Shouzer

I had some company up in Michigan last week. My sister was visiting during her vacation between finishing school and starting work. It was certainly nice to have someone to hang out with every night after work. I could probably get used to that.

We didn’t do too much exciting stuff except for eat out a lot. The highlight of that was probably The Melting Pot, which is a fondue restaurant. I had been wanting to go, and it’s not exactly the type of place you can go with the guys from work. We ended up going the night she got her test results as a celebration dinner. The cheese and the chocolate course were fairly new to me, but the main course seemed like a combination of a Korean BBQ and a hot pot. All of the food was delicious though.

On Saturday, we hit up the Woodward Dream Cruise, which is kind of a big classic car show. People cruise down this main road in Detroit, and there are little fairs all along the way. I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of classic cars there. It was very cool.

We also went over to Canada for a bit because it’s always nice to visit other countries. Windsor, the city just on the other side of the border, is a pretty boring place, unfortunately. They have a nice park down by the river though, and we just hung out there for a while.

The customs guard on the way back was the rudest I have ever encountered in my life, which I feel is saying a lot. This man was incensed by the very thought that we would want to visit Canada for the afternoon just to see it. He just couldn’t understand why we would want to go there just to hang out. Maybe he was trying to scare us into admitting we had crossed the border to pick up a stash of illegal prescription drugs. Maybe his wife decided she didn’t want to take his crap any more, and she left him that morning. Maybe he had to pee, and his break wasn’t for another hour. Maybe he was just a monster douche bag. All I know is, I never want to go across that border again.

I went over to Chicago earlier this week to visit Al and Nick, and I had a really good time. I showed up on Monday night, and had some Harold’s Chicken. That’s good stuff if you get the chance to try it. On Tuesday, I went to Gino’s and the Taste Festival with Al. We also saw Get Smart, which is really good movie by the way. Then, we met up with Nick to go to comedy show and dinner. The comedy show wasn’t too impressive, but the dinner was amazing. I was a little disappointed I didn’t get to meet Nick’s boyfriend, Scott, but he was busy. That’s how it goes sometimes I guess.

I’m visiting my parents and my sister now. They’re hosting a big party tomorrow for the 4th. That should be exciting.

Since I came back from Thailand, most of my time has been consumed by my upcoming move to Detroit. Last weekend, I went up there with my parents to find a place to live. I ended up going with a place called Tree Tops apartments in Northville, MI. I have a 1 bedroom loft, which just means the the bedroom is upstairs and overlooks the living room downstairs. I have a nice view of a quite little stream, and a nice “historic” downtown area is about a 10 minute walk away. All-in-all, I’m pretty happy with it so far.

I’m not going to be doing a photographic tour like Jared did because I lack the camera equipment. So you’ll have to come visit me if you want to see it.

It turns out though, moving domestically is actually more of a hassle than moving internationally, at least for me. In Bangkok, I showed up, picked an apartment, and moved in over a weekend. It’s taken a lot more effort than that here. There was organizing the moving truck, connecting utilities, etc.

The rest of the time I’ve spent visiting my family. It’s pretty nice to catch up with them after being gone for so long. We had a big family dinner last night, and my mom cooked a traditional Christmas-style dinner since I missed that event this year. It was a nice time, even though I didn’t get any presents. The food was really good, better than I remember it usually being. I might have to cook turkey dinners every once in a while up in Detroit.

I had some visitors here last week–the first of a few this summer–which was a pretty good time.  My parents, my aunt Anita, my little sister Kyla, and both my dogs (Widget & Bluto) made the drive out here.  That’s no small task, either, as I believe the drive is something like 2000 miles.

Long story short, Rock Band fun was had by all.  :)  We also made an ill-fated attempt to go check out Mt. Rainier that basically involved us driving around staring at the clouds, haha.  One thing people like to say about this area is that it rains all the time, but that’s just not true.  Honestly, it really doesn’t rain that much, but it is cloudy damn near every day.

