Happy Labor Day weekend!

Due to some technical difficulties, we haven't been online much this week. Seems to be working today though. Heidi wins the trivia and will be getting a fantabulous prize mailed to her soon.

On Wednesday, Brian had the day off of school. We were going to go hiking, but it was in the 90's, so we decided against the fatigue and dehydration. Instead we opened up a checking account! Since the bank was downtown, we saw some of the flood damage and clean up efforts. There are just piles of debris (carpet, insulation, wet dryall) in front of nearly every store front. The post office is still not up to full functionality - we couldn't even get postage there!! The library is closed indefinitely due to extensive flood damage. (So much for joining a book club!) And due to the flood Brian and I are now hesitant to buy a car in Findlay. There were a few lots downtown and we're just not sure if those cars were half underwater, or the underwater ones were moved to different lots. What happens in that situation? Does insurance cover the damage to the cars on a used lot?

This weekend we're going to Columbus to visit Bill, Melissa, and Emily. Brian and Bill have been planning, so I think it's going to involve a number of nerdy games. There may be a game store involved, so this could mean trouble!!

Have a safe weekend everyone! And, if you're by the river, go kneeboarding for me as it's one of the last weekends for water fun!

Ohio trivia! Prize for the winner!

Greetings and salutations!

This weekend was quiet. We're finding that the most popular things to do in Findlay are go to the movies or the mall, which is making us feel a little like we're back in high school. This Wednesday Brian has no morning classes due to some school wide in-service type thing, and he normally doesn't have any afternoon classes, so we may do some exploring of the area. I'm trying to talk him into going hiking at one of the area state parks.

Last Saturday, we checked out the very close by antique mega-store. It was ginormus!! We got lost in it, and didn't get through the whole thing because Brian got antsy. (Which I really thought would happen to me before him!) But we did find all sorts of red dishes for tick & janel. We also found Grandma Evie & Grandpa Vernie's dish set. (Grandma - if you need any extra plates, or anything, just let me know. Also, some of your dishes were quite pricy!)

And we went to the mall to play with the puppies at the pet store. This was a mistake. Now we just want a puppy. We played with a shitzu and a maltese. I preferred the peppy little girl shitzu and brian preferred the timid little boy maltese. (The maltese peed on me a little.) No puppies for us now, but that may be revisited once I get a job.

TRIVIA!!!
And now, it's time for the long awaited trivia game. The rules are simple. We give a question and the first person to respond with a suitable answer gets a prize mailed to them.

We've been driving along and noticed Ohio licenses claim to be the "Birthplace of Aviation." Why does Ohio get this claim, instead of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina?

We'll watch for your answers in the comment section! Be sure to sign it with your name, if you post as anonymous.

Doxie derby

The school week is almost over for Brian. So far he's really enjoying his classes and he's got a good study regimen down. I'm still jobless, but sent out some resumes this week. Our house is still clean - I think I'm spoiling Brian by being home. We haven't flooded. But best of all, we found something ridiculously fun to do in Findlay. It's coming up September 30th, so we recommend visitors that weekend....are you ready for it? It's the National Daschund Races!!!! We'll definitely be posting some pictures after this! And, in honor of the daschund races we'd like to say hello to our favorite daschunds JoJo, MoMo, Gus & Rosie!

The Ohio Countryside

You know what they say, there's no better way to take in the upper-Ohio countryside than...fleeing from rising floodwater!

Normal day, left at 8:15 a.m. to go to a brief tutorial of a legal research program, and to the library to study before my 10:00 a.m. Property class. Leaving the driveway for the apartment complex, I saw a mini-van parked oddly in the road "that's a very strange place to park, I wonder AHHHHHHHHHH!" I thought. Flooded road.

Stop, turn around, go the other way.

After a while I figure out how to get onto I-75 south, and make my way to school. About 1 mile from the exit to Ohio Hwy. 235 (which leads right to campus), traffic stops. "Crap" I say to myself. After avg. speeds not exceeding 10 mph, I exit, and head south towards campus.

