The Bachelor Party

Da Crew

If anyone was going to ruin my bachelor party, it was going to be me. I have a bad habit when it come to people trying to do nice things for me; I don’t usually let them. That’s why, whenever anyone would ask me if I was excited for my bachelor party, I would tentatively respond with “Yeah…”. Not that I didn’t have the utmost faith in Bryce and Tony (and everyone else involved in the planning), but I had no faith in myself to actually let a group of people (guys, no less) devote an entire evening to me.

That being said, it was a great time. The first highlight of the night was Bob Davidson. That might sound strange, but Bob is a good friend, and I was really glad that he was able to make it. Of course the other highlights were everyone else in attendance: Bryce, Tony, Dan, and David.

First, Bob came over to my apartment in Madison, and we drove down to Sioux Falls together. Our first stop was Buffalo Wild Wings, pretty much the only place in town for wings that we yet know about. I ordered 6 Teriyaki and 6 Asian Zing. Bryce got really hot ones, and took them to go. Both Bryce and I were in tears. I ordered a Jack and Coke to drink, and the waitress, when she brought water, set a glass of water in front of Bob on a napkin, and then slid it over to me, and put Bob’s glass of water on the table without a napkin. This behavior made us think that he had somehow offended the young lady, but we decided not to address it.

After wings, we went to Nitwits Comedy Club, which is a couple blocks from our apartment, and we saw some stand-up. There were three performers: the first one was lame, the second one was good, and the last one was funny. I had some girly drinks there and made Bryce order them for me, which meant he had to order twice as much of his normal drinks to seem not gay in front of the wait staff.

After this, though, the plans were kinda up in the air. Dan had brought a PS3 with Rock Band, and the goal was to play it at the hotel, but the hotel didn’t have AV hookups. So, what to do? Rent a TV from Wal-Mart.

Yes, I said “rent”.

The way it works is that Wal-Mart’s return policy is pretty forgiving. At least, for now. We went in and picked out an SD TV to get. One that wasn’t so expensive that, if we couldn’t return it, we’d be stuck with a huge bill. Despite the rules, I called Holli. We were looking at HD TVs, and I thought, “Boy, those sure look nice.” I flirted with the idea of buying one. Holli told me what the wedding money that we had so far accumulated would buy, and she said she trusted my judgement. In the end, I wasn’t brave enough to actually buy one. We cavorted around town, but got to Best Buy too late. So it was back to Wal-Mart. We got the “perfect” TV and headed back to the hotel room.

Then we played Rock Band. It was that simple. The hotel room was nice, and there was a desk to put the TV on. Then we all took turns on the different instruments: guitar, guitar, drums, and microphone. Bob left first, because he had to work. Then Dan left. And eventually it was Bryce, Tony, David, and I. The next morning, Bryce returned the TV claiming, “I thought it was an HD TV.” The person responded that it doesn’t even say “HD” on the side. “I know. I’m retarded.”

That phrase apparently works for Wal-Mart’s return policy.

All-in-all, it was a fun time, and even though no one got so drunk they couldn’t remember the night, it was filled with wings, comedy, screwing “the man”, and video games; all my greatest passions with my greatest friends.

See the pictures in My Bachelor Party.

Our Honeymoon – pictures

We’ll both post about this later, but I thought I’d show off the pictures we have so far. Internet is $9.95 for 24 hours of usage, which means that this might be the only time we do that.

Our Honeymoon – Day 1: Airports, All-Star Music Resort, Disney Hollywood Studios

Our Honeymoon – Day 2: Disney Magic Kingdom

Our Honeymoon – Day 3: EPCOT, Downtown Disney, Boma’s

Our Honeymoon – Day 4: Disney Animal Kingdom with Albie

Our Honeymoon – Day 3 – Diana+

Our Honeymoon – Day 4 – Diana+

I Got A New Job

L&S

Guess who’s re-employed? Me! Before Christmas, I had interviewed with two companies and had gotten two offers. One company was a smaller, web-centered, IT place. The other was a PR and marketing firm with a large web development department. I took a long time making my decision, crunching numbers, trying to decide what I absolutely needed to live on. There were a lot of factors to consider: the new apartment (which is a considerable change in rent charge), getting married, new bills, the possibility of a second income, and more. I finally accepted an offer from Lawrence & Schiller, the PR and marketing company, and they’ve welcomed me with open arms.

