San Jose, California

Sunday through Wednesday I was traveling to San Jose, California for work. We got there early on Sunday so that we would have time to wander around and see some sights (this being my first time to California and all).

Stryker Endoscopy (the branch we went to visit)


So we decided to rent a car and drive up (or down not really sure where San Jose is) to San Francisco. As we were making our way to Fisherman's Wharf and to see the Golden Gate Bridge, we drove right by a gay rights parade. Man that was interesting! We saw a variety of people, from the guy in the feathered underwear and matching hat, to the leather pants men and then the all classic guys wearing thongs on stilts. One of the guys wearing stilts bent in half so that he could fit into the port-o-john. I'm still trying to figure out how he actually "used the facilities" on his stilts...

if you look closey at the picture below, you can see one of the guys leaning on the port-o-john waiting for his friend inside.


Tina & I in San Francisco, Alcatraz is behind us in the water.


The Golden Gate Bridge


I attempted to take pictures to share with you all, but they didn't turn out very well because I was trying to take them as we drove by the parade. We thought about stopping and going in to get better pictures, but then we decided to go eat crab.
We toured around San Fran (as the locals call it) for the day and saw all the sights and everyone else ate crab (I'm not much of a seafood eater).

Crab Alley in Fishermans Wharf where all the crab is sold


We also got to see the baby sea lions that come to the bay to hang out for the winter, they were so cute and there were a lot of them.


The business part was good and at night we ate & drank a lot! The trip home, however was a totally different story. We got stuck in Minneapolis on our plane bound for Detroit for 3 hours, sitting on the runway. We probably would still be sitting there today, except the lady sitting next to me had a panic attack about being closed in the plane for that long and they had to go back to the gate to let her off (which by the time we got back to the gate, she was fine and didn't want to get off the plane!). Then they cancelled all the other flights to Detroit, so we decided ours would probably get cancelled as well and did our best to get a different flight home. Lucky for us, some people flying into Minneapolis were also delayed and missed their connecting flight from Minneapolis to Kzoo (so we took their seats!). If we wouldn't have gotten on this plane, we would still be in Minneapolis today! Our original flight was supposed to leave at 1pm and the flight we actually took left at 9:45pm.

On the second flight, we were pulling away from the gate and heading for take off, when our second Medical Emergency of the day decided he was going to pass out in his seat. So needless to say, we had to wait for him to wake up and then give him the option of returning to the gate to get off the plane... by that point everyone on my plane was telling him to suck it up and that he could go to the hospital in Kzoo when we go there! We were in no mood for him to get off that plane and delay us more. I couldn't believe it, my whole life I've flown with no Medical Emergencies and then two in the same day on two different flights! It was crazy. But we finally made it home at midnight. It is good to be home!

Sisters

A few weekends ago my middle sister Annie and her husband Gual moved home from Baltimore. She just passed her nursing boards and is planning to start working at Bronson today!!! My oldest sister Jennifer and her husband Nate came back to Michigan this weekend too, so the whole fam was back together for a little visit.

Saturday we went over to hang out. The day started with a little paddle ball in the front yard... only after they attempted to hang the hammock. Much to my sisters shock, the wooden pole the hammock was being attached to was rotted at the bottom and decided to break in half while she was "testing it out." Thankfuly she was not hurt and Gual got a good laugh out of it.






The boys (my dad, Phil and the two brother-in-laws) played in the Big Hole Golf Tournament in the afternoon. They spent the whole day eating brats and pig, playing golf and drinking beer (from what I hear it was fun, but not too successful).

The girls stayed at my parents house and hung out with the puppies most of the day. We invited Grandma over for lunch and then took a trip out for some ice cream, I had Blue Moon of course. We also made some appearances at garage sales, where Annie bought a new computer desk and Phil and I bought a high chair for my friend's sister.
The computer desk was a good buy, but getting it downstairs was a chore. Grandma directed and mom distracted the dogs while Annie, Jennifer and I attempted to carry it downstairs. We had to take the door off it's hinges in order to get the desk through, but with Grandma's advice, we were successful.

Engagement News!!!

This past weekend, I took another trip to Detroit with my Mom & Grandma to walk/run in the Race for the Cure in Detroit. We stayed the night Friday with Aunt Laurie, Uncle Jeff & Staci and then got up at the butt crack of dawn to make our way downtown to Comerica Park for the race. There were about 30,000 people there...it was very crowded. But we got a lot of free stuff & we got to see the tiger statue (in front of the stadium) dressed in a pink t-shirt with a big breast cancer ribbon on it. Grandma walked the 3.1 miles and made it the entire way without complaining. Uncle Jeff, Staci & I ran the 3.1 miles with a lot of complaining.

After the race, we killed some time before we had to pick Phil up from the airport by what else... shopping! We spent the majority of our time at IKEA (I made quite a few purchases) and then made our way to JoAnn Fabric where I also made some purchases. I finally found the fabrics I wanted to make myself some wall hangings out of... I'll post pictures when they're done.

And finally... the biggest news of all!!!! Jon & Erin are finally engaged (Phil & My Friends). It has been a long time coming... and some of us (mainly Erin) thought it might never happen... but now our lives are complete. The date is already set for next August. The proposal was a success and after her initial reaction of wanting to throw up on Jon, Erin did say yes... or maybe it was "yeah." Either way, the wedding is on and we are soooo excited for the new fiance's.

The Happy Couple


The Ring

Detroit Visit

A few weekends ago, Phil and I went to spend some quality time with Robbie & Rachel and number 5 (phil's brother, sister-in-law and their son).

Phil finally fulfilled his White Castle craving (for now anyways) and we grilled out steaks for lunch. It was really good to see them and how big number 5 has gotten.



Looks like he is growing up to be just like his Dad ... and Grandpa for that matter.

Married Life

So here’s a quick update on our life:

I started school at Western at the beginning of June. I’m going back to get my MBA and Stryker is paying for it. My first semester is done this week so I am busy getting my final paper done and studying for my final in the other class. The plan is to take two classes a semester for the next 6 semesters and I should be done by August 2008. It sounds all fine and good in writing, but it actually is getting stressful. The summer classes are condensed into only 6 weeks so we meet two nights a week for each class from 6-9 (so that means I go straight from work to class every night of the week except Friday). It’s busy, but sooo worth it.

Phil is working at the drug court in Battle Creek and he seems to really like it. He just got back from a work trip to D.C. where his planes got delayed both going there and coming home… several times. For those of you who don’t know Phil, he does not like to travel at all. So the entire week before his trip, I was trying to convince him that it wouldn’t be that bad and that he might actually have fun. Then of course… it went all wrong. I might never get to go on vacation again  The only saver of this trip was that he got to meet Martin Sheen at his conference and that he didn’t have to pay for anything.

Other than that, we are trying to enjoy married life (going on 6 months now) when we get to see each other, and making small improvements on our house.

Joining the Technological World

I'm still not so sure about My Space... plus my work blocks it from use... so I decided to start a blog. It seems to be the only way to keep in touch with some of you folks out there who are ridiculously busy and tied to a computer all day like me!

So here's to the start of a beautiful relationship... happy blogging :)

Kim & Phil