Tonight I finally joined the masses and purchased an MP3 player, more specifically I purchased a Black 30 Gig video iPod from the Apple Store at the Mall of America. I had been wanting one ever since my last extreamly boring flight home, and although it set me back a few hundred dollars, I think it was worth it. I also purchased the extended warranty plan and a case for the iPod to help protect the screen and such. I actually saved some money on the purchase because it turns out that as a Thomson employee I get a discount at the Apple Store, thanks to Rick for reminding me of that. Now I just need to get all of my MP3s off disks and learn how to convert my DVDs and I will be all set.
Category Archives: General
Half a decade…
We will never forget the sacrifices that were made this day, or the people who made them. Half a decade has come and our resolve has not wavered, and though we may not all agree with the situation at hand, we have persevered. Our God has strengthen us gave us aide, He will guide us ever on as the path unfolds. “One Nation under God” now more than ever, and always until the end.
New Wheels
So yesterday I went in to the dealership to get an oil change, and when all was said and done I walked out with a new truck. It was a long day and an even longer story, but in the end I am happy with the truck I know have. I traded in my 2004 Dodge Ram for a 2006 Dodge Dakota quad cab 4×4 SLT (white). It is just a few more dollars a month than my Ram was, but a lot more truck. For starters this one is a quad cab, which means I can get Kylie’s car seat out of the front seat and into the back, which makes me feel much better. In addition the Dakota is a 4×4 as where the Ram was not, the Dakota also has power everything (windows, locks, driver seat) and remote keyless entry. This truck also has a number of other things that the Ram did not, including Sirius satellite radio, a six disc CD/MP3 changer in dash, a six speaker Alpine system, overhead console, and adjustable driver lumbar support. The gas milage is about the same as the Ram’s was at 15 mpg city and 19 mpg highway. As soon as I take some pictures I will post them up here so everyone can see it.
Do you know Praying Mantis?
Well I sure do! In fact I had a close encounter with one just this morning. Around 7am this morning I was leaving work like normal, and I have to admit that I wasn’t really paying attention to much as I was trying to get my keys out of my pocket, when something startled me. I was walking up along the passenger side of my truck when some movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention, when I looked over to my left imagine my surprise to see a Praying Mantis on the side of my truck just above the wheel well. So I did the only thing I could do, I took pictures of it. I then went back inside and got my co-worker Cory to come out and take a look with me. We found a stick to let it walk on and off my truck, took some more pictures and admired this fascinating insect.
More Images are available in the above link to the gallery, or by navigating to the gallery via the link in the navigation panel on the side.
Scrapblog, online scrapbooks
Before I moved out to Michigan, I really hadn’t heard of scrap booking, however, I know see it everywhere. Tiffany has done a number of them over the years and is currently working on one for Kylie. I personally am not very into it, I mean I give the occasional suggestion here and there, mainly when asked, but that’s about it. I do not consider myself to be very creative and usually stay away from those types of things. But today I cam across Scrapblog, a community of online scrapbooks. When I first came across this site I thought it was going to be nothing more than a normal blog with pictures and slide shows, however, after looking through a couple of them, they are actual scrapbooks complete with different pages and little icons and things to put inside them. I am not saying that I am going to go out and create one, but for the more creative minded this might be a lot of fun. Maybe Tiffany could use this site to share her scrap booking of Kylie? Who knows?
A lot of walking
Today we decided to take it easy and just have a nice relaxing day. We started off by going out to Dearborn to visit a craft store that Mom has ordered some things from in the past. She was just curious to see the place and it turned out to be a neat little craft store. Although no one bought anything it was still a nice little adventure. After this we decided to go walk around the Ikea in Canton. All I can say is this place is huge! There was a lot of nice stuff to see and they display it nicely in the showroom. I am positive that there are things that I did not see. I really liked how they had displays up that showed how you could live in X amount of square feet. At least twice i found myself saying something to the effect of “I wouldn’t want to live in a place this small, but if I had and I could set it up like this, I think i could do it.” I used to not understand what the big hype about this place was, I actually know people who drove all the way to Chicago just to go to Ikea and I never understood why. But after seeing this place I kind of do, I am not saying I would drive that far for a store, but for some people I understand why they do. In any case, this is definitely a store i will be visiting again.
Natural tooth loss
I have no idea how I find this stuff… But I found a site that graphical displays the loss of natural teeth by state (Adults aged 65+ who have had all their natural teeth extracted). It’s not really surprising to see what states fall near the top.
Wow
Melissa and Jason’s wedding yesterday was beautiful! The weather held out and it was a nice calm day for their outdoor wedding. Melissa looked absolutely beautiful and so did all of her brides maids, especially Tiffany and Theresa! I had a blast taking pictures with my new camera (I was even offered an apprenticeship by the professional photographer, who interestingly enough admitted that I had a better camera than he did), and dancing with all the ladies. When all was said and done I took almost 400 pictures, now I need to find the time to get them off the camera, labeled, and onto a CD for them. I have at least a week to get this done though. I have not decided if I am going to place all of those pictures up on the site yet or not, I will see how I feel when I get them all off and taken care of.
When all was said and done, the camera performed even better than I could have hoped. I am giving serious consideration to taking the photographer up on his offer. Though I would have to spend some money on a few things, it may well be worth the investment in the long run. It was a lot of fun and could always be a potential fall back career along with a potentially lucrative side business. Perhaps I can get some more information from Tim, considering he is a professional photographer too, I am sure he would be able to give me some insight.
Congratulations Melissa and Jason!
May the saddest days of your future be only as sad as the happiest days of your past!
We wish you nothing but happiness and love in your future lives together!
Love Ed, Tiffany and Kylie!
A new toy
For a while now I have been contemplating getting a laptop. A laptop is one of the only types of computers (PC) that I have yet to own. I have been looking around and pricing them and from what I have found the type of system I am looking for (a desktop replacement) configured to my standards was going to run me somewhere in the area of US $1,900. In addition to this I have also been pining for a new digital camera. Then i was even considering getting both at the same time, potential through Dell, and just paying it off with left over income tax refund money and then slowly paying off the remainder.
Well today I finally made my decision, and picked up a brand new Canon Digital Rebel XT from Circuit City! I have been drooling over this camera for a very long time now, and considering that I have the 35mm version (I have the EOS 500), I have had my heart set on it. I was able to get the camera, a new bag, memory card, and a 2 year warranty for roughly US $1,300, which is about US $600 less than what my laptop would have cost. On top of the financial savings I also came to the conclusion that I will use the digital camera a lot more than I would use the laptop. (For proof of this just look at the gallery)
Tomorrow will be the first day that I actually use the camera as it is Melissa and Jason’s wedding. I anticipate taking a lot of pictures and am looking forward to the cameras ability to take black and white pictures and its ability to take 3 frames-per-second with a 14 frame burst, not to mention that it can turn on and be ready to shoot in .2 seconds!
I will be sure to post some information Ion how I like using my new toy sometime after the wedding.