Sunday Smash

Leslie and I ate some really great ($$$) food last night. Dan and Molly invited us to go to The Melting Pot with them. I had never been before and neither had Dan, but Leslie and Molly had been. We ordered the Fondue Feast, a 3 course meal you cook yourself for only $86 per couple. That expensive, but it was a real dining experience I suppose, not just a meal. The whole dinner took 3 hours, and the desert was amazing. Brownies, rice krispie treats, strawberries, bananas, oreo covered marshmellows, cheesecake, which you can dip in chocolate. Although it was pretty expensive it was very good.

Leslie and I both have Memorial Day off. I'm very excited about that. Since today is Sunday, it really is only like Saturday, when you think about it from that point of view. I took Walter over to Leslie's store yesterday and we went out to lunch. All the girls in her store were going crazy over Walter. For someone who gets so much attention, he's very apathetic towards people. He'd give his tail a quick wag, let them pat his head once, then he'd turn his head and be done with them. That's just how he is, not affectionate at all. He got really, really hot though from being outside and called it a day early. He slept the whole car ride back and the rest of the day yesterday too.

I've still been doing yardwork and cleaning up the house. I'm really happy with how things have turned out in one year. Next Saturday, I'm participating in "Motor City Makeover" with a church here. We go into Detroit, to houses that look abandoned, and fix them up for people. I wanted to do it to give a little something back, and it might be sort of fun. I'm going to be scraping the outside of a house and doing painting on it. It's in inner city Detroit, so that should be interesting.

Leslie's getting a new car this week. She's ending her lease early on her Jeep Liberty because she's over on her mileage and buying a new Ford Escape. The key word is BUYing. I'm so proud of her. Actually, she told me to pick it out and work out the deal, so I helped her with that. She was going to have to pay a huge amount of money in mileage, like, thousands, so this is cheaper. Plus Chrysler is bankrupt, and the Escape is very efficient for an SUV. So I'm happy for her.

Work, I don't really want to re-hash here. Let's just say I'm looking for another job, and I really want another job. I'm sort of "done" with this one, mentally and physically. I put in my time, and get out. The politics, negativity, and fakeness of that place is not for me anymore. I felt like I joined some sort of fraternity by working there, and it's completely unprofessional and not a good place to work as a first job, in my opinion (i.e. not a good place to develop professional work habbits). Anyway, I'm looking and I hope I can make a change soon.

That's about all for now I suppose. June is going to be a great month because Dad is coming up, and Paul, and Lindsey, so lots of good visitors!

Vacation Over Means Blog Posting Is Back On

The Christmas break is over, and it's time to get back to work. Alright, I hate that attitude. I just want to ease back into it all. It feels like being gone for summer and going back to school. I even got a whole new wardrobe for Christmas so it really feels like back to school. Two weeks is a long time, and at the same time it was short. So, I'd like to do a list blog post of sorts, hitting the highlights.

Events:
Roundtrip driving: MI to SC back to MI = ~ 1,300 miles
My 25th birthday
Christmas
New Year: 2009
Cosmo's death after 13 years
My car being fixed, finally

Movies:
7 Pounds
Singles
An American Crime
My Cousin Vinny
Roger and Me
Anti-Trust
The Day The Earth Stood Still

Books:
I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell
Crank
Atlas Shrugged (still working on this one)

Friends:
Paul
BJ / Laura
Scott
Maryann
Megan

Other Events:
Keeping a "talking" relationship going while away = successful return!
Flipping a Saturn in 2 weeks


I feel well rested and rejuvenated. Everything feels in order right now which is good. I feel like now, I have a little more going for me than just a career which is a relief, and something else to focus my effort on. Here's to starting a great 2009!

Dusty Wood

Time to dust off the blog, and write a new post. What's it been...too long?

Instead of making up an excuse for why I haven't posted I'll just get right into it.

I have a roomate now! Paul is my new roomate, and he is in my small group at church. Paul needed a roomate because the condo he was living in had too many people, according to the condo association, so he had to find a new place to live. Which works out well for me, because I wanted to get a roomate, but didn't quite know how to really search for one. I was sort of holding off until someone I knew needed a place to live, and it all worked out.

I'm also seeing a girl now. We're dating, but we've only been on 3 dates so until we go on more I wouldn't call her a girlfriend just yet. I do know we get along really well, and that I'm attracted to her, and I'm pretty sure she's attracted to me, so it's going well. The dates are fun and she is laid back, and has a good sense of humor which I enjoy.

