Author: nslyax

nslyaxhttp://www.nicholasyax.com/I am a Ferris State alum currently living in Holland, MI. My blog has been being neglected recently, but I hope to be posting more.
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We Were Visited

So, my Dad came to visit yesterday. We took him to Qdoba, gave him a tour of Big Rapids, and watched Hot Fuzz (which was damn good). Other than that, just showed him the apartment and bull shitted for a while. My mom was supposed to come, but didn’t feel up to it and said would come visit later. He borrowed me his power sander so I could finish up the headboard a little faster too.

Something Jenn and I noticed yesterday was that Big Rapids is getting busier. Meijer had more college student’s walking around, traffic is getting heavier, and the hotels are all packed.

I was looking online, and Ferris says I can buy my books any time from August 20th through 30th on my financial aid, but need my ID. So, we planned on going Monday to get them to have a better chance at used books, but I don’t get my ID until the 24th. So, I guess I need to wait a few days. Ferris also lists a new student orientation of the 24th, but I’m not sure if its mandatory or not. Honestly, I would rather not.

Todd’s bachelor party is scheduled for next Saturday, but that’s all I have heard. Since I am standing in wedding, I am sure I am expected to attend, but I have not yet heard a time, place, or anything. Even the date was only picked because it was the night of Ashley’s bachelorete party.

When we were at Qdoba, I found they now have pork now. Its not bad, and the bbq sauce is good too.

Why don’t females get a Bachelorette of Science or Arts?

That’s all.

nick

Alpena Camping Trip

So, Friday afternoon we left for Alpena, which was about a three and a half hour trip. We stayed at Camper’s Cove, which is about 10 minutes from Jenn’s parent’s house. We made a trip to Wal-mart for some supplies and then had some hot dogs. Saturday we went for breakfast at Jenn’s parents, then came back to the campsite and rented a pontoon for 2 hours and took out Jenn’s mom, sister, and niece and nephew. The kids fished for a while with no success, and I tried swimming. After that, we went out for dinner, then to see Jenn’s grandma. After we got back to our campsite we sat around a bit, then Jenn’s parent’s joined us for some marshmallows. After they left, we made some hobo dinners, then after a bit more sitting we headed to bed.

Sunday, we packed up after the rain ended, then went to Jenn’s parents for lunch, then went with her mom, sister, and Johnny to the putt-putt course and for a go-cart ride, then to 7-11 and home (by the way, big gulp floats are pretty good). After that, we headed home. On the way, we stopped at Big Buck Brewery in Gaylord, which was good. We tried to go to Jay’s, but they were closed.

My Dad is coming tomorrow to visit, so we have been picking up and cleaning here and there in preparation.

OK, that’s it.

nick

Book Review

So, I finished up my book last night (World War Z). To anyone considering reading it but on the fence, go get it. It wasn’t what I thought, not that that is bad. I had expected a history book like recount, with highlights and a story. Instead, it was a narrator interviewing some of the prime players in the Human – Zombie War. If you do undertake the book, be prepared to want to re-read it. The narrator re-interviews a few people and it can make you want to go back and check who a certain person is. I figure I will wait until about Christmas to try my reread, just so it is at least a little out of my head.

Something I wanted to mention last time: As I had mentioned, the iMac is now aluminum. This makes the MacBook the last polycarbonate Mac remaining. Now, as the low end portable this may last for a while, but I think it is just one step closer to my prediction now about 18 months old, that the MacBooks will eventually go to anodized aluminum enclosures, similar to that or the ipod nanos. Maybe not, maybe just regular aluminum, but there is a chance. Either way, by the mid-2008 update, it will be very hard to resist buying a new computer. Between new iLife just out, OS X 10.5 in October, Office 2008 in January, big upgrades due to the MacBook line, and my iBook turning 5 on December 5th, it will certainly be hard to resist.

