On Sunday, we went to the Quarries to watch fireworks at Andrew’s suggestion. I was very pleased since it was so close to my house and we didn’t have to fight a mad rush of people getting in and out. Here are some pics from that:

Melissa grew fangs and so I had to drive a stake into her heart. =(

… she might come back to life next week though.

On Monday, we played video games, cooked meat, and made chili. I forgot to take pictures.

“HDR” Bazaarvoice team in front of our new building signage:

And here’re some pics of my room… but Sam ruined one of them.

Today, I played ultimate which was awesome, but my toes hurt and it was hot. It was still awesome though. My face was really red for a while afterwards… I should probably put sunscreen on it next time. After that, we watched the USA/Ghana game and grilled steak (I should say Mark grilled the steak and we ate it). Then, there was a lot of UT2004′ing (I took a nap during a few rounds of that though).

Now, I’m just chilling to some Jars of Clay. Oh, I also did more work on Samitic.us, including an under-construction Sam Ni soundboard (“Samboard”) (warning: profanity).

Tata!

I recently got the remaining batch of photos for my room which I would consider pretty much done at this point. I’ve finally finished replacing all of my pre-house furniture (aka old/cheap college stuff) with new stuff so it actually looks decent now. I’ll come back and post pics!

I’ve also developed a cough that is no fun at night. =( I think it’s allergy related, but for now, cough drops are sufficing…

I reserved an iPhone 4 at The Domain, but the line apparently has been 3+ hours for the entire day, so I think I’m going to hold off on getting one until it becomes more reasonably obtainable. Plus, I hear if you hold it wrong it drops your calls. =p

Oh, and I did a little work on the Sam Ni fan site. =)

In a few hours the 2010 IPSC (Internet Problem Solving Contest) starts. We originally thought it was at noon, but after realizing we didn’t take into account time zones, we found out it starts at 5AM. I’m about to get a little bit of sleep because the thing lasts for five hours and I hope to make it through it…

The last time Andrew, Mark, and I competed was in 2006 and we did rather poorly. We’re all a bit rustier now, I think, so we don’t expect to do any better, but it was a lot of fun last time, so we’re going to give it another go. =)

Saturday, I went to Oriana’s graduation:

Before dinner, I picked up Melissa and we made our way to Hot Topic as I prep for my next self portrait. I don’t have anything to show for it yet, but I considered the trip successful. =)

Dinner was at Perla’s:

…after that, we scrolled South Congress a bit and there was cupcake eating:

Melissa made this face impersonating me… it’s awesome:

Sunday wasn’t too eventful… I attended Oriana’s senior banquet for a bit then headed to Central Market to prepare for our Memorial Day feast, which I decided was a good opportunity to take another stab at a suckling pig.

Monday was pig day. We named this one Piglet. =) IMO, I think it turned out better than the last time (or maybe I just had better cuts). There’s still a good deal left over, so if anyone wants some…

Night!

On Friday, we had a lot of people play tower defense (I think it was nine) which was pretty fun and we finally beat the map we were playing really late at night (2AM?). I hear the StarCraft 2 map editor is ridiculously powerful, so I’m somewhat anxious to see what people come up with with that. Maybe I should actually preorder a copy…

Saturday, Julie & Dean got married! Melissa came along which made this her first wedding. Sam officiated with the “powers invested in him.” Here are some pics:

The rest are on flickr as usual.

On Sunday, I finished setting up a photo book in Aperture and ordered it through Apple. It was a bit pricey, but it’ll probably be worth it if the quality is pretty good as it was pretty convenient and gives me a good way to get physical copies of my photos. I’m somewhat anxiously waiting for it to arrive…

Of course, we watched the Lost finale as well. I’m a bit tired of talking about it so I won’t really. I would say the finale didn’t ruin the series for me, but I wasn’t really impressed with it either. That’s all ya get!

Here are a few pics from the today:

I got a new hat! This is good because my old Linux Tux one is a bit worn and it shrunk when I washed it (shouldn’t have machine dried it…) making it not as comfy. One good thing about BV is they don’t get skimpy on their free stuff – t-shirts and now, this cap, are of quality. =)

Tomorrow, more partying at Volente then I fly out to the Keys! Woooooo!