Work is work, not much to update there. I'm thankful I have a job now with the economy, but I am still working on getting my resume all cleaned and polished and will keep an eye open for other opportunities that may arise. Until then, I'm trying my best to go to work, do my best, and leave out all the rest.

I'm really looking forward to Christmas break, really, I am. I'm looking forward to spending time with my family, friends, and a break from frigid air.

Something else is that I've been having problems with my Honda. Some observations about Honda:
- They don't like to admit when their products exhibit a problem
- They don't have good customer service (not as good as Saturn)

I told the regional manager, when he called me to talk about my problems, that one of the reasons I bought a Honda was because of the repuputation for reliability and good service, but that hasn't been my case so far (4 times to the dealership in 12,000 miles). He said "Well, Mr. Smith, that's your opinion, not a fact and I work off of facts". Ooof. I forgot, you can tell someone their feelings are opinions and not valid, because that's the right thing to say as a customer service representative. Anyway, my Honda is at the dealership overnight tonight being fixed and I have a loaner car, which I am thankful for, although it's a Nissan.

I'm off to bed now, I need sleep to finish out 4 more days of work until freedom.

Babysitting

You know what's really fun to wake up to at 5 AM on a Monday morning? A crate full of dog poop. First of all, this has nothing to do with Walter. Walter sleeps beside my bed in his tiny little bed, like a well behaved dog deserves to do. These dogs that were in crates, in my basement, are spawns of Satan. One really is, the other one is probably a deamon spawn. That's all I really want to say about them. I never knew I could despise an animal so much. Ok, I'll stop now.

I want to talk about movies. I was thinking today that there is not just ONE movie I like. I think I have a top 6 or 7, so I'm going to list them here. They're in no particular order, just movies that I would consider my favorite.

1) Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
2) American Beauty
3) Elizabethtown
4) The Fountain
5) The Rules of Attraction
6) Maria Full of Grace
7) Requiem For A Dream

If you're reading this, even if you're some random person from Latvia, take a second to add a comment and list your top movies.

My small group/Bible study has been going really well. There's only about 5 us each week, even though there's technically 8 of us in the group, but we're all in the same age group give or take 2-3 years and have a lot in common.

I'm certain now I'll be back in South Carolina for the Clemson vs. Duke Homecoming game on November 5th. Myself and two other people from work will be driving down for a short weekend, but it should be a lot of fun.

I have to go before I rip this dog's vocal chords out.

What I Did This Weekend

- Ate deep dish pizza at Buddy's, one of the country's 10 best pizza places, according to Food Network
- Finished the 5th Harry Potter movie, now I anticipate #6 this November
- Helped Dan clean/organize his basement
- Helped Dan list a huge amount of stuff on eBay from his basement reorganization
- Went to church
- Went out with Gina to a Thai restaurant

I like that list format. It's easier to see what I actually DID do. It rained about 5 inches here this weekend, nonstop Saturday and Sunday so this was a perfect weekend for that work that makes you stay inside.

The Pokemon of the Week finally got updated! Suprise.

I Missed You

I heard someone talking about a blog today, and I realized I haven't posted on mine in such a long time, and that I missed it. So here I am.

Some interesting things have happened, like I thatched my lawn. Thatching is a technical term (I guess) for raking up dead grass clippings on the ground. The idea is that by raking up that dead grass, you expose the soil allowing new grass seed to be planted. So I planted grass seed as well, and fertilizer. I have such a tiny yard but it took up a good portion of the weekend.

Another interesting thing. I met a nice girl. A guy I work with who in a contractor for us pulled me aside last Monday and basically asked me if I would be interested in meeting his younger daughter. He said he doesn't play matchmaker, but he thought we'd be really good together. I went out with her this past Sunday and had a very good time. Her name is Gina, and she's very Italian. Very Italian. Almost like Marissa Tomei Italian, but not quite. My favorite thing about her was that she was very open and active and lively. There was no stupid dead silence or shyness. That is my biggest turn off - is shyness. I know the guy is supposed to "lead" but nothing annoys me more to than to hear "well whatever you feel like is fine" or "whatever you want to do is fine with me". You have an opinion, use it please.

Something else I did not realize, is that I am a good singer in Rock Band. I actually scored 98% and 99% on two songs. I originally did that as a joke, because let's face it, I DO like to annoy people and a good way to do that is speak, or sing. Singing works really well, especially to "Crush Crush Crush" by Paramore. That's a good one. When I say I'm a "good" singer though, I mean I can hit the key right, but the voice is awful. I don't think that's whats important for rock band though.

