wil and kris (and gracie and ava)

I know, i know…

it’s been a while since i’ve been on to post… well, here i am.

I’ve actually been getting myself into some pretty interesting things lately.  Besides becoming more and more involved with work every day, i am doing things online and spiffing out my computer.

I’ve been testing some new deployment at work lately (the way we delegate tasks and where we put which people to provide top efficiency… i don’t know if you’ve ever met me, but i am quite efficient).  After some testing i talked with my team at Starbucks and we are all trying it out and it seems to be working!  We have become quicker in the mornings which is easing up on everybody’s stress level.  We are a happier group and are more capable to serve our customers.  It feels good to add something that people seem to be taking in a positive way.  wahoo!

My aunt contacted me and the rest of my family about creating a website for us to use as a communication medium.  I’ve been working on that a lot but have come across some issues when creating the tutorials.  For some reason, i can’t get my microphone to pick up my voice very well… so the sound is very quiet.  If people get involved, it could be a great way for us to all communicate and comment to each other… simple and accessible everywhere.  I hope to get it fully up and running by the end of next week.  high hopes!

And lastly… i’ve been working on my computer (for the last two days straight…including about 12 hours today) to install a new operating system.

Apple OS X is fine and some people really like it… but that is not me.  I watched many people around me getting new mac books and macbook pros and i would react with enthusiasm.. that was mainly for the hardware… i couldn’t really care less about the operating system.  I just don’t really like looking at and using it.  …so i switched.

I am now fully functioning on ubuntu (oo-boon-too).  Ubuntu is a linux operating system. which means it is totally free (including every program ever created for this type of operating system) and completely modifiable (including every program ever created for this type of operating system).  It is clean and totally unbloated like windows… and much prettier and compatible with things than apple.  so, i installed it and wouldn’t you know it, this operating system has trouble communicating with the type of wireless card in my powerbook (broadcom).  so i spent all day looking, researching, testing and restarting trying to solve this problem.. and i did.  i am surfing the web using my wireless card as i type!!  the second problem i came across were for the drivers for my touchpad… but a bit of editing of the configuration file was all it took and i am proud to say that i fixed a couple of minor problems and have a smooth running and beautiful operating system here.  Here is a screenshot of how clean and simplistic it is:

Here’s to happy computing!!

(bill… i know how disappointed you probably are… we’ll talk later)

-wil

i finally dove into the deep task of making the wedding photo selections for our album. i knew the task would be daunting- sifting through 8 discs with 100+ photos on each- so i put it off as long as i could. but with a new semester already started, i knew i would be better off if i just sat down and got it done now, before i got too far into the senior year.

of course, once i sat down and started the process, i have really enjoyed going through the photos again (it honestly had been a while!) and re-remembering certain moments of that day. i also forgot how many beautiful images there were. i can’t wait to send off my “list” to our photographer and see what he comes up with. maybe wil will actually allow this book to sit on the coffee table like it’s meant to (he has a strong aversion to anything laying on our coffee table except for the remote and his pepsi!). here is the site to get an idea of what the album will be like. and since our photos are no longer online, here are a few of my recent favorites:

 

in other wedding photo talk, it looks like wil, me, and the family have been on display recently, at the starbucks on wall street in bend. we were honored and excited to find out that our photographer, who currently is displaying his work on the walls, decided to use many of our photos from the wedding. we’re celebrities! if you’re in the area and if either of our proud mom’s haven’t already told you, stop by and check them out for us!

hopefully, wil will be the next one to write…he mentioned writing today, but since he’s already at work for the night, it looks like it might not happen. so i figured i’d hop online to break up the lack of posts. we are excited you guys read this often enough to bug us for new news!

as i sit on the couch, munching on an ice cream cone and watching reruns of the office (september 21st!), i figured i’d update everyone on life…

• our little madam spirit of grace is growing like a weed… i stood on the scale with her a couple days ago and she is already 35 pounds, at a few days shy of 3 months old! she’s been great at learning new commands and tricks, with sit, down and shake basically figured out. we still have come, stay and heel to tackle…in time, i guess. she’s definitely in the toddler stage- she goes “deaf” when she chooses not to pay attention to us, she goes bonkers a few times a day running circles around the house, and she totally feels the need to have her mouth on EVERYTHING. we’ll take her to the vet on saturday for her puppy check up. *also, i’ve put some new pictures in her album.

