29 Days Later

My, 29 days without a post. If this were March 30th I'd say "28 Days Later" like the cool zombie movie.

What's happened in 29 days?

- Leslie and I are continuting to date, and I fall more and more in love with her each day (yes, it may sound cheesy but it's true)
- I'm ready to have my house to myself again. While not horrible, having a roomate is just not worth the hassle. So, I'm ready for this to be done and living single again
- My job is still there, but I don't really like it any better
- Leslie and I visited South Carolina (this will be expanded upon)
- I found out I may be able to be certified as a secondary education teacher in the state of South Carolina (this is on-going)

Let me focus on the visit Leslie and I made to South Carolina. I was perfectly comfortable taking her back with me, and wasn't nervous for her or me at all. She said she was a little nervous, but I knew she'd be fine. She far exceeded my expectations. She didn't need me to hold her hand at all, instead she just jumped right in and struck up conversations, smiled, and made friends with everyone. She's my kind of girl. She loved mom and dad, and Dawn, and all the grandparents. I'm pretty sure everyone loved her too. She liked everyone, and she really liked Paul. They got along very well and his, uniqueness, didn't phase her at all. Even though we were only really there for 2 days, we made the best and most of it (this was a great visit time wise). Friday mom and dad and Leslie and I went to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville and toured the home, took lots of great pictures, then went to a winery. Then we ate at Fatz and went back home. Saturday was our day in Clemson, so Paul got to hang out with us and then we spent Saturday night in downtown Greenville. Sunday it was back on a plane to Michigan, but overall it was an excellent trip and it just confirms even more why I love her so much, and the fact that my whole family and friends (most of them) knows her just makes things even better. So, without further ado, here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip.

Here, You Babies

A special blog posting from a unique location: Boston Logan International Airport! Don’t pee in your pants, it’s not that exciting. I thought maybe I would post while on my trip in Maine, but that didn’t happen. We’re on our way back to Detroit, and although we had a direct flight on the way to Bangor, we have to change planes in Boston this time. At least I can say I was in Massachusetts, for whatever that’s worth. Don’t you wish you were in Boston, in an airport, at 7:00 on a Friday night? That’s right, I’m here and you’re not.

I have noticed and seen a few interesting things though:
1) Boston’s airport is very un-ergonomic. I think I dislike this airport more than Atlanta. So far, Greenville/Spartanburg wins the best airport in the world award.
2) We walked past a gate with tons of red headed people speaking in Gaelic accents and I realized it was for an Aer Lingus flight to Dublin
3) I ate Chinese food twice today, lunch and dinner. Lunch was boneless ribs and dinner was General Tso’s chicken. My fortune at lunch said “out of hard times comes opportunity”. That was a good one, considering I may not have a job much longer. More on that later.
4) Traveling with my boss was pretty good. We played racquetball at Gold’s Gym last night and that was actually a lot of fun.
5) I got to see my favorite manufacturing engineer in the whole wide world at our plant in Maine. This lady is the BOMB. I told my boss she should be hired in Northville as a comedienne. She’s one of the funniest people I’ve ever met, and laughing so hard my cheeks hurt yesterday was a good feeling.
6) I’m reading Harry Potter, the 1st book. I think I would live in the Ravenclaw house, but Leslie said Griffendorf.
7) Right now I’m listening to Death Cab For Cutie: Where Soul Meets Body.
8) Paul (roommate Paul, not Hart or little Miska) called today and said he worked from home, and let Walter stay outside and the lady who lives behind me came over and said she didn’t think Walter should stay outside that long…she was concerned. It was in the high 40’s there today. He’s fine.
9) I miss Leslie

Gosh lists feel good to write. Just glance up for a minute. Go ahead do it. No, up, above this; those numbers 1-9. Those look organized don’t they? Yes, they do. What else…what else is there to say? Oh yeah, job stuff. It’s really so screwed up right now I’m not even worried. There are rumors of 10% salary cuts (which means after 2 years of experience I would essentially go back in pay to LESS than I did right out of college) so that’s awesome. Then there’s layoffs. I’m really not scared of losing my job to be honest. I have always had above average reviews, and I’m a degreed engineer. We have people in our group who are not degreed engineers, who have bad reviews, and contractors, so those would have to go first.