Yesterday was Grandma Hazel's birthday. Happy Birthday (late) Nana. I got to call her from work, but I didn't sing. As much as the Chinese people who sit behind me annoy me, I didn't want to sing out loud.

That's a good point, let's talk about those Chinese people that sit behind me. They annoy me. BADLY. In China, for some reason, they must teach people to eat in the most non-ettiquette way possible. This means slurping all your food as loud as you can, almost like sucking in a spaghetti noodle, but with rice and beef. Then (yes it's worse) they can't drink like a normal person. They have to slurp and sip very loudly. I bet you're thinking I'm prejudice or rude. Well I'm sorry, but you're wrong. Watch one of them eat and then come tell me you're not disgusted. So, what annoys me is having to sit behind them. Because they drink tea constantly, and sip loudly constantly, followed by "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" cough cough! I can't STAND it. Even with headphones in, I can still hear it. I called Jamie, our admin over to listen today. She heard it too and agreed it is horrible. She went as far as to say they need to be corrected, because while that behavior may be acceptable in China it's not here, and they need to stop. I think I agree. I think I will say something soon.

Back to Gina now. We're going to be going out again this weekend. I'm not sure which day yet, but I will call her tomorrow.

I'm going to California October 4 - October 7. I decided I wanted a vacation so I'm taking one. I'm going to Mountain View, south of San Fransisco to visit Jay. Hopefully I'll get to see Kiki while there too (I think so). I haven't been to California since 2001 so it will be nice to go back. The airfare was super cheap too so that's a plus. AND I get to change planes in Minneapolis. I've never been to Minnesota before, so that's another good thing. Now all I have left is Wisconsin, North Dakota, Alaska, and Hawaii to complete.

I heard the book "The Catcher In The Rye" is supposed to change your life. It's a classic, and most people read it in High School or college, but I didn't so I felt cheated. Did I mention I have been doing a LOT of reading? I have. I really enjoy it a lot too. Catcher just didn't do much for me. It was about a kid named Holden who is being kicked out of a private prep school, and what he does in the 4 days between being kicked out and going back home to face his parents. He doesn't really do anything Earth shattering though, and it happens in the 1940's so it didn't do much for me. The book "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" however did, and I recommend that book to anyone. It was amazing and I read it in 2 days because I couldn't put it down.

Walter is falling asleep and I'm ready to go to sleep now. Now that I'm all caught up I will be back more often, and not let the dirty habbit of not posting rear its ugly head again. Night!

1 Week and I'm Back

I haven't updated this in forever. I guess the last time I posted, I was about to go to South Carolina.

South Carolina was a lot of fun. This time it was a little more relaxed than last time, but it was still busy. I think I could always use one more day. Overall it was a lot of fun visiting family, seeing my dad turn 50, and going to Clemson with friends.

When I was leaving work Tuesday I was heading out and a guy I work with stopped me, and was asking me about one of my projects. Then, when I was about to leave he asked me if he could talk to me, about something personal. He said he wanted to go into a conference room. I got a little nervous, because I didn't think there was anything personal we would need to discuss. When he shut the door he was stuttering a little and said he didn't really know how to ask this, but he wanted to know if I had a girlfriend. I said no, and he asked me if I might be interested in meeting his daughter. He had talked to me about her before, but basically just told me about her. He gave me her phone number and told me to give her a call. I talked to her last night and she actually seemed really nice and friendly over the phone. We decided to go out on Sunday. I'm looking forward to it. I think it's good if someone's dad recommends you...it's like you get the hard part out of the way first. So we'll see how it goes.

Dan went back to South Carolina with me, and he took back 3 tires for his Saturn since his were in bad shape. When we took the rear tire off we found this:

In case you didn't know, that's a stabilizer link. That's what I design at work. It looks pretty simple, doesn't it? It's pretty complex actually. Do you notice anything wrong with it? I'll give you a hint, the ballstud isn't supposed to be pulled out of the housing. That's bad. It's not safety critical, but you could tell a difference when you turn. Your car would roll more. So, that needs to be replaced. And to think...I write 14 pages thinking of every possible failure for a part like this...

