:30 in the morning. They played loud and proud. At an hour, possibly six hours from that point, we might have happily walked outside to enjoy the live music. At that hour of the morning, we were groaning at who would be so inconsiderate!

Jenni popped in her earplugs. They finished their song. The next drum beat started and we groaned. Then I prayed to God half-asleep, something along these lines:

Dear Lord,

Should I not be praying for the leaders in our congregation, our city, our country? Am I not to ask you to increase our faith? Why am I praying to you, oh God of the Universe, about silencing a Mariachi band outside our apartment? Please stop them from playing more music. We would like some sleep!

Thanks Lord. Amen.

After three lovely songs, I heard some shuffling from nearby apartments. The band stopped playing and we returned to sleep. I’m thankful that God answers prayers, and no prayer is too small—or too strange.

Coming up with my high school 10 year reunion, I wanted to see how the school has changed. The Benson Tech Show is a huge open house for the school. It’s an opportunity for the family and community see what makes Benson unique as a technical school.

The idea of going to my 10 year high school reunion seems foreign to me. While I’m excited to see where friends and classmates have gone since graduation, the idea that we’ve been out of high school for 10 years eclipses all that excitement.

On Saturday, Jenni, Jack, and I lugged computers over to Clark’s house for some video gaming to celebrate Clark’s and my birthdays. January 20th was a good midpoint between our birthdays.

I had recently put together a new computer and there’s no better way to ‘test out’ a new computer than playing video games. And the new computer was glorious to play games on.

Several of Clark’s groomsmen were present and they played Rune while Jack, Jenni, and I played Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Later, Jenni and Mary played Battle for Middle Earth 2 while Jack and I joined in on Rune. The amount of mouse clicking was insane as we played Rune for an hour.

We played a big game of Battle for Middle Earth 2 with five human players against three computer players toward the end of the gaming party. The computer team didn’t pose much of a challenge the first game, but they almost took me out in our second game. Fortunately, everyone came to bail me out, I recovered from my loss, and we had a very satisfying victory.

Sunday, we went to church and quickly got back to our apartment for a big family gathering celebrating Travis’ birthday. We had 13 people in our small apartment. There was great food and lots of laughs, but the best laugh came during the group picture:

There’s nothing like watching dance videos to get inspired about dancing. So I couldn’t think of any better way to celebrate but to have a birthday party for my friends and I to watch Mary’s new US Open 2005 DVDs.

Jenni and I spent New Year’s day with family playing Uno Stacko at my mom’s cousin’s house. It was great playing all together and watching everyone’s expression as they tried not to make the tower fall over.

The new year has been going well so far for us, both of us caught a cold that’s been getting around my office, but we’re enjoying being sick together. It just means more movie time =)

Jennilyn’s family is fun and creative in their Christmas gifts. They go the full ten yards in wrapping the gift with unusual boxes, noise makers, and special shapes to prevent the recipient from guessing what is inside.

My first Christmas with Jennilyn, I got the gag wrap where there are bags inside of bags inside of bags. And then there was duct tape to get through. Last year, Jennilyn put metal nails and batteries inside my gift so when I shook it, I would hear metal clashing and thuds.

Leah, James, Jack, Jenni and I visited the OMSI exhibit of Star Wars to see the science of the space saga. There were many props on display from all six movies in the two triologies, including models, costumes, lightsabers, blasters, and vehicles. More after the jump into hyperspace!

It’s been an interesting few days with the high-speed winds blowing in the northwest. We experienced two blackouts in three days.

We wish everyone a wonderful and great Thanksgiving! In the spirit of turkeys, the picture above was actually taken last year at my company’s Thanksgiving Turkey party. One of my talented coworkers made turkey cupcakes to share with everyone at the office.

Food art is pretty cool, it’s just too bad that it gets eaten up.