Anyway, I realized while they were here that my biggest “regret” (for lack of a better word) in living so far away from my family is missing my little sister grow up.  Realistically, I can’t expect to see her more than once or twice a year, and that’s pretty disappointing considering how much she’ll likely change between visits.  When I see her now, she’s always interested in what I’m doing and wanting to play games with me, but I’m sure it’s only a matter before all that starts to change.

I suppose for the time being about all I can do is try to head home for holidays and such as often as possible.

I got a letter today from my grandparents, one from my grandma and one from my grandpa. According to my grandpa’s letter, it was the first time he has written anything since he retired in 1990. I had never thought about it before, but it was the first time I had ever seen his handwriting. It was kind of cool to be the recipient of a letter from someone who hasn’t seen a need to write in 17 years.

In other news, I’m watching the Seinfeld now where Kramer has the idea to start a pizza place where you can cook your own ‘pizza pie’. Jerry claims that there is no one in an walk of life, under any circumstances, would want to cook their own pizza. Well, I disagree. I would love to cook my own pizza right now. I don’t have a kitchen here in Thailand, and I miss cooking a lot. It used to be very relaxing for me, and I really enjoy creating delicious meals. If I found a restaurant in Thailand that let you cook your own food, I’d be all over that action. There are cooking courses, but I’m get so much Thai cuisine that it’s not really worth learning to cook it at this point. Maybe I’ll take one in the last month I’m here so I can bring the goodness home.

My final tidbit is the slightly interesting fact that it is 29 C (84 F) in my apartment right now, and I’m getting cold. I guess I’ve grown somewhat accustomed to the heat here. I’m going to turn the A/C off now.

It was a long weekend, that is for sure. We began moving things to Carterville Friday evening, but the bulk of the work was done Saturday. There isn’t much to say about moving furniture, clothes, and things from one location to another, except that it makes one tired.

I put myself in charge of all Mediacom dealings, which was as much a curse as it was a blessing. So let me count the cable jacks for you in this house. (3) Living Room, (1) Formal Living Room, (1) Dining Room, (1) Master Bedroom, (1) Bedroom #2, (1) Bedroom #3. That makes 8. That’s entirely too many, but I figure, hey, if the guy who built the house thought that was necessary, so be it. The people we bought the house from (they were the second owners of the house) used a satellite dish and had no cable. But I never considered the possibility that the house was never equipped for cable, considering the 8 jacks throughout the house. That was the case, though. So when the Mediacom guy gets here, he has to run a new line from the closest box in the neighborhood (luckily, it was situated between our house and the neighbors in the backyard). So now I’ve got this bright orange eyesore running all the way across my lawn because Mediacom subcontracts a company to bury the cable, and I’m informed that might take 2-3 months. Go figure. Now, you would think that after connecting the orange eyesore main line to the line running into my house that the myriad of cable jacks would all be hot (ie. working). Again, that would be too easy. Three of them worked stupendously; five were nonresponsive. I’m going to leave out the next part of the story, because I don’t want to make this post into a novella, but if I did tell you this story, it would include two trips to the attic, 1 cable split into 4 cables, those 4 cables split into 8, a hole in the sheetrock, and a hidden compartment in my garage.

After about 3 hours, though, we did have working Mediacom cable TV and internet. The internet has been touchy, though. It seems (after talking with 2 different tech support guys) that the computer that processes change orders (when we changed addresses, they changed our account number) was failing to complete the order. So sometimes the internet was here just isn’t working because the modem doesn’t understand what account to work for. At least I think that’s the problem. Anyways, I think it is working for good now.

Also, since moving to Carterville would require a new phone number, I decided to check out Mediacom’s cable phone service. Turns out, that they are running a special on their VIP package. We only pay $0.01 on phone service per month through December, and then it’s $30. Plus, no installation fee. And that $30 is still cheaper than the $50 we payed for phone in Herrin with Verizon. Even better, the VIP package bumps internet speeds from max 8mbps to 15mbps. Very nice.

