"I took a picture"

Fall is just around the corner up here in Michigan. You can feel it's warning in the crisp cool air. You can smell it in the breeze. I can't wait.

Fall reminds me of:

Bonfires
Soccer and Volleyball Season at good old Liberty Christian School
The feeling that basketball season is about to start
Wearing jeans instead of shorts
Hoodies instead of t-shirts
Crunching leaves under feet
Season Premier week which always comes sooner than expected
2003 Fall Cookout when Eileen and Lisa met for the first time

This should be a fun weekend...

Here's a picture taken last fall.

"I saw the end"

Throughout the last 3 years of college, I became an e-mail addict. I left my Anderson University e-mail open all the time, and every 10 minutes or so, I would click on it to see if I had any e-mail. I was completely addicted. Oftentimes, I'd get in e-mail chats with messages flying back and forth. I usually had well over 1,000 messages in my inbox, as I was horrible at organizing it.

All this is to say, that it's sad to say goodbye to Groupwise. I've loved thee. I will miss thee.

Tonight I spent about an hour forwarding and deleting e-mails. Unfortunately, I've still got 1300 to go. Most will be lost and gone forever. Spending time on A.U. E-mail reminds me of...

The Lounge
Working with my Friends at the FSB
Doing homework at Rogers' house and tucking her in before returning to my house
Late nights

Maria Deardorff said it best last Friday night. It's not that being out of college is so bad - there are definately some benefits. But it's the community feeling that you have at college that you miss the most.

"And you know it's time to go"

Well - the Mrs. and I will be home tomorrow night. Hope to see some of you all this weekend. And if not this, then maybe next. Cheers!

"Be the devil and angel too"

A few good things happened today.

1) Tickets were purchased for the Detroit Lions vs. Seattle Seahawks. Should be good seats too. We're going to have a fun time. Yea, you know who you are. An event that's been in the works since Berg's First & Only Bachelor Party with a Ricker Mention and a Parliament Eyebrow Raise of Interest may be coming to fruition after all.

2) Lisa has a job interview. Well two potential job interviews actually working with animals in Ann Arbor. She would be a receptionist at a high-class boarding place or a receptionist at an animal emergency room sort of place. Quite a commute, but very interesting to her. Hopefully they will go well and be as interesting and enjoyable as they sound. She could even take Grace to work with her...as long as Grace wouldn't pee all over everybody.

Time to go play some Halo before going to sleep. Anybody want to play on XBox Live sometime. I'd be up for some Chatting and Killing. Goodnight, everybody.

"Teach me to be shy"

Another Monday has come and gone. I'm really looking forward to coming home this weekend, as short as it might be. It will be nice to see some friends that we haven't seen for a few weeks and others for a few months.

Normally, it would be about now that I'd be saying, "Well, a few more weeks would be nice, but I'll probably get back in the swing of things pretty quickly." This time I'm thinking...ah...work.

There is definately something different about work. Something unexpected. I always figured that work would have to be better than school at least work-wise because you may work all day, but most of the time you don't have to do more work at the end of the day. The jury's still out. I think it's just my friends I miss the most. If I went to work all day and got to hang out with the guys every week and everybody on the weekends, I think it would be better. But without the social aspect, it's hard to tell.

I do enjoy my work, and for that I am very glad. I enjoy my home life too, and for that I'm very glad. Overall, I'm a blessed guy. Same old Berg just a new state.

"Only time will tell if wishing wells can bring us anything"

This was a very good weekend. Relaxing in our clean house doing very little. On Friday Josh and Keri were here which was awesome. We went to dinner walked around Plymouth eating ice-cream, generally hung out and went on a late-night hunt for White Castle, which turned out to lead to an all-night 50s style place very similar to White Castle called Greens. It was a good night. But alas they had to head back to Indiana.

So Lisa and I turned to each other and movies for our entertainment. Yesterday we watched Sin City and Snakes on a Plane. That's a lucky husband who watches those two awesome guy movies in one day with his wife. Thanks, Rogers! And yes, S.O.A.P. was everything it's hype led it to be. There was laughter and screams throughout and an eruption of applause in our mostly empty theatre. Would I recommend this movie? Yes. Grab a few friends and go see it, twice.

Tonight, will be an early to bed night, as I feel very tired. How about this Karr character. Guilty or not of the case at hand, he looks like a creep, and has to be guilty of numerous crimes against children based on what they're saying he has said and done in the past.

So that about wraps up my post about very little. Have a pleasant night, friends. You are missed.

"And as for the clouds just let them roll"

Well, I got sort of hooked on America's Got Talent over the past couple of weeks. The finale was tonight and America voted to give a 12 year old girl who can sing well 1 Million Dollars. Can you imagine? She sang three or four songs on stage over the past month and walks away the winner. I hope her young life doesn't change for the worse.

