Fridays used to be really busy around the office. The last two weeks it's been dead though. Wanda came in for about five seconds this morning, Wendy left at noon, Mel and Christi are in Jamaica, and Kim Tyler was sick. That just left me and Kim Thompson around the office today. I actually got a lot done though. I started making some more progress on the website overhaul (which I'm scaling down a bit), and managed to get all three deposits ready to go to the bank.

Stefy and I are going to her house tonight after work. We need to go to Somerset so she can pick up her new dress, and then we might go see a movie or something. Personally, Harry Potter would be my first choice, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it might be hard to get a ticket. So, we'll probably end up seeing Shopgirl or Jesus Is Magic (my second choice). Whatever we decide on, I'm just excited to go see a movie. It feels like the winter slate of film premieres will be pretty good this year, which is good since there wasn't a whole hell of a lot to see this fall.

That's it for now, I guess. Enjoy the weekend!

Well, fall was gorgeous, but sadly, it is over. Winter has arrived, and it brought a buncha damn snow with it. My apartment was freezing last night. I had to scrape snow and ice off of my car this morning. I had my scarf make its second consecutive appearance today. It was miserable. And it's only going to get colder. Welcome to Michigan.

My macro class was a s-n-o-o-z-e-r this morning. Man, I mean, I can usually keep my eyes open during that class no matter how monotonous it seems, but today was a struggle. I busted out my iPod and played the parachute game for a few minutes to try and perk myself up. What a bore. Screenwriting was better though. I feel like these were good pages this week, and I got some more good feedback from my group partners. Both Duane and Kendra had nice additions as well, so it was an easy reading day. Work this afternoon was a little bit of a pain. I'm still trying to conceptualize what our new website should look like, and while I thought I had a few cool ideas in mind, I'm discovering that they're a bit harder to implement than I original thought. It's slow going, to say the least.

Flashing back for a moment, Stef and I went out to Eastwood last night to shop for a bit. Miss Spiro needed to look for some new shoes to go with her dress for this weekend's wedding at DSW, but unfortunately, couldn't find any that she liked. Our next stop was, you guessed it... the Gap. Stefy saw a few cute wintery items there, but I was the one making the big purchase for a change of pace. They finally got in some nice, casual sport jackets that I liked, so I ended up buying one. It was a bit of a splurge, but I think it'll be one of those things I'll get a lot of use out of. Plus it looks really good on me ;-)

Anyway, back to tonight. Stef and I are going to venture out into the cold again, and head out to my dad's house for dinner. Should be fun. That's it for now.

More proof that I have the best girlfriend EVER... when I got home from work yesterday, Stefy was already cooking dinner at my apartment! We had caesar salads, linguini, and mashed potatoes. Dessert? A homemade pumpkin pie! Mmmm! As a thank-you, I ran out in the rain to Best Buy to pick up the new U2 concert DVD (well, that was kinda for mee too), and the new Oprah 20th Anniversary DVD box set. Stefy was pretty jazzed about that one. Yes, I am man enough to admit that I spent most of the night watching Oprah clips with my girlfriend... and enjoyed every minute of it. I swear, Oprah needs to run for president. She can be an independent candidate. Can you imagine? She'd have the whole damn country workin' out every day. People would be reading. She'd give everyone a car. It would be amazing. Who's with me?

Anyway, back on planet earth, I finished this week's ten pages of script, and already posted them. Take a look. My Comm class is cancelled today, but for some retarded reason we ARE having class next Wednesday. Well, my ass won't be there, I can tell ya that right now. That's the only weird thing about today though. Just microeconomics and work. Pretty low key.

Well, I think the fall weather has finally arrived. Rain. Clouds. Cold. Bah. No fun. At least it was fun while it lasted. I think my homemade Christmas scarf from last year will be making its first appearance tomorrow. What a shame.

Anyway, classes were pretty run of the mill today. My econ class was a zoo, because we dove head first into new material this morning. It actually seems pretty easy, but my head was still spinning by the end of the lecture. We got our exams back today too. I got a 41.5 on it, but since she didn't put the scale on the board, I'm not exactly sure what that means. If it's the same curve from the first exam, then that translates to about a 3.0, but I really can't say for sure. Honestly though, I think a 3.0 would be a welcome mark, considering that how much I struggled with the test.

Work was actually a lot of fun today. I've been trying to come up with a new design idea for our website in recent weeks, but haven't found anything I was wild about yet. So, finally, it dawned on me that I should just re-tool the cover I made for our brochures, and make that the new homepage for the site. Of course, there will be lots of tweaking to upgrade the whole webpage, but I think it should be pretty smooth. Hopefully you-know-who likes it. Ultimately, that's all that really matters.

Well, that's all I have for today. I see a nice, warm apartment, my slippers, and a flannel blanket in my future for tonight. And TV. Let's not forget the TV.

