School

School, Sick, Taco Ball, and Wet.

Summer is over, I must return to school.

For the first time in several years, I am honestly a little afraid. I am not sure if because it is my last year of Delta, my Business class, or my Psychology class, but I am.

I am feeling 80% better from sickness. I still cough up various things, but am mostly better.

I was looking for what restaurants give you stuff for your birthday, and found out Taco Bell gives you a free combo meal. I had no idea. Anyone heard of this? I did some searching to verify, but came up with duplicates of the same page.

Not a whole lot has happened otherwise. Was sick, didn’t do much, slept a lot, went to work, slept more, and that has been it.

Oh, Jenn and I were driving down Wilder, and it was raining like all hell yesterday, like an inch in 2 hours. So suddenly, her windshield wipers stop working, and we can barely see. Luckily, the road was nearly flooded so we were only going about 25 mph. So I get the great idea to open the window and reach out to see if its maybe stuck. As I do this, a truck decides we are all pansies and comes flying down the outside lane that is flooded with like 6″ of water going 40 mph…

Remember that part about my window being down?

We were wet.

k, thats all

nick

Sick

Sick, Comments, Shirt, and School.

So, for the 3rd year in a row as recorded by the blog, I am sick in late August. I really wish I knew what it was, and if there was a way to stop it, but I don’t.

I have 39 of the 154 comments up now. I am slowly making it.

No, I don’t actually want that shirt for my birthday. Yes, it’s cool, but there are more practical gifts that could be gotten. Besides, would be cooler if I went down there to see the balls and get shirt myself.

I can’t believe school starts on Monday. That sucks so much its not funny.

Ok, thats all I have in me right now.

later

nick

White Castle

Alton Brown, Pig Gig, White Castle, Shopping, Delta, More shopping, WWDC, and Site.

Alton Brown has a new show on food network in case any of you haven’t seen it yet. It’s called Feasting on Asphalt. He and a camera crew are riding motorcycles across the US over a month, and eating at roadside cafes, restaurants, pubs, bars, drive inns, and diners. So far there have been 2 episodes and I have really been enjoying it. Sadly, it seems it will end after the month, but who knows. It’s on Food Network on Saturday night.

Friday Jenn and I went to the Pig Gig. We were there around 12:30 so admission was free so we were able to spend some cash on food. I had a $6 pork sandwich and her a $5 skewer of overcooked shrimp, plus a $5 lemonade and $3 refill and a $3 french fry. It was all good (except overcooked shrimp), just not worth the money we payed.

Sunday we were going to go to the Fish Sandwich Festival, but since we had little cash after Pig Gig and the bank was closed, we decided to go shopping instead. On the way to Saginaw, we changed out mind and went to Flint instead. First off, to make sure nothing got in the way of it, we went straight to White Castle. We got the 3 burgers, flavored chicken rings (ranch or tobasco, we got ranch) and drink combo, plus an onion chips and a fish sandwich (for Jenn). After eating all that, we went back for 3 jalapeno cheese burgers and 2 more fish sandwiches. I didn’t try the fish, but everything else was good. If I were to return, I would go cheap and just get the regular burgers in a greater quantity perhaps. Chicken rings and onion chips and special burgers are good, but if you can get a $0.54 burger (I think it was anyway, between 51 and 59, the point is cheap), take it. After filling up, we went to the mall and we both found shoes, and they were buy 1 get 1 half off, so we saved some $$. Mine were about a year old, so it was certainly time.

Since I received my pell grant and such, Delta decided I didn’t need work study, so I am waiting for them to process my re-review form and get me set up. If I remain a library employee, I will stay at $5.70 an hour until October 1 when minimum wage rises, then I will go to about $7.50 or so. If, however, I get my workstudy, I go up to $6.50 on August 28, pay no tax, and go up to around $8.30. Now, that probably wont happen, since I doubt the increases will be increases over the new minimum wage equal to the amount over current minimum wage, but it is fun to imagine.

Which leads up to today. I went to the mall with my mom where she got some sandals, and I got a folding rocking camp chair since mine broke the last time we were camping (which we need to do soon). I fixed out doggie door for the second time, had lunch at Kingfisher downtown, and made shrimp, pineapple, and peach skewers with fresh mint, over coconut rice. It was as good as it sounds.

