More stuff on New York

So, Jake and I are thinking that we'll probably have the wedding in June or July of 2007. We decided against doing it next summer because this school year is going to be pretty hectic for me. I am trying to complete my thesis as well as working two assistantships. Plus, I have to move at the end of July, so a wedding in the summer will be a pain after having to go through that...

Jake and I were on the Today show while we were out in New York. We didn't intend on going to watch the show, but we ended up there after getting up at the crack of dawn to stand in line for stand-by Conan tickets when asecurity guard told us that we couldn't see Conan's show that day because he was on vacation. We saw Joss Stone play a concert at Rockfeller Plaza. Here is a picture I took of her from where we stood. Check out the video of the show here. I had to open the video with Internet Explorer, so if you use Firefox, be warned. Jake and I are off to the right of the stage and I'm wearing a pink shirt. It's kind of hard to see us on this crappy quality internet player thing...but oh well.


<-Here's a picture of me on the Brooklyn Bridge. We took a walk across it for fun.

Here's Jake and me at the Statue of Liberty...

I'm engaged!!

Jake surprised me by taking me to New York and he proposed to me on top of the Empire State building!! Here we are on top of the Metropolitan Museum of Art...

I'll update later and hopefully include some more pictures!

The Dawning of the Age of Aquarius

Well, the weekend went by really quickly. On Friday, Jake and I went to the Rock Bottom Brewery in Arlington for dinner and drinks. I had two 23 oz. glasses of beer and my stomach was really full from it.
On Saturday, we went to the National Archives in the morning. I didn't realize that it took four months to write the Constitution...doesn't that seem like a long time? We left the Archives before we got a chance to look at everything, because we were hungry and wanted lunch. I think both of us wouldn't mind going back sometime to look over some of the exhibits some more. We ate lunch in Chinatown and then tried to go to the International Spy Museum but tickets were sold out for most of the afternoon. We went to the movies and saw The 40-Year Old Virgin instead. I love it when people randomly break out into song in the movies...it's great. Now I have the "Age of Aquarius" stuck in my head. Here's Jake outside Union Station. After we went to the movies, we wandered around town a bit. I think the most interesting thing that happened to us all day happened while we were walking through Union Station. About four black girls who all looked to be about nine years old stopped us and said, "Hey, are y'all married?" I could not understand the girl who was talking to us because of her accent...I thought she was asking us if we were American. I said "What?" to her like three or four times and still could not understand her. Finally, Jake said to her, "No, we're not married..." Another one of the kids that stopped us said something about how we looked like brother and sister and that was about the extent of the exchange. What really interests me about the whole thing is the question of what possesses a person to walk up to a couple and ask if they are married. I've never just been asked that off the cuff like that...who walks around asking people stuff like that?
Saturday night, Jake and I ate dinner in Adam's Morgan and we stopped in to have a drink at Madam's Organ before heading home.
Yesterday, we mostly stuck around at home. We had brunch not far from home and played some mini-golf. I lost by one stroke. I think that that is probably an improvement over the last time Jake and I played mini-golf. I must be getting better...next time, I'll totally beat him. We swam in the pool in the afternoon and I made lasagna for dinner. I'm not sure what I'm going to do today. I think I might stick around home and bake cookies. Jake said something about going out for fajitas tonight, so we might do that for dinner and I might get to meet some of the people that he works with.

The week

Yup...it's hard to keep myself entertained while Jake is at work...I really should be working on my thesis, but I'm really lazy and just want to slack off. I did a tiny bit of work on it this morning, but not a lot. I'm telling myself that this afternoon I'll do some more work on it. We'll see. So, here's a picture of what Jake's building looks like, just in case anyone was curious. It looks exactly like the 800 buildings around it. The car on the left is his vibe. The day I took this picture, it was nice and sunny out. This might have been the day that I sat outside by the pool.
I went into DC one day this week. I didn't do anything too exciting. I think I want to go back in another day next week.. Another day, I took myself to the Fashion Center at Pentagon City. I'd like shopping a lot more if I had a job and money. I just mostly wandered around and looked at all the really expensive stuff in the stores. Nordstrom's has L.A.M.B., Gwen Stefani's clothing line, which I thought was interesting. I never thought that I'd actually see that on a rack in the store. I guess I don't typically go into stores that are "upscale". I also wandered into a store not knowing what it was, and found out that it was Forever 21. It confused me because the sign for the store said XXI, and I just thought, "What's XXI? This looks like a cool store."
Here's a picture of Jake grilling chicken one night. I've made dinner a few nights this week, but I think we'll probably go out for food this weekend. I'm ready to go do some more sightseeing and spend some more time with Jake...hanging around by myself all day long is pretty boring...but at least I'm hanging around by myself here and not in Eau Claire. That's even more boring. Jake and I watched the movie Guess Who last night. It was okay. Just some nice mindless entertainment, you know? I sort of want to go see The 40 Year Old Virgin sometime. I have a feeling that that movie will be pretty mindless, too...

