easy rider

on thursday diana came to visit. i worked all day, but she had the day off, so she came early and did a little shopping. she was looking around one of the stores and found a bike that she really liked. now, i didnt know that she even wanted a bike, but she found the bike of her dreams: an old retro style bike that was all pink! (she is a bit obsessed with the color pink...) when i got home we went out to eat and then went back to that store so she could show me just how amazing it was. we went back, and she gave me a look with those adorable eyes of hers 'please?...' i guess im a bit of a push over cause we got it for her. (i am going to be a terrible parent...)

we drove it home, walked it to the gas station to fill the tires, and she rode all around the neighborhood with a huge grin!

looks like im going to have to get a bike now too. but mine will be much manlier.

(more pics)

trim

i started work this week. this means a couple of things: first, it means that i have to start waking up on time again, and second, it means that i have to start looking professional again. ugh to both. ive been cultivating a beard recently, but now that i have care about the way i look again, it was time for me to trim it. it always makes me sad to see a beards life cut short. (pun intended)

plans made

on monday i had some work type stuff to do in the morning, meetings and such. diana had told me that her mom and david had set up a meeting with a travel agent to make final plans for our honeymoon. i wasnt sure how long the work stuff was going to go, so i figured i wouldnt be able to make it. but, fortunately for me, it looked like i was going to be able to make it! so i headed out to south bend. i called dianas mom to let her know that i was coming and to figure out where they place was. but, as i so often like to do, i made sure diana didnt know i was going to be there!

i met david in the parking lot, the girls had already gone in. we walked in and diana was shocked! i always love to see her so surprised and happy! soon we got down to business and hammered out a trip. we made a reservation, and now we know where we are going for our honeymoon! we are both amazed and excited about the place we get to go!

after making the plans, the four of us walked over to a really great thai food place downtown. we had a great time talking and telling funny stories together. david works just down the block, so we went over and checked out his office and video studio. it was pretty cool to see where they film the different documentaries and videos that he works with.

i brought diana back to her car, and then it was time to head back. the visit was only about three hours long, but it was certainly worth it!

(more pics)

not 'real' sports

this weekend diana stopped by for the day. we went out to eat at a really cool mexican place thats in the old town hall of munster, indiana. the food was great, but the best thing about it was this crazy ceiling fan they had: it was a ceiling fan with two other ceiling fans on it! it has to be seen to be believed... afterward we didnt have anything to do, so i suggested that we go to wicker park and play frisbee golf! i dont know if they actually have a course there, but you can always just aim for any old tree you want. i dont have any frisbees so i figured we should go to the sports store. there is a new cabelas that opened up a while ago, so we stopped in there. as it turns out, thats not really a sports store. oops. they dont have any stuff for real sports, it all outdoorsman type stuff. well, we figured we would give it a look see anyway. that place was amazing! it was so huge! it had a full size prop plane hanging in there, as well as hundreds of taxidermied animals set up in nature scenes. even though i have absolutely no interest in outdoorsman stuff, it was still pretty cool just to walk around and check it out. they even had a food court and a general store where they make their own fudge. diana had to get some of that, of course. we were so entranced that after we left we just headed home, totally forgetting about the frisbee plans...

(more pics)

one last hurrah

last night ali invited over a bunch of friends to her place. it was a couple of her friends and a bunch of teachers we work with including derrick, the new teacher this year. it was kind of a way for us to catch up after the summer and meet derrick for the first time. it was a good time. they put some chicken on the grill, and we played that one bean bag game out on her front lawn. i had poco for the weekend, so i asked ali if she would mind if i brought him. it was no problem so i brought him along with me. he had a great time being petted by so many new people! he behaved himself a lot better than i would have ever thought! we got a chance to talk, catch up, and laugh together again, which is always great. by the end of the night it had devolved into us just watching and talking about the olympics. around 11pm poco and i headed out. i must say, im looking forward to the school year starting and getting to work with these people again. i kind of miss them...
(more pics)

poco time!

