the cabin

yesterday was our fourth annual cabin trip. for four years now the guys and i have been going up to the cabin for one night during christmas break and just having a blast. the line up has changed slightly, mostly adding more players, but the fun remains the same. rex and i headed up friday and got there around noon (well before our usual time of 4:00), which gave us some extra time to just enjoy the place. we got the fire started, unpacked, then we went for a walk. one of our traditions up there is to go for a walk, which guns, and try to get as lost as possible. often times it works... we walked for about an hour, stopping indiscriminately and shooting stuff. always a good time! when we got back we chilled out and read for a while. i read my wizard magazine, and rex read the graphic novel of 'the fountain'.
around five, dusty and steve showed up. we hung out some more and played a few games. one of them i did well at, the other i did not. at eight we headed out to sporties (another cabin tradition) for dinner, and met up with aaron, jeffry lee, and adam. he had a great time there, and eventually headed back to the cabin.
the rest of the night, unfortunately, will have to remain classified information. we have a strick 'loose lips sink ships' policy that i must adhere to. im sure you understand...

'the incident'

earlier this week i was over at my aunt and uncles place with my family. my cousin and her family were not able to be here for the extended family christmas, and niether was i, so our families to decided to get together this past weeek as well. i was a great time, even my grandma showed up for a bit. we got pizza and talked and caught up. at the end of the night i headed back home (i drove over alone). on the way back i happened to notice that my driver side headlight was kind of pointing funny. i wasnt sure what to make of it. when i got back home i pulled it into the drive way to get a good look at it.
turns out while my car was parked at my aunt and uncles it had been backed into! the headlight was out of whack, the fender was crunched, and the bumper was slightly cracked. argh!!! after getting over my initial anger i made plans for the next day to get an estimate and see what kind of damage this was going to do to my wallet. because, of course, my insurance company would make me pay my five hundred dollar deductable no matter what.
the next morning my uncle called and told me to stop by him at his work (he owns a car dealership and wanted to take a look at it and see if he could get me a deal on fixing it). i stopped over there and then i went over to get an estimate for fixing it- $1100!! rediculous!!! there was no way i was going to pay that much, so i headed back to my uncle and he said he could have pull a few strings and have it taken care of for one fifty. deal! later that morning my grandma calls my uncle up and says 'im not sure why, but for some reason i seem to have a few scratches and a bit of green paint on the back of my car...'

christmas fun

friday i got out of work and began my christmas vacation (two whole weeks!!!). i headed up to grand rapids on saturday to see the family. saturday night i went to a verve pipe concert (which i wrote about here). sunday we took it easy and decided to go to the later church service (my parents church had four services that day, and they were all the same, so we opted for a bit of the ol' sleeping in). jill, tim and the kids came over for lunch and we had a grand meal (dang, my mom sure does no how to cook!), they headed home, we went for a walk, and then to church. the rest of the night we hung out and just enjoyed each others company. monday, christmas day, we took it easy once again (sensing a pattern?). mom wanted to make a big brunch, so she invited my grandma over, last minute, and we ate a hearty meal. later in the afternoon i made mom and dad go for a walk (which wasnt too hard, considering it was about 5o degrees outside and sunny) so i could wrap all the gifts i got for the family.
around 4:00 jill, tim and the kids came back. the kids opened gifts, and then we had a rather strange christmas dinner: burgers on the grill! with the super nice weather, we figured we would revel in it! we put the kids to bed and then it was time for the rest of us to open prizes! it was a lot of fun, and all the gifts were appreciated very much. for some reason i got an excess of gift certificates, so i guess my christmas gifts will keep on giving for a while! one of the highlights was that my mom got an ipod from my dad- how wierd is that? she wasnt entirely sure what to do with it... after a little explaining and training on the computer, she is very excited about it and cant wait to use it on her walks. way to go dad!
we were done with gifts by around 9:00, and we were all totally exhausted! i felt like i could have crawled in bed right then and slept for three days straight! so, obviously i decided to stay up till about 1:30 puttzing around on the computer. one of these days ill learn my lesson...
all in all it was a very fun time with the family, and i feel very blessed to have the time and opportunity to spend it with them. (chad, hopefully one of these years you will be able to join us too!)
some more fun family christmas photos here.