The next eight to ten days are going to fly by. Is it just me, or does it seem like the pre-thanksgiving malaise has already set in around MSU? I think it officially started in Minnesota on Saturday, and the football team brought whatever they caught in Minneapolis home with them. I'm not complaining, mind you, but it just seems like everyone is already cruising into Thanksgiving break. Except, of course, my dumbass comm professor, Renee Strom. In an act of sheer stupidity, she has chosen to cancel class this Wednesday, but hold our usual lecture period next Wednesday. I'm sorry, but did she graduate from the school of the completely ignorant? NOBODY goes to class on the day before Thanksgiving. It's the most official un-official school holiday of the year. Get the net!

Anyway, I got my first of two econ exam grades back today. I landed an 81/120 on my micro test, which, while only 2 points better than my last test score, is weighted a little higher, since the overall class average was down this time around. So, with the way the curve is shaping up, I'm headed towards the most hard-fought 3.0 ever. We'll see how things turn out tomorrow, when I get the grade from my macro test.

Well, it's kind of a blah day today. Nothing too remarkable to report on. There were a bunch of angry protesters outside of the State News offices on Grand River this afternoon. While I'm not 100% sure, it looked like the college Republicans organized the little rally to complain about the SN's slanted coverage of the Iraq war. They were all holding up big signs saying "God Bless America," and, "They Defend Us, So We Defend Them," and "This isn't how my money (meaning the SN tax) should be spent." So, after seeing these demonstrators, and after reading this article online, I have officially decided to start supporting the troops. Troops, consider yourselves supported! That's it for today—God bless the U-S-A!

Okay, a quick re-cap on last week. My two micro tests? What a pain. Uh, I don't even want to guess what I got on those two things. I mean, even though I studied like mad for those exams, I really don't think it helped much. That's the lesson, kids... studying is for losers.

The weather last week was unbelievable. People were walking around without coats. I really have to give my home state props for this fall we've been having thus far. In my whole life, I can't remember better weather in October and November than what we've had this year. Go Michigan!

Well, the weekend was good. My mom and Dan came into town for a nice visit starting on Friday, so it was nice to have them around. Stef and I went out to dinner at Sparty's Coney Island with them on Friday night, and then we all went out to Celebration to see Capote. I think everyone enjoyed the movie, but it did feel like mom and Dan were indulging us with our choice a little bit. Ah, well. At least mom stayed awake through most of it. Stefy and I really liked the movie though. Philip Seymour Hoffman was, as I'm sure you've heard, fantastic as Truman Capote. He certainly nails the voice perfectly. While the story wasn't exactly whiz-bang action-packed or anything, I felt like they did a good job of getting at the heart of the story of Capote's work on In Cold Blood. It's definitely worth seeing.

Saturday was a lot of fun. I spent the morning hanging out with Stef while my mom and Dan went out for breakfast with their friends Bill and Pam. Miss Spiro and I went out for a nice breakfast of our own, at Denny's of all places. I can honestly say that I had not patronized a Denny's in well over five years, but I will admit that our food was actually pretty good on Saturday morning. It sure as hell ain't the Pancake House, but then again, what is? Anyway, after breakfast we all met back up at my place, and killed about an hour watching the MSU football season flush itself down the toilet before giving up on the game, and hitting the road for Frankenmuth. A quick sidebar about the football team here—I am beyond disgusted with this program/coach/team/bunch'a quitters. How many other teams could possibly f#ck up a 4-0 start as badly as Michigan State has? Let's face it, MSU football is the NCAA's answer to the Detroit Lions (who, let's not forget, almost blew it against Arizona on Sunday).

Okay, enough of that. Back to the rest of the weekend. Saturday afternoon we drove to Birch Run on our way to Frankenmuth, and spent a couple hours shopping at the outlet mall. Stefy had never been to the mall there, so she was all excited to go check out the Gap's outlet. She flipped a switch though when she found a bunch of goodies there at great prices: a purse, some perfume, and a few other items. I was hoping to find some good deals there myself, but the men's section was basically two racks, so there wasn't much to choose from.

After our trip to the mall, we finished the drive to Frankenmuth. We started off at Bronner's to poke around there and look at all the crazy Christmas crap. Like always, that place is a lot of fun to see and walk around, but none of us bought anything. After Bronner's, we went to the Bavarian Inn for a huge-ass chicken dinner. The line to get in the restaurant was practically out the building, but the wait ended up not being very long at all (about 30-40 minutes). Mom, Stef, and I all got chicken dinners, while Dan got turkey. Our food was delicious, as we've come to expect. The problem though was that I felt sick to my stomach for the rest of the night. Oh well... I guess that's the price you gotta pay for a meal like that.

My mom and Dan had to head home on Sunday morning, and Stefy was going home herself to do some dress shopping for next weekend's wedding, so I spent most of the day over at my dad's house. I did about four loads of laundry while we watched football. Seeing the Lions win did make me feel a little better about the MSU loss, but not much. That was pretty much it for this weekend though. This week is looking much easier, and less stressful than last week. Like I said, we have the wedding for Stef's cousin Alexis on Saturday, so that will be a lot of fun. I'm sure there will be a bazillion pictures to post a week from now. Anyway, I hope everyone had a great weekend.