We got back last night from our short trip up the coast. We spent our first two nights in San Luis Obispo at the San Luis Creek Lodge. It’s a fairly new place that feels fresh and up-to-date. In San Luis Obispo we spent time walking around the downtown area, went to the farmers market and had a turkey leg, and drove to Morro Bay. A recurring theme on our trip was the wildlife we kept seeing, and this guy below was hanging out in Morro Bay. He even jumped up near a dock to let us take some good pictures.

I love these "smokestacks" in Morro Bay because they always look like a painting. They don’t look real for some reason, like they’re computer generated and my eyes are playing tricks on me.

After San Luis Obispo we headed up the coast and stopped in Cayucos on our way to Cambria, where we stayed at Moonstone Landing. I had never been to Cambria, but it reminded me very much of Poipu Beach on Kauai where we went on our honeymoon (but much closer and cheaper). While it’s not a Hawaii replacement (you can only spend a day or two in Cambria until you’re bored), it’s a very similar setup where a small street is the only thing between your hotel and a beautiful beach.

Cambria is just south of Hearst Castle, and even though we didn’t go there, we enjoyed the view of the coast and a nice drive. Something totally unexpected we found was a place along the beach that was literally crawling with Elephant Seals. Apparently male Elephant Seals have been coming to this specific spot since the early 1990′s to molt (get rid of their gross old skin). In a stretch of about 200 yards I would say there were at least 100 seals (there were two other spots similar to this one below).

It was great because they were barking and play fighting the whole time. There was also a really small pup that was getting chased by some big fat dude. That was hilarious. Another interesting site in Cambria was something called Nit Wit Ridge. It’s like Hearst Castle, but not really. Some guy did lots of funny/odd stuff to his house, and here is the result. Much like the hundreds of antique shops in these small towns, I’m not sure if it is art or crap.

Overall it was a very nice and relaxing few days. On a side note, I thoroughly enjoyed the Nikon d50 on the trip. It was great being able to snap pictures at will and have a lot of control over the pictures I was taking. My brother got me a nifty case to put it in that makes it much easier to carry around.

We leave Wednesday morning at 5 am for a Boston/NY trip with my parents and Denise/Paul. I’ll be sure to take a lot of pictures, but The Blarg will be update free for a week and a half. In the meantime, head on over to the Milkinator’s new site for some blogger goodness.

I’ve got a few posts rolling around in my head that I haven’t written yet, so I thought I’d post about them.

We did a bunch of work in our backyard yesterday, so I have pictures of that. I have ideas for a post about the History of Annoying Hip-Hop and how it came into existence. Tonight we’re going to Alcatraz Brewing Co. at the block with some friends, and then over to Lucky Strike bowling I think. I’ve been looking at upgrade options for the computer also.

So look for those in the coming days. Right now we’re just enjoying our time off. The warm weather and all the time together makes it feel like the weeks after our honeymoon, which is a really great feeling.

I don’t have anything of note to post about, and I don’t feel like posting about anything political. The recent rain has put me in relax mode, so I think it’s a good time to reflect.

I looked back at my posts from March of last year. I had just taken my first CSET test, was planning the honeymoon, and we went into escrow on our place. It’s amazing how much your life can change in the course of a year. Events that seem so far away sneak up on you when you aren’t looking. Living in the present is something I think a lot of people, including myself, struggle with. While looking forward to the future is not bad, I do think it’s easy to let the future overshadow the present. To see our lives in terms of major events can often reduce the value of the present. Whether it’s finishing school, passing a test, getting married, moving out, or getting a job, I think it’s important to stop and enjoy your time leading up to those events. When we focus completely on a future event, sometimes the present becomes taxing, and just another "task" to survive.

I rarely get philosophical here on the blarg, but maybe it will inspire you enough to enjoy a Tuesday. I know I’m enjoying mine.

So I promised a big honeymoon post, but I realized I can’t really talk about the honeymoon before I talk about the wedding.

The Wedding

The wedding was wonderful. It’s one of those experiences that is really hard to appreciate until you’ve been through it. Never again will I be bored at a wedding, or praying it would hurry up and be over. After the actual ceremony it’s crazy how full throttle you have to go. Take pictures, do dances, throw stuff, eat stuff, say hi to people, it’s crazy. It’s hard too because you wish you could stop and talk with everyone there, but it’s impossible. Too many people, not enough time.

People kept asking me in the weeks leading up if I was nervous, and my response was always "not yet." I didn’t get a little nervous until I was finally standing in front of all the people waiting for my bride. The whole ceremony my heart was beating out of my chest. I hardly remember any of it because I was too busy fighting tears, or looking at Stacie.

The reception was a lot of fun. We raced around taking pictures everywhere, and then we did all the special dances. We played "Welcome to the Jungle" during the garter toss, and I busted out my Dodgers cap. If you still don’t get the joke, that song is Eric Gagne’s entrance song. I thought it ruled. haha. Eventually at the end of the night we took off in a nice Lincoln Towncar to our hotel by the airport. Which begins the next part…

The Honeymoon

This section could probably be several posts in itself, but I’ll condense it. The night of the wedding we stayed at a nice Marriot property by the airport, and the next day we flew off to Hawaii. We spent the first 6 nights on Kauai, and the next 3 nights on Oahu. In Kauai we stayed at a nice condo with a beautiful ocean view. Over the course of the week we saw many pretty sunsets and beautiful waterfalls. We visited every shore of the island and ate all kinds of good food. Kauai was really nice and not too busy, though traffic near the airport is worse than the 5 freeway, it’s nuts.