thursday when diana visited she brought her dog poco. before she left that night, i was able to convince her to let him stay! she is coming back to go to church with me on sunday, so i figured i could handle him for the two days she was gone. i didnt have too much up, so i knew id be around. well, it has been a blast! i had forgotten how much i love having a dog! i dont even mind the walks i have to take him on, or the bags i have to bring to *ehem* clean up after him...

i love sitting in my chair watching tv and having a cute little puppy sitting on my lap! unfortunately i have to wait a long time till he gets to stay here all the time. so im making sure to enjoy the time messing around with him while i can! he sure does love to bite socks...

a quick visit

on thursday diana had the day off, so she came down to see me. as a bit of a surprise my mom and dad called and said they had the day off and would love to come down too! the more the merrier i always say. so they came down as well. they got here around 11am. we went over to school and i showed them all the crazy construction going on, then we headed to lunch. we went to a great italian place. we were inadvertently rude to some other guests, but had a good time anyway. we went back to my place and got to talk for a bit, then they were on their way! it was only about a four hour visit, but it was good to see them and have them visit. although i know i wasnt the real reason they were visiting... they just wanted to see diana again!

soon after my parents left diana and i went to merrillville. we walked around the mall for a bit and diana got her watch fixed. then we got to go to one of my favorite places: the used dvd store! we looked around for a bit, but didnt actually buy anything, which was smart. we milled around target for a bit, then ate at bw3. sadly, when we got back she had to head back to her place. i tell you what, i have had just about enough of this living an hour away thing!

its me!

many years ago, back when i used to pretend i was an artist, i made a self portrait. as an assignment in painting class we were told to make a painting that was a self portrait. it could be any style, just as long as it displayed something about ourselves. well, i have always been a huge fan of comic books and the comic art style, so i figured id paint myself as a cartoon!

as you can probably tell, it doesnt really look like me anymore... back then i used to have long hair (oh, how i miss it...), and wore an earring. i always thought it looked hilarious, not much like me, but very funny. the best part is its size: this thing is about three and a half feet by three and a half feet! its huge! when i came home from college i had nowhere to put it and i wasnt going to bring it with me to utah when i moved there, so i gave it to aaron. and even through multiple moves, he still to this day has it hanging up! what a great friend...

(more pics)

work delays

monday afternoon i got a call from work that i needed to come in and let them know what i would need for my temporary room at work. over the summer they have been making a huge addition to the building, making six new classrooms. all of those will be filled by the junior high, which includes me. unfortunately, due to poor planning, late permits, and bad weather, the construction crews are not done yet. that means that all of us are forced into other rooms for the time being. some dont have it too bad, like using the music and art room, but others do- the science room is temporarily on the gym stage... i got a pretty good deal, i got the room that was used for before and after school care last year. its a bit small, but its a real room with windows and an air conditioner, so i cant complain too much.
i came back here monday night to pick out what i will need, unfortunately i was too late! argh! it all worked out today, i went to the storage area and got anything i needed that they had stored away. so this morning i began to set up my room for the couple of weeks ill be in it.
its going to be a bit tough to deal with all the craziness once the kids get here, but im sure the kids will enjoy the chaos! we were told that we will be in our new rooms by september 15, but im not holding my breath...

(more pics 1, 2)

a day with dad

on monday my dad took half the day off so we could hang out together- score!!! we had been meaning to see 'dark knight' together since it came out, and finally we had our chance. we had a few things to do before the movie so we took care of that. brought back pop cans, then went to lia's pizza and grabbed a few slices of their great pizza. we saw 'dark knight', my second viewing, and i loved it even more. my dads review: 'that was a lot more complicated then it needed to be.' very insightful and true, but then we would have missed all the great stuff along the way!

after we got home my dad and i worked on replacing a blinker light on my car that had gone out. he even let me drive his rad crossfire car to go get the replacement bulb! that thing sure is small!