OK, that’s all I have. As I said last time, we will be in Alpena for the weekend. Probably leaving in the next 18 hours or so at some point. Will update when we return, whenever that happens. Hopefully no dead fish to report on.

nick

Less Than Three Weeks

So, I am down to under 3 weeks of summer remaining. I could probably go to some site and find the exact number of seconds or something, but don’t feel like it. At least I finally got my SMART Grant figured out: I don’t get it. It seems that you are ineligible for the grant after you reach 96 credits, and I am at 113 right now. Another reason to not be undecided for 4 years. So, I accepted my loans and am waiting for verification of my MPNs from Ferris.

Jenn and I went to see The Simpsons Movie on Sunday night. It was quite good. Too often a TV show will eventually make a movie and then the show dies (see the X-Files). This won’t be the case here though, as The Simpsons are lucky enough to be in an unchanging world, and the movies don’t need to necessarily have anything to do with the TV show, and vice versa, everything that happened is conveniently reset when the show ends. Besides, name something more popular?

Apple held a press conference this morning and introduced new versions of all their consumer apps, iMacs, keyboards, and .Mac. The iLife apps all have really nice upgrades, except they changes iMovie’s icon to some gay “walk-of-fame star” looking thing. iWork also got some nice upgrades, including a spreadsheet app finally, but I still probably wont use it. The new iMac is nice, and now aluminum. They dropped the 17″ model in favor of now two 20″ and one 24″ model, all with faster processors, more RAM, and bigger HDs with better graphics. Interestingly, you can now get a 1 TB HD in your iMac, but not in your Mac Pro. And, finally .Mac now has 10GB of space for the same $99, up from 1GB. That is a nice upgrade, and actually makes it possible for me to back up everything on my HD to the .Mac server, but still isn’t worth rejoining. Besides, there is still no scripting or database support, though some of the new galleries and pages for iPhoto, iMovie, and iWeb certainly hint to scripting existing somewhere.

Jenn worked last night, tonight, and tomorrow, following which we are going up to Alpena for the weekend, and possibly Mackinaw. We will be camping at some point in that trip, either in her parents back yard or one of the campgrounds around Alpena. On a sad note though a family friend of theirs passed away last night so there will be a funeral to attend probably Friday.

Dirty Jobs on the bridge was on at 9, and is replaying either as I type, or at 1. I am sure there will be another replay come weekend.

I think that might be it. Maybe another post before we leave, if not right after.

nick

Reminder Reminders

Just in case anyone forgot, Feasting on Asphalt 2 begins tonight at 9 on Food Network, lasting 6 weeks. Tuesday at 9 on Discovery is the Mackinac Bridge episode on Dirty Jobs, and Friday at 9 on Discovery is SurvivorMan Season 2.

I just finished making my first batch of pickles of the year, we will see how they turn out in a day or 2.

Tour de France finished with Team Discovery taking 1st and 3rd. Alberto Contador took first, Cadel Evans was 23 seconds behind him, and Levi Leipheimer (my fav to win, the american on an american team) was another 2 seconds off. Fourth place, Carlos Sastra, was a full 7 minutes and 8 seconds off of first. It was a sad Tour, with Vinokourov stripped of his yellow 3/4 through by being fired by his team, doping scandals all around, and still no real answer as to who won last year.

We ate at Bob Evan’s tonight, which I think is the first time I have been there in about 4 or 5 years.

A new poll will be coming up soon, I just didn’t see the point over the summer, with people having different schedules.

I started reading World War Z. It is pretty good so far.

OK, I think that is good for now. More after the weekend.

nick

It’s a Sad, Sad Day

Jenn and I left Friday for Bay City for the weekend, to go to Munger Potato Festival, see my Uncle Steve and family who are in, and go canoeing. The trip went mostly fine, but our return on Sunday was markedly not. We arrived to find, to our dismay, Chi-chi had passed away. Judging by his state, it had been at least 24 hours before, probably some time Saturday. He was not eating or acting quite the same since we separated him, but he had always eaten a little different from the others. It could have been the lack of constant feeding, a change in water circulation because of the separator, the loneliness of being separated even, or any of several other things. He was just so cool, although sometimes very evil bastardish. It scares me because he was the first, and I would hate if our 4 other fish also passed over the next week or two as well. I’m not sure what we will do, if we will get another Chi-chi, or a different fish, or leave it as is for a while.

