I’ll try to gloss over the less interesting parts of my weekend instead of going in to so much detail like I normally do. One bummer is that I took no pictures. Am I not an idiot? I’m so mad at myself.
I left work on Thursday and headed west. I made it to a rest stop on this side of Bismarck and slept there for the night. I woke up for good at about 5:30 and started off again. I made it to a rest stop at the entrance to Theodore Roosevelt National Park and took a nap for an hour and then headed out again. I reached Bozeman about 2:30 and headed to Eric’s house. No one was there and the door was locked. What to do? Hmmm, I’ll head to Emily’s house to see if she’s around. I went over and luckily she was there and I hung out with her for a while. Even better she invited me to stay in a spare room she had, with a matress! I figured that would be more comfortable and convenient than staying on a futon at Eric’s place in the middle of him moving. Emily and I hung out for a bit that afternoon and then we headed over to the groom’s parent’s house for the rehearsal dinner. I saw a few old friends and met lots of family members. The food was really tasty and it was a beautiful night to have an outdoor dinner.
On Saturday morning I headed over to Eric’s place to help him do a bit of moving. I helped him move up to Missoula from Bozeman two years ago. I helped him move back down to Bozeman about a year ago. And I just happened to be in town when he is moving from a rental to a house he bought across town. I kid of course, I was happy to help him out with some of his heavier things. But it was quite a coincidence.
After helping him move I headed over to the M and went for a little hike. I went up the “vigorous” way and came down the “popular” way. It was just perfect out and the sun and the little breeze felt great. I think there was one cloud in the sky, way off to the west, and it was pretty small.
I got back to Emily’s house after my hike and there was ton’s of commotion. All of the bridesmaids and the bride were over after getting their hair done. They were getting ready with make up and ironing dresses and all sorts of other stuff that I don’t have to go through when getting ready for a wedding.
One of the bridesmaids had been downloading some music on to her computer to play at the wedding. Instead of hiring a DJ they rented a stereo and were going to hook the computer up to it and play music from there. What a great idea, huh? Well, time was getting tight an she was trying to get a few more songs but things didn’t seem to be working. She shut it off in frustration and I someone noted that I’m a computer “expert” so that I should take a look at it. So I grabbed it and turned it on. And waited. And waited.
And waited.
Finally it came up and seemed to be done booting. But I couldn’t do anything. Not even the start menu would pop up. “Hmmm,” I thought to myself, “It seems my old enemy ‘Spyware’ has returned.” So I came up with a plan. Emily had a computer of her own and cable internet. So I jumped on hers, downloaded AdAware and Spybot, and burned them to a CD. I then rebooted the clogged computer into safe mode and ran the two cleaning programs. Adaware found myriad problems and cleaned them all. Spybot didn’t find a single one and I was satisfied that the computer would run much better. By this time the entire female side of the bridal party had left. Along with all of the rest of the guests in the house. I had not changed…nay, even showered and I was supposed to head out with some other friends in about 15 minutes.
So in to rush mode I went, which doesn’t happen all that often. A very fast (but still thourough) shower. I even had time to iron my shirt. My clothes got thrown on and I was ready. The computer was left behind in what I thought was a fixed state. But I didn’t have time to test it. That would happen after the ceremony and before the reception. My friends arrived and off we went. Heading for the mountains.