all in all we had a really great time together. again, it makes me wish i lived closer so we could do these sorts of things more often. hopefully soon...

light show

sunday night, after spending the day with my family, i headed over to aarons to chill with him and rex for a while. when i got there i saw that molly was there too! what luck! we hung out for a while, rex and aaron had some jimmy johns for dinner. we popped in a movie (italian job), but mostly just chatted over top of it.

rexy had brought a flashlight that had a laser pointer on it, so when it got dark we stepped outside to test it and see how far those things can actually point. it went a lot farther than i thought it would, thats for sure! we didnt know the exact distance, but we could still see it all the way down a side road, somewhere between 1/8th and 1/4th of a mile. id say about 9/67ths of a mile, if i were to estimate...

(more pics)

puzzled

sunday evening we all sat down and had some dinner (my moms lasagna, one of my personal favorites). a short while after dinner the kids really wanted to put their puzzles together. jackson had a strange puzzle from the movie 'cars', and tweets did her best to assemble the barbie puzzle.

(more pics)

splish splash

back to sandy pines on sunday to spend some more time with the family. around 1pm we went over to the water park at sandy pines with the kids. they really love this place! its new this year at sandy pines, they put in a couple new pools, a few water areas for kids, like big water guns and big water fountains and stuff. and best of all: a water slide! the kids really love the slide, but for now jackson is the only one who can go down alone. if either of the girls want to go, they go down with tim or jill.

i was even there to witness my mom actually going down the slide for the first time! it was really funny to see her splash on down the slide!

(more pics 1, 2)

a good night

saturday night i got to hang out with the guys again. rexy had a wedding to go to, so it was just aaron, jeffry lee, and i. after playing video games for a while, jeffry lee and i headed over to aarons. we hung out there for a bit, then went to go see 'tropical thunder' in the theater. afterwards we dropped in on our usual hang out spot: fridays. we had some great conversation and closed the place down. dropped off aaron, then back to jeffs. i got home, again, around 5am. i really got to start watching the clock better...

playing uncle

saturday afternoon i headed out to sandy pines to see the family. i stopped in to say hi to my mom (dad was out and about), and then visited tim and jill. tim was sitting out with a friend of his and we talked for a bit. the napping kids started to wake up, so i offered to take them for a little ride.

we were going to try and join in on the hayride that was going on, but we arrived too late, it was already full. so i took the kids to the candy store and spoiled their appetites for dinner (as a good uncle should), and then we went to the playground at the beach. jackson and avery played on the equipment for a while, they sure love the slide!

(more pics 1, 2)

movie night

this weekend i headed up to grand rapids for one last visit for the summer before work starts again. friday night i went over to jeffry lees. rexy soon showed up and we tried to figure out what to do for the night.

none of us were feeling very adventurous, so we decided to get some pizza hut and a video. we ended up renting 'doomsday' and had a good time just hanging out, talking, and playing video games. time flew by so quickly, i think i finally made it home around 5am...

the fair

after spending a few days home without a job i got bored. i cleaned up a bit, caught up on my tivo, and slept as much as i wanted. but i just wanted to see diana again... fortunately she had thursday off! what luck!

so thursday we decided to go to the local county fairgrounds. now, this is something i am not all that familiar with. growing up we went to the fair a time or two, but it was more like a carnival was in town, there were rides and food thats really bad for you, but that was about it. this one was a lot more animal centered. diana was telling me how this is the big event of the summer around there and growing up they would go a couple of times during the big fair week. a couple of her friends had animals that they would show, and she would go with them and hang out for the entire day there with them.

it was pretty fun, we walked through the different barns and saw all kinds of different animals. most i expected, like horses and pigs and cows, but there was one i didnt expect: llamas! what a strange looking animal that thing is...

we watched some of the horse events and even the llamas do a sort of high jump thing, then we walked through the area with the rides and different booths. we went on the ferris wheel, which was really high, and partook in a delicious funnel cake. for my first real fair it was a lot of fun!

