Writing about eCards and my comment in Jenni's blog about business cards made me think, who you send Christmas cards (HOLIDAY cards, if I must) to now in the first years after college shapes who you will send them to for the rest of your life. Now maybe some of you are in the camp that says you shouldn't send Christmas cards until you are older or married, but I figure why not start young? It's like your retirement. Start early, have more in the future. Hmm... fuzzy connection there. Anyway, probably half of my parent's Christmas cards go to college friends, so I better send them all to college and high school friends. Of course there is always family, co-workers, neighbors, and other people you meet along the way, plus potentially your future spouse's friends, but the more the marrier. And that is why, I would like to tell you all right now that if you send me your address, you can be sure to get a Christmas card! Or Holiday card, if you're not of the Christmas persuasion. As you can tell (what with all of these run-on sentences), I'm quite excited for the upcoming (in 5 months) holiday season! So send me your address, keep it updated, and I will be sending you the season's greetings. :)
Cheerio.
Wednesday, July 28, 2004
AmericanGreetings.com - Love & Dating - Marry Me eCard
AmericanGreetings.com - Love & Dating - Marry Me eCard
What the heck?!?! Who does that? This was posted in Ryan's weblog, and I just had to check it out. So there are seriously people in the world that propose via eCard. Anyone who knows me (bustles?! theknot.com?! anyone... Dena. ;)) knows that I would be the first to say this is unacceptable. (I became wedding-obessed spring quarter since I had nothing else to do and it's fun to read theknot.com wedding bios and mock other people's wedding choices). I'm with Ryan's girlfriend when I say a proposal need not be elaborate, but I should think one should at least be present when asking someone to marry them.
And speaking of proposals, I might as well share a few amusing quotes along with a tiny bit of context:
Referring to an engagement ring which she thought I might not approve of:
Erin: I mean its sounds diamond-rific, but its no solitare princess
cut diamond on a platinum band
Referring to Doug's "engagement ring committee":
Caroline: how's Doug...the committee is wondering
Caroline: we are thinking of starting weekly meetings
Caroline: we don't really know why...but weekly meetings would be fun
Caroline: Well...once he contacts us you will get zero further
information from us
Caroline: we are like a secret society
Alright. Enough wedding nonsense. Goodnight for real.
What the heck?!?! Who does that? This was posted in Ryan's weblog, and I just had to check it out. So there are seriously people in the world that propose via eCard. Anyone who knows me (bustles?! theknot.com?! anyone... Dena. ;)) knows that I would be the first to say this is unacceptable. (I became wedding-obessed spring quarter since I had nothing else to do and it's fun to read theknot.com wedding bios and mock other people's wedding choices). I'm with Ryan's girlfriend when I say a proposal need not be elaborate, but I should think one should at least be present when asking someone to marry them.
And speaking of proposals, I might as well share a few amusing quotes along with a tiny bit of context:
Referring to an engagement ring which she thought I might not approve of:
Erin: I mean its sounds diamond-rific, but its no solitare princess
cut diamond on a platinum band
Referring to Doug's "engagement ring committee":
Caroline: how's Doug...the committee is wondering
Caroline: we are thinking of starting weekly meetings
Caroline: we don't really know why...but weekly meetings would be fun
Caroline: Well...once he contacts us you will get zero further
information from us
Caroline: we are like a secret society
Alright. Enough wedding nonsense. Goodnight for real.
The DNC
It's true friends, I've been spending every night the last 3 nights watching the Democratic National Convention. It's surprisingly good. I tend to be rather liberally conservative, so I was not planning on watching the DNC. But I saw Clinton on for a minute (I'm NOT a fan, to say the least), and got enthralled! He's a surprisingly good speaker... I'd forgotten that after the last 3 years of Bush speeches. He was very impressive. Teresa was not overly impressive last night, but Cait and Elizabeth Edwards were awesome tonight. John Edwards hasn't been great so far, but we'll see. He's going on and on about Vietnam and Kerry joining up to save our country and be a true American, but he knew even then that he wanted a career in politics. So that's not quite the winning argument I need to hear. I'm still leaning Bush, but we'll see after Kerry speaks tomorrow and the Republican Convention and a debate or two. :) I guess politics is going to be my new thing.
My other new thing is Tivo, obviously. I'm obsessed with Jeopardy, this Ken guy has won over a million dollars and has set the Jeopardy all time records (all of them!). He's cool. They're taking 6 weeks off, he'll be back September 5th, but for now it is College Jeopardy, which is always a good time. I also Tivo Clean Sweep on TLC every day. And tonight I'm going to watch Amish in the City, THAT should be entertaining. Tomorrow I'm going to Palatine for my Remicade (Crohn's treatment for those not in the know) and Laura's going to chill with me while I get it. YAY! If anyone's available for dinner, let me know. I'll give you a call when I get done. Friday I'm packing up Jake and Vinny and getting ready to go. Jake is almost packed already, now it's just a matter of filling the small spaces with last minute items. We should easily be able to get everything in.
My dad was fired on Monday, which I say to you all not for sympathy or to be depressing, but rather to just let you know. He's in the mindset that "the more people that know the better" because who knows who will have some great job for him? He's looking for a project / product management job if anyone knows of any. ;-) So I guess that's just a general Public Service Announcement.
"Other than that, just hanging in there". That's a very typical Doug phrase, and that pretty much sums up my life right now. I was really bored today 'cause I'm really itching to get moving. Tomorrow will be good since I'm going to Palatine, and of course I LOVE to pack. I think I'll be annoyed a little bit to be in Tahoe for 4 days because I really want to GET to Portland, but I'll deal with it. This time next week I will be just 20 hours away from moving into my new apartment. I'm DEFINITELY getting excited. :) Soon enough. Of course, that means I have to start work in 2 and a half weeks too... ;-) Such is life.
