Last weekend (in pictures)

So this past weekend I went up to Michigan for Mike's wedding, which is my 3rd and final (I hope) wedding of the year. Overall it was a good time. My flight from Detroit to Charlotte was a little crazy as I got really nauseous about half-way through the flight. It was strange as I have never had that happen to me before. To make matters more interesting, after fighting off the strong urge to vomit in the pouch in the seat in front of me during landing, the pilot had to abort the landing at the last second because a plane taxied out on to the runway we were going to be landing on, so I had to fight off the urge for another 10 minutes. I am proud to say that I ended up winning the battle, and managed to leave the plane vomit-free. The strange thing was I wasn't the only one that this happened to. While waiting for my bag, I heard about 8 other people saying they got sick at various times during the flight as well, so I guess it wasn't just me.
On Friday, all the groomsmen and my brother went to the Tigers-Royals game at Comerica Park. It was a great time even though the game sucked (Tigers lost 10-2). We got down to Detroit super early (1:30) so we hung out downtown, and got in to the stadium right as the gates opened at 5:00. I was able to wander around the park and get some pictures:


The view from the right-field bleachers, where we watched BP

Zumaya and Leyland talking, while Verlander is shagging fly balls.

The view from the stands, behind home plate.

Kenny Rogers warming up in the bullpen.

The view from our seats.

Saturday afternoon was the wedding. It was a great time. The weather was nice and cool for the most part, so I didn't roast to death in my suit, although at times I did start to get uncomfortable. Unfortunately I don't have many pictures since I didn't have my camera on me. My brother was supposed to take pictures during the ceremony and reception, and he did, but most turned out pretty blurry. A few managed to turn out alright:

The 4 of us groomsmen who crashed at Mike's house after the game Friday night. Myself, Ron, Mike, and Steve. Lloyd had to rush home to get dressed up in his Harry Potter outfit to Barnes & Nobel after the game so he could try to be first in line keep his sister company in line while she waited for the new Harry Potter book to go on-sale at midnight.

Mike, Myself, Steve, Ron and Lloyd minutes before the wedding. Lloyd is smiling really big because he is happy with the ending of the new Harry Potter book that he finished right before this picture was taken.

All in all it was a great time. I got to see some friends that I hadn't seen in quite some time. It would have been even better had Sara been able to make the trip with me. Then again maybe its better she didn't. She's never seen what happens when Mike, Steve, Aadam, Lloyd and myself all get together in the same room for longer than 2 minutes.

Infrequent Friday Randomness

So I was looking at my blog today, and saw that its been a month since I've last posted anything. Whoops. I guess its time for another round of Friday Randomness..

- When we found out that Sara was pregnant, one of our top priorities was to find some place new to live, since we were out of room in our apartment. After a lot of searching, we're finally moving next Friday. I can't wait to get out of the crappy neighborhood we live in. We're renting a nice townhouse in a newer development, just north of town. It'll be so nice to move out the ghetto where we've been living, and move into something nicer and hopefully quieter.

- May/June/July are going to be 3 of the busiest months that I can ever remember. The rest of May has us moving, going to see Gwen Stefani (with front-row center tickets that Sara just "happened" to get), unpacking, Memorial Day, and a trip up to Michigan to Dock's wedding. For June, I'm home a week, then we go to Myrtle Beach for a week for our vacation/anniversary. For July there's 2 more weddings to go to - Sean's up in D.C. and Mike's up in Michigan. My Jeep will be adding a ton of miles. Good thing I like roadtrips.

- It's funny, it seems like weddings and pregnancies happen in spurts. Like I just said - Dock, Sean, and Mike are getting married this summer, along with Mike's brother Steve who is getting married this month as well. Soon after we found out that Sara was pregnant, we also found out that Joe and Lori (well technically Lori) are expecting too. Even cooler, Sara and Lori are due right around the same time. Coincidentally, Joe and I's birthday's are pretty close together (2 months exactly to the day), so it'll be cool that our kids are so close together as well. Sometimes its strange how thing play out. It'll be interesting to see just when both babies arrive.

