Clay and LL

Locks of love

2008-06-29T09:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday LL got a major haircut! Her plan has been, necessarily for some time, to grow her hair out enough that she could donate it to Locks of Love when it was chopped off. Logistically, this was a much more difficult process that you might otherwise imagine. Consider these constraints:

1) Locks of Love requires 10 inches of hair for a donation

2) LL wanted enough hair left on her head afterward to still look like a girl

3) LL had two big weddings to participate in recently (her sister and her roommate), for which she wanted, needless to say, freakin' awesome hair

4) As the months wore on, she wanted this done ASAP!

She worked all this out with her hairdresser, Olympo, and they came up with a strategy for getting it trimmed just before each of the weddings (enough to be manageable, but not so much that constraints #2 and #4 would be violated). And finally, our string of weddings ended last week, meaning this weekend it was time. Here goes...

Here she is getting a little pre-measurement done. Can you see why she was ready to chop it off? I mean, it's a beautiful head of hair, don't get me wrong! But such long hair is hard to manage and hard to dry. We're probably going to save several dollars a month on electricity now that the hair dryer and Chi don't have to run for 30 minutes, meaning we will recoup the cost of this haircut in just a few lifetimes.

Olympo first put her hair in a pony tail so that he could take another measurement and decide where to chop. He would end up close to the 11 inch mark, making LL a super-donator.

AHHH! Isn't that nuts! Olympo just sawed off my wife's hair. And "sawed" is probably the best verb to use as he had to work the scissors for 30 seconds or so to get through it all. Well...no turning back now.

Here's Olympo and LL. Something like an hour has past between the last photo and this one. Olympo cut off a lot more hair, as you can see below...

I think this is called a "bob." I don't really know where that comes from (I only recently found out what a "Rachel" was...you know, 10 years after everyone had one). It's a pretty dramatic change though. I think even I would notice without her having to say (in a completely exasperated monotone), "Clay, I got a haircut today. What do you think????" It also helped that I went with her to witness the haircut, so I could not later forget and embarrass myself by saying something like, "You look different. Are those new pants?"

So everyone make sure you tell her how much you like her hair!

Erin and Barrett have a wedding

2008-06-22T12:29:00.000-07:00

Pre blog...of the spelling of Barrett

"Barrett" -- "two R's, two T's."

Or if you have trouble remembering it that way, there's always
"B-A-R-R-E-T-T. Lawyers always drink for free."

Sorry so late!

I apologize that we're a week behind with this, but LL and I have been living like Gypsies since Christmas: flying out of town almost one out of every three weekends since then! At the risk of sounding like an old fogey, I'll admit to an overwhelming sense of relief that we don't have any travel plans for the rest of this year. I'm tired of luggage and airport security and the dank smell of air that's been recycled through an airplane 5,000 times. Yuck!

But, when you want to end your travel season with a bang, you can't do any better than a wedding in downtown Austin (well, I imagine someone could plan a crummy wedding in downtown Austin, say perhaps with a dry reception, but then those people would not be Erin and Barrett). This wedding was spectaculous, as Don King would say (if he were invited, which he wasn't), and fun for the whole family (as long as everyone in your family is 21 or older).

First, you rehearse...

So, first, there was the rehearsal at University United Methodist Church (site of the wedding of course), which is on the campus of UT. Technically, it might not really be sitting on land owned by the university, and the roof has more of a red tint than the campus buildings, but surely any casual observer would say that it was "on campus," right Candice?? :) This church also has a bit of history with LL's parents. They actually met at this church in Sunday school when they were studying at UT, thus ruining any chance their kids might ever have of escaping chastisement by appealing to mom and dad's "wild days."

The rehearsal itself was cool, as much as that's possible. I sat and watched, similar to what I did at the wedding, except that this one doesn't count.

Here is Erin with her matron of honor, Amy. She is Erin's younger sister, but she got married first (a few months ago), and was really funny about finally having a topic on which she could advise Erin. Especially during her toast the next day at the reception, Amy dispensed uxorial wisdom liberally while the guests pretty much howled with laughter. Respectful laughter, of course.

Amy also made the bouquet that Erin is holding (it's a practice bouquet, which I actually think is a useful prop). It's made of Crate&Barrel tissue paper that Amy altered to read "Crate&Barrett." Their dad, Rusty, had never been more proud.

After rehearsing, we were rewarded with dinner at the Old Pecan Street Cafe. "The Old" is part of the proper name of the place. So is "Pecan Street" since it's actually located on 6th street. I've got no qualms with "Cafe." Here we have Erin GS, LL, Candice and Gunnar weaving through the bikers on their way to TOPSC. Austin doesn't usually have this many bikes, but it was the weekend of the Republic of Texas biker rally (featuring cage fights, girls roller derby and Charlie Daniels). You can learn more about the bikers here. I checked out the message board, which featured such gems as

"But then I am of a mind that screams 'I've got the toys and the toys are full of the TA-TAs'"

Classy.

And speaking of classy, after the rehearsal dinner, everyone went to Logan's for drinks. Logan's is famous (or at least locally famous) for serving huge beers. In fact it's more of a small pitcher than a large beer. And the selection is pretty good too. But it's mostly fun to order a beer the size of your head and carry it around with you.

Here are some patrons of Logan's. Erin GS, Amy, Emily and LL. It was like having the band back together.

I also thought these two pics were pretty fun. The left is Erin and Rusty, and to the right is Erin and Barrett. It looks like she's going to handle this life transition just fine.

And then there was the wedding...

