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Memorial Day weekend has come and gone once again. It seems like it sneaks up on us and then is gone in a flash. We had a lot of fun, but it was over too fast. Like always, right?

This weekend was the weekend of the babies. They were everywhere. Of course I took tons of pictures of them.

Friday and Saturday night we had bonfires down on the beach and played Catchphrase. Fun, fun game. Saturday was beautiful, temperature-wise. There isn’t a thermometer there, so I don’t know the exact temperature, but it was warm. It started cooling off toward evening, but the day was beautiful. Sunday was cooler and cloudy. Mostly everyone (not me and some others) went for a walk and went over the bridge under construction. Freaky. I guess you had to walk across a beam and Casey was scared to walk over it. I don’t blame him.

We saw all sorts of wildlife, too. There was a crane nearby on Friday night, so Greg went down to take a picture of it. On Saturday there was a swan swimming around, which is unusual. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a swam swimming in the bay. It was huge.

Sunday night it stormed and rained for hours. Grandma, Aunt Elaine and Uncle Mark ended up staying until nearly 11:00 (way late for Grandma) because the rain just wouldn’t let up. It looked like a lake out in the yard. We haven’t found out yet just how much rain we ended up getting, but it was a lot.

Now we’re home, but we leave again tomorrow night. We’re heading to Minnesota on Thursday and I’m so excited! It’s so cool to only have a two-day work week. But busy, because I didn’t realize we only have tonight to get everything packed up so we can leave tomorrow. Yikes.

9:02 p.m.
Ok, I’m posting this after watching the first hour, so I’ll have to add my thoughts about the winner after that’s announced. I’m still hoping it’s David Cook, because I can’t stand Archie. And yet, I think it might be better, future record-wise, if he doesn’t win.

It was so weird to see ZZ Top on there, especially after we just saw them in concert at the casino last fall. How weird that they go from playing a tiny crowd at the casino to playing on American Idol with David Cook. I bet they’ll get some bigger venues after this.

ZZ Top at the Island Casino last fall

And wasn’t it weird to see Bryan Adams on there? I thought he would look way older. I still… Oh my gosh, I just saw the commercial with David Cook playing Guitar Hero, Risky Business-style. That was actually pretty funny. Anyway, I was saying how it was weird to see Bryan Adams. He looks so short and skinny. I’ve heard that George Michael is supposed to be on here tonight, so we’ll see.

Anyway, more later…

9:07 p.m.
Ok, is it just me? What’s up with these Jonas Brothers? I just don’t think they’re all that fabulous. They’re not even that cute. I guess I’m not the target audience, so maybe if I was a 13-year-old girl I’d be in love with them. Ok, out for now.

9:10 p.m.
Greg just got back from the gas station, where it cost him $67.00 to fill up his truck at $4.09/gal. Yikes.

9:12 p.m.
I love that this Renaldo dude is still wearing his freaky white outfit. After I saw him singing this during auditions I had it stuck in my head. “I am your brother, your best friend forever…” I love how they just cut him off and went to commercial. They’ll probably have to bring out the hook to get him off the stage.

9:20 p.m.
Just a note to Archie: OPEN YOUR EYES!!! This drives me CRAZY!!! Open your eyes when you sing! Didn’t you listen to Andrew Lloyd Webber? If you lose, it will be because you wouldn’t open your eyes.

9:31 p.m.
I really liked Gladys Knight’s new Pips. Except Ben Stiller. I hate that guy. Jack Black’s facial expressions always crack me up. And Robert Downey Jr. was pretty funny, too.

9:35 p.m.
What the heck is Carrie Underwood wearing? Who told her it would be a good idea to wear that thing? It looks like something Reba McEntire would’ve worn in the 80s (see this video evidence, and check out the hats) with a scarf sewn to the sleeves. Greg said he thinks she looks good. Of course, he’s not actually looking at her clothes.

