Don’t get me wrong – I love spring and summer too.   I’m not a HUGE fan of winter, but that’s mostly because I don’t really appreciate driving in snow and ice.  Or being cold.   Autumn is just special for some reason.  

This weekend was fun and relaxing – a great combo – and was much needed after a fairly crappy week last week.  Saturday started off great – with an email from the helpdesk manager at work informing me that a brand new shiny Macbook Pro would be awaiting me upon arrival at work on monday.   Ann and I were fairly lazy in getting up and ready – again nice.   We had lunch at Noodles & Company, before driving to Zionsville to pick up a case of wine my dad ordered.  After we got done with that, and watched an episode of The Big Bang Theory (hilarious show, btw), I went up to Trevor and Landon’s new place in Westfield to play Beatles Rock Band (and assorted other games) for the afternoon/evening.

Sunday was more relaxing, a few errands, a wonderful grilled dinner, a bike ride (with camera), and a nice wind down before what promises to be a hectic week for both Ann and myself.

This morning was nice – the helpdesk manager was true to his word – a new 15″ Macbook Pro was sitting – in it’s box – on my desk when I walked in my office this morning.  I am quite pleased with it – it’s noticeably more responsive and appears not to have the same underlying issues that plagued my previous Macbook Pro (leading, I believe, to massive data loss on no less than three occasions).  I’m very pleased with the upgrade, and it’s made for quite a nice day for a Monday.

I’m looking forward to Halloween this weekend – Ann and I are planning on handing out candy to the neighborhood kids before heading to my parents house to catch some halloween shows on cable (since we don’t have cable).

Also – Friday night is another Indiana Ice game (so, you know, you should totally come…) which I’ll be at taking pictures again.

I’m looking forward to a great week!

Some nights, though,  we eschew the normal routine and do something a little different – and tonight was one of those nights.  While trying to decide what to make for dinner (rifling through our pantry trying to figure out what we even HAD to make), Ann made an offhanded comment about our neighbors bbq-ing. That in turn made me want to grill,  so we decided to go to the store and get some hamburgers to grill (and pick up a few other things we needed anyway).  So – off to the store we went.

When we came back, after putting away the groceries, I went outside to fire up the grill.   Ann followed me out,  school book in hand, to study outside on the deck while I grilled.   After starting the grill – I went and grabbed my camera to do some photography in the backyard.

And so it went – Ann intently studying on the deck while I wandered around the back yard taking photographs of anything and everything I could think of.   I used a short wide-angle lens to do nearly every shot I took – trying to get used to shooting in that format in preparation for a new lens I’m getting soon (a 10-20mm super wide angle).  I have to say I enjoy it a lot more than I thought I might.

I took some shots of plants,  of Ann,  of the grill and my yard in general.   For the first time in a few months I really enjoyed the photographic process and it has made me want to shoot more, and try new things again.   I also thoroughly enjoyed spending time in close proximity to Ann and grilling burgers for dinner.   I’m pretty happy with the photos I managed to snap as well – and look forward to doing more and improving as I do.

After dinner we did go our separate ways – Ann to her office and me to mine, though Ann did get some poking and prodding with her instruments in as well.   I think I’ve had my ears, eyes and nose checked more in the past few weeks than in the previous 27 years I’ve been on this planet.   I don’t mind, though – at least I know I’m healthy.

I also found out through a friend at work, a fellow photographer, about a photography club here in Indianapolis that meets weekly.  I’m considering checking this out as I want to a.) meet new photographers and b.) enhance my own skills and experience.  Photography comes in as my third favorite thing in life (behind Ann and computers, in that order).  I think it’s time I gave it a little more attention and nurture my fledgling skills.

For those wondering – all of the images in this post were taken this evening while out goofing off with Ann.   I posted a few more than these on my flickr page (linked to the right), if you’re interested in seeing more.

On May 30th, a few short weeks ago, I got married to a wonderful, amazing, beautiful woman – Ann. The wedding ceremony was beautiful, and the reception was everything I hoped it could/would be. The ceremony was at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in downtown Indianapolis, and was followed by a reception in the back yard at my parents house. The weather forecast called for rain most of the day, and that morning I prayed for the weather to hold out until AFTER the reception. I believe my exact words were something along the lines of “just please let the rain hold off until after the reception, then you can unleash whatever hell you want to”. Interestingly enough, about 5 minutes after the reception ended the severe weather sirens went off and we spotted a funnel cloud with a tornado starting to come down. It was, thankfully, moving away from us.

