A Sunday Update

Yesterday was the home inspection for the house it seems like I'll be getting. Overall everything checked out OK. For some reason only 3 of the 4 burners on the furnace would ignite so the inspector suggested a heating and cooling specialist come take a look at it and give it a tune up. I didn't know you could tune furnaces up, but I guess you can.

There were a few other things also, like an exposed wire outside that needed to be taped up, and the driveway had settled some so it wasn't exactly level. That's expensive to replace and not very important to me.

I didn't have to pay for the inspection either which was nice, my agent covered that. So things are moving along and the closing of the house is scheduled for the end of this month.

I haven't really done much at all this weekend, it's been pretty boring/dull. I've done a lot of reading. Yesterday I played 2 games over at Alex's. I guess that's really about it. I miss Walter a LOT and wish he were here to take on walks and get me outside. I hope I can get him back very soon.

Poor Walt

What a night...

I got home from work today to find poop splattered on the wall behind Walter's crate. That's odd because he was fine at lunch and has NEVER gone to the bathroom in this apartment. I let him out of his crate and he acted odd, so I took him outside. Sure enough he pretty much exploded all over the place. He just stayed crouched down for a good 2 minutes but there was nothing more to come out. I thought maybe it was a one time thing. I then came back inside to clean up the mess and he threw up 5 times inside. It wasn't normal throw up either, it was brown and smelled like bile.

Now I was getting a little worried. I put him in the bathroom until I could get the apartment cleaned up. The smell...my GOSH the smell was awful. Like a mixture of stomach acid and rotten eggs. I gave him a little water to clean his mouth out, and he threw that up too. This was not normal. This didn't even seem like a bug, but a pretty serious illness. I decided I had to take him to the animal hospital. If he died on my hands, atleast I knew I put forth the effort to save him and it gave me piece of mind.

We waited and waited (like you would in an ER). To sum it up they don't know what's wrong with him. They did know they wanted to do extensive medical work which summed up to be $1400. I said a big "No" to that. I decided it was important for him to get a) fluids and b) something to calm his stomach. They ended up giving him 3 shots for his stomach and 600 mL of a water/electrolyte solution which made a huge hump on his shoulder where they injected it. Dogs apparantly can absorb water through their skin. About an hour later the hump was gone, so he was obviously dehyrdrated. So I dropped $200 tonight. I also got my insurance bill the other day, and I have a credit card bill coming that's going to be very unfriendly as well (even though it's only used for gas and groceries). So the Civic fund is not growing like it's supposed to, and that's a shame.

I'm supposed to take Walter back to the vet tomorrow. He seems to be stable, but obviously sick and tired. I'll keep an eye on him and hope he feels better by tomorrow, because I don't want to go back to the vet.

I'll keep his status updated...

A Sunday Update

It has been a long time since I posted. I'll do better this next week.

I just saw an advertisement for Lipozene, a weight loss drug, and one of their "customers" just said "I loved being able to loose weight without actually having to work for it". If you don't have any motivation to work in the first place...you're probably not going to loose weight, because it takes work.

I've had a fun weekend so far. Friday after work Paul, Dan and I went rock climbing in Ann Arbor. It's amazing how good rock climbing is for you. If you do it for a few hours (we usually stay for 3 hours or so) you burn around 700 calories. It's a good challenge too. I want to get a climbing harness sooon so I don't have to keep renting them.

Kiki was in Ann Arbor this weekend visiting U of M. So when Dan and I finished rock climbing we met Kiki downtown and got something to eat. I was glad I got to see her on Friday.

Saturday I took Walter to the dog park. We left a little early because he wasn't behaving very well. For some reason he did not want to come when he was called and kept walking away from me when I told him to come. I got to hang out with Kiki again on Saturday night. We played Rummikub and Fluxx in the lobby of her hotel and took lots of pictures.

I finished reading the book "Lamb" for the bookclub at work. It was actually very funny and a good book. The other one we're starting is supposed to be more serious and a tougher read. It's called "The Monsters of Templeton". I think I will start on it today. I still have to finish Paper Mario at some point. I will try to do that today, too.

