Well it's been a while. To make it up to y'all, here's a picture of Majzy. She's sleeping in an adorably uncomfortable position. Enjoy!
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Friday, September 7, 2012
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Dog bed part 1
For anybody who hasn't heard, Kate and I get lots of our furniture free. We don't go in the dumpster or anything, but we've taken several things from next to the dumpster. Adjacent to garbage is not the same as garbage.
Anyway, the other day (like 3 months ago, but I've been too busy to blog it, so it's "the other day"), we found a dresser. Which would be totally sweet if it had any drawers, but it was just the shell. We decided to take it in anyway and see if we could re-purpose it into something else. A bookshelf or something. And if it didn't happen, we could throw it right back in the trash without costing us anything but a trip up the stairs.
We brought it into the house, and Majzy liked it.
Before it had been inside 10 minutes, she started playing in puppy prison.
So I knocked out the bottom couple crossbars and made it her little playplace. Dogs and wolves have evolved living in caves and other tight spots, so they like to sleep in somewhat enclosed areas (like doghouses). So, we dragged her bed underneath the dresser and she immediately started sleeping there. Curled up in the tiny part of the bed that's under the dresser.
One of these days, we're going to finish the project by prettying it up a bit, but for now, it's good enough for her so it's good enough for me.
Anyway, the other day (like 3 months ago, but I've been too busy to blog it, so it's "the other day"), we found a dresser. Which would be totally sweet if it had any drawers, but it was just the shell. We decided to take it in anyway and see if we could re-purpose it into something else. A bookshelf or something. And if it didn't happen, we could throw it right back in the trash without costing us anything but a trip up the stairs.
We brought it into the house, and Majzy liked it.
Before it had been inside 10 minutes, she started playing in puppy prison.
So I knocked out the bottom couple crossbars and made it her little playplace. Dogs and wolves have evolved living in caves and other tight spots, so they like to sleep in somewhat enclosed areas (like doghouses). So, we dragged her bed underneath the dresser and she immediately started sleeping there. Curled up in the tiny part of the bed that's under the dresser.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Where's my card?
It's official. We've lived in Ann Arbor long enough to become card carrying hippies. We wear the toe shoes and everything. And now we've taken another step in that direction.
We joined a CSA, which stands for community supported agriculture. Or maybe community sustained agriculture. I make no claims of being a well informed hippy. Anyway, whatever it's called, it's like a pre-pay farmers market. We gave them a lump sum at the beginning of the growing season, and now we pick up a load of produce every week. It's a lot of produce so we're sharing it with Dave Hufnagel.
This week was the first week where we got produce. It's been really dry so the haul was smallish but we're happy with it. We got half a dozzen small tomatoes, 7 ears of corn, a little cucumber, 2 zucchinis, 3 other squashes, a bunch of onions, some peppers, and 2 basil plants. Not bad. Not bad at all.
We joined a CSA, which stands for community supported agriculture. Or maybe community sustained agriculture. I make no claims of being a well informed hippy. Anyway, whatever it's called, it's like a pre-pay farmers market. We gave them a lump sum at the beginning of the growing season, and now we pick up a load of produce every week. It's a lot of produce so we're sharing it with Dave Hufnagel.
This week was the first week where we got produce. It's been really dry so the haul was smallish but we're happy with it. We got half a dozzen small tomatoes, 7 ears of corn, a little cucumber, 2 zucchinis, 3 other squashes, a bunch of onions, some peppers, and 2 basil plants. Not bad. Not bad at all.
Friday, July 6, 2012
More 4th of July
I meant to post something more on the 4th, but I was too busy hanging out at Blaise's house. So, here for your remedial enjoyment, is some art. I found it at this web page, but the original author's page is here.
Happy America to all!
Happy America to all!
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Sunday, June 24, 2012
If you give a mouse a drawer...
Before we went Texas, Kate and I noticed some mouse droppings in our kitchen. I cleaned a bit but we just sort of hoped the problem would fix itself. Surprisingly, it didn't. We came home and found more new droppings.
So we started cleaning again. And the more we cleaned the more we found. So we decided to do a massive kitchen cleanup. We washed every dish we own and took all the clean ones out of the kitchen. We cleaned all the cabinets with bleach. We moved the stove and fridge and cleaned under both of those. In all it took us about two days.
The apartment maintenance guy came out and set some mouse traps, but so far they haven't caught anything. I also haven't found new droppings. Maybe seeing the traps made the mice realize we were serious and they decided to go eat our neighbors' food. Let's hope so.
So we started cleaning again. And the more we cleaned the more we found. So we decided to do a massive kitchen cleanup. We washed every dish we own and took all the clean ones out of the kitchen. We cleaned all the cabinets with bleach. We moved the stove and fridge and cleaned under both of those. In all it took us about two days.
The apartment maintenance guy came out and set some mouse traps, but so far they haven't caught anything. I also haven't found new droppings. Maybe seeing the traps made the mice realize we were serious and they decided to go eat our neighbors' food. Let's hope so.
A salute to Det. Leonard Biscoe
I should start with a recap for anyone who is not familiar with Lenny and his noble service to the Payne family.
In the summer of 2006, John bought a car that we would share for two years. Because he was a retired police car, and because he was old and white, we named him Lenny. Leonard "Lennie" Briscoe (Yes, it's really spelled with an "ie," I just looked on Wikipedia) was the old white cop from Law and Order.
Lenny got us from here to there and often did so in some semblance of style. Not much style, mind you, but he got the job done. John cared for him better than I did, so he was always clean in those days.
John moved and I took over custody of Lenny. About a year later, Lenny blew a head gasket. If you don't know cars, that's a huge repair. Like a costs-more-than-the-car repair. I was going to just give up and either pay somebody thousands of dollars to repair it or sell it to a junkyard. Jason Lillrose saved me from that and helped me to repair Lenny. It took the better part of a year, and Jason never got to sleep past sunrise on a Saturday, but we got it done. And done in time to leave Provo.