Have a good one, folks!!
My other new thing is Tivo, obviously. I'm obsessed with Jeopardy, this Ken guy has won over a million dollars and has set the Jeopardy all time records (all of them!). He's cool. They're taking 6 weeks off, he'll be back September 5th, but for now it is College Jeopardy, which is always a good time. I also Tivo Clean Sweep on TLC every day. And tonight I'm going to watch Amish in the City, THAT should be entertaining. Tomorrow I'm going to Palatine for my Remicade (Crohn's treatment for those not in the know) and Laura's going to chill with me while I get it. YAY! If anyone's available for dinner, let me know. I'll give you a call when I get done. Friday I'm packing up Jake and Vinny and getting ready to go. Jake is almost packed already, now it's just a matter of filling the small spaces with last minute items. We should easily be able to get everything in.
My dad was fired on Monday, which I say to you all not for sympathy or to be depressing, but rather to just let you know. He's in the mindset that "the more people that know the better" because who knows who will have some great job for him? He's looking for a project / product management job if anyone knows of any. ;-) So I guess that's just a general Public Service Announcement.
"Other than that, just hanging in there". That's a very typical Doug phrase, and that pretty much sums up my life right now. I was really bored today 'cause I'm really itching to get moving. Tomorrow will be good since I'm going to Palatine, and of course I LOVE to pack. I think I'll be annoyed a little bit to be in Tahoe for 4 days because I really want to GET to Portland, but I'll deal with it. This time next week I will be just 20 hours away from moving into my new apartment. I'm DEFINITELY getting excited. :) Soon enough. Of course, that means I have to start work in 2 and a half weeks too... ;-) Such is life.
Have a good one, folks!!
Sunday, July 25, 2004
6 days to go!
6 days until I begin the big journey west, YAY! I'm pretty much all packed and ready to go, still have some "last minute" organizing to do. I know, I have 6 days. Although one of those I'll be in Chicago for the Remicade. If you want to hang out in Chicago for like dinner on Thursday, holla at me.
Friday my mom and I went to the outlet mall for some shopping, that was a good time as always. The fam also went downtown to see the music, they have free concerts there on Friday night so that was a pretty good time. Saturday we pretty much just all chilled, got some pizza for dinner, and had a generally good time. I'm teaching my mom some computer stuff and so that's cool. My sister's gym guy finally came over so I got to see and meet him, and B-Iowa is calling her all the time (the guy she met in Florida). Today we went to church and then brunch, now we're back.
Nothing exciting to report, hence the lack of the blogging. Hopefully there will be much excitement once I get on the road. We'll see. Gmail... :)
Friday my mom and I went to the outlet mall for some shopping, that was a good time as always. The fam also went downtown to see the music, they have free concerts there on Friday night so that was a pretty good time. Saturday we pretty much just all chilled, got some pizza for dinner, and had a generally good time. I'm teaching my mom some computer stuff and so that's cool. My sister's gym guy finally came over so I got to see and meet him, and B-Iowa is calling her all the time (the guy she met in Florida). Today we went to church and then brunch, now we're back.
Nothing exciting to report, hence the lack of the blogging. Hopefully there will be much excitement once I get on the road. We'll see. Gmail... :)
Thursday, July 22, 2004
Alright, alright, I'm back
So Tuesday night Doug ended up coming home from work EAAAAARLY. YAY, that was a huge surprise. He normally gets home at 7 at the earliest, and he was home at 5:30! YAY! So we finished Monster, that was way fun. Then we went to Westwood (where UCLA is) so I could go to Diddy Riese, the cookie/ice cream place that Neil told me about. We saw where it was and then parked and walked to Olive Garden. Yuuuuuum I'm such a fan of that place. The Erin and The Russ have gotten me so addicted. So that was yummy yummy in my tummy. Then we walked by Diddy Riese and the line was OUT THE DOOR AND DOWN THE BLOCK. Yikes. Granted, it's homemade ice cream sandwiches for ONE DOLLAR in LA, but still. So we nixxed that and just went home. We chilled and talked and watched Law and Order CI in HD, and other random stuff.
Yesterday was sort of a DISASTER. My flight from LA to Chicago was fine, I had to ask TWICE to be put in Economy Plus (I've gotten to be a flying snob, I won't fly in Economy anymore, especially if it's not on a window and/or if there is someone sitting next to me), but of course I was. And thank goodness I don't check bags or else I might have had to wait in a line at LAX (again, flying snob). So we got to O'Hare like 50 minutes late because we we had to fly around all of this weather (we went around like through Indy). Which gave me 10 minutes to make my connection to Cedar Rapids... yeah right. So I checked the monitor, I had to go from Concourse B to Concourse F in 10 minutes... yeah right. "Luckily" my flight was delayed for 65 minutes, which was actually going to be about perfect, to give me time to get over there, grab some food, and get on the plane. The original flight time was 3:50, this new time was 4:55. That was fine, but they they said 5:35... oh no. One of those dealys that goes on all night. But they let us board about 5:00 or so and we took off at 5:40 and landed at 6:12. So that was pretty decent. Then my mom picked me up and we came home and just chilled.
