tfizzle.com

Pushing On

Well my final is coming up, and I will be so ready to be done with this class. I’m ok with going to school, I think it’s good for me to be busy, and really, the class is ok, but it’s just the professor that gets to me. But, I guess I’ll always have things like this is my life that I need to do whether I like it or not, so I might as well get used to it.

House update. I’m still in the process of buying the house. I have the mortgage stuff taken care of. I have the inspection this coming Wednesday morning. The closing has been pushed up a bit at my request so I should be closing now we’re thinking Aug 23. I’m pretty stoked. I’ve gone through a few stages with this whole house buying process. At first it felt pretty weird, especially when I wrote up the contract. After that I felt pretty good. The other day, when I was doing the mortgage stuff, it felt a lot more real. Knowing know about the payments, taxes, insurance, and all that crap, it’s become a lot more real. But again, I’ve now gotten used these facts and they’ve sunk in. I’m sure I’ll have another jolt of reality when the payments actually start happening.

Biggest Drug and Cash Bust Ever

Now this is a pile of cash.

Important News

2 Important things happened over this past week.

1) I calculated it out, and even though I did bad on my midterm, I can still get a B in my class if I do well on the final. My grade is higher than I thought it was because of how well I’ve done on the programs. So, I’m going to have to study hard for the final. It’s July 31st.

2) I decided recently that I was going to start looking for houses again. I didn’t waste any time, because I submitted a contract on one last night. It’s right by the mall in Fairview. Nice yard, basement, garage. It’s what I’ve been looking for. I won’t find out until next week how it goes with the contract, but I think I’ll end up getting it. If I get it, I’ll end up closing mid September. Of course it’s contingent on inspections and crap like that, but I expect those to go pretty well. So it’s a pretty big decision. I’m ok with it, I’m ready to move.

So consider yourself informed.

Rough Week

It’s been kind of a rough week.

I was still tired from Hawaii. I didn’t get to sleep in pretty much the whole vacation, which is all good and well, but with the flights and stuff, I was already pretty worn down.

Add that to getting back to work which was mad busy for a couple of days. Typical Mondays are busy, but when you factor in an additional 9 days of orders, it was pretty crazy.

Thursday night I got my midterm back. I did very poorly. The professor asked if I had any questions, I did, but I could get anywhere. I was very upset. I was marked off on so many things, because of opinion. There was even a question that asked my opinion, and I got marked off for that as well. It was really hard for me. In my normal, everyday life, I am able to discuss things, and if I feel really passionate about things, at least I have a chance of getting my way. It’s hard to get used to not having that control again.

I can do much better on the final, because now I know the kinds of answers he wants. He wasn’t willing to give any examples or ideas of what to expect on the midterm or what kind of answers he wanted, so you fly blind.

I had some drama at work on Friday, too. Not with family, but with the business card guy. He claims I sent over our new business card a certain way, and I feel very confident that I sent it the correct way. Anyway, we have couple of thousand cards we can’t use now. And it’s not about the money, I’m not in trouble at work, but I have a hard time accepting when someone tells me I did something and I wholeheartedly don’t agree.

My place has been the hangout this weekend I guess. Thursday after class Nick, Lisa, and Darren came over. Friday, Darren and Lisa came over to watch the Reno 911 movie. They came over again tonight to watch Van Wilder.

I went to another al Alex’s tball games this morning, ran, did some homework for awhile at the Bread Co, did a lot of work on Prime Modeling, and then watched the movie.

Hawaii Pictures

I have 4 facebook albums with Hawaii Pictures

Hawaii 1
Hawaii 2
Hawaii 3
Hawaii 4

Hawaiian Addition

In case you’re wondering where I’ve been the last week and haven’t checked my facebook status, the rumors are true, I have been in Hawaii.

We took a big family vacation out there. My parents, sister and brother in law, nephew, and me all went out there for 9 days.

I haven’t taken much of a vacation in awhile, and I haven’t had off more than 4 days in a row in a couple of years, so it has been amazing.

We left early Friday morning. My parents and me took the Metro to the airport, and the Maisenhelders (hereby referred to as the Ms) drove to the airport. Our flight left at about 10:30am, it was supposed to leave at 10. It would be an understatement to say that I was excited.

We flew from St. Louis to Dallas for our connecting flight. Because the first flight was late, we barely made our flight in Dallas. The American people took us on some shuttle down the runway. We managed to get on our flight just in time. We didn’t have any time to spare. We then departed for Honolulu on the island of Oahu. It was a big plane from Dallas to Honolulu. Comfortable, and they showed a couple movies, Breach, which I thought was pretty boring, and Grease, which I didn’t watch.

