News /me often reads :: People I *Know*
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Last Update: July 25, 2008 02:06:25 PM (UTC)
July 24, 2008
Amy
50×365 #117: Tom M.
“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”
[hands over license] “Your middle name is Otto?”
[smiling] “Yes, it is.”
“That would make your initials T.O.M.!”
We laughed about it all night. It helped that we had drank a couple of Fat Bastard Ales. You made Boston so much fun.
I am a participant in Blog 365 and x365.
Posted by Amy @ July 24, 2008 11:37:50 PM
List, Shmist
According to this list, the Top Female Blogger is Michelle M@lkin.
Excuse me, that was me throwing up in my mouth and hitting myself over the head for actually clicking on her site once, thereby upping her traffic count.
I was surprised not to find other bloggers (other than the deserving Dooce) on this list. I was only familiar with one other blog (Amalah).
I found that list via Schmutzie, who by the way, should be in the top five of that list.
Posted by Amy @ July 24, 2008 02:35:07 PM
50×365 #116: P.J.
You tried to act charitably when you were around others, but I knew it was a lie. The vindictive words you spewed against my sister that one day, a mere child, displayed your true character. When you spoke from the pulpit, a switch inside my brain instinctively tuned you out.
I am a participant in Blog 365 and x365.
Posted by Amy @ July 24, 2008 03:21:14 AM
July 23, 2008
Amy
Dropping weight
I’ve been cleaning house.
After moving all of my crud out of Hancock, I was hit with the sad truth that I have accumulated a lot of crap over the past few years. The boxes and piles of stuff that now sit scattered around the house are a far cry from the minimal belongings I had when I moved here three years ago.
It’s everywhere. Clothes are scattered because there are no drawers or closets to put them. I’m also sitting atop a pile of yarn that I think is embarrassing, and that’s because of the mass quantity, not because half of it is, um, cheap acrylic (hey, we all go through these phases).
I have two bikes that probably equal half of my net worth combined, and because we don’t have a garage, they’re sitting on the front porch. They’re only missing the sign that says, hey, come steal me! It will only take a few minutes! Maybe if I have time later, I’ll print one out.
When I initially became unemployed oh so many months ago, I viewed it as an opportunity to get my house in order. I was going to be an organizing machine. Because really, what else was there to do if I wasn’t working?
All I can say about those ambitions is FAIL, FAIL, FAIL.
It’s not that I haven’t been slowing chipping away at the mountain. I’ve made a little progress since officially giving up my own space, mostly with the office space (hey, a girl’s gotta have a place to read blogs work).
And you know, it’s tedious to go through everything you own and decide if it stays or goes. Unfortunately, I SUCK at this. I have this unfortunate obsession with saving original packaging. For almost everything. I know this probably makes sense for items like computers, cameras, and other electronic thingamajigs that might require the original packaging to obtain warranty coverage. And maybe I just made that last thing up, but it COULD be true.
The bluetooth headset incident last night made me realize that one of the reasons the dogs feast on all of my belongings is that they are often left in places they can reach, BECAUSE I AM A SLOB. And as I come up on my one year anniversary of being one of the jobless, I couldn’t help but remember that oath I made to clean up my shit.
I pried myself away from the computer, grabbed the iPod and got to work.
As I was cleaning today, I came across something that made me laugh, something I’ve saved since that shitty year known as The Year I Got Divorced. It was an email from a friend who had some advice for me, and this is what he wrote:
When one is diving and you want to get to the surface, you slowly release your weights so you can do a steady rise without getting the bends. Figure out what weights you want to drop and rise steadily. When I was a lifeguard, one summer I had to rescue eight people who were drowning. One guy I literally had to punch in the gut when he grabbed on to me trying to take me down with him.
I have often thought of this since then, whenever I’ve felt bogged down. Sometimes it’s a negative attitude, or an excuse to not do something I know is going to be good for me. In some instances, it’s been caustic relationships people, preventing me from moving on and forward with my life.
And even though I can recognize how detrimental these things are in my life, I have a hard time letting go. I find myself hanging on, even if it’s only by a thread as they say. Maybe I’m emotionally attached, or still full of resentment, or simply afraid. Afraid that once I let go, I will no longer be able to use it as an excuse for my shortcomings.
And I have more than emotional baggage. As I sort through the embarrassing amounts of clothing that have to be put in the if I lose 20 lbs box I know I am physically weighed down as well. I get discouraged by what I consider failure — not being able to do the things I could do three years ago — and I know it’s not because I’m three years older, but because the demand I’m putting on my body with this extra weight is killing it. So yeah, sometimes the weight is actual weight.
Well, it’s time. And while this might sound silly to you, the first step was to start eliminating the physical objects still lingering from the part of my past that I need to move on from. It started with running photos through the paper shredder. I know burning them would have been more exciting symbolically, but I have a bad track record with fire. And this was huge, something that a year or two ago, I would never have been able to do.
I think I can call that progress.
There were a few more items I found today, and while I won’t go into detail about them publicly, they needed to be thrown away. And I did it. And then I put dog poop on top of them so that I wouldn’t be tempted to dig them out tomorrow. Just kidding. Well, about the not being tempted part.
The last thing I will do today is take that email, the one that I’ve saved for all these years, and put it in the trash with everything else. Because while I am thankful for the advice, I’m letting go of all of it.
And finally, after all of these years, I’m starting to feel lighter.
Posted by Amy @ July 23, 2008 11:09:20 PM
Karen&Adam
We’re back!
We just wanted to let all of our faithful readers know that we have returned from an amazing European vacation. We spent from July 8th to July 19th visiting two of the greatest regions in Europe. The first half of the trip was spent in Paris, France and the surrounding Normandy region and the second half of the trip was spent in Venice, Italy and the surrounding Veneto region. All in all this was an absolutely amazing vacation and we have so many stories and pictures to share with every one.
As you can imagine, in that amount of time we saw an unbelievable amount of stuff and took about 1200 pictures. Needless to say that it will take us some time to digest all of this and to process the pictures. So, please be patient and stay tuned for what we hope to be some wonderful blog postings.
Posted by admin @ July 23, 2008 06:57:51 PM
Amy
Sometimes three is all you need
I am trying to focus on the positive tonight, because if I don’t, I feel like I will explode.
First off, thank you to the mystery dog who ate my bluetooth headset tonight. That would be the $120 bluetooth headset that I used with my iPhone. The ONLY bluetooth headset I’ve ever had that actually did what it was supposed to. This item rarely leaves my purse, but today I was fucking around with it while trying to get the Remote App on my iPhone to work, later finding out that app doesn’t even use bluetooth. I left it sitting on the bed. So yes, it was my fault. One of the dogs abandoned it after removing the earpiece and cover. Guess circuit boards aren’t very tasty.
Thanks to The Kid who must comment every goddamned meal on how he does not want to eat what is being prepared, because it is nasty or sick or gross, because HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT I WANTED TO HEAR THAT EVERY FUCKING DAY? I know, my bad for not stuffing you with McDonald’s or Pizza Slut every night. After all, living here is like living in a prison camp.
And now, on to the one thing that I would not have expected in a million years would have been the highlight of this evening. We went on a run around town, just a three mile jaunt. Scott got home late and was tired. I was worn out, depressed, and quite honestly, running was the last thing I wanted to do tonight. However, the marathon looms, and I absolutely do not want to feel like I did in Duluth.
So we went. And everything hurt. My right heel. My right knee. After about two miles my lungs felt like they were on fire; I was pushing the pace to keep up with Scott (per usual) and was really starting to feel it.
And then, for the last quarter mile, my lungs cooled down. My shoulders got looser, I started to not notice the pain as much. And then it was over. And I remembered that this is why I run. I had forgotten how good running can make you feel.
And on nights like these, sometimes it turns out to be the highlight, or the only thing that will keep you sane.
Posted by Amy @ July 23, 2008 03:22:15 AM
July 22, 2008
Amy
50×365 #115: Booge
You’ve gotten me through so much of life’s crap. It only took four years for us to finally meet. And after all of these years, despite reminders in my calendar, I’ve missed your birthday. I’ll try not to be such a lousy friend in the future. Happy Belated birthday, King #2.
