22 November 2005:
Okay, okay... time for a REAL blog I suppose. Let's see, what have I been up to lately? Not a whole lot. School and Air Force pretty much consumes every waking (and sometimes sleeping) moment of my existence. The entire control system for my Senior Design project needs to be replaced with a microcontroller, which means basically starting from scratch. It's a bit of a pain, but at the same time it's pretty cool 'cuz it means that this is now more OUR invention than it is just a modification of the machine built by last year's team. Taking four lectures and one lab is not much fun! I'd much rather it be five labs and NO lectures, but such is life.
Air Force ROTC is going well. I just had my Arnold Air Society initiation exam and inspection last Thursday. Since I was the oldest cadet in the pledging flight, I had the honor of marching up to the front of the flight and performing the infamous Badger Dance. To their credit, most of my flight maintained their bearing pretty well considering the circumstances. You try standing at attention and keeping a straight face while this goofy, twenty two year-old in Service Dress Blues flails his arms about chanting, "Badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger, mushroom mushroom!" Classic.
And, of course, their was the Dining Out the week before! I introduced Amanda to all the Air Force crew and I even got to be in the POW/MIA skit - something that I've wanted to do for four years now! I was the lone, heroic commando who rescues the POWs with only a single Desert Eagle! And my super-sexy summer boombox was in the skit too, playing the dramatic music in the background. But the best part had to be walking under the sabers with Amanda, a Dining Out tradition afforded to the senior class each year! That was awesome!
Speaking of Amanda, we are still together and we still have not gone a single day without seeing one another. She thought that we wouldn't be able to get together yesterday because she's come down with a nasty cold and couldn't leave the house. But I surprised her by making an unannounced visit with flowers, a bag of cold-soothing goodies, chocolate, soup, a funny card, and Evangelion! I got the impression that she was happy! She's been teaching me some horseback riding, which has been a lotta fun and really cool.
Right now, I'm just looking forward to the rest of my nice, relaxing Thanksgiving vacation (I'm already five days in!) and hopefully catching up on some sleep and homework! And, of course, visiting two or three different families for Thanksgiving! Hopefully, it won't be a wet mess on Thursday so we can get some family football in.
Speaking of family, my mom and step-father are celebrating their 20th anniversary this week! They took all seven of the children out to Luce in Middletown the other night! Christine made the observation that we were just like the Von Trapp family from The Sound of Music. We watched the scene where the children each introduce themselves to Julie Andrews before we went out to dinner. Oddly enough, if you arrange us by our age and compare us with our Von Trapp counterpart, the personalities are very similar. My Doppelganger is Liesl: "I'm Liesl. I'm sixteen years old and I don't need a governess!"
Christine: "I'm Kurt. I'm fourteen. I'm impossible."
Chris: "I'm Brigitta." (But she's really Louisa)
Randa: "I'm Brigitta, she's Louisa. She's thirteen years old. And your smart. I'm ten, AND I THINK YOUR DRESS IS THE UGLIEST ONE I EVER SAW!!!"
Mike: "I'm Kurt. I'm eleven. I'm incorrigible. What's incorrigible?"
Otis (the best): "I'm Marta. and i'm going to be seven on Tuesday. And I'd like a pink parasol!"
Danielle is Gretl. She doesn't say anything. She just stamps her foot, holds up her fingers, and giggles.
~Isn't it scary that I know all that?!
