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!

Mail to ME Please

I'm declaring this week "send David mail week". I've been getting an awful lot of store advertisements and decided instead of that and bills, I'd like REAL hand written addressed letters and/or postcards from people. With real, peel and stick stamps (the lickable ones are OK too). So, can you make it happen?

If you're a complete stranger from some random place that reads this blog, I will be happy to give you my address in exchange for mail.

Thank you.

Good Sunday

I met a girl names Anna today, in the best way you can meet someone. More on that later.

I had a really nice weekend in general. Maybe the weekend was so good because last week at work was a bad start, but either way I'm very thankful for the past 2 days.

Yesterday I went to Lake St. Clair with some people from work. I haven't been on a boat in years. It was fun to go out into the lake and see what Michigan water was like. I got to swim, and I got some sun.

Today I slept a little later than planned. I was exhausted, so I missed church today. I went outside and did a little yardwork, and then went to the grocery store to get some things. After I got back and made something to eat, I laid down on the couch to read. I'm reading "The Catcher In The Rye" right now before we start the next bookclub book. I read for a little, then shut my eyes for about 15 minutes.

I decided I should take Walter to downtown Plymouth (about 1.5 miles from me). I walked there because it was nice out today and Walter needed to be worn out. I walked around the town square and got Walter some water from the Dairy King. I walked back to the square and thought this would be a perfect environment to meet someone in, just randomly in a park. Like a movie.

I sat on a bench and started to read my book. Walter laid down on the ground. I looked up and noticed a girl sitting on a blanket with a dog. She had a notebook and looked like she might have been sketching, or maybe writing. I glanced up every now and then, to see what she was doing. She looked like a beatnick, with bracelets and shorter hair. She had a nice smile. After watching her for a while, I decided she looked approachable so I walked over to her blanket and asked if it was ok for Walter to visit with her dog. She said sure, but her dog was old and sort of shy. So I just talked to her for a little bit, I think we started talking about dog stuff, like how old Walter was. She was nice, and could hold a conversation. Good. So, I decided I would go ahead and walk back. When I turned to leave she said "what book are you reading?". Interest! I turned back and told her, and then we started to talk about it, because she had read it. I sat down on the grass beside her blanket and we just started talking about everything. She had a Bible on her blanket, and somehow we started to talk about religion and she goes to the church I do sometimes. We talked for a long time, about all sorts of things. She was as inquisitive as I am, if not more. I love that. She's a vegetarian. She goes to U of M Dearborn. She's the youngest of 4 children. She grew up in Canton. She loves to travel. Her birthday is September 1st. She's going to Nebraska with family for her birthday. She has a dream to randomly take food from a stranger's plate, eat it, and run away. She's 3 years younger than me. I like her. She seems spontaneous and lively.

She perked up after a while and said she could really use some ice cream. I asked her if she wanted to walk and get some. We walked back to the Dairy King and got ice cream, and sat outside with our dogs talking more. I think our conversation mostly consisted of religion, about what we do in different situations. We walked more and more around downtown. She asked me what time it was and we realized we had been walking around for 3.5 hours. We decided to part ways. We exchanged e-mail addresses and said we'd go eat Indian food together sometime. It was really, really nice to meet someone like that. It's pretty easy to know right off the bat, or with a few sentences if you'll get along with someone.

So, I will e-mail her sometime this week and see if we can get together. But, just knowing there's someone out there like that is re-assuring. Being able to just talk to a stranger and hit it off like that is amazing.

It was a nice feeling.

Case of Mondays

I lost my temper at work today. I'll be honest, the "newness" has worn off after a little over a year now. I still like the job a lot, but the politics are a little clearer now. I'd say ignorance is bliss is a true saying, because once you learn more...you start to form an opinion on certain things. I felt like a ping pong ball today, being bounced between our manufacturing plant and the design center. Over something superficial and downright petty.

When I had enough, I raised my voice and told a few people I was pretty sure there are 3rd graders out there with more maturity, and I'm done dealing with petty garbage. I'm just ready for a vacation - or get away for a while because I want a break from some of this.