Today we went to Best Buy and my sister got an iPod... I'm sooooooo jealous. We also went a Kohl's so she could use her discount and get some shoes and stuff, and we stopped by WalMart. I think that's it... oh, and we went to Menards. Slow day. I've been doing a lot of packing and organizing for the big move (9 days!) so that's been fun. I'm collecting all of my scrapbooking/memento stuff in one box so I can have TONS of fun in Oregon doing lots of scrapbooking. That will be a way fun way to use my time especially in the fall after Keith and other interns leave. Plus I do have those long weekends so that will be a nice little hobby to have. I love scrapbooking. I even found Doug's bow tie from my senior prom so that was super exciting. My mom was like "how do you know that's his?" (I went to 5 proms...) and I was like I KNOW. Then I found the one from my freshman year of college. I don't know where the first 3 are, although I have an idea of where my freshman year of HS might be. But I'm positive this is Doug's. It's the only all-black one. And the flowers he gave me that night are up in my room on my desk, so that's cool too. Okay I know I'm getting a little sappy with the mementos here. I'll shut up.
Yesterday was sort of a DISASTER. My flight from LA to Chicago was fine, I had to ask TWICE to be put in Economy Plus (I've gotten to be a flying snob, I won't fly in Economy anymore, especially if it's not on a window and/or if there is someone sitting next to me), but of course I was. And thank goodness I don't check bags or else I might have had to wait in a line at LAX (again, flying snob). So we got to O'Hare like 50 minutes late because we we had to fly around all of this weather (we went around like through Indy). Which gave me 10 minutes to make my connection to Cedar Rapids... yeah right. So I checked the monitor, I had to go from Concourse B to Concourse F in 10 minutes... yeah right. "Luckily" my flight was delayed for 65 minutes, which was actually going to be about perfect, to give me time to get over there, grab some food, and get on the plane. The original flight time was 3:50, this new time was 4:55. That was fine, but they they said 5:35... oh no. One of those dealys that goes on all night. But they let us board about 5:00 or so and we took off at 5:40 and landed at 6:12. So that was pretty decent. Then my mom picked me up and we came home and just chilled.
Today we went to Best Buy and my sister got an iPod... I'm sooooooo jealous. We also went a Kohl's so she could use her discount and get some shoes and stuff, and we stopped by WalMart. I think that's it... oh, and we went to Menards. Slow day. I've been doing a lot of packing and organizing for the big move (9 days!) so that's been fun. I'm collecting all of my scrapbooking/memento stuff in one box so I can have TONS of fun in Oregon doing lots of scrapbooking. That will be a way fun way to use my time especially in the fall after Keith and other interns leave. Plus I do have those long weekends so that will be a nice little hobby to have. I love scrapbooking. I even found Doug's bow tie from my senior prom so that was super exciting. My mom was like "how do you know that's his?" (I went to 5 proms...) and I was like I KNOW. Then I found the one from my freshman year of college. I don't know where the first 3 are, although I have an idea of where my freshman year of HS might be. But I'm positive this is Doug's. It's the only all-black one. And the flowers he gave me that night are up in my room on my desk, so that's cool too. Okay I know I'm getting a little sappy with the mementos here. I'll shut up.
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
It's Tuesday!
So the manicure and pedicure trip was QUITE successful yesterday, yay. :) Unfortunately I am surprising Doug when he gets home from work by cleaning his apartment for him, and when I was washing the dishes I messed up my manicure a little bit. Oh well. I also set up this rolling cart thingy he's had from Ikea forever and hasn't set up, so that was fun. I love setting up Ikea furniture. Nothing as infuriatingly fulfilling as that. :) (Literally, every time, I have to go back like 8 steps because I did something *slightly* wrong... could the directions be more vague?) Seriously though I do love it. So now that this apartment is beautiful I think I'm going to see The Terminal this afternoon. Starting tomorrow when I get back to IC, I have only 10 more days to pack, organize, and get ready to move to Oregon. Then it's a few days at Lake Tahoe before I get set up for the rest of my life. :) Hopefully that all goes well!
Last night Doug and I went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner, it's right on Wilshire between 2nd and 3rd (as though you are all experts at your Santa Monica geography). Anyway it's like 4 blocks away. Doug had been in the car for like 5 hours yesterday because he went to his office and then to OC and then back to his office and then home, so he was like NO CAR. So we just walked around and then rented Monster from Blockbuster. We only watched half because Doug was tired, so we'll have to finish the rest tonight. Anyone have any great ideas of where to go to dinner tonight? Maybe we will just make dinner here, we'll have to see.
Still looking for that gmail invite... :)
Other than that, not too much going on. It's sort of chill here during the week because I'm the only one home all day.
Last night Doug and I went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner, it's right on Wilshire between 2nd and 3rd (as though you are all experts at your Santa Monica geography). Anyway it's like 4 blocks away. Doug had been in the car for like 5 hours yesterday because he went to his office and then to OC and then back to his office and then home, so he was like NO CAR. So we just walked around and then rented Monster from Blockbuster. We only watched half because Doug was tired, so we'll have to finish the rest tonight. Anyone have any great ideas of where to go to dinner tonight? Maybe we will just make dinner here, we'll have to see.
Still looking for that gmail invite... :)
Other than that, not too much going on. It's sort of chill here during the week because I'm the only one home all day.