The wedding day was cool. LL and I stayed at Fisher's the night before. Our plan was to stay at the Driskill after the wedding, but we could only afford one night there. So, on the wedding day, we left Fishers and got tacos at El Chilito for breakfast, which is an awesome place, btw. Not only are the tacos good, but they are big and they are $1.75 (or something close to that). Then I dropped LL off at the Driskill to get ready while I drove to Supercuts. And thankfully I did, because look what happened to Erin at the hands of a "professional"...

Whoh! What in the name of St. Paul Mitchell is going on? Is her hair even expected to make a full recovery?

Here we have a fabulous group of gals post-hair and makeup. They're all drinking champagne in a can through a straw. Actually, I've seen these cans before at a restaurant/wine bar out here in CA owned by the Coppola family, and I think these are a Coppola product. I'm not sure if this means that Rusty would not refuse any requests on his daughter's wedding day...I didn't ask, as it could potentially leave me indebted to a bunch of Longhorns...oh wait...shoot!

Just to point something out, it's not only bridesmaids who get all done up for weddings. Emily's bf Jordan put on his best socks! Dobby would be proud.

While the girls were prinking themselves silly, I had a chance to walk around and take some photos of the reception area. The Driskill is such a cool old hotel.

After this we went to the actual wedding, which happened successfully. I didn't take any pictures at the wedding because there are professionals who do that, and I also feel like it's not cool to be clicking away during the ceremony. It's got to be someone's job to just sit there and be nothing more or less than a guest, right? I think that's my job.

It was pretty and all that, and then we drove back up to the Driskill for the reception...

Here are Erin and Barrett during their first dance! They did a nice job, complete with a few under-arm turns. One thing about Erin though, and this has nothing to do with her dancing, is that she gets some wicked redeye in her pictures. I know this because I have to go in a fix it in all my photos. The problem is that her redeye isn't even red. If it were, then there are photo tools that will automatically fix it. But Erin's redeye ranges from racoon to Terminator. So hard to fix! I keep wondering if this is related to her two cornea transplants. I also wonder if it shares cause with her ability to control her evil bloodthirsty pet cat.

Here is the mother of the bride (Betsy) and LL's mom (Leslie) trying to bustle the dress. I don't know anything about this, which apparently puts me on par with everyone who's ever tried to do it.

If you know Erin, you may be surprised to learn that this is the groom's cake. LL and her family are proudly hooking 'em.

Here's Gene and I relaxing a little at the reception. We had a good time and got in a little bonding while LL and Leslie ran around doing whatever.

The reception ran until 11:00, at which point everyone headed over to the Driskill Bar. The bar was a lot like the reception, except that we had to pay for our own drinks. It was a nasty shock. On the way to the bar, we decided to go to Gunnar and Candice's room to visit Lulu (I think she needed to "go out"). The hotel was great about pets, even giving Lulu her own little doggie bed and food and water bowls.

Here we all are with Lulu. In this photo, I asked everyone to pose while we were waiting for the elevator. But just as I was about to take the picture, the elevator arrived and Fish darted for the door, resulting in this odd pose.

Rye Ann Win collage

Lastly, I though I'd take all the photos of RW throughout the evening and make a collage out of them. I got this idea because he rarely just takes a "normal" picture and I couldn't decide which of these really captured his inner spirit. However, I changed his name so that these won't show up in a Google search done by a potential employer. Instead, they'll have to wait for their first company party so they can snap their own. I'm nice that way.

To see all of the pictures, click here!

Chris graduates from college

2008-05-26T16:34:00.001-07:00

Note: click here to see all the pictures!

My brother, Chris, graduated from the University of New Orleans last weekend, so LL and I flew to Louisiana to celebrate with him and the rest of the family. We were both really glad for an excuse to visit everyone! We stayed at cousin Wil's in Ponchatoula.

Here's Wil on the front porch with Casey. Casey's a great dog, though due for a haircut. Her favorite toy is Donkey from Shrek. She pretty much goes everywhere with Donkey.

When we're in Ponchatoula we always like to go out on the town and see what's new...what the new restaurants are, who's hanging out where. Actually, the restaurants and bars are always in the same places, but they change names once people get tired of the menu or the vibe. We went to a new place called Rockefeller's. I had some sort of cajun pasta with fried shrimp thrown in, which I ate till the near-bursting point. The portions were enormous. Not a skinny place, Louisiana. However, that doesn't mean there aren't some good-looking residents...

Here's LL and I posing with this year's Strawberry Festival Queen (the Festival was just a few weeks ago)! She was eating at Rockefeller's just like us, but looks like she must have only gotten appetizers (probably a salad) and then did 200 situps. Now...you may be wondering...is this the way she goes around town all the time? With a giant crown and a sash? Well, no. It just so happens that she had her crown and sash in the trunk of her car (I'll admit that it's' possible she has it available at all times, but who could blame her?), and LL was not ashamed to ask her to pull it all out for a photo. The crown has its own custom case (with built-in mirror in the lid to aid a quick change), and the sash was protected in a cute little sack that her grandmother made for her. I think this makes the 3rd or 4th picture LL has taken with a Strawberry Festival Queen...for whatever reason, she really has a knack for sniffing them out. In this case, Wil introduced us to her. Wil is in the Ponchatoula Chamber of Commerce and in the Rotary Club and he works in an office on main street, so he pretty much knows everyone in the town, Festival royalty being no exception.

The next day we drove down to New Orleans for the graduation, which took place at the UNO Lakefront Arena. It's a nice facility (my sister, Celeste, saw Styx here a few years ago...she has fond memories). Fittingly, the roof resembles a mortar board.

Here is Celeste helping Chris into his regalia in the parking lot. Amazingly, it wasn't hot or really all that humid in New Orleans. In fact, it was hotter in Menlo Park that weekend!

And here's me helping my little brother get his hat on straight. I think he had spent some time on his hair, so I did my best to ruffle it in every possible direction. It seemed like a good brotherly thing to do.

