After a day at the Puyallup Fair with the wife and her mom where we ate too much and walked our feet off, my wife and I had a quiet evening at home.  Then, I had an idea for something we could do together, put together a Lego set.  See, I picked up Mrs. Puff's Driving School from the Lego Spongebob Squarepants line at the local Wal-Mart at $30 less than retail ($20 is what I paid for those keeping score).  She agreed and we went at it.  I organized the pieces and acted as quality control and she was the primary builder.  A couple hours later, we were done:

And just in time too.  My friend Jimmy, a regular on the TFW2005 boards, found the Wal-Mart exclusive Fracture for me yesterday and stopped by our apartment tonight to drop him off and visit for an hour before visiting another friend of his.  He actually found a few, but can't seem to find too many locals interested, so he'll return them if no one bites.

Good family, friends, times, and new toys made for a great day (listed in order of importance).

... a guy I see at least once a year at the annual local Transformers convention I help a friend of mine with came into my work.  We gave each other acknowledging glances as I was in the back working and he was browsing the comic books.  When I was able to, I got to the back counter and he approached me with some sad news.  His friend Don, one of the nicest guys I've ever met and a fellow fan of Transformers, passed away at the end of March from a heart attack.  He was only 42 years old.  I was stunned to say the least.  This was a guy who had a passion for everything.  I remember running into him at Wal-Mart with our respective wives and he showed off the finished product of a tattoo on his arm that was in the works for a few years.  It was a cool dragon with a Decepticon insignia over it.  Don also seemed to have an endless supply of cash at CybCon, the Transformers convention mentioned earlier.  He always won whatever he bid on at the auctions.  But, if a child was bidding on something, even if he really wanted it, he would back off.  Don was a class act all the way and CybCon will not be the same this year without him.

Later, I went to Taco Bell for lunch and met up with two of my coworkers by accident.  I ordered last and go my food before Terrance, the young man who ordered before me.  I started to eat as he went to the counter to see what happened to his order.  Now, I'd ordered some new huge box lunch thing, so there was a lot of food on my tray.  After finishing the first wrapped cheese thing, Terrance comes back with his order, followed by an employee.  She looks at my tray and says, "This not what you ordered, yes?"  Confused at what she meant by her broken Engrish didn't help, I stared blankly at her.  She proceeded to take a quesadilla and another wrapped cheese thing from my plate saying, "You no pay for this.  Is not your order."  And walked to the back.  I was confused until I realized that they put Terrance's order on the same tray as mine, but didn't call his receipt number, only mine.  I wanted to complain about her rude attitude and lack of proper grammar skills, but we all just had a laugh over it instead.  Stupid Taco Bell employees.

We attended a wedding for a long-time friend of ours, Brenda Sawyer (now Adamson) yesterday in the scorching 90+ degree heat in Yelm, Washington.  It was held at the Plantation and while nice, it lacked an important feature considering it's location and the weather yesterday; air conditioning.

We'd never been to a Buddhist wedding before, though we have been to a couple Buddhist ceremonies previously.  Instead of psalms and readings from the bible, which we're well used to, there was chanting and drinking of sake by the bride and groom, Tamaz Adamson.  They exchanged vows, tossed the bouquet and garter, cut the cake, all the usual wedding stuffs.

We had the fortune of sitting next to an older Japanese woman who talked our ear off throughout the day.  Due to the noise, I could only make out every 5th word or so.  I followed my wife's cue, who heard more than I did, and nodded along when appropriate.  She is a sweet lady and I think she enjoyed having a young couple to talk to.

In-between the service and the bride and groom's initial going through the buffet line, I overheard the officiator telling some people the buffet line was open.  I thought it was odd, but I was hungry, so I told my wife and we followed the small crowd.  Just as I was about to dish up, they told everyone that went early that the bride and groom needed to go first.  I was so embarrassed and found myself glaring at the officiator on occasion throughout the rest of the time we were there, though I suppose I should have remembered from my own wedding.

After the couple lit a memorial candle for Brenda's parents, both of whom passed away - her Mom two years ago, and Tamaz' mother, who passed away just the day before, we had a moment of silence and then it was off to the buffet line.  The food was pretty darn good.  I won't bore you with the details, but it was good enough to warrant a second pass through for some of the more delectable treats.  The wedding cake was yummy too.

After the money dance, we made our way home, thankful for a beautiful day for our friends new life together and that the Kia Rondo comes standard with air conditioning.

From the 6th grade through most of my high school days, I had a best friend named Paul.  Sometime during high school, he moved from Tacoma to Everett with his parents and we slowly drifted apart, but I would visit him occasionally and we talked on the phone often.  A year after we graduated, I got a call that he was getting married and he wanted me in the wedding party.  Here's where things go awry.  I was (and in some ways still am) a momma's boy and Mom didn't like the idea of me driving from Tacoma to Everett so she managed to talked me out of it and I told my best friend in all the world that I wouldn't be there on the most important day of his life.  We would talk on occasion after his wedding, but eventually we lost contact.

Throughout the years, I've tried to get back in contact with Paul, but every time I get close to finding his phone number, it would cost money and usually quite a bit.  It may sound cheap of me, but all I wanted was a phone number and didn't think that I should have to pay $50 or more for what should be free information.  So, every once in a while, I would try only to be blocked by large fees.  Looking back, maybe I should have just coughed up the dough.

Yesterday, I decided to try again and got a lot more information than previous attempts, just no phone number.  I really felt compelled to find him this time around, mainly to let him know about my Dad's passing since he knew my parents so very well.  Then, I remembered his Dad's name and got a phone number!  I jotted the number and called.  His Mom answered and soon we were reminiscing about days gone by almost 20 years past.  She graciously gave me her Son's phone number and after a couple minutes of crying with joy, yet fearful of what I would say and what he would say, I called.  He was taking a nap.  So, I left my name and number and hoped and prayed he would call back.

He did.

We must have talked for almost 3 hours, catching up on things and remembering embarrassing times we shared.  Halfway through the conversation, I brought up the wedding and gave him a long-overdue apology.  He told me that he hadn't thought of that in years and though he was mad at me, and rightfully so, for a long time, he was over it and told me not to hold onto regrets.  For the first time in almost 20 years, I've felt like a great weight was lifted from my shoulders.  My heart feels less heavy now.

We've made tentative plans to see each other during the summer sometime after baseball season is over (he coaches for one of his sons) when they'll be less busy.  I'm really looking forward to seeing him after all these years and meeting his family.  Since he live near his parents and sisters, I'll get to see them again too.

I'd like to think my Dad had a hand in getting my friend and I back together again.  If it weren't for him passing away, I wouldn't have felt the need to contact Paul again after all these years.  Granted, I would still like my Dad to be around.  I miss him terribly so.  But, I am glad to finally be reunited with the best friend I've ever had, not counting my wife of course - that's different.  Thanks, Dad.  It's nice to know you're still looking out for me.

A long-time poster to the boards at TFW2005, Transformers customizer, and local fan by the name of Kevin who posted as "Vector" passed away at 4am this morning from heart failure. He touched many lives and will be greatly missed. You can view the thoughts of our fellow fans and share your own in the thread his wife started here.