Monday, July 19, 2004
Another day another blog
Well, I just promised Dena another good blog, so I guess I better live up to it. I got up at 7:00 this morning and couldn't go back to sleep, but then when Doug left for work at 8:30 I went back to sleep until almost 12. Now that's the stuff. When I was in Iowa, I was thinking about getting a pedicure, and all of the places cost right around $20, which didn't seem terrible unreasonable. I didn't have time last week though, so I figured I would just get one when I got back. But as Doug was driving around I saw a place that does manicures AND pedicures for $15.99, total!!! I will say that for California, stuff like that is in so much abundance that it's just CHEAP. It's in Venice though so I was either going to have to take the Big Blue Bus (that's really what it's called, it's the Santa Monica bus but it goes to other places right near Santa Monica) or look around here to see what their prices are. And sure enough, there was a place that is 4 blocks from Doug's apartment that is $10 for a pedicure (didn't ask about both because I really just want the pedicure, but maybe I'll get both anyway!). So that will be my big project for today... I know, rough life, right? Last night we went to Doug's cousin's condo for a BBQ, and it was so fun. We were up on his roof, which is basically his patio, if you will. It's awesome because you can see the ocean and the mountains and everything from up there, and it was sunset so it was just gorgeous. One of his friends had spent the week on vacation fishing, so he had brought back all of this fish that we ate. I literally have never had so much fish in my life, and it was all fresh
and just really good! We had fresh sashimi which was easily my favorite thing, so yummy! I really enjoyed talking to Doug's cousin and all of his friends... they were all teasing me because last time I saw them (the few that I had met), I hadn't graduated. So now I was all old and stuff. I'm still the baby though, as always. Anyway, it was an absolutely amazing night. I had sooooo much fun. Did I tell you about the bars in Hollywood? One was called Star Shoes and one was called Beauty Bar... pretty fun, VERY chill. A good night though. Yesterday Doug and I took Russ to the airport and had brunch, and then came back home and read the paper before the BBQ... chill day, fun. I'll let you know how the nail project goes later on... there might also have to be a lunch mission somewhere in there because I'm getting a little hungry. :)
and just really good! We had fresh sashimi which was easily my favorite thing, so yummy! I really enjoyed talking to Doug's cousin and all of his friends... they were all teasing me because last time I saw them (the few that I had met), I hadn't graduated. So now I was all old and stuff. I'm still the baby though, as always. Anyway, it was an absolutely amazing night. I had sooooo much fun. Did I tell you about the bars in Hollywood? One was called Star Shoes and one was called Beauty Bar... pretty fun, VERY chill. A good night though. Yesterday Doug and I took Russ to the airport and had brunch, and then came back home and read the paper before the BBQ... chill day, fun. I'll let you know how the nail project goes later on... there might also have to be a lunch mission somewhere in there because I'm getting a little hungry. :)
Sunday, July 18, 2004
Hello from LA
Hey guys... I'm successfully finally in LA. I mean, I was actually here two days ago, I just finally stopped being a slacker and decided to give you an update. So Russ actually showed up yesterday, which was AWESOME. We went out for breakfast in Long Beach with him, then drove back to Santa Monica and walked around 3rd Street and the Pier and the beach. We got some Starbucks and the boys got some clothes from Gap and Express Men. It was quite amusing actually. Russ and Doug got along really well... I was definitely the third wheel! Oh well, better me than either of them I guess. Then we came back to Doug's apartment to drop off their bags, then headed out to go look at Vespa's at the Santa Monica Vespa dealer and get Slurpees. There were two silver Jeep Liberty Limited Editions almost exactly like mine parked in the parking lot at 7-11, so they got to see what the inside and outside of Jake look like. Oh, the other funny thing is that I kept doing comparisons of Jake and Sam (did I tell you about Sam? Samantha, Doug's Saab). They are currently tied 5 to 5. Jake got points for things like power seats and two-setting heated seats, and Sam got lots of points for her stereo and whatnot. If I mention the name Jake one more time, Doug and Russ might kill me. But I miss him! Okay now y'all might kill me if I don't stop talking about it.
So then we came back to Doug's apartment and took a nap, then went out for a chill dinner at Johnny Rocket's on 3rd Street. After that we came back to Doug's apartment and then went to some bars in Hollywood. That was way fun. I successfully got the boys into one bar that all of these guys kept getting rejected from... pays to be a girl sometimes I guess. Then it was like 5 AM Russ's time and he'd been up since 4 AM the day before Russ's time, so he made us be boring and come back home and just go to bed. So sad! So here we are this morning, Doug and Russ are in the other room chatting (most of this chatting is about this alleged company they want to start together, Russ and Doug are going to roommates in Santa Monica and perhaps have this company... all of this scares me just a *little* bit, except for the fact that they're both so fickle that I really don't think any of this will ever happen). So they're talking about firewalls and fun stuff like that, they think I'm oblivious and don't understand what's going on, but I understand every word. I make an intelligent comment every now and then. Anyway, I definitely feel very FEMALE since these guys have been together. It's been a really interesting experience though. So we're leaving in a few minutes to go back to Long Beach to take Russ to the airport, then Doug and I are going to church and then a BBQ at his cousin's place. Oh, another funny thing was that I got a drunken phone call from Dena last night, but SADLY I was just getting to Hollywood so I had to go. I'm going to have to call her back and find out what the dealio is what that later too. More soon!
So then we came back to Doug's apartment and took a nap, then went out for a chill dinner at Johnny Rocket's on 3rd Street. After that we came back to Doug's apartment and then went to some bars in Hollywood. That was way fun. I successfully got the boys into one bar that all of these guys kept getting rejected from... pays to be a girl sometimes I guess. Then it was like 5 AM Russ's time and he'd been up since 4 AM the day before Russ's time, so he made us be boring and come back home and just go to bed. So sad! So here we are this morning, Doug and Russ are in the other room chatting (most of this chatting is about this alleged company they want to start together, Russ and Doug are going to roommates in Santa Monica and perhaps have this company... all of this scares me just a *little* bit, except for the fact that they're both so fickle that I really don't think any of this will ever happen). So they're talking about firewalls and fun stuff like that, they think I'm oblivious and don't understand what's going on, but I understand every word. I make an intelligent comment every now and then. Anyway, I definitely feel very FEMALE since these guys have been together. It's been a really interesting experience though. So we're leaving in a few minutes to go back to Long Beach to take Russ to the airport, then Doug and I are going to church and then a BBQ at his cousin's place. Oh, another funny thing was that I got a drunken phone call from Dena last night, but SADLY I was just getting to Hollywood so I had to go. I'm going to have to call her back and find out what the dealio is what that later too. More soon!