I came to Ann Arbor two years ago (which still shocks and amazes me), bringing with me only what I could pack into Lenny's back seat and trunk. Thankfully, Lenny had plenty of room. I have mentioned before how he struggled a bit on the trip, but we got to Ann Arbor safely.
Kate and I got married and bought a truck, which forced Lenny to share driving duties. It also forced us to start paying insurance on two cars. Which is more expensive, it turns out. Recently, we bought a new car and sold off Clifford pretty easily. But selling Lenny was hard. His brakes needed work, which would cost either $400 or a couple hours of my time. It was in the middle of prelim season, and I wasn't able to spend a couple hours or a couple hundred dollars.
So now, almost two months after prelims, I finally got the brakes done over the weekend. Lenny was ready to sell. I put an ad on Craigslist and quickly had people calling. The first guy came and looked down his nose at Lenny. He offered me a very generous offer of 40% of my asking price. I thanked him for coming to look, but figured I could find somebody else.
The next guy seemed happy with Lenny but his wife was skeptical. I told them to talk it out while I went inside to get the title. I came back and they wanted the car, so we started signing papers and getting everything in order. I handed them the title, waved goodbye, and left them to figure out how to get Lenny to his new home. He was moments away from retirement. And he died.
As soon as the title was in their hands, Lenny would not start. They got him to barely start, and when he did start, he choked and died before they could go more than a few feet. We talked about it for a few minutes, and although I could legally have just walked away (the title was in their name and I had the money, after all), it just didn't feel right. I gave them their money back and took the title back. The guy told me they were still really interested, but I had to get whatever was wrong fixed. They lived an hour away and had a good mechanic there, but that didn't help them if the car was stuck in our parking lot.
After they drove away, we decided to get Lenny back into a parking space (instead of out in the middle of the lot) and leave him overnight till we could get him to a mechanic. Just as quickly as he had taken ill, he recovered, knowing that the title was back in my hands. That old jerk just wasn't ready to be sold, I guess.
The next day, I took Lenny to the mechanic. He started fine, drove there fine, and was just fine for the mechanic, who told me there was nothing wrong that should prevent him from starting. I called the buyer and told him that. I told him additionally that if he was worried about Lenny's ability to perform and make it from my house to his (which would be a very reasonable worry) that I would drive it to him. He said if I made it there, he would buy it for the price we had discussed earlier (and even offered to give me more to make up for taking it to the shop).
Kate and I drove out the next day, and now Lenny is no longer with us. It's a sad day, but a day we all knew was coming. It seems silly to wax so rhapsodic over a car, but here we are. I'll miss that old guy, with all his flaws and all his memories. So, hats off to Lenny, who has safely driven me many thousands of miles, and even managed to impress some folks along the way.
In the summer of 2006, John bought a car that we would share for two years. Because he was a retired police car, and because he was old and white, we named him Lenny. Leonard "Lennie" Briscoe (Yes, it's really spelled with an "ie," I just looked on Wikipedia) was the old white cop from Law and Order.
John moved and I took over custody of Lenny. About a year later, Lenny blew a head gasket. If you don't know cars, that's a huge repair. Like a costs-more-than-the-car repair. I was going to just give up and either pay somebody thousands of dollars to repair it or sell it to a junkyard. Jason Lillrose saved me from that and helped me to repair Lenny. It took the better part of a year, and Jason never got to sleep past sunrise on a Saturday, but we got it done. And done in time to leave Provo.
I came to Ann Arbor two years ago (which still shocks and amazes me), bringing with me only what I could pack into Lenny's back seat and trunk. Thankfully, Lenny had plenty of room. I have mentioned before how he struggled a bit on the trip, but we got to Ann Arbor safely.
Kate and I got married and bought a truck, which forced Lenny to share driving duties. It also forced us to start paying insurance on two cars. Which is more expensive, it turns out. Recently, we bought a new car and sold off Clifford pretty easily. But selling Lenny was hard. His brakes needed work, which would cost either $400 or a couple hours of my time. It was in the middle of prelim season, and I wasn't able to spend a couple hours or a couple hundred dollars.
So now, almost two months after prelims, I finally got the brakes done over the weekend. Lenny was ready to sell. I put an ad on Craigslist and quickly had people calling. The first guy came and looked down his nose at Lenny. He offered me a very generous offer of 40% of my asking price. I thanked him for coming to look, but figured I could find somebody else.
The next guy seemed happy with Lenny but his wife was skeptical. I told them to talk it out while I went inside to get the title. I came back and they wanted the car, so we started signing papers and getting everything in order. I handed them the title, waved goodbye, and left them to figure out how to get Lenny to his new home. He was moments away from retirement. And he died.
As soon as the title was in their hands, Lenny would not start. They got him to barely start, and when he did start, he choked and died before they could go more than a few feet. We talked about it for a few minutes, and although I could legally have just walked away (the title was in their name and I had the money, after all), it just didn't feel right. I gave them their money back and took the title back. The guy told me they were still really interested, but I had to get whatever was wrong fixed. They lived an hour away and had a good mechanic there, but that didn't help them if the car was stuck in our parking lot.
After they drove away, we decided to get Lenny back into a parking space (instead of out in the middle of the lot) and leave him overnight till we could get him to a mechanic. Just as quickly as he had taken ill, he recovered, knowing that the title was back in my hands. That old jerk just wasn't ready to be sold, I guess.
The next day, I took Lenny to the mechanic. He started fine, drove there fine, and was just fine for the mechanic, who told me there was nothing wrong that should prevent him from starting. I called the buyer and told him that. I told him additionally that if he was worried about Lenny's ability to perform and make it from my house to his (which would be a very reasonable worry) that I would drive it to him. He said if I made it there, he would buy it for the price we had discussed earlier (and even offered to give me more to make up for taking it to the shop).
