Hot and Cold

I must say - some things you never appreciate until they are gone! I've been having some problems with my hot water heater... It made hot water, but not enough of it! The problem was diagnosed as soon as I called the people, but it wasn't worth fixing in the thing that was installed in 1991... So I got a new one yesterday! Yay! It felt so good to take a relaxing shower instead of hurrying so that I didn't run out of hot water!

However, I get a nice little story from Brad this morning... The house is 52º's... Yowza that's cold! I'm so mad... the furnace guys were just here yesterday! What could possibly be wrong?!?!?!?! Oh. The thermostat got bumped to "cool" instead of "heat." While easily fixable, still annoying that the house is only up to 62º... But at least this time it was a free fix... :) Oh the joys of being a homeowner!

So today, try hard to appreciate your warm home and shower... Because without them, it gets cold. Really cold...

I have THE DRESS!

In case you havn't heard yet, I ordered my dress on Thursday! :-) Yatta!!! (Heroes dork.. I know...) It was the one I saw almost 2 weeks ago with Holly in Fowler, at Becker's Bridal. SUCH a relief! Now I can move onto other things! We got a special rate on tuxedos locked in this week, and my mom and I started on some things for centerpieces and favors... Now I need to meet with Mel sometime soon to talk invitations, as he's going to help us design them. And decide what to do about a florist... I'm getting there! And still mostly sane! Once again -

Yatta!

You have to try this!

I've recently started getting into a bunch of Google's products, including Gmail, Google Calender, and Google Reader.  If you're not using any of those sites, you should definitely check them out.  But I was truly surprised how much I love Google Chrome, their new browser.

It's really quite a task to try to take on Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, but I think Chrome has done it spectacularly.  I really love all the drag and drop features and the way the tabs can be rearranged, features that I know IE doesn't offer, and I don't think Firefox does either.  On top of that, Firefox made my computer freak out, a problem that I haven't had with Chrome.  Lastly, I think pages are loading WAY faster with Chrome than IE.  So, as the title of this post said, you have to try this!

And for anyone who is worried about losing your settings from your old browser, Chrome can import all of your bookmarks and history, and even does so by when installing unless you tell it not to.  Pretty sweet.

Alright...I should probably do something more productive.  I did some homework this morning, and now it's time for food and a trip to the gym.  Tonight, I am going a student organization fair on behalf of the Law Review.   Hopefully that goes smoothly.

PS.  I know last week was "national de-lurking week" or whatever, but I'm curious to see who has found our blog, particularly my family who is relatively new to all this.  I reset the security settings so anyone can post comments about a week ago or so.  So if you're reading this, drop us a comment please!

And...I'm Back

Let me first echo Jill's thoughts on her neighbor, John, passing away. He was a great guy who was always happy to chat or loan a tool or give advice. He had a relaxed attitude about life that always made you realize, hey, it could be a lot worse. "Whaaaatever..." he'd say, smiling away all the while. I was really looking forward to calling him a neighbor. May God bless him with peace, and his family with happy thoughts and memories.

It's impossible to think of a way to transition to lighter thoughts, so I'll just do it.

I realize that taking a week off from blogging will result in long posts that nobody wants to read. So, I'll try to keep this one short and post more frequently in the future.

Classes started a week ago today, and I think this should be a good semester. For any interested parties, my class schedule is:

Monday (6:00 PM - 9:00): Secured Transactions (creation of and issues surrounding debt)
Wednesday (9:00 AM - 12:00): Business Organizations (Partnerships, Corps., LLCs, etc.)
Wednesday (6:00 PM - 8:00): Health Law (EVERYTHING health related)
Friday (9:00 AM - 12:00): Wills, Estates, & Trusts (the probate system)

On top of those classes and the requisite homework each carries, I am also responsible for checking footnotes for the Law Review per my duties as an "Associate Editor." Hopefully, that won't be more than a 15-20 hour a week commitment.

Overall, I think this should be a good semester. My professors all seem like good teachers, which, as the last 19 years of school have taught me, is never a given. Three of my five grades are in from last term, the most exciting being that A- I got on my article, "Credit Where Liability is Due: The Need to Impose Vicarious Liability when Employees Obtain Credit Reports for Impermissible Purposes." I know - it's a mouthful! I recieved a B- in both Taxation and Constitutional Law I, which I'm content with, considering that I thought I failed Tax and the professor for Con Law was aweful. With any luck my last two grades will be better and save me from missing the Dean's list for the first time at Cooley, but it was a really tough term. I'll keep y'all updated.