I am a participant in Blog 365 and x365.
Posted by Amy @ July 22, 2008 10:06:38 PM
July 21, 2008
Amy
I’ll have a year to gear up for the social anxiety attacks
I have made a commitment to attend BlogHer or SXSW in 2009. I’ll admit I was getting a little depressed over missing BlogHer this weekend, which is stupid, since I hadn’t really seriously considered going until I heard about it a few weeks ago. Because I’m not a member of the powerblogosphere, I figured these shindigs were just weekend long marketing conventions, or day-long sessions where women just get up and talk about “mommy blogging.” And while I do enjoy many blogs that are written by women who are mothers, it’s not a group where I belong, not now or possibly ever.
I’ll admit to feeling a little uneasy about a hotel packed with thousands of blogging women who are smarter, better looking, and way more fashionable than me, it could be fun to meet some of my favorite bloggers in person. Years ago, admitting to someone that you’d made a friend “on the Internet” made you seem a little freakish, or at the very least lacking serious judgment. But times have certainly changed, and now the idea of meeting someone without having read their blog or communicated via Email first seems, well, WEIRD.
It was over IM that Pat (of the Booge) and Chad (of Gorn) and I started chatting back in 2000. This went on for years, and finally in 2004, we met for the first time. IN ANOTHER COUNTRY.
This was completely out of character for me. I was going through a divorce at the time that was taking a pretty huge emotional toll and probably wasn’t fully aware of all the decisions I was making, including driving to another country to stay an entire weekend with two guys I had never met in person, who could have very well been the axe-murdering/turn your skin into a lampshade types. But it turned out okay–they were merely Canadian–so hooray for meeting people on the Internet!
Plus, the last time I was anywhere for a conference, it involved concrete and heavy construction machines. I think BlogHer might be more my speed.
Posted by Amy @ July 21, 2008 11:18:00 PM
50×365 #114: J.
You were standing there, paintbrush in hand, and it was obvious you didn’t know how to paint. I thought you were pretty but a little ditzy (boy, I was wrong about that one), and wondered how long before my brother asked you out. I’m glad it didn’t take too long.
I am a participant in Blog 365 and x365.
Posted by Amy @ July 21, 2008 11:16:41 PM
50×365 #113: Helen
You smoked like a chimney, extinguishing your butts in an ashtray made from a seashell, flecks of grey covering the tables. Your terry cloth bikinis did little to protect you from the sun, but you were proud of your leathery brown skin; it went perfectly with your overdyed blonde hair.
I am a participant in Blog 365 and x365.
Posted by Amy @ July 21, 2008 04:28:35 AM
July 20, 2008
Mary
Gathering of Geeks pt 2
It was a good (if cold) party yesterday. We went out after lunch with 3 car loads of adults and kids. My nieces and nephews had as much fun as usual, helping with things as diverse as digging out holes in the sands for the bon fire to helping drive the robot car. There were several attempts on Barney's life-- mostly successful, (some spectacularly so). The beach balls blowing up was awesome-- I swear, it sent out a shock wave we felt on the other side of the hill! There were glider launches, some even successful!! :) The ice cream was good-- chocolate, chocolate chip.
Some of you might have heard about the accident on Friday. A friend was cooking ... uh... cooking. When the stuff he was cooking blew up, splashing his hands. 1st and 2nd degree burns on his hands. He thought fast and immediately stuck his hands in a cooler full of ice and water, which probably prevented worse burns. We had breakfast with him (and others) the next morning and he was doing ok... still in pain, but chatting and ok.
The other accident didn't actually happen at the party but on the way to the party when someone laid his motorcycle down, totally wrecking the bike and giving the passenger a concussion. I didn't hear about that one until ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
antisorbate andjennlk were discussing options for getting the bike back home.
All in all, it was nice to see everyone and lots of fun. We got home about midnight last night. The boys had spent the day running around with friends, chasing dogs, digging holes, setting off firecrackers, picking up Barney pieces, climbing hills, etc. P managed to get a shower before he fell asleep (tho I think he dozed in the shower), but M just fell on top of the bed totally dressed and crashed. Both are tried today, but moving (finally-- P slept until 10:30. M made it until 9:00-- both hours past their normal time).
Back to work today-- have to find min8ive's calculator she lent Kate 10 years ago and either sand the dresser I'm refinishing (if it doesn't rain) or cut out a new skirt (if it does).
Posted by @ July 20, 2008 03:18:23 PM
Srinivas
Sabrina (1995)
It takes some doing to pursue an objective, despite knowing that there are chances that it may never materialize. How does one deal with this chance of failure? My answer to that is that you don't deal with it. You pursue it as long as everything inside you makes you go for it, until you know that you can't anymore, or the objective isn’t up for pursuit anymore. Impractical? Foolish? Good old
Posted by Srini at the Movies (noreply@blogger.com) @ July 20, 2008 10:40:53 AM
Amy
50×365 #112: E.S.
1990: watching movies in the basement, your arm draped over my shoulder, first and only date. I squirm.
1993: We work together at the bike shop. You’re chewing tobacco now. I’m a little grossed out.
2008: You’re a big time chef, and we meet briefly. You still succeed at making me feel awkward.
I am a participant in Blog 365 and x365.
Posted by Amy @ July 20, 2008 12:10:48 AM
July 19, 2008
Amy
50×365 #111: P.S.
“He’s dating a porn star.”
“In the U.P.?”
“Well, not a real porn star. He claims she does it like one.”
You brought her as your date. I couldn’t look at her without feeling disgusted; you were dating the sister of the Spawn of Satan.
And porn star? IN YOUR DREAMS.
I am a participant in Blog 365 and x365.
Posted by Amy @ July 19, 2008 04:02:21 AM
July 18, 2008
Mary
Katie's Belly
Katie's friend, Leah, got taken in by a particularly good April Fools Joke last year. So when Kate and Gabe announced that they were going to have a baby this year on April 1st, Leah has refused to believe.
Leah, darlin, I have pictures. It's true...
Posted by @ July 18, 2008 06:45:31 PM
Abby
“We’re Adults… when did that happen? And how do we make it stop?”—Grey’s Anatomy Card
Well, after last weekend’s wedding extravaganza and spending time with some of the best friends in the world (in Flint and Mount Pleasant) I have finally had some time to process everything. I am moving to Turkmenistan. As my dearest friend Molly put it in the card she gave me “This sounds like a TV show—Who moves to Turkmenistan in real life?” I guess the answer to that question is I do. It’s crazy. I am actually becoming a hippie as opposed to just posing as one! I’m serious my Mom went shopping for extra long skirts for me just yesterday (who’s having a hard time envisioning me wearing a long skirt everyday because I know I am…). It’s a bit bazaar… I mean I’m doing something with my life, yes, I could do that without moving to Turkmenistan, but this feels right. I’ve done a bit more research about the country through some other PC blogs and their experiences are pretty cool and exciting. I’ve been taking careful note of the TEFL blogs and some of the stories are just cool… It sounds like the kids have this thirst for learning English and everything about America. I’ve also got to meet a few of my travel partners headed to Turkmenistan and a few who are already there (gotta love facebook). They are all really cool people, we’re all in the same nervous and excited boat trying to figure everything out. It’s really happening!
I can’t help but be a bit honest with myself though; I’m scared. One of my biggest fears in life is loneliness. Not having my support system with me will be really hard, which is why I am so thankful so many of your are supporting me online. It will be challenging though, being all out on my own. I was discussing this a few days ago at like 2am during my excursion to Mt. Pleasant with my good friend Katie who had recently gone through a similar experience when she moved to Mexico for 6 months. She told me that the experience was at first very lonely (for like the first 3 months), but it wasn’t until the end of her trip that she decided to take the time that she felt lonely to turn to the bible and spend time with the Lord. That was her advice to me and while the challenge of loneliness appears to be overwhelming I am a bit excited to continue to develop my relationship with the Lord and rely on Him during my time of need.
