Saturday, May 6, 2017

FEBRUARY 2017


Hi friend!

Back in December, I saw this sign in a restaurant in Leavenworth that I thought looked like the one in my grandparents' house, but Raymond didn't think theirs was in German.  So I had fly to Illinois (2 months later) to prove I was right and text him.  I'm a delight, I know.

Actually, what happened was I had to take a trip down to LA for a quick meeting, and then that same day, Jeremy and I flew to Chicago for another fun meeting.  Actually, it was pretty fun but I can't talk about it yet.   I also got to spend some quality time with one of my favorite co-workers.  We talked in depth about religion, politics, and other touchy topics with no problems. And then I found out he didn't like the Harry Potter books and I'm not sure if I can forgive or forget that.


After the meeting, I drove to meet up with my cousins for dinner and ice cream which was lovely.  Pam even answered my phone call even though she didn't recognize the number which I though was seriously incredible.  The following day, I had some time before I had to fly back, so I went to Aunt Audrye's hung out and then we went to pick up Aunt Maureen for lunch.  After lunch we stopped by the Marina to see Uncle Bill and Billy along with all their awesome party boats!

Aunt Audrye told me she once visited her grandson, Sean.  He was living with a bunch of people in college at the time and it was bit of a mess.  She took a candy from the table, ate the candy and threw the wrapper on floor.  When everyone looked at her she said, "What?  I thought that's what you guys did here." 

She also recently passed her driver's test, "And now I don't trust anyone on the road."  She told me she never turns left - she just keeps turning right until there is a light or she gets there.  And then she told me all of the places she needs to go to are close by. I asked, "Close and to the right?" Aunt Audrye, "Exactly."

When Aunt Audrye goes on vacation with her daughter Colleen, Colleen often mentions that her mom is elderly so that they can get a room on the ground floor near the pool.  So, Aunt Audrye has to walk in with an exaggerated "Old Lady Walk" so that she doesn't look like a liar.  Apparently, one time they were on vacation and they had to leave fairly quickly because there was a fire... because someone left there meth pot on the stove.    Aunt Audrye walked more quickly for that one. 

Anyway, I had a really lovely visit and was grateful for the time! 

Here are some photos!



Much Love,


T O'B
Update 2/6 - 2/12

In Seattle we got a snow day, and my coworkers made the most of it by making a Chief snow man while I worked from home.   Percy got a much needed haircut.  I tried to avoid it so he wouldn’t freeze, but I had already waited far too long.  I spent a lot of time playing with Percy, going to the park with Dawne when it wasn’t snowing and generally enjoying not having to fly anywhere this week. 

Here are some pictures!


Much love,

T O’B

Update 2/13-2/19

Hi Friend!

Let's see Halo Wars 2 released with a bunch of amusing commercials that I can share:


I flew to NY to celebrate Momela's birthday (we went to the early bird special at 3:30 and I got chicken in waffles in our own private dining room.)  Oh yeah, on our way home, there was a bit of traffic, to the point that we were able to have a conversation with a guy while driving.  He was telling us that he was a cop and that, "No one cares that you rear ended them  - pull over!!" 

Momela tried to explain to me that Ridiculous 6 was totally kid appropriate and then we watched it because it was her birthday.  Really, only because it was her birthday.  And I don't think it's kid friendly.

I also got to record Frita as I interviewed him and it was really awesome.  I got a good 2 1/2 hours of material including a story about WWII.  I asked if he had any memories of wars or historical events and told me that when he was younger he went to camp for a week in NJ.  When he got back, everyone was celebrating D day and he could see all the fireworks and party from the GW bridge and he said to his parents, "Wow!  People really are excited about me getting home from camp" and his parents never corrected his assumption. 

Maureen was telling me a story about her students that ended with:
You guys we should be a little quieter bc there is an American in here.
Or because we're inside in a classroom.

 Maureen and I took the train down to NY to meet up with Chelsea and Ryan for dinner.  She packed some beers in a paper bag.  When we stopped at her school's stop she put the beer back in the bag until a string of teenagers came on and passed us.  Then she grabbed the beer and said, "Okay, only one of my students."

I was telling her about how we were meeting Ryan.
Mo: Who?
Me: Ryan, you know the guy I have lunch with every day.
Mo: Okay, just call him Lunch Buddy.
Then later, after two beers
Me: And then me and Lunchbox...
Mo: Whoa! He isn't an inanimate object!
Only now that's totally his nickname. 

At New York Comic Con, I was running to a meeting and had to stop abruptly to put my hands into this stuff call floof.  And then later I took my co-workers back to the booth to show them the floof, sand and dirt and asked them to each by me one for my birthday and then I proceeded to tell everyone else we saw for the rest of the show how my co-workers were going to get me awesome birthday presents. 

I was telling this guy from Mattel that we were going to Vegas for Magic right after the show.
Nick: Ping ping ping
Me: Is that supposed to be an impression of me?
Nick: No, it's supposed to be Vegas slots.
Then I told him excitedly all about Floof.
Nick: Oh I do see how that could have been an impression.

I also got to see Jim, my favorite from DC Comics at a party!  And we did Karaoke with Dark Horse (Chelsea was A-Mazing!), and I dragged some people down to a party that Zach and Ray were at, and we had a super yummy dinner at Tao. And I'm sure super fun things happened but I totally can't remember!  The crazy amount of meetings definitely balanced out with all the fun after con fun, for sure. 

And here are pictures:


Much Love,

T O'B


Update 2/20 - 2/26

Hi Friend!

This week blurred with last week, but for organizations sake I'll separate them.   Monday we had a quick meeting downtown.  Before the meeting we stopped at a little bakery for breakfast.  Chelsea was walking in, but suddenly just froze so I picked up her suitcase, and mine, and opened the door bringing all of our stuff in as she followed in a daze.  Apparently what I missed was Alec Baldwin walking out of the bakery as we were walking in and Chelsea losing all brain power. 

Meanwhile Zach and Raymond went to my parents' house.  I had mocked Zach pretty hard core because he made a macaroni frame for his mom for Christmas and then he spotted a similar frame at my parents.

Zach: How dare you.
Me: I was 3, not 27.

After the meeting, we headed to Las Vegas for Magic!  We were staying in the Four Seasons so naturally I took a bath and put all the fancy soaps in my suitcase.  It was seriously swanky, they even wrapped my power cords with a little Velcro thing and put my glasses on a glass cleaner cloth.  Fancy. Pants. 

Chelsea had scheduled a lot of dinners and meetings - of note, she scheduled like 7 "drink" meetings in a row.  I met a couple of Chelsea's friends on Monday night who I would see again the following day and I asked if they could smuggle some bread to me when we met so I would survive the marathon of meetings.  Chelsea got pretty sick so eventually we got her a hot toddy (because she kept refusing my offers of "Two beers and Shot" that I kept reading throughout the hotel/casino.)

When I got home, I guess I missed going to conventions so I asked Dr. Rach, Kelly, and Becky if they wanted to go to the Train Show (Becky couldn't come but you can check out her radical starbucks spelling of her name in the pics.)   We went to Maltby CafĂ© beforehand which was way way too much food and also delicious.  Plus I picked up some fun gifts for Jordan's birthday, and Tom's kid walked out looking like a train conductor!



Much Love,


T O'B

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