the windy city

this past weekend was another one jam packed with goodness- just like a pop tart! friday night i spent some time cleaning my place up a bit, and then headed over to matts to hang out. we chilled for a while and watched a couple episodes of 'lost', which is always fun. we watched the latest episode that focused on desmond, and i must say, it was by far the greatest episode of lost ever!

on saturday a couple friends and i headed up the the city. we spent the day in downtown chicago. it was a lot of fun. one of them, lissa, loves public transportation (i dont get it either...) so we parked a bit out of town and hopped on the metro el train and took that in. we wandered around millennium park for a while and checked out the big shiny bean. we stopped in many of my favorite places: shoe stores, purse stores, and jewelry stores. i tried my best to pretend to be interested. i think it worked. it was starting to get dark, and we were starting to get hungry, so we walked down to the cheesecake factory for dinner. we had a great time just eating and talking! when we were finished we almost had to be rolled out- those portions are soooo big! lissa decided she was not up for walking back about a mile to hop on the metro back to the car, so instead we got a taxi to take us. strange.

sunday was good too. went to church, then went to sophias. yumm...

camp out

last saturday was such a blast! i drove up to michigan and picked up a friend and we headed over to nicks house for a party. i was a little nervous about it because i had never met any of the people who were going to be there, including nick!

the house itself was quite interesting. its actually a sort of lodge check in place for a camp ground. nicks grandpa (his roommate) owns a big chunk of land that he decided to turn into a camp ground, and the bottom floor of the house is where everyone checks in when they arrive. it was really cool, there was a pool table and lots of room, so we were able to have enough space to play games, music, and chat.
i tried my best to be a bit outgoing, so i was intentional about getting to know the other people at the party. it wasnt too hard because everyone there was very nice and welcoming. we had a great time, and i eagerly await a chance to hang out with those guys again!

the lost gang

friday night i finally got to catch up on 'lost', and a few friendships. ive been watching 'lost' ever since it first came on, and for a couple years a few coworkers and would always talk about it the next day. they decided to start getting together, share a meal, and enjoy the show about a year back. i was invited and had a great time! it was a bunch of fun because we would eat, then we would watch the show. the best part is the commercials- we use that time to come up with out own crazy conspiracy theories about what we just saw, then back to the show!

now, this worked great last year because everyone had wednesdays free. but, of course, abc has to change the night they show it on. argh. no one has thursday night free, so we werent able to get together for the first several episodes.

last friday, though, we found some time to get together and catch up on life and 'lost'. we went over to rachels. she asked me to tape the two episodes so we could watch them at her place. about a half hour before we are supposed to meet i get a call from her: 'um, i dont have a vcr... could you bring yours?' i had no problem with it, i just thought it was funny that the vcr is now an almost obsolete item!

we had a great time catching up and watching 'lost'. one of the couples brought their kids, which was a lot of fun, but not very conducive to watching a tv show... i think i will watch the show before i go and just enjoy the company instead.

the big show

got a big weekend ahead. tonight getting together with friends to catch up on 'lost'. tomorrow im visiting a friend in michigan which im very excited for. and sunday is the big show: its finally oscar time! hurray! i figured i should give my own predictions for the oscars, which you can find here.

an action packed weekend that i am really looking forward to. oh, i should actually get going or the weekend will start without me!

red moon rising

last night it was a little overcast, but i was still able to see it through the spotty clouds. it was the last lunar eclipse until 2012. around 8:00 the moon started to get a bit discolored, and then by 10:00 it turned from its normal white into a dark reddish brown.

i tried to enjoy it as long as possible, but my shivering (and the 15 degree temp) got the best of me, and i headed back inside where it was warm! hopefully you got a chance to see it too.

the last red moon i remember seeing was at college. robbie and i pulled out some chairs in front of west hall and watched it and talked for an hour or so. good times.

oh, by the way, congrats on the new baby, robbie and tracy!

the big clean

its been a great weekend, nice and long! friday was easy because instead of regular work, we just had some staff seminars, which always means a short day. then, we had today off! almost a four day weekend- cant beat that!

