Don't huff Goo Gone

Atalie has now been here for a little over a week and most of her things are now put away. She worked diligently all last week and the place is becoming more organized and homey! By far, the worst thing to take care of was removing the adhesive from the price stickers on the dish set. It took 3 or 4 hours just to get all the goo off of the accessory ice cream bowls!!! (And that’s even with letting them soak in hot soapy water and using Goo Gone).

There are still a few projects to be done such as painting the TV stand, putting new photos in the picture frames and organizing albums, sorting paperwork that’s askew in the office, signing up for internet/cable, and finding a coffee table. But since Atalie is waiting to start working until the beginning of the new year, those things will eventually be done in her free time.

Meanwhile, Patrick’s been busy on the weekdays with work and school as usual, although the two of us went out this past Tuesday night for his friend’s 24^th b-day. Atalie met a couple more of Patrick’s Missouri posse, and felt pretty comfortable with them right away so it was a fun time. We refrained from going camping with some of the group over the weekend though, as we needed to complete a few errands, but with the arrival of a new backpack we ordered online for Atalie, we anticipate a hiking trip very soon. We just need to get her some hiking boots first, then we’re good to go!

As for this week, we might be doing something special for our 5 year anniversary one of these nights. It’s crazy to think that the two of us have been together that long! We’ll let you know what we decide to do!

Atalie Arrives!

Painted by Mom A.!

Atalie arrived Thursday around 7pm CST (for those of you in MI)! Patrick had just gotten done driving for a day-long field trip to Rolla, MO with a Geography class and was busy getting some quick groceries and dinner with Kat when Atalie called announcing their arrival. After some hugs and greetings the rental van got emptied straight into the previously clean dining room. We all watched a bit of TV and then headed to bed.

Friday began with breakfast at the Pancake and Waffle House on S. Campbell followed by trips to Goodwill, Mama Jean’s Natural Market, and Salvation Army. We ate dinner at Garbo’s Pizzeria (yum!) and then headed to Andy’s Frozen Custard to get some dessert. That evening we watched Transformers and ate popcorn (Mom is the master of popcorn)!

We went to breakfast again on Saturday, this time at Ziggie’s, followed by more shopping at Cosmic Fish (a hippie-ish store) and a couple of grocery stores (this city is full of medium sized supermarkets that don’t always contain everything you want at one). Mom and Dad were generous and paid to fill up our cupboards with food for the next couple of weeks! They also helped pick out two pumpkins so we can have some jack-o-lanterns at the apartment for Halloween.

While we put the groceries away in the apartment, Mom and Dad explored the flea market and found a cute nightstand for $20 to bring back to us to use as a TV stand. Our DVDs fit perfectly in the drawers and the bamboo wood styling on it fits pretty well with the slightly Oriental feel of some of our other home accessories and decorations. One of our projects this week is to paint it black to match our furniture.

Later on, we made a nice sit-down dinner at the apartment, consisting of chicken pesto pizza and strawberry cucumber salad, with leftover frozen custard for dessert. The evening was finished off by gathering on the futon for another movie.

At the early hour of 6-something in the morning, Mom and Dad woke up us younglings to fix them a pancake breakfast before they hit the road back to Grand Rapids. It was great to have them visit and be able to see the apartment but Atalie was sad to see them go and misses them already. Spirits were brightened by going back to sleep for a few more hours, and spending the afternoon at Target and Lowe's to get a few little things for the apartment. Finally Patrick was forced to work on his homework while Atalie prepared dinner and began a book.

Meanwhile, the apartment is a mess from all of the unpacked boxes, but with the two of us together, it already feels more homey! Atalie has her work ahead of her this week though!

Eve of my Departure!

Tonight's the night before I leave for Missouri, and I'm getting excited! :D Luckily Dad was able to rent a mini van, because it is pretty well packed (although I must say I did a fairly good job, having even left a good foot and a half or so above my stuff for driving visibility!). I don't think my parents are looking forward to the 10-12 hour drive, but I'm glad they're helping me get there.

I'll miss my family, friends, and Michigan, but I had nice visits with everybody before I left, and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing Patrick! Well, I better get going to attend to a few last things before bedtime and tomorrow's journey- next time you hear from me, I'll be in Missouri!!!

Sam's Throne

This weekend four friends and I went down to Arkansas to go rock climbing and camping. We went to a place called “Sam’s Throne,” a popular set of sandstone bluffs that are excellent for rock climbing. The campsites are up on the bluffs and we got in around 9pm to set up camp. Saturday we went down the bluffs and had a short hike over to the “Throne” where Derek and Amanda began setting up the ropes. Both Amanda and Derek have done lots of climbing so they did a quick review of safety and then we got on with it. I had forgotten how fun it was! It’s pretty tough but it sure feels great to get to the top of the wall. We climbed until around 4pm and then headed back to camp to get dinner started. Dave had this idea to make pizza in Aluminum foil on the fire so we tried that and it turned out ok. We didn’t know how long to leave it in the fire so the first couple pieces were fairly burnt on the bottom. After dinner we went over to the bluffs to check out the sunset. We missed the sunset-proper but we stuck around and watched the moon set right after. A couple of drunken people came down to check out the sunset as well- I’ll just say they were annoying. Luckily they didn’t have any patience and were getting thirsty again so they took off after a few minutes. The rest of the night was spent chatting around the fire.