• just before the wedding in fresno, i finished my thesis, wrapping up my summer class (i got an a!), and after not much time, i am already in class again with the fall semester starting today. my schedule is fairly open, with only 3 classes, but one of those is my senior major studio which will definitely consume my mind, time and energy for the next few months. hopefully once i start making some progress on the project i’ll have sketches, designs or photos to share.

• wil’s been working hard, almost full time, but still loving it. starbucks had an event called “open forum” on tuesday, for all the supervisors, managers and higher in the nashville district (and farther), and i tagged along. the afternoon consisted of presentations by the district managers, q&a, and awards/recognitions, and then a company-provided banquet and bowling, all at dave & busters. what i thought could be awkward or boring, ended up being really interesting. being a fly on the wall, i got to see the parts of the innerworkings of starbucks…as many times as i have heard how great starbucks is to it’s employees and customers, this meeting made it obvious to me in a few ways that people really are the driving force of the company. it was also great, personally, to find a new sense of pride in my husband’s job there…whether it’s pursuing management in a store, working in corporate or even in a coffee plant (a new sense of interest for him)

• it looks like we might be getting new windows and a slider door installed. after speaking with a man from the company and seeing the models, we had a guy come out and measure for a quote (this all being done due to the other construction in the development). it will probably be a big chunk of money for us to to spend so early on, in addition to the new siding (we didn’t really have a choice in that), but it will be so helpful when we decide to move and sell the place. our current windows are old, metal and difficult to use. the new ones will look great, work smoothly, clean easily (they tilt in and out), and maybe even save a bit on heating and cooling by being better insulated. even if it pinches to spend money on something like that, i know it will be so worth it in the long run, plus make our house that much nicer to live in.

that’s it for now. i guess i should get up and make this afternoon off worthwhile by running a few errands while grace snoozes in her crate (ahh the temporary, but quiet solitude!). have a great weekend, and please email me (or wil) if we haven’t spoken in a while… i’ve allowed too much time to pass between correspondence with a few of you out there!

-kris

we got our futon a few days ago…here’s grace posing nicely next to it (notice anything dena?). it currently is lacking it’s cover (which hides the frame and makes it look less like a futon) which is hopefully not far behind the rest of the shipment, but otherwise, i think it’s a nice addition to our office! and for those that will be staying with us…i promise you won’t be sharing it with the dog.

-k

since my cousin came up from california to my wedding, i thought it only considerate to return the gesture and head out to hers. a quick flight out on a saturday, wedding on sunday and then jet home on monday, right? only one missed day of work, only one full day away from wil, and a chance to see family that i hadn’t in a while.

well, it all started out great. i had all morning on saturday to get ready…i rolled out of bed, placed the finishing touches on my thesis (for wil to drop off on it’s due date, monday), and threw some things in a carryon for the trip. the two flights went smoothly and before i knew it, i was rolling off the plane into my mom’s welcoming embrace outside baggage claim (*skipping baggage claim for the first time, yay!).

we had a nice time together, being with dena, josh, the kids, mom and dad, nana and papa, pop, and matt. sitting in the sun, lunching at in-n-out, watching golf on tv, and grabbing some goodies at trader joes…the wedding was in the afternoon, and immediately upon sitting in our seats we were drenched in sweat as the ceremony was directly in the sun on a hot, open deck overlooking a golf course. but fortunately for us, the ceremony broke a new record in speed and we were up in the beautiful (ahem, airconditioned) dining hall in no time. we had a good time, chatting with family, dancing and munching on cake and food.

after saying our goodbyes we headed back to the hotel, where we enjoyed the pool in the evening warmth for a bit. not long after, i gave dad a lesson in owning his first ever ipod (for his birthday). i really enjoyed the whole evening, but i was already dreading the following day, which would be a full day of flying with three connections (fresno to l.a. to dallas to nashville), leaving the hotel at 7 am and not arriving in tennessee until 8:30 that night. mom piled me up with some miscellaneous wedding leftovers so i had to check my expanded bag on…no biggie- i figured that would be better than lugging it around three airports.

well, i should have taken it as a warning when my first flight was delayed into l.a., but with such long layovers i figured i would be ok…boy was i wrong. upon approaching my next gate i found out my flight to dallas was delayed. it was continually set back hour after hour….4 hours past and i was just now getting on the plane, already missing the following flight. with the reassurance that we could fix things in dallas we all boarded the plane, only to be told that the flight was now cancelled and we’d have to get off. since the entire plane full of passengers now had to be dealt with, it was another hour and a half in line until i could find out that i wasn’t going to be getting out of l.a. until 7 the next morning!

