Another day closer...

Not too much to report.

Tomorrow marks the start of The Month; 17 days left to live. :o)

I've been transitioning many of my responsibilities to co-workers to facilitate my wedding time off. I'm looking forward to that! I'll post some pics of the bachelor party once I weed out the legal ones.

We have our final meeting with the pastor tonight (speaking of which I need to bail from work!) and Lisa has an appointment for her final dress alteration.

Bachelor Party Weekend

We had a nuts bachelor/ette party weekend!

Friday Lisa was in super-clean-up mode getting the house ready for her naughty-lady party / bachelorette party for herself, and Megan. After picking up a few things for them, I ditched outta the house just before everyone started showing up. Mike and I hung out a bit at his place before we embarked on the house-boat prep trip. We did a Costco run for TriTip, etc. got the keg of Sierra, and headed out to Paradise Point. We dropped off most of the stuff, had a few horns and hung out with our neighboring houseboat which also happened to be a bachelor party, for a few hours while Lisa's party was in full swing. After getting the call that her and the girls were headin out to Mojo's for more craziness, we started headin back. Around midnight I heard noise outside and checked the front door to find Lisa and Stacie lolling on the front porch. We got to bed and that was that.

Saturday, Kimi, Nikki and Lisa were going to take a limo to Sacramento for some more partyin' down, but they were all beat and nixed the idea. Around 10 I heard from Gary that he and Jack were already at the houseboat so I had to get my ass in gear. By 11 or so we were all there, Gary, Mike, Andrew, Mikey, Jack, and myself. Big Gary, my cousin Justin, and Mike's buddy Frankie met us at the island later on. So with horns-a-plenty, and a blow-up doll as a ship mascot, and a pair of 12" JBLs on the roof pumpin tunes we set sail.

So in a nutshell here were the major events:

1. Mike pushed my ass in the water while i was taking a piss off the roof and the boat was going full speed. Andrew rescued me.

2. We went to Lost Isle and had a few My Ties (sp wtf), watched pole dancers, played volley ball, lost, tide went out, boat got stuck, we ALL pushed our mofo asses off and broke free.

3. Make some great tritip and sausages on the bbq.

4. Jack got ripped and fell off the roof. Luckily on the water (not dock) side. We pulled his ass out, and he lost his shorts including his wallet and cellphone.

And that's about it. Lisa was a doll and couldn't wait for me to get home. We met and had lunch at Panera's Bread, and chilled out the rest of the weekend, swam in the new pool. Fin....

Justin's 9th Birtday

Yes, I'm glad to lay to rest one crazy-ass birthday weekend.

Saturday my grandparents had a birtday, swim party for our Justin, and Jessica, who couldn't attend. We had a blast. Grandpa cooked up the BBQ burders and dogs and we all had a generally cool time as always. Justin got a ton of Legos and got to hang out working on those, and Lisa made a few bucks pimping her new candle sales business from Gold Canyon.

Sunday was Justin's birthday party for all of Lisa's family and was held at our house, and man was it slammin'. We had about twenty people at our place including a ton of kids who all got to enjoy the new pool, and what-nots. I BBQed up burgers, dogs, and cheesy-sausages (YUM). We got the really break-in the new video camera, and just had a really great time. Justin scored even more Legos, and Lisa's dad and grandpa got a bunch of cool birthday gifts too.

As fun as it was, I can honestly say, 'it's nice to be back at work!' :o)

A long Friday afternoon...

So yesterday, Shelli, Wayne, Kur and I went to the new Elephant Bar in Stockton and had lunch with Tim Freeman. An ex-HPSJ developer and generally cool guy. This was my second time to that particular "E-Bar", and I'd have to rank it one of my favorite of Stockton's newer dining establishments.

The past couple evenings have been just a lot of house work and getting the new pool fixed, filled and fully operational. I also finally got to tear through the herd of boxes we've accumulated since getting the fire pit, treadmill, new bedroom furniture, and all the other things that come with still furnishing a new home. Note to self: time to replace the blade on the box-cutter. :o/

A quiet Tuesday...

The new pool looks like it may be a bit more difficult to install than first thought. Turns out the ground in the back yard wasn't completely flat and it filled lopsided such that we ended up having to empty it and start again. Unfoturnately after the super hot weekend, yesterday was windy and cold as hell, and emptying 1,000 gallons of water can indeed be a pain in the ass.

But we did and got it setup such that it seems like it's going to work okay. We filled it about half way last night and all seemed like it would be good. Problem number two: Either during the emptying, or from one of the damn cat's claws, the inflatable ring that supports the top of the pool has popped. :o( So we get to air it back up today after work and find where the hole is and patch it. Good grief.

Lord know's we haven't even touched the pump or setup the ladder yet.

To add insult to injury, right when I pulled away from home this morning, the sprinklers in the back came on, and one of the old sprinkler heads decided it wanted to be a guiser. So already late, I had to run back in the shut it off, so I can fix it when I get home. We also have a meeting with our photographer to select the package we want to purchace. 32 days and counting.

Our cheap new pool...

Our cheap new pool...
Originally uploaded by davidremerson

So this past weekend was the first scorchin' weekend of the summer. We had a fun day on Saturday playin' Nintendo Wii at Jason and Stacie's, followed by a great dinner with Gary and Lorena, who's finally back at work, at the new Elephant Bar in Stockton.

Sunday we had entirely to ourselves and after a few gardening projects I had lined up, we found ourselves at Walmart looking at the pool offerengs and we came up with this amazing deal. This 3' deep, 12' round pool complete with pump and ladder for just under a hundred bucks! I'd highly recommend the double-speed air pump to inflate the outer ring for an additional $10, and a few extra filters at $6 a pop as they're only good for a couple weeks. We just got it setup today and I still have to put the ladder together, but with Justin's birthday coming up we're sure to have a rockin' party with this bad boy!

Marriage License: Check

We got our wedding license today from the County Clerk's office. It's Friday, 80 degrees and sunny outside, we're BBQing tonight, and I could scream I wanna be outside and not working so much. :o/ 36 days (22 workdays) to dum-dum-da-dum!

Proposal in Costco?

Proposal in Costco?
Originally uploaded by davidremerson

With the wedding quickly approching, something like 42 days away I don't think the proposal was ever publically documented well enough. Sure it was covered in the Lodi News Sentinel and on LodiNews.com, but they're since archived stories and I don't think they adaquately describe the scene.

Yes, I proposed marriage in Costco.

But hey, it worked! It was totally unrehearsed, but totally natural and amazingly we had a digital camera there to capture it. The story goes like this: We'd gone there for a totally normal trip, albeit we did stop and look at rings as soon as we walked through the door. She saw one she really liked, and we moved along on our little shopping trip. However the idea weighed heavy on my mind. "Why wait, I thought. I know this is the one.... why wait?!"

And so I didn't. Lisa wandered off to ponder new shirts for my wardrobe and came back inquiring, why I had a puzzled look. "Will you marry me?" "Of course!"

We were in bliss. We took a ton of pics. Shared our story with other shoppers, and lounged for a while in the ourdoor furniture section. So I went back and bought the ring, while she selected a bottle of Dom Perignon. We went home and celebrated. So while it seemed a little loony, it really was a magical moment.