Monday, September 26, 2005

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good: Jason got my promise ring back from the jeweller's correctly sized. So now I can actually wear it on the correct finger. And its prettier than it is in that picture, but that's the best picture I could find.

The Bad: It's only Monday and I'm already worn out...this is going to be a long week.

The Ugly: I spent the majority of the weekend avoiding what I knew I had to do and now I have a ton of homework to do tonight to get caught up again...this is going to be a long night.

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Hair Count Diaries: Starting to Thin

The craziness of my schedule is starting to hit me. Not only do I have a lot of reading and writing to do, but I have very little time to do it in. I also have to squeeze in time to do several classroom observations, service learning, interviews, lesson plans, and the list goes on. On top of that, there are lots of new things going on at work too. New projects, new people, more things to think about. Ack! I think I'm going to need a larger calendar just to manage all the things that I need to get done this semester. But I think that once I start getting things completed I won't feel quite so overwhelmed. I think that I will really need my December break by the time December rolls around.

Hair Count: 109,000

Friday, September 09, 2005

Hair Count Diaries: Story Time

One of my classes this semester is Teaching Writing for Elementary Students. We had our second class last night, and it was just as good as the first. The professor taught middle school for years, and uses many techniques that you would use in a middle school classroom on us. Its great fun :) Last night she asked that we each bring a piece of fruit, disguised in a bag. She read us Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, a great picture book with lots of sensory images. Then we had to get to know our fruits and write about them using as many sensory images as we could. The idea is to give the audience an image of the piece of fruit without actually naming it. She also handed out Scholastic book order forms. So tempting...so many good deals... I love this class, its always a fun one to go to, and you never know what the prof will do next. And the great thing is, I get credit for it!

Hair Count: 110,000 strands and holding. So far its not too bad, busy but not unmanageable.

Friday, September 02, 2005

A Quarter of a Century

Happy Birthday to me! Well it is now official, I am a quarter of a century old. Or as my sister would say, just old. I've already had a little bit of a birthday celebration, last weekend when I was home my mom made a cake and my grandparents came over for lunch. We didn't have candles though, mom said it was too early for that. But this morning the birthday fairy visited. I went out to my car to go to work and discovered that the birthday fairy had left a birthday surprise for me. There was a card and happy birthday balloon, and flowers in my cup holder. What a sneaky fairy ;)

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Wilson Family Picnic

On Saturday the whole family drove to Bolsover for the annual summer picnic. We always meet in a park that used to be an old school house. I think the date on the school was 1901. Jason went inside and said that there were the pictures of the classes dating back to 1900, pretty cool I thought. Each family brings some food to share and everyone enjoys good food, and catching up with what everyone is up to.



After eating, we usually have some games. This time each family had a quiz about the family history. The group shot is our family trying to figure out the answers to the questions. My mom is in the middle, pen in hand, recording the answers, and in this picture, they had just called on my dad about one of the questions.





Grandpa talking to my dad and Jason about something. Ryan is in the foreground enjoying some watermelon.






A picture that Caitlin took of Jason and I.








Ryan trying to lean his way out of the picture. But, I gotcha!








Caitlin and Mark. Notice what it says on Caitlin's shirt...

Monday, August 29, 2005

Visiting Old Friends

On Friday, Jason and I trekked out to Peterborough to see the lift locks. After watching a couple of boats go through we headed on to Belleville to visit Sarah. Sarah and I have been friends for many years, but it had been two years since we had since each other, which is far too long in my opinion. The last time I saw her, her daughter Victoria was just a baby. Now as you can see she is a bouncing, babbling, happy, nearly two year old. She is such a sweetie, so cute and smiley :) And oddly enough (at least I thought it was odd), she loves pickles. In the picture of her by herself she's munching on one of the many pickles that she ate while we were there. As we were headed out, she waved from the door until we were almost to the end of the hall. I'd love to have taken her home with me :)
On another note, Oden the cat had quite the hair fetish. I would petting him, and the entire time he would be sitting there totally mesmerized by my hair. Then he would make his attack and go at my hair with mouth and both paws, trying his best to eat it. What an odd cat! When I tried to push him away he would just climb onto the back of the couch and try to get my hair from there. He was very determined and persistent in his quest to eat my hair.