So that’s a bit about where my thoughts are after processing a bit. I also want to thank everyone for their support through this site. It’s crazy to know that there are 247 people on facebook who are reading this, plus like about 40 more friends and family! That is awesome. Thank you all for your support and just a bit of a plug… I love comments. Every time I have a new email about a comment I get all giddy and excited. So please! Comment!
Posted by beingthechange4peace @ July 18, 2008 04:45:39 PM
Mary
The annual gathering of the geeks pt. 1
The rain drove the party inside at R & M's last night. Good thing their house is big enough :)
I got to practice being a grandma with tceisele's pretty new baby, Rosie, which was fun. Visited with bwittig, jennlk, madtechie2718, marsgov, and offered starting-a-new-business advice to samwinolj. jon787 was there covered in khanbo's dog's hair, icyfeetofdeath and I had a nice discussion about knitting, min8ive was there with family. Her baby is getting really big! M was so excited to see her eldest ( his oldest friend) it's a wonder he didn't explode. Also talked with loads of other friends about house repairs, kitchen appliances, and gnu knows what else. Also introduced sleeping_ox to Bob Yeo, who wanted to talk about Charlaine Harris books.
All in all, a nice evening, even tho R spent most of the party standing in the rain cooking hamburgers and brats. The rain finally cleared up, so hopefully the campers didn't get flooded out.
Posted by @ July 18, 2008 01:09:00 PM
July 17, 2008
Amy
50×365 #110: Carl
Most found you arrogant, but I knew you were just a smart guy with a tedious job. Your ex had a hook through your heart and still yanked on it to get her way, and I hated her for it, much more than I disliked her for eating my potato chips.
I am a participant in Blog 365 and x365.
Posted by Amy @ July 17, 2008 09:16:12 PM
Stranger things have happened
I am finding it humorous that all of WeatherBug’s (app for iPhone) Weather Cams for my area (closest is Hubbell, MI where the airport is) aren’t even close to us. Hell, they’re not even in Michigan. Wal-Mart must be out of web cams.
No wonder the rest of the world thinks we’re prehistoric up here. I will have you know that the Interweb I connect to with my high quality string and can mechanism is top-notch, and usually works great as long as no one unplugs the extra long extension cord we have running over the Mackinaw Bridge, or from a power strip in Appleton, WI.
Speaking of Wisconsin, even though the Packers won’t agree, I find the charges of “alleged communications” with the Vikings very funny. Even though it will never happen, in my perfect football universe, Favre would play for the Vikings this fall, take them to the Superbowl, and win it all. Okay, unlikely, but picture Brett at the season opener vs. Green Bay, wearing purple, at the game when they are SUPPOSED to retire his jersey.
AWKWARD!
Posted by Amy @ July 17, 2008 09:03:11 PM
50×365 #109: Mrs. F.
We knew where to look for you when you weren’t at your desk. We’d find you in the teachers’ lounge, enveloped in a grey haze, chain smoking between classes, the smoke wafting out the door and down the hallway. I figured if they ever banned smoking in school, you’d retire early.
I am a participant in Blog 365 and x365.
Posted by Amy @ July 17, 2008 01:18:55 AM
July 16, 2008
Amy
It’s nights like these when I realize I have little patience and should probably have my tubes tied
I dislike losing the first game of church softball playoffs. For the record, I played two innings, went 1-1 and got four mosquito bites.
I dislike washing dishes. Every day. By myself.
I dislike mowing the lawn, raking leaves, pulling weeds. It makes my allergies crazy. I’d rather scrub toilets.
I dislike the National League, though I do think I could be a Cubs fan. And I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to see a game at Wrigley.
I dislike fielding 1000 questions about every facet of the game of baseball DURING THE ALL STAR GAME because you have spent your entire childhood inside the house glued to the television since you were able to sit upright (none of this time ever spent watching…baseball). And when you weren’t sucking the electric tit, you were playing video games on your handheld videogame / Playstation / Nintendo / DS / X-BOX pacifier, or parked in front of your PC that you use unsupervised, because the Internet isn’t full of middle-aged perverts preying on young adolescent boys in gaming chat rooms. THE ONES THAT YOU HANG OUT IN AT 2AM IN THE MORNING. It would be different if you had an actual interest in the game, but you don’t. You’re bored. And annoying.
And at the time of this posting, I also evidently dislike stupid-looking crocheted hats.
Posted by Amy @ July 16, 2008 03:01:09 AM
50×365 #108: Makoto
You were on exchange from Japan, and one of the best pitching arms our school had ever seen. You didn’t speak much English, so I’m sure you didn’t understand many of our conversations, but I was in love. I’m sure you were just being polite to the crazy Korean girl.
I am a participant in Blog 365 and x365.
Posted by Amy @ July 16, 2008 02:45:48 AM
July 15, 2008
Chris
1-888-4vault-tec
There are .... 101 million callers ahead of you......so....cool.....
Posted by Chris DiBona (noreply@blogger.com) @ July 15, 2008 10:14:57 PM
July 14, 2008
Amy
50×365 #107: D.S.
“Why are you dressed like that?”
“It’s a futuristic theme,” you said, trying to explain the ridiculous tin-foil hat and funny white smock.
“I’d still have a drink with you,” I said.
We did, later that night on the boat, complete with cigars. You were one of the good guys.
I am a participant in Blog 365 and x365.
Posted by Amy @ July 14, 2008 10:16:53 PM
The Mother of All Pet Products
You have not known joy as a pet owner, namely an owner of a pet who sheds constantly, until you have used The Furminator.
Yes, many have used it with excellent results. I first read about it on Jon Armstrong’s blog (sorry, can’t find the link now). I thought, this would be a wonderful tool for Tobie, Scott’s Joint Custody Golden Retriever.
Ah, she may only spend part of the time with us, but her fucking hairballs are here 365 days a year. This is because Tobie spends most of her time in a home where she is never brushed, though honestly I wonder if it even makes a difference with this dog. Don’t get me wrong, goldens are sweet, friendly, loyal dogs, but they are constantly losing hair everywhere, on your sofa, on the kitchen floor, on your pants if you are on your way to a job interview and you’re wearing your expensive black wool suit.
On one of our trips to The Big City, aka Duluth, MN, we stopped in a Petco to pick up dog food for the other two shitheads and thought we’d see if they had any Furminators. I’d seen the videos online, but I hadn’t checked out price. Near the front of the store, a TV was showing a promotional video for the tool, so we stopped to watch a few minutes of this wundertool and were sold. Then we looked at the price for a large furminator, which was more than I paid for my first car. And we left the store furminator-less, agreeing to think a little more about whether or not we wanted to pay for this seemingly overpriced hair rake.
Now granted, I didn’t pay much for my first car. The bill of sale (it was my Grandma’s old car) probably said $10. But still. Seventy bucks? For a dog brush?
When we got back to our double-wide in the country, which is really a big old house in the Projects of Laurium (I jest; we’re just on the more economically challenged side of town), Scott did some eBaying and found we could grab one of these for way less. Like $50 less. So he bid. And he won. And a few weeks later, our discount Furminator arrived, sans packaging, but also sans enormous price tag.
Tobie travels with The Kid, so weeks will go by before we see him during the summer. They both arrived tonight. Normally I’m thinking about things like is the house clean if his mother actually enters the house when she drops him off? (It wasn’t by the way. I noticed, after she left, that Abby so graciously dropped a turd underneath the piano. THANKS.)
But tonight, the only thing on my mind was The Furminator, and after everyone left, we went to work.
Tobie’s got a pretty thick coat, so I wondered if it would even get through to the undercoat. I let Scott have the honors and after three swipes down her back, it was full of hair. It’s not exactly effortless – we had to put a slight bit of muscle into it, without hurting her, of course – but this baby does what it says it will do.
Tobie seemed quite calm during the entire procedure, only getting a little antsy toward the end of what was probably a 20 minute session. She needs a few more before I think she’ll be good to go for a few days at a time, but the photos don’t lie. This is the hair I’m usually breathing up my nose.
