Wild Weekend

Posted by Scott:

What a weekend... and not for all the right reasons. I'll elaborate more when I get rested, but there's plenty to write about from this weekend.

• Of course, the biggest news is the shots that were fired on campus Saturday night. In the interest of "I'm exhausted from the last 24-hours, but want to get my post up for the weekend," I will fill in the details in a day or so. But, if you want more info now, go to this link for an article on stltoday.com for the quick details. The article is pretty accurate.
• The Bearcats pulled out a squeaker for a Homecoming victory over Washburn 28-27, clinching our share of the MIAA title.
• Mary is in Mexico this weekend while I stayed here. I was on-call this weekend and also took my first turn at proctoring ACT tests. It was a quick 4 hours Saturday morning with the tests. Not such a quick last 20 hours or so on call.
• And finally, I decided to try "Adsense" as part of this website. Google places an ad on this blog and we get paid if anyone clicks the link. Right now it's just doing public service messages until Google gets us set up. In a day or so it should start being advertisements for business. Hey, free money. I haven't a clue how much (or little), but I'll take it.

Anyway, Mary comes back Monday night and I need a good night's sleep. I have some promised house cleaning before she comes back. I had good intentions for doing that today, but given my weekend, I think I'll be forgiven.

With that... good night!

Hitting the Movie Mini-Jackpot

Posted by Scott:

It's been a quiet week in the ville. After the sisters Belcher went their separate ways last weekend, Mary and I were both pretty well beat. I have a bad habit of coming home and working though the evening and that didn't even happen very much this week. I think this was just a burnout week for me this week, so a little downtime wasn't a bad thing.

I've been fighting this urge to go shopping and burn some money lately. Fortunately, Wal-Mart came to my rescue. You know those bins they randomly toss movies they're trying to move out by charging only $5.00 per flick? Well, they finally organized them so you can actually find a good movie and I hit a mini jackpot. I found "Phonebooth," "Legends of the Fall," "Tears of the Sun," and " Behind Enemy Lines." Four good movies. $20. They way I see it is that this is $20 that kept me from spending a few hundred on a toy I didn't need. Besides, money is a bit tight right now. Spend money to save money. What a concept! Mary found a few movies too, however, that only seemed to fire up her urge to shop. What have I done?

I honestly can't think of too much else going on this week. The Bearcats continued their winning ways with a 17-10 win over Fort Hayes. Mary is headed to Mexico this upcoming weekend. I'll be staying here as it's Homecoming Week (I'm kind of expected to be around). I'll be proctoring my first ACT test this weekend to make a few extra bucks. We're still waiting for Mary's first call for a sub job, so every bit help. And, I think that's it from Northwest!

Just how long am I going to be in college?!?!?!

Picture it... I'm taking a break from writing a report to begin the process of registering for spring classes. Unusual for me, I'm ahead of the game. I've already talked to my advisor and have my classes approved for registration. Because I've been here for a semester I now qualify to do online registration. I decide to check and see if I can sneak my request in early so it's ready to go in the day I am to register! So as I go through the process of checking to make sure my student records and advisor are correct I come to a page with the following heading:

"Student Information effective from Fall 2007 to The End of Time" .....I'm not kidding you!
....

Really? The end of time? Am I expected to be in college that long?? Or does my computer know something that I don't?!

Now I realize it took me an unusual amount of time to earn my undergrad but do the cosmos really think time will end before I matriculate a second time?

Maybe they should have said, "... from Fall 2007 to The Apocolypse", or "... from Fall 2007 until The Sun Burns Out".. At least then I'd have and end-of-time event to look forward to!

In other news-

Many of you know that we had visitors this weekend. My sisters, Sara and Kate, and Kate's husband, Ross, came up for the Northwest/Central Missouri football game. The game was a lot closer than I thought it would be. Northwest literally squeaked out a 28-26 win. Central scored a touchdown at the end of the game and very nearly tied it up with a 2 point conversion. If there was a time to have a throw batted down, that was the time for it!
....

So the weekend began with a call from Kate on Friday nite. It went something like this, 'Hey, we're lost. How do we get to campus from the country?'
...

In reality they were at McDonald's and I quickly got them back on track. While talking them to campus over the phone, Kate makes a comment about how much she likes this Onstar service. And then from the driver's seat I hear the following: "It's more like Dimstar."
That became one of the favorite lines of the weekend.
...

Dakota and Cousin Buckley had a wonderful time! They were inseparable. Dakota is still recovering! Here are a couple of pictures that Scott took while Buckley was supposed to be taking a nap.

And here is a pic of Dakota once Buckley left:

It was obviously a great time had by all and we can't wait to have them up again!

It's All Goin' to the Dogs

Posted by: Scott

Ah, the wonder that a good night’s rest can bring. Mary and I got our new TempurPedic memory foam mattress a little over a week ago and let me tell you what a difference it makes. Just ask Dakota! Ever since she discovered the comforts of the new mattress, beds aren’t for jumping into to tackle your owner… they’re for sleeping! Mary told me that most mornings after I leave Dakota comes racing downstairs, jumps into bed, and socks out on my side of the bed. There she stays until Mary gets up. It’s really quite comical. I came back through one morning on my way to a meeting and went downstairs to grab something I had forgotten. There, sounds asleep, lay my wife and my dog. Quite comical indeed.

Well, today finds me embarking on something that has needed doing for years. I’m reloading Mary’s computer today. Basically put, her computer was dragging some serious ass and just needed to be wiped and rebuilt from scratch. As present, I’ve got XP reloaded and am now downloading all of the online updates. I know… this is enthralling to you all. But, that’s my day today.

This upcoming weekend should be a little more of an eventful weekend. Kate, Ross, and Sara are all coming to the ville’. The University of Central Missouri, where Sara attends, is coming up to get a royal butt-whoopin, er… I mean, is coming up to play the Bearcats. Honestly, I have no idea how good UCM is. But, admittedly, we’re a little cocky up here. Anyway, we’ll be going to the game on Saturday.

Mary will be using part of the weekend to test her sisters with two different tests she is has to administer as part of her master’s program. Beyond that, we may do a night of bowling. Mary wants some of my Hall Directors to meet Sara. Their over the top senses of humor should be quite the site to behold. Personally, I’m just hoping Ross will bring his Xbox 360 and Halo 3 so I can check it out. He’ll get the benefit of the big screen. See, it’s not all just about me! I’m not a huge gamer really, but I did enjoy Halo 2 the couple of times I played it.

This weekend also might see the introduction of Dakota to not one, but 2 pugs. If Ross and Kate bring Buckley, we’re going to invite Mike (one of my Hall Directors) to bring his Pug, Yoda, over. Dakota holds her own 1-1 against either of them. But in a 2-1, I’m betting she will finally meet her match. I don’t know if Buckley is coming along. He’s quite the little bundle of energy and a weekend away would be completely understandable for Ross and Kate. But, it would be quite a three ring circus to see. Buckley and Dakota have a quite entertaining method of playing. Dakota rears up, Buckley runs underneath, and then they take off running. All you see is Dakota with eight legs. Imagine a furry semi truck with a short-haired Yugo running underneath and you get the idea. It’s quite the site.

If feel like I should have more to write about, but that’s about it from Northwest. Cheers!