Also today was WWDC 2006. Leopard looks good, what we saw anyway. Mac Pro and XServe updates are cool, but unrealistic for me. Good news is Leopard is supposed to ship come spring, in time to come on my MacBook next summer.

And finally, I think I fixed the display problem. I figured it was CSS related, and just before going in to look over the code I decided to first check that it was still valid, and sure enough it wasn’t. Apparently Safari is more relaxed on validity so I hadn’t really noticed the problem, but Firefox and IE both choke a little on it. As I said, should be OK now, will check at work tomorrow to see for sure.

I suppose that is all.

nick

Our Little Trip

A very eventful Saturday.

So, a week later and I finally write about it.

Saturday, as you should already know, I had off work to go with my mom to the funeral home for paperwork. Having the rest of the day free and needing something to keep my mind off recent events, I had told Jenn to be ready to go away at 10:30, and bring a bathing suit and towel.

We ran a little late, but did leave around 11:30 to a destination Jenn had no idea about. We headed off first down US-10 to Clare, where we stopped into Jay’s for a look around. Lot’s of camping stuff to wish for and inflatable boats to think long and hard for, but I ended up with a pocket chain saw and a rawhide cows head for the dogs (this thing was like 18″ diameter hunk of rawhide, with ears and everything). We then wandered next door to General Jim’s as I had never been there. Lots of cool things in there, military surplus and military pride and all that. They even had a 15 person life raft in the plastic case, like they throw off ships and auto-inflate.

Next we got back on 10 and for a few minutes I was excited that they redid 10 into divided 4 lane but that was quickly dissolved when we reached the freeway end and went down to a 2 lane road. After a while we came across a rummage sale and decided to look around. Among old dishes and clothing, there was a box of X rated tapes that were clearly recorded. We wondered if they were recorded from TV, copied form rentals, or home movies, but regardless purchased nothing. Further along the road we reached Reed City and turned south. We passed the Yoplait yogurt plant and headed down to Big Rapids.

Holy crap is Ferris big was the first impression. We stopped to look around the Alltel store for Jenn’s mom and I found a Big Rapids phone book to bring home. Next up we drove around the downtown area to look for somewhere to eat, but settled on Qdoba. We really didn’t want to eat at a chain restaurant, but at least this was a chain we had never eaten at. We really had wanted to eat in Paris, but the only restaurant was Pizza in Paris, and that wasn’t what we felt like. Anyway, Qdoba turned out to be very good, and now full we decided to drive around Ferris’s campus to see what we could. We never even got out of the car, a real campus tour will be come fall, but at least we got to see stuff. Following that, we headed toward the freeway, and down to Grand Rapids. On the way we saw a really bad accident, a trail blazer about 100ft off the freeway upside down. Sadly the paramedics didn’t look to be in much of a hurry.

GR is a big city, and our first stop in the big city was the museum. Very much on accident actually, we just saw it and were like wow, lets go. It turned out to be 4:40 though, and they were going to close at 5, so didn’t go in. Next we looked for the hospital, as Jenn would be working there. We found what we thought might be it, but kind of thought no, so kept looking and driving around, then gave up and went to find the mall. This took like an hour since we had no idea where it was. We went through some rather ghetto areas, but nothing bad, and got to see quite a bit of the city. Finally, we decided oh well and started heading for home when we decided to try 1 more exit, and after a ways we found the mall. Jenn went into DEB for a shirt, and when she came out I went looking for the Apple Store, but found it no where. I did find a shoe store with some nice shoes I would be dragged away from. I called my mom, and asked her to look up where the GR Apple Store was, and it turned out we were in the Kentwood Mall, and needed to be in the Woodland Mall, ACROSS THE STREET! We had come so very close. So, we headed out and across the street to the MUCH bigger mall. We had thought Kentwood was rather empty and blah for the mall of GR. So, we went straight to the Apple Store, having already walked around 1 mall that day, and went to drool at the MacBooks. Jenn decided they are too small, but I do like them. The graphics chip does scare me a little though.

