Wow. Being on vacation is amazing. I'm so spoiled right now I can hardly stand it. I got home from 2 days in Cinci w/ Stace yesterday afternoon - so relaxing. I finally got to meet more of her co-workers, which was nice because she spends all her time with these people now and I need to keep up with everything that happens. We also spent a nice evening with Oma - Stace's grandma. She is, by far, the coolest Grandma I've ever met. I'm back home in the WL now, and I just have one week of vacation left before the fall semester starts. I know it's cliche - but all the work/school I've done really makes me appreciate time when I don't really have to do ANYTHING.



I'm writing this from the new house - which means I sucessfully set up the internet router in the basement *go me*. I'm leaving in 2 hours to pick up James & go to the Indiana State Fair w/ Kellen, Erin, & Jay. So that'll take up the rest of my day. Riding in a ferris wheel, eating deep-fried-snickers bars...oh man I can't wait. The last time I was at the Indiana State fairgrounds was for the gun show, which some people thought was laughable - but I enjoyed anyway. Hell, I saw Wagner there (as in Wagner's Gun & Barber Shop - best haircuts I've got in Indiana - for the record). Too bad I'm not on the market for a quality firearm right now. I dunno what else there is to do & see there - but that's the idea - it'll be a new experience.

There are still a ton of interesting & productive things on my "to do" list before school starts. So far I've adopted the unfortunately-wasteful trend of just watching TV with my spare time - but that can't continue. I know how valuable this time is so it shoudn't be squandered on the 500 channels of joy I'll be able to watch all year - I need to do some of this stuff I'm not going to have time to do for another couple of months. Vacation time is precious!!!!

1) Buy a suit. Honestly, I'm kind of intimidated. This is one really important high-dollar purchase every young man has to make sooner or later (but I have a wedding to go to in 2 weeks, so this needs to happen SOON) - and I want to look really good. I think I know what I want, but there's so many options. I'm kinda scared. My eyes really suggest I should go with a standard blue suit (because damn, when CAN'T you wear a blue suit?) - but I think I'm so goofy that a more serious theme like black or charcoal grey might be a good choice.... I dunno. whatever I end up with I'll post pictures of the wedding.

2) Repair glasses. Because I'm a clumsy fool when I drink, I sat on my $300 ralph-lauren frames one evening when Stace was over. Thank god they're metal and can be bent back into shape. Urgh. My Dad would kill me.

3) Update Resume. Because Industrial Roundtable is an opportunity one can't pass up in my position. Delta may offer me a job, but maybe they won't. I need to explore my options (and with the aforementioned suit, I'll look damn good doing it).

4) Spraypaint a Mural. Because our basement is really barren and I haven't done anything remotely artistic in years. I have spare sheets. I have tons of cheap spraypaint sitting around. If it turns out crappy - oh well, it's just going in the basement...who cares? I'm thinking something school-spirit plus graffiti-culture themed..we'll see. I just feel a need to do something wild like this.

5) Build a Bar/Decorate Basement - see earlier posting on this. I want this room to turn out cool, but with Craig & Alex not showing up till late we might not get much done. I'll try to convince them, though.

6) Buy/Install DVD burner for my computer. I haven't backed up my files in forever and this PC is reaching the end of its expected lifespan. Losing all my music and pictures right now would be a catastrophe. Plus, it's acting all sluggish... I need to backup my critical files and reformat.... a cleansing absolution of my computing sins should restore my formerly-awesome performance. This thing was purchased in 2002 with a pentium 4 and 1 Gig of RAM.... it's pretty fast even by today's standards- so you can understand my frustration when Winamp starts making the music skip when I just open mozilla....LAME! There must be bots hiding somewhere that Symantec doesn't know about (even though I repeatedly scan).

7) Buy a Grill. Craig and I agreed on this one earlier in the summer. Getting a new house with a deck means we NEED a GRILL! Grilling food is super-easy & super-tasty. It represents a rite-of-passage all young men must go though sooner or later - a maturing from boiled-water-hot-dogs to the fire-broiled tastiness of grilled bratwurst. From george-forman frozen burgers to half-inch thick new-york strip. By God, as 22 year-olds this is a natural step we deserve. I can promise you this - we won't be giving Wal-Mart our money on this one.

That's a pretty ambitious list for just 7 more days of freedom. Not to mention that Alex & Craig should be coming back by Tuesday or Wednesay - and they will naturally distract me with video games and the like. I do miss them both a lot, and I can't wait for them to get here - but I know my productivity's going to hell once that PlayStation gets plugged in. Oh well, at least I have high hopes. To tell the truth, I've already accomplished a ton - I just know there's a huge potential to do a lot more. Wish me luck!