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!

Saturday Sun

I felt a little better yesterday. I spent a good portion of the day at Barnes and Noble in Troy. Troy is about 35 minutes away, but sunlight here in winter is precious and taking a 35 minute drive to be in the sun is worth it to me. I sat in the cafe for a good 4 hours or so working on my resume. When I put everything I've done, work related, on paper, it seems pretty impressive. My position sounds really great on paper. I'm proud of my resume, but it looks pretty wordy and packed full of stuff. It still needs some cleaning up which I'll be doing. After that I may post it here for some feedback. I also did my Bible study so yesterday was a very productive day for me.

If you're reading this, I'd like your home mailing address. You don't have to give it in a comment, you can just e-mail it to me.

The Pokemon of the week has been updated.

How To Write A Personal Mission Statement

This is how

I like looking at the WikiHow of the day on iGoogle. Today's was a good one. I think it's nice to have a mission statement.

This past weekend in South Carolina, although a whirlwind, was JUST what I needed. I feel refreshed and motivated (more than before). Christmas will probably be even better. Coming back to 3 inches of snow didn't even bother me.

Things to do now:
- Update/Polish resume
- Enroll in a German class
- Tutor math
- Find a girlfriend

Europe - A Summary and Recap

A few quick notes about Europe before I begin:

1) It's overpriced
2) French people aren't as bad as people say
3) It's very dog friendly
4) Anything goes in Amsterdam - and I do mean anything

Overall going to Europe for a week was a good experience. It's strange, because while it was LOT of fun and educational, it's just not a place I'd really desire to go back to for a vacation. I guess part of my problem is that I'm not really into history very much. Well, I take that back. I enjoy it, I've just never had any formal education in it; so I'm a little unappreciative of the stuff. I guess this is me being American, but sometimes it's nice to see a new building or a giant shopping center.

Anyway Europe was really great to see. Out of all the places, France was definately my favorite. I was a little nervous about the French, but overall I didn't have any problems. I would make an effort to speak what French I remembered from 7th grade, and when I'd stumble they'd pick up in English.

Instead of saying much more, I'll let some of my favorite pictures speak for themselves:

Saturday Night Post

I haven't updated the Pokemon of the week in a very long time, so I fixed that tonight.

The leaves are starting to change here. For some reason, the tree in front of my neighbor's house turned a bright vibrant yellow, and all the leaves fell off this past week. The tree in front of my house is still green and hasn't even started to change yet.

Church was really amazing tonight. I feel like I'm growing a lot spiritually lately, or have been for the past few months. Doing the study through Matthew with Dan is really helping me a lot. I'm learning a lot about Jesus as a person, and really examining his life and his teaching style is helping me to learn about who he really was, and what his intentions were. It's pretty amazing, because you learn new things about him that you weren't always taught. One of the biggest suprises is that he had quite an attitude, and didn't put up with BS from anyone. Church tonight was amazing because at the end of the service, they played a choir version of Amazing Grace, and had actual people walk out on stage, one by one, with black posters. One one side was a problem, and the other side had what was happening now because of it. Some examples that stuck out to me were:

Side 1: "Our son was born deaf"
Side 2: "What a beautiful boy God blessed us with!"

Side 1: "Because of promiscuity I had two abortions"
Side 2: "God has forgiven and healed me - I now have twins"

Side 1: "I became a Christian at 59 years old"
Side 2: "Life is just beggining!"

Side 1: "We are barren"
Side 2: "We have adopted 5 amazing children"

Side 1: "My husband a three children were murdered on Christmas Eve"
Side 2: "I will see them again in Heaven!"