And for the actual graduation:

After that everyone went to dinner.

Some of us went to Brennan's, a very good restaurant in the French Quarter. Here's Chris and "Maw-maw Betty" out front. Maw-maw isn't quite as mobile as she was a few years ago, but she hung tough all weekend going to the various grade school/high school/college graduations and awards ceremonies for four of her grandchildren (Paw-paw adopted the opposite strategy and skipped all of them...both methods adequately avoiding favoritism). She actually has this little 3-wheeled walker (not the cane in the picture) that she zips around with...like you'll turn around and she'll be across the room.

After dinner, the 'kids' (those 32 and under) stayed out till 2:30 on Bourbon Street. Quite a feat, I believe, though I felt pretty old. You'll see what I mean in a bit...

Here's Chris with a friend of his from UNO named Carrie. She was really fun and sweet. She also helps run the Arthur Roger art gallery. Really not too much wrong with old Carrie.

At this point, she was going up on stage to try and get them to do something for Chris, though I can't remember what it was. Whatever she was angling for, the guy in charge was having none of it (keep in mind that the 'guy in charge' is a loser whose sphere of influence extends across a 7x10 foot stage where he uses his microphone to sing (badly) over the club music and make sure that he's the only male up there).

This is also the point where the 30+ club (me, LL, Celeste and her husband) became certain that we needed to call it a night. We were having fun, but the thumping music and smoke and lights that would have been hypnotically intoxicating ten years ago, failed to charm us this time. Instead we spent a lot of time looking around wondering why no one else could see the run-down bar behind the flashy facade. Must be a sign of old age.

Finally, take note of the girl in burnt orange (no need to ask where she goes to school). In about two seconds (not pictured) she starts rocking out with a series of pelvic thrusts, leaving Chris in a state of... ...sheer wonder? Well, anyway, everyone is pretty overwhelmed. Happy Graduation, Chris!

And if you want to see more pics, click here!

Melissa and Mark's wedding: part 3

2008-05-20T20:19:00.001-07:00

Hello, and Welcome to the third installment of the Box/Stromblad wedding weekend! I'm going to try and wrap it all up in one uber-post because I'm getting backlogged...I mean now I've already been to my brother's graduation (this past weekend from the University of New Orleans), yet I'm still writing about the wedding. Not that the wedding doesn't deserve many, many posts...

So, this post will have stuff from the rehearsal/rehearsal dinner and the wedding itself (finally, right?). The R/RD was held the night before the wedding at the home of a relative of Mark (well...now Melissa too, I guess...though not me, right? Surely you have to draw the line somewhere...). Interestingly, the rehearsal was not at the wedding site, so some adapting had to be done as far as pretending to walk down and aisle and all that, though it seems to have worked out just fine. Melissa was really chill about this stuff...I'd rate her a mild 1.5 on the Bridezilla Richter Scale (by comparison, LL gets a 2.5...still pretty mellow, but not so much as Melissa...neither would cause much more than a ripple on a pond). Actually...is the Richter scale too confusing? It's log-based, and the scaling is wack. Maybe I should have used the Bridezilla Hurricane scale instead. For that, LL is a Tropical Storm and Melissa is a Tropical Depression...basically just good surfing weather.

Which would you pick? I think everyone I talked to preferred the one on the left. At least that was LL's personal favorite. In addition to the frozen drink machines, we also have Leslie (bride's mom) and Streak (bride's Godmother). Actually, by divine arrangement, Leslie is Godmother to all Streak's kids and Streak is Godmother to all Leslie's kids.

Here's the rehearsing part. The woman in blue is Mrs. Lewis, who choreographed all the who-goes-where-when parts of the ceremony. Behind her are the bridesmaids, to the right are the groomsmen, and in the center are Mark, Melissa, and the Father of the Bride. Gene is a really good sport about weddings. He is also not-so-secretly happy to have a grand total of zero daughters left to get married. He still has two boys, but the difference between the marriage of a son vs. a daughter is like the difference between making Pop Tarts for 2 vs. dinner for 50.

On to the wedding day...!

This is a lobster. He lives at the hair salon where all the bridesmaids got their hair done. His life sucks.

Here's the bride with her hair done! Melissa was a super-pretty bride, and she was completely awesome all weekend about dealing with all the weddingness. I'm sure it was stressful for her. I know about this stuff first hand after all. No...not because I have already been through a wedding. Remember, I'm a boy, so my wedding was a breeze for me! But I DO remember LL being under a lot of stress, and, considering all the crazy things there are to worry about, I thought Melissa did great. She was a gracious hostess and all that.

Now that the hair is done, Melissa has to get her makeup on (Mark, following the standard male wedding day agenda, is probably about to wake up). Katie is something of a make-up martial artist (huh...one of the few times where 'martial' and 'marital' could be mixed up with little or no consequence), and she is putting eyelashes on Melissa individually. I didn't even know that could be done!

The bride and the matron of honor! LL looked great too. She was a little worried about the, er, front of the dress, but she always worries needlessly about that. I thought it was fine, impartial judge that I am!

After that, we go to the ceremony itself. It was at a beautiful place called Skelly Lodge, overlooking something of a valley, over which were flying lots of hawks and buzzards. Buzzards, I've decided, get a bad wrap, but they look cool flying around. There was also an eagle out there, but I don't know that we saw it.

Here's some family (of LL's and mine...I'm pretty sure I claim most of these). Right to left on the row with the Cheshire uncle we have Tom (Leslie's brother), Stacy (Tom's wife), Laura (Leslie's sister), Joyce (Gene's sister), Harry (Joyce's husband), and Mema (Gene's mother). Note that I went right to left so that I could introduce the blood relatives first (e.g. Tom, Leslie's brother) and then the relatives by marriage (Stacy, Tom's wife). Had I gone left to right, it would have been awkward to, e.g., introduce Stacy first (as Tom's husband or as Leslie's brother Tom's husband...it just gets messy to say all that). See how hard I work for you, dear reader?!

