Nothing like a wedding at a little chapel in Hell to start out your new life! Congratulations to Dann and April on their day! Though the weather was dreary and rainy the day was great! it started out with a nice reception lunch at their apartment club house and then moved to Hell for the ceremony. I have to say it was probably the most unusual wedding ceremony that I have been to, but it was extremely fitting and appropriate for Dann and April, and we wish them a lifetime of happiness!
Category Archives: General
Ten Years, Never Forget
Definitly Time to get Insurance
So I was getting ready for work this morning, actually I was ready and sitting at my computer doing some pre-work, when I heard a really odd sound. The best way I can describe it is that it sounded like the compressor on my refrigerator kicked on, but it was at least ten times louder. So, naturally, I got up to check out what it was. When I got to my kitchen, however, I could plainly see what and where the noise was coming from…the two fire trucks outside my building. Apparently one of them was a pump truck and I was hearing the pump engaging. Obviously this was not a good sign, and seeing a hose going from the truck and into the building next to mine (which is actually connected to mine, they share an exterior wall) was an even worse sign. I had heard the sirens for the trucks but seeing as they were not blasting and lasted only a moment I had thought it was coming from the main road that I am right next to, apparently I was wrong. I am so used to hearing the sirens, seeing as we live next to a main road and less than a mile from the fire station, that I didn’t check to see where it was coming from when I did hear it. The issue was resolved rather quickly as the trucks left in under an hour. I later found out (from talking to one of the maintenance guys on my way out to work) that someone had a small grease fire in their kitchen and there was not a whole lot of damage. It did however make me realize that I have been meaning to look into getting renters insurance for a very long time. Seeing as we don’t have any, if that fire had been more serious and spread through the building we could have lost everything with no means to replace anything. So while I was on my lunch break today I got a couple of quotes and once I got home I promptly purchased my first renters insurance policy. It doesn’t actually go in to effect until February 1st, so now I just have to hope that in the next week no one burns down the apartment. Surprisingly, I do feel better knowing that I have this policy, especially after this mornings activities.
First Central Air Day
After Soccer today Melissa and I went to Patrick’s (my buddy Chuck’s son) Graduation Party for a few hours. It was nice to hang out and have a drink with a bunch of really nice people. The food was great and the company was super. The only problem was the heat. It turned out to be incredibly hot today, and even though the party was mainly held in the shade of Chuck’s garage, the heat was still quite oppressive. So much so that as soon as we got home we closed the windows and turned the central air on for the first time this year. Judging from how the days have been though, I have a feeling this is the first of many uses this summer. There goes the electric bill. 🙁
Saline Music Festival
Tonight Melissa and I went to Saline to listen to the Saline Fiddlers play as part of the Saline Summer Music Series. The Fiddlers are all students from Saline High School and have toured the world. The show was simply amazing! I have always enjoyed violin and fiddle music, and this group was amazing. They had Violins, Violas, Cellos, and a rhythm section pertaining of Mandolins, Guitars, a Bass and Drums. In addition to playing music they sang some very wonderful songs and even did a few dance routines. I would love to see this group perform again as they put on a wonderful show and the music was fantastic. The fact that this group is entirely made up of Saline High School students is even more incredible.
To All The Mom’s
Black Friday Purchase
Lately I have noticed that no matter how we turn or rotate the mattress my lower back still hurts in the morning. In addition to this I finally had to conceded that there is a visible caving in to the middle of the mattress. I really can’t complain though, seeing as I paid $200 for the bed and I got it second hand to begin with, I think it lasting 3 years for me was worth it. So tonight I finally broke down and went to Gardner White and bought a new bed. It was a short notice purchase with no real planning involved other than me complaining about my back for the last few months. Tonight, though, we saw a commercial that Gardner White was having a pretty decent sale for Black Friday so off we went to check it out. I have always said that the next bed I buy would be a king sized bed, because it would be my hope that it would also be the last bed I buy; so that’s what I did.