Finally we decided to head for home, this time on I-96 to Lansing, the I-69 to Flint, and I-75 home. Just onto 69 we stopped in Perry to get something to drink at the Burger King. When we returned to the car, it wouldn’t start. I called my brother and Jenn called GM and nothing really amounted from it. GM was of the opinion it seemed that the car was there only concern, and what we did from now till Monday when it could be fixed (this was Saturday night remember) was our problem. Jenn got upset, and eventually GM sent a wrecker form Birch Run (to us, near Lansing) with an estimate of 90 minutes. I finally decided to give what my brother had suggested a try, since Jenn was not very focused at this point, and low and behold it worked. I got the engine started and as I understood it, it would be fine so long as we didn’t shut it off. This meant no White Castle, sadly, but oh well. We headed home and dropped Jenn’s car off at Dunlop to await repair on Monday. We tried starting it again, and it started right up fine, but decided not to risk it. We ended the night with Texan breakfast buffet with my mom (we went to Euclid, center used to be much better one, was left very disappointed).

So that was Saturday. I did see the Pere Marquette in Clare, and the intersection of Pere Marquette and White Pine in Reed City. As was suggested to me by Jenn, Big Rapids is still really far but much more logical goal the Mackinac, at least for now. That’s not to say I am canceling Mackinac or anything, just considering alternative near-term options.

Yeah, that’s about it.

Ohhhhh!!!
My mom fixed the iMac, she got a PowerBook. 1.67GHz, 15″ PowerBook G4, 80GB HD, 512MB RAM, and a SuperDrive. It’s the last PowerBook model made, and was a refurbished model too, and is now a “previous generation” which all add up to a hefty discount.

OK, see you later, hopefully a little sooner though.

nick

Revised Mackinac Plan

Template, Macinac, Ferris, and Grandma.

Yes Scott, I am aware of that. I used a pre-made template for the blog which apparently wasn’t made all that well. I do plan on fixing it, but just haven’t gotten around to it.

On the Mackinac trip, I have decided fall would be a good choice. Expecting to make it by the end of June was rediculous, and July, August, and early September will be too warm most of the time. I figured though that once school started, I wouldn’t be able to though, so was sticking with Summer and becoming discouraged by heat and insects. I checked my schedule tough, and realized I only have class on Monday through Wednesday, no Thursday or Friday classes. So, there is the possibility of leaving Thursday morning and being there by Sunday, and get a ride back. That hives me 3 – 4 days to get there, which should be fine. Yes, I would have to take those days off work, but I would have for a summer trip anyway. So, I figure September is out because I want to get into the groove of school, and later October has hunting, so the last weekend of September or one of first 2 of October will probably be it, depending on school schedule somewhat, as well as the weather.

I have officially applied to and sent my transcript to Ferris. As I said last time, Jenn and I plan to go to Ferris next Monday. Gary, the head of the manufacturing program, said he may be out of town, so I wouldn’t be able to talk to him, and he suggested that I come in the fall to see everything up and running. Still, maybe they will have my application processed and I can talk to someone about how everything will transfer and financial aid and such.

My Grandma should be home from the hospital today. She has been in since Monday.

I think that is all.

nick

Happy Belated 4th of July

Uncle, Fireworks, July 4th, Work, Deals, Jenn, and Ferris.

Sorry for that gap in posts, has been a weird week.

My uncle Steve came in on Friday night (I think was Friday) with my Aunt and DJ and Pat. They just left last night at 12. My grandma is having some health problems and they wanted to come visit and see us all. They are supposedly returning in 2 weeks for the Munger Potato Festival.

Jenn and I went to fireworks all 3 nights. Saturday we went to the middle grounds, then Sunday and Monday we went downtown behind DoubleTree. DoubleTree is definitely the better spot, though if you are in wrong area the bridge can block some of the view. Monday night’s Fireworks were some of the best I have ever seen. I enjoyed the hell out of them. The wind was just right both nights to give us quite a whiff of the gunpowder too. Jenn even got an elephant ear Monday, as she has wanted one since St. Stan’s 2 years ago. it was good, almost worth the $5.

Wednesday at work I almost killed a few people for not knowing the date. Independence Day is actually more often referred to as July 4th or 4th of july, yet these schmucks don’t know the date of the following day? What the hell?

We found out the Beth, my boss, actually knows most of my family. My Uncle John used to hang out with her brother, and through him she met my Mom, and Uncle Steve, and Grandma. I have actually met her brother and parents at Rudy J’s a few times. Beth’s Dad was once a police officer, and was honored Monday as one of the people to organize Bay City’s first fireworks festivals.

