madison to chicago

family picnic was on sunday after the wedding. only a brief moment of panic in which the skies clouded over and the tornado sirens went off. drove three hours to madison, wi that afternoon.




spent sunday night, monday and tuesday morning wandering around madison, checking out the campus, finding the apartments ive been looking at for so long and eating lots of tasty food.

tuesday after a walk out to picnic point and a few other stops we headed off to chicago. walked out to navy pier last night and then got a super tasty dinner at the frontera grill recommended by uncle dan.

now we're off, planning to go on some boat tour of chicago and just wander around for today.

blueberry cheese

discussions with a first grader

today i went swinging. you know a park, generally thought of by society as a place for kids to play. 

i'm nineteen, technically still a teenager. 

i'd also like to consider myself still a kid. i'm not entirely sure if this phase will ever end. 

who wouldn't like feeling the breeze through your bare toes as you attempt to pump so high you're going to reach the trees? that's right. bet you want to go swinging now.

today i found myself swinging next to a first grader. he needed some help pushing and that was apparently enough to make us friends.

he asked what grade i was in, "fifteenth" as that is probably the easiest way to describe it. he said that he was in first and when i said that i was 14 grades older, he proceeded to correct me and say that he was going to be a second grader and "guess what i'm going to learn?! how to shut up because i have a problem keeping my mouth shut" 

i kid you not. 

it was hilarious. 

we went on to discuss baseball, apparently he is on a team and plays pitcher, catcher and some of the bases.

"you want to hear the funniest team name... the white sox!" 

somehow he thought that name was hilarious...

his team name was the yellow monsters. i'll leave the voting up to you.

pictures are a comin'

pictures from our picnic at north point and walk along the lake a few days ago, overlooking lake michigan.

hanging out on the neighbors patio

grandpa's rose's at the view from the end of their street (above)

strawberries, cows and cheese

i've been out of the blog story telling mood lately.

last night we went over to anna & henry's for a cookout and campfire. really nice weather. someone got the idea to roast peeps, their ears got all brown and floppy it was pretty funny.

this morning woke up around 6 and we went to Johnson's Bakery for breakfast. went out to go strawberry picking and got to ride a big tractor out to the field. we picked 23 lbs of strawberries, after hulling them all and mushing [mom knows how much i enjoy smashing up food] them all we headed out to Hennigan's cheese factory & watched cheese being made. mmm tasty! they let us sample a bunch and we ended up buying a bunch of different kinds... including blueberry cheese!

drove to fond du lac and went to lunch at shreiner's. erika thought we were going to a hospital in tennessee =) got to see a huge wind farm and some churches on the way out. i didn't realize how large those things were up close [the wind things not the churches]

took a nap because erika & i were exhausted-- grandma must have thought we were wimps, she didn't even nap =) ate some cheese and fruit for dinner out on the porch--65 degrees, doesn't get much better than that.

just watched freedom writers (on the computer, i couldn't get the dvd player to work for some reason). grandma didn't know what kind of movie i was getting them into when it first started.. lots of violence at the beginning.. oops =) definitely a good movie though. ate some more cheese and now it's time for bed! i have no idea how i'm so exhausted, slept until 6 this morning after going to bed at 10 and i even had a nap!

tomorrow we're going to sleep in a little bit and then maybe go to the kohler art center for a while.

blogging goes further than just writing

on top of keeping up with this blog and my RIT one, i read.

a lot.

i follow more blogs than perhaps a person should on a regular basis.

basically google reader is the best thing ever invented because it gives me the up to date notice of someone posting. fantastic huh? so just when i thought i was finished procrastinating..*ding* new post. what a great way to avoid actually doing anything other than reading about what other people do in their lives.

one bad good thing about blogs is that they do a lot of linking to sites or video of things that you would have otherwise never seen.

the blogs i follow range from more corporate things such as

Puck Daddy: an NHL blog which is comprised of multiple authors all talking about, you guessed it.. hockey!

to design oriented sites like

Design*Sponge:

Design Milk

The Design Blog

or more personal blogs that I've found based off of links seen on design*sponge or other websites...

Young House Love (found through Design*Sponge i believe)

1000 Awesome Things (check this one out, they post once a day about something that is super awesome that most people can relate to but don't really think about.) such as: #501 Picking the fastest moving line at the grocery store checkout or #511 The moment on vacation when you forget what day of the week it is

Bower Power

Dump 'n' Chase

or even RIT related ones =)

Tiger Beat Blog

you just never know when you're going to find priceless videos such as this one..

skeeter on the loose

dear dad,

happy fathers day!

i wish this could include pictures but i'm not on my computer therefore you will just have to imagine pictures of you and me as a cute little baby. perhaps i will redo my fathers day post another day.

thanks for being the bestest dad ever. sorry for running out of the state this weekend :) can't wait to see you on friday!