Anyway, I'm done with that for now. The weekend was really nice having mom and dad visit. I think we got a lot of great work done. They were also nice enough to get me a grill, a patio table with chairs, an area rug, and some yard tools for the garage. They were all very much appreciated. We landscaped the front and side of the house, and mom painted the living room and dining room. Saturday dad and I went to the Woodward Cruise, which is an event with around 1 million people (seriously) driving classic cars up and down Woodward Avenue from Detroit to Birmingham. It was really interesting to see all the people and all the cars.

I go to Subaru in Indiana Wednesday and Thursday this week. I'm looking forward to it actually. Getting out of the office for 1.5 days is what I'm looking forward to and dealing with a good customer is nice.

Oh, and another thing I just remembered. Tomorrow night I start going to a small group through church. I'm looking forward to doing that. It's a group of 6 guys, ages 21-28 who meet once a week to do a Bible study and hang out. I'm really hoping it will be a good opportunity and praying that it's a good group for me to fit into. I suppose I'll have more on that later.

This video is a good rendition of what my day was like.

Me

I was wondering how other people would describe me. You know when you hear someone talk about another person, and they describe them, or their personalities...what they like or dislike about them, etc. Tonight I went rock climbing with Paul from work and the phrase he used to describe me was "puppies and sunshine" and then his wife chimed in and said "and you fart rainbows". I thought that was interesting. I think people think I'm much more innocent than I really am.

Down By The Dunes

"So how do you and your brother Mac like it down by the dunes?". That's what Will Ferrell asked Rae Murphy (Molly Shannon) in a Saturday Night Live skit once. The dunes are amazing!

The western part of Michigan along Lake Michigan has miles and miles of large sand dunes. It can take you up to 3 hours to walk to the water in some of the largest places. I went with 2 people from work yesterday to Silver Lake Dunes. We met another mutual friend at a campground since they were staying for the whole weekend. We all decided to rent Jeeps for 3 hours and drive all around the dunes. The experience was pretty interesting. The dunes were packed with all sorts of 4-wheelers, dirtbikes, big foots, and some people in random SUV's driving all around the dunes. Take a look at these pictures. I made sure to document the whole dune experience.




We did have a little mis-hap though. At the peak of the dunes, there is a steep drop off from where the wind blows the sand to the peak, and then it levels back out. If you're going really fast, you'll jump the peak and bottom out. That happened to us. Another Jeep also did this, but they did it so hard they went airborne. There was a representative from the rental company out watching all the rental Jeeps and he stopped us and told us we were not on a baja-trip, but a tour and to cool it. He said this was a warning and if he caught us again we'd loose the deposit. So that put a damper on things. After that we didn't really drive much more, so we walked along the beach on Lake Michigan and watched people climb up the really high dune.

This past week at work was very annoying and frustrating. I'm ready for a vacation...a long vacation.

Thank You, Chrysler

Today was interesting. I met Paul at work at 6:00 AM to make the 4.5 hour drive to Shelbyville, IN to visit a supplier. Our rental car was dropped off Friday afternoon so it would be ready this morning. So there it was, a 2008 Chrysler Sebring with only 13,000 miles on it. I drove it for about 1.5 hours until we met up with another guy from work at a Park and Ride. We picked him up, and drove the rest of the way.

On the way back today, all was going well. I even took a nap in the car. Right before we entered back into Michigan the car suddenly lurched forward and the warning chime came on. The check engine light was on. The car went into some sort of "limp" mode because it wouldn't down-shift and had no acceleration at all. It started shuttering really bad and the check engine light started flashing and the chime kept binging. So I looked in the owner's manual and it said if the check engine light flashes, the car should not be driven because severe catalytic converter damage could occur. Oh well, it's not my car and Enterprise shouldn't buy junk. So we kept driving it. In our defense...would it be wiser to pull over on the side of the road and wait for help, or drive to a dealer? I think drive to a dealer. The car was under warranty anyway so it's not like the damage wouldn't be paid for by someone other than Chrysler.

