.jeri.

Hi everyone,

It's been a busy week. I'm glad I set a few posts to publish automatically, because otherwise, this blog would have been completely neglected. This week shouldn't be much better. I'm not getting a lot of time at home these days.

The weekend was surprisingly better than Ric and I expected it to be. We knew we had Ric's grandma's funeral on Saturday, so we went out on a double-date with Rob and Dee on Friday. We went to the Bottle Room (<-- This is where I would insert a link, if only they had a website. I'm amazed how many restaurants don't think to create websites to support their businesses.) and we had some small portions of expensive food and plenty to drink. It's one of the newer bars in uptown Whittier, and apparently it's not as much of a scene as some other bars, which made for a great place to just have a couple drinks and catch up with friends. If you ever go there for food, I recommend ordering sides, because there's more bang for your buck with the fries and mac & cheese. I ordered the special of the night, which was scallops, and ended up with a nice place of two whole scallops.. I paid $5 a piece, apparently.

Saturday morning we drove out to the Palmdale/Lancaster area for Ric's grandma's funeral. We were preparing for a long and hard day, but forgot that funerals can also be a great chance to catch up with family. There were some family there who had never met Ric, or who hardly recognized him. It was great to hear people saying how much Ric and his brother look like their father, and Ric in particular. One cousin(?) even brought some money from Vietnam that Ric's dad had sent him during the war and that he had been keeping in his collection since the 60s. Grandpa held up the best he could. He was worst before the ceremony began, and then once the memories started coming out, I think he was able to focus on just celebrating Grandma's life, rather than the fact that she's gone. Everyone seemed to like the service, which focused on her best attributes, poked fun at some of her quirks, and acknowledged but didn't overemphasize her faults. We all had refreshments served by the church after the ceremony, then Ric and I packed up all the flowers and took them back to Grandpa's house. We hung out there for a while and then decided to drive home to visit a little while with Ric's brother's family, who are staying a couple days in La Mirada.

Sunday we went to Sunday school and then came home to take it easy for a couple of hours. I got my Kurosawa reading done in time to go out with my sister to see Nightmare Before Christmas at the Whittier Village Cinemas. Things have been so hectic and the El Capitan's calendar has been so limited, that I just wasn't able to make the trip out there this year. I will definitely do so next year, though, because it's just not the same in a tiny little movie theater where the whole audience isn't all that excited to see the movie. Afterward, Ric and I went to his parents' house to hang out with the family for the night.

Yesterday, right after work and class, I joined Chrystal for an evening at Disneyland. I was in pain before I got there, so it was a long night even though we had just a few hours there, but we did have fun. We waited in a long line for Space Mountain (the Halloween theme was definitely overrated), got some food, hung out in front of the castle for the fun Halloween fireworks show, then hit up Pirates and the Jungle Cruise before the park closed. I came home and crashed on the couch for a couple hours watching tv with Ric and then headed to bed.

Up this week:
Tonight I need to kick things into gear for my Halloween costume for work. I need to get out to Target to buy a few things, then I need to do the grocery shopping I didn't do yesterday. Wednesday, we have a movie night with Ryan and Amy. Thursday I need to buy party decorations for our office Halloween lunch. Friday, I think we're leaving for the Andersons' home for the weekend, which will kick off the much-needed vacation we're taking next week! Meanwhile, work will be busy with some irritating number crunching I have had to drop everything to work on, plus I've got report-writing training all day today. Our Bocce league is starting up again too, so I'll be busy with that tomorrow at lunch. Honestly, I'd just like to lie down for a while. I'm tired!