blueberry hill

went up it. and down it. (HUGE sand dune behind me.) without 4-wheel drive too. just rear-wheel. the 4-wheel was seizing up. DANG, WAS IT COLD! but more fun than i've had in quite a while. saw some hunters back on the trails. they were cool. lots of puddles. frozen puddles. now they're smashed up piles of ice chunks. vroom.

leaving tomorrow...uh...later today

i'm going up to the u.p. like i always do this time of year but usually i've packed by now. it's just after midnight and i haven't even started. oh well. at least my laundry is done. i just gotta try to remember to throw everything important in a bag and i'll be good. right? anyway, we're going to cedar campus--intervarsity's main conference grounds in the midwest. it's about a 45-minute drive northeast of mackinac island. (like...a 7-8 hour drive.) yeah, it's sweet up there. few people and lots of coastline. plenty of little fuzzy critters too. but some are stinky. anyway, we're going with some chinese people--we do that often--but this time, they know no english. the baby in this picture is their granddaughter. and the parents of the baby went to cedar last year. anyway, without knowing english, it will be fun playing charades to try to communicate. i can't wait to SLEEP in the car. oh, and we rented a suburban like we usually do. so we'll have plenty of space for luggage and to stretch out. woohoo. and SHOULD IT DECIDE TO SNOW, like, EVER, we'll have the 4-wheel-drive to handle it. okay. ta ta for now. hopefully i'll have some sort of wireless up there so i can post some more. i should be banished from my blog since i update it so INfrequently. yeah, i know. sorry.

my new friend

cliff levingston. he's now the coach of the gary steelheads. he used to be on the bulls championship team back in the day, tho, with jordan, pippen, and rodman. i'm his contact person for the courts--the steelheads are using the facility for tryouts and to do their spring camp. the league the steelheads is in isn't the NBA, of course, but i believe it's the USBL. i think. anyway, it's cool getting to know new people. and from ALL different walks.

again, sorry for not posting for so long. ugh. i really mean to do better!!!

back from traverse city

my friends diann & matt got married this weekend in traverse city. of course i was hoping for snow--lake effect or ANY kind--and all we got was drizzle and freezing rain. oh well. anyway, here are some pics. there's one of matt and diann (already changed out of their wedding attire), andy and diann (still dressed up), me and diann, me and andy, and chad, abby, and andy eating pza while watching the GAME. yeah, OSU vs. michigan. then we went back down to lansing to drop off chad and crash at andy's apt.

puppy at the polling place

okay...so i worked at the nov. 7th election and we had a special little voter come in. and yes, i was at the porter county highway department so i had to wear one of their very fashionable vests. like my little friend? and my beautiful vest? i love the color.

biggest, most hugest apologies

but i'm SO EXCITED THAT "STAY THE COURSE" RUMSFELD RESIGNED that i had to post today. even though i don't really have time, i have to share my excitement. i also apologize big time for not being online much recently. i've been SO SO SO SO SO busy i can't even explain it.

anyway, i'm glad the election is over so i don't have to watch any more of those dumb, worthless, pointless, idiotic partisan commercials on t.v. (not that i have time to watch that either, but anyway...)

i hope everyone voted AMERICAN. straight party tickets should be OUTLAWED. they SUCK.

got arrested today

it was actually a fundraiser for P.A.T.H. but i bet the title got your attention! yeah, it's for a good cause and hopefully will bring in a good amount of money for them and the cause. i called a bunch of people this morning to try to post bail--using their donations. any questions about path, go to www.pathblazer.org and you'll see what they're all about. this is a pic of me and the guy running for sheriff here in town.

man enuf to vacuum with pink

got a pink dyson vacuum cleaner for the office area at the courts from mark's bro dirk somewhere in ohio. mark's mom said "just because it's pink doesn't mean you can't use it!" yeah, mark is comfortable enuf with his masculinity to use a pink vacuum cleaner. that rocks. besides...the pink vacuum cleaner supports breast cancer research. real men vacuum with pink.

sending wiring thru conduit....

but first you must gather the HEAVY SPOOLS OF WIRE on a 10 ft. piece of conduit and watch the conduit bend. then try to get the HEAVY SPOOLS OF WIRE back OFF the conduit. right. good luck with that. oh yeah, then they all crash down and the spools break. did i mention how fun that was? we did that on thursday of this week...i believe. i dunno. all these fun days run together!

happy birthday shelley!

you can guess the culprit....

