Full Weekend

Friday night we ate out in downtown Lancaster at Character's. From what I've heard, it's a relatively new place, and it's really nice. The atmosphere is nice, the sandwiches were delicious and the dessert happily over the top. After that, we watched Ocean's 12.

Twelve was certainly not like Eleven. And that's a good thing. I was very happy with the sequel and would rate them as equal as far as stories go. However, 12 was much, much funnier than the first and had better cuts and edits. The story was also a lot more layered than the first. Eleven had one basic story all the way through and that's pretty much what you got. This one had a lot more going on that kept you interested and wondering. Highly recommended. I'm also anxious to own it on DVD.

Saturday we drove up to State College to watch some men's basketball. Pitt played Penn State and, except for the few seconds when Penn State led by a point, things went as expected. I didn't think that there would be that many people there, but then we found out that it was 2-for-1 ticket sales. So the four of us -- we went with Nelms and Emily -- managed to get in for $10. Awesome considering the same tickets at the Pete would have been close to $40 each. Not that I know.

Saturday night was a birthday party for Amy that was nice and quiet and a good way to relax from all the driving around Pennsylvania. In case you want to keep score at home, I go 38 MPG on the first diesel tank and 39 on the second. I think this third one will be the best because of all the highway miles.

Sunday we hung out, celebrated my dad's birthday and then went to a wedding over in Harrisburg for a family friend. Nothing exciting to report there other than the mediocre food and small allowances of cake. I'm not sure my Brandon-and-Amy Wedding Cake Piece Record of four pieces will ever be broken. So good. Yeah, it was the ice cream cake/sponge cake combination. Best thing on earth.

Turkey

So, every year, or thereabouts, we usually head over to a family friend's house for Thanksgiving. This basically stems from the fact that for the longest time, it was just the four of us over here, my parents and my brother. Obviously now the family has grown, but there are still no uncles or aunts who can visit. They're mostly all in Pakistan.

Anyway, last year at this time I was in Pakistan and getting to know Maria. Maybe some of you remember that. The Thanksgiving before that was the first time we had a get-together with friends where there was no turkey. I was not at all happy about this. To me, Thanksgiving is not Thanksgiving without a large fowl nicely baked. Thus, this year I was concerned again about the possible lack of turkey.

So on Monday I called up the hostess of the party and asked outright. She said, "No, we're not having a turkey." Why? "Well, we couldn't find a halal turkey."

Oh.

Maybe she could tell the sadness in my voice after that. Maybe she knew what this meant to me. Whatever it was, by the next day all was alright again in the world. I got home from work, and my mother told me that they had found a turkey.

Nice.

So last night we were there, and yes, the feast was good. And it was plentiful. All of my favorite animals were represented. Fish, cow and ... turkey.

Earlier in the day, I managed to keep with tradition and played football with the ol' high school friends. We've been doing this ever since we left high school. Normally we play on Friday or Saturday, but this year we pushed things up a bit to accomodate more people. While we only played two-hand shove, it was still a little messy thanks to the fast-moving storm that soaked the field only minutes before.

Diesel in the Morning

Well, we got the car yesterday. Very exciting. My thoughts thus far: It's a hell of a lot of fun to drive. The diesel makes no big difference at all as far as pickup and power. It's as good of a time as my old Jetta with a lot more character. It also sounded fantastic this morning when I fired it up. Nothing beats the sound of a diesel on a cool autumn morning.

The only complaints that I have thus far are that the steering wheel control for the radio apparently seeks through stations instead of jogging through presets. I may be able to change that, though. Also, the seat doesn't seem to go as low as I want. I had to move the steering wheel closer to me to avoid having it rub my knees while just sitting there.

Other than that, everything is spectacular. The color combination is perfect and the blue interior lights soothing.

I was checking around online and came across this article on the new Jettas.

Normally I might be somewhat annoyed at getting an older-styled car. However, after reading the review and checking out the photo, I'm happy with the "Jetta IV" as it's known. Mainly because the newer generation is larger (I like small and nimble) and the styling not as interesting. I mean, really, it looks like a Camry/Accord behind the front lights and the lights are looking rather souped-up Corolla-ish. The rear lights especially look like they belong on a Corolla.

I'm kind of wondering what this upsizing will mean for the Golf. I mean, really, if you want a larger VW, get a Passat.

New Car

Well, well. Many a thing has happened since we last talked. The big one is that we got into a bit of a car accident and the Audi has been totalled. Not a very happy experience, and one that could be seen as mostly my fault. No need to rehash the details here, but it was, surprisingly enough, a low speed incident and not something on the highway as I'm sure you'll all expecting.