What I Did This Weekend

I think I accomplished a lot this weekend. As I sit here relaxing now I have a sense of accomplishment. Saturday I helped my friend Bill from work fix his windshield wipers on his car, and then he came over and helped me finish the electrical outlets in my house. They have all been changed out now. We both got shocked, again. For some reason random outlets are not on the same circuits as the rest in the room, so you get a nice suprise when you touch the bare outlet. It doesn't hurt, but just suprises you. It takes around a second or two for your brain to register that the feeling you are experiencing is you being shocked, and you should let go. Bill got it pretty bad, I heard his yell quiver as the juice was going through him.

Today I completely pulled up all the ground cover in the front of the house to prepare for some landscaping that's going to happen when mom and dad come. I left the small trees, but pulled up all the garbage and weeds. It looks better. Then, I came inside and painted the small bedroom. The result is below. I'm very pleased, I think it came out amazing.

Where did I get that really cool black chair you ask? I'm glad you did. I bought that today for $20....$20!!! It was the last day of a yard sale and everything was half off. Baaaaargain.

I like my Honda a lot, but I swear, for a car that is bigger than my Saturn it sure doesn't hold odd things like my Saturn could. I think the Saturn had larger doors and a larger trunk opening, because I remember fitting some pretty large/odd things in that car. The Honda just can't really hold much. It has lots of interior space, but the openings are small. When I bought that chair and tried to load it in the car I got really scared because it wouldn't go in the trunk, and not in the back seat. Finally I pushed the passenger seat back as far as it would go and then laid it down, and shoved the chair in. So I got it home. It had cat hair all over it I had to vacuum up, but for $20 I'm happy. It's a great chair to read in and is very comfortable.

Bill brainstormed turning the living room into a theatre with a projector and movie screen. I like that idea...a LOT. Maybe with more money...

I'm Back

So many things have happened since I last posted! First off, I didn't get internet until this past Tuesday so that's why there was no posting.

I have internet now, so I can post. I guess since the last time I posted I have officially moved in my house and am now living here. This past weekend Paul and Lindsey came up to visit and made it one of the best weekends ever. I had my housewarming party this past Friday night and a huge number of people showed up. Some people I didn't even know. I'd say there were around 30 people here at any given time. It was a lot of fun though.

I'm going to have to start posting some before and after pictures of rooms in my house. I have painted 2 bedrooms, the family room, and the dining room. I still have to finish the kitchen, living room, hallway, and small bedroom.

I've also been doing some outside work with the yard and landscaping. I want to plant a small Japanese maple in the front of the house. They stay pretty tiny and I think they look really cool.

I'll post more later, but I am back.

FOUND

Today was a rollercoaster day. It started out good because I found my W2 this morning. Then at work someone starting mouthing off to me about buying a *Japanese* car. I don't deal well with ignorance in the morning so that made work get off to a bad start. The rest of the day at work was just boring and dull. Not a fun day.

But tonight was a special game night. Alex picked out "Wealth of Nations" which is a game of Economics. One must choose an area of a market to specialize in, try to obtain a monopoly in that market, and keep prices of things like food, power, etc. high. It's VERY strategic and involves no luck at all (not even a dice roll). So Paul, you probably wouldn't be good at it.

Overall he made us read the directions before we came tonight so we could get right to playing. The game lasted about 4.5 hours but it went by SO fast. I have NEVER felt such intense nervousness while playing a game in my life. My hand was visibly shaking at one point. Halfway through the game I mis-calculated a production phase and earned no money, and was barely keeping my head above water. I actually came out tied for 2nd which I was REALLY happy with. Alex only won by 4 points (He was at 111 and Dan and I tied at 107). I'm just happy I didn't hear any dumb comments about my strategy and scared them a little.

Oh Hi, I'm Back

I made it back to Michigan. A week off from posting was more than called for, if you're asking. I had such a good time with family and friends. On Thursday I got my first brand new car, a 2008 Atomic Blue Honda Civic LX. Her name is Crysta. Thursday night Paul paid for me to take a REALLY good nap during Indiana Jones. The movie was good (from what I rememeber) but what I remember most was being full from dinner, and warm, and I was out! It was a good nap though, and I don't take them often. On Friday I went with dad to do all the DMV/tax stuff that goes along with buying a new car. Friday night I spent the night with Paul and Kiki, along with Saturday night. Saturday I went to Highlands, NC with the family. It was nice spending the day with them. Sunday I went to NewSpring. Besides family and friends, that church is the 3rd biggest thing I miss about South Carolina.

