Outdoors

Happy Belated 4th of July

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

100,000 Words, Fool!

Lets start with the car. Few days ago I decided to try and accomplish something with it so started with my trunk. The lock is jammed so the key wont work, but the release in the car does work. I lubed it and what not, and even tried disassembling it, but all to no avail. Then I pulled off my door panel to see if the missing speaker left dangling wires that were shorting, in hopes of getting the stereo to stop shutting off. Turns out, no, there weren’t. I did find out how shitty of a job Graff did at attaching my door panel though. Next I tried tightening up my spoiler, and found that of the 4 stud bolts attached to the spoiler and bolted to the trunk lid, 3 were not attached to the spoiler. On top of that, when they came loose the previous owner used a hot glue gun to try securing them. Not only did this not work, but it made for a bigger mess for me to clean before even starting. So, the trunk lock is still jammed, my stereo still shuts off randomly, and my spoiler is now in the trunk and 2 pieces of masking tape cover the bolt holes to keep out water. I am going to pick up some epoxy to reattach the studs, and see if chris can figure something out with stereo.

Powertrain apparently lost 360 some of its 750 employees to the buyout offers. When Scott and I were there, they had 1000 employees. There is a certain, small, chance that they could hire, but the more likely is they will be receiving transfers from plants that are scheduled to close.

The chances of me riding to Mackinaw seem to go down more that up. I realized when we went camping how much of a problem the hills, heat, and bugs may be. I am not saying I wont do it though. I would actually like to do it in say late September, when its cooler and the bugs are gone, but with school and work going on by then I don’t think it would be a possibility. I am afraid of trying it in August or July though.

In a related note, coverage of Tour de France begins on OLN on Saturday, that’s day after tomorrow! It really doesn’t seem like a year. I swear it was mid-July to mid-August, not early to early. Whatever, it here and I can watch it.

We are also down to about a month till Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference. There are already rumors and supposed leaks of Tiger and possible specs of new PowerMacs (“MacPro” is current consensus for new name) and XServes. I almost wonder if it would be more fun to stop reading rumor sites now and wait to get the full surprise, but know it won’t happen.

I do plan to fix the template, since it appears to only display properly in Safari. IE, Firefox for Mac and Windows, and I presume most other browsers do not display it like it should be seen.

And finally, this post brings me to 100,150 words, by current count. That’s not bad.

later,

nick

I Got Bawls

So I went to Speedway on Euclid and there they were, so I picked up a pair of sweaty blue bawls and sucked them dry. One Thursday night, and one this morning. It was enjoyable, like sprite, with a hint of ginger ale maybe, and some bits of something else. Too bad the $1.99 price tag.

Something I forgot from camping summary is the lightning bugs that were very prevolant all 3 nights. I think there was something else too, but not remembering it right now.

I am very aware of the need for a new poll, but haven’t come up with one yet. I will try harder I guess.

River Roar and St. Stans are this weekend. Library is quite dead as a result. I dont mind.

My car is being a litlle grumpy right now. Shouldn’t be too big of a thing though, if problem is what I think.

I think that is it for now. Will try for another early in the week.

nick

Camping 2006 – 01

So, we are back from camping. We had fun, despite a day of rain. There are no pictures as they would be mostly the same as last years spring trip to Rifle River, though there were 2 times I really wanted camera.

Saturday I got out of work at 1, we left a bit before 4 I think. Jenn got a bike rack so we could take the bikes on her car instead of needing the truck. Once there we set up camp and got a fire going. Ooh, and I got Jolt on the way up, which is hard to find recently. We went for a short bike ride, but not real far. About 4 miles I think. I tried swimming too but it wasn’t particularly warm water. I had McDonalds on the way, but jenn was hungry so made some veggie sausages on the fire.

Sunday it rained almost all day, but we did get breakfast in before it started. Oil works much better than butter, and the food was not as black/brown as last time. After getting sick of sitting around, we drove to West Branch for somethng to do. We ate at Lumberjack’s, which had pretty good food, but our waitress was horrible. On the way back we stopped at the gas station for some ice and other stuff, and what do they have but Jolt. Weird. The rain had let up so we got another fire going and made some chili for dinner, which though vegitarian was pretty good. We forgot to get rid of the tomato an dbean cans though and has a racoon visit just after we went in, but it was gone after about 15 minutes.

Monday (Jenn’s Birthday, I got her a speedometer for bike Friday, but haven’t installed yet) was much nicer. We made breakfast, after which Jenn took a nap while I stripped bark off branches and had fun with the fire. It sprinkled for a while but was gone after not too long. We then decided on a bike ride and set off. We set off down the trails, and found out Lost Lake is lost from itslef, and not visible from the point on the map it claims to be. We then went further along to the south-most point in the park and looped back up. When we got to the road we had a break, and decided I would continue the trail and Jenn was going to take the road back. I think I had the better choice. I went over the Rifle River, saw a stand of all white birch and fern, no oak or pine at all (pic moment 1) and was stopped by a porcupine (moment 2). I came along it as it was either crossing or shortly following the trail, and spooked it so it turned around and balled up. I tried to encourage it to move, as it was blocking the only 18″ wide trail, but just sat there. I had just grabbed a stick to toss near it to try getting it moving when it turned around with a very cute fuzzy-woodland-creature look and then moved just off the trail so I could pass. I honestly thought it was a skunk at first, as I just saw black and white and kinda freaked. Anyway, I made it back and Jenn and I cooked up hot dogs with macaroni salad we had bought earlier in the day and made a big fire for the night.