Visting Jake

Well, I've been up to lots of stuff the past few days. On Thursday night, Jake took me to 1789, which is a fancy restaurant in Georgetown. It was fun to go out, but I feel like I'm always doing something wrong in fancy restaurants. I ordered the wrong wine with my food and the waiter told me that I should get something else. There was also an old lady at the table next to us wearing this pink jacket getup who kept staring at me like I was a freak. Bah...whatever. I ate some good food and had my first experience of valeting a car.
On Friday, Jake and I left to go tour wine country in Virginia. Here's a picture of me outside the Naked Mountain winery. You can see the grapes growing on the left. It was fun tasting all sorts of different wines, even though I don't know a whole lot about how to do it. I think that I learned a few things and I got a nice wine buzz. Friday night, Jake and I went into Winchester, VA and had dinner at an Italian restaurant. I learned that Winchester was the girlhood home of Patsy Cline. On Saturday, Jake and I went to a few more wineries early in the day and that evening we drove into Maryland to see Jon and Ellen. Jon is living in this historical stone house (which he's agreed to write a paper about) in the middle of a sketchy neighborhood. There's this topless go-go dancer place across the street and the whole area is filled with liquor stores and pawn shops. Jon's little cute house with a white picket fence seems totally out of place.
Anyway, we went out to Franklin's, a brewpub not far from their place for dinner. The interesting thing about this brewpub is that it has a giftshop attached to it that sells kids' toys, candy, refrigerator magnets, random food, beer, and all sorts of quirky stuff. We went back to their place afterwards and played poker and euchre. I lost all of my chips in poker...but we weren't betting any money so I don't care. I probably would've played more conservatively if we were actually betting money and if I hadn't been drinking...
Yesterday, Jake and I toured Mount Vernon. It was 110 degrees with the heat index, which made it super uncomfortable. I bought my dad this plastic axe filled with cherry sours that says "I cannot tell a lie" on it for his birthday...not so much because I think he'll like it but more because I found it amusing.
Okay, well, now I have to figure out what I'm going to do today while Jake is at work...

Family Matters

My parents forgot to leave behind a car for my brother this morning. He had to go to Ripon for a sports physical and was planning on taking my parents' Toyota. They, however, took the Toyota to work without thinking about it. I was in the shower at 7:15 this morning when I heard my brother banging on the bathroom door. I asked him what he wanted, but I couldn't hear him in the bathroom. I peeked my head out the bathroom door, and my brother was like, "Mom and Dad forgot to leave me a car. Can I take your car to go running with Vanessa?" He was standing there holding my car keys, which means that he rummaged through my purse while I was in the shower, which is slightly annoying. I let him take my car, though. I couldn't believe that he was up so early this morning, because yesterday he got pissed when Jake called here at 11am and woke him up.
My family is on crack, I swear...I can't wait to leave tomorrow morning. I'm sick of people rummaging through my stuff while I'm in the shower, forcing me to eat dinner at 4pm, and just being annoying in general. I asked my mom if she would like me to make dinner tonight for her birthday, and she said no, so hopefully she won't complain when she comes home and I haven't made dinner. My dad asked me last night if I was making dinner today. I think he was hoping I would, because he bought my mom a cake and it would make more sense to eat cake after we've had dinner. However, I think my mom is just planning on eating fast food in Berlin before my dad's softball game tonight, which means that we'll probably have to eat cake before she leaves for that...
Well whatever...I'll be out of here soon...Washington, D.C. tomorrow!

Golden Corral

My family and I went for dinner at Golden Corral in Appleton last night. Here's a picture of my nephew. I think it was the first time he'd ever eaten corn on the cob.

