That’s right, the weather outside is great. Some might say a little warm.  But it’s great.  I think I should go to the driving range later today to enjoy it more.

This weekend has been low key.  Just hanging out.  Surfing the web looking at houses.  Dreaming about the right one.  Now if that dream would just come true.  Although, I am liking a few that we’ve found.  If only it were in a different town. Oh well, we’ll have a few things to consider.  Or if we had some more money we could be Mooney’s neighbor!

I read an interesting article a few days ago that has mellowed my iPhone desires a tad.   I think it will mean good things for future versions of the iPhone.

Has anyone every watched the TV show My Boys on TBS? They have a marathon on of it today.  I’ve watched a few episodes now and I am starting to like it.  I’ve seen lots of commercials for it, and thought it would be pretty funny.  I would say that it is.  So if you need a summer show to watch I’d suggest checking it out.  I believe the new season starts tomorrow night at 9.

I must also state that I enjoy watching sports, especially the Twins in HD.  I really like our new tv!

No, I don’t have one.  I went to the Apple Store today and played with one though.  I must say I was impressed.  The typing thing would take a little bit to get used to I think.  I just navigated to a few websites, and that was a little difficult.  But I think if you use it more it’d be great.   The YouTube feature was kind of cool.  I don’t watch much on YouTube though.

I also played around with the Apple TV for a bit.  That was fun as well.  I think it’d be fun.  But it’s not in the cards.  Maybe if I get a few more giftcards to apple, or save up some more.

While I was there I inquired about a job as well.  I applied a few weeks back and hadn’t heard.  So I talked with the hiring manager, and things might move forward with that.  We’ll see.

That’s my fun story of the day.

That’s right, I’m going to it!  Starting this fall.  I’m looking forward to it.  When I’m done I’ll have my Masters of Public Administration, specializing in Public Policy.  It’s been kind of a rushed process, because I decided I wanted to do it in June.  But it will be fun, and it’s online so that will make things a little easier.  After that I could go for my PhD, but I am not certain I want to do that.  We’ll see, because it would be fun to be a Professor.

It’s a beautiful afternoon out there.  I have this afternoon and tomorrow off (due to reduced hours).  It’s not a bad deal.  I got a pot roast in the crock pot for dinner too!  That should be pretty tasty.   I should clean this place up so I can get outside and relax a bit!  It’s beautiful out there, now that it has rained and the humidity has gone down.  I did not like driving in the rain yesterday.  It took me 1 hour and 15 minutes to make what usually is a 30 minute trip.  Austin wasn’t very happy.

For a while now we’ve been saving up for a TV.  We have just been borrowing TV’s since we got married, first one from my parents, and then one from Kari.  But Kari needs her TV back, so we’ve been saving for one.  And now we have one!   It’s a 32 inch LCD.  It’s pretty nice.  Not the super best, but we aren’t rich.  But it’s got great picture, and it’s HD of course.  HD is great!  Plus 32 inches is rather large.  I wouldn’t go any bigger in oru living room here.

That’s the big news for us.  Although… I do get to be in a wedding!  And so does Beth I guess.  Beth’s brother got engaged and is getting married in October.  That’ will be kind of fun!

We’re going back to LP this weekend.  I’m a little bit excited for that. We’ll get to hang out with our families and go out in the boat!  I’m looking forward to doing some fishing and skiing.  Woo-hoo!  (We also have a wedding in LP on Saturday, which should be good times too.  I think some high school friends should be there).

Other than that things are the same old stuff.  I still want an iPhone and I think the Apple TV would go great in our living room with our new TV!

I finally got out on the Golf Course tonight!  Okay, not really on the course, but I got onto the driving range.  That felt very nice!  I had some good hits, more than I thought I would for how long it has been since I’ve hit a golf ball.  I still have a pretty bad slice, but I worked on that a bit tonight as well.  I can feel it a little bit in my shoulders now.

Beth and I went running today.  We’ve been doing really good with that, and we’ve been doing it on a regular basis for at least a month now.  We’re picking up the distance and it’s a lot of fun to run with some one.  Even though I usually finish before she does.  Okay, it’s fun to start out with someone.  It’s easier to be motivated that way.

Day 2 of my 4 day weekend.  It’s going alright.  Beth works today, so I’m home alone.  That means I get to clean up the place.  Not all bad.  I’m working on organizing stuff as well.

One of the things I was “organizing” is my iTunes music.  I realized (again) how much I have and how much I hardly ever (or never) listen to.  Alot of it I got for free as sampler packs from iTunes.  Others are CD’s that I haven’t listened to in a long time, etc.  So I was thinking about going through and deleting some of it.  Freeing up space on my HD, and not having my playlist be full of songs I never listen to.  I might get to that later.

