Last Bridal Shower

Hosted by First Baptist Church - Grapeland, TX

Beautiful table

Embarassed bride

Click here for a link to all the photos

Thanksgiving 2009

Wednesday we (Doug, Dee & Jackie) flew from Dallas to Minnesota (Karl flew from Houston to Minneapolis)...we all stayed overnight with the Swanson family in Rosemount,MN. We enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner with them before leaving for Crystal MN for the annual Kuklenz Thanksgiving/Christmas spectacular.

Karl & Jackie sporting their hats/scarves before the Tail Gate Party Friday night.

Diane & Jackie sporting their hats/scarves before the Friday Night - Tail Gate Party

Grandma & Grandpa put a great deal of thought and creativity into the

Friday Night Tail Gate Party.
The hamburgers and brats were awesome.
A "little" exercise "around the block"
Fun with the Kuklenz trivia

Tail Gate - Family photo
Followed by the Christmas Gift Bag exchange

Click here for all the photos from our trip

Dee's weekend with the kids

Friday, I drove to Huntsville, TX. I did a few errands for the wedding in Huntsville. Then headed to Jackie's dorm apartment. She made dinner (tacos) for her boyfriend Jonathan and ME!!. They were yummy. After dinner Jonathan & I attended Jackie's choir performance. We were met by Jill and Josh who also attended the concert. I love getting to hear Jackie sing anytime I can.

After the concert I drove to Karl's apartment in The Woodlands,TX. I had delivered his remaining boxes of items I had stored at the house. We enjoyed a lovely visit and it was a late night (midnight) before we went to bed. In the morning, Karl made a great breakfast of pancakes, eggs and bacon. Later in the morning, I drove to Conroe,TX to Jill's apartment.

Later that afternoon, Jill had a "pre-wedding" hair appointment in Huntsville. Below are a few photos I took at that appointment. You can double click the photos to enlarge them to view them better.

After the hair appointment, we did a few more wedding errands.
1) 4 yards of red satin ribbon for the wedding cake
2) bridal party gifts

3) guest book table items

ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC,........

Back to Jill's apartment for dinner. She made chicken wraps and Mac&Cheese. We spent the rest of the evening visiting.

Up early on Sunday morning, drove up to Huntsville,TX. To First Presbyterian Church. Jackie was playing bells and singing in the choir. Lunch at Chili's then on the road back home.
It's now 5pm and everything is unloaded and put away.

I'm ready to start the Thanksgiving week!!!

Busy Weekend

Jill was home for the weekend to help me with a few projects around the house.

1) Clean the owl cabinet

2) Clean the top of the frigerator

3) Clean the top of the entertainment center

4) Put up the Christmas tree

5) Trim some of the plants in the front yard

6) Put up curtains in the "new" guest room

Josh & Jill's New apartment

The past couple of weekends, Josh & Jill have been apartment shopping. Jill's apartment lease is up around the time of the wedding. So after the wedding dust has settled, they will be packing up and moving in together. Josh is off from college until the first of January, so they will be busy in their first days of marriage. This apartment is 25 miles from Jill's work and 34 miles from Josh's college. They will have a fun year of driving to work/school.

Below is a floorplan of the 2 bedroom - 1 bath apartment they chose.
This apartment has 935 sq ft and is located on the first floor.
Rent + garage = $740.

Jill is currently paying $735 for a 680 sq ft 1 bedroom/1 bath apartment with no garage.

The price was right to get an additional bedroom, dedicated garage space and a commute that is fair for them both.

Here is a link to the apartment property

12655 Kuykendahl Road
Apt# 2105
Houston, TX 77090

The official move will occur around the 28th of December.

Missa Solemnis

Saturday, November 7th, Jackie & I attended a local concert.

The Plano Civic Chorus performed with the Dallas Chamber Orchestra at St. Andrews United Methodist Church in Plano. The concert piece was "The Agony and the Ecstasy" by Ludwig van Beethoven.

The Plano Civic Chorus is a diverse group of more than 100 local auditioned singers.
The Dallas Chamber Orchestra includes members are internationally recognized musicians, including professors and artists in residence at Southern Methodist University (SMU) and University of North Texas (UNT).

It was a great concert!! Jackie will get concert credit as she needs to attend a total of 12 for the semester. Most, I believe are student recitals, but I think at least 3 are required to be works of classical composers.

Click here for more info on the Plano Civic Chorus

Stream Energy billing dispute

Saturday morning, I went online to set up monthly Bill Pay to schedule my electronic payments for November. I noticed that there was no e-bill for Stream Energy yet. That was strange as the last payment was made October 2nd. I should have received a bill by now. I logged into my Stream Energy account and it showed I had a bill due that date 10/31/09. Interesting.... I never received a bill, so how would I know that.

I called "the bank" and they verified by Stream Energy account number and Stream Energy billing address and state that my bank account is indeed set up to receive these e-bills. The bank has successfully received them for the past 9 months but not this month.

I called Stream Energy Customer Service. The representative stated that the bill was generated on October 14th. I explained I did not get an email notification of the electronic bill and my bank did not receive it either. I am not set up to receive invoices via the USPS. I promptly paid my bill over the phone and then asked how to submit a complaint to make sure this does not happen again.

I submitted a complaint via email to Customer Service on Saturday.

I got a call from the Resolution Dept on Monday evening. The representative stated that there was indeed an issue with their electronic billing this month. Affecting over 30,000 customers.
The rep said they would be doing a automated calling system to notify all the members affected and extend their due dates until November 19th. Since I had paid there was no issue, but if I did receive a disconnect notice to disregard it. So about 30 minutes after my call from the Resolution Dept I received my automated call.

Guess I was the first person to notify them of this issue....probably saving them some customers and avoiding thousands of people being disconnected from their electricity. Too bad there is not a energy discount for that!!

BED BUGS

Sunday evening, Jackie called me to tell me that her dorm room-mate has bed bugs.

The room-mate woke up with many red bites on her and can visibly see them on the mattress. The room-mate submitted a request to Residence Life to have it checked out.

Jackie was a little freaked out. Jackie did not see any bugs on her mattress and does not have any bug bites. So I convinced her to wait it out to see what Res Life found out.

Monday, Residence Life maintenance engineers visited their dorm room while they were both at class. Jackie found evidence in the trash of Sanitizing wipes & gloves. There were also some test tubes in her kitchen drain board. INTERESTING!!!

There was no note to provide follow-up and since her room-mate put in the request; the follow-up will probably be sent to her email.

Jackie has her own bedroom and her room-mate has her own bedroom. So hopefully the incident will be isolated to her room-mate only.

Stay tuned for Jackie's update on this "itchy" matter!

For more info on Bed Bugs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_bugs

Weekend Projects

Saturday & Sunday
Staining the new fence panels

Monday - trimming plants in the back yard