Kate and I drove out the next day, and now Lenny is no longer with us. It's a sad day, but a day we all knew was coming. It seems silly to wax so rhapsodic over a car, but here we are. I'll miss that old guy, with all his flaws and all his memories. So, hats off to Lenny, who has safely driven me many thousands of miles, and even managed to impress some folks along the way.
 |
| Lenny, as I would like to remember him |
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| Lenny, as I will more likely remember him |
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Memorial Day
O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation.
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Happy Memorial Day!
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Monday, May 14, 2012
Donald "Duck" Dunn
Yesterday Donald "Duck" Dunn passed on. He was a great bassist, and from what I hear, a great man. Apparently he kept doing what he loved - making music - till the end. He's shakin his tail feather with the angels now.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Brad!
I just saw that right now, at this very moment, Brad Prestwich is on the blog and commenting. Yay, Brad! For commenting while I am here on the computer and bored, you get a shout out.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Movie Review: Lockout
On Saturday, Kate and I decided to catch a matinee and give Majzy some practice being quiet in a movie theater. We paid $7.50 each for a noon showing with only 4 or 5 other people in the theater. Speaking of, why is a matinee $7.50 these days? In my day, a matinee cost $3 even. And in those days, nickels had bumblebees on em...
I seem to have lost my train of thought. Let's try again. On Saturday the three of us hopped in the car and went to see Lockout.
Our expectation was to see a movie where a tough guy punches, shoots, and explodes lots of other tough guys to save the President's daughter. Or whatever. And that is exactly what we got.
The movie looked a lot like a video game. There was a motorcycle chase scene right at the beginning that looked like a cut-scene from Grand Theft Auto or something (you saw it in the trailer above). I don't say that in a bad way. It's all about expectations: I hated the Star Wars prequels because (among other things) they looked like video games on the big screen and I expected them to look like the old ones with Han Solo kissing princesses. I expected this movie to be full of CGI so it was OK with me.
The movie format also seemed like a video game to me. I'm not sure how to explain that to anyone who has never played a FPS before, but if you have you'll know what I mean. The good guy breaks into the bad guy base, finds the girl, gets her to the exit point, etc.
The writing was slightly better than I expected. But then, with lines like "he's the best there is...but he's a loose cannon" in the trailer, how could it not exceed expectations?
All in all, a very fun movie. Would I spend $15 to see it again? Maybe not. But not definitely not.
I seem to have lost my train of thought. Let's try again. On Saturday the three of us hopped in the car and went to see Lockout.
Our expectation was to see a movie where a tough guy punches, shoots, and explodes lots of other tough guys to save the President's daughter. Or whatever. And that is exactly what we got.
The movie looked a lot like a video game. There was a motorcycle chase scene right at the beginning that looked like a cut-scene from Grand Theft Auto or something (you saw it in the trailer above). I don't say that in a bad way. It's all about expectations: I hated the Star Wars prequels because (among other things) they looked like video games on the big screen and I expected them to look like the old ones with Han Solo kissing princesses. I expected this movie to be full of CGI so it was OK with me.
The movie format also seemed like a video game to me. I'm not sure how to explain that to anyone who has never played a FPS before, but if you have you'll know what I mean. The good guy breaks into the bad guy base, finds the girl, gets her to the exit point, etc.
The writing was slightly better than I expected. But then, with lines like "he's the best there is...but he's a loose cannon" in the trailer, how could it not exceed expectations?
All in all, a very fun movie. Would I spend $15 to see it again? Maybe not. But not definitely not.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Buying a car
The last couple posts have been about cars, so I figure I should put one more up. For now.
Kate and I, as I've said, spent quite a bit of time researching cars. We looked at consumer reports and compared features and specs on manufacturer's websites. We test drove a few cars we liked. We did all sorts of stuff. As Sam has said, Honda makes a pretty darn good car, and we found that in our research. The best value in a car (of the type we were looking at) was a Honda Fit. Relatively cheap to buy, very cheap to own.
So, on Saturday we were down in Toledo for our dog training class (we go every Saturday so that Majzy can learn to be a good little pup), and outside we saw a red Honda Fit for sale. After class we asked the instructor, Carla, and she said it was hers. This was at about 10 AM. And by 1 PM we had made all the calls we needed to make, done all the research we needed to be comfortable calling Carla and Terry to tell them not to sell to anybody else. They (thankfully) didn't want us to drive back down to Toledo to give them a good faith deposit.
We moved some money around and headed down on Wednesday morning to buy our new car. I should probably post a picture, but I don't want to go outside and take one.
And that's how the Michigan Paynes have more cars in their household than people (while we work on selling Lenny and Clifford).
Kate and I, as I've said, spent quite a bit of time researching cars. We looked at consumer reports and compared features and specs on manufacturer's websites. We test drove a few cars we liked. We did all sorts of stuff. As Sam has said, Honda makes a pretty darn good car, and we found that in our research. The best value in a car (of the type we were looking at) was a Honda Fit. Relatively cheap to buy, very cheap to own.
So, on Saturday we were down in Toledo for our dog training class (we go every Saturday so that Majzy can learn to be a good little pup), and outside we saw a red Honda Fit for sale. After class we asked the instructor, Carla, and she said it was hers. This was at about 10 AM. And by 1 PM we had made all the calls we needed to make, done all the research we needed to be comfortable calling Carla and Terry to tell them not to sell to anybody else. They (thankfully) didn't want us to drive back down to Toledo to give them a good faith deposit.
We moved some money around and headed down on Wednesday morning to buy our new car. I should probably post a picture, but I don't want to go outside and take one.
And that's how the Michigan Paynes have more cars in their household than people (while we work on selling Lenny and Clifford).
Monday, April 23, 2012
Texas this ain't
I mentioned in my last post that Kate and I went to our local Chevy dealer to test drive a car. We ended up test driving it for a couple of days while they held our truck to make sure we came back. When we came back to make the swap, our truck battery was dead. They jumped us and said it was just a coincidence, and not to worry about it.
The next day, the truck was dead again. We figured that maybe we just hadn't driven it far enough to really charge the battery. So, we got another jump and drove to Toledo about 45 minutes away. I figured that would be enough to let the battery really get a charge if that was all that was wrong, but we brought jumper cables just in case. Sure enough, when it came time to leave Toledo, we went out to the car and found the battery dead.