friday i decided to do what i had been putting off for far too long- i cleaned by house. ive had dishes in the sink since the mesozoic period. ive actually had a few archaeologists interested in excavating... i cleaned dishes, moped the kitchen floor, vacuumed the living room, and put all the dvds and cds back in their shelves. i was busy organizing and cleaning until about 1 in he morning, but boy, does it look good now!

saturday i had a friend come over and we hung out, went to see a movie, and went out to eat. a really fun time. after church on sunday i was just chilling out on the couch emptying out the tivo as best i could, when i got a call. i answered, and before i knew it, i found myself in michigan eating at applebees. strange how that happens...

and as for today? i havent been doing much of anything. i sure do love these days off!

happy b-day abe!

happy 199th birthday abraham lincoln!!! just think, he would be 199 years old if he hadnt been shot in that theater. his birthday was actually yesterday, and i apologize for the delay. this post should have been up yesterday, but i was just too busy celebrating!

(check out this amazing photo of me hanging out with abe a few years ago)

snow and slow

this past weekend was a really fun time. i loved hanging out with my family and friend up in michigan, as always. but, ive come to this realization: their winter weather really sucks! all weekend it was snowing and blowy and freezing. the driveway needed to be shoveled at least once a day, and my car would just start feeling comfortable as i arrived at my destination. im not saying our weather down here is much better, but i am really starting to understand how much they are messed by the lake effect off lake michigan. i was driving back to indiana yesterday (which was a very bad idea), and kept having just complete white-outs from the wind. i think i averaged about twenty miles per hour! a drive that is supposed to take two hours was drug out to be a four and a half hour trip. argh! but, like clockwork, as soon as i got below the lake- it was perfectly sunny! still windy, but no snow on the ground.

on days like this it makes me happy to live down here.

but on the other hand, if i lived up there, i would get a whole lot more snow days... maybe its time to move back home...

the beard

for the past eight weeks i have been growing a beard. in december it started snowing one day, and i just figured 'all right, i think im done shaving for a while'. and so i stopped. the beard has been growing ever since (with slight trimmings here and there). and boy, is it an unruly beast! i believe it has come to the end of its life. it had a good long run, but good sense is going to win out in this situation, me thinks...
(more pics)

the pump house

last night was a blast! i headed over to jeffry lees so we could figure out what to do for the night. we sat there for a while trying to figure it out. i got on his nerves, he got on my nerves, then i got on his nerves again. really, it was a fun time! finally, after we were done being annoyed with each other (which we both agreed was kind of fun), he called all the guys and headed over to logans for dinner. rex, aaron, dusty, and adam soon joined us. we got a good table and spend an hour or so just catching up: aaron and rex each got new cars, adam had fun california stories, and dusty is going to be a dad in just a few weeks!
after we finished up our meal, we tried to think of a place to go next. we werent entirely sure what to do, so we decided to have a secret ballot vote! the options were: a. rexs house, b. dustys house, c. adams house, or d. the pump house. we each wrote our selection a a scrap of paper and then put it in the ballot box (i.e. adams hands). one by one we read through the votes and tabulated the results. and, i must say, the results were a bit shocking: two for adams house, and four for the pump house! what a surprise win!
now, in case you are wondering what the pump house is, let me tell you. the pump house is a very old bar that is tucked away on one of the shady side streets in kentwood. it has a lot of character, and by character, i mean its a run down white trash bar. which just so happens to make it the perfect place to hang out! we went there and met up with zagman and just continued talking and hanging out. it was really cool, because it just so happened that we had assembled all the guys from the cabin! this is something rare- getting all seven of us in the same room usually only happens at the cabin, so we were really loving it! we chatted the night away, having a great time! something i noticed through out the night: every conversation i was having was really enjoyable and interesting, but i always felt like i wished i could be a part of the other conversations going on. i figure thats a pretty good sign that we all really enjoy each other. i wanted to be a part of every ones conversation because i love to know whats going on in their lives, what they think about the world, and the wisdom that they can share. its pretty cool to find six other guys who i respect that much.
(more pics)

uncle time

this afternoon i went over to tim and jills. i figured i had the time free, so maybe i could offer my babysitting skills for them so they could maybe catch a quick nap. they were thankful and quickly passed out in their respective pillows. that gave me a chance to have a fun time playing with the kids! avers is getting big enough to stand on her own, which is soo cute! jackson and i messed around with legos for a while and played around.