"Well, at least traffic isn't too bad here;" I say to myself "it seems that AHHHHHHHHHH!"

Crap.

Yes, flooded, several roads are, the majority that I could find in fact. Tediously long story short, I drove to Upper Sandusky (far east of campus), took some back roads, and finally found my way to campus, and did in fact make it to my Property class - 2 minutes before it concluded. Fortunately for me before I lost mobile phone range, I was able to call the professor, who was very understanding of the situation.

So, that's that. I wouldn't call things "devastating" per se, but the flooding is worse than I've ever seen in Milwaukee, or the Creek for that matter. Fortunately, from what I've heard from asking people so far, this doesn't seem to be a regular occurrence, so that's a good thing!

As it turns out, things are actually quite serious! The Findlay Courrier is reporting that non-emergency vehicles found on southern roads in Hancock County will be ticketed - looks like I'm going to have to find an alternative route home! Crap in a hat!

As for my classes, I'll be general and brief. i like them, and all the professors seem nice. Having worked for Scott Taylor when he represented a Marquette Student who was heavily punished for blogging about students and professors at the MU Dental School (Scott prevailed by the way) - I will keep my coments to a very cordial and vague minimum at this point!

Okay, really it's that I have to study, because I'm already 2 hours behind my planned library time, and I want to be able to watch 1 or 2 episodes of season 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Janet and I started to re-watch the series before we moved, but now we're clipping along at a bit slower pace!)

Stardust & deals

Hello all. I haven't blogged over the weekend, cuz we didn't do much. We skipped the balloon fest since Brian was studying very diligently the entire time! And, it was pretty dreary here anyway, so we didn't know if they'd have the balloons there anyway. After we went to see the movie Stardust on Friday, I had to read the book. I finished it on Saturday and I won't say this often but I liked the movie more than the book. The book was good, but the movie had more little details, which is usually the other way around. If you liked Princess Bride, you should like Stardust. I was smiling the whole movie. It just made me heart-happy.

Today I'm "pounding the pavement" in that I'm really getting into this whole job hunt thing. I've been a little bored not working, but on the other hand, I've kind of enjoyed being a housewife...our house is cleaner than ever before. (which is really saying something since we've just moved in.) And, I've been honing my cooking skills - I made homemade banana bread, which turned out to be quite tasty! I've also been working out with my new found freedom from work. The workout room at the complex is SUPER tiny, which would be awkward if someone else came in, but so far, it's just been me. (Thank goodness!!)

Brian emailed me after his first class - it went well. He'll probably blog about it later, so I don't want to steal any thunder with details.

And for any visitors coming out (Danny - I have to call you back!) if you stay at the Country Inn, you should say you're visiting a university student and you'll get a deal on a rate. And, they have a really good continental plus breakfast....other hotels may do it too, so it doesn't hurt to mention it.

I'm All Orientated!

Two days, relatively intense, but enough time for a little relaxation too. Met all the professors, made a few friends, and even have a classmate who is from WI! Went to UW-O, but has been living in FL for the past few years - in any case, he said he wants to "find a bar that shows Packer's games!" We'll see.

In any case, to the studies - I've got 5 classes, for a total of 14 credits. Civil Procedure, Torts, Contracts, Property, and Legal Research & Writing. Classes officially start Monday, and I've got loads of reading and case briefing to do before then! (Case briefing is law school speak for summarizing cases, and being prepared to discuss them in class - at times perhaps against one's will.)

Tonight Janet and I took a little break and saw the movie Stardust - which...was...AWESOME!!! Highly recommend it. The rest of the weekend will likely be devoted to study, though we may take a trip tomorrow evening to see the Balloon Fest in Findlay.

Janet will probably post soon, but I wanted to make a little contribution too!

