working on cars

im not exactly what you might call 'good at working on cars'. i dont even know how to change my own oil. and im ok with that. the problem, though, is that all my michigan buddies are. so, often times i will find myself hip deep in a conversation about rear pin axle manifold mods and wonder how i got there (i dont think thats even a real thing...). like a deer in the headlights. i have a hard enough time remembering what kind of car i have, let alone what size engine or horsepower. i dont mind those times when they talk about cars and stuff, i just try my best to not look too dumb, and just stay out of the way.
well, friday night was one of those 'car' nights. the guys were at jeffry lee's working on a car. i rolled in around 6:30 and just hung out. they were working and getting dirty and stuff, and i was just standing around with them enjoying the company and the light hearted conversations. there were plans to go out that night, but the car stuff came first. we ended up in the garage till about 10:30, but at least the car was running (certainly through no help from me). it was kind of a drag to me at first, we were hanging out in a very cold garage, and i had no idea what they were doing, and am too ignorant to be able to help. but, as the night wound down, i realized that it was actually more fun than if we had gone out and hit the scene. we had some quality time just talking, laughing, and working (not me, them), which was so much more rewarding.
i guess thats kind of what friends are: even when you are not interested, they are still interesting.

snow snow snow!

earlier this week we finally got hit with snow. up until monday night all we had had for the whole season was just a couple light dustings of snow. but then we got a wallup!

note, the bottom of my bedroom window is about 2 1/2 feet high. it wasnt this high everywhere, but the wind caused some cool drifting- it almost looks like a 'snow wave' is about to hit the side of my house!

dear diary

dear diary,
what a week this has been! on tuesday i got something i have been waiting and waiting for since i first started working. i had heard rumors about them, but i was still unsure if such a magical thing really existed. but this week i finally got to see that mythical thing called a 'snow day'! oh, and what an amazing thing it was. that morning i went about my activities like normal. but for some reason, i decided to check my answering machine before my shower. and lo, what did i find? a message which uttered those truly beautiful works 'no school today'! after six long years of hoping against hope, of anticipation and letdown, i finally was able to let its beauty and joy wash over me like a thousand tiny drops of 'yipee!'. i turned on the tv to see if it was true, and it was!
as if this glorious event werent enough, by days end i recieved a call which once again uttered those illuminous words: 'looks like schools off for tomorrow too'. oh, the rapturous joy! i must tell you, dear reader, that it is true- i have been touched by magic not once, but twice.
and it is glorious!

oh the bitter cold!

it has been a rough week and a half to live in northwest indiana (well, i guess its true of most of the midwest lately). the weather has been truely wretched. now, i am a big fan of the cold. i enjoy a 45 degree day much more than an 80 degree day. but lately its been rediculous. we have had almost 8 days over the past 10 where the temperature has been below zero! and then theres the wind chill... i have been holed up under a blanket for quite a while! fortunately i finally bit the bullet and called the furnace guy just as this whole whing was starting. ive been struggling with my heat for quite a while now (and by quite a while, i mean a year or two...). and it turned out to be fairly cheap! there was just a little part that needed to be replaced. so for the first time in far too long, i have been able to set the heat and actually have that temperature reached before the thing turns off! what a blessing! saints be praised! so ive been treating myself lately, and have even turned it up to 68 degrees- absolutely scandalous, i know!

just arrived!

world, please welcome Avery Marie Koster. born january 23, 7lb 9oz. 10 fingers, 10 toes. she is doing well (but im pretty sure she doesnt know whats going on yet...), and my sister is doing well too. and so is the proud uncle!

here are a few more pics

eagerly awaiting...

my big sister is big. i mean BIG! dont take that the wrong way, when i say big its a good thing, she is pregnant after all...
she is due at the end of the month, but she was about two weeks early with each of the last two, so shes thinking (and hoping) this one will follow the trend. if thats the case, i may be getting a phone call in the next day or two! i am very excited abou this- i am planning to head up to see here as soon as i get the call. i have been unable to with each of them so far, but i would really love to be able to visit her in the hospital. im sure its not a time when she feels her prettiest, but i would really love to have the memory of seeing her there with her brand new baby girl.
so im waiting for the call.
just waiting.
waiting.

