The Holtonian

I went to a Wedding... I think

So apparently Roe likes me or something... just go check out his blog... its odd.

But we had a great weekend this weekend. We had a 4 weddings and a funeral, minus three weddings and minus one funeral... so really only one wedding to speak of.

The man of Steele got married. Mr. John Steele. Friend from Covenant/Catacombs/Cornerstone, basically the C connection. But it was a great wedding, the priviledge of the first in the new Cstone facility. The reception was down at Miller Plaza which is always nice to have a party at. I mean the weather cleared up just in time and the rain stayed away till it was over which was great. Plus they had wine...yellow tail... its pretty much my favorite wine with the word yellow and tail in it. So yeah... I don't really remember much... though I took some pictures of things to help jog the memory...

But seriously it was a great time
Here are Pictures...

Here's Roe... I think he doesn't like his nose being photographed or something

So yeah wine is good thing. Sometimes too much of a good thing. But it was a good time gotta love weddings. Unless you don't know the people then its boring. But even then it can be sweet seeing the lovey dovey groom and bride so anxious for what lies ahead. And I'll stop now.

Work, Cubical Realty, Pastoral Vacancy, and Cardinals... all the good stuff

So not much has been going on lately, at least not much I want to address to the whole world. I might have the possibility to go up to the home base of my company up north. It could be a good opportunity to get my name out there. THough apparently it is already out there and my name has come up several times to head up special projects but I get beat out for more experienced people. Funny thing is, I never hear or know I'm up for any of this stuff. I just hear after the fact. Oh well. So my job is going good. Though I would like to roll into something with a little more of a mental challenge. I'm the type that once I master something I want to move on and do different things... not necessarily tougher things, but things that I haven't mastered yet. I think something should open up soon, just keep on hoping. And in the words of Joe Dirt, "life's a garden, dig it!" Man that was a wise red neck.

But in other news, I got to change to a more private cube which is great. Cube location is key in the corporate world. A crappy cube is a sign of a low man on the totem pole. If you have a good cube, where no one can see what you're doing, that is by far the best cube. My cube is great, I could pull a Kastanza and go to sleep underneath my desk and no one would be the wiser... have no fear mom and dad, I will not sleep on the job, but its nice to know the option is there.

Its not so much that I desire cube privacy so that I can do nothing all day but look at Yahoo and check the internet, no that got old about a few months ago. Mainly I want the privacy to get away from people, I mean I'm not super popular Fonzi at work by any means. But its nice to be off the beaten Cube path and be able to work without as many distractions. Plus the way my cube used to be I would always get snuck up on by people because I'd be jamming to my tunes then turn around and realize someone had been standing there talking to me for about 5 minutes.

Our Pastor's Leaving if you saw Roe's blog. Some Ohioan church called him to their church, so my idea is to get a massive redrover game going on between churchs and start calling other pastors. "red rover red rover send Joe Novenson right over..." and basically we'll get a massive army of pastors and rule the OPC WORLD! Which is really not that big so its like being president of Lithuania.

But I'm bummed to see the pastor who married me and wifey leave. I mean he was my first pastor in a sense. I didn't belong to a church prior to the Cstone. But I understand the move, sometimes its time to move on. Its like the Ateam or the Incredible Hulk, sometimes you do the good deeds, and you got to ride off into the sunset and help the many other helpless people. Come to think of it Pastor Bob does resemble Bruce Banner a little bit... and he always has this weird sad music when he drives home from church. Plus one time I told him I was doubting Infant baptism and he turned real green and started picking up pews and throwing them... it was kind of scarry... So i did what any good Presbyterian would do... I yielded to the Church's authority and wisdom on the subject and said, "Ok pastor bob... I'll do the infant baptism thing... just put down the pew..."

But on a serious note We'll really miss his leadership, sense of humor, and fellowship... and of course his pastoring. "YOu better treat him right Ohio... Or I"M COMING AFTER YOU!!!! YOU THOUGHT CLEVELAND ROCKED BEFORE, WAIT TILL I BRING THE SMACK DOWN! SO TREAT P BOB RIGHT OR ELSE!" Sorry I was turning into the Incredible Holton... similar to the Hulk, only instead of getting big, green, angry, and strong I get, angry, hungrier, sweaty, and tired.

In other news the Cards tore up the Dodgers, which is good. The Dodgers I think have had an easy run so far. They still lack the good Starting pitching like they did last year. They seem to get lucky as far as that goes. Though Lowe is a a good addition, he got lit up tonight, but i think he'll settle down. Plus when Gagne comes back they'll have a great bullpen and probably won't even need a starting pitcher. Their offense is great too with Bradly, Drew (he's ok, but won't have a season like last year ever again), Hee Seop Choi (possibly the largest Asian next to Yao, 240lbs and 6ft 5. HUGE!), and Crazy man Kent who is possibly the biggest jerk or just that good. I mean you gotta respect Kent for going toe to toe... sort of... with Bonds. I mean they had it out back in the day.