OK...actual, actual ceremony! LL gets a fancy yellow flower in her hair because she is special. The other bridesmaids look on enviously. In this pic, Melissa is about to be given away by Gene. We assume Mark, smiling, knows what he's getting into. Isn't' the wedding pretty? Also, I should add, the weather was really nice. Unfortunately, as we enjoyed a beautiful, if a little blustery, day, there were tornadoes ripping across other parts of Oklahoma. But whatever the surrounding weather was up to, it was perfect here at the wedding. Sunny, but not too hot. Really nice.

The Matron of Honor and the Best Man (Mark's brother). You could tell that LL was very happy for Melissa. They are great siblings. I mean, they raid each other's suitcases for new clothes when we're all together for the holidays and accuse each other of stealing any clothes that they can't find at the end of the trip. They both engage (and deny engaging) in the pirating, which seems to be in good fun, until someone's favorite cami goes missing. But when it comes down to it, they adore each other. Sisters.

Smooch! All hail the happy couple. Personally, I think posing for a kiss is hard.

This is Lillian. She is (Leslie's sister) Laura's granddaughter, which means she is LL's cousin, once removed. I took 5 or so pictures of Lillian, and she was cute as a button in every one.

In this photo, you might think that everyone is just chatting, but that doesn't explain why everyone is sort of in a circle. Well, actually, these people are all avidly following the exploits of a certain...

...MOLE!!! Ahhhhhhhhh! Killer mole!! Run!!

No, silly, moles are not killers. In fact I recently read The Wind in the Willows, and Mole was very nice indeed.

Mole actually introduces the wildlife section of the wedding. Oklahoma is known to be home to some of the most interesting animals in North America.

Here is Frog. He's looking forlorn, and is contemplating a leap off the table. We're pulling for ya, little guy.

Oklahoma is also apparently home to a boatload of hummingbirds. There were a ton of them around this bird-feeder hanging off the porch at the lodge. Enough, anyway, for me to get this National Geographic quality picture (or at least Wikipedia quality).

Cousin Wil, in the house.

Sometimes LL scares me with all her talk of cute babies, and I have to remind her that I'm in school and we're poor. This little guy was fantastic. Thankfully, though, we also occasionally come across noisy, whiny ones and she realizes that maybe we don't want one for our own just yet. Schwew.

Here's the mother of the bride taking a load off. You can also see Lynette (left), who is Lillian's mom. So Lynette is LL's first cousin. Leslie had a lot going on, as mothers of the bride often do, but she came through and helped make the wedding a big success and a lot of fun for everyone.

Melissa and Marks wedding: part 2

2008-05-15T21:00:00.001-07:00

Continuing with the wedding weekend...here's a shot of LL in the lobby of the Cherokee Resort and Casino where we stayed. It has a full-blown casino on the first floor. I didn't gamble all weekend because I'm a gambling pansy, but LL ended up playing blackjack Saturday night after the wedding. Here, she's posing in front of a chopper, as they are called, wearing her "I'm so OK" t-shirt. I told her to act like a biker chick, but maybe it's a good sign that she only managed a big nice girl grin.

I'm also in theme (though not pictured) wearing a shirt that says "Okie doke" (mine is not pink). Melissa bought us these Oklahoma shirts for Christmas, and LL wanted for us (and LL's bro. Lawson) to wear them Friday so Melissa could see them. It wouldn't have bothered me that much if Lawson's shirt wasn't exactly the same as mine(!)...I ended up feeling pretty dorky when he and I were walking through the Tulsa airport together (we had to go pick him and my cousin Wil up Friday) looking like Oklahoma tourist twins.

Also at the Cherokee was...

...a nice television cycling through various announcements, one of which was for the big wedding! I'm certain that Mark personally requested the beach backdrop...probably to remind them of their Colorado honeymoon.

Another activity we had for Friday was to put together gift bags at Mark's mom's house. She lives in Tulsa, about 20-30 minutes from the hotel. But first, we found Teacup out by the pool. It looks like she's right at home! Teacup really is an awesome dog, if a little on the loooong side. And she's got a great personality. She's very friendly. She can also run...

Here's Teacup running right at me, and all I can see is her snout with ears a-flopping. I miss Teacup.

Mark's mom's house is the current storage location for all the wedding gifts that they have received so far. Here's LL in front of the gift table. They have a lot of cool things, but my favorite is their china...No, I haven't gone soft on you out here in CA! The dishes are cool because they are nearly indestructible! When they were shopping for these dishes, the sales person smacked two plates together and they survived! I didn't have the courage to try it myself with these, but it's a heck of a good quality to have in a dish.

Well, the main purpose of the visit, other than to visit T, was to put together gift bags. These are bags full of inexpensive items that we deliver to the front desk of the hotel, and which they in turn give to the wedding guests as they check in. It's like a like a shot across the bow for the newly arrived guest to let them know they are in for some serious weddingness this weekend. We were able to get started putting them together when LL's parents, Gene and Leslie, arrived from Dallas with their complete wedding-in-a-car kit. Here I am holding the mother-of-the-bride's dress and the father-of-the-bride's suit, while everyone else unloads stuff from the car trying to find the bride and groom rubber ducks. I'll explain in a bit.

Also in the background, you can see that the street is under construction, meaning we had to carry everything the last block to Mark's mom's house. I have to say it wasn't the best timing for the road crew. I ended up walking past this old dude sitting in front of his house with his dog cackling at us for carrying boxes back and forth ("Man, you jis carried it the other way! Ha!" ...thanks old dude).