Thinking that we were still in the friendly South, I popped open the hood and waited for someone to stop. We were in a relatively busy parking lot, so I figured it wouldn't take long. No one stopped. People drove by slowly and rubbernecked, but no one so much as made eye contact with me. I even waved at people and got nothing.
Since we parked relatively close to the store, all the spots around us were taken, so even if somebody stopped we would have to push the truck out of the space to get a jump. So I figured I might as well push it out and see if that got somebody to stop. I pushed the truck while Kate sat inside and steered. We went out into traffic (not street traffic, but the flow inside the mall parking lot), and people just went around us. Seriously. A guy pushing an F150 with a woman and a dog in the cab and nobody even stops to ask if we're OK.
Finally someone did stop and we got a jump and got home. It just surprised me that we could be there for that long and not have anyone stop. The North is just different, I guess.
We called Trish at the Chevy dealership to let her know that our truck was just fine when we drove it in and broken when we drove it out. She told us that she didn't know what we were talking about, and it must have been our fault. I recognize that the dealership can't just fix anybody's car who says it was fine when they got there. But it would be nice if there was some sort of remorse for breaking our car or offering to make it better somehow.
We ended up going to Sam's Club and getting a new battery and everything worked out fine. Yay for things working out!
The next day, the truck was dead again. We figured that maybe we just hadn't driven it far enough to really charge the battery. So, we got another jump and drove to Toledo about 45 minutes away. I figured that would be enough to let the battery really get a charge if that was all that was wrong, but we brought jumper cables just in case. Sure enough, when it came time to leave Toledo, we went out to the car and found the battery dead.
Thinking that we were still in the friendly South, I popped open the hood and waited for someone to stop. We were in a relatively busy parking lot, so I figured it wouldn't take long. No one stopped. People drove by slowly and rubbernecked, but no one so much as made eye contact with me. I even waved at people and got nothing.
Since we parked relatively close to the store, all the spots around us were taken, so even if somebody stopped we would have to push the truck out of the space to get a jump. So I figured I might as well push it out and see if that got somebody to stop. I pushed the truck while Kate sat inside and steered. We went out into traffic (not street traffic, but the flow inside the mall parking lot), and people just went around us. Seriously. A guy pushing an F150 with a woman and a dog in the cab and nobody even stops to ask if we're OK.
Finally someone did stop and we got a jump and got home. It just surprised me that we could be there for that long and not have anyone stop. The North is just different, I guess.
We called Trish at the Chevy dealership to let her know that our truck was just fine when we drove it in and broken when we drove it out. She told us that she didn't know what we were talking about, and it must have been our fault. I recognize that the dealership can't just fix anybody's car who says it was fine when they got there. But it would be nice if there was some sort of remorse for breaking our car or offering to make it better somehow.
We ended up going to Sam's Club and getting a new battery and everything worked out fine. Yay for things working out!
Sunday, April 22, 2012
In which we drove a new car for a couple of days
Kate and I have two vehicles: a 94 Taurus (Lenny) and a 2003 F150 (Clifford). I don't generally drive much, so there isn't really much reason for us to have two. And these particular cars get about 15 miles per gallon, which is costing us a pretty penny in gas. So, Kate and I looked at new cars for a while. Deep down we knew we couldn't afford a real new car and would have to get a new-to-us car, but it was still fun to pretend for a few weeks that we would be getting a new car.
We went to a few car dealerships and talked about new cars. The first, since we have two Fords, was the local Ford dealership. They were kind of dismissive and unhelpful. Must have been a busy day or something, because the salesman didn't even offer to have us sit down. He just stood there and answered a couple questions and acted bored.
Next we went to a Chevy dealership. We talked to a really nice saleswoman named Trish (I think...). Trish was excited to sell us a Sonic, which is a new model that's only existed for a year or so (it's a much-improved version of the Aveo, if anyone wants to know). We test drove it for a few minutes, and it was really nice. Smooth drive, good get-up-and-go, etc. When we came back to the dealership, we talked about money and all that for a few minutes, but it was close to closing time and Trish could sense that we weren't really sold and were about to slip through her fingers.
Trish threw us for a loop when she asked us if we wanted to continue the test drive till the next day. We could drive it all day and have it back the next evening. I explained that it would be hard for us to make it out the next day since I would be at work till late. Rather than let us walk away, she offered us 3 whole days driving a brand new car. I think she was pretty convinced that if we drove it for a bit we would fall in love with it. I was pretty sure that I wouldn't fall in love with anything that took 15% of my paycheck for the next 6 years. We agreed to give it a try because, hey, it sounded fun. We left Clifford there as collateral and drove off in a new car.
And there's Kate in "our" new Chevy Sonic. It was a fun car that we enjoyed driving for a couple days, but in the end, we just couldn't make ourselves want it enough to go into the kind of debt that it would require. So we took it back and Trish was very sad.
We got the keys to Clifford back, and they tried to pull him around for us to go home in, but the battery was dead. They jumped us, and assured us that they hadn't done anything wrong, so it was probably just a freak accident that our battery died. Not the case, but I think that'll come up in my next post.
On the way home we stopped by a Nissan dealer to talk about the Versa. At least, I think it was a Nissan dealer. It would have made more sense if it was just a front for some illegal business, or maybe another car company trying to put people off of buying Nissan. The guy explained to us that there were all sorts of hidden fees, so even though it looked like a good deal on TV, the Versa is kind of a crappy deal. We didn't get to test drive anything there and the guy never even asked my name (which is kind of a basic sales mistake, I think).
We also tried out a Fiat Pop a few days later. Again, we knew deep down that we couldn't afford it, but it was fun to pretend. And I've got to say, the Pop was super-fun. I was surprised. It is pretty cheap for what you get, it was fun to drive, and the gas mileage was fantastic. I also liked the way they do business at Fiat: no commissioned sales people, and no haggling. The price is the price.