Monday, August 22, 2005

*Hack, hack, sniffle sniffle, snort*

Having a cold in the middle of August is terrible. I caught a cold bug sometime early last week and have been going through various stages of misery. Started out with a stuffed up nose and a plugged left ear. The plugged ear switched to my right ear, still a stuffed nose and mild cough. Then no more stuffed ears, but a very sore throat and dry cough. Every time I swallowed it felt like needles going down my throat. Then yesterday my throat was killing me, I had a cough that comes from deep in my chest and nearly lost my voice completely. This morning my voice was back, and my nose is no longer stuffed, and my cough is a very deep, satisfying one. I'm hoping that this means I'm almost through it. A whole week of this has been torture, especially when the weather is sunny and warm.

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Great Big Sea

Hooray! I just checked Great Big Sea's website and saw that they are releasing a new album in October 2005, The Hard and The Easy. I can't wait!

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Hair Count Diaries: The Quiet Before the Storm

All is calm and quiet right now, and I have plenty of spare time to go galavanting about. I've enjoyed trips to Cleveland and the UP so far. One last trip to Ontario coming up, when I will visit my folks. One last hurrah before I turn recluse and have no time to go a-wandering. I'm soaking in all the relaxing I can right now because come August 29th I'll be leading a double life. Software professional by day, education student by night. I have a jampacked calendar waiting for me, and likely many long nights trying to fit everything in. I might be tearing my hair out at the stress, and sheer magnitude of stuff I need to get done, but hopefully it will all be worth it in the end.

Hair Count: 110,000 strands

Monday, August 15, 2005

Tahquanemon Falls














The Upper (left) and Lower (right) Tahquanemon Falls. The upper falls were certainly larger, but I preferred the lower falls myself. There were more trails to wander through, and each new bend in the path gave a different view of the falls.

Row, Row, Row your Boat


At the Lower Tahquanemon Falls on Friday we took a rowboat to a small island where we could get a better view of the falls. After wandering around the whole trail, we hopped in the rowboat to go back to the mainland. Asia insisted on "helping" row the boat :)

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Johnny Depp

Another quiz... Which Johnny Depp are you?

You Are Sam From "Benny & Joon."
You are very talented at physical comedy. People are in awe of your abilities. However, you have many quirks which can either win people over or completely annoy them. But you're a sweetheart through and through, and it's hard not to love you.

Monday, August 01, 2005

Enneagram Test

Test time, what type are you? Take Enneagram Test

My top two were types 9 and 2. Just a short test, but surprising what they can figure out from a few short questions.

Type Nine - The Peacemaker
The easy-going, self-effacing type. Nines are accepting, trusting, and stable. They are usually creative, optimistic, and supportive, but can also be too willing to go along with others to keep the peace. They want everything to go smoothly and be without conflict, but they can also tend to be complacent, simplifying problems and minimizing anything upsetting. They typically have problems with inertia and stubbornness. At their Best: indomitable and all-embracing, they are able to bring people together and heal conflicts.

Type Two - The Helper
The caring, interpersonal type. Twos are empathetic, sincere, and warm-hearted. They are friendly, generous, and self-sacrificing, but can also be sentimental, flattering, and people-pleasing. They are well-meaning and driven to be close to others, but can slip into doing things for others in order to be needed. They typically have problems with possessiveness and with acknowledging their own needs. At their Best: unselfish and altruistic, they have unconditional love for others.

Monday, July 18, 2005

Maureen and Yemi

As promised, on the left a picture of the happy couple outside the reception hall. And below, one of Maureen and I inside the reception hall. Such a beautiful bride, and a very handsome groom. Congratulations!

Friday, July 15, 2005

Testing Blogger Images

Blogger has added the ability to post images to your blog, so this is my test of this feature. Kind of handy actually, saves me having to upload them to Hello first. This is a picture of Jason giving me the evil eye, heh heh. Though it really looks like he's winking.

Happy Friday

Tis Friday once again, the eve of another great weekend hopefully. I'm hoping for nice weather tomorrow, hoping for a good beach day :) I took some pictures at Maureen's wedding that I've been meaning to post, but as you can see I haven't done so yet. I'll try to remember Monday to put the pictures on my flash drive.

