wil and kris (and gracie and ava)

Last night, Kris and i headed into cool springs to get some chores done and do some after-christmas toy shopping.  We had eight different stops to make and on a friday night… the shopping was sure to be almost dreadful with long waits/lines and over crowded aisles.

On the way to the bank (our first stop) I called ups about shipping a large package; i wanted to get a quote on how much it would cost.  While $845 dollars is way too much… the lady i spoke to was very pleasant and helpful.  It was an enjoyable conversation even though the outcome was disappointing.  What a good note to start out the night…

We pulled up to the bank to make a few deposits, there was no line and no wait… we were in and out!

Our second stop was canceled since the item to return was missing… oh well, we’ll get back to old navy some other time.

Best Buy was next.  I had some money left over from a gift card, a 50 dollar amx card from my dad, and loads of tip money to spend.  I was looking for a webcam or an old crt monitor for my computer.  I found a microsoft webcam that i like and a computer mic to go with it!  We were only at the store for probably 15 minutes and when we checked out, our cashier enjoyable and relaxed.  What luck! … here is a shot of me from my new webcam.  (live video/photo streams to come…)

Next we headed across the highway to petsmart… where we always have fun looking a pet supplies and stuff.  A nearly empty store greeted us and we walked in perusing the pet toys for something cheap and durable.  We decided that gracie’s new toy was already in the closet and she didn’t need another… so we grabbed her supplements that we came for and checked out with another pleasant cashier.

After petsmart, we went over to target to see if they had some blinds in the appropriate size for a window… they didn’t so our trip there was quick and easy.

We weren’t too disappointed about not finding anything at target since dinner was our next stop… logan’s roadhouse is always a sure hit.  We stocked up on rolls and each had a guinness.  Our waiter was perfect, he was available to us all the time, but never bugged us.  Our food was delicious and we only waited for a table for maybe 5 minutes on a friday night!  By this time we knew that the stars were aligned and we were careful not to put any dents in our already perfect evening out.

We skipped across the street to barnes and noble to pick up a new planner for Kris and a vegan book for me.  We found what we needed promptly and checked out shortly thereafter.  My vegan book will be a great guide on one of my new years resolutions… (more to come later).

Our last stop was the daunting one…. grocery shopping at wal-mart (i inserted a dash between the wal and the mart because that is the way it is supposed to be… contact kris for more information)  It turned out that our grocery shopping was easy… up and down each aisle checking ingredients for my new years resolution, we stocked up our house so we wouldn’t go hungry.  yay for food!  At the end of our visit, we were greeted by yet another pleasant, friendly and relaxed cashier, even at wal-mart!!

One thing i didn’t mention was that all night long, we would get the best, front most and perfect parking spaces at every place we went to!  It was so nice.

So, on what could’ve been a long and painful night was quite pleasant and enjoyable!  I was thinking how funny it was that all of those things really made our night; but the truth is that it’s little things like those that break our nights sometimes and when they all fall in place it’s just nice.

Have a nice day!

-wil

i’m going to be changing the look and functionality of the website in the next few days so please bare with the changes.  thanks!

-wil

*Update:

We’ve got a new layout with a few different features.  I’ve opened up some space on the right sidebar to make it look more clean… i’ve also implemented some ads which are a bit annoying to look at, but they will generate some revenue for bandwidth and such.  Don’t pay attention to them for the most part, but if you see something you are interested in, go ahead and give it a click if you please.

One feature I like is the ’shelf’ on the top of the page.  Click on the ‘navigate’ icon and it will pop down; you can click on different categories and months to search for past posts.  I plan to implement a calendar in the future if i can find some missing code for it.

Also, there are now some little icons at the top of each post for aesthetic appeal.

If you’ve got any ideas of things you’d like to see, let me know and i’ll see what i can do.  I hope you all like it and thanks for being such dedicated readers!

-wil

just want to announce to everyone the exciting news of a proposal…our dear friends cassie and mike got engaged earlier today at a local park, where they have shared many memories throughout their relationship that started in high school.we are so excited for them and the now upcoming marriage and can’t wait to get back to nashville to see the rock and celebrate with them!

we love you guys!