new blogs

over the past couple days i have been introduced to a couple new blogs and i felt like i should share in the wonderment and awe of them. the first one i have recently been checking out is by shaun groves. if you are wondering who exactly that is, well you are not alone. when i first went to go check it out i had no idea who he was. andrew osenga, a musician who i trust completely, suggested the site. i dont know if andrew knows shaun, or if its just an admiration, but i now have that same admiration. shaun is a songwriter and musician. i still have yet to hear any of his stuff, but i truly appreciate his opinions and well written thoughts. if you need a quick introduction, he has written one himself that links to some of his more thought-provoking posts. it is here. i checked out most of these former posts and now am compelled to check his site for more nuggets of wisdom each day.

the other new blog i have come across is by someone whom i already hold in high regard. his name is ronnie martin. he is a musician as well. the big difference thought between his music and anyone elses music is the fact that ronnies music is the best in the entire world. not even remotely an exaggeration. granted, i am incredibly bias, but im right, so its ok. anyway... ronnie has decided that journaling on his bands website should be focused on the music and what he is up to in the studio. he also wanted to share some of his more personal thoughts and musings, so he has created a personal blog. ah, now i will know what it is like to look into the mind of a genius.
can life get any better? i submit that it cannot.


ps. it looks like b.t. is going to give it another go- so make sure you check him out too!

christmas shopping

my family always jokes about how i wait so long to do my christmas shopping. its true, i usually do wait until the last minute. i am the stereotypical 'guy' in that sense. but, what they dont understand is that i delay the actual going out and purchasing part of the shopping, but i spend a good bit of time figuring out what im going to get each person. i dont necessarily buy into the form of shopping that so many people do- walk around the store and look around until you find something they might like. i shop in a much more methodical way. because of this, i can afford to be a bit more of a procrastinator.
friday i finally decided i would go out and get some gifts. i headed out after work (around 3:30), and by 5:30 i was done. simple as that. i got something special for everyone in the family, and not a single gift certificate in sight! (in the interest of full disclosure, i should admit that i have one more present to get, but thats because i special ordered it, and need to pick it up tomorrow).
so, i started and finished my christmas shopping in the course of about two hours. not bad, huh?

chinese fire drill!

last week i had a red letter day while i was driving. my odometer finally flipped, and now my car has 100,000 miles! this was quite exciting for me. ive had the car a little over 4 years, and i have now put on 36,000 miles. i dont know if that high or low, but i sure have been a lot of places with it! i hope it lasts me for many, many more years.

the photo gallery

i finally got around to downloading the photos on my digital camera (thanks to jeffry lee's help), so i posted a few new pictures. check them out here.

(feeling the wii love...)

the travel game

oh, dear readers, i have a challenge for you.
i have always been a fan of traveling, and love to visit new places. i have been fairly blessed with the opportunity to travel as much as i have. i, in some ways, feel that i have done quite a bit of traveling and am quite proud of the places ive been and the experiences ive had.
now, i lay before you a small game. i am curious how much you have traveled? now, i have devised a simple way to figure out how much you have traveled- through travel points. what are travel points you ask? (i know this is kinda dumb, just go with it...) well, here is how:
1 point for each state you have been to (driving through doesnt count, you need to have stopped at a significant landmark, or stayed overnight there)
5 points for each country you have been to (you dont get to count your home country)
10 points for each continent youve been to (you dont get to count your home continent)

so, what is your travel score? i will post mine after a few others have

three mondays

man, this has been a rough week! when i got back from visiting the folks for thanksgiving i was welcomed back home with sickness!!! lucky me! i had (and continue to a lesser extent) a really bad cough, sore throat, and sinus issues. i went to work monday, but felt miserable, so i planned ahead and told then i wouldnt be in tuesday. i was feeling better, but by the end of the day i couldnt get through a whole sentence without hacking out a lung! i admitted defeat and called in again for thursday. i didnt care how i felt friday, i was going in no matter what! it still lingers, but at least i am feeling better. ive still got a cough here, and a sniff there; but all in all i feel like i am doing better.
it did feel really wierd the days i went in though, it always felt like it was monday! i had a whole week of work, but not a single day back to back. strange. on friday i was getting really confused filling in sheets because i kept thinking it was monday!