Thursday, July 15, 2004
Big Day!
Ooooo-eeeee, we can add colors and fonts here on blogger now!! :) Good times.
So I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but I went into the local paper office two days ago to put an ad in the paper. It is appearing for 10 days and is also going to be in the "Ad Sheet" and some other local ad things that come out like once a week, as well as cars.com (this is all through the Iowa City Press-Citizen). So today was the first day it was in the paper, and sure enough, at 8 AM this morning I had a call from a guy who wanted to come over at 8:30 and check it out. I had to pull myself out of bed, but he came right on time. His name was Marv and he was going to test drive it and take it to his mechanic, said he would be back in about 45 minutes. Sure enough, 45 minutes later he was back. "Good car, needs new brakes." Apparently there is a 'squawker' on all cars, the thing that makes your brakes squeak when they are getting low, and my squawker is gone! He said the left brake is actually almost totally gone. The car was listed in the paper for $1500, and he said "well, new brakes will cost $200, I'll split the difference with you and give you $1400". Sounded like a great deal to me! And he knew I didn't know the brakes were bad, so that was cool. He had no way to easily get the car home, so my mom and I drove it over to him, he lived in a nice house the next town over. Really good guy. Very glad it was so easy to sell the car, especially since the Jeep dealer only wanted to give me $500 and my dad thought there was no way to top that... my mom and I proved him wrong. :)
Speaking of cars, my new kick is naming of cars (hence Jake). My aunt's family (who I stayed with in Houston) has named all of theirs, names as follows:
Aunt's Black X5: Shrine Mobile
Uncle's White Explorer: White Cloud
Cousin's Green Mustang: Big Bertha
Other Cousin's Black Mustang: BK (Black Knight)
Family Minivan: Minnie (And I'm sad to report, Minnie is no longer with the family, she was donated last week)
So in turn I came up with names for all of my family's cars:
Mom's Minivan: Vinnie (the Venture Van)
My Jeep: Jake (the Jeep)
"My sister's" White Malibu: Whitey
Dad's Mercedes: the Jalopy
My Escort: 'Scort (Named by Patrick last weekend, and as we know, this car is no longer with the family either)
Against his better judgment, Doug let me name his Saab today... her name is Sam, short for Samantha. Sam and Jake will be friends. :) Jake and I are already good buddies, and as much as I will miss Jake this weekend, I'm looking forward to hanging out with Sam and Doug! And Russell and I believe Patrick are coming to LA for the weekend, so that will be extra fun! It should definitely be a good time. Oh, and if you want your car to be friends with Jake, let me know what its name is and why. :)
Has anyone caught Jeopardy! lately? This dude Ken is a 32-day champion, he's won over a million dollars! It's insanity I tell you, you MUST watch it or Tivo it. He's ridiculous. He's a computer software engineer from Salt Lake City and he freaking knows everything. Everyday he goes into Final Jeopardy! in a position where no one else could beat him even if they tried. There were a few things in the industrial category today that I knew and nobody, including him, on the show knew, but that's rare. (Fitting though, with the IE love thing, isn't it?) Anyway, definitely check it out.
The other exciting news today is that I picked out an apartment! It's called The Verandas at Hazel Grove, and it's decently nice. It's significantly less expensive than many of the other apartments in the area, and as far as I'm concerned it's one of the nicer ones. I had one intern acquaintance who lived there last year and seemed to like it okay, so I'm excited for it. If you want to check it out go to www.verandashazelgrove.com, I have the Burgandy floorplan (the larger 2 bedroom). Apartments.com also has some good pictures of the same floorplan. I don't think it's quite as nice as where I stayed last year, but they're not running the same specials as they were before, so this will do quite nicely I believe. Jake and I will enjoy our home there.
I think that's all for tonight... hopefully you can expect an update tomorrow from the West Coast, where I truly belong. :)
So I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but I went into the local paper office two days ago to put an ad in the paper. It is appearing for 10 days and is also going to be in the "Ad Sheet" and some other local ad things that come out like once a week, as well as cars.com (this is all through the Iowa City Press-Citizen). So today was the first day it was in the paper, and sure enough, at 8 AM this morning I had a call from a guy who wanted to come over at 8:30 and check it out. I had to pull myself out of bed, but he came right on time. His name was Marv and he was going to test drive it and take it to his mechanic, said he would be back in about 45 minutes. Sure enough, 45 minutes later he was back. "Good car, needs new brakes." Apparently there is a 'squawker' on all cars, the thing that makes your brakes squeak when they are getting low, and my squawker is gone! He said the left brake is actually almost totally gone. The car was listed in the paper for $1500, and he said "well, new brakes will cost $200, I'll split the difference with you and give you $1400". Sounded like a great deal to me! And he knew I didn't know the brakes were bad, so that was cool. He had no way to easily get the car home, so my mom and I drove it over to him, he lived in a nice house the next town over. Really good guy. Very glad it was so easy to sell the car, especially since the Jeep dealer only wanted to give me $500 and my dad thought there was no way to top that... my mom and I proved him wrong. :)
Speaking of cars, my new kick is naming of cars (hence Jake). My aunt's family (who I stayed with in Houston) has named all of theirs, names as follows:
Aunt's Black X5: Shrine Mobile
Uncle's White Explorer: White Cloud
Cousin's Green Mustang: Big Bertha
Other Cousin's Black Mustang: BK (Black Knight)
Family Minivan: Minnie (And I'm sad to report, Minnie is no longer with the family, she was donated last week)
So in turn I came up with names for all of my family's cars:
Mom's Minivan: Vinnie (the Venture Van)
My Jeep: Jake (the Jeep)
"My sister's" White Malibu: Whitey
Dad's Mercedes: the Jalopy
My Escort: 'Scort (Named by Patrick last weekend, and as we know, this car is no longer with the family either)
Against his better judgment, Doug let me name his Saab today... her name is Sam, short for Samantha. Sam and Jake will be friends. :) Jake and I are already good buddies, and as much as I will miss Jake this weekend, I'm looking forward to hanging out with Sam and Doug! And Russell and I believe Patrick are coming to LA for the weekend, so that will be extra fun! It should definitely be a good time. Oh, and if you want your car to be friends with Jake, let me know what its name is and why. :)
Has anyone caught Jeopardy! lately? This dude Ken is a 32-day champion, he's won over a million dollars! It's insanity I tell you, you MUST watch it or Tivo it. He's ridiculous. He's a computer software engineer from Salt Lake City and he freaking knows everything. Everyday he goes into Final Jeopardy! in a position where no one else could beat him even if they tried. There were a few things in the industrial category today that I knew and nobody, including him, on the show knew, but that's rare. (Fitting though, with the IE love thing, isn't it?) Anyway, definitely check it out.