I kind of felt ashamed to enjoy the Fiat so much because, I mean, come on. It's a Fiat. But nonetheless, if we were to buy a new car, it would probably be the Fiat Pop.
We went to a few car dealerships and talked about new cars. The first, since we have two Fords, was the local Ford dealership. They were kind of dismissive and unhelpful. Must have been a busy day or something, because the salesman didn't even offer to have us sit down. He just stood there and answered a couple questions and acted bored.
Next we went to a Chevy dealership. We talked to a really nice saleswoman named Trish (I think...). Trish was excited to sell us a Sonic, which is a new model that's only existed for a year or so (it's a much-improved version of the Aveo, if anyone wants to know). We test drove it for a few minutes, and it was really nice. Smooth drive, good get-up-and-go, etc. When we came back to the dealership, we talked about money and all that for a few minutes, but it was close to closing time and Trish could sense that we weren't really sold and were about to slip through her fingers.
Trish threw us for a loop when she asked us if we wanted to continue the test drive till the next day. We could drive it all day and have it back the next evening. I explained that it would be hard for us to make it out the next day since I would be at work till late. Rather than let us walk away, she offered us 3 whole days driving a brand new car. I think she was pretty convinced that if we drove it for a bit we would fall in love with it. I was pretty sure that I wouldn't fall in love with anything that took 15% of my paycheck for the next 6 years. We agreed to give it a try because, hey, it sounded fun. We left Clifford there as collateral and drove off in a new car.
And there's Kate in "our" new Chevy Sonic. It was a fun car that we enjoyed driving for a couple days, but in the end, we just couldn't make ourselves want it enough to go into the kind of debt that it would require. So we took it back and Trish was very sad.
We got the keys to Clifford back, and they tried to pull him around for us to go home in, but the battery was dead. They jumped us, and assured us that they hadn't done anything wrong, so it was probably just a freak accident that our battery died. Not the case, but I think that'll come up in my next post.
On the way home we stopped by a Nissan dealer to talk about the Versa. At least, I think it was a Nissan dealer. It would have made more sense if it was just a front for some illegal business, or maybe another car company trying to put people off of buying Nissan. The guy explained to us that there were all sorts of hidden fees, so even though it looked like a good deal on TV, the Versa is kind of a crappy deal. We didn't get to test drive anything there and the guy never even asked my name (which is kind of a basic sales mistake, I think).
We also tried out a Fiat Pop a few days later. Again, we knew deep down that we couldn't afford it, but it was fun to pretend. And I've got to say, the Pop was super-fun. I was surprised. It is pretty cheap for what you get, it was fun to drive, and the gas mileage was fantastic. I also liked the way they do business at Fiat: no commissioned sales people, and no haggling. The price is the price.
I kind of felt ashamed to enjoy the Fiat so much because, I mean, come on. It's a Fiat. But nonetheless, if we were to buy a new car, it would probably be the Fiat Pop.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Post-prelim sum up
Well, folks, it's time for me to come back out of the cave for a few minutes. Last week I took my prelim exam, which is big news. I passed, which is even bigger news.
The prelim exam is a rite of passage/hazing type experience. In order to be a "PhD candidate" you have to pass the test at the end of your second year in the program. I proposed a course of research and a committee of 3 professors assessed it and me. Oddly (at least I assume it's odd to people who don't go through it - it's not odd to me), my committee didn't care at all about the research I proposed, but more about the thought behind it. In other words, my committee told me that my proposal was stupid and I should never ever ever do it, but I still passed. They cared about the fact that I had thought through experiments and written some well-reasoned plans, even though those plans were to do something tremendously stupid.
In my defense, I totally agreed with them - I thought it was stupid, too. Not as stupid as they thought, but I thought it was dumb. I guess I just misunderstood the idea of what we were supposed to do for the prelim. There were some miscommunications and whatnot to blame for that, but mostly I think it's just the hush-hush frat initiation nature of the thing. If somebody could have given me some input early on, I could have seen that it was bad. But, that doesn't matter much because I am done and I don't have to do those experiments. Which is good because they're pretty dumb.
So, what else have I done with my life while I haven't been blogging? Well, lots of things that I plan on posting about retroactively. Kate and I bought a car and are working on selling both Lenny and Clifford (which is sad because I love Lenny). We've spent lots of time training Majzy (which is going very well). We've done some homey-crafty stuff (which is always fun and sometimes useful). Hopefully I'll post some more stories and pictures as the next couple days pass.
This weekend Kate's parents are coming to visit us, so we'll be spending some family time. Should be fun.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
Credit Card
Back when Kate and I were engaged, I saw an ad from Capitalone that said I could put a picture on my credit card for free. I thought it would be sweet to put a picture of me and Kate. Since we had just taken our engagement pictures, I grabbed one of those and put it on a card.
I've gotten mixed reactions. The cute old Chinese ladies at TK Wu thought it was adorable (and immediately started flirting with Hufnagel since I was taken).
The most common reaction is "is that you?" Nope. Just some guy. Thought he was cute.
Maggie thought it was so funny that she had to take a picture to show Matt, who laughed. Heather hid her amusement long enough to say it was cute.
But, it's time to get a new picture. Which poses a problem. Kate and I don't take many pictures. When we do take pictures, it's because we're somewhere fun which means I'm on vacation which means I probably haven't shaved. Or showered.
So, we went for a picture of Majzy. It's a really good picture that I'm really proud of. We went out for a day playing at the park in the snow, and as we ran back to the car, I pulled out the camera and caught this one. Black dog against a gray snowy background.
Neat, huh?
I've gotten mixed reactions. The cute old Chinese ladies at TK Wu thought it was adorable (and immediately started flirting with Hufnagel since I was taken).
The most common reaction is "is that you?" Nope. Just some guy. Thought he was cute.
Maggie thought it was so funny that she had to take a picture to show Matt, who laughed. Heather hid her amusement long enough to say it was cute.
