Chillin' in Chelan

Wow! What an amazing weekend we had in Lake Chelan. The sun was shining. The weather was perfect (mid-80s), the water was cool, and the company was great. We had a total of 11 people who came out to Chelan. This trip was primarily to celebrate my cousin, Nisha's, birthday. In attendance was:

Luke
Nisha
Kristian
Bina
Emmi
Rupal
Shifa
Owen
Lisa
Joseph
Katie

When we got there we checked into our rooms. Bina and Kristian stayed at Campbell's Resort. The rest of us had a 3 bedroom condo just across the lake from B & K. The room was really neat, and the view was pretty. We went swimming in the pool and in the lake. We had lunch together where my mom, dad, Uncle Ben, and Mary Aunty surprised us. They drove all the way over there to have lunch with us. It was a pleasant surprise.

We had a great time bonding with each other, jamming out to the Thriller album, reading the Word on the deck, getting some sunshine for the white people (as the brown people hid in the shade), and playing with the ever so hyper Shifa. She was talking up a storm over there. Owen and I even planned on breaking some laws by jumping off a low bridge or even the roof of our condo into the lake. But we both felt like we'd get in trouble, so we exnayed on that.

The food was amazing. Spokane sausages are always the best. Kristian and Luke had a horrible time getting to the grill as they encountered a naked middle-aged woman inside her room with all the windows opened. Doh! :) Owen constantly would jump in the lake, even at 9:30 at night when it was even more freezing than it was in the day time. In fact, on the way back home, we stopped in Leavenworth (Luke, Nisha, Katie, me, Lisa, and Owen), and we found a river that Owen ended up jumping in. That boy is the outdoors man of the group for sure.

Lastly, Katie's aunt and uncle (with their kids, Morgan and Gabrielle) were also in town that weekend. They swung by to say hello. They even rented a boat and offered to give it to us (including an extra night at one of the rooms they booked). That was especially kind of them to do so. Isn't family great?!

Anyway, here are some pics of the trip. It was too short for anyone to fully enjoy, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. We had a great time with everyone. Cheers to my family!!

Everyone (except Bina who was taking the picture)

Owen's best turban impersonation

Shifa getting ready to jump into mommy's arms

Joe and Owen reading the Word on the deck

The girls (L to R: Shifa, Rupal, Nisha, Bina, Lisa, Katie)

The view of the lake from our condo (the building there is where B & K stayed)

Shifawicz

Me - trying to get out of the water ASAP...it was cold!

Emmi assisting his daughter, Shifa, in the water

The troublemakers (Lisa and Bina)

The Soon to Be Parents (Luke and Nisha...a.k.a. Lusha)

My two favorite gals (sister, Lisa, and wife, Katie)

Happy Birthday, Nisha!

Shifa (my niece), Nisha (my cousin), and I at Lake Chelan

Yesterday was my dear cousin, Nisha's, birthday. I won't reveal her age, but let's just say she looks really good for her age. :) We had a blast over the weekend as all the cousins and siblings and spouses got together to celebrate her birthday in Lake Chelan. A post will come shortly from this trip. In the meantime, I want to just say how privileged I am to have a cousin (more like a big sis) like Nisha in my life. She is the true form of gentleness and sincerity. You will never EVER find someone else who has qualities like that to the depth that Nisha carries it. Thank you, Nisha, for all the fun times we've had growing up. Happy Birthday!

Oh, and did I mention...she's going to be a mommy!! :) We just found out recently that her and Luke will have a baby in February. Congratulations!

Michael Jackson

What more can be said about the tragic news of the death of one of the most influential singers/artists in the world. I for one was completely shocked of the news. I was even more shocked when nobody else at my work place was shocked. Despite his most recent off stage antics, Michael Jackson was a legend. He paved the way for future singers. He brought the "pop" in pop music. The glove, the moonwalk, the dance moves, the videos, the unmistakable voice. MJ changed the face of music in my opinion.