My new car is fantastic. I have no complaints at all. The buying experience wasn't so great, but I got what I wanted it just took being rude and forceful which I don't like to do, but WILL do when people act stupid and don't do what they're supposed to. On the way back to Michigan I filled up with gas twice. The first time I filled up was in Kentucky (I only used 1/2 tank) and I got 41 MPG. I then filled up in Toledo, OH and got 42 MPG. That is amazing for the car. It's larger than my Saturn, more powerful, has more safety features and gets the same/slightly better gas mileage. I'm very happy with it so far. What's ironic is that my Saturn broke down 2 days after my parents got it. The starter went bad. I told them it was sold as-is...no warranty.

The next few days are going to be pretty busy with unpacking and moving boxes since I have moved out of my apartment and to Plymouth.

Fair Warning

My posting this week is more than likely going to be slim and sporadic for a few reasons: 1) I'm in the process of moving - I am standing up typing this at my kitchen counter because I have no chair 2) I'm going to South Carolina Wednesday 3) I'm buying my new car Thursday My party Friday went very well and I couldn't have asked for better. I had a really good turnout and everyone was good about bringing things so I didn't have to worry about taking care of everyone else. I'm uploading a video here that I took at the party of someone doing an impression of Rihanna and Ms. Swan. She's talented. My legs are tired now. Bye.

Magic Party

I wish I could find these magic plates for my party tomorrow, since May is the month of magic. The party will surely be magical. I was a little skeptical at first getting mixed confirmations from people, but this week the party has just blossomed. People at work have been talking about it and today my head count was at 22 confirmed. I'm not sure how we're all going to fit in 800 square feet, so we might extend the party to the bedroom too.

I'm really looking forward to it!

Mama Day

I realized when I woked up today that it was Mother's Day, and this song popped in my head for some reason:



It's a good song, even if it is by the Spice Girls. I also realized my mother is MIA. I know she's somewhere between Puerto Rico and the United States. Maybe going through customs, or on an airplane. Her exact location cannot be located at this time. There are 3 flights between San Juan and Charlotte today according to USAirways.com but I have no clue which one she's on. So I will have to tell her Happy Mother's Day when I find her, or she finds me by phone.

I also picked the Pokemon of the week based on a motherly instinct. Cleffa, to me looks very wholesome, like Kathy Bates: warm and welcoming. Paul, correct me, but I think Pokemon "evolve" or something like that so I'm guessing Cleffa is in relation to Clefairy, but I have no clue which came first (the chicken or the egg) so for now Cleffa is a mama.

Also! Paul told me a really interesting story about how he used to HATE the Honda Civic and how retarded it looked. Yesterday though Paul got lost in the mall parking lot (Paul, lost, nooooo) and 3, yes 3, ATOMIC BLUE Honda Civic's helped him find his car. It was magical. So I decided my Civic will be named Christa, Christa Smith since it's a magical name (from Fern Gully). I'm just glad Paul had his epiphany NOW rather than later (I knew he'd come to his senses sooner or later).

Walter if fine now by the way, but I did read a wonderful story last night from "Things I Learned About My Dad (in therapy)". This is a collection of short stories written by dad's about fatherhood, edited by Heather Armstrong.

It goes:
"When my son was four months old, he developed a bright red rash that started at the top of his head and began moving down his body like a flame on an oil-soaked rope. I rushed him to the doctor, who walked into the exam room and said "What's the problem?" I said, "My son has a rash!" He put on his glasses and said "Yep". Three hundred dollars".

That's how I feel. They never found out what was wrong with Walter, and wanted me to take him BACK to the vet Friday for a check up. Riiiiight. Pay more money for them to say they don't know what was wrong, but he seems fine now, and to take it easy. No thank you.

Happy Mother's Day!

Ello Gov'ner

I took Nana to the airport tonight so she could go back to South Carolina. I very much enjoyed her visit and I think Walter liked having someone home with him during the day.

Last night I got a suprise phone call from Jay asking me about headlight bulbs. He said he wanted to change his burned out headlight bulb himself, but the owner's manual said in one simple step to "remove the radiator reserve tank" so he stopped right there. I thought that was funny.

I'll have to make a trip out to California sometime this fall to visit 2 people I know who live (and will live there): Jay, and Kiki.

I don't know what's going on here, but right now in Novi it's 37 degrees and I think that's way too cold for late April. Last week was a teaser. It was in the high 70's and really sunny. I have no idea what's going on. I do know I'm going to bed right now though, g'night!

Mona Pizza

Mona Pizza is the name of a really great song I stole. I stole around 100 songs these past few days, thanks to Paul's help. "Stole" is relative, I don't think it's stealing so it's ok.