back to the courts

well, last week we had a pup running around with carpet scraps, muddy deliveries, and a ROLLER indoors to try to flatten the one tennis court that has a few issues. popcorn fest was also this weekend and we made a float. that's about it. (oh yeah, and i got, like, NO SLEEP whatsoever.) i'll catch up this week.

cancelled! postponed?

we're not opening on time. that's kind of a relief now that it's been announced. stuff has been crazy. on top of me working at the courts trying to get everything ordered, delivered, and ready for our (now delayed) opening, i'm decorating stuff for our little popcorn float as well as making videos for church. kinda busy. anyway, i interviewed three people tonite for the dvd--joe, cindy and rick. the best pic i took this week was of rick on sunday. tonight the guys did the wiring for tvs throughout the church. now all we need are more tvs!

i drove it :)

yup i did. and here's the view in all directions.

yukki day

it dragged on. and on.

i was sposed to meet some guys at the gym this morning (at 9) to go over things we're ordering for the foodservice stuff. the concessions stand. one guy ended up canceling--AFTER i was already there. so the other guy called me and i drove back down to valpo to meet him at bob evans. we agreed on some stuff and he ordered it. that was good.

everything else was bad. found out this guy eric was right about me having to take some dumb class. it's called "serve safe" and i heard it's totally gross and disgusting. (in order to have our concessions stand valid and in good standing.) the day dragged some more. all the building's doors were shut when i finally DID make it in today--but the smell and air quality was awful. guys were cutting the ceiling tile and there was some kind of fine dust EVERYWHERE. it almost hurt to breathe.

bad news all day. another bit of not-the-greatest-news was that the health dept. is trying to say that we have to have a three-sink thing in our little "kitchen." AS IF!!!!! we're not a freaking restaurant! or a camp! we are not washing any dishes because we are using disposable everything! the few utensils we use can be washed in the sink that will be there. but there's no need to do the three-sink-thing. that is TOTALLY unnecessary.

bad news kept coming. some i won't even go into detail about. would take way too long to explain.

and then BROWN showed up. in all his glory. and gave us TWO of THREE packages and drove off. and yes, before i realized we were missing one. i tracked him down through the westville office and after a LONG while, found out that our poor lone parcel had been delivered to some chrysler/jeep dealership on route 30. WHAT IS THAT? anyway, after numerous phone calls, i got the guy to agree to deliver it yet today. he last spoke with me at 5-something to make sure we were still there on-site. when i left at 6:15ish, he had not come yet. oh well. BROWN is becoming a TARNISHED color.

had a cookout with mom, dad, and moussa, and that was good. now i'm going to bed--and THAT will also be good.

hope tomorrow's better.

here's a pic of the little zamboni-type machine i drove all afternoon yesterday to try to clean the tennis surface so it could be sealed today. every time i emptied the dirty water tank, i could definitely tell i had been cleaning a blacktop surface. hopefully it was cleaned sufficiently.

hi moussa!

our parking lot at the courts today was a LAKE. another reason to have a TRUCK or other suv to drive to work. besides that, it had better be a truck pullin a boat! here's a pic of me and mark working on the bathroom floors. i did trim stuff and he rolled. then nikki, his daughter, and i would throw these chips/flakes on the floor. it was fun. even the chip fight. the pic mark took of me and nikki is gone. don't think he saved it. bum. oh yeah, and mark is very FUZZY.

oh, and welcome, moussa! moussa is a friend of my parent's who is visiting from burkina faso, africa. he runs several schools and churches there. they got their doctorates together at TIU. he'll be here about a month. have fun and get lots done!

TORNADO!

lots of trees down. teeny bit of hail damage to my car. (it was quarter size hail.) major MAJOR wind damage. top wind speed was clocked near the pines at 106 mph. and then there was the calm after the storm--as pictured here over lake michigan.

hoops

we have hoops! the backboards on end are quite a bit taller than me. gotta say that surprised me. they look so small! but it's starting to look like a gym. in order to lay the hardwood floors, the surface must be even. the concrete cured all within one eighth of an inch of being level. for the little dips and discrepancies on the concrete, felt must be laid before the wooden buffer is laid. (the wooden buffer goes between the hardwood and the concrete.) today they started marking (spray-painting with orange) those spots and cutting and placing the felt. strange, eh?

anyway, the other pic is of the gym from across the highway. on the exit ramp on the way home from chicago i took a pic.

pics from ohio

away

been on the farm. at the farm. in ohio. back now. pics will follow.

my new office