Sweet On Chip: life with wife

A Day of Fleshly Failures, pt 2

On Sunday, July 26, the entire universe turned against the newlywed McCollister's, with a four-pronged attack.

We were vanquished in Van Nuys.

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2. The WALMART

We have not seen hide nor hair of a WalMart since moving here. But Chipley located one online near the church.

After traveling back down the freeway, we followed our Google Map directions to a large warehouse that had a WalMart sign out front.

It resembled more of a K-Mart on the inside.

I winced as I placed my hand on the no doubt germ-infested handle of the shopping cart.

A Day of Fleshly Failures

On Sunday, July 26, the entire universe turned against the newlywed McCollister's.

A day full of failures, with our flesh triumphing over the spirit.

Imagine such a debacle that turned me from this:

 

To this:

 

Find out as we chronicle the day that we were vanquished in Van Nuys.

A four part series.

First up, THE CHURCH.

A Day of Fleshly Failures, pt 1

On Sunday, July 26, the entire universe turned against the newlywed McCollister's, with a four-pronged attack.

We were vanquished in Van Nuys.

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1. THE CHURCH

We started out with best intentions, leaving to visit Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, CA this week.

Since they only have one service at 10:30 AM, we woke up and left in plenty of time to get there.

But Google Map's estimated time can be deceiving, because we have learned that even if you make it to the destination's general area, finding the place and allowing for parking really takes another half hour.

Battling a maze of confusing directions, we finally arrived at a large church campus on the right that we assumed was the place. So, we went through the first entrance we could find into a huge parking lot.

Vastly huge.

Because we were behind schedule timewise, immediately we began searching for the visitor's parking area, which would assure us a close, convenient spot.

Of course, we would be wrong.

Lord of the Flies: ROUND ONE

Brian here.

I have longed to share with you an ongoing battle I have had with a group of flies since moving to Burbank.

A group of them flit around a fixed space, which just happens to be the door to our stairwell.

I take these stairs everyday to school, and every time they plague me, surrounding me in a cloud of pestilence as I vow to them their destruction.

They've brought out a very dormant, maniacal side to me.

I think it really freaks Chipley out.

Stair steps keep falling overhead.

We may be in the middle of an earthquake.

As I write this, our ceiling is vibrating.

A menacing drilling noise pounds above our ceiling.

Turns out, the apartment on top of us is under renovation.

Random thoughts flow through my head.

Sounds like they're bowling strikes up there.

Is our ceiling going to cave in?

Whoops, someone bowled a spare. That's a shame.

Fee Fi Fo Fum...is the Jack and the Beanstalk giant jumping on a trampoline?

Our kitchen lights are rattling.

"That's it, I'm going up there to see what the racket is about."

So, I headed up the stairs to the apartment above us.

Home improvement attempt.

Here's a clip I shot (on my new camera) from last Fall, when Brian was wrestling with a nail that was stuck in the wall.

The timing of the video worked out perfectly, because the recording finished right when the nail came out and threw Brian backwards.

I thought has handyman skills were cute.

Action figure awesomeness.

Anyone who knows me can verify that I am addicted to collecting.

And lately, I've found most of my collecting centers around the nostalgia of my childhood.

One of my favorite action figure lines when I was little was Kenner's Super Powers series.

Centered around the heroes and villains on the Saturday morning Super Friends show, they had all my DC Comics favorites.

Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Flash, Lex Luthor, Joker, Penguin, Robin, etc.

I remember that to "bribe" me to go to preschool, Mom would promise me a new figure at the end of the week.

I even recall the elusive Hawkman, and how excited I was when Nana and Grandad found him and brought it up to me at St. Jude's.

So you can imagine my excitement when I discovered a current line of action figures in the same spirit of the Super Powers: Mattel's DC Universe Classics.

The wonder of IKEA.

 
Well, I made it back from Florida safe and sound.

I think Brian was very happy to see me.

Just wanted to take a moment and mention a store that has become our home away from home (from home): IKEA!

This home furnishing palace is a store we visit regularly. We love their great prices.

Especially in their cafeteria, with great deals on dinners for $5-6.

Delicious hot dogs for $.50. Yogurt for $1.

And breakfast buffet for just $1!

And since the store is across from Brian's school, we were able to get most of the furniture for our apartment there.

But sometimes we'll just go to walk around and waste hour in this place.

Then we always end up finding something else we "need".

So if you come visit us, odds are we'll definitely take you to visit.

Fun Fotos revisited.

Do to popular demand, we are re-releasing the best of our engagement "foto" session with Robby Followell on the campus of Mississippi College.

These were taken about a year ago and we feel these are still the best couple pictures ever of us.

Enjoy!

Images courtesy of Followell Fotography
www.followellfotography.com

"Brian time" week.

Well, Chipley's out of town for another week in Destin with her family, so I'm "bach'in it," as they say.

Although, I'm not sure a bachelor reference is appropriate.

If you're married, you can't really be a bachelor again.

I prefer to think of it as "Brian time."

Basically, just trying to stay busy. And there's no shortage of tasks to fill my time.

On Saturday, I had a "Brian Day", where I slept in late, got up and drove around town. I went to a comic book store, and then went and explored some roads near the mountains. Turns out there's a park halfway up the mountain, and from there you can hike to some incredible views.

Of course, I had no I'd be climbing mountains when I set out, so I was only wearing sandles. Still, I got about 1/4 of the way up, and had a really good view of the city and surrounding LA area.

I only had my iPhone to take a picture, so here it is:

Along with:

Anyway, I'll have to take Chip out there when she gets back.

I'll have my real camera then.