I've been busy this week constructing a set of shelves out of some leftover plywood. I was hoping to get them all pieced together last night, but my drill ran out of juice :( All well, I guess it will be next week before I get them done.

In other news, its my little brothers birthday today. Though he's not so little anymore, he's 21 already! Makes me feel old. So Ryan if you see this, happy birthday!

Hmmm, what else... Oh my family will be in town next weekend, and my long lost roomie returns this week as well. So it will be a fullhouse next weekend. Should be fun though, I'm taking my folks to check out the Petra exhibit at Calvin.

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Ring Bearer's Pillow


Last night I finished off the ring bearer's pillow for Maureen's wedding this weekend. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, nice and simple.

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Fourth of July

For the fourth this year, Natalie, Jason and I drove up to Muskegon. Dropped Natalie off so she could meet up with some friends, then headed down to the summer celebration. It turned rainy and cold so we headed back to GR to watch the fireworks there. It looked like the rain would hold off, but it didn't. Jason and I found a dry place to wait for the fireworks (and to dry off a little :). A rather wet, but fun fourth of July.

Thursday, June 30, 2005

Spring Festival in Zurich

Just turned the page of my Lonely Planet calendar to July. The location for July is Switzerland, and the picture on the 11th caught my eye. Its a picture of a snowman on fire, the caption is "Spring Festival, Zurich". I was curious, so I googled.

Found this:
Monday is the high-point of the festival with a two-and-a-half-hour-long procession of the 26 guilds to the large park in front of the Zurich Opera House. There, precisely at 6 pm a towering pile of wood is set alight. On top of the wood is the so-called Böögg, a snowman-shaped figure packed with firecrackers and representing winter. As the flames creep up towards the Böögg, members of the three mounted guilds ride three times around the fire. To the cheers of the public, the Böögg begins to blow apart. As soon as the head explodes, winter is said to be officially over. This original spectacle, which is watched by tens of thousands of excited people, is accompanied by the traditional Sechseläuten in March.
Customs & Traditions in Switzerland

Thought that was pretty cool :-)

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Bumper Sticker

Well behaved women rarely make history.

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Happy Summer!

Just checked my calendar and realized that today is the first day of summer. So, happy summer everyone :)

Friday, June 17, 2005

TGIF and Nutty

Its Friday once again. Took Nutty over to the new apartment last night. She cried the whole way there as expected, you'd think I was torturing her or something. When I brought her upstairs she climbed out of her carrier then gave me this look. She was very cautious and not too sure of herself. I put out her food dish, and put out fresh litter in her litterbox, but she was not interested in any of that. I left the door open and "locked" her in the laundry room, then went downstairs to get some more stuff from the car. When I came back up the laundry room door was open (it pushes open) and I could hear her crying somewhere in the building. The silly cat had wandered off down the hall and was lost. I retrieved her from the second floor and carried her back upstairs.

I finished unloading the car, then warmed up some leftovers for dinner. By this time Nutty had situated herself behind the washing machine and was crying from back there. No matter how much I coaxed she would not come out. When I left to go back to the old apartment she was still hiding out behind the washing machine.

This morning I got up early to bring another bunch of stuff to the new apartment and to check on Nutty. I think she slept behind the washing machine, because that's where she was when I first got there. But her food was gone, and she had used the litter box, so that's a good sign.

Reminds me of her first night in our apartment as a kitten. She cried that night too, and slept behind the washing machine. Hopefully by tomorrow she'll be adjusted to her new surroundings.

Thursday, June 16, 2005


Say cheese! A picture from a while back, onroute to Da Cheong's birthday dinner.

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Keys

Of late, keys have been the bane of my existence. It started on Friday, when in my rush to get out and enjoy the weekend I left my keys sitting on my desk. I grabbed my purse and headed for the door, locking it and pulling it shut behind me. No sooner had I done that when I realized that I had forgotten to pick up my keys. Doh! I tried, very unsuccessfully to get the door open again with a credit card. Thankfully I had my phone, so I was able to call Jason to come rescue me. I stopped at the apartment office to get someone to let me into my apartment building. It was then that I realized that my spare car keys were locked in the garage with the other stuff that I had packed. And my garage key was locked inside my office, along with my mail key. So it ended up being a car-less, mail-less weekend.