love,
skeeter

------

i'm off! in sheboygan wisconsin for the week. woke up at 4:45 on saturday and flew out to milwaukee. good flight aside from the guy that almost fell asleep on my shoulder and BWI not having DD coffee. but i'm here! made it back here by 10:30 yesterday morning and we spent the day hanging around and doing some drive by exploring. grandma made tasty pasta last night-- pictures to come. watched the price is right & jeopardy, i decided that it would not be worthwhile for me to be on that show. i could answer all of about 2 questions.

went to bed early last night because we were all exhausted. and then i woke up at 3:45 this morning. no joke. wide awake, ready to go. i decided to lie around until 6 something and get up. ate cereal on the porch-- 68 degrees this morning, so nice! and then headed off to church at 7:30. met everyone at church and actually got invited over to someone's house tonight for hotdogs and a campfire. after church, went to the cemetery for a bit to water and weed the graves then went to the post office and dropped off sermon tapes at the nursing home. we met some nice lady that was 99 turning 100 on september 3rd and we're going to go back and see her on wednesday to talk for longer.

had a picnic lunch at north point overlooking the lake-- again, pictures would be inserted here, be looking for a large picture post later. drove around a little more and looked at houses. erika and i went out back and took lots of pictures of grandpa's roses. went to the flower shop and bought some hanging baskets and now we're headed off in less than an hour for dinner.

tomorrow morning is breakfast at the bakery-- maybe i'll sleep in past 4 am? that would be one wacky schedule if i'm still on it in september =) we're going strawberry picking tomorrow and then maybe to a cheese factory to watch them make cheese. hooray for dairy month.

this got long and rambly but at least i won't forget anything =)

"Campus Building Identity Committee"

I'm not sure why but this made me giggle, I had no I idea there was such thing...

To: RIT faculty, staff and students

From: Campus Building Identity Committee

Re: New building and mapping codes

Members of the campus community may have noticed a previous message regarding a new campus map that replaces building numbers with three-letter codes.

Due to some confusion resulting from that message, the Campus Building Identity Committee wants to point out that these codes do not represent new building names. The codes serve only as a cross-referencing tool for a new mapping technique and computer coding system that will be introduced later this summer. There are several versions of lists, tables and maps being circulated and none represents the final designations, so please do not propagate these.

Next month, the committee will send out a final, clear communication on the status of our efforts to implement a new system to better identify our campus facilities. In most cases, building names have not changed except for the general substitution of the word “Hall” in place of “Building.”

hairchop

got about five inches chopped off my hair finallyyy, i keep waiting far too long in between haircuts.

took some family pictures while we were outside which did nothing except accentuate my shortness.

melly, macncheese & cadoo

lots of hanging out time has gone on recently. the day after i got home from RIT and Alison got home from Turkey we had a family pool party get together =) it was all good until they decided to play matchmaker and plan my wedding involving the next guy that walked in the room.

alison slept over sunday night except she was still jetlagged from turkey so i had to cut some watermelon to bribe her off the couch. watched some cupcake wars, went to alison's to check on galibear, mel and jim.

made some macaroni and cheese with salad for dinner and then some cookies!

played some cards and cadoo.. but actually alison just made a card condo out of them.

until i threw cards at her..

went to the gym this morning. got my haircut, pictures later perhaps. had a little over 5 inches cut off =) it's weird how short it feels. i've been working the rest of the day trying to get my room cleaned up then i have to move on to the stuff left in the garage. sorting, moving, throwing out a lot. it's coming together. i think i'm hanging out with alison again tonight since hunter so kindly let me steal her for the week.

pardon the construction

i'm currently busy reorganizing my life and spending time doing things more important thanwriting. of course, it's stuff that is blog worthy so there might be sporadic blogging this week but i'm not promising anything. lots of posts, no time to sit down and write them.

i thought that if i posted pictures of the wreckage, i would be more motivated to sit down and clean it up. ya know, before and afters? we'll see. i think my mom would appreciate if you sent motivation juices my way.

differences

somethings that are different about home:

• my arms aren't tired after making cookies because i don't have to cream the butter by hand.
• when i take a shower, i don't have to worry about it going cold halfway through.
• when plugging something into the wall, i don't have to think about which one actually has electricity running through it.
• the sides of the counters don't trip me on the way past because they are fully attached
• in church we sing about the "children's warring madness" ...

but it is also 90 degrees here and really HOT. i don't remember it being this hot before. what happened to my summer pants wearing weather?

home until saturday morning when i will hop on a plane and fly off to milwaukee!

going out with a bang

dear riverknoll,

just when i thought we were finished, thank you for providing me with the content for one final post.

sincerely,

a parched student in hypo105

-------

i came home from work today and decided that a nice drink of water would be lovely. because after all, i'm all cleared out when it comes to food or beverages.

only to discover that i have no water.

none at all.

oh wait... a drip...