i think i need a new hobby...

expensive lessons to teach

for the third time in four years i had to have my places pipes cleaned out. what a pain in the butt. whenever the pipes get backed up water comes up through the floor drain by the water heater. unfortunately i dont have a basement, so this means water comes up through the closet right next to my kitchen. its never too bad, usually just a puddle that expands for a minute or two, then goes back down. this was very frustrating for me the first time it happened because i was a bit unprepared. and by unprepared i mean i had two large boxes of comic books on the floor right next to the closet. a hundred or so got destroyed. i then learned my lesson- put the boxes on a wooden plank. theyve been safe ever since.
what happens to the pipes is this: the trees in my yard really like the water that flows right by their roots through the sewer system. they like it so much that many roots have busted through the pipes and are now growing in there. just for fun these crazy roots decided that they should do some exploring and so they started to grow up into my sewer pipe! lucky me! so, every so often i have to call the plumber to clean out the pipe and cut all the roots that are growing in there.
the problem is this- i just had someone come and do it this past spring! there is no way the tree roots grew that much over the course of one summer. in years past it has always taken at least two growing seasons to clogg it up. but clogged they were, so i had to call the plumber. on a sunday. after not being able to shower and go to church. needless to say i felt like crap, and looked like it too.
the guys come and clean it out, but the tree roots are only a small part of the problem. a couple months ago my renter had his son and daughter-in-law move in with him. and it seems that she needs to learn how to properly use a toilet. here are the simple guide lines: pee- yes. poo- yes. toilet paper- yes. feminine products- no. she seems to struggle with that last one. the plumbers found about 15 of these 'products' lodged in the pipe and had to stick a tool down the sewer pipe to dislodge said clogg.
toilet ettiquite is an important lesson to learn, and im glad i got the opportunity to teach her this lesson. all for only $170! what a deal!

gerald r ford

former president ford has a special place in the hearts of the people of grand rapids. he wasnt originally from here, but this is where he grew up and who he prepresented for 25 years in congress. we have a special presidential museum for him here right on the edge of the grand river and have always looked to him as one of grand rapids favorite sons.
he was president long before i was around, but his importance and his history was always a part of my upbringing. around here he was always a favorite figure during history classes, and we visited his museum for class trips on more than one occassion. as an adult i have looked deeper and understood better why he is so revered here in grand rapids. he was truly a strong leader unafraid of grace.
last week we lost him. a city mourned. a couple friends and i took an evening and headed down to the museum to pay our respects. it was no small surprise that we were not alone down there. dozens were gathered to reflect on his life. there was a signature book that we could leave our thoughts on. one of the workers told us that there had already been more than eight thousand people who came to share their respects with the family. the mood was respectful, but actually quite chatty. everyone seemed to have a story of fords kindness. a neighbor who remembered his firm handshake, a family friend who remembered getting a card when his mother passed away. all stories of a gentle man and a loving servent of his people. a rare thing to find in politics these days. the stories remembered were not of power or money, but of a kind man who loved those around him. an example we can all look to and admire.

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!