Here's a photo of the front end damage that ended the run of a 2002 A4 1.8T with a bit over 56,000 miles on it.



It's all very annoying because now I'm slightly on edge when I drive. It was more a lapse in judgement than anything else. Usually I'm pretty good about paying attention when I drive. Maria and I are both fine, by the way. My wrists were a bit scratched up, (thanks, airbag) and Maria found some bruises later on in the week, but they didn't provide any pain. Again, wear your seatbelts.

Anyway, on to other things. Namely, the poor car's replacement. We decided, for economical reasons, to go with a VW Jetta. Diesel. That's right. A 2005 TDI. There was basically one option, leather. So it's got almost everything the ol' Audi had save for heated seats in the back, 6-disc in dash and uh, more room. But that's fine. As most of you know, I used to drive a 1997 Jetta and so the change back to a smaller, more wily car is welcome. And yes, the car will have a manual transmission. The all-wheel drive is not there, though, so I'll be pretty tame come the first snowfall.

The diesel also gets about 38 MPG City and 46 Highway. That's pretty insane. With a 14.5-gallon tank, that's at least 500+ miles. Enough to drive to Pittsburgh and back from Lancaster without fueling up. Although the price of diesel is now slightly higher, it should fall back in line with regular unleaded then hopefully below.

The car should be here by the end of the week. We went for a dark gray exterior with light gray interior.

I'm really not sure why more cars in the States aren't diesel. VW has the Jetta, Golf and Passat available. Mercedes has their one E-series sedan. That's it. If you want to see something depressing, go to Mini's UK site and check out the gas mileage of their little diesel. Why can't we have that over here?

Ramadan is also now over. It ended this past weekend. I was able to lose four pounds during the daytime fasting. Rather unexpected, although I guess I was running a pretty mean caloric deficit for a while. The nice thing (well, sort of) was that for most of it I was working overnight shifts. So by the time I got home in the morning, it was time to sleep the day away. Fasting is much, much easier that way, let me tell you.

Pittsburgh

This past weekend Maria and I headed out to Pittsburgh. It was Homecoming for Pitt, and we were playing Rutgers. I thought it would be a fine time for Maria to see her first American football game. Thankfully, we won, and I was in a decent mood for the rest of the week.

Friday we left mid-afternoon and met our friend Leslie for dinner in Lawrenceville at an Indian place. The lamb was a bit tough, but I decided it'd be fun to try it since I don't get it regularly anywhere else. After that, we called it a day since we were rather tired from the trip and fasting.

Ah, right, the fasting. Ramadan is underway now so we've been getting up early in the morning to binge. We have to stop eating a little after six a.m. and then get to eat (and drink) a little after 6 p.m. It's not that bad. However, keep in mind that the Islamic calendar is a lunar one. Therefore, Ramadan will slowly "move up" each year. Eventually, it'll be over July and August and the days will be long and so will the fasts.

Then again, after a while you do get used to it. I've been waking up at 5:30 every morning with an alarm and sometimes without.

Anyway, Saturday we headed down to the stadium to find $20 parking right near the Science Center. I thought we could do better and the $10 parking at a garage near the Warhol museum proved it. I was a bit hesitant to buy from a scalper, but when the ticket booth told us that the only tickets available were two-for-fifty, cash-only. And that was way up in the nosebleed section. After some walking around, we got seats near the endzone, near ground level, two-for-forty. Not too bad.

The game was fine, although the smell coming from the nearby grill was pretty rough. Afterward, we went with friends Shannon and Gus to Shadyside for some walking around and goofing off. We did the same in Oakland, where we ended up at Fuel and Fuddle (my favorite restaurant) right at sunset. Our food arrived within minutes and the nachos never tasted so good.

Saturday night we stopped by to see Jenn and Corey as they were hosting a party. We didn't stay for food, but I'm glad we could stop by. Afterward, we headed back to the hotel to relax (and watch Game 1 of the World Series). Sunday was rather low-key; we got up and headed out of town in the early afternoon.

On both days at the hotel we woke up really early, drove to the Exxon in Greentree to get some milk and whatever else we could find. And I found donuts. Not the good kind that come in a glass case, though. The disgusting kind that come in a box. Oy. But bingeing is bingeing.

Nights

I've been working nights lately, so socially things have been a bit rough. Maria really doesn't enjoy the lack of me as well. Basically it's a 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. kind of thing. So I sleep most of the day away, wake up, get ready, eat something, spend an hour or two at home and then head back to the plant. Should be over at the end of this week, though. The only consolation is that I do get paid for each hour that I work, so in a fortnight the paycheck will be pretty sweet.