The only problem left right now is that I’m getting good speeds when I’m directly connected to my router (~6.5mbps), but on wireless it diminishes greatly, even though I’m connected at 54mpbs (and the router is in my room). Surely, I’ll figure it out soon, though.

I’m kind of curious what anybody thinks.  I’m not trying to start a political debate or anything, I’m honestly just curious.  The US has a divorce rate of just over 48%.  That’s a somewhat biased stat, however, as 67% of people who get married stay married.  The other 33% just happens to get divorced more than once.

Regardless, I’m not very impressed by those numbers–and by “not very impressed”, I mean “very unimpressed”.  I’m curious what anybody else things.  Anybody and everybody.

We were about to head over to my Grandma’s house this afternoon when we got a call from the Sheriff’s Office to inform us that some of our cows got out. So my dad, grandpa, uncle, and I headed over there to check it out. It turned out that someone had accidentally left the gate open, and a few of them had wandered out.

I thought it was going to be a major ordeal trying to get them back in the fence, but it turned out to be fairly easy. They made a hole in the fence. Then my grandpa carried the bucket that he uses to feed them through the hole. The cows followed him straight through hoping to get some food. Then we just repaired the hole. I was scared that it was going to be much harder than that. I thought we were going to try to have to herd them to a gate, and then get them to go back through it by scaring them. I wouldn’t have thought of using the feed bucket or the hole in the fence. I guess that’s why I’m not a farmer.

Well, the title of the post most definitely gives this away…but I’ll say it again–I’m an uncle!!!

My sister delivered a healthy baby boy, today at 5:39 p.m. weighing in at 9 lbs, 13.5 oz and was 20″ long. They named him Issac, and he’s doing well, as is my sister.

As soon as I get some decent pictures, I’ll post a couple of them up! I couldn’t stay the night in Kentucky as I have class tomorrow.

Hope everyone enjoyed their thanksgiving breaks!

P.S. Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes.

There’s been a huge decrease in posts recently. Sorry everyone, there’s not a lot you can say about exciting classes like Electromagnetic Fields that’s interesting. That’s my excuse. I don’t know what Jared, Nick, and Kyle have to say for themselves. Slackers.

Anyway, I’m headed out to St. Louis this weekend to see a Cardinals game. I’m driving out on Saturday afternoon to meet my parents. Should be a decent time, although I’m not real into baseball. I’m a little sad to miss opening Sunday of the NFL season. It’s all good though. I got my fix yesterday. All I gotta say is, Randy Moss plays when he wants to. That was sort of an inside joke, but sucks for you if you don’t get it.

As you can guess, I don’t have anything intelligent to say. Sorry, I was just sad to see a whole week go by with no updates.

headin’ out for school tomorrow. i’m excited about the year, but this is by far the most difficult it has been for me to leave home. those of you knowing my situation should understand. i’ll do it though, and things will be ok. at least i know that i’ll be the hottest most popular guy on campus. i can always hang my hat on that.

One of the best things about being up north–North Dakota, to be exact–is that the speed limit is 75 mph. That’s just the right way to do it. Honestly, when you’re “allowed” to go that fast, you don’t feel much need to go any faster. Maybe up to 80 or something, but heck why bother? You just end up using more gas. Speaking of gas, the word on the street is that within a year it could very well be up to $3.50. That’s fuckin’ insane. And stupid. Thanks a lot, W. And none of you forget that it is his fault the cost of gas is where it is. And yet, Mobile just pulled in $7.8 billion in profit last quarter. That’s actually a record. Yay for Bush!

The wedding is actually tonight. That means there’ll be a lot of sitting around, followed by some eating, and then some dancing. Well, for a lot of the other people there will be some dancing. It should be a good time, though. I have to collect gifts at the wedding and at the reception, since I’m the cousin of the bride. So I’ll definitely be busy during those two times.