The other exciting news today is that I picked out an apartment! It's called The Verandas at Hazel Grove, and it's decently nice. It's significantly less expensive than many of the other apartments in the area, and as far as I'm concerned it's one of the nicer ones. I had one intern acquaintance who lived there last year and seemed to like it okay, so I'm excited for it. If you want to check it out go to www.verandashazelgrove.com, I have the Burgandy floorplan (the larger 2 bedroom). Apartments.com also has some good pictures of the same floorplan. I don't think it's quite as nice as where I stayed last year, but they're not running the same specials as they were before, so this will do quite nicely I believe. Jake and I will enjoy our home there.
I think that's all for tonight... hopefully you can expect an update tomorrow from the West Coast, where I truly belong. :)
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
Hello fans!
So today we went to the beach... yes Iowa has a beach. I hate the beach. It has sand... ew. I hate sand, hence the hating of the beach. But anyway, I suffered through it. Then, we took the garage sale leftovers to STUFF, which is a consignment store around here that apparently everyone goes to. The leftovers from THAT went to Goodwill. As an extra-special treat, we went to the Wednesday evening Iowa auction! It was soooo hokey. They have all of these crazy auctioneers auctioning tons of crap. They had huge lots of stuff like 20 Playboy magazines, 50 of the same type of tool, or little knickacks. And they only sell it buy the whole lot, so you can't just get one tool, you have to get the whole lot of them. The good thing is that you can leave your rejects there. And they put all of the stuff on old hospital beds, so you cart out whatever you want to your car on that. Hokey, like I said. Lots of Amish folk there. Then the fam went to dinner at Chili's in the new Jeep. For those wondering, his name is now Jake the Jeep. I just call him Jake for short. If you don't like that name, let me know. I'm still flexible and open for suggestions. My sister suggested Libby the Liberty which I like a lot, but I think it's more of manly car. Well, my Jeep is a man, but I actually think Liberty's are pretty girly cars. My sister also likes the name the Silver Bullet, but Jake is still top on my list.
So a brief update on my past week: Chicago for the 4th was fun. I got to see all of the P-Town crew, including Hart. He and I were the "tourists" so Patrick drove us around. Patrick also taught me stick shift, so props to him on that. So now maybe Doug will let me drive his car. Then we went to a BBQ at Tim's and saw the gang. Then fireworks and then I met up with Doug in Glen Ellyn (yeah Glen Ellyn... KT do you read this?). The next day, off to Houston. I had tons of fun staying with my aunt and uncle and hanging with my cousin, who is 18. The other cousins were all out town, but I got to see my grandparents. Mimi and Gaggy, for thsoe who know of all my crazy grandparent names. I came back to Chicago on Saturday for Jenn and Matt's wedding, which was WAY fun. It was absolutely gorgeous and really cool to chill with everyone. Between the wedding and the reception, we also hit up the outlet malls in Kenosha, and I found some great buys. Normally I hate the Banana outlet, but it was awesome this weekend so that was sweet. After the wedding we went to Lincoln Park and spent the night at Grant's. Sunday when we woke up I headed back to the corn. Good times.
My sister still has a full queue, as always. She's allegedly not dating her latest boyfriend from school, but he's coming to visit this weekend. She also has Brad from the gym, who is the most beautiful man in the world and she talks to every day when she goes to work out. Then there is "B Iowa" (his cell phone name), a guy she met on spring break. His real name is Iowa and he's AWESOME. He's in Florida right now with a camp, but he was here for a weekend and they hung out non-stop. He'll be back at the end of July. I'm a huge fan of him, as far as I know so far.
I'm headed to LA Friday for the weekend, and Russ of JetBlue fame and Patrick of United fame might meet up with me. Gotta love working for the airlines. That should be good times, and I'm looking forward to seeing the Doug.
Speaking of saying "the Doug", I say "the" in front of most places and people now. Like the Iowa, the Russ, etc. My new words, for those who are always entertained my my psycho language = "hut", which I say nonstop "hut, hut, come here, hut", etc. I say it nonstop. Hut. Anyway, it's amusing. Getting old already though. The other new one is "dody", pronounced dough-dee. The all-time funniest thing was when I said "This is the dodiest dodo!". That was referring to some stupid float I was trying to blow up at the beach. To finish that story, when I said "dodiest dodo", my mom laughed so hard that she snorted and it sounded like a horse. I said "Mom, puh-lease don't sound like a horse at the beach" and she goes "when can I sound like a horse?" Hahahahaha I'm laughing just telling the story. Anyway, you can also say dodin' in place of stupid. Like that show is so dodin'. I know at least Dena and Laura will be entertained my hearing about my interesting new words.
