but we had bike class.

i don't often dream. or at least I don't often remember my dreams. (i didn't even have the promised vivid dreams when on antimalaria meds while in costa rica)

but saturday night I dreamt. Saturday night I dreamt and remembered. today I shared this dream with my students and they laughed. so now I share it with you.

Nick, claires and I are all loaded into the car going to Notre Dame. A frequent occurrence, but this time we were going to pick up a couch, from a graduating student that we didnt know. and this graduation coincided with freshman orientation weekend. We were also going to a bike class held on campus that same weekend.

we drove to campus, parked, ate in the dining hall, and were all ready to go to bike class. Nick and claires made it out. I got stuck by some guy who wouldnt let me by. when I finally got out nick and claires were no where to be found. I didnt have my phone since I had left it in the car, which apparently wasnt my car since I couldnt just go and get it.

so I walked around campus for 2 hours SEARCHING for them and realizing that I also forgot to print out the couch guys info, though apparently i had it stored on that phone that I couldnt get to. I finally went to the car, which had been moved, and went into panic, but finally rememberd that there were computers in la fortune for public use, and there probably was a pay phone somewhere and I did know nick's number.

so I walked back to la fortune via the dining hall and found nick and claires standing outside, acting all 'where have you been?'

my response 'walking around campus looking for YOU. you left with out me.'

nick: 'oh yeah I saw you get stuck by some guy who was being all mean to you.'

me: 'and so you left'

nick: 'yeah, we had bike class.'

----------------

if you were one who analyzed dreams perhaps you could make something of this. my take away: make sure you always know where bike class is at, because your friends will leave you when its time for bike class.

7th (5th) inning (weekend) stretch

in baseball they have the 7th inning stretch, where you stand up, stretch, contemplate leaving, and mentally and physically prepare yourself for the last two innings that await you.

last weekend for me was my 7th inning stretch, except that instead of 7th it was 5th, and instead of innings my life has weekends. (unless you count august camping weekend, followed by tall ships and bdays in the month of August)

in terms of baseball my life this fall has been inning after inning of over-the-fence out-of-the-park home runs. two studer family weddings, two ND football games, 4 consecutive weekends of out of the park home run scale fun.

week 1, labor day weekend: Studer wedding #1.

we hopped in the car to drive to st. louis to see my cousin Christy marry a handsome lad Steve. we got to: see both sides of the family, witness a beautiful wedding, play with camera features, introduce the Studers to Ted Drewe's (who doesn't need a custard break between ceremony and reception), hang with the siblings, and make fabulous memories

week 2: ND vs Michigan AND North Shore Century

we hopped in the car to drive to South Bend to see the Fighting Irish take on the wolverines. This year was the first during which we sprung for tickets...we put in for 3...thinking we'd get 2 or at least we'd sell the third....needless to say this was game one of three... The Irish fought hard....and we took some framable pics.

we then drove home, so we could get on our bikes and ride and ride and ride and ride the next morning. claires and I were slow....so we took naps while nick rode an extra 12 miles. 52.5 miles later we all completed our ride...and had new bike gloves raptor hands to show for it (and yes that is how we described our pose to the stranger who took our pic)

Week 3: ND vs MSU

even during my time at ND I never made it to an away game (unless you count the sugar bowl of 2006....but that doesnt really count as an away game) so this weekend we headed off to East Lansing to hang with K^2 and Tod^2 and catch some Irish vs Spartan action. We saw K^2's family then Tod^2 took us to sparrow tailgating land where we had free drinks, and free food, free beads, and FREE VISORS! and we met this delightful man who sat in front of us, more accurately, paced in front of us, yelling at the players by name...checking his laminated roster if ever he was unsure who deserved the yelling.

Week 4: Studer Family Wedding #2

this week we headed off to Burlington, Vermont, the land of ben and jerry's, maple syrup, color changing leaves, the lake monster champ, and hippies. This is NOT the land of the coat factory, despite the atrocious claims of one individual. here I rocked my hat while waiting at JFK airport for Airforce One to clear the area, here we ate tons and tons of ice cream, my dad molested a cow, we saw lots of pretty trees, tasted vermont, toured the magic hat brewery, searched for the lake monster, danced the macarana, witnessed another beautiful wedding, this time joining my cousin Greg with his girl friend of 10 years, Sara, and paid $300 to fly out of town on a US Airways puddle jumper after jet poo canceled our flight home less than 8 hours before it was to take off

week 5: the stretch.

we entered week 5 plan-free and 100 % excited for it. we cleaned the apt, put up halloween decorations, then sneaked north to wisconsin to pick some apples and the occasional contraban pumpkin. it was delightful.