Lisa has got our house guest-ready as Josh and Keri are driving over from Kalamazoo to visit us and stay the night. We've got a very nice place, now that it's all cleaned up.

Plus Lisa's made an awesome thing to hang all of Wilbe's Wedding Polaroids on.

The next few weeks are going to be pretty busy. 18 - Josh and Keri spend the night 25 - We'll be back in town Labor Day Weekend - we'll be back in town again since there's a day off of work Sept. 9 - more friends up for football!

Well it's late and I've got to be up in 6 hours so it's time for bed.

Things I enjoyed today:

• Seeing our house really get cleaned for the first time
• Watching the biggest underdog win a big event in Big Brother
• Watching Last Kiss podcasts on my Ipod while walking to the gym to work out
• Eating lunch out with a bunch of co-workers

Goodnight!

"I'm at ease in the arms of a woman"

If you like relaxing music for a summer night check out Amos Lee. I first listened to his Keep it Loose, Keep it Tight a lot because Norah Jones was on the track. Then Zach Braff put Arms of a Woman on his new Last Kiss Soundtrack so I checked out that song. It's so mellow. Goes down easy on a nice evening. 61 degrees out tonight. Not a cloud in the sky. A perfect night to walk home after a good workout to a nice song like that.

After yesterday's day of rest, today went very well. I wasn't really tired and kept busy the whole day. That's always a very good thing.

Time to go to sleep. I'm headed to Chicago later this week. That should be fun and interesting.

Listening to: Arms of a Woman - Amos Lee / Come Away with Me - Norah Jones

"Would you take my hand tonight"

Yesterday I was on top of that getting ready to come down...

with that guy in the middle sitting next to me! That's right is was Cedar Point 2006. What a great day. While the Andersonians pulled a 22 to 23 hour day, Rogers and I managed to make it there ride some rides and back in about 19. We did have a great time.

The result of a long day in the hot sun riding rides with good friends was a day of sitting inside doing almost nothing but relaxing and watching this on DVD:

and eating through a couple of packages of this...

And all of this included the wonderful companionship of her:

What a great way to spend a weekend!

"Or break up my train of thought"

Praise the Lord, I can finally connect to the company network from home. That has been a huge pain for about 3 weeks, so I'm really really happy. Thanks to Best Buy for the Wireless Router for 49.99 (even though I'm using the cable), and to Rogers for her patience with my furstration and to God for getting it to work, miraculously.

Not too much to say. I'm looking forward to seeing a few folks in Northern Ohio this weekend. That should be a gas. Other than that, I'm loving it here, but missing my hometown of Anderson, Indiana. Will we ever return? I truly hope so. Or at least Central Indiana. Can't wait to catch up with Josh C. and Nate D. when they return to A-Town later this month. I hope that Massachusetts is treating them well. Out of respect for the latter:


P.S. One of the first songs that Nate D. drummed along to was Hey Jealousy by my once favorite band the Gin Blossoms, who released their first album in 10 years yesterday. A one sentence review to ensue: A listen through of the Gin Blossom's Motel Lodge Victory lifts the veil that was only peaked under previously to reveal a band that never wrote great lyrics or music, but had enough hooks to keep you coming back again and again, even after 10 years.

"I cannot help myself"

This is me and Rogers in our apartment and me and Rogers as the desktop wallpaper also.

Here's the pics I couldn't upload last night...

These chicks are just too cool, I guess.

This fountain is in the bottom of the GM headquarters.

Ever been to Ikea? It's a pretty cool store. We bought a coffee table and two side tables there today. Side tables = $12. What a deal! Coldstone = $9.73. We almost could have bought another table, but it was worth it as usual!

"Miss Hilton you must be worth a trillion bucks"

The saga of the failed network connection continues. After weeks of frustration, I finally managed to connect to the internet through a router. This was after purchasing one at Best Buy for $50. However, for some reason, I still cannot connect to my work network through VPN. The purpose of the router is almost defeated - however - I hold out with high hopes.

Tomorrow, one of my all time favorite bands will release their first album in 10 years. The Gin Blossoms are back. I loved them in the mid-90s and they were my first official favorite band. I'm looking forward to hearing some new tunes that I haven't heard since the time I saw them in concert a couple of years ago (with Better Than Ezra). That show freakin rocked - thanks to Rogers for the birthday present.

Well, I tried an failed to upload some pictures - so until another day...goodnight.