Also, Scott models What Not To Wear When Furminating a Golden Retriever.
The last thing I want to say about this is that we’ll take her outside for her next furminating. I’m also considering giving their shampoo/conditioning products a try for her. She gets incredible matted hair messes down by her back legs that no brush is ever going to pass through. I figure we could at least bathe her when she’s here, since the other responsible parties are, well, not so responsible.
Tobie’s happy, we’re happy. I believe we have a winner.
The rest of the flickr set is here.
Posted by Amy @ July 14, 2008 05:57:58 PM
Haims, Hens, Hams and Health Insurance
Sorry, I can’t stop giggling. I’ve just discovered that Scott Baio is 46… and pregnant, and The Two Coreys have their own TV series? I’m suddenly flashing back to junior high years and Teen Beat and Tiger Beat magazines, the full color Corey Haim posters I’d plaster on the bulletin board in my wall (we weren’t allowed to “stick” things on the wall lest we mar the paint job). Where have I been?
Well, I can tell you for certain I have not been out standing in life waiting for a 3G iPhone. Life moves too slow up in these parts for 3G, a technology that we might see within the next twenty years. Speaking of things we may never see, I was informed by one of my former employers that I have a pension I accrued while working there (my sincere apologies for probably screwing up how to talk about this in financial-speak) and if I live to see the day I can collect (which by the way is 2040!) it might be enough to buy myself a few gallons of gas every month, assuming Americans haven’t just given up on the entire “going places” thing all together. It wasn’t exactly exciting news, but I was relieved the memo wasn’t printed in Comic Sans, a favorite font of the Head Accounting Bimbo.
But seriously, if I could have that small monthly pittance now, I would gladly take it. Times are tough here, waiting for word on a job that goes from A Sure Thing to You Know How Things Can Get Messed Up thing on a daily basis. I would mention that I’m worth more dead than alive right now, but that would have been true when I was employed and actually had any kind of life insurance. Oops, doesn’t apply currently.
Speaking of insurance, two of our friends tied the knot after a very long courtship of 15 years. There were Hawaiian shirts, coconut flavored drinks, flowered drink holders and enormous amounts of food, including BBQ Cornish Game Hens (wow, really tasty).
Since Bride has what we like to refer to as The Ferrari Package when it comes to health insurance (she works for one of the school districts), Groom will now be able to take part in it instead of shelling out massive amounts for individual coverage, which made me happy for him/them, as I am one of those Uninsured People of America. Of course, marriage is about love and wanting to spend the rest of your life with that special someone, but how can you not give a hurrah when medical coverage is involved? Bonus, I say!
Double bonus if the guy on the right in the above picture is presiding Minister. Even if he is a little off.
Posted by Amy @ July 14, 2008 12:37:56 AM
July 13, 2008
Amy
50×365 #106: Bob R.
Your family railed against alcoholism, claiming anyone who’d drink even a sip was on the road to damnation. One day I saw a Budweiser in back of the fridge, and I silently cheered for you. Your cooking was excellent, but no dish was worth marrying into that lifetime of unhappiness.
I am a participant in Blog 365 and x365.
Posted by Amy @ July 13, 2008 10:26:48 PM
Kyle
Summer Trip 2008 - Wrapping Up
Well, I have the feeling that the previous 45 days have been a once in a lifetime experience. I traveled through Michigan, Indiana, Iowa, South Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho and Montana. I’ve met an incredible number of new people whose company I have enjoyed immensely. I’ve taken more pictures than I can count and most will never see the light of day.
I visited 8 National Parks and 5 National Monuments stopping at countless other places along the way. Spending two minutes thinking about it, I actually spent longer than half an hour in the following places:
I’ve also come up with a list of figures:
And kept track of when I rolled over every 1,000 miles:
Posted by Kyle @ July 13, 2008 09:08:46 PM
Summer 2008 Trip: Day 45 - Marion, IA to Rose City, MI
Woke up this morning at 7am in order to head back to Michigan. After an awful experience at the Perkin’s on Collins Ave. by Kevin’s apartment (that is the most disgusting Perkin’s I’ve ever been in) we were on the road by 9:30.
It wasn’t long before I was in Illinois, which is probably one of my least favorite states. It’s boring and the drivers education system there leaves much to desire in Illinois drivers; especially around Chicago. And then… a few hundred miles or so left to drive through Michigan to make it to my parents house, where I will promptly collapse in bed from what I think was a mild case of food poisoning from a Wendy’s along the way. Not too much exciting happened during the 12 hours of traveling today.
And that brings my trip to a close… forty-five days of vacation and I’ll have 16 days to get all my affairs in order before I fly to Alaska. Hopefully I’ll make it to Houghton one last time and down to see Rae in Ohio. Tomorrow, I’ll put up a post with all the statistics for my trip.
Travel Distance: 628 miles
Posted by Kyle @ July 13, 2008 03:32:33 AM
Amy
50×365 #105: Jon
You sat next to me on the first day of class and were quiet and polite. Later that semester, someone pissed you off, causing you to rant in class about your anti-Meijer Manifesto and plan to shoot the school’s VP, earning you a one-way ticket out the door in handcuffs.
I am a participant in Blog 365 and x365.
Posted by Amy @ July 13, 2008 02:34:55 AM
July 12, 2008
Erin
So long, farewell
I have been back in the US for two months since the end of my quarter-life crisis travels, and have discovered something unsettling: my wanderings did not solve the crisis. Worse–they prompted it!
Yes, I am finally having the oft-mentioned crisis. Fortunately, I am not disposed to sit around and wallow in a problem, so I’m working on the solution.
But that is another post in itself. Today, as I sit in my apartment wearing my Thai fisherman pants, I’m ready to close out my adventures around the globe by answering some of the questions I’ve been asked.
What was your favorite country?
Finland and Nepal. I can’t pick between them, because they both offered such different experiences. Nepal was by far the most foreign place I’ve ever visited, and Finland was by far the least foreign. Riding through Kathmandu in the death taxi was an introduction to an exotic, filthy, crowded, fantastic place; stepping out of the bus in Tampere felt like coming home. I can’t wait to revisit both places!
What was the most useful thing you packed?
Aside from a huge bottle of Motrin (excellent for altitude headaches), the most useful thing was a cell phone with no service. Sounds weird, but it came in handy on so many occasions that I’ll never travel alone without one again. I pretended to make phone calls and send text messages whenever I needed an easy way to avoid contact with creepy men and ditch pushy salespeople. It’s a safety device, too–instead of wearing a fake wedding ring, I’d simply end conversations with potentially dangerous characters by pulling out the phone and saying, “oh, I need to call my husband/boyfriend/friends/tour group leader/guide/etc.” A simple, non-confrontational way to give the impression that I was not alone. I recommend it to all solo female travelers.
…plus, in times when entertainment is scarce, it’s fun to hold outrageous (one-sided) conversations just to see the reactions of other travelers..
What was the least useful thing you packed?
My Chaco sandals. I didn’t wear them once. Perhaps if I’d traveled more in warmer climates and done more water activities…
What do you wish you had packed?
Another pair of jeans and some nice clothes for days when I just couldn’t deal with the backpacker look.
What was the best experience?
Hmm. The most exciting was the Everest Base Camp trek. The most heart-warming was my two weeks in Finland, for the people and the feeling that it was “my” country. The most communal was getting to know Tuscany and Italians closely, and I miss the food like mad. I also loved swinging on the giant swings while tubing in Laos, seeing Erin and Felix in Hong Kong, meeting characters from all over the world, and singing “The Sound of Music” to the yak. Really, though, there wasn’t an experience I don’t look back on fondly, even the thief in Bangkok and days of throwing up in Laos.
Is there anything you’ll do differently next time?
Stay longer!
And finally, the question that only a few people have asked and that has been the hardest to answer: what did you learn?
