Shopping

Lots of Happenings

So, where to begin…

Over the weekend, Jenn and I went to Bay City for Todd’s Bachelor Party. I met up with them at the texan in Essexville where we had dinner, then bid them farewell as they headed toward Midland St., then to the Vu. From what I heard the next morning they had fun, but I am not much of a bar person.

Jenn and I went to see my dad after that, then to see my mom and Chris. After catching up and all that, we headed for our hotel. Quickly bored, we went car shopping as my neon is not real healthy, and I have that nice refund check coming. We found a nice VW GTI, but as it was around 10 on a Saturday night, the dealership was obviously not open. we then went to Essexville to see if her old apartment had been rented out yet, and it was. Next, we stopped by Ideal Party Store where I found Screamin’ Pumpkin Spiced Ale. Back at the Hotel, we enjoyed our drinks and ordered Roma’s, and watched Feasing on Asphalt.

The beer is good, but odd. It has a taste of clove and nutmeg and pumpkin pie spice. Not bad, but as I said, odd.

Anyway, Sunday morning Jenn and I went back to see the GTI again, and noticed several small things, that quickly added up. It just wasn’t worth the asking price, and even for less you would need to be willing to put in some rather considerable effort. We then headed over to my house to see what was up and wait for my dad to get out of church so we (Jenn, Chris, Dad, and I) could go to Genji. Jenn and I decided to go ahead to Midland to do some shopping, and meet up with the rest there. Of course, my dad called just as we were leaving town, but that was fine.

With some good food in us, we headed to the Midland Mall where Jenn found fuzzy Crocs. As she wears them to work everyday, and the weather will be turning cold soon, they were quickly nabed up and we were on our way home.

Monday, I started school. I began my 2 years at Ferris by being 10 minutes late for my first class, as I underestimated the parking situation. After a mere 50 minutes of Industrial Engineering, I headed home. Jenn and I drove around most of the local dealers, and had some promising news that Phillips Ford may be able to find the car I want, or similar, for the price I want. Jenn then dropped me off at school for my CNC class, and picked my up after so we could peruse the bookstore, which still didn’t have my last book.

Tuesday and today were basically just go to class, come home. Although, today I tried sticking around campus from 11 to 1:30 between my 2 classes, only to have Jenn call me wondering where I was, and remind me my second class is at 3. I still stuck it out, but probably not again.

My classes, for the most part, are OK. My CNC class scares me a little, as I feel possibly under-prepared, but will deal with it. Also, the Manufacturing Program has a rather harsh grading scale, that I will have to deal with. My grades may slip some this semester, but from my Delta average of A, A, A, A-, a little drop is probably OK.

Over Labor Day, we have no real plans. We mentioned possibly going car browsing in Grand Rapids, but I am kind of sick of that. I kind of want to leave it alone until at least after I get money. I want to try and sand and stain the headboard, as it hasn’t been touched in over a month now. If I get that done, it will free up a good amount of space in the office, which would be nice.

Beth emailed all of us tech pages to let us know she got a job at Delta in the Office of Information Technology.

Weekend after this, I go back to Bay City for Todd’s wedding. Will be there Friday evening through Sunday evening.

The 18th, I might go down to Grand Rapids for the Society of Manufacturing Engineers’ Great Lakes Conference. Will depend on if I have a car yet (I should), and what is planned for my second class that day (my first class is cancelled, as the professor is speaking at the conference).

I actually just joined SME online last night. It’s $20 a year, and I save around $100 off my certification test when I graduate. Of course, if I want to remain a member after that, it is significantly higher for a non-student membership. Plus, Ferris’s SME chapter has an annual field trip to Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Detroit, and other surrounding areas to see several manufacturing plants. In 2004, they even went to the Trek bicycle plant.

That is probably all.

See you all later,
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

Christmas

So, late friday night, or more precisely 2 AM Saturday, Jenn and I were bored so we left for Alpena. We arrived there a little before 5, after making a stop at Wal-mart in Tawas. Saturday Jenn’s sister came over and we opened presents then had a small dinner. Sunday we went over to Jenn’s grandma’s for dinner there, then headed home a few hours later. Monday we had Christmas dinner here, then went over to my Grandma’s for presents there.

Tuesday Jenn and I went to Saginaw to spend our Christmas money. I bought 4 shirts and a down throw blanket, and she bought another for me. Wednesday I worked for the 2nd to last time. Thursday Jenn, Chris, my Mom, and I went to Genji with Scott who is in town for Christmas, then we came back here and played Super Mario World and watched Office Space. Then Friday was my last day at the library. Today I again sat around and did a whole lot of nothing.

Total Christmas gifts:

  • $140
  • 2 new pair of pants
  • 1 new shirt
  • BBQ tool set with apron
  • Chocolate covered pretzels and peanuts, snickers, mixed nuts, hershey kisses, and a fruit cake
  • Silver necklace
  • Flashlight
  • Leatherman clip
  • Candle
  • Robe and slippers
  • Folding camp table

Tomorrow I am going to the Library for the last normal day. They will be closed for 2 weeks, then go to the new reduced schedule, so most all tech pages are going to be showing up for that.

I hooked up out Super Nintendo last week and the Nintendo early this week. I have been playing Pin Ball on the NEW mostly, though it doesn’t always like to work. It is nearly 20 years old though.

We don’t really have much for plans for tomorrow night, just going to wing it I think.

I made some small updated to the site earlier today, namely the partial re-posting of the Library and the addition of a comment-spam blocker. At just a day old, it has already caught over 500 comments. Its sad that I got more comment spam in a day than I get real comments in 3 years. Maybe you guys should comment more?

I’m not sure what else. I think that about covers it all. I may update at some time tomorrow, just to get in my final post of the year and last one at the library most likely as well.

untitled

Well, Im sitting here waiting for my uncle and his family to come in. I had to clean my room today in preparation for their visit (aka unpack, finally) and found a bunch of stuff for the website, so hopefully I can get that up soon.

MacWorld has come and gone with little hoopla. This was likely the least exciting MacWorld since I started following them. We could have at least gotten the new monitors or keyboards/mice for the G5s, might have boosted sales. We did get the new G5 commercial though, which is on CNN and CNBC every 15 minutes, or on apples website if you prefer.

Still using KungLog, though I’m not completely sure why. Funny note, the spell checker thinks KungLog is spelled wrong, hah. Anyway though, maybe I will start using all these special features, maybe I will go back to just the web form, I don’t know yet.

I need to make it to BestBuy tomorrow, while the Linksys Wireless AP/4 port Router is still $59.99. Even if I get it though, its only as good as our current router till I get the AirPort card for my laptop. I’ll let you know next post.

Ok, they should be here soon, will try for a second update later tonight. If not, see you all on Monday!

nick