It was pretty powerful to see how God works in others. Those were just a few of the ones that stuck out to me.

I think this week at work will be pretty busy. I will be leaving for training in Germany October 25th, so I have a lot of things to do before I leave. This past week at work kicked my butt...to the point I was ready to just quit. Pretty much everything that could get messed up did, and the work kept piling on and on. E-mails flodding in with "I need" or "I'm requesting". I'm just going to take it one day at a time and keep doing the best I can. Wish me luck

On The Way To California...

I’m sitting here right now on an airplane, so I decided it’s a good time to do a blog post. The only catch is the lady in front of me decided she needed her seat reclined, so my arms are in a very uncomfortable position right now, so we will see how long I last. Alright, airports to me are one of the best places to observe. You can observe people, trends, and my personal favorite thing is to pick up on things you don’t normally question. So, for you now, my list of observations about airports in general.
• A luggage store in an airport. First of all, WHY? Why would a person buy luggage in an airport? I’m not talking about handbags or carryons either, I’m talking about I’m going to China for a month type luggage. The hardshell kind with wheels and locks. Call me crazy, but shouldn’t you have that sort of stuff before you travel? I would think so. The only reason I could come up with to have a luggaage store in an airport is it’s a good way to advertise, and it’s the store’s chance to have a showroom of sorts. I would imagine the stores themselves don’t have very much sales, but probably have a lot of online and catalague sales. I guess this gives them a good opportunity to show off their luggage, and they probably can sell it easier by showing people what’s wrong with their current luggage, and why they need new luggage. As for me, I like to travel as light as possible. This usually means an Adidas duffle bag for a long weekend trip, which is not checked, so my shoulder is in severe pain while walking from gate A23 to C16. That was an observation I made early this morning.
• Is it necssary to have a used needle disposal bin in the bathroom? I have never seen this before, and it was a little disturbing. Is this for herion addicts or diabetics? I know certain people have to take insulin shots, I have just never in my life seen a used needle disposal bin in a public restroom, let alone an airport restroom. If you’re a diabetic, do you worry about stuff like this, like where to dispose of your used needles? Do you buy a new needle all the time to shoot up with, or do you keep one nice “velvet touch” needle you clean off and use repeatedly? I hope I never get to be a diabetic.
• People’s faces in airports sometimes…just irk me. It’s not like a face you’d see in Meijer, or at work, but there’s this face people give you in an airport that bothers me. That’s vague, so let me explain. Before the plane boards, you always have the brillaint person who decides they’ll get up and go stand at the counter so they can be the first one on the plane. They stand up there for a good 20 minutes before boarding even begins. They stand there with a look on their face that says “I’m first…and you’re not…I’m on top of things”. Well, they’re really not on top of things because that’s stupid, and I’ll tell you why that’s stupid. Those people, the ones you HAVE to be first on the plane 90% of the time have an aisle seat. So, congratulations, you get your seat first but you have to get up to let the middle person, and the window seat person in. That’s dumb. I enjoy being the window seat person so they have to get up again.
• Smells. This trip so far, has been full of smells, bad ones. The lady right next to me now smells horrid. It’s a smell that comes, and goes. I can’t tell if she’s farting, or if it’s a random smell the comes out every now and then, but it stinks and I don’t like it. My other plane smelled like old cologne.
My arms are starting to cramp now. Actually it’s my wrists. I will end this for now. I bet there will be more observations to make note of, but that’s all for now. I see mountains below, maybe we’re over Colorado?

I'm Out

I'm leaving to go to California tomorrow for 4 days, so I will be on hiatus until Wednesday!

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.

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...

Vacation

I'll be on vacation starting tomorrow until September 2nd. That means no posting during that time, unless I get bored while in South Carolina. I don't think that will happen though, because I never seem to have enough time there.

Bye!