We got up a little later than anticipated this morning and were all pretty sore so it was decided that we would go sightseeing today instead of doing some more climbing. We drove west to this place called Lost Valley where there are some campgrounds and a nice little hike to a cave. It was a fun little excursion and the drive was pretty cool.

It was a great weekend, I really enjoyed the rock climbing and we’re definitely going back down there later this Fall.

Social Butterfly

Although last week was pretty laid back, that's quickly changing! This past weekend was a lot of fun, as my mom, sisters and I all had a slumber party at my sister Brittany's new apartment where we made dinner and watched movies on Friday night, and Saturday was spent hanging out w/ my best friend Cassandra and our other best friend from high school, Amy (who I haven't seen in a couple of years!). We saw Amy's new apartment since she recently was married, went shopping at the mall, and tried to make some chocolate dip in a fondue maker Amy bought while we were out (unfortunately it burned a little).

I'm also busy every night this week: Monday I am going to see some friends over at Brad's for the weekly Heroes-watching-party; Tuesday I am hanging out downtown with a group of friends from a past advertising class; Wednesday I am meeting my old boss for lunch and spending the night at my Aunt Cheri's; Thursday I am visiting Cassandra's grandma to play cards and get cookies; Friday I am spending the night in Okemos to visit the Wombles; Saturday is my sister's birthday celebration; and Sunday evening I am going to Mike's for the lovely party he's hosting for me! I'm sure hearing about my calendar isn't as exciting as hearing about the aftermath, but trying to contact people and coordinate schedules has taken up a large part of my time this past week so that's about all I have to report on for now! I'll let you know how it all goes though!

Tasting Springfield

This past Saturday my friends and I went to the Taste of Springfield. Tents were set up downtown in the streets for local restaurants to show off some food. Sounds cool, right? Tickets were a dollar a piece and there were 15-20 vendors there. Food cost $2-3 depending on the place and could only be bought in packs of ten. The servings were small and wouldn't suffice a full meal, but the food was pretty good. After that we all went back to Lukes apartment to hang out. It was a good time and involved some Karaoke, talking on the balcony and a movie (available through Lukes cable subscription).
Sunday I just relaxed and played with the blog. I spent most of the day trying out different things in Photoshop which I'm getting better at (though nowhere near some of the people out there!).
I'd like some more photos of Atalie and I so if you have some, could you email them to me? Thanks!

New look!

Changed the look of the blog. I don't know if I like it better than the other layout and I'm thinking about taking matters into my own hands with a self-written template. I suspect that Brad might be getting some emails soon if I do choose to compile my own.

Let me know what you think!

X-ray Gun!

Yesterday I went to this GIS workshop put on by the Southwest Missouri GIS User's Group at a place called "The Library Center" on the SW part of town. There were talks all day long from people in and around Springfield that use GIS on a daily basis and what they specifically use it for. Some of the talks were pretty interesting while others were not but it was cool to see how much GIS is really used. People are doing things with GIS that I had never really thought of.

School is starting to pick up with mid-term exams next week and I'm getting more of an idea of what my thesis is going to be. On Tuesday we had a meeting and demostration on how to operate our new portable x-ray fluorescent spectrometer (x-ray gun!). It's a neat little contraption that tells you the concentration of elements in the soils. I'm going to be using it to identify soil layers with very high Lead and Zinc concentrations which represent the height of the Lead mining industry in the area and help give a timeline for how much sediment has been deposited in the past 100 years. I'll be doing a lot more research than just using the x-ray gun, but I think it's going to be one of the fun parts.

Tonight is ArtWalk again (first Friday!!), although I don't know how much I feel like going.

GR has it's coolest resident back! hehe :)

So sorry, everybody, that I haven't written in forever! I was pretty busy my last week in Austin, but I am back in Michigan now and have had no good excuse. But here I am again!

I got back in Michigan around 11 p.m. on Saturday night- an hour and a half later than originally planned. The morning of my departure, Sally received an automated voice call explaining that my connecting flight in Memphis had been canceled. After calling the airport, she worked out a change in airline and time, seeing as the airport otherwise would have had me stay the night in the Memphis airport and reassign me to a Sunday flight. Definitely glad that worked out differently.

That was a late night since my family and I stayed up to hang out a little bit, but I've had plenty of time to catch up on sleep since I've spent the last couple of days lounging around the house. Yesterday I started to try to contact people to set up times to visit before I leave in two weeks for Missouri though, so I'm sure my schedule will quickly become much more busy. In fact, it already became a little busier today since my best friend's car broke down in a middle lane on US131 during morning traffic, had to be towed and walked to her apartment from the dealership. I was able to borrow my sister's car and later take her to her dentist appointment and back to the dealership later at least, but that was an unexpected twist for the day (especially for her- poor thing)!

Anyway, I'm sorry again that it's been awhile since any of you have had a new entry to read, but I'll try to be a little better from now on since I am not working at the moment. I'll be reveling in my little vacation time, but I'll try to hang on to those few responsibilities I still have, such as writing on the blog. :)