right after avers was put down for her nap tweeters woke up! so we played with her too. the three of us had a great time playing 'lava floor', 'the planets', and a bunch of other nonsense games that they love! and as their uncle, by default, i love too. also, i let them mess around with my camera a bit, which they always love. here are a few more pictures that they took.

friday night right

i decided to go up to michigan this weekend. friday i stopped by a friends place on the way up, we grabbed a bite for dinner and had a great time. when i got up to grand rapids i stopped over at jeffry lees place. rex, kooch, and jeffry lee were wrapping up a night of crappy movie watching, which im glad i missed. we had a great time just chilling, sitting around talking about life, love, and cars. one of those topics i didnt really have much to add to the conversation. ill let you guess which one it was (a little hint: it doesnt start with an 'L').

i always dig talking with jeffry lee about deeper, bigger issues. hes always got a different perspective than i come from, and that encourages me to grow in my understanding. also, it was nice to get a bit deeper with kooch. i really respect the guy, and its nice to be able to get to know him a bit better.

oh, and just so it didnt get too philosophical in there, we also kept shooting each other with nerf guns. i guess that kinda sums us up: maturely immature.

crazy weather

what a strange few days for the weather! last week on thursday night we had a huge dumping of snow on us, around 6-10 inches! (which i didnt mind at all, i got a snow day out of it!!!) all weekend it was really cold, but then yesterday it was rainy and reached 52 degrees here! the strange thing though is that there is still a bunch of snow on the ground. this lead to some really strange fog. the fog was so thick that i could only see about 50 feet in front of me as i was driving home last night. it was really strange to not see a intersection light until it was suddenly right in front of me!

when night fell it got really creepy. the fog was so thick that i could actually see it moving when a slight breeze came by. all the lights outside show their rays in vivid contrast to the darkness. its really cool! oh, and tonight were supposed to get a bunch more snow. certainly a strange start to a february...

at the movies

ever since christmas break i've rediscovered the joy of watching films in the theater. ive always enjoyed going to see a movie, but the past month or so ive really been loving it! so much in fact, that ive seen around 10 movies in the last five weeks. ridiculous, huh? its been just a lot of fun, so i keep going back!
ive decided im going to try and see as many oscar nominated movies as i can before the awards are given out, that way i can be genuinely frustrated when they give it to crappy movies ('crash' anyone?). in years past i havent even seen any of the films nominated for best picture, but this year i plan to see all of them. well, accept 'atonement', because that looks like a really stupid movie...
ive already seen and reviewed three of them, i am still looking forward to seeing 'no country for old men', but the rest i wrote about here:
juno
there will be blood
michael clayton
*update* i just saw no country for old menand a bunch of other ones i wrote about here. give em a read, feel free to leave a comment.

youre a nerf herder

tonight i went over to jeffry lees with rex to hang out. we picked up a pizza and brought a movie. we got there and watched 'big trouble' while we ate. rex has always been obsessed with that movie and quotes it often, so we figured we would give it a try and see if rex was right about it being good. yup, he was. its got patrick warburton, so really, how bad can it be?

afterwards we were hanging out and jeff and rex both pulled out their nerf guns. now, they had told me before about these guns and how much fun they were, but i wasnt a believer. until tonight. we had a blast! these crazy nerf guns are actually quite powerful. you fill them up with six little darts that have suction cups on them and you can just shoot at whatever you want. they stick to glass and other surfaces, so we were shooting them at the tv and the slider door, we were setting up targets and seeing who was able to knock them down, and we were shooting each other to see how much it hurt (not very). it sounds really nerdy and lame, but those nerf guns are a blast! you can get six shots off fairly quickly, and they can be modified to shoot faster and farther. rex did the mod on his gun and it would easily shoot all the way across the apartment and still stick to stuff.

very childish, but a whole mess of fun!

back again

i know i just visited the family two weeks ago, but i have a day off this weekend, so i figured id drop by again. whether they like it or not. thankfully, they liked it!