This coming weekend we haven't got any plans yet, although given my work conditions, that's probably a good thing. I think we'll end up sticking around Lancaster. We're still planning a party the following weekend, although we're now considering pushing it around a day or two to increase the turnout.

This past Friday night I had to work from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. That meant that I missed the Pitt-Temple game over in Philly. I'm pretty worried about that, too. These next two weekends are prime for going to Pittsburgh to see a game, but it'll be tough. After that, the next home game is over Thanksgiving. I haven't missed a Pitt football game in a season since I started school there in 1997, and the idea of breaking that streak is very unsettling. Must make at least one game. I've got the same streak for basketball, too.

Mine!

This past weekend we went down to VA to see Maria's cousin. As I have said before, they've got a two and a half-year-old, and she hates me. Simple reason: I take her favorite playmate (my wife) away from her. She likes to demonstrate her dislike for me by coming up to me with something (toy, book, etc.,) then makes like she's handing it to me, then quickly pulling it back, while exclaiming, "NO! Mine!" And if I try to take something, she screams really, really loud.

We're not talking like, car-horn or air-horn loud. We're talking like, if you needed to hear an alarm while the space shuttle lifted off, you could use her voice. It's amazing.

Anyway, her ways really came through when I was sitting next to Maria on the sofa and put my hand on her leg. Our lovely little niece came up, slapped my hand and said, "No, Maria is mine!"

So naturally the next morning I ate her cereal while she watched.

One way ticket

The idea of the weekend was to leave on Friday, drive to Akron, hang out with my brother and his wife and then come back Sunday.

Well, the 'check engine' light has been on in my car since about Wednesday. I thought it was just because I topped off the tank something fierce and there was something vague in the book about fuel vapor lock or whatever might bring up the light. No big deal. Wait for some fuel to burn off, maybe the next filling would make the light go out.

No.

About an hour into the trip, the oil pressure light began flashing like crazy. This is really not good, according to the book. I actually pulled over on the turnpike to assess this one. We drove to the next rest area (you're not supposed to drive the thing when the light goes on, but hey, it wasn't that far ...) which was Blue Mountain. Called Audi service. They called the tow truck and took it to the Audi dealer in ... Harrisburg.

So, Maria got the wonderful American experience of Breaking Down and then Riding in a Tow Truck. Lovely. Nothing like a flatbed diesel hurtling down the turnpike at 62 miles an hour. Painful for me.

My parents picked us up and took us back to Lancaster. Saturday morning we left about 7 or 8. Good news is that the dealer called and the problem was something Audi already knows about. So it was covered for free even though the warranty was up about 5,000 miles ago. Some kind of oil sludge buildup. Pleasant.

Per the rest of the weekend, we did some shopping outside of Akron, visited some parks (Summit County has several really nice parks with well kept amenities) and generally hung out and talked. My brother, as a resident, hardly gets any time off, so that's why I was so determined to visit him despite the car troubles.

He also took us to his office, which was pretty funny because it's basically shared by five other residents. The room is about as large as a single dorm room and equally beautiful.

Small Handful

Here's a few more photos that you may feel free to order. It's all for the holiday party, remember?

We'll be off to Ohio this weekend to visit my brother, so I'll try really hard to take pictures of something there. But it is Ohio, and we already went to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Not sure what else there is to see in Ohio, actually.

Other fun thing about the photos below: Adam actually took a few of them. Have fun trying to figure out which ones.

Thank you all for clicking on the ads and checking them out. The holiday party, if we keep up this pace, should be pretty nice.

Fund raising

New deal here. I'm selling photos from this Web site as 4x6s, 5x7s and 8x10s. Matted and mailed.

Basically, I'm going to post about a hundred random photos on here over the next few days and you can pick and choose which ones you'd like. Additionally, you can tell me if you're interested in a photo that you've already seen here (Hawaii? Philly? Pakistan?)

I'm still working out the finer details or multiple pricing, but individually, it's looking like:

4x6: $10
5x7: $15
8x10: $20

If you order more, you get a discount. Remember that this is for the photo, cut-out mat, backing and shipping via regular US Mail. Or hand delivered if you're local. Not only do they make great decorative pieces for your house, but for those of your loved ones, too. Coworkers? Sure! They'll love them, too.

Remember this is all for a good cause -- the holiday party -- so start choosing!

Why, oh why?

So you're probably wondering why you should click through the ads and make me money. Well, besides the better holiday party, things are also going to get quasi-interactive around here. That's right. If you send me something fun over the e-mail, I'll pass it along to humanity whether you like it or not.

Let's start with this great photo from Adam. Adam managed to rat out an illegal parker at his lot and the tow truck cameth and taketh.