waiting for the wii

last weekend rex and jeffry lee came down again to play video games with me. rex was hoping to get a ps3, but soon gave up when he realized that the line up had started two days before they came down thursday. so instead we shifted our focus on to the system that i wanted to get: the wii. friday we went and saw a movie, then when out to eat for dinner. i happened to call meijers and ask them what their plan was for handling the line up for the wii. they said that they would not let the line form more than 24 hours ahead of time. so we decided that we would stop by around midnight friday and see what was going on. we got there and found out they only had eight systems! so we waited for the announcement of where the line would be forming. after a couple problems they called out that the line was forming at the media counter. i hapened to be close to that area so i made a dash for it. i was lucky enough to make it into the fifth spot! this was quite exciting and all, but the the realization soon sunk in- we were going to be waiting there for 24 hours!!! we were guarnteed a wii, but we just had to make it through the wait. they were quite lenient with the waiting rules. we could get up, go to the bathroom, or grab a bite to eat and still have our spot. everyone was actually quite nice. i think this is rather accurate.
the people in line soon grew to become a psudo- community. rex and jeffry lee were there with me almost the whole time (which is just rediculously awesome of them). we spent time reading, playing ds, listening to mp3 players, but mostly just talking and hanging out. after about the first 10 hours we started to get a bit loopy. (an actual conversation at around 10am: i decided i was going to start up a new career as a cobbler, rex was going to look into the viability of becoming a door-to-door vacuum salesman, and jeffry lee was thinking about the prospects of assassin for hire). we got quite annoyed by some of the people around us too, they were very loud and opinionated and never shut up through out the whole 24 hours. so, we decided to make up nicknames for them so we could vent our anger and talk about them when out them knowing. i still want to punch t.c. and timmy straight in the face. linix was annoying, and splatoo was just funny looking. oh well, we never have to see them again.
as the time drew nearer and nearer, the excitement level jumped. around 10:30 saturday night there were alot of new people trying to join the line. by 12:00 there were probably about 50 people in line. little did they know that meijer only had 8 of them. hee hee hee...
we got it home and had a blast! my thoughts on the actual system are here.

the visit

finally! its been quite a while since i posted, but its not my fault, i promise! i tried to log on a couple times this week, but blogger has been down and i was unable to post anything. well, looks like its back up, so ive got a lot of catching up to do...

last weekend was a blast- jeffry lee, rex, and aaron all came down. jeffry lee and rex came down on friday. right away when they arrived we headed out to see 'the prestige', which was really cool (more here). when we got back we hung out and watched some of the random shows i have on my tivo. it was good to just chill and laugh together. on saturday we slept in late and pretty much just had a nice lazy day. when i finally woke up jeffry lee was watching some of the old episodes of 'how i met your mother'. there have been some really funny episodes lately, so it was cool to rewatch them again. eventually rex decided to plug in his ps2 and play his rachet and clank game. its a pretty funny one, so it was cool to just sit and laugh along with the crazy character stuff. last into the day aaron showed up. we didnt have much in mind to do, so we didnt do much...
we decided on a special 'vs.' night. we were looking to watch some crappy movies, and we figured it would be fun to watch freddy vs. jason, and then alien vs. predator. neither was great, but alien vs. predator was at least entertaining. i cant exactly say the same for the other one...
sunday morning aaron went on his way, while the other guys ended up sticking around till about 6. rex played his game some more, and jeffry lee and i watched, talked, etc. all the while. right before they left we watched the latest episode of heroes, and i think it made a new fan out of jeffry lee.
we had a really great time, but i must admit, when i got to school monday morning i didnt feel refreshed from the weekend at all! having fun sure can be exhausting...

the weekend

saturday ended up being a lot of fun (except for the getting up on time thing...) i was up and out of the house around 8:30. i headed up to michigan. it was a nice drive, it gave me time to listen to some of my new music a bit more. the latest brian vander ark is really growing on me. also i listened to the new andrew osenga stuff, which i just cannot get enough of! i got there a few minutes early, but soon after rex and jeffry lee were kind enough to meet up with me. we headed over to my moms new work place.
she didnt know i was coming, but it worked out perfectly! when we walked into the big work area she was with the rest of the family in the office up front. we were able to sneek in and surprise her. she was helping me little niece, she looked up and saw me and was totally blown away! it was funny, she actually started crying! after the hugs and stuff we were able to dig into the excellent grub they had for the open house. of course, they had to have the open house food standard: meatballs! (which are a personal favorite, so i was quite happy...) soon after aaron joined us (free lunch, can you blame him?) we hung out for about an hour and a half, then the guys had to get going. i headed out soon after. the trip home was a bit harder. i started to get really sleepy, so i poped in a little dane cook. that usually keeps me awake!
one of the coolest things about the day was just an appreciation of my friends. those guys came all the way out to my moms work just to hang out for a little while. how cool is that? i just felt really blessed that the guys are willing to give up a couple hours just to hang out. for rex and jeffry lee it was about a 40 minute drive just to hang out in the work area at my moms job. maybe im making something out of nothing, but i just totally appreciated them that day.