Monday, September 29, 2008

hawaii aloha

the strokes have a b-side called 'hawaii aloha.' its a great song. being a 'b side' its not well known, but its got a great 'hawaii feel' to it. another great song which i just heard the other day is 'gamma ray' by beck. its from his 'modern guilt' album. its got a great surf rock/beach boys feel to it. i love beck. he played the hollywood bowl last week and we really wanted to go, but tickets were ridiculously expensive. when i become rich, im not spending my money on cars or big houses. im spending it on traveling and pit tickets to concerts of all my favorite bands. the 'and' in there means that they are a combined purchase. so ill be seeing beck in the pit in some random venue in tokyo before then heading over to catch radiohead the following weekend in the pit in prague.

anyways, thats the future travel plans. now for recent stuff. im not sure that anyone even cares, but i said there would be a three part series with the marriage stuff so i have to make this post so i can move on with other random stuff. so we did hawaii for the honeymoon. it was fantastic. nellie keeps on saying that she wishes we were still on our honeymoon. im pretty sure thats because she doesnt want to go work in the morning though.

so i tried to keep it a secret from nellie where we were going. i did that because i thought it would be a fun surprise, and so that i could keep annoying people from telling me all the things we had to do in hawaii. the ironic thing is that i did tell a few people and some of them gave me advice on things to do and most all of them were spot on with their recommendations. it was as though they had been there before and done these things and tried them out for us. since i dont really know what to say about the trip, ill just be a hypocrite and the guy i tried to avoid and list some recommendations/thoughts on stuff:

1. tandem surfing in waikiki. i remember my friend jason wallace (wally) telling me when he was in hawaii he did some tandem surfing. so we tried it and we actually got up and rode a wave. it was awesome. we were out there for an hour and only caught 2 waves. that part isnt impressive, but we were totally surfing...on the same board...with nellie on my shoulders...while i was hanging five. i know. only five. not that impressive. but ten is hard.

2. the pineapple room. my friend karl suggested this place. nellie and i loved it. the edamame is fantastic. so good. its in the mall, literally inside the macy's. literally. like head to the third floor of the macy's and its in the men's department between the shoes and the boys section or something random like that. you cant access it from anywhere else besides through the macy's. so strange. i dont know who chose the location, but surely he was fired. i dont know what he was thinking. 'hey look, the macy's is closing down their belts and accessories area, why dont we build our restaurant there. perfect.'

3. kayaking in kauai. eh. not the worst activity we did. certainly not the best. it was river kayaking and then a hike to a waterfall which was only ok and not that impressive. kayaking is fun so if you want to do it, then you should.

4. zip-lining. this was the worst activity we did. terribly overpriced and so lame. i did this in costa rica and it was awesome. they pretty much just give you a harness and a beer and send you on your way. if the line snaps and you fall and die, what do they care? they already got your $30. in costa rica you zip line on about 15 lines with the longest one being 300 yards over a valley. you are 40 feet over the tree line. its amazing. hawaii was 4x that amount and there were only 5 'runs.' but 2 of the lines you did twice and one was 'simulated repelling.' it was horrific. it was your classic example of a wildly overpriced activity completely geared towards sucker american tourists who they know are willing to pay because hey, its our honeymoon. other zip lines there may be better, i dont know. if it has 5 lines and ends at a rope swing waterfall, stay away. its a waste.

speaking of the rope swing, that also enticed me. such a sucker. i had big dreams of riding some zip line and dropping off into some pool near a waterfall. im sure pocohantus was also there now that i think about it. anyways, when we got to this rope swing, there were tons of people there that just trespassed onto the private property and took advantage of the free rope swing. which is what you should do if you go to hawaii.

6. shipwreck beach at the hayatt resort. this place is great for a few reasons. 1. the beach is actually great. actual waves and no rip current that will kill you immediately (like so many other beaches advertise). 2. there is a great rock to jump off of. supposedly its the same rock that harrison ford and anne heche (or their stunt doubles) jumped off of in the movie '6 days and 7 nights.' (go to 1:30 in the preview and you can see it.) nellie and i didnt need stunt doubles. it was a great time. although there is no documented evidence of nellie actually jumping off the rock, so who knows if she actually did. the other great part are the pools at the hyatt. all the big resorts are right next to public beaches and their pools are right next to the ocean. they have no idea actually is a guest and who isnt so you can just walk onto the property and swim in their pools and hang out in their hot tubs. which was excellent and highly recommended.

7. the helicopter ride. i actually do recommend this. i say actually not because it is expensive, but because it made me incredibly sick. nellie too. it took us awhile to recover. afterwards we drove to the nearest mini-mart and got a sprite and saltine crackers and sat huddled over on a dirty bench staring at the ground for awhile until we recovered...which was many hours later. we were with 2 german guys that didnt get sick at all so im sure most dont. it just hit us pretty bad, yet i still recommend it.

anyways, those are the ramblings. there is plenty more i could say. we did tons of activities (nodding my head and hi-fiving my bros right now). no literally we did a bunch of great outdoor activities and ate out plenty. if you are ever going let me know. ive got tons of great advice im happy to give, i just dont care what you have to say/recommend.

Friday, September 26, 2008

ghost town

i just wanted to really quick give a plug for this movie. not that i have a large audience for this blog, but i didnt know how else to really give a plug for it. i was planning on seeing it, but then my friend zach saw it and raved about it, so we went last night. its great. so here a few reasons why you should go this weekend:

1. it probably wont be in theaters next weekend. sadly, its a great movie that, like other quality movies, isnt making much money. it came out last weekend, critics loved it, but somehow 'tyler perry's the family that preys together' and other cinema vomit makes more money. its well thought out and has quality, but maybe not big named actors in it, so it doesnt do as well as lame movies with crap plots and junk actors. bummer.