(i also apparently have trouble turning the faucet off... in my defense i was more worried about dropping my camera in the sink but i guess there was no water in it so that wouldn't have been a problem...anywayyy)

i am suddenly overcome by the need to drink water. i feel thirsty. parched. a feeling that would not be present if there was not a lack of water.

in fact, i would probably not even remember that water existed.

but at this given moment that is all i can think of. you always want what you can't have.

this situation needs to fix itself before tomorrow morning or else i'm outta luck because the only food i have left is oatmeal or rice both of which require water.

i guess i have baking soda and olive oil too. neither of which sound like particularly good things

to drink..

i'm also slightly alarmed by all of the drilling, sawing and hammering that is going on underneath of my apartment.. to top it off i overheard the comment "wait, i think i hear someone in there!"

so, apparently all i can do is pray they wait until tomorrow to bulldoze this sucker down.

western spaghetti

proving them wrong & going insane

and they say RIT doesn't have a nice campus...

i beg to differ.

(ironically I took these pictures yesterday and the forecast for today is rain!)

in other news and things, work is going to make me lose my mind. like literally insane. in fact, it has probably already happened. don't get me wrong, i really like working here but i like to be busy and running around. and it's a slow time, really slow time. we've played apples to apples, scattegories, shredded some paper (smuggled it upstairs first), played text twist, read blogs and ate some cookies that kara brought in. it's the first time that i've actually wished for something to do. tomorrow i think i'm going to bring in my laptop and work on some blogging and things, there are computers here but none of my pictures happen to be on them. only two more days, well plus the rest of today if i decide to stick around.

does anyone have any good suggestions for websites/blogs or other things to check out? i could use a few, i've already made it through cnn, new york times and the howard county times.

tugboat prints

design of the day is handmade woodblock prints.

there is a lot of carving involved here guys. bucketloads. but the end result? awesome.

[Tugboat Printshop]

or you can check out their blog [here]

isn't it awesome that the image above was made from the two below (plus two more). seriously cool stuff.

i love the detailing and the colors and the process.

maybe i should take a print making class.

hello detail, let's be best friends.

i love this little black and white house and the crisp lines and of course.. the details.

oooh design.

tasty tuesdays

some night (ie. last night) i come home from work and i am just not in the mood to cook. headaches and lack of motivation are key factors. those nights are when dinner becomes whatever can be made the fastest.

corn on the cob and a veggie burger/ricotta/sauce creation it is.

not too bad =)

made another batch of the sugar cookies that i made last week for the bbq to take into work today. they were a big hit-- gone by lunch time. i told anyone who brought me in 1 egg and a cup of butter that i would make them more. we'll see if there are any takers.

tonight's dinner is going to look very similar to last week.. tofu & broccoli-- got to finish up the frozen veggies by friday!

take it easy

in reading one of the many blogs i follow recently, i ran across a post about Brainstorm Print and Design a company that specializes in silk screen design and printing.

their designs are fantastic. seriously go check it out.

people watching

hi my name is emily and i'm addicted to blogging.

this is bad guys. real bad.

i already follow and inordinately large number of blogs and in the last 24 hours that number has tripled.

anyway moving on... sometimes i really wonder what is going on in certain situations.

let me explain.

yesterday after going to lunch at lovin cup with two of my friends, I decided that it would be a good idea to take a bus ride over to wegmans. i didn't particularly need food but i wanted to be out and about and it seemed like a good excuse to buy some more fruit.

after finding some food and perusing the magazine, cookbook and dr. seuss book collection i headed outside to wait for the bus. and people watch.

sunday is apparently couples shopping day because i passed a ton. girl knows what to buy, guy follows sheepishly behind as he is ordered about. girl walks into the store dressed appropriately for the cold weather, guy is in shorts and flip flops and is making pouty faces and complaining about how cold it is. funny stuff.

but that wasn't the best part.

i got back on the bus headed back to campus and the bus driver picks up his phone.. (aren't bus drivers not supposed to be using cell phones?)

anyway the conversation went something like this: (BD= bus driver, OG=other guy)

BD: "yeah man how many beers did you go through last night"

OG: some response

BD: "oh wow yeah dude we're going to need a lot more, we went through that whole bottle of smirnoff yesterday... we're going to need to stock up for tonight"

-end conversation-

phone rings again

BD: "yeah i already talked to him about the beer 'situation' i think it's covered... we need a ladder next week"

aside from wondering why he chose now of all times to be having a loud conversation about large quantities of alcohol, i was just wondering what in the world was going on.

i should go on adventures more often.

futura

Futura carved on the beach

sleeping with one eye open

so let's imagine this for a second...

you wake up bright an early in the morning, proceed to get ready and just as you walk through the living room something under the door catches your eye.