I remember growing up listening to the Thriller album at least a billion times. And who could forget the incredible dance moves in Smooth Criminal? Amazing. I've always wanted to learn how to do that choreographed dance. :)

Anyway, my good friend, Craig Nisperos has some great photos of the shock and awe that happened in New York when they found out the "King of Pop" was dead. Check out his blog at http://rockstaradonis.blogspot.com.

Work Computer Back Online

Alright! Finally my work computer is back online. After 3 weeks (22 days straight), I am able to access my email and internet again from work. I only had 292 emails which is WAY less than I had imagined. So that's great news. Anyway, I will be able to communicate to the outside world again. So feel free to email me at work again (joseph.hanchinamani@navy.mil).

As for this weekend, Katie and I (along with my cousins and brother and sister) are heading to Lake Chelan. So I'm certain there will be a neat post when I return. Stay tuned!

(P.S. Keep me in prayer as I'm getting sick. Thank you, my wife, for taking care of me. I love you!)

Bye, Shadowfax :(

Well, it's official. I put my car for sale on Craigslist. If nobody bites, I will try reducing the price. If that doesn't work, I'm going to go to a dealer to try and sell it. So if anyone's interested in a beautiful, fun car, give me a holler. I'm asking for $14,000. There's 45,000 miles on it. See the link for more info: http://seattle.craigslist.org/sno/cto/1238139586.html

Father's Day Fun

Happy Father's Day to all you wonderful fathers out there. A special Father's Day wish goes out to my dad (Shaikhar), my father-in-law (Dave), my uncles, and Grandpa Marion. Thank you for all your love and support over the years. Thank you for raising me or giving me wisdom when needed; thank you for supporting me; thank you for all you do!

We had a great Father's Day at my place on Sunday. Katie and I went to church in the morning. Upon coming home, we were not surprised to see my dad in my backyard pulling weeds. Only my dad would do so much work on HIS day. :) I mowed and trimmed the lawn. Katie was inside getting the place all set up.

At 1pm, everyone started showing up--my mom, Uncle Ben, Mary Aunty, Nisha, Luke, Bina, Kristian, Lisa, Owen, Dave, Kristian W., Kelsey, Kris, and Grandma Selma. My mom chucked some chicken on the grill, but she didn't realize I had put the fire to the max so that the grill could heat up nicely, so when the chicken was thrown on with all its juices, the grill was massively on fire. So much smoke in fact, that the fire alarms INSIDE the house went off. Crazy. Luckily we were able to kill the fire and even better, salvage the meat. :)

Dad and Luke were doing the BBQ. The men were outside chatting about anything and everything. The women were inside talking about women stuff of course. We all had a wonderful time. There was so much food that everyone took home leftovers. :) Good times. Nothing like a wonderful Father's Day to kick start the summer.

Computerless

Well, for those who are reading this, you probably know by now that I have been "computerless" at work the past 2+ weeks. So if you're trying to send me emails to my work account, I have not been getting them.

Let me back up; I'm not exactly "computerless" per se. Here's what happened. On June 4th, it was 92 degrees at Keyport. It just so happened that the A/C in our building broke that day. Great. So it was like 100 degrees inside. Half the people went home early. The other half who stayed, like me, couldn't possibly do any work. So around 3:30 (an hour before I get to leave for home), I decided to take a little break. I was daydreaming about riding my motorcycle in that great weather, but I did not have the summer motorcycle pants that I needed. So I went to Google and typed in "motorcycle riding pants." I clicked on one of the first links. When I got to the site, I didn't click on anything but rather scrolled up and down to see some images. Within 10 seconds, a anti-virus warning window comes up saying that the site is a potential phishing threat. So immediately I closed down my window. A few moments later, I opened the browser again. However, I couldn't get any internet access. I lost all connectivity. I replugged all the cables to no avail.

Finally I called the IT helpdesk. After some time on the phone with them, they said they'd call me back. Within a few minutes, they called back saying, "Sir, the reason you have no internet is because there has been an IA (information awareness) event at your workstation." That scared me big time. IA is basically a security violation. So I thought I was in big trouble. But after calming down and thinking about it, I did nothing wrong. In the end, they said they would have to run an investigation (i.e. see what sites I have been visiting and what not) and then someone would have to come to my desk and run a virus scan on my harddrive.