So, as I said, bay City was fairly good. We missed Todd in the Demolition Derby Friday, but did see the Figure 8 on Saturday. Jenn’s Parents came down and spent most of Saturday with her, and I accompanied them to Munger to tour the festival. Jenn’s sister and her 2 kids who rode the rides and made it a little more fun. We all went to Rudy J’s after, then Jenn and I went back for the Figure 8 with my Dad and Uncle, which was very good except that a driver had to be taken to the hospital.

Sunday was the canoe trip, which was a bit of a pain in the ass. It was the first time we have tried the 5 hour, and all the really shallow rocky areas seem to be in the section between the 5 hr and 3 hr start points. After tubing here, the Rifle River is a joke. Jenn fell in 4 times, mostly while I was trying to drag us over rocks. One fall the current held the canoe down on her, and another we managed to get out, but the current had the canoe to hard pressed on a rock that it took my and my uncle 5 minutes to free the canoe. Thank god they rent aluminum, or we would have broke it on that one.

Today Jenn works, with a sunburn and several bruises, and rather sore from paddling 28 miles. We actually slept almost 18 straight hours from being tired and off of our normal night schedule. She luckily has tomorrow off though.

Tour de France has wrapped up, I am watching the recaps of what I missed on demand. Will be about 20 min before I see winner, though I have a good idea.

Ok, I wont sit here and wait to post the winner, I will just leave it at this.

Today, btw, is the anniversary of Jenn and I’s first trip to Big Rapids.

Hopefully next update sooner than later.

nick

TV News

Several TV related notices:

  1. Feasting on Asphalt – Season 2: August 4 on Food Network (Six episodes this year, up from last year’s 4)
  2. Dirty Jobs – Mackinac Bridge Painter: 9:00 PM, Tuesday August 7 on Discovery
  3. Survivorman – Season 2: 9:00 PM, Friday August 10 on Discovery

Also, I see if you order the Feasing on Asphalt Season 1 DVD set from FoodNetwork, you get a free ViewMaster, since AB loves them so much.

nick

Vacation Weekend

So, we took a vacation for the weekend, as Jenn had Friday through tomorrow off. Tomorrow isn’t really off, as she goes in to work at 7:30, but kind of. Anyway, we went down to Grand Rapids and got a hotel in Kentwood, and shopped around the two malls for the evening. Dinner was at Carrabba’s, Jenn got the Pasta Weesie (similar to scampi over linguini alfredo) and I had the Linguine Pescatore (shrimp scallops and muscles in a spicy marinara, over linguini). I also had soup, a spicy sausage and lentil, and we split calamari. After dinner we went across to Grandville for a little more shopping, then back to the hotel for bed.

Saturday we went to Holland, to visit the New Holland Brewing Company. We planned to tour their brewery, but we didn’t see any other potential tourers when we arrived, so we went to their pub. We tried the sampler, consisting of their Zoomer, Lucid, Red Tulip, Sundog, Poet, and Mad Hatter brews. We preferred the first three the most, as well as the pint of (hard) Apple Cider we tried. Jenn tried a chocotini, but it was rather bad. We ate as well, I had a phili steak and Jenn a stromboli, both of which were quite good. If you are ever in Holland, we highly recommend it. We walked around a few shops downtown afterward, as we were not in condition to drive, then went to the outlet mall which was rather dead. The mall was next, but also dead, so we said goodbye to Holland.

After a nap, we had some Thai food from a place Jenn heard of from work. Mine had red curry in it, and I regretted it until the next morning, as did anyone within about 25 ft of me. After eating was a little more shopping, a soak in the hot tub, a trip to Steak and Shake, then bed.