That makes me think of the time when Brandon's car was half-towed at state college. I think he still owes us money for that.

Secondly, there's a rabbit-parody of Jaws, one of my favorite movies. It even has one of the best lines included: "We're gonna need a bigger boat."

Sellout

Well, as you can see on the right there, ads have started showing up. That's my own doing. But don't worry. I have an explanation. It's simple. When you click through those and I see a trickle of revenue, that revenue gets put toward fun things like holiday parties, the random tailgate, and of course, Mad Mex after 11. So everybody wins. Besides, it'll make me update this site a lot more, so you'll have more to read while at work or school or wherever.

So, click on the ads, enjoy my new drivel and hope to see you in person soon.

So many photos

Some of you who are paying close attention have noticed that there were some problems with the Longwood Garden photos. So I deleted the whole entry. Easy fix. And now, a whole mess of old and new photos that haven't been put up and that I think are pretty decent.

Pinnacle Point in Lancaster. Lovely. Small area, but like I said, many paths around there. I think that Muddy Run is also nearby, and no, I haven't been back there since we went for like, seven straight years through junior high school.





Sunday afternoon in Philadelphia. It's really great this time of the year, and it's only going to get better as the leaves start turning colors. A good time to visit either lancastercounty.org or visitpa.com. I check them out pretty frequently for ideas on trips and so forth.









Longwood Gardens, again. More photos. The best time to go is around sunset, I think. And if anybody is up for a trip during wintertime, let us know. Maybe we can get a group rate.











The lily ponds are pretty cool because they actually color the water black. That's right. To deter growth of like, algae or something. It's a creepy thing, really. You're not sure what you're looking at first -- oil, maybe?











About two days ago, I read that Longwood was having its Festival of Fountains. That would definitely explain the massive amounts of shooting water all over the place.



Mmmmmm... cake. From Pellman's. Straight from the factory in New Holland. Keep driving down 23 until you get to the huge Sheetz. Hang a right just before that, cross the railroad tracks, make another quick right. There you are. Carrot cake, black forest ...







Crossing Broad Street in Philly. This one's during the late winter. I think this was just before my last trip to Pakistan in early March.



Artsy ketchup.



Another view of Boathouse Row. One you don't normally see. This one is from the Art Museum side. The ground there is bit more dodgy, but worthwhile if you want to get a decent sunset shot. The Museum also looks fantastic during sunset. I notice this a lot when I drive past sometimes, but it's kind of hard to stare when you're worried about merging and trying to figure out which lane is going to move the fastest.

Some firsts

Last weekend Pat, Tara and their friends came up to Philadelphia for the baseball game on Sunday. The Phillies played the Brewers. Phillies won big, which was fun to watch. I was really excited about going for a few reasons. Partly because Maria has never been to an American baseball game yet and this was the first time I had seen the inside of the new ballpark in Philly.

We parked up near the Convention Center and took the Subway down. Good thing, too. Turns out the game was a sellout -- still trying to figure out why. The subway was pretty easy, although the token machine did take more money than I wanted to give it. Oh well. Free tokens for everyone. We saw a small fight break out on the way back up to the Convention Center, which was interesting. The police came running onto the platform where it happened after a few minutes and everything settled down. But, just like they told us in psychology class, nobody really did anything. About a hundred of us just stood around and tried to stay out of it. Great citizenship, huh?



Our seats at the game were really good, although the weather wasn't the greatest. Yes, it was sunny, but that meant sweltering heat. We would watch from our seats for an inning or two and then head back up to the concourse to watch from there. We managed to walk all the way around to check stuff out, which was cool. Fortunately, we were in our seats to watch the first Phillies grand slam of the season.



Maria putting up with me and my desire to go see a game.



After the game, we went to visit our friend Shannon who just moved to a new place. Parts of Philly have great tree-lined streets, which made the aimless walking around town afterward a bit more fun. We enjoyed dinner at Pietro's before going back to Lancaster.



This past Saturday, the fourth, was Maria's birthday. So I thought it might be nice to take her out to lunch here in Lancaster (we got take-out at The Pressroom and ate in Steinman Park just outside). We then drove all the way down to Pinnacle Point, which is in southwestern Lancaster County. Unfortunately, we were there in the early afternoon, so the light for picture taking wasn't that great. But the view is pretty spectacular. There are some trails that run around there that we'll get to someday. The drive there was pretty cool, too. It's a lot more hilly than you'd think in southern Lancaster County.