Yuck

Today was not a good day. This week has not really been a good week in general, to be honest. I had to go to work for about 30 minutes to print stuff, and then drive to a meeting at one of the "Big Three". I won't say which one, but I will say their name begins with an "F" and ends with a "d" and has "or" in the middle of it. If I didn't have Subaru, and had to work with them only...I don't think I could do this job very long. Working with them is about as fun as watching paint dry, but worse because they give you work that is about as important as paint drying (i.e. not important at all). It's not all their fault to be honest. I am still learning a lot of the technical information, so I couldn't answer some of their questions, and I hate answering a question with "let me check on that and get back to you". So I was frustrated with myself too. Just imagine being in a grey, dark, drab building with nothing but middle aged men in tight cubicles arguing over whether or not a value should be 2 kN or 3 kN. It will kill your brain cells too, I promise.

The day did get better when I played Brawl online with Paul and got to beat him with Sweet Nana since he was playing as that dike, but then it got bad again when I noticed Walter was being way too quiet and not bothering me. I looked over at him: "Oh, he's just chewing on a bone". About 5 minutes later, I check again and the bone is beside his mouth, but he was chewing on something else: my phone. I yanked it out of his mouth, but he completely destroyed the bottom of it. It's mangled plastic and the charge port is dented, so they charger won't go in like it's supposed to. So if you call, and I don't answer for a few days, it's because I'm probably going to have to drop $150 for a new phone.

So...I'm just ready for this week to be over. Woe is me.

An Explanation of Sporadic Posting Is at the Bottom

Walter was invovled in a small fight at the dog park yesterday, but it was completey not his fault. It was a stupid beagle, who for no reason, bit Walter's neck (although all he was biting was loose skin) and started shaking him around. Walter didn't fight back at all, he just stood there shocked. It was the first time any dog has ever shown any agression towards him. He was fine though and the owner of the beagle corrected him.

I decided since it was so nice out this weekend (by nice I mean sunny and in the low-mid 30's) I would take Walter for a long walk after the dog park, to get him super tired. We walked about 3 miles roundtrip and he got very exhausted, which was nice. Last night I went over to Dan's house to watch Garden State. I haven't seen that movie in about 3-4 years so it was good to see again.

Oh, and I forgot, the real estate agent that showed us houses last weekend sent me another list of houses. One just came on the market in Plymouth that is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath ranch house in a really nice neighborhood. It has a full basement and a detached 2 car garage. It was completely updated in 2005 and looked very nice from the pictures. I drove by it yesterday and it looks very nice from the outside. It's on an amazing lot, at the back of the subdivision on the cul-de-sac. I want to look at the inside of the house sometime soon. The price is very reasonable too. Plymouth's real estate values still remain very high compared to other parts of the metro area, mainly because Plymouth is considered "trendy" and has a neat downtown. It's ranked as one of the safest cities in the US and Plymouth Canton has a very good school district. Another bonus is that Plymouth is next to Northville, where I work, so the location is great.

I've decided I will go ahead and get pre-approved for a home loan to see what price ranges I can afford. Based on my calculations, the house I like in Plymouth would only be about $500 more a month to own over what I currently pay for rent - and that's including all of the taxes and insurance on the house. I'm so sick of paying some investor close to $800 a month to live in a 800 sq. ft. apartment. I'm getting nothing out of it equity wise.

So that's a big decision, but now is an excellent time to buy because the values are lower right now. I'll seee what happens/pans out over the next few months.

Dan from work went to chruch with me today. It was a good service about what Heaven is like. I didn't know, but Heaven is apparantly 1400 x 1400 square miles (Revelation 21). It also has Japser walls that are 200 ft. thick. We were wondering why you need a wall 200 ft. thick, made of Jasper of all things. The units ofcourse were in Cubits and Stadia, so as soon as I heard the pastor say the values I went to the conversion table in my Bible and started to convert things to inches and feet. Dan did the same. We realized after the service that we're nerds and typical engineers to be doing math/conversions during chruch, but we had to know.

Katey was able to come over today before she had to go to work. I'm glad she stopped by, and she said the reason she did was because we needed to talk about "us". That was scary at first to hear, but she said she is ready to say we're officially dating, and to use the label "boyfriend/girlfriend" now. So we're not friends anymore (well, we still are friends) but now I can officially introduce her to someone as my girlfriend. So that's good. I'm glad it's official now because it was weird explaining it to people when they'd ask. Oh, and I'm happy she's my girlfriend now too.