Sunday we checked out, and went up to Comstock Park. We had some IHOP, decided we were shopped out, and headed home. About 20 minutes away, we got a call from Jenn’s parents, who were in Clare and wanted to come visit. So, we did a quick cleanup at home, then visited with them for a while. Thery had been up in Soo St. Marie for the weekend, and were on their way down to Mt. Pleasant. We wnet out to eat with them for lunch, and they headed off on their way.

After some sitting and enjoying being home, we had a Meijer run, then more sitting, and that was our weekend.

At Meijer, we got our 5th fish. We have Chi-chi, our Electric Blue Cichlid (sick-lid), Rosy and Barb, our Rosy Barbs, Kitty our Pleco (like a cat-fish), and now Sunny our Electric Yellow Cichlid. Though not the biggest, she is the first, and Chi-chi obviously is dominant over all the other fish, almost to the point I want to remove her. Not forever, just for a week for her to loose her instinct of it being her territory. Maybe adding some more caves and tunnels will help, will try that first.

Part of shopping on Friday was of course a stop at the Apple Store. While there, I eventually got a chance with an iPhone. We were playing with them, and they are quite cool. Jenn decided to try calling and believe it or not, they all have service. I called home from one, but nobody was home. They are cool, but I don’t see the need for one for me.

So, that’s what I have for now.

Scott, you are not supposed to vote “by July 4th” on the 15th, as you obviously will not be here by 11 days ago.

That’s all.

nick

Sick

So, we left for Bay City on Monday afternoon and checked into our hotel, the which was rather crappy (the one across from KFC/TacoBell). Jenn went to see her friend Karen from SVSU while I hung out at home. My dad came over and we made some bbq chicken, and had some german potato salad, deviled eggs, roasted potatoes, and cheesy garlic biscuits. After Jenn was done and we sat and talked a little more, we went back to the hotel for the night.

Tuesday morning, we went to Macy’s to look for bedding, but found nothing good. On the way to Bay City we stopped at Papa Georgio’s for their pizza buffet, which Jenn enjoyed by I was rather so-so. We hung around at my house until about 4:30, then went to the mall and checked Younkers and JC Penny for bedding, before our movie at 6:05. Transformers was REALLY AWESOME! I liked it, Jenn was so-so. Nice to see guys from library, Jeremy and his girlfriend, Davey, and McGrath made it, rest were busy. Following that, we went to my house and walked toward Lafayette bridge to watch fireworks. We were rather tired after that, especially Jenn who was really being hit by a cold, so we stayed their for the night, and came home to Big Rapids Wednesday morning.

When we got to BR, we stopped at the airfest before coming home, which wasn’t real great. Later that night, we watched the BR fireworks from across the street. There was some guy who spent a crapload of cash in Ohio, and we actually thought he was the fireworks until the real ones began a while later.

While in Bay City, we picked up my aquarium, but couldn’t find anything here to put it on. We checked Meijer and Wal-Mart, and ended up buying a stand 1 size smaller, but after putting it together it obviously wouldn’t work.

Today, we went to Mt Pleasant and bought a proper stand, and a blue chiclid. We just got it set up and it seems to be happy, very active.

Sadly, I seem to have what Jenn suffered with for a weeks now. Hopefully it will be gone in time for her vacation. I think it is my August sickness, hope so anyway. I don’t want to go through this twice.

Tour de France begins today for anyone interested. As always you can catch it on Versus (formerly OLN).

OK, that is all. Here is a pic of fishy.

Fishy
nick

Happy 4th

So, I haven’t blogged in a while. That is probably because I haven’t done much in a while.

Last week Jenn’s Parents came down, and we made them dinner and went to their hotel for some swimming.

I have spent the last 2 days outside sanding the headboard Jenn bought at the auction last month. I got a rather bad sunburn on my back Saturday from being out there, but is much better now.

We are leaving in a few hours to Bay City. Going to have a bbq with family today, go see transformers with guys from library tomorrow, and of course watch some fireworks. I am a little pissed at Bay City 8, as they still do not have times up for TOMORROW! I have been waiting for days to find times, but they just wont post them, nor do they have on phone.

I think that is about it. Will try and update you on how holiday went on Wednesday or so.

nick