Finally, this morning, we woke up, packed, and came home. We unloaded all my stuff first, then she headed home and we got showered and cleaned up. When I had all my stuff away I went to her appartment to help unpack and get her stuff taken care of. Just after we finished, about 4, Beth called to ask if I could work tonight, and agreed, so I am at work now from 5 – 9. I didn’t realize until about 10 minutes later that I work at 8″15 tomorrow, and haven’t had a lot of sleep recently, but oh well. She did made it to Yax out of 9 tech pages, and its just 1 day, so I will be fine. Besides, I already made it to 8.

So, thats how things have gone.

Note: Jolt Cola: ehh, Jolt Blue: yum.
Jolt Red, Jolt Green, and Bawls: awaiting judgement.

OK, thats all for now.

nick

New Car

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

Home

So we are back from the wedding and it all went well. The reception was nice. Jenn made me dance. Food was pretty good. Jenn’s Mom got pictures so will try and get them up as soon as I can get them from her.

We are going camping next week. We are thinking will leave when I get out of work Saturday and return Tuesday afternoon. Not totally sure where yet, have some ideas though. I want to go to Hartwick Pines, but they are a little expensive at $25 a night. I am hoping for somewhere under $18 or so. The fallback is, or course, Rifle River, since we know they are cheap and nice. Will see what I find though.

Yesterday and today I cleaned out the shed and got everything organized in it. Hasn’t been done since we moved it and everything went flying all over.

OK, that’s all I have for now. Later…

nick

Away

So, I am sitting in our room in Gaylord, at the Baymont Inn. We just returned from the wedding and are going to head to the reception soon. Jenn looked very nice and I should have some pics in a week or so. We forgot Jenn’s camera at her appt., and Jenn’s mom forgot hers here at the hotel, but will get some pics at the reception.

Yesterday we went to Jay’s and there was far too much that I wanted, but I resisted and didn’t buy anything. This morning I went for a walk and stopped in the local bike shop to waste some time. They had some very nice Cannondales. I also window browsed at the local computer shop and they have a MacBook in there. Wow it’s nice looking. Smaller than mine, but widescreen. I want.

OK, I am off, maybe a further update later tonight.

nick

Another Ride

So I went on an 18 mile ride today (17.98 actually) to I don’t know where. i was just going here and there, kinda to Delta but then not. On my way down Hotchkiss I decided it was kind of windy so I turned around and went back some and ended up going down 2 mile further than I knew it went. I ended up on the corner of Venoy and Crane when I decided to turn around and head home. As I said, it was about 18 miles round trip. Back here, I looked up my approximate route on Google Maps and tried to figure out where I was. If I had crossed the overpass I was at (I acually did go to the top of the overpass, but didn’t continue), and gone 1/2 mile down to Michigan, a 1/4 mile to pierce, then a 1/2 mile over to Davis, I would have been at SVSU. So since my goal of Delta turned out to be underestimated, and then given up on because of wind, I actually ended up with an unintentional goal of a different college that worked out OK. I did have some issues with lack of paved roads and loosing motivation because I wasn’t sure where the hell I was.

Speaking of which, tomorrow is 6/6/06, so Hell, MI is throwing a big celebration. They won’t get to have fun like this again until 6/6/2106.

Back to the trip, I saw like 15 carp sitting in Sasquanning Creek where I crossed it, just sitting there. I also saw a deer. I looked over, saw it, and yelled “Hi deer!” and it just stood there starring, then went back to eating grass.

Anyway, I grilled some hot dogs for dinner, and made some chili cheese fries, and that was my day. Rather enjoyable. I will do something else fun next week.

nick

Jenn has Troubles

I went 10 miles today. Not much, but tomorrow should be nice, so can go for more.

Beginning this week I switch to Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday. Not really though, because I have Saturday off to go to Jenn’s cousin’s wedding.

Jenn’s computer is quasi-dead right now. The backlight isn’t working. Also, her dad is in the hospital down in Ann Arbor with heart trouble. Jenn spent the weekend down there with him and her mom, but came back yesterday because she works tonight and tomorrow.

Tour de France begins July 1st on OLN (channel 36 here). Runs for about 3 weeks. Watch it, it’s good.

That’s all for now though, will update before I leave Friday for sure, possible tomorrow night if I ride anywhere good. Also, hotel has wireless so I may update while in Gaylord.

nick

Woohoo, I Made It!

OK, so it really isn’t that far, my brother did it last year and I went way more in class, but I made it to State Park today. Took me 2 hours to do the 17.6 miles (8.8 each way), my bike computer says 94 minutes of actual riding. The fact that it was 86 out does make it a little more impressive though. My next goal is Delta, which should be about 20 round trip, though I will be doing State Park a few more times.

Scott has called me 3 times in the last 3 days, and I have missed them all. I would call him back, but I am not sure if I can, it could be a pay phone or whatever. I guess I just need to wait and hope I catch it next time.

OK, that is all for today.