Farm on the Forth

We just got back from Colfax for the weekend, and this was Tracy’s first time meeting Mom’s side of the family. We drove down Friday afternoon and we were surprised that there wasn’t a lot of holiday traffic. I thought it would be fun to have Tracy meet Nan and see the farm, where I spent so many summers growing up. I’ve always told Tracy that Nan is a riot and tells great stories, but you have to experience her in person. She thought I was making up a voice for her, but after meeting her, she agreed that I have her accent down pat.

We had a cookout yesterday with Mom’s sister and her husband, although rain put a damper on the holiday. But it was nice to spend time with everyone underneath the covered porch. Tracy also got to see all the sights and even got to feed the horses on the farm. Life in Indiana is a lot slower than Ann Arbor, so we made a trip to Lafayette to hang out at the mall for a couple of hours, which also gave Tracy a chance to be away from my family for awhile.

I was glad I got to see Nan and I’m grateful that Tracy was willing to tag along. I guess it’s my turn to visit Tracy’s relatives in Tennessee next time before we head out to Chicago to see Grandma Schick. Now hopefully she has a better idea of all my lame Indiana jokes...

Irony is Forming

After all the confusion about whether or not I was accepted to grad school behind me, I thought all my bureaucratic problems would be over, at least until graduation anyway. You would think working at a public university would have prepared me for what was to follow.

I met with my program advisor and we went over the classes offered for the fall term. I looked at the list and decided to take a class that would be within my area of expertise, as I figured the transition back to a school routine with reading assignments and homework could be an initial tough adjustment. So this one sounded perfect: English 428- Writing Computer Documentation. Plus, it’It’s what I do on a daily basis at work, so if I can’t ease back into school with this class, I’m in for a long road ahead. Plus, it’s offered online!

The only catch about this class is it is offered at undergraduate level. No big deal; my program allows students to take up to three classes that are 400-level, provided you have the professor’s permission. My advisor promised me it wouldn’t be an issue once I filled out a form with the professor, so I didn’t think much about it.

Last week, I went over to Eastern on my lunch break to pick up and fill out the necessary form. I picked it up from the English department office and started to fill it out. The only problem was I didn’t know my student ID number. So I had to go home that night to look it up. The next day I dropped it off in the professor’s mailbox the next day. My advisor told me that most profs would sign it and get it back to her at some point, so I thought I was done.

Alas, that wasn’t the case. My professor e-mailed me saying he signed the form and it was in his outbox. He didn’t offer to get the form signed for the advisor for me. Her office is across the hall from his. So I had take another lunch break to drive over to Eastern to literally move a form across the hallway from one mailbox to another. For a class that is taken entirely online.

Since I am new to the program, I didn’t want to ruffle any feathers and complain about this process. My advisor failed to mention that her signature was necessary and my professor was too lazy/important to move a form for me. All in all, I had to make three trips to Eastern to process a form for an online class.

Soupy Comedy

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this on here before, but Tracy and I are big fans of the TV show, “The Soup.” It’s a weekly show on E! hosted by comedian Joel McHale that reviews the previous week in pop culture and offers biting commentary on the clips. It’s really the only way I keep tabs on celebrity gossip and the like, but not like I really care what Paris Hilton is up to anyway. Hell, if I didn’t watch The Soup, I would have had no idea who Jon and Kate are, but still am not sure why their divorce is a big deal (I think I would be more annoyed seeing them on the cover of every tabloid if I didn’t know they had their own reality show).

At the end of a recent show, Joel mentioned that he was performing his stand-up routine in Cleveland and we decided it would be fun to drive down for a mini vacation and see him in person. As an added bonus, Tracy would also get to visit Mike Symon’s other restaurant, Lolita (the first being Roast in downtown Detroit).

All in all, it was a pretty disappointing weekend. First of all, the hotel we booked was overrun with little kids, as it was the site for some local soccer tournament. We were awaken this morning to a prank phone call at 7:30 a.m. Secondly, we should have went Lolita before Roast, as the food just wasn’t as good. It was more of a bistro than a high-end restaurant. We could only get reservations for 5:00 p.m. and I’m convinced we would have been lost as missed it if not for Karen.

When we got to the theater, it was located inside a high school with no air conditioning. That should have been the sign to leave. We sat in cramped seats in complete blackness as the warmup comedian came out. He was decent, but he kept constantly plugging his Soup spin-off on G4.

Then Joel came out and the crowd went nuts. The first half of his set was almost like an episode of The Soup: ripping celebrities, mocking bad TV shows and of course, taking shots at Ryan Seacrest. While all that works on the show, it just felt tired and forced live. The people around us didn’t seem to mind, as they were practically rolling in the aisles. Tracy and I looked at each other and thought we had heard all these jokes before. And if you had never seen an episode of The Soup, you would have been complexly clueless.