When we got back to Michigan we pulled back into the Park and Ride lot and I suggested shutting the car off, and re-starting it to see if the error message cleared itself (I thought the car just mis-fired and got confused). So we shut it off, and when we went back to start it the car just cranked and cranked and cranked and I finally floored the gas and it started rough. Paul was nervous about driving the car anymore. So next to the lot, there was a Chrysler dealer. We drove the car over (it was around 7:00 PM now) and asked them to pull the code so we could find out if we should keep going back to Detroit in it or not. Well, the car never set a code. It just said "Fault". When they started the car, something was REALLY wrong. The car was knocking and shuttering and would almost stall, then rev really high, then shutter and act like it would die. The service manager said he would NOT advise us driving this car anymore and to call Enterprise. So we called Enterprise, but the office was closed so we couldn't get another car. So...a taxi ended up taking us the rest of the way back. I finally got home at 10:00 PM. A long day, and a junky car.

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...

Maple Me Crazy

I've been doing a lot of outside work on my house lately. It's a slow process. Very slow. There are so many weeds. Tiny, little weeds that take forever to pull up. You should see some of the root systems on these weeds too. I like laughing when I pull them up though because although the root system is large, it's really pretty weak and chinsy. They're fun to pull up.

I have a really nice plan for the front of my house. A Japanese theme. You wouldn't think that would fit Michigan, but it will. Another house in my neighborhood has a Japanese themed front and it looks really great. When I say Japanese themed I mean lots of rock, and small pruned trees. I got my inspiration from two small trees that are already in front of the house that look Japanese like. Then, I saw a gorgous red tree that looked like a marijuana plant outside of a house and found out it was a Japanese Maple. Look!

Today after work I needed to get some things at Home Depot and they didn't have any Japanese Maples. I went to a nursery close by and they had about 20 of them. The problem is Japanese Maples are really expensive. The cheapest they had was $99. Luckily my dad is able to get one for me from a lady he knows. So I can hopefully get a free one. I'm excited about that and the landscape work to come.

This weekend I'm hoping to paint the small bedroom and finish up changing out the electrical outlets. This blog is becoming like a home improvement blog, but I guess I can post about other things next time. Stay tuned.

No AC

I saw this article on Google about what to do if you don't have AC in your car. I think these are just stupid. You should pay the money to get your AC fixed, or sell your car and buy one with AC - plain and simple. A block of ice on your floorboard? I don't think so.

What to do if you don't have AC in your car

Some Pictures

I decided to post a few pictures of the rooms I've painted so far in my house. I've done the family room, dining room, kitchen, and 2 bedrooms. I still have the living room, hallway, bathroom, and one bedroom left to do. Hopefully you like it, I'm pretty pleased with the results!

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.

Green is Go

The green bedrooms are staying. I was going to paint them darker tonight, but realized do I really want to spend $60 and 10 hours or so going a shade darker? You're right: NO.

So they look good now. I think it will really become whole once my furniture is there. I move in tomorrow, by the way. The inside is starting to come together now. I have the family room painted in a warm grey with white trim. The fireplace looks awesome there with the grey brick around.

Tomorrow I will be taking pictures to show you the fruits of my labor.

I Though Being Green Was Good

The green idea in the bedroom is a mixed one. Nobody will flat out say they don't like it, and I think I've only had ONE truly positive comment. What I get in person is them walking around, and then a "hmm, it's kinda limey" or "hmm...it looks really bright in this light" or something to that effect. The reactions I get in person are someone basically walking around, and thinking VERY carefully about their response. They have to think how to plan a response that sounds neutral. So now when someone walks in one of the green rooms I just watch their face to see what they think. Those response that AREN'T really responses are the worst. Examples:

"It's green alright"
"It's different"
"It's bright"
"Well, you could change it later" - that's the WORST

I honestly don't know how I feel about it. Looking back, I wish I wouldn't have taken Paul's wife's advice and gone a shade lighter than I originally wanted. Even though I may be colorblind I can still pick stuff out. I've been to their house and all their colors were pale. I like a little darker. I may go darker.

I'm honestly still convinced once I have my dark brown/black furniture in there it will all come together. Blank rooms always look scary, to me atleast. The family room is coming along in grey with white trim. It's not as daring, so I think I'll have a more positive response.

All I know is this house isn't going to have any white walls. I saw Terissa today and told her she needed to come take a look and she smirked and said "I'm nervous for you". I asked her why and she said "well, you're colorblind and picked out colors...that's scary David" and then she walked away. Ooof.