Monday morning rolled around and I was still car-less, so I walked to work. And there were my keys, exactly where I had left them Friday afternoon. After work I headed to my new apartment complex to sign my life away. They gave me my new keys and I headed up to check out my new apartment. Started doing the rounds, kitchen, living room, bathroom, etc. I was very happy with it, by the way. Headed out onto the porch to look in the utility closet and check out the view. Looked around for a bit then went to go back inside. Tried to turn the doorknob...guess what?!? It was locked! So there I sat, no keys, no phone, stuck on my porch on the third floor. Man I felt dumb. Luckily I only had to wait about 10 minutes (that felt like forever) when I couple came out of the building. I called down to them and Mike from apartment A came to my rescue. I'm glad I left the apartment door unlocked!

I can't believe that I locked myself out twice in the matter of 4 days!

Friday, June 10, 2005

Joke of the Day

God was missing for six days. Eventually Michael, the archangel, found
him resting on the seventh day.

He inquired of God, "Where have you been?"

God sighed a deep sigh of satisfaction and proudly pointed downwards
through the clouds, "Look, Michael. Look what I've made."

Archangel Michael looked puzzled and asked, "What is it?"

"It's a planet," replied God, "and I've put life on it. I'm going to
call it Earth and it's going to be a great place of balance."

"Balance?" inquired Michael, still confused.

God explained, pointing to different parts of Earth. "For example,
Northern Europe will be a place of great opportunity and wealth, while
Southern Europe is going to be poor. Over there I've places a
continent of white people, and over there is a continent of black
people. Balance in all good things." God continued pointing to
different countries, "This one will be extremely hot, while this one
will be very cold and covered in ice."

The Archangel, impressed by God's work, then pointed to a land area
and asked, "What's that one?"

"Ah," said God, "that's Washington State, the most glorious place on
Earth. There are beautiful mountains, rivers and streams, lakes,
forrests, hills, and coulees. The people of Washington State are going
to be handsome, modest, intellegent and humerous, and they are going
to be found traveling the world. They will be extremely sociable,
hardworking, high achieving, and they will be known throughout the
world as diplomats and carriers of peace."

Michael gasped in wonder and admiration, but then proclaimed, "What
about balance, God? You said there would be balance."

God smiled, "There is another Washington. Wait until you see the
idiots I put there."

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Packing

Slowly but surely my apartment is becoming more and more empty. I've been packing up a few boxes each night and storing them in the garage. In less than a week I'll have the keys to my new apartment...I can't wait! I'm excited to see what it looks like. When I was there checking out the complex, I looked at a second floor apartment, but the third floor apartments are slightly different (and they didn't have a third floor apartment for me to look at). I love moving to a new place and getting settled in, a blank canvas to decorate :)

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Comings and Goings

Dropped my roomie off at the airport before work this morning. Feels like the end of an era, we've had nearly 3 great years as roomies, but sadly that time is coming to an end. It will be strange to go home to only my cat. So long human! I'll miss you.

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Dutch Passport

Woo hoo! Its official, I received my Dutch passport last night :) :) I am now officially a Dutch citizen. How bizarre is that? The only time I've ever set foot in the Netherlands was in the airport in Amsterdam. I'll have to remedy that soon.

But what is it with passport photos? In this one I look I'm practically asleep. Such a terrible picture. Ah well, can't do much about that.

Monday, March 07, 2005

Fondue

A couple of weekends ago, we had some people over for dinner, which we topped off with chocolate fondue. Mmmmm...good stuff. Here are a couple of the fondue action shots.




Looking at these pictures makes me think that someone needs to create an 'Ode to Yuka'. I think there would be a lot of great shots floating around :)

An Ode to DC


An Ode to my crazy roomie :)

Friday, March 04, 2005

Noodles

Very difficult to eat with a spoon...

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

So Sad...

In honour of all the snow we've been getting lately I was going to post some lovely snowy pictures. However, I can't get Hello to work to post my pictures. So much for that plan :( Ah, well, maybe later.

