Saturday

I spent the day out in the rowboat with a friend and with my dog, Brooke. My sister lives on the same lake that my parents do. When we got over near my sister's place, I started to hear what sounded like a dog in serious distress. It turned out that mysister's dog, Buddy, had seen Brooke in the boat and just went crazy. We rowed over there with Buddy screaming the whole time. When we got close enough he jumped in and swam out to us. It was hilarious.

School's OUT forever!

I know I have not updated the old blog much recently. My apologies.

I have been busy but I should have some extra free time for at least the next couple of weeks. You see. I am done with school. And I don't just mean that the semester is over. I mean I am DONE with school. FOREVER. Or at least I think I am. It wont be official until someone actually reviews my application for graduation and then gives me a diploma. But by my careful calculations and by running the EMU online graduation audit 8 million times, I am pretty confident that I wont be taking any more classes.

After I was done with that last final exam though, I will admit that I went home and sat around waiting for that college degree to change my life. But alas my life is still pretty much the same as it was earlier in the week. I guess you need the actual diploma to arrive in the mail before getting the life changing advantages of having a degree, right?

Meme

Proshat tagged me for a meme. I have been neglecting my blog lately and this seems like a good way to get back into it. so here it goes...

1. Last movie you saw in a theater?

Wow, I have been so busy lately that I haven’t been socializing much. Shame on me. The last movie I saw in the theater was Borat.

2. What book are you reading?

I am between books at the moment. I just finished one called With All Our Strength which is about RAWA: The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan.

3. Favorite board game?

Settlers of Catan

4.Favorite magazine?
Harper’s

5. Favorite smell?

Rain

6. Favorite food?

Pizza.

7. Favorite sound?

The sound of a sailboat halyard slapping against a mast.

8. Worst feeling in the world?

Betrayal and Loss.

9. What is the first thing you think of when you wake up?

That depends on the day but usually I think, "oh man, I don’t feel like going to work"

10. Favorite fast food place?

Kluck’s Drive In

11. Future child’s name?

I am not going to have kids. But if I were going to, I would name my child(ren) after my grandparents. If I were to have a boy, his name would be Perry Michael and if it were a girl, her name would be Justine Elizabeth. Interestingly, in the past, whenever I have had this discussion, people (usually men) say that they don’t think it fair that I would pick both the first and middle names. My reply has always been that he has a choice. He can pick the last name OR the first and middle names. What is funny is how many have gotten upset about that because they just figure that the kids should automatically get the father’s last name and then should get a say in the other names too. Because you know, otherwise I am not being FAIR to the men. *rolls eyes*

12. Finish this statement. If I had a lot of money:

I would quit my job and travel...

13. Do you drive fast?

In the mornings I drive fast because I am usually a little bit late.

14. Do you sleep with a stuffed animal?

Not in the last 30 years or so I am afraid.

15. Storms cool or scary?

VERY cool. I love storms. And ok, sometimes they can be scary especially when tornados are sighted and the sky turns green. But even when they are scary enough to drive me into my basement, they are still cool

16. What was your first car?

The first car that was MINE was my 1996 VW Jetta. I am still driving that. Now granted, I had other cars which officially belonged to my parents but which I drove. I guess the first car I drove regularly was a 1979 Ford Fairmont station wagon.

17. Favorite drink?

Water.

18. Finish this statement, "If I had the time I would...":

Spend more time hanging out at the lake.

19. Do you eat the stems on broccoli?

Of course. They are the best part!

20. If you could dye your hair any color, what would be your choice?

I like my hair color but if I had to pick a different one, I would probably dye it blond.

21. Name all the different cities/ towns you have lived in?

Detroit, Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Sault Ste Marie, Michigan
Ypsilanti, Michigan

22. Half empty or half full?

The Glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

23. Favorite sports to watch?

American College Football. I especially like it when MSU beats UofM which is a rare enough occurrence that it is extra special. I also enjoy watching figure skating, gymnastics, swimming, diving, horse racing, and occasionally baseball.

25. Morning person, or night owl?

I am a night person for sure.

26. Over easy, or sunny side-up?

Over easy. But actually I am more scrambled than anything else.

27. Favorite place to relax?

My extra large arm chair in my living room.

28. Favorite pie?

Cherry. Although I had a very excellent slice of blueberry pie this weekend from the Grand Traverse Pie Company that was sooooo good it might be my new favorite pie. It was made with Michigan blueberries too.

Rambling

So I took the day off of work on Tuesday so I could go to a doctor's appointment and run some errands. I encountered a big traffic jam on my way there which was really surprising because my doctor's office is so close. There was a water main break right at Michigan Ave and Grove St. Which made me worry about the water I had before leaving. It must have been OK because here it is two day later and I still walk the Earth. I felt very sick yesterday though but suspect that was the result of my tetanus shot.

I have decided to go to Nova Scotia. I like it there and even though I love Michigan summers so much that I want to avoid missing any time here, Nova Scotia is a nice place to be too. I'll still get to go swimming every day.

Nova Scotia *and* France?

Yesterday was kind of an anti-Monday. I won a prize at work: a Sony portable DVD player. And when I got home from work, I noticed that my very kind neighbor had mowed my lawn! I am pretty sure it wasn’t the city because whoever mowed my lawn ignored the much longer grass of the lawn on the other side of me and also mowed my neighbor’s lawn.



I was planning a really cool trip this summer but had to cancel it due to cost. About the time I was canceling that trip, a friend presented me with two great opportunities for vacations.



1. Go with her to her family's cottage in Nova Scotia. I have been there before and it is really nice. She is talking about driving there which made me think that maybe it was a sign that I won that DVD Player because it comes with a car adapter and I think that such a thing might be useful with kids in the car.



2. Visit her in France where she and her family are going to be renting a large apartment from October to March. It's in a small town near Switzerland and is about 90 minutes away from Paris by high speed rail.



Naturally I want to do both! And I can if I go to France in February. I think this would be ok especially if I bought a rail pass for France which would allow me to do a short weekend type trip to Paris. I think it is cheaper to go in the winter too. Certainly there are fewer tourists. I wonder if it is really cold there in the winter though. You see if I go to France in February, I wont be able to go to Florida in February which was what I was kind of planning to do.



But you know, I can go to Florida anytime, right?



You know, I have too many places I want to go and not enough time and money. I guess that is everyone’s problem!

A Visit

My friends Terry and Jen came over on Saturday. I was worried because I had to tell them that I couldn’t go on vacation with them this summer. Last fall the three of us discussed going on a vacation together but it was an expensive sort of vacation (around $5k a person) and I was only able to save up about half of the amount which just isn’t enough. But it turned out that I worried for nothing because they aren’t going either and for pretty much the same reason. We’ll have to go to China and ride the choo-choo to Moscow another time.

We had a good day visiting though. There was a good storm in the afternoon and a lot of rain got dumped. The rail road tracks by my house got totally flooded. The water was so high that we weren’t sure we should cross so we had to take the long way to Kluck’s for their yummy hamburgers. Luckily the water had gone down enough for us to cross the rail road tracks by the time we were done getting our food. I wanted to take a walk down to Riverside Park to see if it flooded but I never got around to it.