I really enjoy it there. It’s a great working environment that has the stability of a large company but the flexibility of a small company. I do web-related and programming-related tasks mostly. It was a slow first week, but it has now ramped up pretty well.

The only redeemable quality that my old job had was the people. I was good friends with everyone involved, and there were only a few of us, so that made us even tighter. I wondered how (and if) I would make friendships at my new place, but it’s still small enough that I had all kinds of people giving me wedding advice and asking how things went.

I love my new job.

Cheetos

I saw a disturbing commercial tonight.

Chester kinds sounds like Morgan Freeman.

Christmas

NOTE: abbreviated post so I can get my life back I just want my kids back!

Christmas was good. We spent it the weekend previous at Hawarden, where there was an early Christmas on account of Adam and Cari being unable to be in town on the 25th. My big present there was a box of N* t-shirts. Holli did a good job of keeping me in the dark on it, and she contacted a number of people and sold them t-shirts – thoroughly undercutting any profit I hope to make off these shirts in the future. Just kidding!

Between Holli and I, we got a bathroom for Christmas. I also got Born Standing Up by (The) Steve Martin from A&C. It’s super awesome, though I haven’t had much time for it lately. Marissa got the big present: she got a new MacBook. She had to earn it, though. It was at the end of a long series of bogus presents, which was beautifully orchestrated by Larry “Puppetmaster” Gregg.

After Hawarden we went to Big Stone City. Bryce and Lindsey were back, so we got to see them. We had the usual get together at Grandma’s which ended in presents. Sue’s gift for us all was a used pack of cards. And then there was an iTunes gift card inside. I haven’t used mine yet. I’m waiting for the perfect moment. Holli and Lindsey both got presents from Sue this year.

Then it was back to the Val Rausch house. I got a snow globe, Extras Series 1 DVD, a movie trivia book, and a Garmin GPS unit from Mom. I was a little taken aback looking inside the box because half the stuff listed on the contents was missing. Then she mentioned the word “eBay”, and I knew the score. Still, the device is neat, and I definitely need to devote more time to playing with it.

The big present here went to (the youngest) Brenna. She got Rock Band for PS2. Good thing there’s a large living room there. We hooked it all up, and we played for a fair amount of time. It works with Guitar Hero II guitars, so we were playing bass, lead, drums, and had a singer. We all took turns and Dan and David and Tom came over.

Christmas Day, Holli and I headed to Sioux Falls. And a storm hit. We were driving 10 miles an hour at some points. We got to witness a collision, but thankfully made the trip just fine ourselves. The GPS brought us straight to Kevin’s place. There we had a great meal of prime rib and lobster tail. Holli and I were originally going to head to Madison, but we scrapped those plans pretty quick. At Karin’s, then, Holli broke out Pop 5, and it was a hit.

I’m sure there’s plenty I’m forgetting. It’s late at night, and all this last minute wedding stuff has a lot of us over-tired. All-in-all it was a good Christmas. Let’s do it again next year.

MacHeist II

If you are an Apple computer user, then you should check out MacHeist II. Below is a quote from their latest e-mail.

The MacHeist Bundle is back, and features an amazing roster of software from the indie Mac development community. Already the bundle features such beloved software as 1password, CoverSutra, Cha-Ching, iStopMotion, Awaken, AppZapper, TaskPaper, and as an added bonus, Speed Download. Plus, more applications are on their way… CSSEdit is just about to be unlocked for all customers, with Snapz Pro and Pixelmator as the next two unlock apps.