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Beautiful Snow, a poem by J. W. Watson

Oh! The snow, the beautiful snow,
Filling the sky and the earth below,
Over the housetops, over the street,
Over the heads of people you meet.
Dancing,
        Flirting,
              Skimming along,

Beautiful snow! It can do no wrong;
Flying to kiss a fair lady's cheek,
Clinging to lips in frolicksome freak;
Beautiful snow from heaven above,
Pure as an angel, gentle as love!

Oh, the snow, the beautiful snow,
How the flakes gather and laugh as they go
Whirling about in maddening fun:
Chasing,
        Laughing,
              Hurrying by.

It lights on the face and it sparkles the eye;
And the dogs with a bark and a bound
Snap at the crystals as they eddy around;
The town is alive, and its heart is aglow,
To welcome the coming of beautiful snow.

How wild the crowd goes swaying along,
Hailing each other with humor and song;
How the gay sleighs like meteors flash by,
Bright for a moment, then lost to the eye:
Ringing,
        Swinging,
              Dashing they go,

Over the crest of the beautiful snow;
Snow so pure as it falls from the sky,
To be trampled in time by the crowd rushing by -
To be trampled and tracked by thousands of feet
Till it blends with the filth in the horrible street.

Once I was pure as the snow, but I fell,
Fell like the snow flakes from heaven to hell;
Fell to be trampled as filth in the street,
Fell to be scoffed, to be spit on and beat;
Pleading,
        Cursing,
              Dreading to die,

Selling my soul to whoever would buy;
Dealing in shame for a morsel of bread,
Hating the living and fearing the dead.
Merciful God! I have fallen so low!
And yet I was once like the beautiful snow..

Once I was fair as the beautiful snow,
With an eye like a crystal, a heart like its glow;
Once I was loved for my innocent grace--
Flattered and sought for the charms of my face!
Father,
        Mother,
              Sisters--all,

God and myself I have lost by my fall:
The veriest wretch that goes shivering by,
Will make a wide sweep lest I wander too night,
For all that is on or above me I know,
There is nothing so pure as the beautiful snow.

How strange it should be that this beautiful snow
Should fall on a sinner with nowhere to go!
How strange it should be when the night comes again
If the snow and the ice struck my desperate brain!
Fainting,
        Freezing,
              Dying alone,

Too wicked for prayer, too weak for a moan
To be heard in the streets of the crazy town,
Gone mad in the joy of snow coming down:
To be and to die in my terrible woe,
With a bed and a shroud of the beautiful snow.


~ by J. W. Watson. (1870)

Airplane Problems and Solutions

Found these in my surfing...rather long, but I thought they were pretty good :)

After every flight, Qantas pilots fill out a form, called a "gripe sheet", which tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft. The mechanics correct the problems, document their repairs on the form, and then pilots review the gripe sheets before the next flight. Never let it be said that ground crews lack a sense of humor.

Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by Qantas' pilots (marked with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked with an S) by maintenance engineers.

P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.

P: Test flight OK, except Auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.

P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.

P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.

P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent.
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.

P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.

P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.

P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S: That's what they're for.

P: IFF inoperative.
S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.

P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you're right.

P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search.

P: Aircraft handles funny.
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right, and be serious.

P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.

P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.

And the best one for last.................

P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from midget.

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Rangeela

I can't wait for Saturday...it's Rangeela time at Calvin again. We've got a whole group of people together this year to go. Should be lots of fun. And my cousin will be in town too, hooray!

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Spring?

I think marketing people have something against us. I was walking around the mall last night, and most stores have their spring lines out. And most have sales going on as well. So us, the happy consumer goes in and buys lots of fun spring clothes, only to walk back to our cars in the snow and cold. Then we have two options, either wait and wait and wait for warmer weather to sport our new clothes, or freeze our butts off because we can't wait. I usually fall into the latter category, wearing my new clothes, and freezing. Why must they do this to us??

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Curiosity Killed the Cat

The other day I used my last kleenex so I tossed the box to Nutmeg, my cat. A little while later I hear this banging around so I look to see what's going on. The silly cat had gotten her head stuck in the box and was running around trying to get unstuck. LOL. Of course I had to run for my camera, this was just too good pass up. Once I snapped a couple of pictures, I helped Nutmeg get out of the Kleenex box.