It's been snowing all day today. Mom and I went out for a nice lunch at Red Robin, and decided to take the highway home. There was a huge accident blocking traffic at our exit though, so we went to the next one to turn around, hoping we could avoid the jam. As I was getting onto the entrace ramp, my car spun out, and we came within about two feet of smashing into the guard rail. All I gotta say is... thank God for Dan's driving in the snow lessons a few years ago. A very close call, indeed.

Zack Pohl has gone missing in Ohio. One moment: thawing a turkey and making green bean casserole. The next: *POOF*... gone! If you have any information about this mysterious disappearance, please contact the staff of ibzp.com immediately.

UPDATE: Sorry, folks. It turns out that I just over slept. Anyway, it's snowing here. Not much of a weather improvement over Michigan, if you ask me. On the agenda for today: lunch with mom, and seeing Harry Potter with Dan. Oh, and lamenting last night's MSU basketball thriller/heartbreaker. I'll check in later.

"I'm bad, Pee-wee. You don't want to get mixed up with a guy like me. I'm a loner. A rebel."

Yep, that's me... a real rebel. I skipped my econ class this morning (oooooh!). I walked right into Aker's Hall, told the professor I had to leave for Ohio, and that I was dropping off my homework and leaving. Yeah, I just tol' her straight up how it gots'ta be. Her response: "Drive safe!" Yeah, that's how I roll.

So anyway, I came into work early to tie up some loose ends before actually hitting the road for Ohio. My plan was to just get a quick oil change and leave at around 11, but since I forgot my freakin' cell phone charger, it looks like I'll need to stop back by my apartment before I leave. Bah.

Here's my game plan for the next 48 hours: drive to ohio, relax at home and help mom get ready for din-din on Wednesday, eat an early Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, get in the car with Jessi, drive at break-neck speed back up to Michigan, drop Miss Heselschwerdt off at Ann Arbor Community College (otherwise known as U of M), get to Stefy's house by 8 p.m. on Thursday evening, collapse. It'll be worth it though. This way I get the best of both worlds: spending Thanksgiving with family, and then with my girl. What could be better?

For those of you nuts enough to go out on Black Friday, I'll say a prayer for you. I have a feeling my day after Thanksgiving malaise will be spent in front of the TV watching movies. Anyway, I guess that's it. I hope everyone has a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday!

What a weekend. Well, to start things off on Friday, Stef and I headed out to the Maple Art Theater to see Pride and Prejudice... my 12th grade English teacher Miss Lynch would be proud. I was a little surprised by how packed the theater was for the movie, but I guess it was opening night after all. The film was very well done, and I thought they did a pretty great interpretation of the novel. It's funny to look back on my last high school English class, and remember how much I moaned about having to read Jane Austen. The narrative is just so tight and entertaining, which is always refreshing, when you consider most of the crap that's been churned out in cinemas in recent years.

Saturday was our busy day. Stef's cousin Alexis Spiro (Tim's cousin's daughter) was getting married up in Novi, and the wedding started at 3 p.m. Since the bride is part Muslim and the groom is Catholic, the ceremony was held on (relatively) neutral territory at a Congregationalist church. The wedding felt like it went by in fast forward, at least in comparison to some of the Catholic ceremonies I've attended over the years; we were out of there by 3:40. The weird part of the whole thing though was that the reception didn't start until 6:00 p.m., which left Stef, Teri, and I with two and a half hours on our hands to kill.

A quick side story. Tim had to skip out on most of the wedding reception because he was also attending his business partner's surprise 50th birthday party for his wife. Ordinarily, a family member's wedding trumps just about everything, but this was an exception since Tim had been helping his partner Jack plan the party for over nine months. The reason for all the fuss? Jack managed to get Johnny Mathis to come perform a full concert set for his wife's surprise party. Yeah, pretty nuts. Still, I guess if you're gonna do an over-the-top party, you might as well go over the top with your entertainment. From what I heard, Johnny did a great show, and Jack's wife was just beside herself for the whole night. Now, for those of you who might be planning my 50th birthday party a few years in advance, my requests are for (in the following order): U2, Coldplay, Dave Matthews, and Ben Folds. Better get a head start.

Anyway, the wedding reception finally got rolling at 6 p.m. It was being held at the Meadowbrook Country Club in Novi, so as you can imagine, it was very well done. Basically, when we first walked in, people were just standing around chatting, and eating the appetizers that were sitting in a giant ice sculpture. It was at least an hour of that stand and chat routine before we were finally let into the main hall for dinner, and by then I was getting pretty hungry. The food was well worth the wait, and the nice thing about the presentation was that they paced it so well, so I never really felt full even though I was totally pigging out throughout the night.

It was pushing 10 p.m. by the time we finally ate dessert, but it was worth the wait too: baklava, canoli, cheesecake, and wedding cake. Mmmmmm! While we sat and muched on dessert, the bride and groom finally did their first dance together to "The Way You Look Tonight" by Frank. Tim finally made it back from his side party at that point, so it was nice good timing for him to still grab a bite to eat. Once the dance music got started, Stefy and I spent most of the rest of the night out of the dance floor cuttin' a rug, and we had a blast. Yes... I danced, and enjoyed myself, it's true. After about an hour we were getting pooped, but the timing was right, because that's when they put out a coney dog table for an after-dinner snack. Oh yeah, you know I was all over that. Who can resist a good coney dog, honestly? It was a stroke of genius. Well, as you can expect, it was pretty much downhill from that point. We finally were able to call it a night by 12:30 a.m. or so, and made it back home a little after 1.

So yeah, it was a great wedding. Stefy and I had a fabulous time, and I was really glad that the bride's mom made room for me to join the guest list. Sunday was pretty low key after such a crazy day. Just a nice breakfast at home with Tim and Teri, and watching the Lions lose on TV. Stef and I hit the road by 5 or so, and spent the rest of the evening relaxing at my place in front of the TV.

Well, today marks my fifteen month anniversary with Miss Stefanie Spiro. I have some econ homework to do, and I still need to pack for Ohio, but we'll probably squeeze in dinner somewhere nice to mark the occasion. I can't believe it's gone by so fast. The months just keep rolling off the calendar.

Tomorrow I'm leaving for Ohio to celebrate Thanksgiving at home with my mom, Dan, and my Aunt Julie's family. Hopefully I'll have time for one more post before I hit the road, but we'll see how things go tomorrow morning.