The first time anyone asked me that, I stuttered for a few minutes and failed to come up with an answer. How could I possibly edit the things I learned into a quick soundbyte? I’ve had a bit of time to think about it, and I think the main thing I discovered is that humans have incredible strength. Even in Nepal, where the economy is crap, the government is nuts, and there’s a shortage of just about everything, the people are amazing and strong and living their lives happily. And it’s the same everywhere–people exist in absolutely horrendous situations and thrive despite it all. Maybe it was being witness to that kind of strength that helped me realize my own–I keep thinking of the feeling I had as I walked back down the mountains after reaching Everest Base Camp: strong mentally, strong physically, and completely confident in my ability to do things that are scary and hard and seemingly impossible.
So, the moral of the story is: go, do the thing that is too hard or too scary or too undone. You’ll be better for it.
And finally, upcoming travel plans…Nicaragua in January!!
Posted by admin @ July 12, 2008 06:12:48 PM
Kyle
Summer 2008 Trip: Day 44 - Cedar Rapids, IA
Another nice slow day today, spent hanging out in Cedar Rapids. Kevin took off from work early, and we’ve watched a couple movies (Top Gun and Hot Shots) in addition to spending a little bit of time out on the town. Tomorrow I head back to MI, but I was really glad to spend a bit of time with one of my best friends before heading to Alaska.
Posted by Kyle @ July 12, 2008 04:36:43 AM
Amy
50×365 #104: Suzanne
Whether it’s the fifth or five hundredth time, I’m still excited when I see your picture up on the wall of a department store or in a full-color magazine fashion spread. My cousin, the unassuming supermodel, who is just as beautiful on the outside as she is on the inside.
I am a participant in Blog 365 and x365.
Posted by Amy @ July 12, 2008 03:38:31 AM
July 11, 2008
Amy
iFail 2.0
Please don’t tell Scott I tried to upgrade to iPhone 2.0 today (at approximately 10AM). After encountering all of the errors that every other bloody iPhone upgrader has also experienced, I’m looking at a very shiny emergency only phone.
Scott’s advice would have been to wait until the bazillion other users had upgraded/ruined/stomped on their phones. Gee, isn’t 10AM EST long enough? Guess not.
The one thing keeping me from being more than simply annoyed with Apple is that this iPhone is under full warranty (it’s only 7 months old), and I purchased an extended warranty on top of that.
Maybe this is Steve Job’s way of getting frustrated users to pony up for the 3G. I’m sure there are people out there who will be frustrated enough to do it.
Posted by Amy @ July 11, 2008 04:03:34 PM
Kyle
Summer 2008 Trip: Day 43 - Cedar Rapids, IA
Another day with nothing too exciting going on. I got to sleep in until the glorious hour of 9am this morning and spent a good chunk of the day playing video games while I waited for Kevin to get off work.
After that, we watched one of our favorite movies, Bad Boys II and sat around catching up with another friend of ours Betsy.
I’ve decided to stay one more day and head back to MI on Saturday.
Posted by Kyle @ July 11, 2008 04:27:44 AM
July 10, 2008
Amy
50×365 #103: S.H.
“I going to have some surgery, so I’ll be gone for a few days.”
What kind?
“Doctor says I have throat cancer.”
I stared at the smokes on the desk.
“Yes, I need to quit,” you said.
A month later, you were smoking again. I haven’t heard from you since.
I am a participant in Blog 365 and x365.
Posted by Amy @ July 10, 2008 09:42:49 PM
Abby
Feud with Fed-Ex Over
So after a very long week of waiting, stalking our local Fed-Ex guy, and being in a huge fight with him because he would not deliver my official invite for the Peace Corps with my country placement in it, my feud with Fed-Ex has ended. The Fed-Ex guy finally delivers. I am proud to say that on September 29, 2008 I will be leaving for the country of TURKMENISTAN to serve for 27 months as a Peace Corps Volunteer! While there I will be serving alongside a local English teacher to teach English to secondary students and will hopefully be improving the English department as a whole (but I won’t get my hopes up).
Now I know some of you might not know much about Turkmenistan (that’s ok I don’t really either). So here are a few facts about it that I have gathered from the Country Welcome Book:
- Former part of the Soviet Union, which gained independence in 1991.
- Language spoken: Turkmen & Russian
- Country Borders: Iran, Afghanistan (Don’t worry I’ll be safe), Uzbekistan, and Caspian Sea
- Capital: Ashgabat
- Land Conditions: Desert like
- Religions: Predominately Muslim, Greek Orthodox
- Llamas? Sadly no pictures I can find show llamas in the area, but the do have camels which could be a close second on the cool animal front!
Here are some links if anyone else wants to look the country up:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/tx.html
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/turkmenistan/
Overall, I am feeling excited and nervous all at the same time. There are a lot of things that I need to get done before I leave which is always nerve wrecking, but exciting at the same time!
Posted by beingthechange4peace @ July 10, 2008 02:32:07 PM
Kalyan
You know you are addicted to photography when ...
Heh.
Posted by @ July 10, 2008 11:29:54 AM
Kyle
Summer 2008 Trip: Day 42 - Rapid City, SD to Marion, IA
Hit the road from the hotel at 8:30 this morning on the way to Cedar Rapids via the Badlands. Sarah needed some painkillers, so we stopped at Wall Drug. (They are a drug store, right?) I think it was worse this time around… not only is it the world’s worst tourist trap, but it’s all so cheesy. I did find the “ice water” though… which wasn’t even cold.
Down into the Badlands and through the scenic highway. I think I liked it better before I headed out west and saw Arches and Zion. It’s still amazing and awe inspiring, but a little less so than before. And it was definitely hotter; I didn’t feel like hiking nearly as much, though the low elevation definitely makes it easier.
We hit the road around 2:30pm for a long haul across South Dakota, through Minnesota and down into Iowa. it’s a bit rough when your directions include, “Stay on I-90 for 430 miles.” We finally pulled in at nearly 1am after a time zone change lost an hour. Oh well, not too much father back to MI now.
Travel Distance: 717 miles
Posted by Kyle @ July 10, 2008 06:10:10 AM
July 09, 2008
Amy
50×365 #102: Jeff L.
Your father told you to never wear your seatbelt while driving on the island. You’re better off getting thrown from the car and landing in the water must have been his philosophy. He probably wasn’t counting on you swerving (to avoid hitting an animal) and hitting that tree head on.
I am a participant in Blog 365 and x365.
Posted by Amy @ July 09, 2008 07:34:03 PM
Kyle
Summer 2008 Trip: Day 41 - Harlowton, MT to Rapid City, SD
I’d forgotten how nice a hot shower felt. It’d been five days since my last one.
We pulled out this morning around 9am, after getting coffee in a small coffee shop visited by Michael Keaton and breakfast at a small general store/restaurant in Shawmut, MT and headed for Billings.
After a quick search of my GPS for “western wear” clothing stores in Billings, MT and directions from that hit to another store two blocks further down the street, I’m now the owner of a real belt buckle. Not just a plain old buckle, but a fancy one with some whitetail deer on it. I can check off another item off my list of things I wanted to do/get this summer.
From Billings, it was on to Devil’s Tower National Monument about an hour and a half from Rapid City, SD. Honestly… I’m not too impressed by the place. It features a mediocre visitor center that doesn’t really educate you about too much and a trail around the base of the rock. Granted, it’s a pretty cool and large rock in the middle of nowhere and it looks like it would be an awesome climb… but, after coming from Glacier and the bigger parks, it wasn’t all that exciting. Perhaps if I’d stopped on my way out west it would have seemed more impressive.
From there, it was a straight shot into Rapid City and a pain in the butt to get a hotel room. My first thought was to stay at the Motel 6 that Kevin and I had seen on our previous trip through the area when we got a room at the world’s most expensive Super 8. Well… the road construction made it tough to find. So, we headed across the road to the Econo Lodge; they were booked up. In their parking lot, I hopped on the internet (my cell phone data plan has been a lifesaver) and checked on the Motel 6’s availability. Their website said there was a non-smoking room with dual full-size beds available. We booked it over there and I was told nothing was left but smoking rooms. A trip back out to the parking lot and a confirmation number led to the discovery of a flaw in their booking system - I hadn’t been assigned a room number. They made a call for me, and found a room for a bit more an exit down the road. Whatever… I just wanted a bed and a shower in the morning.