Ohio residents = buckeyes = nuts

We finally have the Internet! I haven’t been able to post anything since Saturday, so there is a lot of catching up to do! Interesting tidbit of info – Ohio residents are called buckeyes, which are actually nuts. Therefore, using my extensive deductive reasoning skills, Ohio residents are nuts!

Anyway, on Sunday we slept in and had a nice bacon & egg breakfast (thanks Dad!) with Jeff and Angie, then we got back to work and did some more unpacking. In the afternoon, Emily & Kevin came over and helped with some rearranging and unpacking. Jeff and Angie headed home. We took a trip to Target which was about an hour away!! (Although, local rumor has it that there may be a Target going in just down the road from us in a year or two.) We tried out a local eatery for some dinner – Steve’s Dakota Grill. Very tasty! Brian and I had rib-eye and would definitely recommend it to our meat-eating friends. Here are a few pictures - the living room, us & jeff & angie, kitchen, brian's office, & angie lounging.

Monday we took a trip to Columbus with Emily and Kevin. We visited friends Bill & Melissa and baby Emily. Bill and Brian went to grade school together at the French immersion school. We went to the German Village part of town and ate at Schmidt’s for lunch – I had my first spatzel. I liked it! Then Bill and Melissa headed home before Emily could fully wake up and realize she wasn’t in her usual location. But, we had a great time at lunch and Emily was just a little doll and slept away the whole time. After lunch, the rest of us checked out the Village and went to The Book Loft, where I would still be, if Brian hadn’t pulled me out. It was an old giant Victorian home renovated with tiny rooms going up and down and willy-nilly filled with books from floor to ceiling. I didn’t even make it through the whole thing. We said our good-byes to Emily & Kevin that evening and spent the rest of our evening driving through a bit of Findlay and watching buffy. Here are pictures of the Union building, the law building and a study/common area inside the law building. And pictures of us, Bill, Melissa & baby Emily, and the outside patio of the book loft. Pretty, pretty!

Tuesday, we did a LOT of exploring in Findlay. We found a Papa John’s that delivers and a sushi restaurant. And, best of all, we found Menards!!!! We said if we’re homesick we’ll just have to go there, because it smells like home. They even have Sprecher root beer! We also found the local mall, which includes what we think is a budget theater and a book store. After our excursion, we went home and I repotted a plant and planted a mum on a roller pot for outside our door….unfortunately it’s a little shady by our door, so I scooted it out closer to the outside, so it gets enough sun. It looks a little funny just sitting over there, but it’s cheerful.

Wednesday, we did a lot of putting away and stayed in because we were supposed to be getting our internet/tv connection in. By 3:30 we were getting stir-crazy, so we called and apparently it was actually scheduled for today, Thursday! Ooops!

Wednesday night we had our first Ohio thunderstorm. When we got up on Thursday – we both looked at each other and said “do they have tornado sirens in Ohio?” My guess is yes, based solely on the Helen Hunt movie, Twisters. And my mum plant did not roll away in the wind, in case you were wondering.

Brian had orientation today. It went well. He met some of the other students. He got his student ID, which will get me discounts on cute clothes at the women’s boutique! And, his picture is a good one – very slimming, no weird expression! J I stayed home and waited for the Internet guy, who didn’t come until 5:30. But I was productive.

Moved in!

Well, it's 7:00pm Wisconsin time and we're in our new place. Here's a picture of us in the car!

Special thanks to our movers and shakers:
Dad, Rod, & Aaron
Jeff & Angie
Emily & Kevin

Mary, Tim & Joey for all the packing help!

And, shout out thanks to our cd makers that made our drive even faster - Tick, Janel & Kate!

More pictures to come! We're "borrowing" a neighbor's internet connection!

Write to us!

Only 3 full days left in Wisconsin. We know you'll be wanting an address, so here it is!

1161 Claudia Lane, Apt. #B
Findlay, OH 45840

Here's a floorplan of our place. And once we're settled, we'll post some pictures of it!