I just purchased a Simmons BeautyRest® Rozelle King Sized bed set (mattress and foundation), a new frame to support the new larger bed (the old one was a queen sized bed), and a Guardsman waterproof mattress protector. This bed comes with Simmons’ super pillow top, which was a huge selling point for me because when I laid on the bed in the store, after settling in for a minute, it contoured to my lower back and took away all the pressure on my lower back! Once this happened I had no lower back pain while laying on my back! I can’t even explain how amazing that feels and I really hope that mine will have the same result once it is set up in my room.
The bed and the mattress protector both come with a 10 year warranty. For the mattress protector any time during those 10 years I can call Gardner White and they will send me a new one at no charge, I can do this twice. As part of the sale this king size bed was sold at the price of a queen size bed so that cut the price down a little. Also, after I decided to buy this bed I was informed that this particular bed comes with a Dynex 42″ LCD 1080p HDTV from BestBuy, which, according to the reviews, is a pretty decent HDTV. Of course this now means I need to buy new bedding for the bed and a new pillow while I am at it. It also means that eventually I will need a new TV stand for the TV. In any event the bed is supposed to be delivered by Monday the 30th, and they are even going to take away the old bed for free. The TV will be delivered within 21 days of the bed being delivered, which means it should be here by Christmas, of course it will most likely take me another two weeks after that to get it set up though!
I can’t wait to get the new bed though, I am very much looking forward to a good night sleep and waking up with no lower back pain. I just hope I am not setting my hopes to high.
Heart Attack Grill
What a dinner! The other day in class one of the Phoenix natives mentioned a restaurant located in Chandler known as the Heart Attack Grill (Wikipedia). This restaurant is known for two things, there giant hamburgers and their, um, visually appealing environment (aka their “nurses“). After the instructor looked it up online during one of our breaks and shared it with us I decided I needed to try this place before leaving Phoenix as it is only a few minutes from my hotel, and let’s face it when will I be out here again? It was easy enough to get to seeing as I have a GPS unit in my car, the hard part was once I got there I needed to find an ATM as the establishment is cash only; a fact I wish they had stated on there website. I had a feeling this place was going to be good when I approached the door and a sign on it said “Caution! This establishment is BAD for your health.” When I went in my “nurse” greeted me and informed me that each hamburger on the bun weighs in at a half pound, at that point I decided to order the Single Bypass burger. The flatliner fries, which were delicious, where unlimited and self serve. I watched as an entire potato was placed on a press, the bottom of which was a metal grate, and the potato was rammed through it to create the fries, which fell directly into the deep fryers basket, I had one order of these delicious fries to ensure I had room for my Single Bypass. The whole “hospital” theme is continued (in addition to the waitress wearing sexy nurse uniforms) by the fact that they actually placed me (and every other “patient”) in a hospital gown and wrist tagged me with a band saying I was having a Single Bypass. After coming back to my room tonight I did a little more research into this place and found this CBS News review which gave me some interesting information, like everything is cooked in, and with, lard! I really wish I would have tried the Quad, I guess now I have another reason to come back to Arizona (seeing the Grand Canyon is the other, it’s 240 miles away from me now so I don’t think I’ll have time to go see it). The hamburger was easily one of the top 10 I have ever had, and if I lived out here I am positive I would go back, often. After finishing my meal I had my picture taken with my “nurse” Alyssa, and though you can’t tell from the picture, I am sitting in a wheelchair. I wonder if I could open a franchise back in MI…?
Ann Arbor Art Fair
Today was the first day of the annual Ann Arbor Art Fair and seeing as Melissa had the day off from work, I decided to take a vacation day so we could go walk around for the day. It’s interesting to go down and look at all the differnt boths that are set up and all the differet types of arts and crafts on sale. It is also interesting to see how far some of these artists travel from to come to this event. We walked arounf for almost 10 hours and still didn’t see everything there was to see. There were some things that we are sure we saw last year, but there was also a lot of new things as well. Let’s see what next year brings.
YDL Ice Carving
Apparently every year the Ypsilanti Distirct Library holds a little ice carving event at there Michigan Ave location. Having just recently started going to the library (admitidly something I should have been doing much sooner for many reasons, including all the money it has saved me) I did not know about this event. Melissa and I went over to check it out, and though we knew it was going to be very small, I don’t think we thought it was going to be this small. Apparently there was only one person carving, however that person did a wonderful job. Below are the pictures that I took with my phone of all the sculptures (there were only 3).
