One year ago

Marie and I celebrated the completion of our first year of dating by taking ourselves out to “Gratzi”, on Main St. in Ann Arbor last night for a very extravagant itallian meal. (Complete with a great 2000 South African cabernet.) Then we headed home to decorate the tree and watch “White Christmas”. I made it to the scene on the train (headed to Vermont) before I fell asleep. One of these days, I may actually watch the movie in its entirety.

talk time

After much debate, I’ve decided to stay with Cingular/AT&T for my mobile service… at least until the end of the 30 day trial period. I got a new phone packed with techno-geek features (Motorola v551) for around $25. The most notable thing however was that Cingular now offers both high-speed (relatively) data and a $19/mo unlimited data plan. I’m currently online using the phone, and I’m getting about 105kbps on the 50% signal strength in the house. Not bad t’all. This bodes well for staying connected while sitting point in the ambulance.

RU-486

Just a quick thought. Imagine a future where suicide pills were sold OTC. For $24, you could have “Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz, Oh what a relief death is.” Would it be reasonable to say that having these cheap, simple, painless pills available would not increase the number of suicides? And what would society’s reaction to it be?
Of course, I’m on my moralistic soapbox right now. There are definitely days where I’ve thought that the above situation wouldn’t be incredibly bad.

Anyhow, it’s more of a “gedanken” or thought-catalyst than a specific question.

Long time, no blog

Wow. A month between posts. It’s not like I haven’t been doing anything… I just haven’t had the time to write about it. So here’s the catchup:
- Started a brewing experiement last night. I’m attempting to make maple wine from my own maple syrup. I already suspect that my sugar/water ratio is too low, so I may have to sacrifice another pint for the sake of brew science. Unfortunately, that would completely wipe out my store of syrup. That… and it just seems wrong to take that syrup and dillute it after I spent all that time getting the water OUT of it.
- Put the top back on the Jeep. This proved to not be as easy with one person as I had hoped, since I couldn’t back it up exactly under the roof. Lower, swing, adjust, repeat.
- Went with the Murray’s up to Traverse City for the Thanksgiving weekend. It was cold and wet, but fun. It’s beautiful up there, and this was the first time that I’ve ever done more than just drive through the city. Found a nice fossil that my professor places in the Devonian Period. Never got to try out my rock hammer and chisel though, we went northwest to the Leelenaw Penninsula instead of northeast towards Petoskey, where the few rock bedrock outcroppings in lower Michigan are found.

So that about wraps stuff up. My final exams are done in just over a week, so I can put in a few (a lot) more hours at HVA, and on the house. And speaking of HVA, I finally started on the radio in dispatch… fire dispatch only for right now, but it shouldn’t take too long to work up to the ambulance radio. Then I’ll really have to start watching my back.