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Sorry these are up so late. Wordpress kept giving me errors today when I was trying to post. So I’ll only post a few.

1. So there’s a reason I’m a “rule-abiding, responsible” person: it’s all my parents’ fault. Because I’m the first-born, they turned me into “a play-by-the rules perfectionist.” Break the trend, Dayna: “younger siblings were especially more likely to drop out of school — and get financial support from their parents.”
2. Take the 80s Music Video Quiz. I got 80%!
3. Check out the secret lives of Storm Troopers. These really cracked me up. This would never, ever occur to me to do now, although it may have when I was younger. Oh my gosh, can you imagine if YouTube had been around when Kami and I were making our own music videos and talk shows with my parents’ video camera? You know we would have been all over that.
4. The world’s tallest Lego tower. Very cool. Oh, and speaking of, this Lego art is really cool. Don’t tell Greg, but I tried to order a Lego rose from this guy for Greg for Valentine’s Day but he’s not taking any orders currently. The flower bouquet is so cool.

Is there such a thing as PRE-traumatic stress disorder? If not, there totally should be. It just seems like we picked the absolute worst time to be buying a house, economy-wise, and yet, there’s really no other option. Our landlord is raising the rent nearly $100, effective next month, because of some mysterious and probably made-up reason. The guy seems to be a bit (a LOT a bit) disorganized, because the reasons he gives for raising our rent never seem to pan out. Last year it was the cost of utilities. Never mind that WE pay all of our utilities. This year, it’s because he never raised the rent last year. Huh? Check your records, dude!

And besides, I WANT to buy a house. I want to paint the walls and pull up the carpet and plant trees and flowers and whatnot. I want to have a pet other than fish. I’m so excited, and so anxious. Greg is hiding his anxiety well, much better than I would have expected, considering. We talked about budgets and financing last night and he didn’t even need a paper bag or even come close to hyperventilating. I have to say, though, according to what we’ve found, we can afford a house nearly twice as expensive as we’re looking at. Yeah, maybe if Greg didn’t drive to and from Munising every day and if we stopped eating. If we actually went by those formulas, we’d probably be the next people getting foreclosed on.

All of this stems from the houses we looked at last weekend. We found one that we think we might make an offer on. It’s a pretty nice house, on 3.5 acres, near town but on a super quiet, dead-end road. Just what we wanted, or close to. So now that we’re thinking this could actually be it, and this whole house-buying thing isn’t just some nebulous maybe-we’ll-buy-a-house-someday thing but an actual holy-crap-we’re-going-to-buy-a-house thing, the anxiety sets in. Of course, we have to see if they’ll accept our offer and go through that whole rigmarole, but still. Yikes. And yay!

I think I’m going to be the one who needs a paper bag before this is all over.

1. The funniest speech ever. Apparently, it’s from a Canadian high school where the kids who want to speak at graduation have to audition and then one is chosen (at least, that’s what I’m getting from it). Hilarious.
2. Check out this cat:
   
   He really does look like Wilford Brimley!
   
3. Growing up, Justin loved MacGyver. They used to show it at 6:00 every evening on USA, and he used to watch it every day. So go ahead and take the MacGyver quiz and see how you do. Me, I managed to get 60%. How is that possible? Apparently I absorbed more of it than I realized.
4. The 9 Greatest Nerds on Film. [As an aside, have you noticed how it’s cool now for everyone to say, “Oh, yeah, I was such a nerd in high school”?]
5. One more quiz. I got 90% on this Nickelodeon quiz, so I had to post it! I actually should have gotten 100%, but I second-guessed myself on Mr. Wizard’s name.

This afternoon will be the Fun Finds Friday, but I figured I’d write something to catch you up with how the week went. Here’s what I did every day this past week: went to work, came home, made dinner, read, went to bed. Here’s what Greg did: went to work, went fishing, came home, ate dinner, went to bed. A few days the went fishing and came home were switched. But that’s about it. It’s been kind of a crummy week, weather-wise, which makes me sad. I want to be outside reading in my hammock. I haven’t even bothered to turn my computer on at home for most of the week. So if you’ve sent me an email and haven’t heard back yet, I’ll try to follow up this weekend. It’s hard because I spend 8 hours a day at a computer at work, so when I get home, the last thing I want to do is be on the computer.

This weekend we’re going to look at a bunch of houses. I’m excited, but Greg (aka Mr. Negativity) is trying to bring me down. We haven’t even looked at them but already he doesn’t like any of them. Pretty much Greg wants to live in the middle of a wooded 40 acres with a river. I wouldn’t mind that either, but he just needs to realize that that isn’t going to happen at this point. Because if we bought 40 acres with a river, we’d be living in a tent on it for the next 10 years until we could build a house. Anyway, I’ll let you know how it goes.

I’ve been thinking a lot about summer now that it’s May. Here’s what’s on the schedule so far:

1. The weekend after Memorial Day, we’re heading out to visit Kami and Ryan in Minnesota. I can’t wait. Theresa’s coming out, too, and we’re going to have so much fun.
2. We have my parents’ Nahma neighbor’s daughter’s wedding in July (does that make sense?) on the beach like Amie’s was last summer. Apparently I was misinformed, and the wedding is actually the same weekend as my class reunion. I’m so disappointed that we won’t get to go!
3. My 10-year high school reunion is in August. I can’t believe it’s been that long already.
4. Chris and Theresa’s wedding is in September. It’s so weird to think that she and I will be related. But that wedding will be a blast, too, I’m sure.

That’s it so far. I’m sure more will crop up, because summers are always busy. Well, I didn’t factor in the buying-a-house-and-moving thing in there, either. That will make things crazy. I’m looking forward to it so, so much.

And lastly, today is my dad’s birthday. Happy birthday, Dad!

1. Ha! This list of 8 Fictional Cities You Wouldn’t Want to Live in cracked me right up.
2. This list is pretty good, too. It’s 8 Pointless Laws All Comic Book Movies Follow.
3. This seems to be the day for lists! Here are 5 Mysteries Surrounding the Cosby Show.
4. This one is just weird. India’s tallest woman (7ft 2in) has a 10-month-old baby who is 3ft 2in. She says he wears clothes for a 5-year-old. And he was 26″ at birth. Yikes.
5. Check out The Candy Wrapper Museum. Some of these are so funny, especially these aerobics-related candy cigarettes, and Mr. T’s Gold Chain bubblegum. I pity the fool who doesn’t click on that link!