(more pics 1, 2)

ring cleaning

this weekend we had a pretty good scare. we were hanging out at dianas and she dropped something on her pants. she didnt want it to stain, so she quickly changed them and threw them into the washer. no problem, right? well, it seems that she had put her engagement ring into her pants pocket and had forgotten to take it out before throwing them into the washer. oops. the big problem was this: when we realized it and took the pants out to examine for the ring, it was not there! we immediately freaked, and worried that it thad gone down the drain. i tried to take the agitator part out of the washer so i could look under it for the ring, but i needed a ratchet set, which diana didnt have. so we quickly drove to the hardware store and bought one and raced back and removed the agitator. nothing. there was nothing there. we were really worried at this point. we started to call plumbers, but werent having any luck. we figured we could try and dismantle it as best we could, because in reality, the ring is worth far more than the washer. just as we were about to start, diana says 'oh, here it is!' it had fallen out of the pants before she had even put them into the washer and was laying on top of a blanket by the washer.

wow. that was quite a scare! i know that it wasnt her fault, its just one of those things that can happen, but i am very very happy we found it without having to break anything! maybe next time ill think to look around the floor first...

game time

this past weekend when i went to visit diana we had the chance to spend an evening with her sister and boyfriend. its always a good time when we hang out with barbara and nick. we went out to eat at the local restaurant 'sunnys' and then back to the house. we played some games together. nick brought over his xbox and we played a game that he had called 'the bible game', he had found it for about 4 bucks at the store, and thought it looked pretty funny, so he picked it up. it was a game show sort of thing, there were questions about the bible, and small little mini games between turns. the questions were very basic and simple, but the mini games were actually a lot of fun! my favorite was the one where we throw rocks at the philistines. after a rousing game, we pulled out scrabble and played that. it was over almost before it began. barbara went first and her first word was 'sneeze' and she got 48 points for it. after that none of us ever stood a chance of catching up. but it was a fun time playing anyway!
(more pics)

shut eye

this morning i headed out to see diana. she works today, but she has an hour lunch, so i got there in time to pick her up and go out to eat with her. she was working in the paint department this morning, so i walked in and saw her. she said it might be a few minutes because she couldnt leave until someone else came to relieve her. i didnt mind, i had no schedule to keep. so i wandered around a bit and found the patio furniture section, had a seat, and made myself comfortable. perhaps a bit too comfortable... after a few minute snooze i came back to and saw her and her coworkers snickering at me. oh well. give me a break, i worked all night and hadnt slept in 18 hours at that point. ok, you got me, it was kind of funny...

(more pics)

sandals

ever since the weather started to get a bit warmer i have been wearing my sandals. now, these sandals are very comfortable and i really love them. for some reason though, diana totally hates them! ive had them for about 9 years and they have treated me good, ive taken them everywhere with me, from iowa and utah, to mexico and germany! these things have seen the world. sure they may be a little worn, but thats what happens to something thats strong and reliable. yes, i know they are hideous and an eyesore, but they have character!
i guess this is just another example of having to compromise in a relationship. but why is it that every time there is a compromise i end up having to throw something of mine away?!?

stocked out

last night was my last day at work. i was supposed to work until the end of this coming week, but i was getting a bit antsy. i was ready to be done working at the grocery store, and kind of wanted a little bit more time to enjoy my summer. i know that soon enough i will be back at the daily grind of teaching, so i figured i should really live it up these last weeks while i can. i talked to my boss and he was totally cool about it, he said 'yeh, id do the same too!'

so i am a free man once again! usually in the summer i love to stay up late and sleep late, but i think ive already taken that to the extreme while working at the grocery store! so maybe ill totally confuse my body and only stay up till 11pm, and wake up at 7am. man, that would be so crazy!!!