9:43 p.m.
I liked the David Cook version of the Guitar Hero commercial better than Archie’s. Oh, and is this going to be George Michael? Every time I hear Amanda Overmyer sing tonight I wonder how she made it this far. Girl is not a singer. Oh, and funny how they had David Hernandez, former stripper, sing the “naked” line. And there’s George Michael! But what kind of crappy, slow song is he singing? Rock it out, Georgie! Those sunglasses are hideous. Looks like he borrowed them from Elvis during his fat, white jumpsuit days. Actually, at certain angles when you don’t notice his stubble, he looks like a really butch grandma, like the one from Napoleon Dynamite. Make yourself a dang quesadilla, George! Maybe he borrowed the sunglasses from his grandma?

9:52 p.m.
George moved Paula to tears. Not hard to do. What the heck did he just say to Ryan Seacrest? He has a cold? I could not understand that at all.

9:58 p.m.
Oh my gosh, here we go! Greg interjects here that David Cook has a giant head, but I think he just looks big compared to Archie. But is he wearing guyliner? Sure looks like it. Anyway, and the winner is… come on, get to it already! It is… DAVID COOK! I can’t believe he actually won! I’m so glad! I bet Archie’s dad is pissed. There goes all the money he was going to make off his prize show dog son. Here he goes, singing that stupid winning song. They need to do something better for next year, because all of these winning songs suck. They always do. Why don’t they just hire a real songwriter? I bet Diane Warren could come up with something cheesy and inspiring like they want, but it would be better.

10:05 p.m.
Well, that’s it! Sorry if you didn’t watch American Idol and this post makes no sense to you. Leah out!

After more than a year of looking for a new vehicle, I have finally found one. I wasn’t actually looking too hard because I figured my current truck would be running for awhile. That truck has been pretty good to me, actually. After driving two and a half years of 400 miles a week, last week was the first time it broke down on me. The battery wasn’t charging correctly for a couple days and then the alternator finally went. I was lucky it wasn’t winter and there was one bar of cell phone service where it came to a rest. I was also fortunate that I never went in the ditch during the winter months.

The new truck is a ’99 Ford Ranger SuperCab 4×4. It was previously owned by an older guy so there’re only 68,000 miles on it. It’s nice to have cruise and a/c now, plus the the extra room with the extended cab and it’s an automatic. It also has a nicer tonneau cover than my previous one because it takes about 20 seconds to roll up. Those button snap covers really suck. I took Leah for a ride into town when I got home and she really likes it as well.

So if you know anyone who wants to buy a ’95 Chevy S-10 with no cruise or air, 141,000 miles, a stick shift, and that leaks radiator fluid, chirps and has uncomfortable seats, let me know.

1. Oh, yeah! 100% on the Cheesy Rock Ballads Quiz! I didn’t think it was really hard at all.
2. I’m sure it’s just the grammar geek in me, but I loved this article in The Onion.
3. Here are some free audiobooks of works that are in the public domain. I’ve listened to a few, but since they’re read by volunteers (some of whom are better speakers than others), the quality is sometimes inconsistent.
4. Speaking of free audio, here is an index (for lack of a better term) of online radio stations. I listen to these at work sometimes.

This past weekend was our first trip to Nahma for the weekend. With the long winter, this is probably one of our latest arrivals. The weather was pretty decent and we were able to have a bonfire on the beach on Saturday night. We rented Guitar Hero III again and brought that with us so Dayna could rock out as well. Also on Saturday night, we had the priest from the Nahma church over for dinner which was interesting. It’s weird calling someone “Father” when he is about the same age as us. He graduated from Michigan Tech with an Electrical Engineering degree before he joined the seminary. Since we brought the Wii we had him play some bowling which was pretty entertaining and he got pretty into it.

It’s hard to believe Memorial Day weekend is only a few weekends away. We’ll be headed to Nahma for the family get together. Then the following weekend we’ll be driving to Minneapolis to see Ryan and Kami, who moved there from Wyoming. It should be fun!