Yesterday was just nasty. It was cold and rainy. I expected it to be the same today, so when I woke up I peeked out the blinds in my bedroom and did a double take. It was snowing. Snowing. As in frozen precipitation. In April. It was actually snowing pretty hard, but the ground must not have been cold enough because it wasn't sticking. Friday was 70, and today was snow. That's crazy.

Not much exciting happened this weekend. I played Brawl online with Kiki and Paul for a while Saturday night. I think tonight I'm going to a movie with Terissa and Alex, if they call back.

Tomorrow it's back to work. I have a meeting at Ford tomorrow. I hope it will be painless. I'm going to go in with the best attitude I can. Hopefully this week I can do some more bike riding after work if the weather is nice. This week I'm also taking care of Dan's cats while he's in Japan. They're not staying here, but I'll feed them and check on them everyday. I really love the one cat, Harley. She stayed with me for a week once. She's an angel, and very affectionate. His other cat, Bobo, is nice too but he's got a little bit of an attitude problem (like smacking you when you walk by).

I drove around Saturday to some parts of Livonia and Canton to check out the neighborhoods and houses. They're nice, and priced much lower than Plymouth for the same houses. However, real estate is all about location, location, location (or so they say) and apparantly Plymouth is that location. The search will be on more seriously this summer I'm sure.

I hope this Pokemon of the week is better. I've been wanting to do this one for a long time, and this week is the week. Enjoy! David loves planes!

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.

Happy Easter; Love Your Friend, Michigan

Instead of lillies, buds, and spring air we got this Friday for the Easter weekend. We had a nice week previously of actually seeing the ground, and the ground was starting to thaw out finally (i.e. it didn't feel like you were walking on a rock while walking on the grass). Then we got this. Luckily Saturday it started to melt but it was strange to see snow on the ground at Easter.

I didn't have to work Friday. A 3 day weekend should happen every weekend, if life were fair. I celebrated by sleeping later than usual, reading, teaching someone from work how to play Smash Brothers, reading more, then going over to Alex's to play more Smash Brothers, then I played 2 more hours with Paul online through Skype using a webcam.

Saturday I took Walt to the dog park. We had missed 2 weeks for whatever reason, but he was happy to go back and play with his dog friends. I also went rock climbing Saturday. I REALLY miss being able to do it for free at Clemson. Now I have to drop $25 every time I go. Friends from work go once or twice a week because they have year memberships (that's like $900). I try to go twice a month. I justify it because it's SUCH good exercise and a mental challenge as well.

I joined a program at work called "In Shape". The whole point is to be on a team, and encourage people to loose weight. Our engineering group formed a small team and I decided I would do it. Basically it's a 6 month long comittment in which you set a weight loss goal, and try to achieve it by the end of 6 months. As a team you're supposed to support each other. It's pretty strict, you have to keep a log of food you eat, and basically monitor calories in vs. calories out. I set my goal for 10 pounds in 6 months which I know I can do. I don't want to loose a tremendous amount of weight, but just firm up some. I lost 10 pounds in college, then another 5 pounds when I moved to Michigan. I attribute it to eating smaller portions, but still being healthy. I ate WAY to much when I lived at home. The portions were larger than I needed and there was always a snack of some sort on hand. So this program officially starts tomorrow.

Dan and I went to Easter service at church today. After that we went to Ruby Tuesday for lunch. I had Easter dinner with another friend from work, Paul, and his family.

I found this picture below online. This is the exact car I want to get in May. It's the same model and the same color I want. That's only about 2 months away now so it's getting closer.

Mystery In The Abbey

At Alex's tonight we played a game called "Mystery In The Abbey". It's very similar to "Clue", except you just have to figure out "who done it", not with what, or where. The only catch is it was a monk who did it, in a monastary, and there are 24 monks to choose from. There were 6 of us playing. It was getting close to the end, and Dan was very close to winning. However, someone answered a question and he yelled out "Damn! - now I have everyone crossed out...I did something wrong". I just smiled because I only had one person left - Brother Charles. Sophie yells out "someone made a mistake, because I also have everyone crossed off, so I'm just going to guess". So she guessed, and got it right, and it was someone I had already crossed off. So everyone looked over at me and said "Great Dave - you messed us all up". I did mess them up. For some reason in those murder mystery games I mark people off way to liberally. I'm not sure if I just have this gut feeling that they're not a killer, or what. It was fun either way.

I joined a small book club at work. We have our first meeting next Wednesday after work at someone's house. It's supposed to be very informal and fun. So I have a book to read before next week.

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.