-kris and wil

Tonight Kris and i have been rushing around the house cleaning things, packing things and “dog-proofing” the office. we’re getting ready to leave nashville for 6 days to spend some time with our family in the great northwest! while we are extremely excited to see everyone, we are sad to go…

This will be the second time we leave our beloved gracie for more than a day and we just can’t imagine our lives without our little poochie running around the house, getting into trouble and bothering us for attention. she’s spent the last 3 days out of her crate while being home alone. we’ve been practicing since she won’t be spending too much time in her crate while we’re away. she will have several visitors come to feed her and walk her throughout the week and we just can’t keep her too contained for so much time. while spilling some ink and art supplies on the floor and chewing some cd’s… she really hasn’t gotten into anything we can’t replace or clean up. she’s such a good little pup and we will miss her very much!

It will be nice to have a break from work, although… this will be the first time i will be away from my store for more than 3 days, and while i’m not the most necessary employee, i can’t help but feel like i am deserting my team in a critical time of need. we have been topping our weekly sales for the year every week and we continue to get more and more busy. it’s hard for me to give up control of my responsibilities and i wish i could be there during those crazy-busy days. oh-well, it will be nice to get back to work after the holidays.

Our plane leaves tomorrow afternoon and we arrive back in tennessee on the 28th. it will be a nice trip out to oregon and i bet it will be cold like winter is supposed to be. … maybe we’ll even see some snow!

I wish everyone happy holidays!

-wil

I’m thinking of changing the ‘look’ of the website again. I recently set up a website for a friend of mine and had fun changing a lot of the css (styles and stuff). I want it to be something that is simple and functional, but i also want it to be aesthetically appealing. Keep an eye out for a new look in the next week or two.

-wil

p.s. click here to see the site i set up for my friend and bask in the beauty of my creation… =D

Update: The new look probably won’t take place until after christmas… you know how the season goes …

Everybody here in Tennessee is sick.  … well, not everybody; I’m not.  Five people at work, a friend or two from school and my wife, all coughing, sneezing and sniffling.  The funny thing is, it has been 70 degrees outside for the past three days and will continue to be warm until NEXT Saturday… yeesh  Whatever happened to winter, cold and snow??

To me, winter is unnecessary and stupid if it’s not cold and snowing.

with little time to spare between laura’s flight in and flight out, we knew we had to make the most of our time in the current hometown of me and wil. this is my fourth holiday season in franklin, and the first time i was in town or not busy with finals to be able to go to the dickens christmas festival along main street.

unlike any other main street festival i’ve been to, the day was a blast. meeting up with cassie and mike again (man, we just can’t ditch them!), the four of us (wil had to work and serve all the rest of the dicken-sonian characters) made our way through the bustling streets of an old victorian themed franklin. father christmas walked the sidewalks, different old time street musicians played on every corner, and hundreds of citizens dressed in period costumes, landing us right in the middle of a dickens novel.
happy to be mentally done with school and ready for holiday cheer we excitedly tried to see, hear and taste everything we could. some things i was excited to experience-
roasted chestnuts: due to the roasting, you basically peel off the shell to a soft, almost meaty center. i’d say yes to having a few more here or there.

sugar plums: i always thought these were only in the imagination of the dreaming children in ‘the night before christmas’ but alas! they are real! and not very good. maybe i didn’t like the plum…maybe it was the goopy sugary stuff on the outside. blech.

eddie: the largest dog i have ever seen, weighing in at 240 lbs! who knows why this person decided to bring their monster dog to this, except for the attention, but who cares! i thought it was a lion as we approached the huddle…this dog is the reason why i was always scared of the movie ‘the sandlot’ till i was about 16. he was really sweet when you got up to pet him though.

scrooge: how could you go to a dickens festival without saying hello to scrooge? this was laura’s main goal of the day…it’s obvious that it wasn’t too hard to get a good shot of her with him as she girlishly giggled the whole time he he kept saying ‘bah humbug’ to her.

with laura’s flight about to take off, we took a quick nap, sad goodbye to wil at work and headed to the airport. it was a very quick but full weekend and i loved sharing it with such a dear friend!

* don’t miss the post below…although in the same weekend i felt like splitting the events up, so the one below is actually from the night before.