And I rediscovered why I hate Rapid City. Confusing roads, streets that apparently turn into one way roads after 9pm (why else can you not make a left turn onto certain roads between 9pm and 3am?), and let’s not forget the badly timed stop lights. And yet… we braved it and went to see Get Smart, which was actually a really good movie in my mind; it reminded me a lot of the old TV show.
Tomorrow: the Badlands, maybe a trip to Wall Drug and showing up at Kevin’s apartment in Cedar Rapids, hopefully not at an ungodly hour of the night.
Travel Distance: 493 miles
Posted by Kyle @ July 09, 2008 04:59:31 AM
Mary
whoa...
Hey! It's July 8th!
Happy anniversary to Andy and me!
It's... uh..... our... uh... lemme see, M is 12 years old and I got pregnant on our wedding night...
Must be 13th anniversary.
Posted by @ July 09, 2008 02:00:44 AM
July 08, 2008
Amy
50×365 #101: W.O.
It was easy to make fun of the cheerleaders at school, but not you. You were kind without being patronizing, beautiful without being trendy or tacky, intelligent but never acting like a know-it-all. We lost touch after graduation, but I always knew you’d use your superpowers for good, not evil.
I am a participant in Blog 365 and x365.
Posted by Amy @ July 08, 2008 07:59:10 PM
Mary
Can you imagine this in an American paper?
The BBC has an article about some guy suing a tabloid because his SMBD party was NOT Nazi Themed just because he and the other dominate spoke German, as was reported in the paper.
It just boggles my American mind that someone would take something like that to court...
Posted by @ July 08, 2008 05:33:58 PM
Doesn't John McCain sound like
Mr. Rogers? I swear he sounds like he's Mr. Rogers talking to a lot of little kids.
Posted by @ July 08, 2008 04:19:08 PM
Kyle
Summer 2008 Trip: Day 40 - Two Medicine to Harlowton, MT
Started the morning with a cup of coffee, and then an invigorating 7.2 miles on foot in the span of 2.5 hours. Needless to say, our idea of “taking it easy” was picking a mostly level trail and walking faster. Oh well, Twin Falls in the Two Medicine district was absolutely gorgeous. Once we got back to the car, we wolfed down a lunch, changed out of our sweaty clothes and hit the road for my aunt’s house in Harlowton, where they live on a ranch. (My uncle actually rides a horse and does some work as a cowboy.)
Have I mentioned before that Montana was a huge state? It really is. Two hundred and ninety-two miles driven today and we’re not even close to the border. I love it! The entire state is gorgeous, with the exception of Great Falls which has a very urban sprawl feel to it. I’m a bit used to that feeling near a military base though.
Come to find out, that my uncle’s father and sister decided to come visit over the weekend, so we were greeted to a pretty full house, which was fantastic. Lots of catching up, lots of good conversation, and of course, lots of good food. Tomorrow morning, everyone clears out, and we’ll be hitting the road shortly after the big group so we can get in a much needed shower (we haven’t had showers since Thursday morning and although we’ve been taking “field showers” they aren’t nearly as nice and don’t do much for the hair.
Travel Distance: 292 miles, plus 7.2 miles on foot
Posted by Kyle @ July 08, 2008 04:12:33 AM
Mary
quick catchup
Wow-- more than 80 Friends entries I hadn't seen. Y'all folks are busy.
2nd of July, M slept over for his best friend's birthday. They had a contest to see who could stay up the longest. No, M didn't win. His cousin, T, did. Then T woke everyone up to let them know he won... M was very tired on the 3rd.
P spent the night at his aunt's house. I asked her to be sure to put him to bed at a reasonable hour. On the 3rd when I picked him up, I said "What time did he go to bed?" She said "I don't know, he was still talking when I fell asleep at MIDNIGHT." P was very tired on the 3rd.
The night of the 3rd was the fireworks in Lake Linden. Both M and P took naps, so they were reasonably awake. I got some interesting pictures of the fireworks, which were very cool. Andy had to work on the 4th, so I got the boys home and to bed at about 11:30, while Andy spent the night at Katie's house so as not to get stuck behind the parades.
The boys were tired. I woke them up at 8 on the 4th for the beginning of the festivities. The fire departments give out "tickets" worth 25 cents each-- $2.75 of them before the parades. We stopped and got those, then went and got ready to watch the parade with a slew of cousins. It's an election year, so the parade was long with everyone from the Drain Commissioner to the State Rep walking along and handing out cards and bumperstickers and, in the case of our current State Rep, big candy bars (I said "Hey! Herseys Dark! Give me one of those, Mike!" he said "No! You're going to vote for me anyway!" and he didn't, and he's correct :)
Long Parade. We walked along to the school cafeteria when the sewer sucker came by to attend the Lion's Pancake Breakfast and Fundraiser. The Lion's serve all you can eat pancakes or french toast on the 4th and it's a tradition to go down after the parade. We run into tons of people we haven't seen yet-- relatives, friends, old classmates, friend's relatives, etc :)
The boys and I went down to the park in Hubbell to reserve our space under the one big tree (many small ones in the park, but only 1 big one) for the afternoon festivities. The boys went swimming and I sat and enjoyed the quiet for a bit. As people started showing up to reserve their space, we quickly got surrounded by friends, strangers and neighbors. The races started at 1:00.
The kids participated in a wide variety of *stuff* from a 3 legged race to an egg race (hold an egg on a spoon and run down the field) to a pie eating contest to watermelon to juice drinking to bobbing for apples. If you win, place or show, you get from $2.00 - $1.00 in tickets. If you participate, you get one ticket. The Volunteer firemen run everything and use the day as a fundraiser. They have food and a raffle and they sell candy and Oriental Trading company stuff to the kids for the price of a ticket. All of the current Hubbell Firemen hung out at my mother's house at one point or another and most have dated one or another of my sisters in their lives :) It impresses my boys that I know the names of all the firemen :)
After the races, we went to my nieces birthday party for dinner at the Lake Linden park. Then there was the Street Dance.
By 6:30, M was so tired he went and fell asleep in the car. P was running around like a maniac so he didn't fall asleep.
Saturday was a family picnic out at White City with a pot luck and swimming and visiting.
Sunday I did some laundry, then picked Andy up from work and met Kate, Gabe and Shannon out at the Calumet Waterworks for dinner.
Today we ran some errands and met with all the sisters and their children at The Loading zone for pizza and pop.
My house has nearly as much sand on the floor as the beach does. I have laundry piled to the ceiling. Even with picnicing, we have dishes all over the counter and in the sink.
I need a day of rain.
Really.
I have an interview on Thursday in Green Bay.
Posted by @ July 08, 2008 03:18:26 AM
July 07, 2008
Karen&Adam
Awesome Friend and a Great Muscian!
One of my great and longtime friends has decided to post his music on myspace for all of the world to hear. Mason has been a close friend of mine for many years now and is originally from the same hometown as I am. Mason plays the guitar and sings as well as writes his own music. On ocassion he might do a cover song of one of his favorites.
Please check out his myspace page where he has about 6 songs posted that you can listen to. Get to his page by clicking HERE.
Posted by Adam @ July 07, 2008 09:22:39 PM
Amy
For the sake of our tomatoes
Technical difficulties are preventing me from posting anything of worth today (sorry, NaBloPoMo and x365). If I sit in front of this HeavyPiece (of shit) for a second longer, it will be out the window, possibly landing in the garden on our tomato plants.
If my internet connection stays long enough for THIS to even make it to the blog, my head might explode.
Posted by Amy @ July 07, 2008 08:47:26 PM
Karen&Adam
Musk Ox Hike
We had one of the best hiking experiences of our lives in the Dvorefjell National Park, near Oppdal, Norway. We took a 1.5 hour train from Trondheim and our guide met us at the station. From there, we drove about half an hour to the park. We hiked up to 1100 above sea level and saw nearly 30 musk ox. The musk ox are very cool - but very odd - looking animals that are closely related to goats, but weigh in at around 1100 pounds. Check out the musk ox and gorgeous scenery.