So I guess that's about all. I talked to Kiki the other day and we talked about how my posting has been slack a little. Maybe you're disappointed, but it's because I have more of a social life now that maybe a few months ago, so I actually go out now after work and on the weekends - hence the sporadic posting. I hope you understand, so when you log on to read a post, and there's nothing, just realize I'm out having fun and you'll feel better.

Let Me Catch You Up

Wow, half a week since posting. I've been pretty busy lately, so that's my excuse. It's a good one.

Mom and Dad came this weekend to visit. I really enjoyed having them. A strange thing happened with the weather...it was clear and sunny. It was still cold, but you could actually see the sky and the sun. That never happens in the winter here, or, if it does, only for a few minutes.
We took Walter to the dog park, and Saturday afternoon we went to look at some houses in Plymouth, Canton, and Northville with a real estate agent. The houses in Northville were close to $200,000 for something smaller than a trailer. The houses in Plymouth and Canton were nice. I think Plymouth/Canton is where I would like to buy my first house. I found out Plymouth/Canton is the largest school district in the country. Apparantly there are 3 high schools on the same campus, so students actually go to different schools for different classes...a lot like college.

Katey spent the day with us Sunday playing cards and being lazy, which was nice. It was pretty wet out yesterday. Today I woke up at 4:30 to get them off to the airport. Since it was such an odd time after I dropped them off (around 5:30) I just decided to go to work. I went to the gym at work and exercised for about 45 minutes, then took a shower, and actually got to my desk at 7:00. It's nice to go in early on sometimes before everyone.

Murder, She Wrote

I went skiing last night at Mt. Holly, between Detroit and Flint with some friends from work. It was hardly a "mountain" but it was a really nice ski area. I can't believe I remembered so much about turning and stopping. I went right to the advanced hill and went down that all night.

Walter has such busy weekends. He spent both Saturday and today with other dogs playing. He absolutely loves other dogs and people. He's a little social butterfly.

I got a lot accomplished today:
- 3 loads of laundry
- clean apartment (heavy cleaning)
- balance finances
- do taxes

I haven't done my taxes yet, but I'm about to start. I don't think it will take very long. Afterwards I will hopefully be a couple thousand dollars close to my new Civic.

Murder, She Wrote has been on all day on the Hallmark channel. I never knew Angela Lansbury was such a fiesty smart mouth. I'm suprised she wasn't killed the way she talks to some people, who are in fact, murderers themselves.

WeekEND

It's Sunday night and the weekend is over now. It was such a good weekend. I think Walter had a lot of fun this weekend too, because a lot of activities involved him. Saturday morning I picked Katey up and we drove into Detroit to go an indoor dog park. Walter was amazing. There were around 20 other dogs, most larger than he was. When he stepped in the park, they all ran up around him checking him out. He just had this attitude like "oh hi, I'm Walter, let's go ahead and play" and then he'd take off. He was friendly towards all the other dogs and all the other people and didn't show any aggression. It's amazing how just 2 hours of solid "play" for a dog will make them sleep the rest of the day, and that night too.

Today I went to church, but that was almost a waste. It just was not good today at all. I went to one that I hadn't been to since before Christmas and the service was just terrible. After church, the day got a lot better because Katey came over, and we took Walter with us to the Plymouth Ice Festival. Plymouth closes downtown and displays over 100 ice sculptures all around. We had a lot of fun walking around together. Things with Katey are going well. If I could pick a girl with certain qualities, beliefs, and attributes...she would be who I would pick, and it's fun to finally meet a person like that...one who you don't have to "fix" or persuade.

Also...to top it off, I got to watch "The Fountain" on Dan's 60 inch projection TV. Simply amazing. Then we watched "300" on the same TV. "300" was a little, I don't know...graphic for me, but it was still ok.

And I guess that's it. I got clothes Saturday for skiing...some thermal neoprene underwear (shirt and pants), and I'm borrowing goggles and a face-mask. Our work ski trip to Canada is in 2 weeks.