- Last Saturday we went with my mother-in-law to see Rod Stewart here in town. Thanks to Sara's cool job, we got free tickets to the show. While the show was entertaining, I really think its time for Rod to retire. He was huffing and puffing after the 2nd song, and he looked like he was struggling most of the show. He regularly relied on the band to jam out so he could catch his breath, and when the song hit a high spot, he would stop singing and let the crowd take over for him. Now I don't think its wrong for the singer or a band to stop, and let the crowd take over momentarily, once or twice in a show, but he did it virtually for every song in the 2nd half of the show...It became a bit of an overkill. I'm glad our tickets were free and we didn't have to pay the $55 price that the seats in our section cost.

- While reading on my lunch break today, I found there's a new sport involving Wiffle. It's called Wiffle Hurling. It looks like it might be a cross between Lacrosse and field hockey? (That's a question because I know nothing about either lacrosse or field hockey..that's just my guess) I think I'd be willing to give it a shot, especially if the sombraros are mandatory. I don't think we'd do any worse than we do every summer at the Wiffleball Tournament in Ohio. Anyways, here's a video of it:

- So American Idol is down to the "Final 3" - Blake, Jordin, and Melinda. While Blake is my favorite, I don't want to see him win. I think if he wins, he'll be locked in by the contract the winner gets, along with all the obligations they have to fulfill, and as a result he wouldn't be as free to do what he'd be best at. I think by not winning last year actually helped Chris Daughtry quite a bit, and look how big he is now. Ideally I'd like to see Melinda get kicked off next week, have a Jordin/Blake final, with Jordin winning. I'd like to see Blake have one more awesome performance before the end of the show. Something along the lines of what he did with Bon Jovi's "You Give Love a Bad Name" which might be the coolest performance I've ever seen on AI. Should be an interesting last couple of weeks.

More Randomness

- Do the rules for handicapped parking spots, apply to handicapped accessible stalls in the bathrooms? Are they only to be used exclusively by handicapped people, or is it ok for anyone to use them? If it is ok for anyone to use them, is it still ok to automatically default to using the handicapped one, even if the other stall(s) aren't being used?

- Where did the summer go? It literally seems like it was just over a month ago that I was getting married on the beach in Myrtle Beach, and not the three months that it actually almost is.

- Speaking of weddings and engagements, why do they always seem to come in groups? It never seems like its just one a year. Jenny's getting married next weekend, and Sara's cousin got married last month. As far as engagements go, Mike, Derek, Rob, and Steve (Mike's brother) have all gotten engaged recently. And no, none of the four I just listed are engaged to each other..not that there would be anything wrong with that.

- My step-son's teacher is dropping by our apartment sometime for a visit. Apparently its called "Stepping Out", and all of the teachers at the school are doing this to the families of the kids in their class. Has anyone heard of this happening before? Is this some new thing that's becoming the new fad in schools? What I find even more strange is that they are doing it over a two-day period, and its not known what day or time they are stopping by. Sounds a bit inconvenient to me, and shouldn't all interaction between faculty/parents take place in the actual school setting, or at a school related function. What purpose is needed for going to the students home?

- Sara got the new Paris Hilton CD. I'm not going to lie..its catchy.

- After having a 4 day weekend this past weekend, and then working from home on Monday, I've had a hard time staying focused this week. Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday.

- Bummer about the Crocodile Hunters death. I used to watch his show all the time when I was an unemployed bum living up in D.C. looking for a job. It was one of my few forms of entertainment everyday.

- Anyone have connections to get tickets to a home Tigers playoff game next month? If they make it, I need to go to a game. I don't care if I have to make an insane road-trip with a quick turnaround.

Last 5 songs I've listened to:
Even the Losers - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Stay or Leave - Dave Matthews
Holding in the World - Bob Schneider
This Side - Nickel Creek
Grace, Too - Tragically Hip