I’m also working on consolidating our student loans.  I’m sure it might have been in the fine print, but we have a fair number of them that cannot be consolidated.  That’s a little disappointing.  But I think we can get some of our payments down, which will help. The bank suggested we do that as it would help us with our home loan.  Those places that claim “$300,000 mortage for under $800/month” have to be out of their minds.  I don’t quite know how they work, but they can’t be very good.  Crazy lenders.

I should go to the bank in a bit.  I’ll wait til after the lunch rush.  Time to put some money in the checking account.  It’s almost bill pay time of the month.  Everyone loves that time!

I also saw the kick off of the Aquatennial on the news this morning. Maybe we’ll have to go down there for it.  It seems like it would be fun, and we’ve never been.

Happy Friday!

Unfortunately not a whole lot.  More of the same old stuff.  I have today off, and so we’re going to look at some houses today.  There are a few that look promising.  Unfortunately there not in our most preferred area.  We’ll see what happens though.

Work is work.  Enough on that.

Tonight there is a Staff Appreciation night.  I’m kind of excited about that.  It should be a good time to kick back with co-workers in the non-work setting.  That’s usually a good time.  Plus my co-workers are pretty sweet.

Enjoy your Thursday!

It’s raining outside which is pretty nice.  That means it has cooled down and gotten some what comfortable.  So I turned the AC off and opened a few windows a bit.  And it’s lovely!  I’m enjoying that.

The weekend has been good.  Looking at houses on Friday was fun.  We didn’t find any that struck us as “the one”.  But we’re still looking.  The one we really liked sold already.  I’m bummed about that, but we’ll find something.

My parents came for a visit yesterday.  They were on their way home from their week long trip, and they stopped by.  We had a pretty good time. Went out to lunch, and they told me all their vacation stories.

Today I got to hang out with Aaron, Connie, and Payton!  They came for a visit.  Or maybe more of a stop along their way to visit some people in Elk River.  But it was a good time to hang out with them.  The little lady is growing!

I did see something this weekend I had never seen before.  On Friday night Beth and I went out for dinner, and we pulled up to a stoplight behind a truck.  The license plate was a Florida one, and on it it said “US Coast Guard”.  The truck was painted with the Coast Guard info on the side.  I thought it was quite strange to see a US Coast Guard truck with Florida plates on it in Minneapolis on a Friday evening.  I wonder if they got turned around a little bit…

What a crazy few weeks of work I would say.  It’s not so much the work, but the vacation.  Now, during the interim, I’m on reduced hours.  Which is nice that I get an extra day, but not so nice that I loose the day pay.  But (Starting on Sat, June 30) I had 2 days off, worked two days (Mon, Tue), had 1 Day off (the 4th) worked one 1 day, have a three day weekend, work three days (next Mon-Wed), and I’m taking next Thur off so I’ll have a 4 day weekend next week.  It’s kind of strange.

But it provides us with lots of time to look at houses, which we’ll be doing some more of today.  I talked with the bank today, and they said we’ll borrow you this much money.  Which is a fair amount of money, but not really when it comes to house shopping in the Metro area.  I’m a tad down right now because of that.  There are some other loan options, but I don’t think we should go that route.  So we’ll see what happens.  We’ll make something work out.

I need to call the Apple Store today.  I applied to be a part time Mac Specialist there and I want to follow up.  I think that would be fun.  It would give me a chance to get my geeky side out a little bit.  That’s usually a plus.  And I’d be surrounded by all things Mac!  (And I guess one could say that I would be one step closer to everyone’s ultimate goal: Being like JoeBuck.  Or maybe that’s just a fringe benefit.)

I’m going to keep looking at homes online, so everyone enjoy their Friday!

What a great day to celebrate!  We’re going to be heading into St. Paul in a while to watch the fireworks from the Taste of Minnesota.  I’ve heard from people that they are pretty good there.  So I’m excited.

I can’t believe that a year ago tonight we got engaged.  It doesn’t seem like that long ago, but it was.  And a year ago today the Shirkey’s got married.  So Happy Anniversary to them!

I hope everyone has been enjoying their 4th, and will continue to do so for the rest of it!

Just incase anyone was wondering we made it back from camping, and it was a good time.  The campground was pretty nice. The location was great, right between two lakes.  They had a few nice walking trails which was a good time.  The trails were sort of long, which was alright.  Swimming could have been a little warmer, the wind made it cool.  But overall it was a good time.  And we even got our picture with Smokey The Bear.  You can see all the pictures here.  We’re looking forward to our next camping trip coming up in August!

I’m looking forward to the 4th of July.  It’s probably my favorite Holiday of the year.  All of the history that comes with it is amazing.  It’s a good chance to look back upon the history and sacrifice of our great nation.  And it is the day that Beth and I got engaged!

An added side benefit of the 4th being on a Wed. is that traffic to and from work has been amazing this week!  I’m loving that!   Have a great Fourth of July!