But, it's time to get a new picture. Which poses a problem. Kate and I don't take many pictures. When we do take pictures, it's because we're somewhere fun which means I'm on vacation which means I probably haven't shaved. Or showered.
So, we went for a picture of Majzy. It's a really good picture that I'm really proud of. We went out for a day playing at the park in the snow, and as we ran back to the car, I pulled out the camera and caught this one. Black dog against a gray snowy background.
Neat, huh?
Friday, March 2, 2012
Prelim stress
Well, folks, here we are. Just a couple days left till I turn in the first part of my prelim. How am I using my time, you ask? Blogging, of course! Actually, this is just a quickie. I've been listening to music while I do mindless tasks like arranging figures in illustrator (FUN!), and I thought I'd share this one with you good folks. Winterlong by Neil Young, performed by the Pixies. Such a pretty song, and it's got that Pixies edge to it.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Our brave little pup
So, part of being responsible animal owners was getting Majzy fixed. We knew it was coming (in fact, it was in our contract with Kim that we get her fixed), but I guess it just seems so fast. She's barely 4 months old. But the vet says that's the time to do it, so we didn't argue.
She was apparently very good except when they put her in a crate while they weren't working with her. We've been a bit lax in crate training, so she really can't handle it. But aside from that, she was very good. We even have a certificate to prove it.
We had to wrap her in an ace bandage to keep her from licking the stitches, and the wrap made her look malnourished.
I guess she doesn't look too skinny from that angle, but trust me, it looked pathetic. Finally, there's the patch of fur where they had to shave to give her injections.
All in all, a rough day for this little mutt. But today she's way better. She's already back up to stealing Kate's underwear, so I guess she's back to normal.
She was apparently very good except when they put her in a crate while they weren't working with her. We've been a bit lax in crate training, so she really can't handle it. But aside from that, she was very good. We even have a certificate to prove it.
We had to wrap her in an ace bandage to keep her from licking the stitches, and the wrap made her look malnourished.
All in all, a rough day for this little mutt. But today she's way better. She's already back up to stealing Kate's underwear, so I guess she's back to normal.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Winter of Hell
Well, Dear Readers, here I am. In the middle of what Dan Sheidy (or maybe it was someone else, I can't remember) calls the Third Winter of Hell. Allow me to explain.
Two winters ago, I was at BYU. A senior. Applying for Grad school. This is a very stressful process. There's lots of essay writing, and then, if they like you, there's lots of missing classes, quizes, and sleep so you can fly out and interview at various grad schools. Then comes decision time, which is no fun for anybody. Whether you got into lots of schools or very few, it is still very stressful.
But then the winter ends, you get to grad school, and the stress level goes down a bit.
Last winter, I was in my final rotation. I had rotated for a few months in three different labs, and decision day was looming. It seems trivial, but picking a lab is actually a much bigger decision than picking a grad school. Going to grad school is like going to a party- there are lots of labs you can meet and chat up, and chances are that no matter what party you go to, there'll be somebody there you can have fun with. Picking a lab is like getting married. Except you see the people in your lab way more often than you see your wife. So, picking a lab last year was extremely stressful. There were lots of factors going into it, and lots of potential for hurting people's feelings.
But then the winter ends, you pick a lab, and just have fun with some people you like.
This winter, I am preparing for my prelim exam. This is the last real checkpoint before my dissertation, and it's the place where the faculty can say "gee, it was nice having you here, but we think it's not working out. Here's a Masters degree, please get out." So, as you can imagine, it's a stressful few months. I just finished my first draft of the written portion of my exam (which is why I am rewarding myself with a few minutes on the blog), and will spend the next two weeks refining that draft and filling holes. After that, I have a month to prepare for the oral exam, where things will get rough.
But, I'm confident that this winter, like all others, will end. If I pass, I get to spend the next few years in a state of relative autonomy working on my dissertation. If I don't, well, I always did like working the drive thru. I wonder if they'd take me back at McDonnalds...
Two winters ago, I was at BYU. A senior. Applying for Grad school. This is a very stressful process. There's lots of essay writing, and then, if they like you, there's lots of missing classes, quizes, and sleep so you can fly out and interview at various grad schools. Then comes decision time, which is no fun for anybody. Whether you got into lots of schools or very few, it is still very stressful.
But then the winter ends, you get to grad school, and the stress level goes down a bit.
Last winter, I was in my final rotation. I had rotated for a few months in three different labs, and decision day was looming. It seems trivial, but picking a lab is actually a much bigger decision than picking a grad school. Going to grad school is like going to a party- there are lots of labs you can meet and chat up, and chances are that no matter what party you go to, there'll be somebody there you can have fun with. Picking a lab is like getting married. Except you see the people in your lab way more often than you see your wife. So, picking a lab last year was extremely stressful. There were lots of factors going into it, and lots of potential for hurting people's feelings.
But then the winter ends, you pick a lab, and just have fun with some people you like.
This winter, I am preparing for my prelim exam. This is the last real checkpoint before my dissertation, and it's the place where the faculty can say "gee, it was nice having you here, but we think it's not working out. Here's a Masters degree, please get out." So, as you can imagine, it's a stressful few months. I just finished my first draft of the written portion of my exam (which is why I am rewarding myself with a few minutes on the blog), and will spend the next two weeks refining that draft and filling holes. After that, I have a month to prepare for the oral exam, where things will get rough.
But, I'm confident that this winter, like all others, will end. If I pass, I get to spend the next few years in a state of relative autonomy working on my dissertation. If I don't, well, I always did like working the drive thru. I wonder if they'd take me back at McDonnalds...
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Some day, Majzy. Some day.
I love the crap out of dogs, but when they do stuff like this, it's even more. I want these dogs.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Craigslist fun
Dear readers, I warn you that this will be a stream of consciousness post. I don't feel like thinking this through and making it coherent. Anybody who doesn't like it can complain to the management and get a full refund for your blog subscription.