....

by now we have entered week 6: the camping trip part 3. tomorrow morning we head out...next weekend we cheer the irish to victory in person one last time for the year...3 weeks from now I sleep in.

squirrels

squirrels spend the summer gathering acorns and burying them beneath the ground to munch on through the winter months. i spend my summer gathering berries and burying them in the freezer to munch on through the winter months.

first there were the blackberries. 7 heaping full gallon buckets with the help of my family.

then the blueberries. 28 pounds with the help of my migrant worker team.

amy-squirrel is quite satisfied. AND we found some treasures on our way home...our secret beach, notre dame ave in the middle of nowhere, and a new favorite michigan city dining establishment.

puke and rally

during my years as a notre dame student I noticed many of my fellow classmates were good fans of an old fashioned puke and rally. where you've

been partying too hard, (hence puking) but not learning your lesson and thus going back for more.

I was never one to do this, (never really did the puke part required for a puke a rally) but I now seem destined to experience it on a weekly basis thanks to this years football team.

they like to start strong. then give up for awhile. and then finish strong. four of our five games this year have literally come down to the last seconds. 3 of them turning around thanks to a strong rally following a dismal second and third quarter.

being an ND fan is not for the faint of heart. it is however, for the crazy fun characters that we met at the ND club game watch for the USC game. allow me to introduce my favs:

exhibit 1: rediculously drunk girl. having a good time and giving out free hugs and high fives after only a bloody mary. trying to get the bar to participate in uniform cheers one beer later. and the beers kept coming.

exhibit 2: adorable old man with a fabulous hat. not a ND alum...but a HUGE ND fan. claires wanted his hat. in all honesty we all did.

long busy week (aka blue gold post one week late)

not much posting all week. busy week. car dead monday night. big adventure. nice tow truck driver. (my wife works with disabled children, i work with disabled cars, we have that in common), early el ride tuesday to school. ride home tuesday in Jag with jags (mr miller's new nickname) late nights with lots of work all of rest of the week...all this my excused for a week late blue gold post.

went to the bend for blue gold game, only my second because I was always sailing that weekend during school, it was fun to be back at ND even though it's change a lot in the two years since we graduated.
we got there early so nick and claires and nathan could run a 5k. we were a little late since claire got pulled over going 83 in a 70, then nick face missed the start of the run while looking for a bathroom, (silly emily suggested that perhaps he was kidnapped, but I assured her those things dont happen at ND) then we headed to studebagels for some delisious bagels


then we hung out outside of the bookstore,


then in the book store


visited the abj


swung on the sorin porch swings


took some framable pics


went to the grotto (though there are no pics from that) and then took our seats in ND stadium


then went back to kalamazoo, mi (a little slower than on the way there) for a game filled (extreme bocce ball, liers dice, chicken foot) saturday night and sunday morning before heading back to chi-town

pi(e) day!

whoo hoo for pi(e) day. it takes me back to life at ND and the tuesday night pi(e) club when we would gather at the castle around 10 and make pi(e) from scratch (crust and all) to enjoy before chem lab the next day.


now all I do is make pi(e) by myself to feed to nick and I and it is not quite as exciting. though it is pi(e) so it is inherently exciting. here is my yummy pi(e) to make emily salivate it is a raspberry and cherry pi(e) with a graham cracker crust and a oatmeal crumb topping.


AND at the museum of science and industry they had a pi(e) drop.



let them eat pi(e)!

happy moment of the night

yea! to At&t and ESPN360 for letting me watch the big ND despite them playing the 0-6 Washington and having it aired on ESPN2 which greatly exceeds our tv watching abilities.

all of which led to perhaps my favorite moments of the game.
1st while talking about ty and how ND let him go after only three years Bob Davie "that was unprecedented. I had 5 years at ND"

and then as we manage to get a field goal "Walker is like a new man. Accurate" granted he was later replaced by the kicker for Siegfried hall's innerhall team. mod quad represent!


oh and apparently I went to school in disneyland.