After about half an hour, he switched over to jokes about his wife and kids, and that didn’t seem to work either. Maybe I was already turned off or that wasn’t what I expected as his original material, but I didn’t find it that funny either. I mean, if I wanted marriage jokes, I would have went to see Ray Romano. While walking back to our car, we decided he must have some good writers on the show, as he wasn’t as funny off-camera. We’re not sure how we’ll feel watching the show on Friday, as most of his luster has been removed in our eyes.

Wait, the Red Wings... lost?

This isn’t intended to be a “bash the Wings” post (although it could turn out that way), but I just wanted to relay my shock and share in the disbelief that my coworkers have that Detroit couldn’t win the Stanley Cup this year. It always seems that when the Wings have their backs against the wall, they always pull it together and come through in a big way. I figured game 7 would be no different, but from the way my work friends have been cursing the officials throughout this series, maybe it wasn’t meant to be this year.

I get a lot of crap from co-workers for not supporting the local team, but I always tell them that while I don’t like the Red Wings, I do respect them. The franchise is the model for all other NHL teams, from both commitment to winning to supporting the community. Hell, the Sharks hired their assistant coach in an attempt to implement their offensive system.

So sorry, Wings fans. Here’s hoping we’ll eventually get that San Jose-Detroit series in the Western finals that would make everyone happy next year.

Best Part of Moving

I know I’ve written quite extensively about our apartment search and moving recently and the majority of it has been negative, but I have found a few things about moving to be rewarding. Going through all my stuff has been a lot of fun, seeing things in storage I haven’t seen in years and all the great memories associated with them. It also made me feel thankful for the life I have been able to lead so far.

And then there is the uncontrollable laughter that comes from finding something from your past that is beyond embarrassing, and the subsequent amazement that you kept it for so long.

Photo: Circa 1987

Another New Roommate

I’m not sure if this was a promise I made to Tracy after agreeing to move in or a bribe to get her to say yes, but I said we could get a second cat once we were settled in our new place. We picked up our kitten from a relative of one of Tracy’s students earlier today and our newest member of the family is adjusting to her new surroundings.

We had a little bit of trouble coming up with a name for our little girl. Naturally, our first thought was to go back to Seinfeld names to complement Cosmo. But Tracy didn’t like Babs (although it was a perfect fit, I had to concede it didn’t feel right either) and after looking at some other prominent names in the series (Elaine, Helen, Estelle, Sue Ellen), none of them sounded right. We then went with other female names before settling on Zoey.

I was a little worried that Cosmo wouldn’t respond well to a buddy, but I think he was secretly lonely. Tracy’s parents gave her a stuffed cat plush that she brought with her and Cosmo found it and was cuddling with it earlier this week. He could have been seeking company after a stressful move, but we like to think he was telling us he wanted a friend. He seems to be willing to accept her into his house, but it will take time. She is currently living in the spare bathroom until they get used to each other, which we think will take about a week.

I’m curious to see how this will all shake out. I liked the setup we had with Cosmo, as we could come and go as we pleased, as his autofeeder took care of his meals and his water jug could go a month without changing. Now we have two different sets of food, litter, toys, etc., and trying to keep them separate will be a challenge. Tracy says I need to let it go, as they will never learn human-type boundaries, but my OCD and stubbornness will make sure I die trying.

Photo: “I’m too cute to be locked in this bathroom!”

Home Sweet (New) Home

After finally finding a place willing to call us back, Tracy and I signed a lease at our new Ann Arbor apartment and began moving in this weekend. After finally finding a place willing to call us back, Tracy and I signed a lease at our new Ann Arbor apartment and began moving in this weekend.

Once Dad and I were done moving me into my old apartment and practically killing ourselves and each other in the process, I decided the next time I moved I would hire movers. I thought I could handle moving all the little stuff myself and leave the furniture to the movers, but I think I’ll have to make myself another promise to let them do everything next time. I took Friday off from work and have been moving stuff all weekend, and I’m still not done yet. Maybe I just need to get rid of some crap and I’ll be in better shape next time.

After looking at the combined amount of stuff she and I have, I think we made the right choice of apartments. I don’t think we could have fit all our crap into the Ypsi apartment, as this place has an outdoor storage unit, as well as bigger closets and more space for furniture. Tracy brought her bedroom set out of storage and vowed her days of renting a storage unit were over, so we had to fit it and my desk into the spare bedroom. All our furniture seems to be in place, but we have a long way to go before all the junk finds a place in the various closets and cabinets, but I’m proud of the progress we’ve made. Below is a set of pictures we took after signing the lease on Thursday, and I’ll try to post another set once everything is clean again (might be awhile).

Photo: Living/dining room


Photo: Master bedroom


Photo: Kitchen

Global Positioning Sweetness

I am a self-professed geography dork. This can be traced back to the countless hours I spent in the back seat of the folks car, shutting back and forth between two sets of grandparents and I needed to occupy my time with something. Some kids could have read books; I obsessed over traffic signs. Over 25 years of analyzing maps and signs across the country, I have a pretty good sense of direction. So it makes total sense that I purchased a GPS this week.