(more pics)

the big clean

now that i have my power on, i figured i would take advantage and do a little cleaning up, you know, with lights on. i figured id start off in my kitchen. i wiped down the cupboards and cleaned them out. i tossed a lot of stuff that i had tucked away and totally forgot about. i found quite a few old items. among them was a container of slim jims. i hate slim jims. so, you might be asking yourself, why did i have a whole container of them? well, about 5 years ago the guys came down to see me, and sarah came along with them. the hulk movie was just coming out (no, the older one...) and she saw a package with hulk on it and figured id love it. i appreciated the thought, but i was certainly not interested in eating said slim jims. so out of obligation, i tucked it away in the cupboard. well, i think i have fulfilled my obligation and can now get rid of it...

and then there was light

finally, after 78 hours, 'stormwatch: powerless! '08' has come to a close. after leaving panera bread thursday night i went home and sat out on my porch again and played my nintendo ds. i set it down for a second to get a drink and then suddenly, with a blinding flash, the lights of the strip mall at the end of my street lit up! bing, bing, bing! each progressive house along the street began shining brightly. and then it happened, at exactly 11:08 pm central, my home once again buzzed with electricity!!! i threw my fists in the air and let out a shriek of joy 'hurray!!'. i had just enough time to get the house in order, set the clocks, and then i got ready for work, excited by the fact that i was no longer living like a pioneer of old, but was once again a bellow citizen of the twenty first century.

all is once again well with the world. you may now resume your normal activities. i have.

darkness creeps in

we are now entering our 73rd hour of 'stormwatch: powerless! '08' and i am still left in the dark. literally. i called this morning and they were hopeful that the power would be on this evening. well, i am just about out of hope at this point. i really want to throw a hissy fit, but am trying my best to keep it together.

ive been spending most of my time awake here at panera bread, but they close at 10pm, and i dont go into work until midnight, so i have been struggling with what to do for those extra two hours at night. last night i pulled out a chair onto my front porch and just played my nintendo ds in the dark, which was actually a lot of fun. ive been playing 'zoo keeper', which is exactly like bejeweled, but with animal heads instead of jewels. very addicting.

i guess ive been growing accustomed to living in the dark at this point. i no longer have a hard time sleeping without a fan, its not ideal, but i now have learned that it is possible. at least the weather was really cool today, so that helps with staying sane. other normal tasks, like taking a shower in the dark is quite strange- i never know how much shampoo i am using! the one thing i havent tried, nor plan to, is shaving in the dark. i just know it would go horribly wrong... but that means i really really need to shave. my neck has been so ichy!

thaw out

i had been waiting until this morning to do it, so i finally did it: i opened my freezer and threw everything out! i figured id wait until trash day so it wouldnt have to stink up my house with the turned meat and stuff. i was afraid of how bad it was going to be, but i was pleasantly surprised. there was still bits of ice still in the ice trays! the only problem was the old ice cream that had been sitting in there for a while- it got really soupy! but at least its done now, while i have some free time.

(more pics)

fallen trees

i came home from work this morning and am still without power (stormwatch: powerless '08 continues...). but i kind of wanted to drive around a bit and assess the damage. with the worst of it now being cleaned up, it seems that the only real remnent of the storm is the huge amount of trees and branches that are down.

here are some more photos of the destruction i saw: 1, 2.

calm

it always seems brightest after a storm, huh? last night the weather was beautiful after the terrible storm monday. the sky was still a bit cloudy, but the sunset was just amazing! seeing the beauty of God in the weather helps put the problems of the storm into perspective.
(more pics)

still nothing

we are now entering hour 51 of 'stormwatch: powerless '08'! i figure when ever the news has some sort of disaster or anything to cover they always come up with a crazy title and graphic for it, so i should do the same.

it was monday around this time that we lost power, and there seems to be little evidence that it will be returning any time soon... i called the power company this morning and they werent even willing to narrow it down at all. i asked 'can i expect power later today, or by the end of the week?' and i got nothing. 'sir, we are working on it.'