Posted by admin @ July 07, 2008 08:17:02 PM
Kyle
Summer 2008 Trip: Day 39 - Many Glaciers, Glacier National Park
My day started wonderfully to say the least (and that isn’t sarcasm). My alarm went off at 5am so I could get up and shoot the sunrise and I heard things falling on the rain fly. Sarah says, “I think it’s raining…” and before she finishes “wait, is it?” I’m back asleep. Another wonderful morning of sleep. I swear I’ve been getting 8-10 hours of mostly restful sleep the past week. It’s been quite nice, but somehow, I’m still tired a lot. Must be all the physical exertion.
We broke camp and headed to the Many Glaciers district of the park to hike to Ptarmigan Falls and Iceberg Lake. Total round trip, 9.8 miles. It was an absolutely gorgeous hike, I’d recommend it to anyone. There wasn’t a great viewing platform for the falls, but Iceberg Lake made up for it. Iceberg Lake is situated in the middle of a semi-circular group of mountains and it’s contents comes from glacial runoff. This time of the year, it’s still mostly frozen and the last half mile of our hike to the lake was over snow covered fields. It was an awe-inspiring sight.
After our hike back, we piled into the car and exhausted, drove to the Two Medicine district to set up camp in preparation of tomorrow’s hike. Highway 49 along the eastern border of the park is a blast to drive but not quite so much fun as a passenger apparently. The speed limit never drops from 70 mph, but almost every half a minute your onto a new set of curves with a recommended speed of anywhere between 25 and 45. Plus, there’s no guardrails and the valley floor appeared to be as much as 1,000 feet below us at times. I loved it, Sarah later remarked to me that she was terrified the whole time.
And… the funny story for the evening. After we had our tent pitched, Sarah was making dinner, spaghetti actually. I was absolutely out of it, half reading a book, half falling asleep at the end of the picnic table while she manned the stove. She apparently asked me, “Is it all right to put the glass jar of spaghetti sauce on the camp stove?” and I, in a voice that any man with sisters, a wife or even a mother will recognize, grunt a noise that means in effect, “I didn’t hear you, but in an effort not to get in trouble, I’m making a noncommittal noise.”
Two minutes later, I hear a boom come from the stove and look up confusedly to find spaghetti sauce everywhere. So, we had plain spaghetti for dinner and one burner on the camp stove still only lights halfway because of the spaghetti sauce residue in it.
Fun times!
Travel Distance: 78 miles, plus 9.8 miles on foot
Posted by Kyle @ July 07, 2008 03:49:22 AM
Amy
Blogging mulligan
Spent the day soaking up sun by the water with friends, skiing and eating. Watching the Boston/NY game. No better way to end a wonderful evening. will resume tomorrow!
Posted by Amy @ July 07, 2008 03:24:58 AM
July 06, 2008
Karen&Adam
Norway with Dad: Trondheim & Alta Trip Highlights
During the 9 days my dad was here, we fit in many Norwegian adventures! In the post, I will include some of the highlights of the trip.
We started out in Trondheim and explored the city and walked along the Trondheim fjord. 
It was a little rainy, but a beautiful walk. We also stopped at the Spoonhuset for dessert waffles!
We spent 4 days in the Arctic Circle, in the town of Alta. We loved being in the Arctic Circle - it was so beautiful. The landscape is much more barren and most plants are very low to the ground. On our first day, we went to the Alta Rock Carvings. I loved seeing the ancient rock carvings, some of which are more than 6000 years old. While much of their meaning is a mystery, they seem to be part of religious ceremonies, and they often took place at special points where it was perceived human lives and godly lives intersected (and therefore humans could communicate with gods) rather than around the area a group of people lived.
It was absolutely pouring rain when we were here. We both had raincoats, but we still walked away pretty drenched. However, this really made it so we had the park almost to ourselves - despite the 4 tour buses in the parking lot! This is a UNESCO heritage site and so many people try to visit.
On our second day in Alta, we went on an amazing river boat ride. This was not a lazy, meandering ride down the river, but a speedy boat ride cutting through rapids, with amazing scenery, including cliffs and dozens of waterfalls. This was probably my favorite part of our trip! We also found out that once a summer, the King of Norway goes on a private fishing tour in the very boat we were in!
There were countless waterfalls - enhanced by the very rainstorm that drenched us the day before! Our boat guide said that there was so much rain from that storm that he was seeing waterfalls he had never seen before.
Throughout the ride, we had beautiful scenery - mountains, rugged and rocky cliffs, and hills with trees.
Can you see the face?
The boat
—-
Another highlight of the trip was hiking up Mt. Komsa. The mountain itself was very beautiful and had the very arctic - looking landscape, with sparse trees and low to the ground plants. Plus, throughout the hike we had beautiful views of many other mountains and the Alta fjord.
The picture below is on Lille Komsa (Little Komsa) and if you compare this picture to pictures of Mt. Komsa, you’ll see a difference in the scarcity of trees and vegetation.
As we went up the mountain, we saw rocks that were covered in lichen.
How it looked towards the top of Mt. Komsa.
We also went on several great hikes throughout Alta, spent another several days in Trondheim and went to see Muskox. We did much more than I have posted here.
I will make another post about the muskox when I get the pictures processed from Adam. This post is just an overview of some of the highlights from the first part of the trip. We had such a great time! I am so glad that my dad came here and we were able to see so many cool things in Norway!
Posted by admin @ July 06, 2008 01:22:22 PM
Update on Adam’s Research
Research, research, research… it is whats paying my bills this summer and it’s also something that we don’t do enough of in the USA. Karen and I have roughly six weeks left in Norway so I thought I would give everyone a little update on the things I have been working on since I started.
When I first started at work this summer I was focusing on continuing a project I started during the spring semester at MTU. This project was work on the single pole tripping and reclosing that I had described in an earlier post (click here for the old post). In 2005 a previous master’s student at MTU had written code for a program called Alternative Transients Program (ATP) to more topologically correctly model a transformer and transformer core. The project I had been working on during the spring semester was to create/update models of the same power system using a program called ATPDraw. ATPDraw is basically a higher level graphical programming language for ATP. ATPDraw provides a user interface that allows easier programing and implementation of models based on something that would be similar to a cad package. By this I mean you can visually see symbols and graphics to do the programming instead of just writing text lines of computer code. The newest versions of ATPDraw contain many new models, features, and updates over the programs used in 2005 by the other masters student. So, my project (working with 2 other students) was to create, update, and correct the models built by the student in 2005 using the latest ATPDraw version. We had those models built, partially benchmarked, and ready to roll by the time the spring semester was over.
This leads into my first task here at NTNU this summer. I wanted to see how the results compared from the original hand-coded models to the new models we had built. The purpose was to show that although we made changes, corrections, and updates the older models still provided valid results and that the conclusions and suggestions made based on those results were still OK and valid. The main problem in doing this was to learn how to run the old files in the new software. This took me a while to figure out but luckily once I realized how to do it things went rather smoothly. These old files are also not as fast to run and require a larger amount of tedious work to run the number of simulations and then tabulate the results. I’m not sure on the exact number of days or hours that I spent working on this part but it did fill a good chunk of my time for the first few weeks.
After I got all of the files ran it was time to tabulate some results and see how everything compared. In short, everything matched up really well. Across all of the cases the largest difference I saw was about 6.3% and that was just for one measurement in one case. All of the other measurements in the other cases were typically around 2% or much less. This is a very good match considering we made several updates, corrections, and small improvements. This shows that the original work provided valid results that are still usable and models that can be used in future projects if needed. Although, in all likely hood any future work would be done with our newer models and the latest version of the program.
After this project was done and I had a chance to present my results to my adviser it was time to move onto some new work. During the weeks leading up to this point my adviser, Nils (the other MTU student), Nicola (PHD student at NTNU), Hans (the professor we are working with here), and myself had been meeting to discuss the work that we needed to perform in the lab to get things rolling with the papers we want to write. Since I was done with my first project and Nils had also completed work on a separate project related to ATPDraw modeling of Static Var Compensators (SVCs) it was time to move forward with the lab work. We took a couple of days just to digest all of the information from the previous meetings, locate all needed testing equipment, and setup everything up for the tests.