When I told Tracy about my desire to purchase a GPS, she didn’t understand my need for it. “You rarely get lost. Why would you need something that gives you directions?” She made a very good point, but the directions aspect was only a minor reason for my purchase. As I said, I love maps, so why not have a device in your car that displays a map while you are driving? I always “followed along” on a map as we took road trips when I was younger; this is the 21st century equivalent.

Going back to the directions part, my thought was it would come in handy during my A:A road trips. I’m in a foreign area and I want to find a Chick-fil-A; my Garmin can give a list of 10 nearby! But I’ve even found it useful around here, helping navigate around construction or finding locations of places I’ve never been (like Tracy’s friends’ houses). And guys who are afraid to ask for directions: you won’t have to worry about that anymore. You can claim you like gadgets, which makes for a perfect cover.

The last point is you can choose what type of voice you want when it speaks directions. I found it amusing that it has three accents (American, British and Aussie) in both genders, and all the male voices suck (that’s not a gender bias, Tracy agrees with me). I went with the Aussie woman (named Karen; Tracy thinks it’s weird I refer to the GPS unit by her name), my personal favorite accent. There’s something hot about a woman with an Aussie accent telling me where to go.

Photo: Oh Karen, you always know where I want to go

Finally, we have an apartment

Sorry there haven’t been any updates on the apartment search recently, but circumstances kept me from posting, as nothing was nailed down. Tracy and I secured an apartment, but it has been a crazy couple of weeks getting to this point. Things started off well and we found a place we liked, but it turns out they didn’t want us.

When we started looking at apartments, we cast a pretty wide net. We looked all over the area, with the furthest place being in Canton. I think we ended up visiting around 15 different communities, but there were only two we really liked upon initial viewing: one in Ann Arbor and one in Ypsilanti. We went back to both places for a second look and we decided to go with the Ypsi apartment.

We filled out an application and thought we were on the fast track to moving in. Our agent promised us a free month’s rent upon submitting our application, so we figured they were desperate for new tenants. But we didn’t hear back from her for over two weeks. I called the office and our agent told us we had already been approved. She then told us she was going to locate a unit for us and she would let us know when it was ready for viewing.

My lease expires at the end of the month, so we needed to secure a move-in date at least two weeks before. We set a deadline of yesterday to have an apartment and we thought that wouldn’t be an issue. We were told we could sign our lease last Friday, but we didn’t hear from our agent. I began to get nervous and decided to fill out an application at the Ann Arbor place as a contingency plan, but not thinking of it as a serious option (more of a leverage point with the Ypsi place). We said if we didn’t hear from the Ypsi place by yesterday, we would pursue the Ann Arbor place.

Turns out, that’s exactly what happened. We never heard back from the Ypsi place, and Tracy called them on Thursday to see what was up. She spoke to a different member of the office staff, and was told that they were ready for us to sign the lease and move in. This was a surprise to us, as we didn’t even know they had a unit reserved for us.

After taking a day to talk it over, we decided that if the office staff of the Ypsi place wasn’t interested in taking care of us before moving in, things would only get worse after we signed a lease. All they had to do was pick up the phone and give us a call to let us know they still wanted us! But they failed to do that, and we passed.

As soon as we moved forward with the Ann Arbor place, we knew we made the right choice. They processed our application within 24 hours and had a unit picked out for us within a few days. We are signing the lease next week and I plan to start moving in Friday.

So next week, Tracy and I will be moving into a new Ann Arbor two-bedroom apartment. There really wasn’t anything majorly wrong with this place, besides being slightly bigger and more expensive. I have an issue with the door to the outside nothing having an intercom, but Tracy says it’s not a big deal. Once we sign the lease, I should post some pictures for you to check out.

Green Release Day

I have never claimed to be up on the latest music trends. My taste in music is all over the place, but I tend to prefer classic rock and oldies to anything that is released today. There are a few currently performing artists I like, but I would rather listen to my eclectic mix on my iPod than anything on the radio.

Tracy listens to alternative, so that at least keeps me up to date on that genre. But I am usually several years behind what is cool and don’t appreciate something until it is too late. For example, I just started liking Stone Temple Pilots, which would have been a big help in 8th grade.

But today, I did something I haven’t done in well over a decade. I went out and bought a CD on the day it was released: Green Day’s 21st Century Breakdown. I’m not sure if it’s still cool to like Green Day or not, but I really don’t care. I really liked American Idiot (three years after it was released, naturally), so I thought I would give this one a try.

I usually have to listen to songs a couple of times before I can pass judgment, but I’m not sure I like it as much as Idiot. I liked almost every song on that album, but I had a harder time finding songs I liked this time around. My favorite track has to be “American Eulogy,” with “The Static Age” close behind. I have to say I really don’t care for the two singles that have been released from the album, especially “Know Your Enemy.” Maybe if the lyrics didn’t repeat every line I would like it more, but I doubt it.

I was trying to think of the last CD I bought that would have been considered cool at the time, and the best I could come up with was Weezer’s blue album. So it seems that once a decade I am cool enough to talk about current music. Although 10 years from now, CDs will likely have gone the way of the cassette and 8-track.