The Fair

Lelani and I went to the Green Lake county fair yesterday. I've decided that I am too old to go on carnival rides anymore. They make me feel sick to my stomach. I think my body is telling me that I am stupid for getting into something that shakes me around and throws me up and down in the air. Plus, I think the whole setup of carnivals is a little bit freaky. The rides are all put together and operated by people whose expertise I question...
Lelani and I did get our picture taken in the American Gothic cutout thing, though...this picture is going on all of my Christmas cards this year...
Here's a picture of me on the Hurricane, the first ride we went on. This is before the thing started moving, so at least I'm not sick yet in this picture...

Madison

I went to Madison on Friday night. Liz, Sarah, and I went to the Great Dane for dinner and then we got together with Stacey and Nathan and went to the Cardinal Bar. Here's a picture of Stacey, Nathan, Sarah, and Liz at the bar. It was 80s night and we all danced. There were some creepy guys there that were staring at us and one of them came up and tapped me on the shoulder and said, "We've been watching you girls dance...show me what you've got." And I was like, "Uh...no?" The guy got up all close to me and dipped down onto the floor in front of me, but I didn't move at all...I just stood there frozen. I walked away from him and I think I made him a little mad...but whatever, he was creepy...he kept trying to go up to all sorts of random girls and force himself onto them as a dance partner. Anyway, I did get to hear a few quality 80s songs...I think that I've concluded that I need to learn all of the dance moves to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" as soon as I prove that I have mastered the kareoke version of "Baby Got Back".
Today, Liz, Sarah, and I went to the farmer's market in the morning and then we ate lunch out on the Terrace. Here's me with some of the Terrace chairs and Lake Mendota in the background. It was actually really nice outside today and it wasn't too humid. This afternoon we all went and saw Wedding Crashers. I thought that it was entertaining and the idea behind it was interesting. Anyway, I think that I'll give it a 7 out of 10...it was amusing but not too far from your average comedy. Maybe just a bit raunchier than the average comedy? Anyway, I think the movie is probably more appealing to guys in general...Jake, if you had to rate the movie, what would you give it?

You be the critic

There's this cool thing in the back of a book I checked out at the library. It says, "You be the critic" and tells people that have read the book to write a checkmark next to one of three categories that the book best fits into. The three columns are: Great, Good, and Don't Bother...
That's awesome! Why have I never seen this in a library book before? Do these things get put in library books often? Am I just inattentive?

Two more days of class

Yay...I'm almost done with summer class. I told myself that I would start on the final paper tonight, but I haven't yet...
I have to meet with my group in 25 minutes. We're giving a presentation on Friday. Oh...that's another good thing...the next two days of class are going to be group presentations, so I don't have to listen to our prof. drone on and on.
I'm hoping to go to Madison this weekend. I'm waiting to hear from Sarah to see if she'll be around...
I have to find a birthday present for my mom...anyone have any good ideas?

I's a smartie...

Well, I sort of doubt that my actual IQ is 125...but if this thing wants to tell me I'm a smartie, I'll take it...
Yeah right, genius in math, my ass...this is based off of four questions!

Your IQ Is 125

Your Logical Intelligence is Exceptional Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius Your General Knowledge is Above Average

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

Wisconsin Circuit Courts

So, I found out from my classmates last week that there is a website you can go to and look up anyone's name to find out if they've had any kind of criminal charges against them or if they've had to go to civil court within Wisconsin. You can even find out about speeding tickets that people have had. One girl told me that she goes there and looks up random people she meets in the bar and people that she's considered dating and whatnot, just to make sure that they haven't been charged with all sorts of serious crimes or anything. I was fascinated, and of course, looked up a bunch of people that I know...I guess this website has been around for quite a while...how have I never heard of this?
Anyway, tonight on the news, I heard that they might get end up charging a fee to use the website or get rid of older cases listed on the website because the state supreme court thinks that the site might be used by employers in order to discriminate against people listed on the site. Interesting...

Squiggle Wiggle Pen

I had a dream last night that I was on the phone with a friend of mine and he told me that I would soon get a "swiggle" pen. I woke up remembering this pen that I had when I was a kid...it had a battery in it and when you wrote with it it would make all sorts of little swirls. Anybody else have a pen like this? I tried looking up "swiggle" pen on google, but it corrected me by saying, did you mean squiggle pen? Which, I suppose I did, since squiggle's an actual word, unlike swiggle...
Anyway, the first website I went to about the squiggle pen talked about how this woman used the pen to masturbate...
Hmmm...I wonder what Freud would have to say about what the squiggle pen symbolizes in a dream...
"Sometimes a squiggle pen is just a squiggle pen"