So, Kate and I have a pile of stuff in the study that we really need to get rid of. For instance, the router that John and I bought at a garage sale when we lived together. 5 years ago. I have moved some of these things every time I moved since my mission. Since the beginning of my mission. So, I decided to finally take the time to put them on Craigslist.
One of the things was a TV I bought from Seth, my old roomie. I bought it from him when I was getting married and he was getting married and I needed a TV. But it has been sitting in the study for 6 months unused since Kate and I found a steal on a better one. So I finally bit the bullet and sold my old TV for a loss. I posted it for $70 and let the guy talk me down to $50. When he showed up he brought two friends, and they were barely able to carry it out of the apartment. And then they couldn't get it in their car.
I felt a little bad about this, but I had warned him that it was a big, old TV. I even sent him measurements. So I didn't feel too bad. We offered to put it in the back of Clifford (the F-150) and take it to his dorm for another $10. So, we loaded it up into the truck, but Elio was worried that it would fly around and get damaged. He had already paid for the TV, so I totally understand his concern. So, he decided to ride in the back of the truck with his new TV. Bear in mind that it was well after dark, 17 degrees, and kind of snowy.
Poor Elio thought he could handle it, but Kate was smarter than him thankfully. She gave him an extra coat, hat, scarf, and a blanket. We drove all the way across town to his dorm and by the time we got there he said he couldn't feel his legs. But he had a new TV. He got 10 guys from the dorm to help him unload it and take it in. I got $60, he got a TV, and everybody walked away happy. Capitalism!
So, Kate and I have a pile of stuff in the study that we really need to get rid of. For instance, the router that John and I bought at a garage sale when we lived together. 5 years ago. I have moved some of these things every time I moved since my mission. Since the beginning of my mission. So, I decided to finally take the time to put them on Craigslist.
One of the things was a TV I bought from Seth, my old roomie. I bought it from him when I was getting married and he was getting married and I needed a TV. But it has been sitting in the study for 6 months unused since Kate and I found a steal on a better one. So I finally bit the bullet and sold my old TV for a loss. I posted it for $70 and let the guy talk me down to $50. When he showed up he brought two friends, and they were barely able to carry it out of the apartment. And then they couldn't get it in their car.
I felt a little bad about this, but I had warned him that it was a big, old TV. I even sent him measurements. So I didn't feel too bad. We offered to put it in the back of Clifford (the F-150) and take it to his dorm for another $10. So, we loaded it up into the truck, but Elio was worried that it would fly around and get damaged. He had already paid for the TV, so I totally understand his concern. So, he decided to ride in the back of the truck with his new TV. Bear in mind that it was well after dark, 17 degrees, and kind of snowy.
Poor Elio thought he could handle it, but Kate was smarter than him thankfully. She gave him an extra coat, hat, scarf, and a blanket. We drove all the way across town to his dorm and by the time we got there he said he couldn't feel his legs. But he had a new TV. He got 10 guys from the dorm to help him unload it and take it in. I got $60, he got a TV, and everybody walked away happy. Capitalism!
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Stop SOPA and PIPA
For those of you who haven't heard about SOPA and PIPA, you should inform yourself about these laws and write your representatives and senators if you are opposed to them (which you probably will be- they're really poorly written legislation that will be bad for the internet).
But, to not have too much of a downer post, here's a fun video. About SOPA.
See, activism can be fun!
I wrote my senators and representative today. Did you?
But, to not have too much of a downer post, here's a fun video. About SOPA.
See, activism can be fun!
I wrote my senators and representative today. Did you?
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Chinese food
Last night, Kate and I went out to eat Chinese food at a place in Ypsi called Emerald City. We went because we've seen signs saying they have a buffet, and we love Chinese buffets. But, sadly, they only had a lunch buffet. We thought about going somewhere else, but we didn't know any other Chinese buffets so we decided to just go for Chinese food in normal portions.
The restaurant was really pretty, and I think I may go back some time during the day to take pictures. It was very unexpected. The entrance is around the back, so the front is very plain and it looks kind of like a dive from the road. But the entrance is really fun, with brick arches surrounding the entrance patio. Inside is pretty too, with lots of carved wood work. We were also the only white people there, which I always take as a good sign.
We ordered a family dinner for 2, which turned out to be more than enough food for the two of us to have dinner and a few lunches. When I asked for chop sticks, they brought me out the standard splinter-in-your-mouth disposable ones. You know the ones where you have to break the two chopsticks apart from eachother? Those.
I didn't mind because, like I said, that's pretty standard. But when I looked around, I noticed that all the other people -- the Chinese people -- had way nicer chopsticks. They all had nice polished black chopsticks. So, they gave me the kiddy sticks and saved the nice ones for the folks who know how to use them. I laughed all the way home.
The restaurant was really pretty, and I think I may go back some time during the day to take pictures. It was very unexpected. The entrance is around the back, so the front is very plain and it looks kind of like a dive from the road. But the entrance is really fun, with brick arches surrounding the entrance patio. Inside is pretty too, with lots of carved wood work. We were also the only white people there, which I always take as a good sign.
We ordered a family dinner for 2, which turned out to be more than enough food for the two of us to have dinner and a few lunches. When I asked for chop sticks, they brought me out the standard splinter-in-your-mouth disposable ones. You know the ones where you have to break the two chopsticks apart from eachother? Those.
I didn't mind because, like I said, that's pretty standard. But when I looked around, I noticed that all the other people -- the Chinese people -- had way nicer chopsticks. They all had nice polished black chopsticks. So, they gave me the kiddy sticks and saved the nice ones for the folks who know how to use them. I laughed all the way home.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Majzy pictures!
After posting the History of Majzy, I figure I should post some pictures. I mean, that's what everybody wants to see, right? These are all from the day we brought her home.
We set Majzy up a little spot for her food right below our food in the pantry.
Here you see Majzy in one of her favorite sleeping positions: all joints locked directly out.
And in the exact same pose, except she is sleeping under a chair. It looks way less comfortable. But, she had had a long day.
I'll post some more pictures soon. They're super cute.
We set Majzy up a little spot for her food right below our food in the pantry.