thank goodness mom and dad had plans of driving down to grams’ that morning; i immediately called them to pick me up at this airport so i could stay with them at grams’ and to give me a ride in the morning. being the wonderful family they are, and an hour later, around 4:30 (9 hours at an airport at that point) i was saying hello to them again and riding back to the house in a comfy car. as nice as it was to see them i can’t deny that i was completely exhausted and somewhat cranky from the long day of waiting with no end in sight. but i had a great night, eating japanese tempura at a place where the little lady would bang on a drum every time a guest entered, barely seeing a corner of a frank gehry concert hall through the l.a. traffic, and playing with austin’s toys with dad in an oversized chair in grams’ cozy family room.

the alarm at 4:30 in the morning was definitely that last thing i wanted to hear, as i was curled under the down comforter in the window seat. but i was on a mission to get home! even if i had absolutely no control over the timing and navigation of my flights, i was determined to make it home. another day up and down in the air, and i finally landed in nashville, to see my sweetie ready to pick me up. it felt so good to see him…even though i was only gone an extra day, i feel like the airport sucked away a week of time. seeing the pup was great too (she looked so big!), even if she didn’t remember me at first…but it only took 15 seconds or so for her to realize that it was just her ‘mom’ she was hiding from, and then i couldn’t keep her off me for the next 10 minutes.

of course, as i would have expected, i did not, in fact, get my luggage. even though the agent who transferred my flights claimed he transferred the bags as well, it was not there in nashville. at that point, i didn’t really care. i did start to care though, when they called at about 11:30 pm, saying they would be delivering it that night. and i cared even more when they dropped it off at our house at 3:00 AM. who knows why they felt like they couldn’t just wait till the morning when normal people are awake to deliver it.

airlines…

-k

that’s what i am…

so, remember way back when, a couple weeks ago when i said that i hadn’t filled up my tank since july 2nd? well… i still haven’t stopped at a gas station to fill my car. i am running on 1 month old gasonline!!!

my gas gauge reads just under half a tank… so my new mission in life is to make it two months on 1 tank of gas!! that will put me at september 2nd. two months, only one tank!! only $25 dollars!! i am dumbfounded.

wish me luck at my new endeavor. =D

-wil

today i was reminded of the joys of living so close to the downtown area of franklin.

this afternoon my pooch and i took a ride over to omore to visit kris while she was working on her thesis. i left gracie and headed downtown for some eats and to see some friends. my first stop was the good ‘ole starbucks on the corner for an ice water fillup and the purchase of a local newspaper. i said hello to kim and laura who were eager to see the pup, and were disappointed at my lack of dog. i took my ice water and gulped down half of the 32 oz bottle. (it was a hot one today… again).

from the bux i waltzed down to the local irish pub and sat at a table along the sidewalk. i was under the awning and in the shade, so the heat wasn’t too killer. i promptly ordered a pint of guiness (my favorite) and some classic irish chips (fries smothered in melted cheese, bacon bits, sour cream and chives). i looked through the newspaper trying to find something interesting to read to no avail. no big deal… people watching was a natural substitute.

after my lunch i walked up to dion’s south (a local salon). i know several of the girls that work there (they come into starbucks quite often for some treats and drinks); it is also the place where kris got her haircut recently. well, shannon… the ‘apprentice’ offered to cut my hair if i would stop by and make an appointment. i said hello to my hair-cutting friends and booked a time with the great shannon. she’ll cut my hair for free since she is an apprentice and not yet a stylist! woohoo!

a quick walk back to the school to pick up my dog and car was the close to my short afternoon out. the pup was sleeping on the floor, under a desk while kris and her friends were all typing away on their computers. i grabbed her and we took off toward home.

i’ve realized that kris and i don’t take enough advantage of the fact that we live so close to downtown. we could spend our summer evenings walking up and down main street and relaxing outside… but all too often we find ourselves sitting inside watching some tv or computing away. it’s my goal to spend at least three days a week outside of our house.. whether it be walking to the dog park across the street, heading into nashville for a night on the town, or chilling in franklin for a night on … the other town. it was a great afternoon and a fantastic way to enjoy this small place where kris and i find ourselves.

-wil