Long story short, they have yet to come to my desk. Apparently I'm on a waiting list, and I'm 10th in line. So 2 weeks have gone by, and I have not been able to use the internet. LAME!! 90% of my job relies on the internet, so as you can imagine, I've 1) been bored senseless at work, and 2) have not had time to blog because of it. :)

So in the meantime, please send emails to only hmani5@msn.com. Gracias!

Eek...2 weeks!

Yeah, ok, I know. It's been 2 weeks since my last post. I'm not as cool as Craig who keeps people always updated. I suck. But I have a lot of things to discuss. Unfortunately I have guests coming over as I type. In fact...yup...there's the doorbell. Alright, so I'll write more tomorrow. I promise.

Garbage Disposal

Have you ever had your garbage disposal go out on you? Well, this past week, it went out on Katie and me. Let me backtrack the story many years ago. When I was living by myself, I never had the disposal go out on me. I hardly put anything significant in quantity or size down the sink. However, a few years ago while living with my roommates, the disposal went out. Thinking the motor was dead and I'd have to fork over a lot of money to repair it, my dad sent his handyman over to check it out. The first thing he did was get under the sink, hit some red reset button that I have never known about, and the disposal started to run smoothly. "Ha, neat trick," I thought. It'd be something that I would never forget.

Since I've been married to Katie, I've come to know that she is great at clogging things. Ha-ha! :) A month or so ago, she had shoved a bunch of food down the drain, and the water wouldn't go down. Not only that, the disposal wasn't working. Being calm and smooth about it, I walked my macho behind to the sink, laid on my back, and pushed the red reset button. Sure enough, the garbage disposal started to work again, the water went down, and I came off as the "hero."

However, this week I met my match. Katie really put me to the test this time. I got home after making a run from the grocery store with Sid for some guacamole dip ingredients. Katie's first words to me were, "Umm...I think I broke the garbage disposal." Sure enough, the thing wasn't working. She had shoved a bunch of rice down the sink. So, being confident as ever, I dropped to my back and pushed the red button. Nothing. I pushed it again. Nothing. "Huh. That's weird." So I unplugged the thing, reached my hand inside the drain, and pulled out as much gunk as I could. The water still wouldn't go down. So I started creating a suction with my hand/arm. It was like a self-made plunger. Eventually the water slowly went down. For about 30 minutes I was pulling out the food or pushing it down. Every once in a while I'd hit the red button again to no avail. Sid even suggested running some boiling hot water down it to clear it out, and that didn't work either. Eventually Sid went home as I faced my opponent alone.

Finally I just nearly gave up. I tried about everything. Katie then helped try deducing the problem for a while with no success. That's when Katie remembered our Home Improvement 1-2-3 book from Home Depot that we got as a wedding gift (thank you Bob Horne)! She flipped straight to the garbage disposal page. It informed us to fill both basins up to 4" of water, cover up the clogged side, and use a plunger to plunge the other side. This worked great because it allowed the water to finally flow freely. So the clogging stopped. However, the disposal still wasn't running. We could hear the motor, but the blades weren't doing a darn thing. I pushed the red reset button again, I played with the blades, and I even used the stick side of the plunger to push and move the blades around. I got nothing.

Katie said, "Maybe we should pray about it, walk away for a moment, and come back to it." She's so sweet. Although neither of us actually prayed, I ended up walking away for a second, but not before I hit the red button one last time. The moment I left, Katie tried to move the blades around like I did earlier. Lo and behold!! The garbage disposal started to run again. After all that work, it started to run even better than it did before. So here's an ode to you, garbage disposal. Ode to you!

Belated Anniversary Wish

A very happy (yet belated) anniversary wish goes out to my parents. On May 30th, they celebrated their 32nd year of marriage. As with any marriage, there are good times and bad. But in the end, their love for each other and for their children has been more than enough.