Ann and I followed our wedding with a week in Florida, which provided a nice and relaxing start to our marriage. You just can’t beat floating around in a pool, relaxing on the beach, and getting splashed by a 12,000 pound killer whale. We also saw dolphins, both in captivity and in the wild (feeding them in captivity, and having one swim up and past us slowly in the wild, we believe to say hello). We spent several evenings in a pool-side spa drinking wine and watching the sunset. We ate some really great food (including an absolutely amazing peanut butter chocolate truffle pie) and generally had the time of our lives.

Then we came home and opened wedding presents. It was like Christmas. We got a lot of great and amazing stuff. We also had a huge volume of trash from boxes, wrapping paper, etc. I think the trash collectors hate coming to our house now. Ann says he looked especially pissed off this week.

Things are starting to settle down, now, and Ann and I are relaxing into our lives together. I couldn’t be happier than I am now, waking up next to the love of my life every single day.   

Now, you’re probably thinking “so, if you got married on the 30th, and only took a week for the honeymoon, why have you not written anything about it until now?!”

The answer is fairly simple – it’s a matter of time. I’m back to work full time doing information security work for an amazing one to one marketing company. On top of that I’m helping some friends at the Open InfoSec Foundation by performing some contract work at night and in free time.

This coming Saturday I’m getting my feet wet with Motor Sports photography, as I’ve landed some credentials to shoot at the Mid-Ohio grand-am race. We’re leaving at 3am to make it to the track in time to get setup and start shooting when the drivers and cars come out, and the actual race is at 5pm, meaning it’s going to be a VERY long day. It should be fun, though, and having access is always nice.

When I bought the house it was everything I wanted in a house for this stage in my life, and it still is.   I had almost no furnishings to put inside,   no TV, no bed, and no things like towels,  sheets, napkins, placemats,  kitchen stuff, etc.     I had no lawnmower, no weed whacker, no grill, no silverware,  no home office trappings (desk, filing cabinet, etc)…. I essentially had none of the things I needed for a house.

Over the course of the past year I’ve made lots of progress (much of it with the help of my lovely soon-to-be wife, Ann).   I have furniture,  an entertainment center, a well-put-together kitchen,  a very sweet home office, two lawnmowers (it was necessary…), weed whacker, wheelbarrow, etc   In short – I’ve spent the past year turning this house I bought, into a home.   And not a moment too soon, as in the very near future my house is going to become the home Ann and I will share.

Yesterday after work I stopped off at the grocery store and picked up ingredients to make barbecue cheddar burgers (turned out amazing, btw), then went home and spent the evening out in the yard mowing the lawn and finishing the tilling for the garden.   Tonight I plan on pulling out unwanted plants (mostly things growing because birds dropped seeds in my planters ) and planting some flowers.  I’m determined to get a handle on my landscaping this year.

I’d like to grill some chicken tonight, with a side of vegetables and perhaps some form of bread (rolls or something).  That sounds yummy.  Later this week it’d be nice to have spaghetti with a nice meat sauce, or something.    Maybe that’ll be for Wednesday.  I might see if I can find a nice red wine to go with it.

While I’ve had the time to write posts on here, I’ve decided to use that time to do other things (reading, playing WoW or other games, watching TV/movies/podcasts), and not writing about what’s going on.

As people around me (and people around Ann for that matter) like to keep pointing out – I’m getting married in two weeks (Less, actually).  To answer the single most asked question once and for all – NO, I’m not really nervous about it.  I don’t anticipate really being nervous.  Please stop asking (and stop asking Ann too) – it gets annoying fast.

The Bachelor / Bachelorette parties were this weekend.   Neither one of us were able to have all of our groomsmen/bridesmaids present, which sucked.  I had all but one, as MattyP! Could not make it as he’s from out of town.  He was missed.   I had a good time, though, but as with pretty much any Bachelor party I decline to go into details other than to say alcohol was involved.

