Thursday, February 26, 2009

Greater things....

First off...let me apologize for being so delinquent in my posting! I have been so busy and/or tired, that I have barely had time to eat a decent meal, let alone post a blog.

Anyways, I'm pretty excited because I just found out that not only did I get a bonus for 2008, but I am also getting a raise! I was not expecting that, because, you know, the economy is in the crapper. My financial fate is decided by a board of people who get together, see how much money they can dole out, and give IEEE employees a cut of it. It can be a lot or a little. But what a pleasant surprise! And right on time too because I need to buy a dress for my brother's wedding! (Granted, that's not until August, but, you know, I like to be efficient.)

I am also excited because the 30 Hour Famine is TOMORROW! I have been reading through the leader's manual and it sounds like it is going to be a lot of fun. There are about 10 games that we will have the students play, each one teaching them something about world hunger and poverty. All the while, we are teaching them biblical principles to go along with what they are doing. It should be a blast. I hope to have some pictures up early next week. If you haven't donated to this awesome cause, check out my fundraising website (link is in the WILL STARVE FOR FOOD post) or e-mail me! If not, we would appreciate your prayers for this great event. Not just for us as leaders, but especially for the students.

Well, I just heard the phone ring which means I have to go pick up Evan from the train station. I'll be back soon!! Promise!!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Adventures at Chick-Fil-A

That's right - Chick-Fil-A. This is the 2nd installment of what Becky has termed an "Aubrey Adventure." We agreed to go to one cool restaurant a month, and this month it was Chick-Fil-A, per my recommendation. Anyone who knows me, knows that cows are my favorite animals, and cows happen to be the spokesmen (or is that spokescow?) for Chick-Fil-A. Their motto is "Eat More Chicken." And it helps that the food there is absolutely amazing.
So, our journey began with me, Erin, Becky and this time Charlie Wright joined us instead of Alge. We went to the Chick-Fil-A (which I will now refer to as CFA) in Woodbridge Mall. It was pretty crowded, as it normally is, but we managed to find a seat waaay in the back corner. All of us got the chicken nuggets as they are far superior to the chicken fingers. If you've never been to CFA before, the food is just soulfully good. It warms your heart and your tummy. And somehow it doesn't feel like fast food. It's just darn good. Charlie and I got milkshakes - reminiscent of when we got back from Mexico and Karl bought us all milkshakes from CFA. To quote Charlie, they were "crazy good." So, here's a shot of our meal - YUM.

Here's Charlie and Becky enjoying the yummy food:


After eating, Erin, Becky & Charlie took a ride on the train that they have there for the kids. It was fun - unfortunately, I do not have a good picture to post here of that part of the adventure.

We tried to go to Dick's Sporting Goods to climb the rock wall, but apparently it is no longer open to the public. No rock wall - bummer.

Becky wanted to go to Delia's and everyone wanted to go see the puppies again, so we drove over to Menlo Mall which was right down the road. We went to the pet store and asked to play with the golden retriever puppy. He was so cute and fuzzy, but too hyper to get a picture.
We went to Delia's, and I think Becky tried on about 10 pairs of pants only to buy one because she wasn't sure what size she was. Erin also bought a pair of jeans. I got nothing.

We ended up being out for four hours!! But fun was had by all, and we look forward to our next "Aubrey Adventure."

Monday, February 16, 2009

My Valentine's Day

Since Evan and I don't really believe in Valentine's Day, I offered to babysit my Pastor's kids for the weekend. Their anniversary is the day after Valentine's Day, so I wanted to give them some time away from the kids to celebrate. Friday and through til dinnertime Saturday. The kids were my dates for Valentine's Day. And boy, we had a blast.
My day started at about 8am - no sleeping in that day! I made the kids breakfast - eggs and toast, and then we got ready to start the day. We started by going to the dollar store near their house. I was going to get them little treats for Valentine's Day, but they didn't really see anything they liked. So, we headed back home and got in the car to go to Target.
Before we got to Target, we stopped at PetSmart. I needed to get some things for my kitties, and the kids wanted to see all the pets they have there for adoption day. There were some cute kittens!
We finished up there, and headed for Target. While we were there, I told the kids they could each pick something out to buy that was $5 or less. They each picked out a toy to get. Then we thought we should get a little gift for their parents to surprise them for their anniversary. We got them a card and a little gift for both parents. We checked out.
This was all done before 12 noon. We were all starting to get hungry, and they wanted Mickey D's, so that's where we went. Jhony wanted the #2, but only plain hamburgers. Angela wanted the #2, but with plain cheeseburgers. Natalia wanted the chicken strip meal. I knew there were going to mess up the order because the girl working the register was new. As soon as Jhony placed his order, she became panic stricken and called the manager over for help. (Why would they put a new girl on the register on a Saturday afternoon at lunch time??) We finally got the food, and they sure did get it wrong. They only gave us 3 fries when we should have gotten 4. They gave Jhony 2 cheeseburgers instead of hamburgers. And they only gave us three cups. So then I had to go back up and complain and get our order right. Finally, we got to eat.
After lunch, we headed back home. I was going to make the kids clean the house for their parents. (It was a MESS) So, we huddled in the kitchen and came up with the game plan. We started cleaning the kitchen and gradually made our way through the rest of the house. Jhony and Natalia even went around the house with Pledge and buffed all the wood surfaces! The house was sparkly clean. So, then we took a break for a little while and realized we wanted to get some balloons to go with the gifts we bought. We got our shoes back on and went to ANOTHER dollar store to get balloons. When we got home, we set the gifts and the balloons out on the table in a nice display as a surprise for their parents.
Around 4pm, we (Me and Natalia) took a nap. I got up at about 5 and started dinner: chicken nuggets, spaghetti and meatballs and corndogs. Yum! The spaghetti and meatballs were mostly for me because I was not about to eat those chicken nuggets. We ate dinner and then around 8pm, the parents came home. They were so surprised to see a clean house and the nice gifts on the table! They paid me, and I was on my way.
Evan was at a friend's house, so I didn't see him until about 9pm. I was so pooped by then, I pretty much kissed him goodnight and went to bed.
So, that was my Valentine's Day. How romantic! I hope your day was as fun as mine.