Well, here's the assembly line. 1) LL opens each bag 2) Wil wraps two Melissa-and-Mark water bottles in tissue paper and puts them in the bag while LL holds it open 3) Lawson adds in one bride and one groom rubber duck 4) Mark puts in some cookies and Gardetto's 5) I put in a wedding-theme ink pen, a deck of playing cards, and a map to the wedding.

I'd like to challenge everyone to find a way to have fun while simultaneously using all of these items. Extra points given if you can do it without requiring alcohol.

Here's the finished product...30-40 bags of maps, playing cards, rubber ducks, pens and healthy snacks. We next delivered them back to the Cherokee Resort where the front desk people promised to give them to the guests as they checked in. We had to trust them to do this, but I'll admit the possibility that they could have just brought them into the office and stole all the Gardetto's. But I will not stand for any funny business with the ducks.

Melissa and Mark's wedding: part 1

2008-05-14T20:51:00.000-07:00

As Melissa's wedding is such a big event, it's going to take a few posts to cover everything! Well, I took over 350 pictures over the course of 3 days, and I can't really pare that down to 6-7 favorites. The other thing is psychological...if I sit down thinking I have to cover the whole wedding in one post I'd develop some form of anxiety for which LL would make fun of me (she often remarks that sometimes things are harder for me than for most people...these things include sleeping, driving, cleaning, going to the post office, filling out forms, etc.). So as part of an effort to keep my heart rate at an acceptable level, you'll be stuck getting this in bits. We are hoping that the whole will be greater than the sum of the parts.

Since the wedding was the day before Mother's Day, there were Mother's Day charms handed out to all the...mothers. They were cute. LL asked me if they were cute and I said yes. I don't really know what they are for. Well, I know they're for Mother's Day, but I don't know what a mother does with them. But I'm assuming that their utility is obvious, and I don't want to embarrass myself by asking LL. I also helped to make these things...I cut the little notches in the sides of the cards so that the yellow ribbon would not slide down. I think it's safe to say that that was probably one of the 5 most important steps in the construction of the charms.

Anyway, here we are on our way to Tulsa. This is the Denver airport (you might recognize it). Gate A53!

LL was the matron of honor, which means she has to purchase wedding night Lingerie for the bride. Here's Melissa posing with her sexy outfit. I think it's a little drab, but what do I know.

Ok, ok, I'm kidding. Obviously, this is a slip. These are used so that, if you stand in front of a bright light (e.g., the sun), no one will be able to see that you're wearing Spanks. Only judging by their effectiveness in the sunlight above, I'm not sure if I'd trust them to work.

Another fascinating thing about this slip is that I was at Macy's when LL bought it. It turns out there were only 2-3 to choose from (as if THAT's not apparent from the photo), and LL was a little disappointed about that. She mentioned this to the sales associate who said people do not wear slips anymore, and instead people wore socks. I don't understand that response, but LL says that it doesn't make any sense to her either. So if you know how socks can be used to replace slips, please let us know!

Anyway, after meeting up with Melissa and transferring the beige prize, we all went to a restaurant called El Guapo's, which had a giant rooster painted on the side. Mark came too, so there were four of us: me and LL, and Melissa and Mark. We got to sit on the roof. Here are three of our beers lined up along the roof ledge overlooking downtown Tulsa. Look good, don't they?

I have to say that Tulsa was a cute town. It's not a big city by any stretch, and there's nothing really urban about it as far as having lots of high-end eating or the usual lineup of fancy hotels and all that. But it was a fun place to hang out. There are a few cool shops near El Guapo's that we saw, one of which we went in for t-shirts and Christmas ornaments, of course (it also had a lot of Woody Guthrie memorabilia..."This beer is my beer. It is not your beer." ...I made that up). Anyway, all in all I liked Tulsa.

Here's LL and I on the roof of El Guapo's. We had a great time.

And here's the grand couple of honor. Melissa wore cute outfits all weekend. She's also wearing a pin with a picture of Mark at age 5 or so (when he was only 5'10" or whatever). In response, LL wore a pin of Melissa the next day. I don't think that's technically the appropriate reciprocation, but I'm not sure if I have a pin of me that she could wear anyway...yet!

Random pre-wedding post

2008-05-07T20:50:00.000-07:00

We are off at 4:30 am on Thursday morning to catch our flight to Tulsa...yikes! We will have lots more to blog after the big weekend, but in the mean time check out this photo of the happy couple at the marriage license office today:

And because this is a random post, here are a couple of other fun pictures that my dad just sent over.

Mema with her new car:

And because I'm feeling sentimental and excited about the fam getting together this weekend, here we all are last Christmas. We won't wear pajamas to the wedding, though...

More to come!

LL's swank office

2008-05-04T17:36:00.001-07:00

I mentioned last week (the day after the Masters of the Universe Party) that LL had to go into work for a few hours. Well, I decided I would go with her and take the camera, just so that I could share with everyone how much she rocks.

This is her nameplate. W14308...aka the Eagle's Nest. It's where the big decisions are made.

Here she is indulging me and pretending to type. Obviously she doesn't actually type that often since it is faster to dictate to someone from her support staff. And I guess she also really, really likes m&m's...I had no idea!

Here are some of her awards. The crystal cube is one she got after helping EY land a huge customer. EY technically isn't giving out these kinds of awards anymore, but exceptions can be made in extreme circumstances. We also see a shot of a photo of her daddy posing with a Simpons character at a 7-11 in Dallas (her dad is the one on the right).

Here she is in a fancy boardroom. Nice view!

And this is a facsimile of how an action shot would probably look during an important meeting, such as the aqusition of a multi-billion-dollar, multi-national corporation, which she'll agree to handle if it's enough billions.