I was looking around the online Apple Store, and realized that right now, they have one hell of a deal, if you do it right. If you were to purchase a MacBook, an iPod, Microsoft Office, and a printer, you can save several hundred dollars. On the MacBook, you save $100 just for being a student, then you get a 2GB iPod free, or $179 off any other iPod. Then, even with Office already discounted for students, you save another $50 by rebate. Finally, you save $100 off several different printers, including a nice photo printer with wifi. But… I cant afford anything right now because I bought a car. Besides, I don’t really need it now, not till next fall, so if I wait for next summer when they will probably run nearly the same deals again, I will have a 1 year newer computer, printer, ipod, etc… And maybe there will be an intel native version of Office:Mac then (think Office 2007 is supposed to be native, but that probably won’t be out till March ’07, which would be too late, but we will see).

Uhm, also, Jenn went home for July 4th to see parents and such. I would have gone with, but she stayed night and I had to work Wednesday.

We are working on figuring out when we can go to Ferris. We have 2 possible dates, but I don’t remember them.

OK, that’s enough for now.

nick

New Car

Car, Work, Camping, Aid, and Pics.

I own a car! And, unlike yesterday when I bought it, I even have it now. It is a 1999 Plymouth Neon Expresso, with a mere 161,000 miles on it. Yeah, that is really high milage for a 99, but I only paid $999 for it (just under $1300 with tax, title, etc…). The air conditioner seems to be broken, the radio will randomly shut off, and the sun roof doesn’t open, but since I only paid about $1000 I can afford to fix that. Cosmetically, it is very good inside and out. I am happy with it, as long as I don’t run into any mechanical issues. And best of all, it is MY car in MY name.

So, other than that, I work at 9 tomorrow morning after 3 8:30s in a row. Today we had a staff meeting and I worked Dave’s shift so he would pick up the second half of mine tomorrow and I can leave camping earlier.

We are actually a little unsure where we are going still, but 90% on Rifle River. We will return Tuesday at some point.

I received some of my financial aid today, 2 months ahead of normal. Federal only, no state yet, which will include my work-study.

Uhm… I guess that’s it. I got pictures from the wedding, but not digitals, so will be a bit to get them up. Actually, I have all the old pics still to get up.

OK, that is all.

nick

About The Weekend

Weekend, grades, and work schedule.

Over the weekend I rode my bike to work Friday and Saturday. It’s about 4 miles round trip, not much but something. I also rode from Jenn’s to home and back today. I hope to make it to state park and back one day this week.

I got a response from my QA professor that I will get an A in the class, but it is not yet on my report card. Regaurdless, I get Dean’s list for this semester. I was hoping for vice-president’s list again, but oh well, its something.

I do not have to work tomorrow, because we are begining the new schedule this week. I will, as already posted a week or two ago, be working the following schedule henceforth:

Thursday: 9 – 5
Friday: 12 – 5
Saturday: 9 – 5

I am suppsed to work at 8:30 either Thursday or Saturday, I don’t remember which. Anyway, I like that they are close to each other, but don’t particularly like waking up so early. Maybe it will get me up early on some of the other days to get some biking in before it gets really warm out.

OK, see you all later.
nick

Grades

Grades for the semester and some recent happenings.

I got my grades (most of them anyway) and they are as follows:

CAD A
Speech A-
Electronics A
Machining B-
QA ?

For whatever reason, the QA grade isn’t on my report card or my transcript. The most obvious reason is that it was submitted late, but the class actually ended a week before any of my others, so that is kinda strange.

In other news, I went with Jenn yesterday to take her cousin to Flint Bishop airport, after which we tried to find White Castle, but were looking on Miller and it is apparently on Coruna. I also got some goodies for my bike in the form of a new lock (I somehow lost mine) and a new rear rack.

That is all for now I believe.

nick

Updated

Site and Sleeping.

So, big updates. You may notice the address of the blog is now right at the root of the site, rather than at /blog/. I am moving some things around in the constant hope that a little more work now will save me some later. The problem of course is that I am constantly coming up with new ideas like this so there is always more and more work.

Anyway…

Last night when I was going to bed (too late by the way) I remembered I hadn’t slept there the night before. No, I slept in my backyard, as it dropped to nearly freezing, in my tent. I set it up Wednesday evening and slept in it for the night. I wanted to air it some, and make sure it was in good condition for camping which will begin soon. With my sleeping bag though, it really wasn’t too bad.

Uhm, still no grades. I guess thats it.

nick