friday i drove up in snowy blustery conditions, but then met up with rex and jeffry lee at the mall. we decided to go and see 'cloverfield' (which i talk about here). when the rest of the gang, aaron, bethany and cooch, got there we headed it. the theater was packed! it actually sold out and the audience was a lot of fun, they were roudy and ready for a good time.

after the show we went over to fridays (big surprise) and talked for a couple hours. we had a good time, we joked around a bit, and actually got a chance to talk through some stuff that had been bugging us. always good to get that off your chest!

saturday i went out for breakfast with ma and papa, then headed over to tim and jills to see the kids. dang, they are always so full of energy! its a good thing they are cute, or i dont know how anyone could put up with it! when i got home mom and i went to the book store and just milled about for a while. quite relaxing. for dinner we ordered out some italian and sat and talked for a couple hours. we talked a lot about computer stuff, which is kind of weird to talk about with your mom, but it was great. i dont get to just sit and talk with her as much as i would like, due to that whole living two hours away thing, so it was really good to be able to just chill and share.

two thousand ate

ah, a new year. it always has that hopeful feeling of new possibilities. but, on the other hand, it also always has that feeling of 'shoot, christmas is over and its still crappy out. whens spring coming?'

i think it would be better to try and focus on that whole 'new possibilities' thing...

movie mix-up

the guys and i went to see 'i am legend' at the theater in rivertown mall. we get the tickets and have a seat in the designated screen. as the movie begins it shows zebras and different animals grazing in a field. i lean over to rex and jokingly ask 'is this even the right movie?' just after i say this the title comes up: 'water horse: legend of the deep'. what?!? everyone in the theater is now confused. many get up and leave, ourselves and others wait because we figure someone will be coming to tell us whats up, but no one comes. after about ten minutes i walk down to find someone. they tell me to sit tight, the movie will be changed over shortly. another twenty minutes rolls on. finally someone comes out in front of the screen and announces that they messed up, and will be giving free tickets to everyone who came to see 'i am legend'. so, we go out to the front booth and they give us a ticket for a free ticket, and ask us if we would still like to see a later showing of 'i am legend', we say yes. they give us the tickets, and the free pass. cool! as i am walking in i see a couple workers walking out of the screen with a platter full of bags of popcorn. i ask 'hey, is that for the people who were in the wrong screen?' the guy didnt know what i was talking about but asks if i had gotten any popcorn earlier. i said no, so he looks around and whispers to me 'go ahead and take one, i wont tell...'. oh, and after the movie they gave out cards for free drinks.so, i got to see a half hour of 'legend of the water horse', all of 'i am legend', a free extra movie, a free bag of popcorn, and a free drink, all for only $7.50. not bad, huh?
(oh, and here is what i thought of the movie)

new years

what to do for new years? well, we had answered that question, but things didnt exactly turn out as planned. aaron decided to throw a little shindig for all of us at his place in holland. i was looking forward to going, but nature had a different plan for us. i went over to jeffry lees place for a while. we figured it was time to head over so we packed up and got in the car. quickly we realized our folly. the snow was coming down in buckets and we felt its effects as soon as we got on the highway. with slippery roads and poor sight distance we figured it would be wisest and safest to call it off. so, we headed back to jeffry lees place and decided to watch a movie instead. we ended up watching the new 'halloween' remake. we stopped it, of course, to watch the ball drop and make the appropriate new years phone calls, but then we finished it up. after that i figured id we would just play a little mario galaxy and then id head back home... which i finally did at 4:30am! i tell ya, that game is seriously addictive!

the cabin

this past weekend six friends and i made our annual pilgrimage up to baldwin, michigan. for five years now we head up to a cabin for a night and just have a blast. its a time of fun and zero responsibility (especially rex). this year we decided to go all out and spent two nights up there!

now, unfortunately due to our very restrictive code, im not allowed to talk about the specifics of what goes on up there. so im going to have to keep it to generalities. we got lost on our walk, we ate at the local tavern sportys, we played games, shot guns, created silly new inside jokes (hand affirmation!), and had our traditional candle light talks. im not really at liberty to divulge much more than that, im sure you understand...

(more pics)