After Kauai we flew to Oahu and stayed at the nicest hotel in my life. The place was so fancy it had a telephone with a touchpad that controlled the whole room. You could turn the lights on and off, change the temperatue, order room service, etc. The bathroom had a huge tub, a big glass shower, and two sinks. The first day in Oahu we just relaxed and went to the beach, where I then got water in my ear and a slight infection of sorts. The next day I had a fever and was miserable, but we made our way to the Arizona Memorial. I’m glad I got to see it, but I’m sure I would have enjoyed it more had I not been dying. Our last day on Oahu we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. This is like a small Disneyland with no rides, but instead they have different cultures on "display" via shows, videos, dances, etc. This was actually a lot of fun, but one day wasn’t enough to see it all.

Overall, getting married and the honeymoon were both amazing. I’m still not sure that I feel married, and I’m not sure when it will settle in. I have a feeling that each day it will feel a little more real. Thanks to everyone that shared in our day and sorry to all the people who couldn’t. Check out some pictures below.

Waimea Canyon

The Fern Grotto

More Honeymoon Pictures

I’ll try and get some wedding pictures up soon.

I was gonna post something cool, but it got super late and I’m dead tired. I’m not sure I’ll be sleeping much at all the next couple nights.

Programs are done, seating is basically done, and I’m finishing a picture collage thing for the seating table. Not a ton left to do other than pack for the honeymoon, and organize ourselves so that the big day goes off without a hitch. I got a lot of shopping done today, and just a little more left to do.

May the force be with me.

Can you even do that, like wish the force for yourself? Can the force wish itself upon you maybe? “May I be with you.”

In 5 weeks something fairly significant occurs: I’m getting married. Oh wow yikes and yowsers! There’s still a bunch to do, but I think at this point we just want to have the wedding and get to the honeymoon.

The townhouse is shaping up nicely. All the major painting is done, and I replaced all our door knobs today. They were bright shiny gold before, ick. It still confuses me that something as simple as changing door knobs can be so fun when it’s your own place. It’s fun just turning the handle and seeing if it works, haha. I’ll put up some new pictures soon.

Andrew helped me lift the behemoth of an entertainment box onto its stand the other day. DVDs look gorgeous, but Gamecube is a little underwhelming. It looks better on the lower-res and slightly more blurry TV in my room, so I’ll probably use that instead.

Stacie had her last wedding shower on Saturday, and from what I’ve heard it was a great success. There were no small packages, but I have very high expectations from the girls at her bachelorette party! Big thank you to my Mom, Andrew, Sarah, Denise, and everyone else that helped make it happen.

34 more.

I forgot to mention this, but I finished the second book in A Song of Fire and Ice series. I started book 3…it’s over 1000 pages. I’ll post a review of the second book soon. In the meantime though I have to read a dumb young adult book for my adolescent development class.

I’m crossing my fingers that I passed the algebra CSET test…because tomorrow I start studying for the geometry test. Everything I learned about algebra will begin to go down the toilet.

Stacie and I booked our hotels and airfare for our whole honeymoon. That’s cool.

I’m now 27-31 in MVP Baseball 2005. I’ve been doing really well lately and probably need to bump up the difficulty, but I’m waiting until I reach .500. Hee-Sop is doing well, but Yhency is horrible. I demoted him to AAA. Scott Erickson was called up to replace Ishii too.

I just had a conversation with Paddy about how gaim is better than aim. His profile looked broken, and the following ensued:

Yup2That: b/c you use gay aim
nathan118: how are your ads?
nathan118: taking up half your screen? mmmm
nathan118: gay themes everywhere
nathan118: driving you nuts with big flashing eagles and crap
Yup2That: what?
Yup2That: they are not taking half my screen
nathan118: and the newest harry potter movie everywhere sending gay icons to you
Yup2That: it is taking the space of one buddy icon
nathan118: and dumb colors everywhere like some idiot broke their aim colors
nathan118: and stupid messages like “accept this gay buddy icon??????”
Yup2That: right
Yup2That: i’m going
Yup2That: see ya sunday
nathan118: ok aim

I so won. He was beyond confused to the point of sleep. There is no better way to defeat your opponent than by sheer confusion and idiocy. Yesssss!

All morning I’ve been doing honeymoon research. We’ve decided to stay on the south shore on Kauai, but it’s amazing how many places there are to stay just on that one side of the island!

I think I’ve narrowed it down to the Alihi Lani condos. They’re right by the ocean, and fairly reasonable. The same price will get you a garden view room at the Sheraton that’s half the size. Here are some pictures.

After Kauai I think we’re going to Oahu for a few days to see the sites there, like Pearl Harbor. I’m dead set on the JW Marriot Ihilani Resort. Talk about gorgeous. Here’s a picture.

Now I just have to convince Stacie. Whoaaa, I’m paying for this! haha. :d