2. the actors are really actually great though.

a. ricky gervais. if you havnt seen him then you have to go. he is the inspiration behind 'the office.' it started in england and he created it. so what you see on nbc every thursday is a knock off of his creation and brilliance, so dont give steve carrell too much credit (although he does do a good job and has done well at making the character his own), he's just trying to be what ricky gervais was/created. if you look in the credits of the office youll see that he produced it.

b. greg kinnear. who doesnt love this guy?

c. tia leoni. also fantastic. she's great. she's a 40 year old that is totally hot but seems like a normal woman and not a celebrity (can i say that now that im married? i dont really know if i can make comments like that anymore. i guess ill find out tonight... love you nellie).

3. the movie perfectly captures the comedy that ricky gervais created and/or perfected. so entertaining. nellie had never seen him before and she and i were both laughing hard at so many parts. he's created a really funny character.

4. its just a flat out good movie. good story. not too predictable. youll be happy you went and wont be upset you spent $11.50 getting in. look, its a weekend, youre probably going to the movies anyways, just go to it. all the other junk will be there for you next weekend.

5. the previews we saw were fantastic. the new bond movie looks amazing. 'australia' looks really, really good. something else. and that other one too. they both looked good at the time even though i dont remember what they were.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

that one day we got married

so i need to finish these posts about big summer events.  im sure everyone already knows, but nellie and i did get married on august 9th.  it was a great day.  its true that the sealing is the best part of the day.  by far.  not wanting to go into it or discuss it on a blog, ill just give some thoughts from other stuff that happened.  

it was really hot.  we took photos throughout the afternoon and we were just dying.  they photos turned out great.  we had a great photographer.  her name is rachel.  her blog is rachelthurston@blogspot.com.  one advice that we got from people was to make sure you have a good photographer.  maybe cut costs in some areas, but if there is one area you are going to spend money then do it on a photographer.  and i totally agree.  im not really an artistic guy nor do i really claim to have an 'artistic eye' or anything, so i cant really explain why, but you can just tell when some people have a true artistic ability compared to someone that just bought an expensive camera and now calls him/herself a photographer.  plus, like people told me, the photos are really the only tangible thing you keep for a long time that remind you of the wedding day.  besides the pancake warmer.

thank you katie clifford for reading my blog and for buying us a very useful pancake warmer. nellie has been wanting one for a long time.  you have also ensured yourself a lifetime of worthless gifts.  gifts that dont even sound like they have a purpose and in reality really dont.  supposedly someone bought us the cheese dome. our registry indicated that it was bought, but we never actually got it.  someone probably wised up after buying it and didnt want a lifetime of lame gifts so they didnt give it to us.  or some friend performed a random act of kindness and and bought it and just threw it away so that it could clutter up a dumpster instead of our kitchen.

speaking of clutter, i realized another problem with registering.  cups.  whoever makes these registery things hates men and has never been married.  they are bitter and just leading women astray so that they will unknowingly make man's life miserable because somewhere, some man made that woman's life miserable.  im actually not sure what happened, but do you know how many cups these registries recommend women register for?  12.  12!  who needs 12 cups.  do you know many cups newleyweds need?  2.  and they can even be styrofoam if necessary. instead we have 12 small drinking glasses.  12 larger drinking glasses.  12 mugs.  12 goblets.  and only 4 (thankfully) nice wine glasses.  giving us a nice total of 52 cups/glasses. 52!  when will we ever need 52 glasses?  when we are hosting our party for 50 people?  right.  as though we will be using real cups and not plastic ones.  its the same thing with plates.  we have tons.  i realize someday we might have a family and someday we also might host dinner guests.  in the meantime, or today, we have a crowded kitchen with plenty of items to collect dust.  when i was unloading all of the cups i kept on asking nellie why we had so many.  'i dont know,' she replied, 'thats how many it says to register for.'  fantastic.  love the obedience.  hate the instructor.  

im digressing from the wedding day and focusing on all the gifts.  we did get a lot, so thanks to everyone.  nellie said that it was like christmas.  and it really was with all the gifts.  only it was child's worst christmas nightmare.  even nellie, as excited as she was at the beginning, couldnt keep the excitement throughout.  i mean, how excited can you possibly be over boxes and boxes of dishware?  

back to the wedding.  we had lunch.  we took photos.  we helped set up for the reception and then we had the reception. the house looked great.  i hear the food was great.  we talked to people for about an hour.  then we did cake.  then we danced.  the first dance was obligatory and totally awkward.  then there was a regular dance.  dj dave did a great job.  it was actually really fun.  'obk' was amazing to get the dance going.  'freestyler' was just outstanding.  that was a dance party favorite that originated from a dance 'party' we had at byu where there was just 7 of us and we created a little dance to that song and its lived on ever since.  then nellie threw her bouquet, i grabbed her upper thigh, we went to the car and drove off into the sunset.  not quite like that, but close enough.  

it was a very memorable day.  i think one of the best parts was the interaction between mine and nellie's family.  nellie has an awesome family. mine is a little bit better.  many on both sides have commented on how enjoyable it was being with and hanging out with the other family.  which was really cool.  im not surprised they got along well, but it was nice to hear they all got along so well and wished they could hang out again.  sad part is that they probably never will.  which is perhaps why the wedding day is so great.  because it will never happen again. its just a one time event.  im sure our families got along well, but couple that with the warm august night, good times and knowing that it wont ever happen again, and it becomes a little more nostalgic, a little bit sweeter and sits a little better in the memory.  so thanks to all that came and gave gifts and made it a wonderful day.  it really was one for the books.  or the blog.