But the cards are rolling so that's good. I'm really digging Gruzalanek, i like his style.. and his name though i can't and don't desire to spell it right. Then there's So taguchi... the smallest asian in baseball. I weigh more than that guy and I'm 3 inches shorter.... granted i'm overweight but lets not split hairs. Anyway the Cards handled themselves ok against the west. A good first outing and I think next time around they'll do even better.

nothing doing

Not much going on right now...
      Crabbs came up, see crabb's blog for details.
      Wife's babysitting/nannying and fixing up the house where she can.
      I'm working.
            that's pretty much it.

Go Cards..

I wish I could say the cardinals were amazing, but they're beating up on the midwest teams that currently are all under 500 so its not much to brag about. Plus they only got one out of three against the Bravos which was rubbed in at work pretty much all day monday. But they're taking the Reds back behind the shed, which is always good, and doing it with out a dominating offense and more defense and pitching which is a nice change from last year. I think by season's end Rolen will be rested, i think he's getting his hurtness out early in the season. Well I better hury up because my dang wife keeps bugging me..... she says this isn't interesting so i better go.

Visiting the Folks and St. Louis

The wife and I traveled up to St. Louis to see my folks for the weekend. It was a good trip, but that drive is getting old fast.

We got up around 8Pm on friday and pretty much just sat around and talked then went strait to bed. We did the typical holton thing which is sit around in the morning on the weekend and drink about 18 cups of coffee each. We took up some good stuff (greyfriars) as well as some homemade biscotti made by the wifey, and some new mugs for their brand new redesigned kitchen. Sadly enough I don't have any pictures of this fabulous kitchen. The four of us went out to the wife's favorite chain restaurant: Cheesecake Factory and we all managed to eat too much. I got the four cheese pasta, pretty much my standard there, wifey got the chicken club which is pretty dang good, mom got some sort of asian chicken appetizer, and dad got the soup and sandwich. Very good. Then mom and wifey walked around the Gag-a-ria (St. Louis term for the Gallaria the obscenely large mall in Richmond Heights).

Then I just sort of hung out at home with Copper and mom and wifey toured some of the st. louis boutiques in search of deals of sorts. I ended up watching Jason X on tv, which I had sadly enough seen the ending of at some earlier point in history. What a sad movie, sad as in horrendously terrible, possibly the most contrived movie in history.

Then we went to a restaraunt where my mom's friend's son is the chef. It was a St. Johnsesque quality type restaurant but more casual in atmosphere. Wife and I ordered the lamb which was amazing and we topped it off with some cheesecake that was dang dang good.

Then the wife and I went to see Jason Harrod play in Clayton at the Hanley Baptist Church's Vox coffee shop. I get Jason Harrod's emails regarding tour dates and what not and we had sort of planned to go see him play at the Vox if we had time while in St. louis. We had the time so we snuck into the show. We were mostrously late but still managed to catch an hour of the show, luckily for us he had an opening band and also he played for a dang long time. It was a great set and seeing him in action was pretty stinking cool.

I kind of became a fan of his in the past year after just hearing his cd in the background while playing cards with the Crabbs. Wifey liked the music of him and Funk right away and I picked up on the hint and bought her their live Album from Calvin College. Though, I had heard Harrod and Funk prior to the Crabbs encounter though I didn't know who they were. I actually have a bootleg from one of Jason's shows that I inherited from Roe. Problem is its on a minidisc and I can't seem to get the darn thing off the mini disc. So anyway in the past few months I've sort of become a pretty big fan of his enjoying his music imensley. We introduced ourselves after the set and tried to coax Jason into coming down to Chatty for a concert. We bought his new CD, which we listened to a few times on the drive back. I'll probably give a review of it later this week after I have some time to digest it. We also bought Living In Skin as we didn't have that CD either.

Also for those interested I saw Matt Novenson and his new baby at the concert, though I don't really know him, just know of him and recognize him from Covenant so I didn't say "Hi" as I thought I would look like a dork, though I look like a dork regardless of who I say "hi" to. But for those wondering he is alive and in St. Louis.

Then today we went to Shnucks and picked up some St. Louis Necessities: Mama Lucias Pizzas,
a King of the Hill Sandwich, sourdough bread, and Gooey Butter Coffee Cake.
I love Shnucks, those are some dang good little Shnuckers. For those who don't know, Shnucks is about the best grocery store in the world, its amazing and so St. Louisey. A lot of the stuff they sell is only St. Louis stuff, such as Gooey Butter Coffee Cake, Mama Lucias, Shafley Beer, and Fitzs Root Beer (which can be purchased at Greyfriars and is dang good Root).
Oh the source of so many of my many pounds... the gooiest, butteriest, coffeest cake there is....

So it was a great weekend. My folks house looks pretty good....

this is grass...

we never had this growing up. Between driving a go cart throughout the back yard and two pooping dogs we had a terrible lawn. But I guess all that dog fertilizer paid off because now their lawn is lush and green as all get out.

Also Concerned/Hunt: Your car is good, here it is....

Here is mom loving and taking care of it...

Fun time with the folks...

FYI, the pics that are blurry are because I edited them and Microsoft just loves to mess with the quality when I mess with the demensions.