Tomorrow we close on the condo! I think everything is ready to go. I just had to hold the check in my hand, just to see what it felt like to hold that much money!
Wish us luck!
Weekend Update
First off, I’m reposting the search box now that my last one has moved off the page:
Hopefully I won’t have to do that forever. Yet another LJ annoyance!
Okay, so now to what has actually been going on in our lives lately!
Two weekends ago we went to Purdue for the Alpha Phi Omega 75th anniversary. We had a good time, it was a good weekend. Unfortunately not many people turned up from our “era.” Most of the people who came were recent graduates or from a really long time ago. I was hoping to see some of the people I was friends with while I was there. The weather was a little crappy…okay it was a lot crappy! So we didn’t go around Bug Bowl very much. We did a couple of service projects and went to a dedication ceremony for Professor Teaford. That was one of my favorite parts, it was really good to see him again. I would have trouble believing there could be any individual that could be more devoted to an organization or be a better adviser, not to mention the most entertaining professor that could possibly exist. The highlight of the weekend was the banquet at the renovated stadium. Some of the highlights included a past national president speaking, a presentation about our chapter (Alpha Gamma) through the decades including research on some of our traditions and how they started, and a short speech by a guy who pledged in the ’40s and talked about keeping the chapter alive through WWII. So anyway, it was a good time and too bad for all you guys who didn’t show up because you missed out!
During the week after that I was supposed to go to a conference in Detroit, but that fell through. So Sara had invited her sister to come and stay here in the meantime. It was a pretty low key visit, we didn’t really do much. It was nice to have her here, but unfortunately she got sick towards the end. That weekend we visited a friend of Sara’s from grad school who recently moved to Chicago. The highlight of that trip was playing with the parachute! Remember like when you were in grade school and you played with the parachute? Well, they have one to play with their son and it was good time.
We also spent money like it was going out of style! Behr paint was on sale, so we spent $400 on paint and paint supplies! On Sunday we went to a store to look at chairs and we ended up buying a chair AND a crib! We had been looking for a crib for a long time and hadn’t found anything, so we just stumbled onto the perfect one. For the chair, we were looking for a rocker/glider for the baby’s room, but we ended up buying a little more substantial one that we can use in the living room one day.
Sunday night my mom and brother showed up. Nathan was just there to borrow the car to continue on to WI for job interviews. Mom got her passport fixed on Monday (after many trials and tribulations) and then left for Japan on Tuesday! She’s there now. Unfortunately I had to wake up at 5 a.m. to take her!
So this weekend, we had the final walk-through on the condo today. There was nothing really to report about that, it went pretty smoothly. Tuesday is the big day! After that we will be a couple of homeowners. Today I watched the NFL draft for about 8 hours and tomorrow we will go visit Dabu and play games.
Aaaaaand I think that actually brings us up to the present! I expect that updates are going to start being few and far between since we are going to be this busy for the foreseeable future.
If I could just get serious for a second…
If you have a second, hop on over to Chris for a Cure and support his crusade against Breast Cancer. We haven’t actually donated yet, but we will! Just waiting for the next credit card cycle. 🙂 Anyway, I just wanted to throw what small amount of traffic my blog can generate over there and maybe it can make a difference. It certainly can’t hurt.
From Chris for a Cure:
“As you may know, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer last fall. After having the tumor
removed, she is just finishing up chemotherapy treatment and will soon begin radiation therapy.
She now has a very good chance of beating the disease, but only because of the world-class
treatment and care that she is receiving. She is the third woman in my family to be diagnosed
with breast cancer, and, thankfully, all of them are surviving. I found the fact that none of them
are blood-related to be a very sobering realization. These facts led me to two important
conclusions. (1) The incidence of breast cancer is exceptionally high, and (2) it does not just
strike those with a family history; it is an indiscriminate killer.