talking to a few other people who are still without power, they have been saying that they have heard anywhere from thursday afternoon, to sometime in the middle of next week. argh! ive already spent more time here at panera bread than i have at my house this week, i dont know if i can take much more of this!

damage report

i went home this afternoon and the power was still out. argh. sounds like its not going to be on until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest. checking out some more news reports, it seems that they have determined that it was a tornado that touched down about a mile and a half from my house. in fact, griffith has been declared a disaster zone, they even sent in the national guard!

i stopped home and took a shower in the darkness (powers out, but water still works!). i figured id drive around and survey the damage. much of it was just north of my place. it took out a strip mall, and a couple streets, one of which my buddy scott used to live on! his apartment building no longer exists...

(more pics)

disaster zone

the weather here last night was amazing! the rain started around 7:30 or 8, followed quickly by thunder and lightning, and chased by 80 or more mile an hour winds! around then the power went out. i decided to stand outside and just watch it all happen. i called diana and told her 'i think this is the end of the world!' thats how crazy it was outside! with nothing to do, i went to bed, set my phone alarm for work, and dozed off. i got up for work, but figured we wouldnt be having it. i had called the store 5 or 6 times through out the evening, but never got an answer, so i drove over to the store and there was no power at all. with no lights, and no cars in the lot, i figured God blessed me with an extra day off- score! i went back home and went back to sleep. when i woke up i still didnt have power. with nothing to do i figured id head over to panera and see what i could see online.
as it turns out, the town of griffith, which i live in, has been declared a disaster zone! yikes! my house and car are fine, but i guess not everyone faired quite so well... there is a strip mall and kmart just a couple miles down the street and they were totaled. no roof, no walls, nothing. a bunch of houses were destroyed as well. the think it was a tornado, but i havent seen any reports that say it was for certain.
it sounds like they have been getting the power back on in the area, so im going to chance it and head home to find out. cause man, i could really use a shower...

life of riley

monday i was able to spend the day with diana. she had the day off, and i was coming down from grand rapids. i have her back her car, now with shiny new breaks (thanks again, jeffry lee!). we didnt really have anything that we wanted to do, so we kind of took it easy and just stopped at different places through out the day. we grabbed a bite to eat, walked around the mall, peeked in at value city (just because), and rummaged through the shelves at a discount book store. we stopped at steak n shake for a little snack- yummy milk shakes! while there we thumbed through a magazine diana got that is supposed to help with wedding planning. according to the timeline they suggest, we are doing pretty well in our planning, which is good to hear. afterward we went to a few more places and did a lot more nothing.

tool time

for months (ok, years) now i have been complaining about my cell phone service. i can almost always get good reception if im outside my house on the front porch, but if i walk in and sit down, then all bets are off. and i certainly cant go into the kitchen or my bedroom, there is almost no chance at all of reception there. well, i figured id try and do something about it. so, i got one of those bluetooth headsets. i figure i can set my phone on the window sill in the living room and i can walk about and the reception might stay strong. i have to charge it first, but im looking forward to trying it out, and im hopeful that it will result in less dropped calls.
the problem though, is that im not sure if im enough of a tool to use it. i know i couldnt actually wear it in public, im just not that lame. but maybe ill be ok in the privacy of my own home... maybe...

more car work

sunday we began working on the car again. jeffry lee pulled off the back wheel and began working on replacing the part. rex was back at work on his car beside us, and aaron and bethany came by for the afternoon and sat out with us and enjoyed the weather and conversation. we spend some time trying to think of the best ways for aaron to decorate the outside of his house. we came up with many great ideas, including a fountain, a gondola, mannequins in assorted stages of death, and michelangelos statue of david, albeit slightly modified (i would explain more, but i really dont think i should...)

after about 4 hours of trying to get the part on and get the piece to form a seal, he took a look at it and realized that the part itself was broken and it was impossible for it to create a clean seal. we were relieved and angered. relieved because it meant that the problem wasnt with jeff, but angered because he had just wasted 4 hours and a couple of trips to the parts place trying to get the faulty part to work. we went and got a replacement for it that was actually working correctly (thank you auto zone, no thank you napa), and finally started making some progress. by about 10pm the part was replaced, the seal was good, the break line was bled, and the car was ready to go!

man, i owe jeffry lee big time!!!

