Patrick's Birthday Party

It worked!!!

After a last minute planning session on Thursday night at Rock Bottom, we pulled off a surprise birthday party for Patrick's 37th birthday. Lucia Nogueda went and got the alcohol. Mindy Beigle offered her house for the festivities (including cleaning it). Jessica Moreno went with me on Sunday to pick up food. And Gaby Vega even went to Wal-Mart to pick up 'noise makers'.

Also a big thanks to those who arrived early to help Mindy out. Amber and Jason for finding the 20 wandering people who couldn't find the house (Mindy, don't forget to update your directions to your house - and you're getting house numbers for Xmas). Thanks to Jeff and Judy Berty for arriving early - shovelling the driveway and helping Mindy in the kitchen. I think Mike Raftery was involved in balloon duty, no doubt countless other people who helped pull it off.

There were many challenges to making this work that we must not forget. First and foremost was keeping it a secret from Patrick, which is not easy when we're sharing a one room hotel room. Also there was the threat of a 7 inch snow storm. Probably best of all was the call from Mindy at 7:00 (Patrick and I were planning to arrive 30 minutes later), because no one had shown up. And the SMS message from Lucia shortly thereafter saying that she was lost (along with the alcohol).

Oh yes, and I almost forgot - it was a challenge to get Patrick out of the car to actually walk into Mindy's house. The story was that we were all going out to dinner, and picking Mindy up. Of course, we were running a little late - and Patrick just wanted to stay in the car until Mindy came out. That would have been fun if he didn't even want to come in.

In the end it was a great success. A ton of people showed up. Lots of music and dancing. I think Patrick was still surprised even after we got home. He was really touched about the party, and it's something that we will both remember for some time. Click here to see all the pictures from the party.

Jody pushing food

Thank God I now have a photographic record of Jody (Yohn) pushing food. I don't know if she was Jewish in a previous life or what it is, but you cannot leave the woman's house without her giving you leftovers to take home. She can even do it, while holding her youngest of four, Ally (God, I hope I spelled that one right too). Fortunately, the hotel has a refrigerator.

Kathleen and MeiMei

Needless to say, when we were in Indianapolis - we saw A LOT of people. Of course, I forgot to take my camera with me with most of them, but I did get a couple shots. This one is of Kathleen (on the left, previous owner of our current house, if you can believe that one, fellow Ya-Ya, and good friend). And next to her is Meaghan (God I hope I spelled that right) - also affectionately known as MeiMei (Chinese for little sister, interesting enough). This is when we had dinner at my old neighbor's house, the Yohn's.

Joe trying to be like me again

Yes, this is Joe in a pink shirt. And yes, the photo does not do justice to the how pink this shirt actually was. Not only does it reaffirm my belief that men CAN be trained, it also shows that he's trying to be like me.

While at first he mocked Wade's pink shirt - and then pink sweater - he has know seen the value of bright colors improving skin tones. (Editor's note: I have since thrown away my pink colors after I found out that they were now trendy in the US and worn but most if not all fraternity brothers.)

Patrick at Danny Jo's Soccer Game

Here's a pic of Patty at Danny Jo's soccer match when we were in Bradford. Had a nice visit seeing everyone again - it had been more than half a year for me. And I'm glad that we were actually able to make it out there with all the crazy work things going on in Indianapolis.

Better rental than my usual car

OK, here's the rental car we have in Indy. Now normally, I wouldn't think this to be a very important picture, but it does raise some interesting points.

First of all, we're in our hometown, and we have to rent a car. That was weird. Patrick had sold his car right before we left (more like totalled it), and my Lucille had been sitting in Mom and Dad's garage. Turns out that Patrick never appreciated Lucille for the Miata that she was; and we did end up selling it when I was home. Considering someone actually approached Dad to say he wanted that 1992 Mazda Miata was taken as a sign that she needed to go.

Even though I'm not a fan of American cars, the PT Cruiser was OK. Still don't understand why they put the window controls in the center dashboard - nor why we couldn't open the back trunk without a key - but hey, it's just design.

A Return to Taco Bell

This was probably a special moment. Although I'm all into the french food right now - I must admit that I'm a Taco Bell whore. I don't know what's in a grilled stuffed burrito - and quite frankly, I don't want to know - but needless to say of all the places we missed while living in France - Taco Bell was one of the main ones. I just hope the french don't find out - since it could mean the loss of my food snob card.

Arriving in Indianapolis

OK, we made it.

Fortunately we were upgraded to business class on American. Not to be travel snob - but what has happened to airline travel on the US airlines in the past three years? The service we got in business class was more like the service you got in coach class four years ago. Quite frankly, I've had better service at Taco Bell (and I'm talking about the one downtown).

The hotel is fine and close to everything downtown. But it does seem like we drive forever to get anywhere in this town. Good to see everyone the first day when we arrived, but we're off to Bradford, Pennsylvania right away to see Patrick's family. We fiugre with the testing schedule - there's really no guarantee of being able to take the eight hour drive there easily.

Packing for Indianapolis

Well, it's time to go to Indianapolis for IIT (informal integration testing). Basically we run a whole bunch of test scripts to see if the software is going to work. We actually won't be staying at our house 0 instead we'll be down at the Residence Inn - FOR 48 DAYS !!!

Looking forward to seeing everyone once we get home.