..."To Make it Pop"

I'm a homeowner now. It feels more real and exciting as each day goes by. It feels so real because I got the first water bill in the mail today: $334. Apparantly the lady who lived here didn't think she needed to pay her water bills, and racked up $198 in late charges. The water bill comes every 3 months and includes water, sewer, trash pickup, yard waste pickup, and recycling, so $130 or so is pretty reasonable I think.

I have really nice neighbors on both sides of me (so far, I think). One set (Joe and Marge) are in their late 60's and have been living there for 30 years. I think that's a good neighbor to have (to keep an eye on the house). The other set is in their late 30's or so with 2 girls, around 11 and 13 if I had to guess. I can't remember their names though.

So far I've mowed the lawn and cleaned the gutters. The yard is bad, really bad. The landscaping and lawn needs major work. I also patched a hole in the wall tonight. It was the size of a broom handle, and it was in the dining room. I was really proud of myself. It took me an hour or so, but that's because every time I smoothed it out I thought I could do it a little better if I did it once more, and that became a cycle of insanity so I stopped after it was level and smooth. I also sanded down some other patches that were done previously.

I'm excited about painting. I have some paint colors picked out. I want to do the living room, kitchen, dining, and bathroom in a light brown/beige color. The family room I'd like to go with a light grey. For the bedrooms I'd like to do an olive green color (the one I picked is called Guacomole) for 2 of the bedrooms, and then a blue/grey color for the really small room. White trim throughout to make it "pop". I love the floors in this house too. The living room/hall/bedrooms are a light natural oak color with thinner planks.

If you have any paint ideas let me know! Don't let me know if it's yellow though, because I don't like that.

Are you wondering how the game convention was in Ohio. Let me just say that Ohio (yet again) is a collection of NUTS. Being in Ohio is bad, being a game convention just exacerbates the weirdness of those people. Seeing grown adults dressed up having sword fights and rolling around on the ground is sad...very sad.

Boring

So there is really not much interesting to talk about. In fact, today was a very blah day. I got to work, had a phone conference, sat around for a while, went to lunch, came back, did some work, and that's how it went.

I'm not sure if I'm becoming more used to work, or what, but these past 2 weeks have honestly been very boring. I haven't felt challenged lately so the learning curve seems to by dying off some. It's funny because when I first started and was learning at such a fast pace I wanted it to slow down so I could catch my breath. Well now I'm rested and ready for it to pick back up. It's not that I don't HAVE work to do, it's that the design portion of the work is done, but the production doesn't start for another year so I have to be available for changes, back up, etc. In the meantime though I need something to work on for a quotation or something...

So after that blah day at work I came home and had more blah. I did go to the gym after work though. Then I went to Target, came back and read on the couch and actually just laid there for a minute becuase I thought I would fall asleep.

I couldn't decide if I wanted to go back to South Carolina for the 4th of July or go down to Indianapolis and hang out with Matt. I think I have decided on Indianapolis for a few reasons: 1) money 2) time. I'll be going back to South Carolina eventually to pick Walter up in August or so I assume, so buying a plane ticket to go there isn't really such a good idea, especially since I need money for the house.

Here's hoping tomorrow isn't so blah...

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.

I Have The Weekend Off

There will be no posting this weekend, because I will be in Ontario, Canada skiing at Blue Mountain (www.bluemountain.ca). There's 17 of us total going from work. I'm excited because I got to practice my skiing last weekend so I'm ready to go. Supposedly last night it snowed 20 inches there so that should be exciting as well.

What else...oh I bought a new computer. I completely was not planning on doing this for another few months, because the laptops I liked were over $1000. Tonight though I went to Circuit City to check some out in person I had been looking at online and found what I think is a really good deal (Jay thought so too). I ended up getting an HP with a 15.4" screen, 2 GB RAM, and a 160 GB hard drive. Those are the same specs I wanted in the Dell but it was $1080. I ended up getting this HP for $620 after rebates which I think is a good deal. It's better than the $1080 and I like this computer. It's about the same size (l, w, h) as my old Thinkpad and weighs a little less. I'm happy with it. I bought it sort of on the spot, because the rebate ended Saturday. So I made the decision fast.