Masters of the Universe

2008-04-27T17:45:00.000-07:00

Last night was my combination belated-birthday-slash-getting-my-masters-degree party, which LL decided should have a Masters of the Universe theme. The party was in SF at a bar called Shine and it was pretty much awesome (So thank you, LL, for throwing me a party!).

To get there, we took the Caltrain up to Millbrae and transferred to the BART, which runs through downtown. That’s basically our “usual” method of getting to the city on weekends. It takes about twice as long as driving – a 2-hour ordeal no matter how you spin it – but it saves LL the trauma of watching my blood pressure rise like a bottle rocket while I try to find a place to park (not to mention the 45-minute cool down period following, when I lecture on revolutionizing urban parking and devise effective-but-nonlethal punishments for various parking offenses spotted while driving around…LL really is a saint for putting up with me sometimes). On top of that, we needed to stay overnight (mostly ‘cause LL had to come into work today/Sunday), and parking can cost upwards of $50 in a hotel garage.

The hotel we got was great. It’s called the Adante and it‘s right on the edge of being in perhaps a bad neighborhood. Well, on the way there we walked by lots of homeless people, one of whom was screaming about how his girl stole his meth and another who was looking for his kingdom but had not yet managed to find it. I hadn't seen it either. But the hotel’s immediate surroundings were cool and the rooms were spectacular. I knew we had scored with this one when we walked in and the lobby music was provided by The Kinks.

Here’s me in our room. I personally like the cottage scene set against the purple-dabbed walls, but LL was more taken by the random boat in the surf at sunrise above it (hmm...without the aid of any obvious landmarks, is it possible to tell a sunrise from a sunset in a photo? Are the colors affected by differences in air temperature or something like that? Sorry...). Anyway, the bathrooms had some really nice fish painted on the walls. The great thing, though, was that we only paid $72 including taxes and surcharges and everything. And the rooms were squeaky clean. And it’s a short walk to Union Square. We really were just super happy with it.

Oh yeah…Ruby Skye. We didn’t actually go there, but we did go to the dentist earlier in the day, and apparently our dentist had been at Ruby Skye the night before (I think this is why she rolled in late for our 1:30 appointment). So, in case you ever question how cool LL and I really are, just keep in mind that even our dentist goes clubbing and she knows the DJ. That’s how we roll.

Bocadillos is where LL and I grabbed dinner. It’s a tapas place and we loved it. My two favorites were the ceviche and the aged, thin-sliced Serrano ham with olive oil. So, so good. Plus we had a gift certificate (thanks Liz and Meg!), so, when in doubt, order more. Yum.

So...moving on to the bar. Shine is bar/club/whatever just up Mission from where LL works. There’s just a small sign out front…I don't think they were going for that whole you have to know where it is vibe, but as a practical matter of finding it, you do actually have to know exactly where it is. It has a great setup for small parties...for a reasonable cost, you get your own little booth with a built-in mini-fridge, which is stocked with a semi-customizable array of drink options. There are two really cool things about this. First, you don’t have to go to the bar to get drinks, because you can just make them yourself. And second, you can use your own glassware, like so:

Here’s me making a vodka tonic for LL. I have the power! (Actually, the entire quote is “By the power of Castle Grayskull, I have the power!” I think it's such an awkward phrase. I mean if it’s something that’s gonna come up in every episode, and, you know, it does, you might as well make it better).

And because I feel like you need to know these things, our mini-fridge had the following:

1 bottle of vodka
1 smaller bottle of raspberry flavored vodka
Plenty of tonic
A carafe of cranberry juice
Four Red Bulls
Two airplane bottles of Jamesons
Two airplane bottles of Jager
Two airplane bottles of some nasty Jager-like stuff that I’d never seen before
1 bottled water
1 can pf pineapple juice
1 Stella Artois
1 Corona

The two beers were totally random. And why Corona? Strange. You might think that this is a lot of alcohol for nine people. We agree.

Not only did we provide our guests with free drinks, but everyone also got party favors. Each guest got a goodie bag filled with toys, bubbles, bracelets, tops. Pretty much everything you’d expect for a six-year old. They were a big hit.

Here’s Liz and Bart playing with their new toys. Actually, Liz is double-fisting (pocket pinball in her left hand). Bart said he wasn’t good at this game. He was right.

Here’s Kim, realizing that she is engaged to someone who is actually blowing bubbles in a bar (they got engaged a couple weeks ago!). The funniest part was how Kim told us (earlier) that they had picked a date for the wedding and Jim saying, “I didn’t know we had a date for the wedding.” Haha. Welcome to my world, Jim. You’re lucky you’re even invited to the wedding. And it won’t stop there. All the big decisions in your life are now out of your hands, which is actually liberating once you get used to it. For example, I have given LL write-access to my Google calendar. That way she can just schedule me for stuff without having to tell me about it. In fact, you should probably go check your Google calendar and find out when your wedding is.

Here is most of the group (except for our hot photographer). Left to right is Jim, Kim, me, Alireza, Liz, Bart and Pedram.

SWAP!

After the party we made a pizza run. Is there anything better in the middle of the night than hot, cheesy pizza? Judging by LL’s squinting (which is usually the most accurate gauge of her present happiness), she rates her slice of pepperoni just above a full-body massage in the Bahamas. I kinda look completely savage…definitely taking my pizza a little too seriously.

These are the guys who made the pizza. Being the kind of joy-spreading people we are, LL and I presented the pizza guys with some of our leftover party favors. I think they look pretty excited. And did I mention there were airplanes too? Airplanes, with rubber band launchers. And a box of Hot Tamales.

I also wanted to point out what a better bubble-blower this guy was than Jim. Way more bubbles.

