Hat Pee?

Me and my hat in Colombia... apparently arresting Rebecca Penrod.

This hat has gone through a lot.  I think Rob won it in some kind of contest, or pop cap return thing or something?  He probably remembers.  One Summer day in 2004 or 2005 I needed a hat for softball and I happened to be at Rob's house.  So I asked to borrow one of his hats.

Me and my hat and my brother in San Francisco.

This is where the first discrepancy appears.  I thought that he said something about me keeping it and I don't think he remembers that.  Either way, I ended up using it as my go to softball hat for years and years.  In 2010 I went to camp to work maintenance and it became my go to work hat.  It turns out that maintenance is much harder on a hat than softball twice a week.

Throughout the years this hat went to Colombia and spent time at the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans as well as Lake Superior.  It's an impressive resume for a hat I believe, and it held up really well until the maintenance thing.  Then the hat started tearing and keeping nasty stains.  It was pretty gross before the end.

The last photo of the hat.

Well my basement has been smelling like cat pee lately and I was trying to figure out why.  Then I picked the hat up to put it away and it was wet and smelled like... cat pee.  Gross.  So it's on the way out now.  It should probably get sent off in style.  A couple rounds of the M1 through it before a fire. Like any sentimental item that needs to be put down.  

That's pretty much all.  It's fairly gross, but there it is.

Adventurousness

Work is kind of setting in to a normal pace.  I don't feel like I'm near ready for working on my own, but I'm learning new things every day and settling into a pattern of work.  More importantly I enjoy going in and working, even when I stay a little late here and there.

I enjoy being able to afford some new clothes and I'm trying to pile up some work pants versus regular pants.  That, along with some new polos and black shoes were part of my goals of the week.  I headed out for Kohl's and JC Penney's with a side of Dunham's.  I came out with some pants, shirts, new gym shoes and a Winter coat (first one since 2003 or so).

I enjoy shopping for a little while, then I'm sick of changing clothes constantly back and forth and back and forth.

On Wednesday I snagged Adela up from Holland because her classes were cancelled for Thursday/Friday. So on Thursday I planned to leave work a little early to spend some extra time with Adela and Mom, maybe to watch a movie.  Well I didn't get a picture of it, but the cats head was a little goblet of blood and puss and nastiness.  She's been acting funny and sensitive, so a vet trip was being planned, but not on the day I got out early!  Long story short she had an abscess (basically a major scratch that cats have trouble healing) and the vet shaves around it and gives her some antibiotics.

She peed all over at the vet clinic, but otherwise it was fairly uneventful. 

Friday night we had the unique opportunity to spend some time with a couple of Adela's campers from this last Summer.  I don't think very many high school campers have their counselor show up at their house (without warning) on a random Friday night.  We went to the mall and rolled pennies and bounced bouncy balls, we ran around on the parking garage and stayed out of trouble up there, snagged some slushies from the "best" slushy gas station in town and finally went sledding at Riverside on the snow (and by snow I mean grass and ice).

On the way to the car after sledding I realized my keys were not in my pocket.  After searching for quite a while in the dark we called for back up.  Right as my friend arrived to help us out I found the keys.  They were at the end of my first run when I went head first.  I figured they were somewhere dumb in the car and I was an idiot or that I didn't search far enough out.  Well it was the searching because they turned up about 20 feet further than I thought I had gone.

I used Adela's nice camera flashlight and she used my janky one that takes pictures randomly along the way.

More shopping on Saturday and some play time with the Riegel's in the afternoon.  Winter is running out of strength and I'm excited to see dirt.  I'll be even more excited when it's dry dirt and I can run and play on it easier.  I enjoy the seasons changing and with more light at night I'm pretty excited about the the coming of Spring.

Found some clearance dress shoes for 12 bucks.  We'll see if I like them or not.

The Other Side of Lake Michigan

This week I enjoyed a new sports night.  On Monday's there is a bit of a church volleyball league that I'm looking forward to getting involved in.  For now it looks a little shaky, but if more people join the next session it could turn into a legit league.  And the bonus is that I can move a couple courts down and see my friends play basketball in the church league that plays at the same time.

Last week I posted the rain I'd been driving in.  That turned to super heavy snow.

Over the weekend I joined in on a small volleyball tournament with Dad at our normal Thursday night volleyball spot.  Before that I played some basketball at Harper Creek's Administration Building.  By the end of the day I was feeling pretty beat up.