Ann also had a good time, and for the first time in her life experienced a hangover.  I’m proud of her for reaching that milestone!

The unfortunate part of the weekend was that Ann and I had to take Sunday to recover, and thus did not get much done with our yard.   And by “not much” I of course mean “not anything”.

It’s a beautiful day today, though, so I fully plan on spending time outside once I get off work.   I love the great outdoors!

Maybe I can grill out tonight…

You see, Ann and I are getting married in… under 5 months now. As part of the preparation for marriage, the Catholic church decided that we needed to partake in a marriage preparation retreat weekend. So, dutifully obeying the commands of the Church, we went.

We went in expecting to have a terrible weekend. After all, it was a weekend where we were forced to go stay at a strange place, with strange people and do strange things. I was still somewhat sick from having the flu last week and Ann had a ton of studying to do for school. Neither one of us could think of anything we could want to do LESS than the retreat.

We were wrong.

I’m not going to lie and say that it was the BEST WEEKEND EVAR… it wasn’t. But just as it wasn’t the BEST WEEKEND EVAR, it also wasn’t the worst… by a large margin. You see – neither Ann, nor I, realized going in that this weekend would afford us the opportunity to hang out with each other and talk, and have fun, and joke around. Without distractions.

So, we did all that…. and we liked it. There were some other nice couples there too, which was cool. Nobody I’d call a new friend, but they at least made the weekend a bit more enjoyable.

Plus, the weekend was over by noon on Sunday, giving us Sunday afternoon and evening to spend doing what we wanted. In my case that meant installing Boxee on my AppleTV and testing it out by watching episodes of ALF, Ghost Hunters (both regular and International), and Doogie Howser M.D.

Right now I’m watching Indiana Jones’s (the new one, Crystal Skull) from Netflix, and later I’ll begin my journey through the world of 24 by watching the episode that started it all off…. the first hour of the first season… thanks to Boxee.

I could post all about it here, but that’d be a duplication of effort from yesterday – so if you would like to read more about “how John asked”, go to the post on my my super secret website.

We now return you to your normally scheduled program.

The last time I had seen Matty was a little over a year ago,  when I was in his wedding.  As you can imagine, I missed him! This was his first trip to Indy, and his first time meeting my longtime girlfriend Ann. A great time was had by all.

Matty arrived Friday afternoon,  and after a tour of my house we went out for a bike ride around my neighborhood, the Eagle Creek Greenway and some neighborhoods nearby.  It was incredibly relaxing and fun – the weather was gorgeous.  After that we made plans for the evening with Trevor and Ben – dinner at Ted’s Montana Grill with Trevor, followed by rock band at his apartment (Matty thoroughly enjoyed Rock Band),   then we went to Ben’s and watched Snatch before finally returning home and watching some Weed’s on my AppleTV. 

Saturday we woke up and Matty was awesome and willing to help out with some chores around the house – in fact, he offered to mow the lawn while I took care of some much needed weeding in the front yard.  He did a fantastic job and I’m very appreciative of his help (this was three weeks overdue).  Afterwards we hung out watching Boondock Saints until Ann could come over.   We went and got some burgers to grill beer to drink and a frisbee to toss.  

The burgers turned out perfect,   and the beer was good.  The company was awesome – it was one of those nights where I wouldn’t want to be anywhere but where I was.

Sunday morning I got the news that Matty could stay longer than initially planned,   so we went out and did some shopping (and picked up a football to toss around),   then went home and played outside for a while. Ann came by after work and we all went to dinner, then to Coldstone Creamery for desert before Matty departed for his home of Milwaukee.

It was an awesome weekend, and I really hope it can be done again soon!

Saturday afternoon we went to the county fair and walked around checking various things out such as arts and crafts, as well as all sorts of animals. I took a few pictures.

That night we went to her brothers house and watched Harold and Kumar escape from guantanamo bay – which was every bit as ridiculous and funny as the first.

Sunday morning we relaxed before heading to her other brother’s (Sam) house for her neice’s 2nd birthday party.

I enjoy trips that allow me to get away from work and chores and let me enjoy myself and the company of those I care about. This was one of those.