The bundle is $49 for eleven applications. According to them, these applications individually cost $368.75, so you get a pretty good saving off them, and 25% of your $49 goes to a charity! You should check it out, even if you don’t buy anything. I paid my $49, and I’m glad I did.

The Graduation

So, Holli graduated. After years of hard work and stress, she was finally able to accept her diploma AND to give a speech. When she heard that she was chosen to give a speech at graduation, we sorta joked that I was more of a writer, and that we could do what the President does on West Wing.

It was enticing, and then we thought, “Why not?” So, she gave me some ideas that she had, and she passed on previous speeches. She wanted a rough draft in a couple days. I toiled away at it, mentally. I finally, at 1am one morning, got something down on digital paper. It was a speech that, moments after I wrote it, I was proud of. The next morning I wasn’t.

Holli’s remarks made it clear that an almost complete rewrite was in order. My nickname of Miles “One-Draft” Rausch was dangerously close to being a sham. We were in Jersey’s, and I finally set to asking her questions that could help me get inside her mind. She wanted it to be mostly solemn with some comedy. She wanted to touch on certain topics. She definitely wanted no “Yo’ Mama” jokes, a pillar of the first speech.

So, with her encouragement and ideas, I set to writing again. I liked the general theme of “paying attention”, but it was really Holli’s ideas that I needed to express, not my own. This draft I got right. She made some additional changes to it and got to practicing it. But that wasn’t it. We made the decision to “fake out” the blogging masses. We decided that we’d both post fake speeches on the day of the speech, and I would post a video of the real speech later on. Holli posted the first draft, while I penned an entirely new version of the speech. It was a version that I knew Holli would have been horrified to give.

I did eventually post the actual speech, in video form. In retrospect, I should have titled it “The Graduation Speech” not “The Graduation”.

It was an interesting experience helping to write a speech for another person to give. You have to keep a lot of things in mind, including their sense of humor, their reading style, background, vocabulary, and personal experience.

P.S. Job search is still on. I’ll keep you updated.

I Lost My Job

Morale was low, and geeks with low morale only ever think about World of Warcraft. That is, except for myself. I, of course, was spending my time thinking of ways to be a better almost-husband. It was Monday, December 3rd, and I got into the office a little late. The drive to Sioux Falls was getting worse and worse, and I was despising the job more and more. And yet, I was loyal. I was setting my stuff down when Mike walked in.

“You’re late, so you’re fired,” he mused, humorlessly, as he entered the room. I knew by the tone of his voice that he was serious. When Mike has particularly bad news, he tends to break it with a shocking pseudo-joke which he follows up with a “No, really.” statement. He’s always had a way with easing into bad news.

The Sioux Falls branch of The CERTUS Company (hereby dubbed Certastrophe) was being shut down, and we had all been laid off. This five-man massacre was following hot on the heels of a four-man culling that took place a couple months earlier. What it meant for the other branches of the company, and John Webster, himself, I knew not. Nor did I care. Looking around the room, no one looked surprised, but no one looked happy either.

I put everything that I’d brought or owned into a plastic bag, forgetting some things I had in the fridge, and I drove all the way back to Madison. It was a long trip. The first thing that happens when you lose your job is that everyone you tell apologizes for not knowing of any job openings or they give you advice. Which is nice if it’s your first unemployment (like mine) but would probably get old if I keep losing my job.

I did try getting unemployment insurance benefits, but that was a fiasco. I tried using the draconian website, created strictly for use with Windows and Internet Explorer, and when I got all done with it, it didn’t work. Instead of allowing me to resubmit the form to correct errors, they instead chose to mail me the problems and ask me to mail back the corrections. On top of that, I accidentally put my gender down as female. So, I hate unemployment insurance, and I never did get any money from the government.

I did finally get motivated to make a resume website, the design of which I’ve since become ashamed of, but the structure of which I’m very proud of. I’ll let you know how the job search is going later.