Sunday at church we got to talking about the upcoming (August) mission trip to Colombia I'm going on.  It'll be interesting to sort out the 9 days of not working, but that'll depend on what I have going on at Denso.  For now it's exciting to sort out the details.  After church I rolled out to see Adela in Holland.

After several trips to the Holland Beach I finally got to see some sun!

The ice was treacherous to walk on.  I usually am pretty steady on it, but the wind and the slope was rough.

So the sun wasn't all the way out, but it was still very pretty.

Again... the iciness.  And all the ladders were covered with ice.  So falling in would involve a long swim to find somewhere to get out of the water.  Very sketchy.

So that was the deal pretty much.  Sports and Church fill my time after work.  Some days I get a little lonely without everyone I used to hang out with, but those nights I have video games and books to keep me company.

Cold Chicago

This week Tim traded places with Nosko for Clubhouse.  Nosko ran the games and gave the message near the end, with some help from Tim here and there.  It's funny how the kids that ignore everything we tell them will listen to Nosko the blind kid.  The hardest part was getting the others to quiet down, but once they could hear him talking they really focused.  

Nosko spoke about Paul escaping from prison.  About Paul going to visit the very people that were praying for him and their disbelief.  Well Nosko doesn't have that problem.  Dude knows he's going to see again some day, whether here on Earth or in Heaven someday.

Nosko teaching everyone.

For some reason I always end up in Chicago in the Winter.  This week was no exception as I brought Adela for her first trip to Chicago to enjoy some of the sights and catch up with Rob and Eliz.  I started the trip by running over to grab Adela and then returning to Battle Creek for the night.  On the way it was super rainy, especially for February.

I don't use my wipers very much.

Once in Chicago we met with Rob, Eliz and also Ethan Reynolds.  Ethan had to run, so I didn't see much of him until I stayed in his room for the night.  In the meantime we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo.  It's one of the many Chicago attractions that I hadn't visited before.  

Lots of monkeys.

 They have lots of primates, big cats, wild dogs, beavers, and more and more.  The Winter scared away some of the the animals, but we got to see a baby gorilla running around.  I saw monkeys play fight, beavers swim and nibble on branches, and lots more.  It would have been a really long day if we saw everything anyways.

Somehow the Flamingos were out and about while the Polar Bear hid from us.

Other than the zoo we pretty much took it easy.  Joined Rob and Liz at their house Saturday night and then at their Church Sunday morning.  Lots of eating.  I always enjoy my trips eating too much at the Yolk! as well as Go Roma.

So now I'm stuffed.  Looking forward to another week of work and I'm happy that I had a weekend to enjoy friends in the big city.

Slipping

Well last week I was busy and running behind and I forgot to mention much of the weekend excitement.  This week i just forgot while loafing around the house.

So here we are.  I totally left out last weekend I think.  So I'll run from there.  On Saturday I had the odd pleasure of helping to coach a swim meet in the morning and then driving up to camp and in the afternoon.  The first person to see me at the swim meet asked why I wasn't at camp and I had to explain that I'm living and working in Battle Creek now.  Then I explained that I'd head up there right after the swim meet.

Next thing you know, I was hustling up to camp.  I knew several camping couples, several volunteers, and of course the Full Time Staff.  I already wanted to make the trip to see folks, but it pushed me over the top when I found out Brian and Liz were up there along with the Penrod's.  They stayed up late to hang out and we chatted about all kinds of stuff.

I also wanted to head anywhere North so I could swing by and pick up Adela on the way back.  She had a mid Winter break and wanted some family time so I waited for the end of the weekend to snag her.  We met at Sam Doyle's house where we enjoyed board game as well as a yummy chicken dinner.

Monday and Tuesday were spent working during the day and hanging out with Adela before bringing her back to Hope.  We got to watch some Full House and Walking Dead together, but the highlight was dinner with Mom.  It was really fun to chit chat and hang out at Finley's.

The rest of the week was more work.  Learning the ropes before getting some numbers to crunch on Friday afternoon.  More responsibility is great right now, although I'm sure I'll be loaded up before long.

The sunset on Wednesday afternoon.

Snow is coming and going like it's no big deal around her.  Work is so close it doesn't bother me. Gas tanks stretch out a little further now, although not perfect yet with these fast trips to camp and Holland.  This weekend didn't have any of that though.  I enjoyed basketball with Brian and Josh, long neglected friends in Battle Creek.