As a thank you for all they did for Katie and me for our wedding, we got them a stay at the downtown Marriott in Vancouver, B.C. Unfortunately my mom forgot to bring the camera, so their adventure will remain only in their minds. But both mom and dad tell me they had an amazing, blessed time. The hotel was gorgeous and comfortable. Their walks, dinners, and sight seeing were also wonderful.

Cheers to my beautiful, loving parents! Blessings to you and for many many more years together.

Happy 50th Birthday, Westgate Chapel

This Sunday marks the exact day 50 years ago that Westgate Chapel started. Over the weekend (Saturday, June 6th) there will be festivities going on at the church which include a whole lot of food, games, good times for kids, pony rides, and more. To find out more information, visit http://www.westgatechapel.com/.

On Sunday, we will have 3 services (9am, 11:15am, and 3pm). A special guest will be joining us: Pastor Cymbala from Brooklyn Tabernacle Church in New York. I had the opportunity to visit Brooklyn Tab when I was in NYC a couple years ago, and after I heard Pastor Cymbala preach, I was amazed by how Spirit-filled the man is. After the service, I tracked him down before he "ran away," shook his hand, told him I'm from Westgate, and he was excited to hear that and told me to send Pastor Alec his greetings. Anyway, a great word will be shared this Sunday. I'm praying for salvation for lost souls. Join with me in prayer.

Kathryn and Mike's Wedding

This past weekend was FILLED with God's presence. It all began with Kathryn and Mike's rehearsal on Friday. What a joyous day that was. The rehearsal for their wedding went smoothly. Sid was their photographer that night, and he truly enjoyed snapping all their pictures. After the rehearsal was over, we all had dinner together. Speeches were given by the groomsmen, bridesmaids, parents, and family. Kath and Mike were in tears from the get go. God has truly blessed their relationship and sustained it as they persevered through it.

Our table was full of laughter and good times. Sid would tell me later what a wonderful night it was to see the fellowship, the community, and the relationships in that place--a glance of God if you will. Afterwards, the bridesmaids went to Kath's place to pray over her. The men went to shoot some pool at Uncle Jack's Billiards in Lynnwood. We had a very fun time together.

Then Saturday, the big day came. There's too much to write about this day, so rather than explaining the whole day, I'll mention a few things and let the pictures below do the rest of the talking. The ceremony was beautiful. The decorations were phenomenal. The service was Spirit driven. Pastor Tyler sang a solo that he nearly couldn't get through as he welled up in tears. The congregation was full of happiness as the entire bottom section of Westgate Chapel was filled (I'm assuming at least 600 people). The most sentimental part was when Kath and Mike gave their vows and broke down in tears. At one point Mike grabbed his handkerchief to wipe his face. Kath then grabbed it and wiped her face. Pastor Alec then, too, wiped his face as the congregation laughed.

The choir sang the communion song as Emily sang a solo. They also sang at the end of the service as Stephanie sang a solo. Both singers were incredible (as always). Finally, Pastor Alec pronounced them man and wife. Kathryn and Mike are now happily married!! They are currently on their honeymoon in Maui for a week. After that, they will be in Kona for a week as Pastor Tyler and Kizzie meet up with them there.

After the service, there was a reception for the church in the Commons. I was in the santuary tearing down and putting stuff away, so I can't say much of that reception. After that, however, we headed to Hotel Deca in the U-District for their official reception with their close friends and family. We had a wonderful time. Lots of laughter (especially when Tommy gave his best man's toast...hilarious!!) We ate, we danced, we prayed, we laughed, we cried. It was a wonderful day for all of us, especially for Kath and Mike.

Kathryn and Mike: congratulations!! We're so happy for you. May God bless your marriage every day. We can't wait to hang out with you as an official couple.

PICTURES FROM THE REHEARSAL AND WEDDING DAY
(the ceremony itself wasn't captured on our camera unfortunately)

Walking down the aisle with daddy


Kathryn gets ready for her big day


Makeup time


All done

The Fab Four


First dance


These happy couples now have a new happy couple to play with :)


Father/Daughter Dance (Pastor Alec's first time dancing)


Getaway Car


So Long


Goodbye


Have fun and enjoy


Congratulations!