"The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire"

Ah, another nice weekend comes to a close. Time just flies by these days, it seems. They say that life is like a roll of toilet paper and it just goes faster the closer you get to the end. I think I heard that from my Dad or my Grandma, but it also sounds like something Phil would maybe say.

Anyway, next weekend, it looks as some fun might be in order. This weekend consisted of many of the things that I had mentioned. Friday night - Date night. Saturday out with Aunt and Uncle. However, that also included Saturday evening Lutheran church, which meant extra sleeping in today. V for Vendetta was replaced with My Cousin Vinny and rescheduled for possibly Wednesday night. Overall it was a nice time.

Tomorrow, I'm being picked up bright and early at 7 a.m. so that I can be the "scribe" for some focus groups. Basically, I will take notes for quite a few hours. However, it should be enjoyable, incredibly interesting and a great way to spend a day of work...and I'll get home from work before 5, which is very nice.

Let's see what else is going on...my parents "have a proposition for us." Sounds intriguing. Sounds scary. I'm just not that exciting right now.

"Ample parking everywhere"

So I found out that Ray LaMontagne apparently went to the side of the stage and chatted with some fans and signed a few autographs the other day. That would have taken the concert from good to awesome. Too bad we didn't go up there.

In other news, well there isn't too much other news right now and it's getting late for those of us who get up before 7. Oh for the days of 10 o'clock chapels. Boooo....

Watching: America's Got Talent, Simple Life, The Hills, Big Brother.

Listening To: Mat Kearney, Ludacris, Frou Frou

Reading: Same books as last time. I'm a slow reader okay.

This weekend: Date night with Rogers, V for Vendetta, out with my aunt and uncle that live 30 min. from here, Sleeping In, Apartment, Church. Love y'all.


Here's a couple of wedding pics for you.

"A flat tire on the road to a better place"

We can all rejoice, brace for it. The moment we've all been waiting for has finally arrived. Best Buy is now carrying The Next Generation of videos. And not just The Next Generation, but both next generations. That right bloglanders HD DVD and Blu-Ray are taking arms and ready to battle.

At first glance HD DVD is kicking Blu-Ray's booty as the only Blue-Ray that I noticed was the one and only The Fifth Element starring Bruce Willis. No Schindler's List. No half-way amazing movie. Instead we get The Fifth Element now for only $25. Or we could go the HD DVD route and pick up "The Last Samurai" for $30. A movie that was recently $5.99 on DVD at Wal-Mart and could probably be purchased for $3.00 on VHS can be purchased for 5 or 10 times that much so that it can be viewed in the best quality known to man. And by the way, it's audio file is no longer compressed! Hip Hip Hooray! It also came in a sleaker case than any DVD I'd seen before. Rounder corners and thin. Very sexy.

So with very little research I'll opinionate. Blu-Ray? HD DVD? Who will win? Who will lose? I'm guessing that the format that gets the most films and the best marketing will win. Of course films will hopefully go to both formats, but demand goes up for either one if they are unique (Halo anyone?). There is no doubt that Joe Consumer and Jane Lovesmovies are the real losers. Unless you're so wealthy and so into technology and precision that you have nothing better to do with your money than you'll probably just wait until your sucked into having to buy one or the other because it's no longer released on DVD. It'll be a few years and hopefully until then the ol' DVDs will keep getting cheaper and cheaper. By the way, I picked up Spiderman II ($4), 8 Mile ($4), Reservoir Dogs ($6), and the almost brand new Failure to Launch($9) for a total of $25 at Best Buy yesterday. So perhaps I'm not really losing after all. Then I went home to watch Friday Night Lights on TV. What a waste of money...that'll be for another day.

"Been so long since I seen your face"

This past weekend, Lisa and I went home for the first time since we moved away. It was a wonderful weekend. Friday night a group of 13 gathered around a Red Lobster table for 10 and cleared the room of patrons with it's boisterous laughing and conversation. We had a great deal of fun before returning to the Hell Hole to talk late into the night.

Saturday was the third Ray LaMontagne show I'd ever seen with Phil, Jason and Par. Again we had a super good time even though Ray only played for a bit.

So there's missing your friends feelings combined with truly appreciating your friends feelings. Only seeing everybody every few weeks or so, will make each visit all the more meaningful. It was nice to have Phil making fun of me again simply because he knew it got to me just enough that it was worth it on both sides. It was funny to be the butt of Jason's persistent anti-semitic comments including the "Most Offensive Comment of the Evening" just in time.

A good time was had by all. Tonight I watched a movie by myself for the first time since wedding (the verb, not the event although I mean both). Friday Night Lights - a good flick. The real Varsity Blues, as one IMDB reviewer put it.

I began work on an essay tonight entitled The Songs of My Life. Work seems like it's going to pick up pretty fast.