A nice sunrise Saturday morning.

The rest of the weekend was spent mostly loafing around the house.  I napped so long on Saturday after Bball that I had a big headache.  I also watched the NBA All Star weekend.  I know everyone hates the NBA but they're fantastic athletes and it's fun to see what can happen when the defense is lax.  So for all the folks that say they don't play defense, you should watch the All Star weekend and see what happens then.

Red Wings were a bust this weekend, but it was a nice weekend of relaxing.  Almost too much relaxing.

Back to First Shift

No pictures.  FYI.  I started work and spent some money on my car last week, then got a little behind on the blogging.  Sorry for that.

I took my car into Tuffy because it was making some wheel bearing sounds and not responding like I like.  It was getting kind of fishy.  Well it turned out that me and Tim replaced my brakes backwards on the drivers side front tire.  It wasn't a major mess up, but it didn't sit quite right and the pads were wearing a little crooked.  I also found out that my caliper was never busted, but that a brake line was frozen up.  So they fixed all that up for free while they replaced my wheel bearing.

An older man walked in and started talking like he knew me.  I didn't, but it was fun to talk to him and the Tuffy manager.  Three generations of Battle Creek homers hanging out.

The reason I had time to get my car fixed was that I got sent home from work on Tuesday.  Their computer training program was struggling and they asked me to try again the next day.  I decided as soon as I left that I should try and be productive.  So I got the car fixed and then hustled over to see Adela in Holland.

If you know me, you know I like surprises.  This was a perfect opportunity.  So I snagged a Hyacinth (cause I like how they smell) and a Speedway slushie for Adela.  I casually tried to ascertain her location, but I just missed her in downtown Holland and then she left her dorm room as I arrived there. In the end she received her random plant and unneeded slushie.  She was happy I visited though.

Ok.  So work really started last Wednesday.  I finished the 11 or so hours of training in about 6 hours, which is typical for online safety training.  So I joined my group for the first day on Thursday.  It's been kind of slow going for now, but once I get settled in on a computer and I start chipping away at the different activities.... then I should be good to go.  The other 6 people in my packaging group have been fun to get to know over this last week.

To give you a slight overview of what I understand, we facilitate packaging.  Obviously.  My department specifically looks at the packaging specifications and makes sure everything will fit and is safe for use.  With the many different customers we have, our department stays busy hopping from project to project.  Soon I'll be picking up specific projects and manufacturers that will be my responsibility.

Having fun and looking forward to more responsibility.

Landing the Job

I have the sort of long awaited job.  After a month of wishing I was working a first shift engineering job, I have one.  It's at Denso, the company I was kind of planning on working with even before I left camp in November.  Other offers came in at the same time, but I decided to stick with Battle Creek for a bit here.  I start on Tuesday (tomorrow morning) and I'm looking forward to learning a new job.

In the meantime I finished up at the scanning job.  Friday was my last day.  I'm kind of sad to leave them because they are really hustling on a project, but they understand.  Back to the engineering world though.

I decided to have a special snack for my last day of scanning.  Fruit and Arnold Palmer!

On Saturday I jumped over to Kalamazoo for Kevin and Angelee's wedding.  I spent the Winter and Spring with Kevin, then the Summer and Fall with Angelee.  Fun to see them both off and started on their next stage of life together.  Two people seeking God first, then each other and letting the rest work itself out.

Some people get all antsy and excitable at wedding.

Like usual, Rob and I were abandoned by our dates so we had a blast chit chatting and laughing. Someday someone will put microphones on us and we'll make some type of radio or tv show. But for now most of the jokes are lost in the shuffle.  It was definitely fun though, especially the camp type reunion.  Lots of fun.

After the wedding I left for camp with Hannah Ford and Emily Calhoun.  We wanted to go to join in on Super Bowl festivities with the camp staff.  So we hustled ourselves up there, grabbing Xavier Brumwell along the way.  Met up with many of the folks that were already up there helping for the weekend. Busy busy and lots of traveling, but definitely worth the time.

Crossing Shear Lake on Sunday morning.

It was my most productive trip of the year.  I stayed with Dan and Sarah Haines which gives me extra time to chat with them.  Not only that, but I also enjoyed chatting with Mike Alchin before lunch and Mike Baker during the West Side shutdown.  Always great to hang out with the guys and catch up on the happenings.

Now I'm home.  Quick haircut and catching up on sleep before the first day of work tomorrow.  Boo yah gramma!