Great Weekend

Had probably one of the better weekends I've had in a long time this past weekend. Started Friday after class, Sarah and I spent the day taking care of some wedding things and doing a little shopping at both the Woodland and Rivertown malls. Then we stopped over in Wyoming for a close J.V. basketball game. Spent the rest of the night enjoying pizza and good conversation. Saturday we were up and out the door early for a day in Hamilton and Saugatuck for a bridal show. Now let me just say, initially I was very concerned about the level of fun that I was about to experience. I was under the assumption that a bridal show would be on par with jamming a spoon in my eye socket but I was pleasantly mistaken. Free food and cake samples plus all kinds of free pens and things. It reminded me of the kind of thing that colleges do at the beginning of every year that I have never been to (you know... like Bronco Bash but with wedding stuff instead of condoms and frisbees).
Following the festivities in Saugatuck Sarah left me alone so I could get a well desereved nap before the night continued on. We had a wonderful dinner at this great burger joint called Goog's. Their menu included at least twenty different burgers one of which was topped with peanut butter and raw onions. I couldn't convince myself that it was worth the money so I opted for a more conventional burger with BBQ, Honey Mustard, Bell Peppers, Onions, Ham, and Cheese. Combine those toppings with a half pound of grilled ground beef and you have yourself one hell of a burger. Sarah and I could barely move after that so we decided to postpone our evening plans until the food at settled. Then it was time for a night with some of our favorite people, Trisha and Matt. We met at the New Holland Brewery and the drinking began. Plenty of good beer and good hard cider combined with the hottest salsa and artichoke dip that we have ever had. All it all it was a great night. 8:30 the following morning we all met again at church and Sarah and I got to see the church we will be married in and the pastor that may be marrying us.
After church we rushed home to grab our winter gear and drove down to Kalamazoo for an afternoon of snowboarding with Dad. It was only the second time Sarah had ever been on a snowboard but you would have thought after the first couple runs that she had been doing it for a lot longer. I think she may have caught the snowboarding fever so hopefully we keep getting good snow. After snowboarding we went back to my parents house to hang out with Ellie and Adam and played around on my dad's brand new iMac. Such a cool computer. Here is a sampling of the things it can do:







Ellie and Dad made dinner which was outstanding. Marinated salmon with green beans and acorn squash complimented with some amazing hard cider from Sutton's Bay and wine from California. It truly could not have been a better weekend.

December arrives with a bang

For all of you living in the midwest you were fortunate enough to witness the first of many winter storms in the month of December. After a wonderfully warm thanksgiving weekend that stayed around til the end of November, Michigan weather finally caught up and hit Grand Rapids as well as the rest of the state with serious force. I scraped ice a quarter inch thick off of my car this morning and when I got home watched the ice come down for close to two hours. That was followed by some wicked snow that continues to fall. Just when I was begining to wonder if we would ever get snow Michigan answers with a great season opener. 400 schools in West Michigan closed including WMU and CMU. Not on the list of closers was good old GVSU who opted to let their 20,000 plus commuters fight through ice and snow to turn in papers and take exams. I'm just glad my prof cancelled class this morning.

The Forgotten Epidemic

I guess this is what you might call a teaser. Although considering the tone of the following passage combined with the picture above teasing might not be the right word... Enjoy?

All over the country, men returned from combat and were greeted with huge parades and fanfare. Little did they know, they were carrying a disease so contagious and so deadly that in little more than a year, close to 100 million people worldwide (one-fifth of the world’s population) would have to be buried. The disease killed more people than any other disease in history. The disease would leave entire cities decimated, families devastated, and workforces wiped out. It was a disease so horrible and so deadly that history has tried to forget that it ever happened. What scared people the most was that this killer disease was nothing more than the common flu, hardly something to worry about. Many at the time recalled the last outbreak of influenza in 1889-90 but none were prepared with the ferocity of this new strain of flu. They called it Spanish Influenza because at the time of discovery it was very prevalent in Spain but historians today often refer to it as the Purple Plague because of the color it left its victims. Men and women were liliterally being drowned by their own bodies. Spanish flu brought entire continents to their knees. Historians compared the city scenes to that of European cities during the Black Plague. Carts rode through the cities beckoning citizens to bring out their dead and mass graves were dug wherever there was room. Central Park in New York City was the site of one of the largest of these mass graves. Every town and every city in the world was affected by Spanish flu.

Something to be thankful for

She said yes!

Michigan Fall

Hard to believe that December is just around the corner. It still feels like summer was just yesterday. Spent the weekend in Kazoo with my Dad and Sarah which was wonderful. I forget how nice it is to go home. As much as I'd like to think Appleridge is home, it never feels quite the same as that old house on the river.

I'm looking forward to this Thanksgiving break even though I will be spending most of it in front of my computer writing. Once I finish I'll post it in installments for all to enjoy. The working title is "Influenza in Grand Rapids: The Forgotten Epidemic." If the response is good I might post some of my other works. The life of a history major is plagued with writing so much so that I wonder if I shouldn't have minored in English. History demands prefection without teaching the essentials of writing. I realize that I am probably writing this blog for myself so there is no reason to continue typing. Besides, I just finished typing six pages of my paper and my hands hurt.

Original Photo Uploaded by docksidepress on 25 Oct '06, 8.39pm EDT.
Photo link http://www.flickr.com/photos/docksidepress/279460912/

Opening Day

Today is the first day hunters are allowed to shoot deer with guns. My roommate and his good buddy are taking the week off to sit in trees with their shotguns waiting for a deer to eat the corn they laid out. Now I'm not against hunting, I think that it is nessecary to maintain animal populations. I just find it interesting that there is so much preparation involved in killing a deer when hundreds are killed every day by our highway system. How can it be that these deer continually run across the "big black river" right in front of a semi truck speeding down the road at 70mph yet they get spooked in the woods if a hunter took a shower that morning? I don't know how many of you had lived near a main road but cars going fast are loud and very easy to spot. Semi trucks are even louder, larger, and have a plethora of lights. The only reasonable explaination for this phenomenon is that deer are blind and deaf but have a terrific sense of smell.

Longest day in a long time

After just 4 hours of sleep tuesday night I managed to keep myself busy for 24 hours straight. I presented West Grand Neighborhood Organization's housing committee recomendations to the City of Grand Rapids Housing Board of Appeals. It was a very interesting process but I found out that they guy I was testifying against was sitting right behind me and he was definately an intimidating fellow. Following my first major experience in city government I raced off to prepare for a presentation in my Islamic Empires class. It went reasonably well although I was very nervous the whole time. When class ended I hurried to my car to drive down to Holland for a birthday party for Paige. Enjoyed a lovely meal at Applebee's (I think I've been there once a week for the last month or so which is weird cause I NEVER used to go out to eat there). After the birthday dinner we went back to Sarah's mom's house for cake and presents. All in all it was an enjoyable evening. Managed to make it home in time for South Park as well which was a bonus for sure. This was where my night should have ended but what fun would life be without a little spontinaity. Shaved Head and I decided at 2am that something needed to be done about our apartment's furniture arrangement. Now it is 8am on Thursday. The count is at 25 hours with zero sleep. I never thought I'd pull a mid-week all-nighter again.