I Need Your Opinion Below, But Here Are More Pictures

Here are a few pictures of the living room and one of the hallway looking down towards the bedrooms. This will all be painted "classic taupe". Behr lists this color as the most popular in all regions of the country. A nice deep beige looks really classy and clean to me. With white trim to make it pop ofcourse...

What's Your Opinion?

I've spent a lot of time painting. I'm taking my time, because I want my house to look good...fabulous actually. I took a BIG gamble with 2 bedrooms. I wanted a green with white trim, if you remember. Paul's bedroom looked really good in green. I had originally picked out a darker, more deep olive green, but was told by a wife of a co-worker (she came over and looked at the lighting) to go a shade lighter, since my rooms are dark because of large trees that shade the windows. So, I went with "grass cloth". I spent 2 days doing 2 bedrooms. One of them is 12 x 10, and the other is 13 x 10. When I first applied the paint I flipped out because it looked neon green. It dried darker, and in the back bedroom is turned out really good (I think). The front bedroom is a little lighter, so the green looks lighter in there.

I'm mixed. Sometimes I walk in the bedrooms and think it looks really vibrant and good, and then other times I walk in and think it's a nursery or it's way too loud for a bedroom. Here are some pictures. Tell me what you think...honestly!

..."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.

Short and Sweet

I got the Pokemon of the week updated (a good one too) but didn't have time to post worth anything last night. I'll be back later today for an update.

Tomorrow's the Big Day

Gosh I haven't posted in a long time. The summer will do that to you. That and buying a house.

Tonight is my last night of not owning a home. Tomorrow, I officially become a home owner. That's a scary thought but it's exciting at the same time. I think this makes you grow up really fast, owning a home. The responsiblity seems to be overwhelming. I'm looking forward to the challenge though.

I'm taking a half day at work tomorrow. I'm going to do a final walkthrough of the house and the closing is at 12:00 PM. This weekend I'm going to the land of the weird (Ohio). Dan and Terissa and I are going to meet Alex in Columbus for a board game expo. I think it's going to be a lot of fun and there will be lots of fun games to play.

The first thing I have to do with my house is patch a few spaces in the walls and do some painting. I will be moving in very slowly. Housewarming gifts are always welcome...because I'll need lots!

Maybe you're wondering about what happened with that email at work? Nothing. My boss brought it up jokingly, but didn't make a big deal about it and nothing ever happened. That was scary though.

I'll post back after I have my new house!

Damage Control

Something really bad happened at work Friday. Let me start off by saying that if something SHOULD go wrong, it will for me. If I take a chance on something, I usually get the blunt end of things. That's what I've noticed in my 24 years so far.

Friday a guy I work with was sending me e-mails joking around since I wouldn't go to lunch with them. I kept replying back, saying things like he better watch himself, he was going to get kicked, etc. Well I had an email window open from a co-worker in Japan. My manager, account manager, and a few others (all internal) were copied in this email. I accidentally replied back to the email to Japan instead of my co-worker. Basically it said to watch himself, that he was going to be drop-kicked and to wear a helmet if he wants to leave work alive. Yep, that's bad. It went to the entirely wrong audience. Someone sitting beside me was copied on the email and an hour later asked "what in the WORLD did you send to Japan"? Then the panic set in. Tools, options, recall message. The bad thing is recalling a message does nothing. So I wrote an apology email, called my manager and explained the situation, and panicked. I thought about what would happen if I lost my job. Mainly I'm upset because I have what I think is a good reputation at work and I don't want some stupid email to ruin that.

Another thing I've learned in 24 years is that people remember the good you do, but people REALLY remember the ONE wrong thing you do. So it's hard to make up for it. My co-workers all thought it was hilarious, mainly for the irony of the fact that I'm wound so tight and the one time I do joke around it backfires on me. Others said it was awesome and I'd get more respect when people see I mess around every once in a while. Either way I'm a little worried and I hope nothing serious happens. I guess I will find out tomorrow.

Today I also lost my debit card. I mean, I know where I left it (at the ATM) and it's gone. So I called and got that cancelled. It's wonderful how Chase tries to get you to apply for a credit card while you call their lost card hotline. That's another reminder for me to leave Chase - horrible.

So that's about it. Be thinking about me, and my job. I really don't want to get in trouble...and I hope it all just goes away and nobody makes a huge fuss over it.