For no good reason, I took a bunch of blurry pictures from the back seat of Liz and Bart’s car and made a big blurry collage out of them (Bart apparently lost an arm wrestling match with Liz and had to be their designated driver). It was nice of them to drop us off at the hotel on their way home (“on the way” in the sense that they had to go in the opposite direction of their house to drop us off. LL uses this one all the time, like “can you stop at Safeway on your way home?” “No,” I answer honestly).

Melissa's bachelorette weekend: Clay's perspective

2008-04-12T17:19:00.000-07:00

See LL's perspective below!

Last weekend, (LL's sister) Melissa flew out to CA for her bachelorette party, which LL (and I, sortof) hosted. I was actually pretty excited about it. I like having people out here for a visit and showing them around and all that. Plus Melissa is especially good for this sort of thing cause she's such a blast to hang out with. And she genuinely appreciates any effort you make on her behalf, which makes hosting a party for her a piece of cake. She probably would have been happy with dinner and a movie, but we tried to maybe do a little better than that :)

Of course, being male, I rightfully only played a modest part in the weekend. Counting LL and Melissa, there were five girls out here, and they were obviously the (hard?) core of the party. I was more like the sixth man (though technically the only one). In the end, I mostly just had two important duties to perform:

Help clean the apartment
Lead the Fab Five on a hiking trip

Item 1 was fine. I know the drill...people coming to visit; we can't let them see how we really live. Well honestly we aren't very messy...it's rare that I would feel embarrassed for someone to stop by unannounced. But we were still due for a thorough cleaning. And I think LL and I are a pretty good team in this regard because she likes things to look nice, but isn't much of a germ freak, while I, on the other hand, don't care that much if we have papers piled on the table, as long as, underneath, the table has been wiped down. This leads to the following natural breakdown:

LL's cleaning tasks

Dust all shelves, picture frames and knock out any cobwebs
Swiffer floor
Make bed (doesn't matter if sheets underneath are messy)
Put out fresh flowers
Do laundry
Put out clean towels

Clay's cleaning tasks

Attack bathtub/shower tiles/sink with Comet
Dismantle fridge and clean all shelves
Do all dishes
Attack kitchen sink with Comet
Tuck/straighten all sheets and blankets on bed (doesn't matter if decorative pillows are still on floor...which is where they end up when we sleep)
Mop and vacuum (doesn't matter if blankets/pillows/backpacks/etc are left out)

The advantage of my way is that we look like very clean people who nonetheless allow for some superficial messiness. The disadvantage is that I can clean all day and the house doesn't look any different, leading LL to say, "It looks like we still have so much to do," at about the point that I think we're done.

To illustrate, I give you the following examples:

This is an example of LL's cleaning style. It involves putting up decorations of bumblebees wearing green bows. This one is hanging from our ceiling fan above the dining room table. Doing something like this would not have occurred to me in 1000 years.

This, however, is an example of my cleaning style. After cleaning the kitchen, I decided to decorate using a cereal variety pack. A cornucopia of goodness! I love cereal!!

Next up was the hike, which was fun to plan. Surprisingly, going on the hike was not my idea! Melissa's list of things she wanted to do here in SF included drive over the Golden Gate bridge and go on a hike. Therefore, I chose a trail on the other side of the GG Bridge so that we could do both things at once (Brilliant!). I also decided we should hike to The Tourist Club, which is a bar in the middle of Muir Woods that you can only get to on foot (seemed like a nice twist).

But, first things first. The Golden Gate Bridge:This is the whole party crew in front of the bridge. The camera is pointing south and you can see SF across the bay. It was a nice day...no fog! Left to right in the pic are Kristin, Susan, LL, Melissa and Erin (for those who read this blog regularly...both of you...this is in fact the third Erin you have come across in the past two weeks...of course all of them are special).

We also stopped in Sausalito for a bite to eat (I got fish and chips) since all the girls were FOPs (fresh off the plane). In fact, all of them were good sports about the sudden flurry of activity they were thrown into the moment they got in.

Here are the six of us crammed into the Xterra. Melissa and I are in the front, Erin Kristin and Susan are in the second row, and LL is in the third row. Two observations: 1) Xterras have three rows of seats? Well no. LL is actually sitting on the floor behind the back seat (I believe this is universally called "the way-back"). She's probably sitting on our new and unused snow chains, which I now refuse to take out of the car...ever! 2) Where's Melissa? For some reason she ducked out of the photo. But no matter...

There she is! I also have a lot of pictures of LL like this...maybe someday I'll put them all on the blog. Anyway, I can only assume this is a Box family custom, though I have not yet had my own hand-face portrait made. Behind Melissa is the place where we ate! Now, for the hiking...

Here we have Girl Scout Troop 101 (I named them after the highway nearby). Seriously, was it mean to make them walk several miles through the woods right after they got off the plane? I think everyone had a good time. Plus it gave them all a chance to get to know each other better since it's the first time some of them had met. So everyone got to talk a lot (even though it got quiet on some of the long uphill parts) .

We also saw this awesome lizard. It was the second one we came across, but the other one had been smushed :( The other reason this guy is featured so prominently is that The Tourist Club turned out to be closed for renovations, making him the highlight.

Here's everyone walking back to the car. I think they had a good time! But my part in this weekend was about over...I drove them all back to Menlo Park, carried some luggage up the stairs and said my goodbyes.

Since the girls were staying at our apt, I walked over to Liz and Bart's and spent the night there. We grilled chicken and had a nice time. By the time I walked back home Saturday morning, the girls were already off to SF. Since they stayed there Saturday night, I had the whole apt to myself. It was pretty sweet.