That's all for now because I know you don't read the whole update when I write too much. Shorter updates, more often. I know the drill. I'm working on it.
So a brief update on my past week: Chicago for the 4th was fun. I got to see all of the P-Town crew, including Hart. He and I were the "tourists" so Patrick drove us around. Patrick also taught me stick shift, so props to him on that. So now maybe Doug will let me drive his car. Then we went to a BBQ at Tim's and saw the gang. Then fireworks and then I met up with Doug in Glen Ellyn (yeah Glen Ellyn... KT do you read this?). The next day, off to Houston. I had tons of fun staying with my aunt and uncle and hanging with my cousin, who is 18. The other cousins were all out town, but I got to see my grandparents. Mimi and Gaggy, for thsoe who know of all my crazy grandparent names. I came back to Chicago on Saturday for Jenn and Matt's wedding, which was WAY fun. It was absolutely gorgeous and really cool to chill with everyone. Between the wedding and the reception, we also hit up the outlet malls in Kenosha, and I found some great buys. Normally I hate the Banana outlet, but it was awesome this weekend so that was sweet. After the wedding we went to Lincoln Park and spent the night at Grant's. Sunday when we woke up I headed back to the corn. Good times.
My sister still has a full queue, as always. She's allegedly not dating her latest boyfriend from school, but he's coming to visit this weekend. She also has Brad from the gym, who is the most beautiful man in the world and she talks to every day when she goes to work out. Then there is "B Iowa" (his cell phone name), a guy she met on spring break. His real name is Iowa and he's AWESOME. He's in Florida right now with a camp, but he was here for a weekend and they hung out non-stop. He'll be back at the end of July. I'm a huge fan of him, as far as I know so far.
I'm headed to LA Friday for the weekend, and Russ of JetBlue fame and Patrick of United fame might meet up with me. Gotta love working for the airlines. That should be good times, and I'm looking forward to seeing the Doug.
Speaking of saying "the Doug", I say "the" in front of most places and people now. Like the Iowa, the Russ, etc. My new words, for those who are always entertained my my psycho language = "hut", which I say nonstop "hut, hut, come here, hut", etc. I say it nonstop. Hut. Anyway, it's amusing. Getting old already though. The other new one is "dody", pronounced dough-dee. The all-time funniest thing was when I said "This is the dodiest dodo!". That was referring to some stupid float I was trying to blow up at the beach. To finish that story, when I said "dodiest dodo", my mom laughed so hard that she snorted and it sounded like a horse. I said "Mom, puh-lease don't sound like a horse at the beach" and she goes "when can I sound like a horse?" Hahahahaha I'm laughing just telling the story. Anyway, you can also say dodin' in place of stupid. Like that show is so dodin'. I know at least Dena and Laura will be entertained my hearing about my interesting new words.
That's all for now because I know you don't read the whole update when I write too much. Shorter updates, more often. I know the drill. I'm working on it.
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
Got the Jeep!
Jeep Liberty Interior
So that's what the interior of my car looks like, the outside is your standard silver Liberty. Let me know if you want a picture of me and the outside of it, and I can email it to you. It was such a debacle to get this Jeep, it's been 13 days since we first went to the dealer and really started trying to buy it. They're not the best dealership as far as I'm concerned, but I'm very happy that I successfully have it.
I had tons of fun in Chicago and Houston the past 10 days or so... sorry for my lack of updates! And I'm off to bed tonight, but I will fill you in on the craziness of Chicago, Houston, and Iowa tomorrow.
YES, I still need that gmail invite please. :)
So that's what the interior of my car looks like, the outside is your standard silver Liberty. Let me know if you want a picture of me and the outside of it, and I can email it to you. It was such a debacle to get this Jeep, it's been 13 days since we first went to the dealer and really started trying to buy it. They're not the best dealership as far as I'm concerned, but I'm very happy that I successfully have it.
I had tons of fun in Chicago and Houston the past 10 days or so... sorry for my lack of updates! And I'm off to bed tonight, but I will fill you in on the craziness of Chicago, Houston, and Iowa tomorrow.
YES, I still need that gmail invite please. :)
Friday, July 02, 2004
yeah, still want the gmail!
Okay, so does anyone have a gmail invite? I promise I'm still looking for one... when I get one I will dedicate an entire blog to describing the wonderfulness of the person who gave me one. Just think, that person could be you. And then you'd be cool.
The thing about gmail is that everyone gets one, but then they pass it on. So you could have had one, but already given it away. And you'll never get one again, because why would you? That makes no sense, you already have your gmail account. If anyone you know has one, tell them to IM it to me or email me. Thanks. I'm a huge fan of you. :)
The other thing about gmail is that by doing thos whole invite thing, Google just gets their stupid email to seem really cool. Which it is, I think, but I wouldn't know because I don't have it. Just the dumb screenshot. Which is again why I need you to help me out.