Yes, It Is Still Very Cold

So I didn't really do anything interesting today, and I doubt I will. It's way to cold to do anything, except sit under a blanket and play Super Paper Mario. Todays high is 11 degrees. I went to church, went grocery shopping, then cleaned my apartment (ohhh exciting). Walter was being bratty so I decided to take him for a walk to make him tired. We got outside and he would walk for a little bit, then hold up one of his legs, and cry and sit down. I think the snow/ice was getting packed in his paws and he was crying because it was too cold. So I ended up having to carry him home because he would just cry and lay down.

I think tomorrow's high is 17 degrees?

How I Do, What I Do

I decided I would let you know how I choose the Pokemon of the Week. It's not everyday someone opens up about how they choose 1 Pokemon out of 493 to be a guest on their blog. So you're lucky.

Well, for starters Paul gave me some Pokemon cards from the ones that appeared in Smash Brothers. He would come into my room and say "Ohhh Ohhhh let me choose a Pokemon of the week!!!". So he would select some random one for the week.

I decided since he wasn't here to do that anymore, I would do it for him through my blog. So the Pokemon of the Week (e edition) was incorporated.

Steps to select a Pokmeon of the Week are as follows:
1) Go to Wikipedia
2) Search for "list of Pokemon"
3) Scroll through the list really fast with your eyes closed
4) Stop at random
5) Look at the list, and find a name that's cool and not stupid
6) Open up a new browser, and search under Google images for the Pokemon you picked
7) Does it looks interesting? If no go back to step number 3 and repeat
8) Settle on a Pokemon that looks good and has a good name
9) Upload it to Pokemon of the Week

So that is how I do it. Now you know. I also will take special requests. If you would like to see one for a week, let me know. I have a Pokemon request form, I-4465-H section A you can fill out. It will then be processed by a review comittee. Processing takes anywhere from 3 days to 4 weeks, depending on how busy the comittee is. You will then be notified if your Pokemon suggestion was accepted.

Wouldn't that be horrible? My blog is fun, not like work so if you want to see one an e-mail will do just fine. I push enough paperwork at my job and I won't allow it on my blog. Have a good week everyone.

***CLICK HERE for a fun video of Walter***

It's Dry Here

I'm glad it's Friday. I'm glad the weekend is here, and I'm glad I can sleep in tomorrow. Today was a good day at work. We found out our merit increases (i.e. raises) so I was very happy with that. It's always nice to find out you'll make more money. But with more money comes on more expectations/responsibility so it's a trade off.

I bought a humidifier for my apartment because the air is VERY dry here. When I blow my nose, blood is there and Walter is constantly drinking water and chewing on his back legs. The vet found no skin problems, I think his skin is dry and irritated. My skin also is also very dry so I know his must be. Hopefully this will help.

I'm supposed to help a guy I work with move tomorrow. I'm watching his cat right now. Her name is Harley and I've been watching her for the past week. She's a sweet cat, but likes to wake me up in the morning by rubbing her head against mine. It's cute, but not at 6:30 in the morning.

Goodnight.

Thawing

Walter is adjusting nicely to his new home. The first few days you could tell he was still learning. He wasn't eating as much, and acted like this apartment wasn't his. Now he's walking around like he knows the place, and he has learned outside pretty well. He also goes in his crate by himself when he gets tired. He's being a very good boy. Katey came over last night and she said he is very smart and well behaved. I'm proud of him.

Today warmed up to 43 degrees, which feels very nice. The snow is melting and tomorrow is supposed to be 57 degrees! I assume it will be down to be arctic like conditions soon though.

At church today they were talking about some of their goals for 2008 and what they had done in 2007. I never used to think back on the previous year, what I had done, and what I had learned, but I did this past year. I think I posted about it. 2007 was very interesting and probably the most changing year in my life.

I think I'm taking Walter to Terissa's house today so he can play with Teenie Weenie and PJ. I'll have to take some pictures if I go.

2007 and Stuff

It was a little depressing coming back here yesterday, to be honest. It was depressing because there was 11 inches of snow on the ground, and the holidays are over, and I had to leave my family. I had a really good time in South Carolina and it was nice getting to spend time with everyone. So after driving all day, it was just depressing to come back and have to go back to work...with all this snow.