Here you see Majzy in one of her favorite sleeping positions: all joints locked directly out.
And in the exact same pose, except she is sleeping under a chair. It looks way less comfortable. But, she had had a long day.
I'll post some more pictures soon. They're super cute.
Majzy
For those who don't know, Kate and I recently got a dog. Here's the executive summary: she is pretty darn cute and we are very excited.
The more detailed version follows.
Kate gets really bad panic attacks (I've asked permission to share that with you, dear reader, so don't feel awkward about knowing something you shouldn't). We've done a lot of reading, and we have found that dogs can be trained to help cope with panic attacks. But to make this a useful thing, we would need to be able to take the dog anywhere (because the panic attacks aren't kind enough to only strike at home). So, we did lots of research into service animals.
We decided after all that research that we should get a dog that we could train to be of service to Kate. On the blog, I don't plan on dwelling overly much on the fact that she will be a service dog, but I figured it would come up at some point, and I wanted to mention it from the start.
In looking for a dog, we looked at lots of different makes and models. We looked at grown dogs and puppies. We looked at rescue dogs, rescue-rescue dogs (a term I just made up for dogs from places like Last Day Dog Rescue,which saves dogs from shelters on the last day before the shelters put them down, giving them another chance to get adopted), and dogs from breeders. Janine even tried to get us to adopt a Potcake, which I would have really enjoyed (partially because the adoption process involved spending a week in the Bahamas...) In the end we went through a breeder instead of rescuing a dog, which I feel kind of bad about. I would really have liked to save a dog from a bad situation, but that just wouldn't fit our needs.
We started looking at different breeds. We made a spreadsheet of about 200 breeds (all those recognized by the Ann Arbor Kennel Club). It seemed like as good a place to start as any. One by one we started removing them. Some were really easy- we got rid of about half just based on size. We ended up with half a dozen or so breeds that were worth looking at. So, we called breeders and did in depth research on those breeds.
We found a breeder about an hour and a half away from Ann Arbor who breeds Labradors and Flat Coated Retrievers. She just had a fresh litter of Flat Coats, and one of them seemed perfect to us. When we went out to meet Kim and the pups, we found that she had put little colored collars on each of them as soon as they were born so that she could tell them apart. We wanted the girl with the Yellow collar, which we just called "Yellow," for lack of a better name. We brought her home the next week.
As for the name, Kate wanted to keep the Yellow theme, so we thought of different things that are yellow. Banana is a terrible name. So is Sun, or Daisy, or Corn. Really anything sounds either like a person's name (like Daisy) or like a hippy's name (like Corn). So we went another step. We started looking at other languages just for fun. We put all those words into Google Translate and listened to them in other languages. Kate really likes scandy-land, so she fell on the idea of "Majs", Swedish for Corn. It's pronounced with a soft "J", like Maize. And since I am at the University of Michigan, with Maize and Blue as our colors, it seemed like a good fit. So we landed on Majzy (MAY-zee, rhymes with Daisy).
Majzy is a great pup, and she is being a lot of fun so far.
I was planning on having this post be mostly pictures with just a little explanatory text, but I think I will do that in a separate post. For anyone who just wants to see a cute puppy without going through all the boring explaining.
The more detailed version follows.
Kate gets really bad panic attacks (I've asked permission to share that with you, dear reader, so don't feel awkward about knowing something you shouldn't). We've done a lot of reading, and we have found that dogs can be trained to help cope with panic attacks. But to make this a useful thing, we would need to be able to take the dog anywhere (because the panic attacks aren't kind enough to only strike at home). So, we did lots of research into service animals.
We decided after all that research that we should get a dog that we could train to be of service to Kate. On the blog, I don't plan on dwelling overly much on the fact that she will be a service dog, but I figured it would come up at some point, and I wanted to mention it from the start.
In looking for a dog, we looked at lots of different makes and models. We looked at grown dogs and puppies. We looked at rescue dogs, rescue-rescue dogs (a term I just made up for dogs from places like Last Day Dog Rescue,which saves dogs from shelters on the last day before the shelters put them down, giving them another chance to get adopted), and dogs from breeders. Janine even tried to get us to adopt a Potcake, which I would have really enjoyed (partially because the adoption process involved spending a week in the Bahamas...) In the end we went through a breeder instead of rescuing a dog, which I feel kind of bad about. I would really have liked to save a dog from a bad situation, but that just wouldn't fit our needs.
We started looking at different breeds. We made a spreadsheet of about 200 breeds (all those recognized by the Ann Arbor Kennel Club). It seemed like as good a place to start as any. One by one we started removing them. Some were really easy- we got rid of about half just based on size. We ended up with half a dozen or so breeds that were worth looking at. So, we called breeders and did in depth research on those breeds.
We found a breeder about an hour and a half away from Ann Arbor who breeds Labradors and Flat Coated Retrievers. She just had a fresh litter of Flat Coats, and one of them seemed perfect to us. When we went out to meet Kim and the pups, we found that she had put little colored collars on each of them as soon as they were born so that she could tell them apart. We wanted the girl with the Yellow collar, which we just called "Yellow," for lack of a better name. We brought her home the next week.
As for the name, Kate wanted to keep the Yellow theme, so we thought of different things that are yellow. Banana is a terrible name. So is Sun, or Daisy, or Corn. Really anything sounds either like a person's name (like Daisy) or like a hippy's name (like Corn). So we went another step. We started looking at other languages just for fun. We put all those words into Google Translate and listened to them in other languages. Kate really likes scandy-land, so she fell on the idea of "Majs", Swedish for Corn. It's pronounced with a soft "J", like Maize. And since I am at the University of Michigan, with Maize and Blue as our colors, it seemed like a good fit. So we landed on Majzy (MAY-zee, rhymes with Daisy).
Majzy is a great pup, and she is being a lot of fun so far.
I was planning on having this post be mostly pictures with just a little explanatory text, but I think I will do that in a separate post. For anyone who just wants to see a cute puppy without going through all the boring explaining.
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