This following photo was from earlier this week on “crazy hat day.” Thanks to Eric for letting me borrow it!

A few weeks go by and we interact a bit here and there (working late at the office, group lunches, etc.). She asks if I play Scrabble, so I download Words with Friends on my iPhone and we begin playing a game. I use all of my tiles in one play and I think I’m looking good with what I feel is a solid lead. The game nears its end and she teaches me a lesson in being confident by pulling ahead and beating me by 10 points. I realize this girl probably has brains.

One night, I join Steph, Ryan, Heather, and Jimmy at Jim’s and sometime during our conversations, Heather accuses me of liking our new intern (for reasons that, to me, seemed like a stretch). I hadn’t actually thought about it prior to this accusation, so I deny and give Heather strange looks. Soon, however, with the idea in my head, I realize that yes, I have totally developed a crush.

A few weeks go by, and things like this start to happen:

1:18:13 PM thealattack:
  Meagan Martin
    omg does Oliver have a gf?
  Alastair Wilkes
    no
    single
  Meagan Martin
    cause i just saw a new asian intern that is sooooo cute and adorable
1:18:21 PM Oliver: lol
1:19:01 PM thealattack: haha
1:19:12 PM Oliver: that was totally out of the blue?
1:19:43 PM thealattack: yep, totally out of the blue
…
1:31:30 PM thealattack: sounds like you have people working for you
1:31:39 PM thealattack:
  Meagan Martin
    back to Oliver’s new girlfriend
    how do i find out who she is and set them up on a DATE
    ?

Heather and Meagan soon come up with “project jack” that’s supposed to set us up on a date. I decide that there seem to be too may coincidences pushing me to ask this girl out, so I take that as a sign and with much encouragement, I finally work myself up to asking her to dinner myself. I’m not going to get into how I asked. I feel a mix of happy/surprised when she says “sure” with a smile and I hurry off to do a code review in a little bit of a panic not knowing what to do next…

Our first date is on a Friday night. Usually, I go out with my group of friends to a new place in Austin we haven’t been before. In an email thread, I learn they plan on going to The Odd Duck, which I, of course, end up skipping out on. After dinner, I decide to take us to Gourdough’s for dessert. I pull up and realize that Gourdough’s is right next to The Odd Duck and they basically share the same parking lot and eating area. Oops. It’s too late to leave at this point, so I end up introducing her to a handful of my buddies and we all hang out for a little while. I take her home and apparently I haven’t scared her off by any of my antics (planned or unplanned) as she agrees to a second date.

It’s now been about a month since then and I must say that I’m a bit smitten. I like to joke that things aren’t official until they’re on Facebook… so…

Some BV and related folk came over on Saturday night and we played Mr.Bacon’s Big Adventure, which turned out to be pretty much like Candy Land, and a few other games in addition to that. Wrapped up the night with a visit to Jim’s which has solidified the realization that caffeine is actually doing things to me now. That’s something new for me to get used to…

On Sunday, went to Vox, then watched the USA/Canada game (grats, Canada). Took the doggies back up to Round Rock (was taking care of them while mom/sister were visiting Dallas) and now I’m just chilling at the parents’ with Oriana…

Here are some pics from a BV game night at my place on Thursday:

Tiff cleaning my sink (Yay! … and she’s crazy!):

Update: Eric made a great video montage of game night!

Okay, this post is late, I know. I’m sure all of you know it snowed yesterday. Well, did you know what my backyard looked like? Probably not!

Now you do!

On snow day, BV closed the office early, so Ryan and I went home at around 1PM. Later, I took a break from working at home and went to play some frisbee in the snow. YES, SNOW FRISBEEEEEEEEEE. Needless to say, that was quite awesome and I froze my hands, battered my shins some more, but had a lot of fun. Now I just need it to pour… then we can have POURING RAIN FRISBEEEEEEEEEEEEE…

In other news, Sam apparently has no idea how a machine dishwasher works and decided to put a bunch of palmolive hand dishwashing liquid into the machine instead of using the huge box of Cascade I have under my sink (you know, where everyone puts their dishwasher detergent). The next day, I opened it and was greeted with a bunch of bubbles and unclean dishes.

I’ve also grown a liking to bothering my sisters online…