Memorial Day Weekend

This last weekend was really great. Friday night Shannon and I drove to Wichita for another graduation party for Maria. We got to see Mom, Jayme, Charles, Nikki, Maria, Cody, a bunch of people I don't know very well, Michelle, and all the doggies!


I'll point out that Jayme has lost a lot of weight. She looks great! Not to mention that Nikki just gets cuter with age. Kinda like a wine.


Saturday, Michelle and Shannon drove up to Kansas City to meet up with Newgen, Jenette, Chris, and Andrea. They had some fun of their own, but I stayed in Wichita with Mom and Maria. Jayme, Charles, and Nikki headed to Oklahoma for a wedding for Charles' cousin.

On Saturday, Maria, Mom, and I went to Exploration Place. It was pretty awesome. They had some fun maze displays out, a neat whale exhibit, a really groovy wind wall, and a bunch of other entertaining things. It was a good time. Then we went to eat somewhere not bad, but not spectacular. We headed back to Moms, and basically just chilled. And by chilled I mean, ate some tiramisu and watched some movies on TV.

Sunday, Mom, Maria, and I headed to the Sedgwick County Zoo. That was pretty cool too! It cost more than the Tulsa zoo, but it is nicer also. So, worth it. They had a bunch of animals and everything was well kept and nice. We spent a good chunk of time there, then got hot and ate at Uptown Bistro. After that, we headed back to Mom's and met up with Jayme and Charles for dinner when they returned to Wichita.

After dinner, we all went to the Keeper of the Plains and took Atari and Hendrix. Oh, Atari is pretty large. Kinda like sausage dog. :)

That was a neat place. They have fire, but we weren't there at the right time. There was Indian music playing and for some reason it confused Nikki a good bit. She kept looking around for it. When I finally found a speaker, she kinda of tried to grab the music. Odd.

Monday was my last day in Wichita. Maria, Jayme, Mom, and I went to the mall to look at prom dresses for wedding dress ideas, then we went to David's Bridal and tried on the real things. Fun. There were a lot of really nice dresses. Jay found one that she liked enough for us to make! So after David's Bridal, which Maria had to leave early from, we met up with Charles and Nikki and looked at JoAnn's for a pattern and some fabric.

To finish off my trip, we had a good ol' BBQ at Mom's with Charles' parents, Sandra and Charles. There was yummy corn and limeades and hamburgers, and homemade french fries, and salad, and absolutely delicous watermelon.

I drove back to Tulsa all by my lonesome and was soon joined at home by Shannon and Michelle.

I don't get many chances to spend with Mom and Maria and Jayme. So it was a nice weekend to be able to spend quality time with all of them. :)

11 Years

It's been that long that Rhonda and company has had a graduation to go to. It started in 1998 with Shannon from high school and goes until this year with my sister Maria from college. That is where I was this weekend too.

We drove up through a pretty storm and I had a really nice time with all sorts of family members.

Happy Graduation

For my graduation my Aunt Diana gave me a gift card. Shannon and I finally used it, 8 months after I received it. We did an excellent job of spending just under the amount without really trying. After we paid and used a 1$ off coupon, we had about 1.50$ left on the card. What did we get?

Well, basically we got some shelves. We needed another bookshelf for Shannon's office. No pics of that, but you can probably guess what it looks like. We actually could use one more.

Then we got some shelves for our games. We bought one a while back in Jardine, but it was looking quite full.


So we wanted to get another one. You know, so all of our games could fit on the shelf without having some on the floor and stacked almost to the ceiling and well, just randomly put in a spot where they would fit.

So we did. And they were on sale to make it even sweeter. So now all of our games are nicely organized onto two large shelves, with a cute little one next door for other random gaming things, like scenery.


It's nice to have things organized and stowed.

Graduation Party

I present my Masters report on Tuesday June 10th. But on Friday May 16th we had our family graduation party, me and Jenette that is. Guests included, but are limited to, Mom, Jay, Nicki, Randy, Gary, Major, Chris' family, and my Aunt Diana!! She came in for my graduation! It was awesome...I miss those NJ-guys a lot. Seeing them once-ish a year or two isn't as much as we used to see them (before we moved). Anyways, it was a great time. And I have some pics and video to prove it.

A Minute of Non-SAS

Thursday my major professor kicked me. Not literally, but motivatingly, but I don't think she directly meant to. I went up to ask about turning in an abstract on Friday so I could get my name in the program for graduation. She basically said that she didn't think we needed to worry about that because I might not finish in time for graduation.

Wow.

I was so bummed, super-bummed. I tried to find words to say that made sense, but I didn't do a very good job. I expressed to her my desire to finish before I move to Tulsa for my new job. I think that was the first time she heard of me moving. The last news she had was that Shannon and I were looking to stay in Manhattan.

I left her office feeling very sad and defeated.

In a response to this event, I have spent a lot of time working on my simulations for my report. Thursday I could only work for about 2 hours. But Friday I spent from 1:30 to 7:00 working in my office. And today I've been here since about 3:00. I've got a lot done, but still have so much more to go. I do not want to miss graduation and have to come back in the summer to defend my report. I will get done by May 16th. I mean, that is still over a month away.

So, don't expect me to be doing much from now until I'm done. Beside my house-hunting trip to Tulsa this Thursday, I'll be doing a lot of sitting in my office and looking at my computer.