After all of this, I was overcome with a strong urge to do something about it. Not being to
terribly skilled at oncology myself, I decided to do the next best thing and support those who do
have the skills to work towards a cure. I found my opportunity when I learned that the Avon
Walk for Breast Cancer was going to be held in Denver this summer. The walk is a weekendlong
event in which the participants camp out in a small community sleeping in tents, eating in
mess halls, and showering in trailers. And also, we will walk! Over the course of two days,
participants walk 39.3 miles (26.2, a marathon, the first day and 13.1 the second). The catch is
that in order to participate, each person must raise at least $1800 for the Avon Foundation, who
will put the money toward breast cancer research, treatment, and awareness.
This is where you come in. I am asking for your help to get me to my fundraising goal of
$1,954.00. As a starting point, I am asking each person to contribute $50. If you are able to give
more, by all means do, and if that is a little steep, I gladly welcome any contribution you can
make. There are two ways to make your payment. (1) By check: Payable to Avon Walk for
Breast Cancer. Just drop it in the pre-stamped envelope I have enclosed and add the payment
coupon and send it to me. Or: (2) By credit card: Go to the website I have created,
chrisforacure.blogspot.com, and click the “Click Here to Support Me” button on the right
sidebar. With this option, you also have the option of paying in monthly installments, so you are
able to more comfortably contribute more if you so wish. And don’t forget to ask your employer
if they are willing to match your contribution or even give one of their own!
Whether you choose to donate by check or credit card, or even not at all, I would appreciate if
you could fill out the enclosed payment coupon and mail it back to me in the enclosed prestamped
envelope. Also, if you would like to share any stories that you have on how cancer has
touched your life, or any words of encouragement, I plan to carry with me any and all materials I
receive with me on the walk (but please, no items over 30 pounds ;).
And if you know of anyone who would be interested in supporting me, please share this letter
and let others know about my commitment to the fight against breast cancer! If you have any
questions or concerns, feel free to email/call/stop by. Thank you for your support; you really do
make a difference!”
More stuff
Okay, I came across this and it is hilarious:
I assumed it was a photoshop or something, but I still got a chuckle out of it. Obviously we go to Snopes and check it out. Turns out that it is real…sort of. It really was in the newspaper, but the person who wrote it is a lawyer and obviously wrote it to be humorous. There are some pretty good responses to the newspaper listed on the snopes page. The best part is at the bottom:
Evidently Mr. Meskimen has been receiving a number of direct inquiries about his bit of satire, as the voicemail at his office phone presents callers with the following message: “If you are calling about the Daylight Savings Time letter and wish to explain global warming or daylight savings time to me, I would urge you to get a sense of humor and/or a life, in that order. Unless, of course, you want to pay me for an interview; if so, please leave your telephone number and I will expediently return your call.”
Now this is sort of interesting, have you checked out Alexa? It’s been around for a while obviously, but it is still an interesting site to check out. Basically it tracks the popularity of all the websites on the Internet. So it is interesting to see which sites are popular or moving up or dropping. You can also search for any site and receive a ranking of how popular that site is. Unfortunately it doesn’t rank LiveJournal pages individually, so I can’t see where I am at. It just shows the statistics for www.livejournal.com. If only livejournal didn’t block me from using google analytics…
Didn’t I already type this?
Okay, first things first, here is the rest of the post that I typed up and lost last night. LJ has really been pissing me off lately with their java-script removing. Perhaps it is time to look elsewhere.
So you’ve probably already seen this since it was national news, but these people just attended their school’s first integrated prom. When I saw that title, I thought it was going to be a retrospective on some old people who attended their first integrated prom in the 60s. Nope, 2007! I just can’t believe such a thing was still going on.
Speaking of things that are crazy, there is actually a political party in India extolling the rights of the undead. I’m not kidding, go read the article! “We are using elections to highlight the problems of living dead,” said Bihari. “We know we cannot win elections but through election we can sensitize people and officials about this problem.” Remind me not to go to any country that has enough Zombies to have them qualify as a voting block (40,000 according to the article). And who would be crazy enough to lead up the Zombie party? “His reasons for pursuing the cause stem from his own experience. He was declared dead in 1976…”
I don’t know how this works exactly, but according to Peter King on MMQB if you go here and watch the video “What kind of world do you want” by Five for Fighting, $0.49 will be donated to autism research. Not a bad deal, considering it is actually a good song!