My new thing is craigslist. I'm SO addicted to craigslist! www.craigslist.org for those not in the know. But you can buy, sell, trade, get a job, apartment, find a girlfriend, find a boyfriend, make friends, give a rant, get free stuff, and so much more. I've found that the people in Portland are a lot more generous about giving their stuff away free than in Chicago. Then again, craigslist is bigger on the West Coast, so maybe it's just because there are more users. All the same, when I move out there I definitely am going to either get some free furniture or buy used furniture from craislist. And I love reading the missed connections "ummm, I sat at the table across from you at Starbucks yesterday, I was the guy in the brown hat, you were hot, email me". It's just so funny. How could you NOT be addicted? Speaking of (k)NOT, I'm not addicted to theknot anymore. Since I left school, there have been no visits to theknot.com. I know Dena will find this hard to believe, but it's true! theknot is so out, craigslist is so in. Of course, in is in by my standards.
Here's my agenda for the next few weeks for those wondering where I'll be:
July 3 - 5: Chicago-ish... visiting Palatine, Evanston, and Doug (who apparently is now an entity in Chicago)
July 5 - 10: Houston... visiting the grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins
July 10 - 11: Chicago-ish... Jenn's wedding, then maybe a quick trip through Chicago
July 16 - 21: LA. Clearly we all know what that means. :)
July 31ish: Leaving for Portland, but taking a trip through Reno/Lake Tahoe first. Getting to Portland around the 6th or 7th. WOO HOO!
August 16: Start work... the beginning of the rest of my life.
FRYS IS COMING TO CHICAGO! Actually it already has, the grand opening is tomorrow. This is AMAZING. For those of you who don't know, it is the most AMAZING place. It's like a Best Buy, Circuit City, ABT, CompUSA, Apple store, and MORE all built into one. It's huge, they have great deals, and it's amazing. I'm so excited. Granted, I'm leaving, but this makes Chicago a much more appealing place to come back to in the future. Just kidding, but it's just a plus.
I'm officially getting the car tomorrow, maybe. That doesn't sound so official. :) We'll see though, hopefully it will all work out! I'll keep you posted on that, although I feel that is an old subject here at the blog.
Was today's entry any better? I tried to spice it up and not just make it the same old "and then I did this, and then that". Maybe if I can just talk about what I'm excited about and everything this blog will be improved. I need to be more controversial... maybe I can aspire to that tomorrow. :)
The thing about gmail is that everyone gets one, but then they pass it on. So you could have had one, but already given it away. And you'll never get one again, because why would you? That makes no sense, you already have your gmail account. If anyone you know has one, tell them to IM it to me or email me. Thanks. I'm a huge fan of you. :)
The other thing about gmail is that by doing thos whole invite thing, Google just gets their stupid email to seem really cool. Which it is, I think, but I wouldn't know because I don't have it. Just the dumb screenshot. Which is again why I need you to help me out.
My new thing is craigslist. I'm SO addicted to craigslist! www.craigslist.org for those not in the know. But you can buy, sell, trade, get a job, apartment, find a girlfriend, find a boyfriend, make friends, give a rant, get free stuff, and so much more. I've found that the people in Portland are a lot more generous about giving their stuff away free than in Chicago. Then again, craigslist is bigger on the West Coast, so maybe it's just because there are more users. All the same, when I move out there I definitely am going to either get some free furniture or buy used furniture from craislist. And I love reading the missed connections "ummm, I sat at the table across from you at Starbucks yesterday, I was the guy in the brown hat, you were hot, email me". It's just so funny. How could you NOT be addicted? Speaking of (k)NOT, I'm not addicted to theknot anymore. Since I left school, there have been no visits to theknot.com. I know Dena will find this hard to believe, but it's true! theknot is so out, craigslist is so in. Of course, in is in by my standards.
Here's my agenda for the next few weeks for those wondering where I'll be:
July 3 - 5: Chicago-ish... visiting Palatine, Evanston, and Doug (who apparently is now an entity in Chicago)
July 5 - 10: Houston... visiting the grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins
July 10 - 11: Chicago-ish... Jenn's wedding, then maybe a quick trip through Chicago
July 16 - 21: LA. Clearly we all know what that means. :)
July 31ish: Leaving for Portland, but taking a trip through Reno/Lake Tahoe first. Getting to Portland around the 6th or 7th. WOO HOO!
August 16: Start work... the beginning of the rest of my life.
FRYS IS COMING TO CHICAGO! Actually it already has, the grand opening is tomorrow. This is AMAZING. For those of you who don't know, it is the most AMAZING place. It's like a Best Buy, Circuit City, ABT, CompUSA, Apple store, and MORE all built into one. It's huge, they have great deals, and it's amazing. I'm so excited. Granted, I'm leaving, but this makes Chicago a much more appealing place to come back to in the future. Just kidding, but it's just a plus.
I'm officially getting the car tomorrow, maybe. That doesn't sound so official. :) We'll see though, hopefully it will all work out! I'll keep you posted on that, although I feel that is an old subject here at the blog.
Was today's entry any better? I tried to spice it up and not just make it the same old "and then I did this, and then that". Maybe if I can just talk about what I'm excited about and everything this blog will be improved. I need to be more controversial... maybe I can aspire to that tomorrow. :)
Thursday, July 01, 2004
gmail anyone?
Does anyone have a gmail invite that they would be willing to let me use? I'd be very happy. :)
So I went to the Jeep dealership yesterday and just about have my car situation figured out. Allegedly I'm going to be getting EXACTLY the car I want, delivered tomorrow or Saturday. It's going to be a silver Jeep Liberty... wish me luck on this one.
Planning to be in Evanston/Palatine this weekend. Let me know if you'll be around! :)
So I went to the Jeep dealership yesterday and just about have my car situation figured out. Allegedly I'm going to be getting EXACTLY the car I want, delivered tomorrow or Saturday. It's going to be a silver Jeep Liberty... wish me luck on this one.
Planning to be in Evanston/Palatine this weekend. Let me know if you'll be around! :)
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