Fun at Youth Group

How many people did we fit on this little platform? See if you can figure it out. We counted 13.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

How Many Do YOU Have?

You know, I was just thinking today exactly how many "User Names & Passwords" I have to enter throughout a given day. I am going to attempt to list them all. I'd be interested to hear what everyone else has!

Windows Login (what I use to get into my computer in the morning at work)
Lotus Notes (E-mail at work)
AIM
Yahoo Messenger
AOL Mail
Yahoo Mail
Siebel (Web-based program I use at work - there are 6 instances of this)
Help Desk (Program I use at work)
Quality Center (Like Help Desk, used at work)
Blogger
Any number of websites I have an account with
E-Time (Electronic time card used at work)
Staff Learning Center (Work)
Wireless Internet Access (When I work from home)

That's all I can really think of right now. I'm sure there's more. How many do YOU have?


Team Salter!

This is a fun little thing that came about at youth group. You see, we have a set of twins that comes regularly to The Cellar, 610 (Sunday night youth group), and church. Their last name is Sawyer.
How Team Salter came to be goes like this:
The Sawyer boys - Joshua and Charlie - are going through some tough times in their life right now. What they are going through is very similar to what I went through when I was about their age, so I am able to empathize deeply with them. Over time, the three of us have grown very close. I will often pick them up for youth group events, or for church, and we always have a good time together. They laugh at all my jokes, and we learned that we have a shared interest in Spongebob Squarepants. They always give me big hugs when they see me, which makes me feel good, and makes them feel good too.
Sooo, all that being said, Team Salter came from combining their last name with mine: Sawyer + Walter = Salter. Get it?!
And here's something cool. The other day, I got a text/picture message from Charlie with this picture:



I'm not sure where this picture was taken, but it made me smile. I love those boys a lot, and I hope that we can be Team Salter for a long time to come.

Thursday, February 05, 2009

WILL STARVE FOR FOOD

I bet you're scratching your head. But you will stop once I explain the meaning of that sentence. The 30 Hour Famine is coming up really soon.

What is the 30 Hour Famine, you ask?
The 30 Hour Famine is an international youth movement to fight hunger. Students typically fast for 30 hours to spread awareness and raise funds to help provide food and care for children worldwide, including here in the US.
The 30 Hour Famine is sponsored by World Vision, which is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.
For more info, visit www.worldvision.org.

Why am I telling you this? Because I need your help!!
Every $30 raised helps provide food and care for a child for a month (worldwide average).
I have set up a fundraising website for myself, so if you would like to help me out and donate to a worthy cause (tax-deductible), visit my website (copy & paste the link in a new browser) http://www.30hourfamine.org/portal/onlinegiving/donate/47608640-002

If you would rather mail me the donation, send me an email from here and I will give you my address (if you need it).

Our church has set a goal of raising $7000 collectively, and we can't do it without you!!
Please consider giving to this great cause and help fight world hunger.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Adventures at The Cheesecake Factory

Continuing our fun from the trip to Hot Dog Johnny's a while back, the girls - Alge, Becky, Erin - and I decided to take a trip to The Cheesecake Factory. (To clarify, that is the name of the restaurant, it is not a factory where they make cheesecake - more on that later.)
So, we went on a Saturday afternoon thinking it wouldn't be too crowded. Boy were we wrong! I guess people really love this place at lunch time. It was PACKED! We only had to wait 15 minutes though, which was good. When we first walked into the place, we realized that it was fancier than we anticipated. There were people dressed up like they were going to church, and here we are in our hoodies and jeans. Alge had on her basketball jersey! Needless to say, we felt a bit out of place. But they hadn't thrown us out, so we were going to eat there gosh darn it.
We finally got seated and learned that there would be two servers taking care of us. One of them was named Shannon, and I'll be darned if we even saw the second one. We opened the menu which was more like a short novel rather than a menu. There was 5 pages of booze, 3 pages of dessert and about 8 pages of real food. Since the girls weren't exactly rolling in dough, they decided to order appetizers and/or a burger. Poor Becky could only afford french fries. Erin had popcorn shrimp, Alge had a burger, and I had buffalo wings.
The food wasn't bad. I've definitely had better wings. They weren't worth $9 I can tell you that much. I can get better (hotter) wings at Chicken Holiday for $3.99. But I digress. Then, it came time to contemplate the cheesecake. There were about 20 different types of cheesecake (hence the restaurant name) to choose from. I went with the Key Lime cheesecake seen here:



Alge and Erin both ordered some massively chocolate cheesecakes which were too chocolatey, even for me.

After consuming about 5000 calories-worth of dessert, we decided to go walk around the mall (I forgot to mention that this place was attached to Menlo Park Mall) to burn off all those calories. Becky asked if we could go see the puppies at the pet store. Sure! I love puppies as much as the next guy. When we got there, we saw the cutest puppy in history, and we asked if we would take her out and play with her. The girl at the counter actually carded me so we could do this! The puppy was a puggle - a cross between a poodle and a pug. Take a look at this face, is it not the cutest????



Here's Becky holding the puppy. She wanted me to buy it, but alas, I could not.


A good time was had by all. And going forward, we have agreed to do one fun restaurant trip a month. Next month's trip? Chick-Fil-A baby!