For the first cases of study we choose to use a 22kVA single phase isolation transformer. This allows us to have a simple “base case” and then launch into more complex 3 phase transformers. The tests we were to perform are known as no load tests. This means that the low voltage side of the transformer is connected to the voltage source and nothing is connected to the high voltage side - hence the “no load”. In the case of this transformer both sides of the transformer are at the same voltage (its an isolation transformer) so we connected the voltage source to the terminals with the winding closest to the core material.
A total of 8 different tests were ran on the transformer each with varying levels of input impedance. This input impedance ranged from 9-24 Ohms and was provided by two different methods. First we used a resistive load cart and then we used a reactor (inductor). We did this because we wanted to look at data from each way of doing it. For each level of added impedance we also energized the transformer at different voltage levels ranging from 50% to about 130% excitation.
It took about a week or a little more to setup and run all of the tests. After the data was collected it was then time to do some post processing to see what it all meant. Nicola, the PHD student here, already had some initial programs written in MATLAB to do some of the first processing. He was able to quickly process the data so we could take a look at what was happening. His results showed how the magnetization curves were differing based on the distortion level of the voltage which in turn is tied to amount of added input impedance. The higher the input impedance the more the voltage is distorted. This is what we were expecting to see. He also showed that some routines written previously by my adviser worked for this application as well. After his results it was time for us go a step further and take a look at the exact harmonic content of the data we gathered.
Nils and I partnered up and wrote a routine to do this in MATLAB using Fast Fourier Analysis (FFT). MATLAB stands for Matrix Laboratory and is a very useful engineering program. Between the 2 of us this took a few days to get to work properly but we are now able to see the exact frequency content of the voltage waveform used to energize the transformer. This was not exactly an easy task due to the way the original data was required. Without getting into the exact details I will just say that there was a lot of manipulation of the data that needed to be done first before the final results could be calculated. This routine returns the exact frequency, magnitude, and angle of each voltage harmonic present in the applied waveform. In the last few days I worked on adding some additional functionality which allows us to calculate and see some other properties that both the IEEE and IEC standards for transformer no load testings are concerned with. All of the results will be used to write our journal papers and make our case for the needed changes.
So, those are the basics and highlights of what I have been doing so far this summer. It will be interesting to see what I end up working on during my remaining time here but I suspect it will more geared towards the completion of the first journal paper. Comprehensively compiling test results, creating circuit diagrams for our test setup, and writting/reviewing written material for the paper. Stay tuned for more updates and if you have any questions or want clarification on anything written here please don’t hesitate to ask. Leave a comment or shoot me an email.
Posted by Adam @ July 06, 2008 11:46:52 AM
Kyle
Summer 2008 Trip: Day 38 - Glacier National Park
Woke up this morning and after an attempt to make edible pancakes, we got started driving down Going-to-the-Sun Road. We stopped a few miles in and hiked out to Avalanche Lake, which was absolutely gorgeous. You step right up to the edge of the lake and it is ringed with mountains, and down each mountain there is at least one waterfall caused by glacial melt. It’s absolutely amazing.
We popped back onto the road and drove through the mountains; Going-to-the-Sun Road is described as one of the most beautiful scenic highways in the world, and I will completely agree with that. The road through Rocky Mountain National Park doesn’t even come close. In one section, four or five waterfalls are right at the side of the road and your car gets sprayed as you drive by. It is absolutely amazing.
We also hiked down to Baring Falls, where Sarah left me to hike to St. Mary Falls and Virginia Falls while I set up my picture, waited for people to clear out and the right light to hit the scene. After I had a few shots I was reasonably satisfied with, I hiked back up the path and took a few shots of Sunrift Gorge before heading to the St. Mary Falls trailhead to wait around and pick Sarah up.
Then we headed down what was left of the highway, swinging by Sun Point for some pictures (I’ll be going back there to shoot sunrise). Now… camp is set up, food has been eaten and I’m headed to bed.
Travel Distance: 50 miles, plus 5.5 on foot
Posted by Kyle @ July 06, 2008 03:19:15 AM
Amy
Big Tuna
Last month I spent an obscene amount of money on groceries, given the incoming salary. The local IGA runs a good deal on produce, and I just can’t resist a good deal. We’re trying to stock healthier options in the house, so I loaded up on fruits and veggies.
Tonight’s low-key dinner consisted of a salad of romaine and spinach (picked from our garden), topped with some sliced egg and a smattering of bacon and blue cheese (just for some flavor and contrast). The dressing was a sweet basil vinaigrette, a recipe I found online.
Tuna steaks were on deal as well, and since The Kid isn’t coming up until tomorrow night, we decided this was a great night to eat them.
I can’t remember the name of the recipe, but it’s out of an older copy of Rachael Ray’s (I know, GASP) magazine. Herbes de Provence, lemon, tomatoes, olives, capers…we only left out the ham.
I was looking for an alternative to an Asian flavor for the tuna, and I think I’ve found it. Scott’s not crazy about capers, but he didn’t mind them (I didn’t add very many).
As we sat enjoying our quiet dinner, we agreed that we were probably eating better than most of the diners in Keweenaw County. Even the ones paying big bucks for swanky meals.
Posted by Amy @ July 06, 2008 02:34:38 AM
50×365 #100: Lisa S.
You invited me to sleep over, my first invite. Your grandma made Swiss steak for dinner, and we played out in your front yard. You had a black and white TV of your own, but it wasn’t enough to keep me from being homesick. I only made it until midnight.
I am a participant in Blog 365 and x365.
Posted by Amy @ July 06, 2008 12:59:26 AM
July 05, 2008
Jess
oh livejournal, how I ignore you.
recently Tim and I have been riding our new road bikes alot.
The bike computer says 206.6 miles on mine so far.
Today we looked around for the I-275 pathway (I think we made a wrong turn at Hannan and 94 service drive.... ended up down my Metro Airport and went through the city of Wayne). Just shy of 25 miles today.
Yesterday, we went out to Shelby for the 4th. We road the paved part of the Macomb Orchard Trail from my grandma's house up to 32 mile between Van Dyke and Van Dyke Expressway and then back. About 18 miles.
On Thursday we biked from our apartment in Belleville out to Lake Erie Metropark, right where the Detroit River comes into Lake Erie and then back. Our route was down 94 service drive to Haggerty south to Huron Mills Metropark. We went through Huron Mills and then Willow Metropark, and then followed Huron River Drive through Flat Rock, Rockwood, and to Brownstown Twp to Lake Erie. Total: 48 miles.
Last sunday we both rode in EcoRide 2008, that raised money (over 30K at the end) for the Ann Arbor Ecology Center. We started at around 8am in Hudson Mills Metropark in Dexter and we did the 25 mile loop.
We only live about 2 miles away from Huron Mills Metropark, and there is a bike path that starts there and goes through two other park along the Huron River, about 15 miles from our apartment to the end of the path.
So yea, the road bikes are pretty much the only new thing worth writing about.
Posted by @ July 05, 2008 08:46:10 PM
Amy
Fourth of July Cheese
Every few months it seems I’m replacing the damn power supply for my Powerbook. Yeah, it’s old but it’s what I’ve got and there’s no money to replace it. I’m starting to wonder, as I purchased yet another one today on eBay, if the problem’s with my machine. Is it frying them? I don’t know how I would go about proving this theory.
So instead of doing anything productive, we slept in. I made berry risotto oatmeal for brunch.
Scott gave it a thumbs up, which is good. Our relationship is saved.
Lunch of half a grilled sandwich with ham and gruyere was followed by more sleep and…stuff. I’d go into detail if I wasn’t pecking this entry on an iPhone. Or if it were remotely appropriate.
Then Zohan. Hilarious.
No need for fireworks in this house. Happy 4th, my fellow Americans.