So, 8 hours after leaving Dallas, we’re in Hawaii. With the time change it’s 4 hours later.

A shuttle took us from the airport to our hotel. We stated at the Outrigger reef in Waikiki, which is a suburb of Honolulu on Hawaii. We went to the beach for a bit, then grabbed some dinner and walked around. Later that night, my Mom and I went down for a drink in the coolest bar I’ve ever seen. This leads me to my next point.

There are a few things you notice about Hawaii very quickly. 1) It is absolutely beautiful beyond what you have ever seen. 2) There are very few door and windows. So much of it is just open all of the time because of the weather. None of the hotels we stayed in had front doors. 3) It’s very different there. Here, they have the saying ?No Shirt, No shoes, No Service?. This saying does not apply in Hawaii. You can go almost anywhere without a shirt or shoes on. Women wear bikinis, guys where shorts. We literally saw people grocery shopping wearing only shorts. No shoes and no shirts. It was wild.

Anyway, so the next day we go to the Polynesian Cultural Center. It is a massive tourist thing run by the Mormons to give BYU students in Hawaii (they have a campus there) a place to work. On the way there I saw where they filmed much of Jurassic Park and The Karate Kid. So the PCC is a big place. Each group gets there own tour guide for the entire day, which takes you from place to place. We had the Super Ambassador package which basically gave us reserved front row seating for everything. It was a fun day.

The next day we rented a driver to take us around the island to see all the good tourist stuff. We saw the Dole Plantation, a famous blow hole, and some other less notable things.

Monday, we hung out for a bit, and then got ready for our inner-island flight to Kauai.

On Kauai we stayed at the Hilton. We spent some time with my Paternal Aunt and Grandma that live there. We went to Poi Poo Beach. Another interesting thing about Kauai is that every since Hurricane Iniki in 1992 (I think) there have been a lot of wild chickens there. I’m not making this up, everywhere we went on Kauai, there were wild chickens just walking around.

Tuesday, we met the children of the Foster parents my Dad had when he lived there. It was really cool doing that, because of how odd his relationship is with his mother. That night we went to a Luau. I really enjoyed it. Hawaiian food, culture, music. This place has 30 acres of the most beautifully landscaped land you have ever seen. This place had a lot of birds, too, and they had a bunch of peacocks. It was amazing.

Wednesday, after hanging out in the morning, we took our second and last inner-island hop to Maui. We got our rental car and headed to The Maui Sheraton. This place had the best beach. No rocks?all soft sand on the bottom. Pretty good waves, enough to body surf My dad also lived there-in a city call Lahaina. This is where he graduated high school. It was also the 4th of July, so we went to Lahaina to see the fireworks. They launch them from a boat on the ocean. After that we walked around, ate a dinner at a restaurant with horrible service, and went back to the hotel. The service was so horrible at the restaurant we stiffed them on the tip. It was one of those things where they add a certain percent on parties of 6 or more. After talking to a manager about how horrible the service was and getting blown off, we payed the bill for food and tax, and then left. No tip.

Thursday, I went deep sea fishing with my dad. We didn’t catch anything, but at least I can say I went. The Sheraton had a really nice pool and beach that I already mentioned, so I spent a good deal of time there in the downtime. We ate dinner that night at a restaurant which my dad used to work at in his teenage years.

Friday was snorkeling-My Dad, sister, and me. Probably the best value is Hawaii. Also very awesome. You probably already know that stuff is more expensive in Hawaii. In terms of value, this is the best. It’s a 3 hour deal. They take you out, snorkel for about an hour over a coral reef, give you freshly grilled burgers, and an open bar, and then take you back. Not only a deal, but really, really cool.

Saturday, we went Jet Skiing in the morning-My Dad sister, and me. It wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for. I was wanting to ramp off huge waves and go crazy, but I guess that’s not how it works on rentals. But you do get off the water pretty good because there are waves and the water is pretty choppy. After that we spent a little time on the beach and pool, and started packing to leave again. After we were packed up, my parents, Alex and me ate at a Mexican restaurant and went to the Maui Aquatic Center. It was good aquarium. After that we hung out for a bit, and then headed to the airport to come home.

Our flight left Saturday, and we were back before we knew it.

Back to normal life. I’ll never forget Hawaii. It is a pretty amazing place.