I'm going to wait until I get back from Canada to even boot it up. Actually I'm going to ask a guy that is in IT at work to just wipe it clean and start fresh with XP. I guess I would like to try Vista, but I want to get all that garbage off the computer that the manufacturer puts on. Hopefully he can get XP for me.

Katey will be watching little Walter and my apartment for me this weekend. She said she's going to take him to the dog park Saturday and I left her some money to spoil him with. I know he'll be just fine.

So...everyone have a nice weekend, I'll be in the great white north.

Taking it Easy

I'm back in South Carolina, taking it easy. It only took me 10.5 hours to drive back from Michigan. The ride was not bad at all. My Saturn achieved very good gas mileage, around 39 mpg. That's one thing I still love about the car. That and the fact that it has plastic door panels.

Tomorrow I turn 24, on the 24th. Weird.

Walter was so happy to see me. I was worried he might have forgotten me, but as soon as I stepped in the door he ran up to me, I grabbed him in my arms and he was wagging his tail and kissing me. He remembered me. We get along beautifully.

Here is Some Info on Japan

I didn't talk too much about Japan in my last post. I was really tired and jetlagged. I'm still recovering from jetlag. It really is weird because you're technically up for 28 hours straight, but you haven't seen night time, so it's like a REALLY long day. Well, when you time travel too, like I did, that happens.

You should try to time travel some time, it's very interesting.

I've still been thinking a lot about a dog, and I think I will go for a Shar Pei instead of the Pug. I still like Pugs, but I think I like the Shar Pei a little better now that we've had two in our family. I have been looking online at breeders and have found some that brag theirs are $2000 and worth every bit of it. They're crazy. I have found some breeders too are are reasonable and actual people who realize they're selling an animal, not gold so they're a little more realistic with their prices (although still really expensive).

Today I woke up late. I woke up at 7:38 am so that left me 5 minutes to get ready and leave. I think I got to work around 8:05 am so that's not too late.

On Japan: FOOD:

Food was interesting (nasty). I don't eat seafood because of Captain D's abuse every week as a child after story hour at the library, so when I saw seafood, and in some cases raw seafood...I didn't like it. Sashimi was served a lot, and sashimi is raw pieces of fish...with nothing else. Sushi atleast has rice and seaweed to cover it up a little. So I didn't like that. I was also served an entire fish with the head and tail and scales still on it. This one was cooked, but gross. They also served small steak and chicken pieces. That sounded good, but the steak was raw and bloody. Soy sauce covered that up though. I had to get some food since I couldn't eat seafood. The nastiest of all was rice with eel on it. Linda I said you think you LIKE eel? You're weird. Eel is not meant to be eaten. It's two of the worst things in the world MIXED: seafood (yuck) and snake (evil). Terrible.

I come back to South Carolina on Saturday. I'm looking forward to it. I really do need a break from work right about now. I feel like it's wearing on me a little, over the past 2 weeks or so. I'm ready for a break.

Back from Japan

I'm finally back from Japan. It was such a good experience. I really enjoyed the country and the people there are some of the most welcoming and respectful people I have ever met. Japan was extremely clean and safe as well. I also got to time travel today. I left Japan at 1:30 PM Sunday and returned to Michigan at 11:30 AM the same day.
I got to ride all kinds of trains (subway, bullet), fly on a Japan Airlines plane to Hiroshima, go to Tokyo, Ota, Hiroshima, and Osaka. Hiroshima was my favorite city though by far because of all the shopping and the A-bomb memorial.
I took over 100 pictures, but below are a few: our plane this morning in Osaka, a Wii display at a bookstore, Tokyo from my hotel, a dish of oconomi-yaki, and Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima.





I had a great time in Japan and overall I think it's a great country.