Excuse Cakes

Well, it's been over a fortnight since I last posted and I don't even have any photos. Whatever. I'll just tell the NYC cab story. My uncle and aunt have been staying with us from Pakistan for a few weeks now (off and on) and their son will be getting married to a young lady over here in a little while. Her family came to visit and her relatives drive a cab in NYC. Well, they brought the cab to the house. I was naturally quite excited because like most people, I've never driven a NYC cab. (Despite what you all may think).

So I took the thing out with the youngest son in the passenger seat. We just drove around Lancaster here and there. Not very far. And no, we didn't pick anyone up, although I was racking my brain trying to think of who might be around.

What else ... Maria spent last week down at her cousin's place in Leesburg. Her cousin has a two-year-old who absolutely loves Maria. She's also very, very smart. For instance, on Saturday when I was there, we were all sitting around talking about when we should leave. (We were originally thinking of leaving Saturday afternoon). The young daughter was tired but still hanging in there. When we decided that we would stay until tomorrow, she promptly fell asleep on the couch, knowing full well that she'd have another full day with her favorite playmate. Maybe a coincidence, but I think not.

I spent the beginning of last week in Battle Creek, MI for some training related to work. It was ok, nothing too thrilling. It's much smaller than Lancaster and frankly, I don't think that I could live there. I might be able to live in nearby Kalamazoo, but even then.

Hopefully I'll have the rest of the Hawaii photos up before more weddings take place.

Actual wedding photos now

Yeah, it's been a while, but frankly, I've been busy with other stuff. Like driving a NYC cab around Lancaster. More on that later. Anyway, here are actual photos from the wedding, starting with the limo breaking down. I got the call after hanging out at the venue for a while. Fortunately, they were only about ten minutes down the road, so I ripped over there in the rental to keep the party going.



Here's the sign, so you knew exactly where you were. We got those woven mats the night before for the July 4th on the beach bit. They're like, $3 at every other freakin' corner store. Not to people wanting to visit Waikiki: No need to buy any beach stuff at all. Don't bother bringing towels, mats, bathing suits, snorkling crap or whatever. Don't think you should bring it if you have it, because it's even cheaper there than anywhere else. Seriously.



The wedding spot. Yes, it was lovely. But everywhere you see patches of sun, think 90 degrees and direct sunlight. The surrounding trees were a nice haven once the ceremony was over. There were rumors of bugs, but I think the heat killed most of them.



Amy, on her way down the grass aisle. We didn't worry about taking photos while up there. I mean, really, nobody was looking at us.



Adam, putting the final touches on the ceremony. Days before, he qualified himself to marry one couple while in Hawaii. However, he spent the rest of the night at the bar trying to convince people otherwise.



Adam, Nelms, Julie and Linda checking out Adam's certification.



Julie and Brandon. I felt bad for Brandon and his Navy buddies, because even the nice Hawaiian shirts Brandon gave us were hot. I can't imagine full sleeves and whatever else. At least it was white, though.



Amy's girls strike a pose for the photographer. She was from Europe somewhere. I guess she had some kind of vision and artistry. Whatever it was, it didn't involve bringing a cell phone that worked or being careful where she stepped. (She crushed Adam's sunglasses.)

Rehearsal

We had the rehearsal dinner at the Aston Waikiki, which is basically on the beach in Waikiki, up on the 21st floor. There was a great deck overlooking the ocean. After eating dinner, and about ten minutes before we had to leave the space, Brandon decided that it might be a good idea to "run through this thing." He, of course, was the only one who had (and had seen) a script and the rest of us kind of stood around and were a pain in the ass.

Adam's playing the part of the minister in this photo, which has a view great bits to it. Perhaps it's Erinn, looking at her watch, Linda laughing her head off, Vanessa wondering if this is going to work after all, or Amy, looking at Brandon and thinking, "Wait, what the hell am I doing again?"



Emily and Maria enjoy some sun outside while the rest of us try to rehearse. If you had seen this "rehearsal," you'd have been amazed at how well things actually turned out. Then again, that's kind of relative, what with the limo being late to pick up the ladies in the morning, then breaking down, then pushing the time later, then ...



Maria and I at the hotel. Since Adam played the part of the minister for the wedding, I thought I could get one of the waiters to play my part in the wedding and go outside to enjoy the weather. The other fun part about the rehearsal was that the guys all showed up in pants and Brandon showed up late in shorts. Nice.



Hey! Random photo of The Bus (what was actually called) that we never took. Public transport seemed to be pretty decent in Waikiki.



Part of Brandon's "bachelor party" was Benihana, which many of us hadn't been to. It's quite interesting, since they cook right in front of you. The chefs are pretty amazing and the food isn't so bad, either. The price was a bit much, but I think it's something that should be experienced every once in a while.