Melissa's bachelorette weeked: LL's perspective

2008-04-12T13:00:00.000-07:00

Yay, for the bachelorette weekend! I was really, really excited for Melissa to come for a visit...we don't get to see each other often enough and on top of that she's been a sortof shy bride and hasn't let us heap all of the parties and showers on her that we wanted to. This first picture is one of my favorites from the whole weekend. We don't look particularly cute or anything, and actually you can't even see the GG bridge. But we were just so giddy and excited to be together and happy to be at the beginning of a fun-filled weekend.

After our Friday afternoon hike (see Clay's post for more details) we headed back to our apartment and kicked Clay out for the night. The five of us girls hung out and continued the stream of non-stop chattering. I "made" dinner for the group--Euro-style cheese, crackers and fruit (purchased by Clay...that guy comes in handy!). The highlight of the evening was definitely the home videos. Erin brought a dvd of her and Melissa when they were awkward pre-teens and they were HILARIOUS. The best was their school report on the Comanche Indians. Clearly they were obsessed with horses at the time because they mentioned them and showed them at every chance they got. Erin was dressed in (authentic, I'm sure) traditional Indian attire and Melissa was wearing gigantic blue glasses. I'm sure she was wearing other clothes as well but really, all you could see was the glasses--they were that huge! As a side note, pre-teen girls look like a lot of work. I think I want boys that sit in their rooms and play violent video games all day. Less shrieking and screaming that way.

Anyway, after a restful night of sleeping on air mattresses and couches everyone rallied in the morning (no doubt fueled by Clay's cereal-scape) and we caught an early Caltrain into San Francisco. Above are Melissa and Erin on the train, looking quite chic for so early in the morning. Though perhaps that's because I spent so much time looking at them as awkward 11 year olds the night before? Nah...they're just cute.

After a train ride and a BART ride and a 4-block hauling of the luggage we arrived at the Sir Francis Drake hotel, dropped off our bags, and jumped straight into tourist mode. Our beefeater (yes we had a beefeater...doesn't everyone?) found us a nice cab driver and he squeezed us all five in and drove us through Chinatown, and then down Lombard Street, famous for being the crookedest street in the world. Above is Melissa enjoying the windy road--we are big on cheap thrills!

Next we tackled Peer 39, where we admired Alcatraz and the local sea lions. Note the sea lion showing off for Melissa and Erin in the background...clearly a male trying to impress. Next we went down to Boudin for clam chowder in a bread bowl. Kristin had never had clams before but she loved it as much as the rest of us!

Next up was Ghiradelli square, where Susan and Melissa humored me and posed in front of a mermaid fountain. We walked through the store and got our free chocolate samples (the new peanut butter flavor!). Some of us (I won't name names) walked through twice to get an extra sample. Necessary sustenance for the long day ahead!

After our chocolate break we took a ride on the Powell-Hyde cable car. Here we all are, happy to be finally be toward the front of the line. I am embarrassed by my ugly sensible shoes...I'm used to hanging out with Clay and having cute shoes scorned, but this group was clearly pro-style. I'm kicking myself for the missed opportunity!

Here is Melissa on the cable car...it's just a cute picture. She pretty much looked cute and happy the whole weekend!

After a quick shopping trip in Noe valley we got all dressed up and went up to the Starlight room to get the evening started! Here we all are in our big city finery: Kristin, LL, Melissa, Susan and Erin.
Melissa opened up her gifts, and for someone that dreads having people pay attention to her she sure looked like she was having fun. She also gave us a teary and touching little talk about how important we all are to her and how happy she was to have us there. But then I ruined it when I blurted out in shock "Oh, wow...you just made a speech!". Sorry, sissy!

The best gift was the Bride Caboodle from Erin. They were both obsessed with Caboodles back in the day, and what bride doesn't want to take a plastic sparkly-filled Caboodle on her honeymoon!? It was filled with fun bracelets and shot glass necklaces and all sorts of girly goodness.

Ever the good sport, Melissa let us dress her up a little bit! Erin brought the lovely veiled tiara, and I had the "Mrs. Stromblad" sash custom made by Mema. Melissa's dress was so cute I sortof hated to cover it up with the bacheloretteyness, but it turns out she still looked great.

Next she gave me my hostess gift...the cutest apron ever! I absolutely love it.

Here we are all piled into another cab and off to dinner. We had tapas at Cafe Arguello, compliments of Erin's dad, Paul "Legs" Steinhoff. Every single thing from the calamari to the mushrooms to the sangria was fantastic! And the mood was even more celebratory with Paul picking up the check. A huge thanks to the Steinhoffs! Dinner also featured a Spanish dancer, who was super sweet and spent some time trying (unsuccessfully) to teach Melissa to play the finger cymbals.

After dinner we were off to the Bubble Lounge. We took a cab, hailed by Erin and her bare right leg. Perhaps we should call her "Legs", too? Once at the Bubble Lounge we enjoyed a few rounds of Bubble Bellinis and deflected the advances of random guys eager to join in the fun. After that we headed back to the hotel where Susan treated us to one last bottle of champagne. Brilliant!
The next morning there were flights to catch, so we got up impressively early (well, most of us did) and went across the street for breakfast. We also took a second to pose with our faithful beefeater. He is sortof like a member of the family now.

Alas, next came the good-byes. After such a busy weekend we were all tired, but not too tired to realize that saying good-bye sucks. Fortunately the wedding is only a month or so away, so we don't have long till we get to celebrate again!

Poor Melissa broke her suitcase making it almost impossible to roll, so the four block walk to the BART station was tougher than it sounds. Considering that it was filled with her new flimsy lingerie, that bag sure was HEAVY!

I had to hop off of the BART one stop before the airport, so after a (not too teary!) good-bye I managed to take this funny picture of Melissa being whisked off into the yonder. All in all a perfect weekend!