I also realized after reading Kiki's blog how great 2007 was and how fortunate I was. In 2007 a lot of good things happened:

- I lived in a really great apartment with 2 really fun people, and got a taste of paying rent/bills/taking trash out
- I graduated from college with an engineering degree
- I got a really interesting job doing what I've always wanted to do
- I moved to another state
- I traveled to Japan
- I got a dog
- I am doing ok on my own, keeping a budget & managing money
- I got a positive year-end review at work
- I made new friends here in Michigan, but have kept my "old" friends (oldies but goodies)
- I turned 24 years old, on December 24th...what is that called?

I remember in 11th grade I told my chemistry teacher my goal was to "design something on a car, and then see that car on the road, and be able to say you designed that". By 2009 when the 2010 Subaru Legacy's and Outback's come out, I'll be able to say that.

I loved being with family, and I really enjoyed going back to Newspring (I enjoyed that more than I expected). I hope 2008 is just as great of a year.

As they say in Harcombe Dining Hall in the scrolling marquee "The break is over, it's time to get back to work". That's always so welcoming, I mean hateful.

An Update

Today I decided to go back and visit NewSpring. I'm so glad I did. The 2 hour roundtrip drive was definately worth it. I can't believe how well the church is doing. Today's service was sort of a reflection time on the past year and how much God has blessed the church and the community with. Attendance now is hovering around 7,200 people every Sunday. When I started NewSpring back in 2003 I'm wanting to say it was around 2,500 or so? That growth is amazing in just 4 years. This past Christmas Eve they had over 12,500 people at 6 different services.

I love that church and it's one of the things I really miss from South Carolina. I miss my family most though.

I had a good time being back. I'll leave to go back to Michigan on the 1st. I guess I'm ready to go back. I like being with family, but I miss my routine. It feels weird just not having work, or no routine. It makes you feel sort of weird after a while.

Paul and Matt were able to come over and we played about 7 solid hours of Smash Brothers and Mario Kart which is always so much fun. If Melee provided this many hours of entertainment Brawl should be even better.

Walter is growing up so fast, but like a typical young thing (child, dog, whatever) he knows how to manipulate already. Not in a bad way but a bratty sort of way sometimes. He's cute when he does it though, unlike some kids who are just obnoxious and deserved to be spanked. Walter and Bear will be playing, and as soon as Bears gets Walter in a position where he can't move, or is not in control, he will yelp/scream very loudly, just to get a human to say "Beeear, stop!". He knows it. Now we just don't do anything and Walter keeps going back for more. Walter overall though is wonderful. He's crate trained, house trained, and knows how to sit on command and he's 12 weeks old now.

I guess that's about it. I haven't been posting because, well, it's vacation and I've been lazy. No routine, remember?

Snow and Walter

It's finally snowing hard here. There is supposed to be between 6 and 10 inches on the ground tomorrow. It looks great, I really love it when it snows.

Look at our 36 hour weather forcast:
Last night I paid a lot of bills, balanced my checkbook, and made this video of Walter.

Enjoy!

Show Me, Don't Tell Me

I have learned I am definately a visual learner. If I try to do something that I have never done before, by only reading it, I usually cannot do it. I have to see it done, and then I can follow along. I don't mean taking tests, or academics, because I can read instructions. Let me give you two specific examples:

1) How to tie a tie
2) Origami

Matt Jr. started a tradition of sorts by folding money into shapes for my graduation present. He folded a little dress shirt (with a collar!). So I knew I had to fold money for him, to continue. I looked up money origami online and saw a really cool Star of David shape, and I wanted to do that. Well that was too hard. Then I saw a butterfly, and that didn't look too bad. Well it was too hard too. So then I decided to watch someone do it, so I could do it. Hello Youtube.

This lovely lady named Lisa showed me how to make a neat animal for Matt's graduation present. She even had nice classical music on in the background, and parakeets churping, and a soothing voice that said "fold, fold, fold" and it was very calming. She was fast, but I could keep up I just listened, watched, and folded and kept saying "I can do this, I can do this". It turned out well, so Matt, when you get your graduation gift...effort was put into that. Just so you know. Now, for the tie. This is hard. I had to watch a video over and over, about 5 times to tie a tie. This is hard, especially when you're LOOKING at someone doing it, instead of being the person doing the tying. So, I need to see something, not read it. For origami and a tie, atleast.