(more pics 1, 2)

fridays on saturday

after finally finishing for the day, jeffry lee, aaron and i headed over to fridays for a bite to eat. aaron was still sporting his pirate hat, and jeffry lee changed out of his 'hulk smash' shirt, but had forgotten to take another one, so he wore one of mine (which was really weird looking to me). we got some food and talked about how exhausted we were. jeffry lee had just spend about 10 hours working on the car, aaron had been out in the sun all day looting and pillaging, and i had been sleeping and sitting around. im pretty sure i was the most exhausted of us all...after fridays i figured i shouldnt drive the car too much with the fluid leak, so i just crashed at jeffs. we stayed up for a bit and watched 'charlie bartlett', and then quickly fell asleep.
(more pics)

getting greasy

when the guys returned from getting parts i had found aarons air mattress and made myself comfy. i was exhausted, i had finished a midnight shift at the grocery store, and finally around 3pm my body gave out. i slept for about 5 hours when the guys finally came in and woke me up. they had been busy at it working on the cars. i got up and just sat around and watched them, helping them with whatever i could (which would be very little...) finally around 1am everything was good to go. except that it wasnt. we had noticed that one of the back brakes was dripping fluid. it was too late saturday to do anything about it, but we could try and fix it sunday.
(more pics)

car ninja

in order to properly prepare for working on a car, jeffry lee asked me to cut off the sleeves of one of his ratty old t-shirts. i figured it would be more fun to make it look like he had busted out of the sleeves and made them jagged instead of just a clean cut (we called it the 'hulk smash' style of sleeve). jeffry lee wanted to wear the sleeve on his head as a headband, so i figured it needed something written on it to express his role as car fixer guy, so i wrote: car ninja!!!
(more pics)

pirates!

aarons coworkers are a bit strange... he was telling me that some of the guys at his work go out on lake michigan every year and have a 'pirate fest'. they decorate their boat like a pirate ship, dress like pirates, and drink rum all day. this year aaron was invited, and he and a couple other coworkers decided that they wanted to have a pirate ship toom the only problem was that none of them had a boat. so they figured they would make one themselves... they spend a week or two building a boat out of wood and styrofoam. it ended up looking more like a floating plank than a boat, but it actually stayed afloat! turns out that they werent allowed to tow it out on lake michigan, but they were able to have a lot of fun with it in lake macatowa.
(more pics)

thems the brakes

this weekend diana had to work, so i headed up to grand rapids by myself, with her car. for a couple months now she has said that she needed new brakes on her car, but we knew that was going to be really expensive. i asked jeffry lee about it, and he said that he wouldnt mind replacing them for us. so i finally found the time to go up and have him work on them. we had set aside all of saturday to work on it. i arrived in town at jeffry lees apartment around noon (i had to first stop at aarons in holland to get keys for his house, where we were going to be working). we headed over to the house, met up with rex, and took a look at the breaks. jeffry lee decided that it was in fact something that he would be willing to do, i.e. not too much rust, and so he and rex went to get all the parts they needed. they could only fit two people in any of the vehicles available, so i was out of luck. though, for some reason, they did need my wallet...

poco time

this week diana had wednesday off so she came over and we got to hang out. we really didnt do too much, we went out to eat, got some sneaky, and milled about at meijers. she had to get some hair stuff, and i really wanted to get the new stargate sg1 movie! she even brought her little dog poco. we went for a walk and just enjoyed our time together, which is never enough...
(poco pics)