thought it was odd because a) not many people are left in riverknoll, especially in my building. and b) not a lot of my friends know where i live...

so i took a closer look...

well now.

you have my attention.

i started trying to rack my brain, what time did i go to bed? did i hear anyone? well that's silly, i had clearly gone to bed around 10 pm and that was not going to help. plus, i didn't recognize the handwriting at all.

but i had a suspect. two rather.

guilty.

of course, these pictures were reenactments because i'm pretty sure the only thing that was going through my brain at the time that i picked up the note and opened the door to leave for work is "man i really hope i don't open the door to someone out here because i'd be toast" or something along those lines.

my first inclination was not to grab my camera and document the evidence. although, i do remember thinking that it would make for a good blog post.

so suspect has been properly located and all is well in the world.

that was until the next night when i was all settled in bed and something decided to go flying off of the wall. BOOM.

okay now, no longer interested in trying to sleep.

i got up searched the 3 items left i have in this apartment and was particularly puzzled because it's not as though i have anything on the walls anyway and i have no roommates or neighbors to blame thing on.

needless to say, i acted like a 5 year old and slept with the kitchen light on, covers full covering me and my hands fully inside the boundaries of my bed. after all, if no appendages are hanging off.. the monsters can't get me. clearly good logic.

not to worry. apparently a fridge magnet decided to come crashing down.

the thunderstorm two nights ago was just icing on the cake to excellent bedtime experiences.

the absence

i was thinking about blogging and good stories to tell lately and i can think of nothing. zip. zero. nada. nothing.

remember the bug catastrophe, hockey adventures or situations with certain individuals? haven't had any problems in a month.

perhaps this is a good thing.

been spending a lot of times with friends lately. and myself. both are equally good. after last quarter/the whole school year, i just needed a little time to myself. these alone times work out perfectly for blog reading, movie watching and sleep! the only times they don't work out so well is when it's 2 am and thunderstorming with really big bolts of lightning. that's when i'm glad i do not have neighbors anywhere around me, work out well when i want to play loud music to drown out the storm.

summer IV started up last night. i'm a little bummed that i'm not going to be around for more of the summer for that reason. but i have other places to be and things to do. last night a bunch of us went to emily's house to hang out after IV and play games and such. went over to dena's a few nights ago to make dinner and watch some baseball. it's nice to be able to hang out and not worry about if i'm going to bed too late or whether or not i've finished my homework yet =)

i think i finally have my summer schedule in order...

May 28th-June 12th .... Rochester (working at admissions)
June 12th-June 18th .... Maryland!
June 19th-June 28th (?) ... Wisconsin (visiting Grandma and Grandpa with Erika for a week then going to Kenosha for Anna and Tom's wedding!)
June 29th (or whenever we come back, not sure the exact date)-July 19th... Maryland again
July 19th-August 8th .... Rochester (working at admissions again, College and Careers on the weekends)
August 9th-move in ... Maryland

not really staying in any one place for any extended period of time. it'll be good for staying busy. i have a whole list of things that i want to finish this summer too.

for now i'm having fun trying to use up the rest of the food around here. it's going to make for some weird meals come wednesday or so. last night's dinner was veggie tofu jumble. tastyyy.

inspiration

summer is great.

for some reason during the school year when i'm forced to design, i struggle for concepts. however, in the past two weeks i've found endless sources of inspiration that make me just want to... design. a lot.

how cool are these? love the color palettes.

that's the kind of poster i'd like to see hanging on a wall.





frets identity

to sporcle

i could really go for getting out of work at 2 pm everyday. it's really fantastic.

especially when you spend a bunch of hours sporcling with cool people and finding out that you should all probably be sent back to elementary school to relearn the presidents and capitals of the united states.

today was some corporate challenge that took over the entire campus. we're talking lines and lines of port-a-pottys here guys. serious marathon looking equipment. apparently a bunch of corporations come on campus and set up little tents and cheer for each other and eat lots of vendor food and use the 600 port-a-pottys that are gracing the edge of the parking lot across from the admissions office.

it was like watching a mad dash at 2:00 when everyone was released. they wanted everyone to close down then and go home to allow time for them put the campus together and let hundreds of companies gather together for the 5k race at 8. too bad it looks stormy outside.

in other news, i have clean laundry and i finally made un-dry tofurky thanks to a wegmans run with kara. they sell mini tomato sauce jars. good deal.

i also have had an unusually good day when it comes to people holding doors for me. unusual because i am one of a handful of people left in riverknoll and let's face it, how many out of a handfull of people choose to do their laundry at 6:15 at night on thursday.. yeah, i have some good luck. let's just say that i am not so graceful when it comes to carrying large amounts of laundry downstairs and around the building.

little over a week left in rochester before heading home =)

inside the cloud

Inside the Cloud

winging it