Comment testing

As Tim so helpfully pointed out, the comments form wasn't appearing. I think I've fixed the settings, so let's find out.

Things overheard...

I finally understand exactly what Lewis Black was talking about in his "if it wasn't for my horse" shtick. I'm walking through the Target in Cary (for those of you not from the NC, it's a fancy-pants suburb of Raleigh, kinda like Carmel is to Indy) and I overhear a mom and daughter in the back-to-school section. The little girl (about 8 or 9 by the looks of her), is clutching a cute white backpack with pink swirls saying "THIS is the one I want!" Mom pulls a face, and I'm expecting the next words out of her mouth to be along the lines of "a white backpack isn't practical, it'll be filthy by the end of the week", "you don't need a new one, last year's is perfectly fine", "you know in my day we didn't even HAVE backpacks. We had to tie our books together with a belt, then walk to school, uphill, both ways!" etc. But instead she looks the girl straight in the face and says, "You know, Land's End makes one that looks just like this. Wouldn't you like that one instead?"

As I continue my shopping in another section, I can't help but stew over this. What mother in her right mind tries to convince her kid to get the one that's 3 times as expensive?!? I try to find a way to justify it. Maybe she knows someone who can get her a sweet discount. Maybe she thinks the expensive one will be more durable. Who knows.

5 or 10 minutes go by and I find myself walking by the back-to-school section again. They're still there, fighting over the same backpack! It's then that I realize that Mom has no good reason other than she wants to rub it in the other mom's faces that they can afford the good stuff. I am SO glad we're getting out of this crazy town and back to the Midwest where people act sensibly!

Vacation pictures (a.k.a. I finally figure out how to work the camera)

I've finally figured out 1) how to use the camera and 2) how to incorporate pictures into the blog. Look at me, being all tech-savvy. (This is the part where Ben rolls his eyes and says "if you'd just asked me for help, you could have know all this stuff 2 years ago when we got the stupid thing!). So, for your viewing pleasure, some of the vacation highlights.

4th of July - Clear Lake

From our beach, watching the fireworks being lauched from the island

The last remnants of sunset

I finally figured out how to work the "continuous photo" feature. Behold the fruits of my labor:

It's Up

It's Beautiful

It's Over

(At this point I would normally make some sort of crude joke about the above captions, but this is a family show after all)

Very artistic shot of the lights across the lake

(or me swinging the camera around too fast, take your pick)

Sean and Sarah's Wedding

Sean and Ben, once they realized I was taking pictures

(Ben was the "Stunt Best Man" because Roy was driving in from Wisconsin)

Off to the ceremony.

I can't believed we actually managed to not blink, have real smiles, and not look like we were being tortured (this is a rare event, as evidenced by the pics that Chris and Jill took later on)

More fun with the stop animation feature. I think it's a little unfair that everyone only takes pictures of the bride walking down the isle and forgets that this is a big moment for the groom

Sean sees Sarah for the first time

Starting to loose it

And he makes a heroic recovery!

There's the grin we know and love

Shannon doing her thing

Ben and Chris rocking it out

Hopefully I'll have more pics once Suzanne gets the formal ones finished.

Cancel our van down by the river

On our last apartment search, there were 200+ places in The Triangle that matched our basic requirements. When only 12 apartments in The Region matched, I started to get a little nervous. Add in the fact that when dad looked at our artfully crafted Google map of all the possible locations, he immediately started pointing out that all of our possible domiciles were in shitty-shitty-crimeville, and I was a wreck Tuesday morning.
The first place was old, crappy, and had no vacancies (how this place was packed is beyond me. Possibly because it's within walking distance of Sephora, Ulta, DSW, Old Navy, Sam's Club, Chipotle, AND Don Pablos. Good thing it sucked or I would soon be broke AND fater). The sales agent at #2 was a fellow Boilermaker, so I had high hopes. Unfortunately, someone neglected to tell him that 1) bathrooms need doors (I love Ben, but I absolutely NEVER need to see him on the pot) and 2) apartments that border the weirdly blue man-made ponds full of mucky junk do not count as "lake-view". Down the road, we're encouraged to see garages ATTACHED to the units, because when it's -20 outside, having to walk across the complex to get to your car negates the fact that you don't have to dig it out of the snow (I'm lookin' at you #'s 1 and 2). Unfortunately, that was but an illusion because only the units with HORRIBLE floor-plans come with garages. Off to complex #4, which Google maps puts squarely in the middle of a housing neighborhood (not surprisingly, it wasn't actully there). Heading out on the main road from Merrillville to Highland (unsurprisingly named "Main St.") if I had any fillings they would be gone since it's less of a road and more a layered collection of pot-holes, so I'm less than enthused about the prospects ahead.
This place better be good, because it's the last on our list and I really don't want to expand the search to Illinois where we'll pay $1.50/square foot compared to <$1/square foot in Indiana. Fortunately, the clouds parted and a ray of heavenly light shone upon us. The units are spacious (even bigger than where we're at now, which I thought was impossible for a 2 bedroom), relatively new, and the kitchen is bigger than a postage stamp. Plus, one is available for the start of August. And a little old lady with no pets lived there the past 5 years, so it'll actually be in good shape. AND it's directly over the model/office, so no annoying downstairs neighbors who play Rock Band at 11 on a school night or have a yappy Boston Terrier. AND the manager is friends with Ben's new boss, so we get around the pesky fact that he doesn't technically have a job in Indiana, yet. I've already Google-mapped all of the essentials (Starbucks, grocery store, sushi, etc.) and everything we'd ever need is within a 15 minute drive. For more info on our faboo new apartment, click the title link.