Otherwise, nothing major going on. Had a blast on Friday at the Grand Rapids Griffins (the Detroit Red Wings' AHL affiliate, for those of you who don't know) game. The lost in a battle against the team they were tied with for the division lead, but it was $1 hot dog and $1 beer night, so Jason, Brad, Mike, and I had a great time regardless. The four of us have mini-season tickets (8 games over the course of the season) in a section where everyone else has the same ticket plan. Needless to say, we all get pretty rowdy together and have a good time.

I think that's it. I'll try to do better next time, knuckleheads. (extra points if you can identify that quote).

Sad news...

Got some sad news today from one of our neighbors... Our next door neighbor John passed away this week. He was only 58, and I am told he had cancer which progressed very quickly. I wondered why I hadn't seem him much this winter... He was such a kind man, always up for a chat. He knew a ton about my house, and was very quick to lend a helping hand or tool. He even insisted on picking up the leaves from "his tree" that fell in my yard! Does anyone have any suggestions of what I could get/do for his wife? There have been tons of cars there this weekend, but I'm sure they won't be there forever... I thought about offering to watch their dog, but it is actually one of their kid's dogs that they are watching for an extended period of time... Any suggestions? - Jill

long work week...

Good morning all! Before I head to bed, I thought I would explain my blogging absence. I just worked the last 3 nights, and while I prefer 3 12 hour shifts in a row, it makes me tired, and i do very little other than sleep and eat in between! So, I am off tonight (girls night!) and tomorrow, but work Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday next week. Then off till next Thursday!!!! Yay!!!! So have a good weekend to anyone I may not see! - Jill

Worst Foods of 2008

This is one of my favorite yearly articles. Put out by Sparks.com, it chronicles the Worst Foods of the year. I am proud to say that I am guilty of ingesting only two (haha - only...) of the eleven listed items: the Olive Garden Carbanara (minus the shrimp - ucky) and the KFC Fully Loaded Box. How many of these are you guilty of indulging in?

??????.blogspot.com

So, I totally agree that our address is lame and cheesy. I just picked something because "jimandjill" was taken, and I had just woken up (not my most creative time). Not realizing that Jill had disseminated our new blog, I briefly changed it to "jamesandjillian" but had to change it back so that you all could get to the page. That being said, I will be changing the address at some point, so here's your chance to pitch in and help us come up with a good handle -- cuz this ain't no free ride, folks!

Jill didn't like jamesandjillian, because no one calls us by those names. I kind of liked it, but this is *our* blog so I guess we should go with something we both like.

Jill suggested a play on my last name such as "kingandqueen" but the novelty of my last name wore off about 15 years ago for me. The fact that every English teacher or professor I've ever had thought seeing "King James" on the class list was the greatest thing since movable type also makes me lean away from my name as wordplay.

"redsbar" was also considered as a reference to the sweet bar in her basement that was left by the previous owners. I don't think either of us is quite sold on that.

So I'm fresh out of ideas. This is where you come in, oh trusty friends and family. What should we call our new blog?

Wordless Wednesday (a day late...)

(For a cat not usually allowed in my room, he sure thinks my dresser drawer is cozy!)
(Not really wordless... i know... But I havn't slept in 21 hours, and I wanted to post before bed! So shoot me!)

Good start Jim!

I DO like Jim's idea of a blog for us, and thought I'd add my own post. While my mind is pretty much mush from trying on almost every wedding dress in the Grand Rapids area, I'll do my best...

I can't give too much info on dresses, (or post pictures - ask for emails if you want them!) because Jim could get nosey, but I can tell you that I've had a great time with Mom and Emily trying on dresses! We now know the exact style I am looking for, but I think we still need to keep looking to find "the one." There was one that brought both Emily and Mom to tears, but I'm not completely decided on it yet... we'll see.

I can elaborate on New Year's a little bit. Jim, Allie and I did have a great time. I'll post a couple fun pictures from the night's fun.

Megan ~ Kevin ~ Jim ~ Jill

Someone (Mike?) had the idea for everyone to bring a couple mini-liquor bottles. We when put equal numbers of names into a bag, and names of liquors into another bag, and pull out one of each to make that person do a shot. In the next picture, Andrea wasn't very happy with the Jager that she got!

Allie was the hit of the party.. I believe Kevin even said I have to

bring her from now on! She was such a good girl!

Well, I guess that is all for now.. I'll try and keep you posted on dress shopping without giving Jim and hints. Also, please leave a comment so we know you found our blog! Hope everyone has a great week! - Jill

New Year - New Blog

Happy New Year everyone!

I don't know if blogging will catch on for Jill and I. In fact, I'm not even sure if she'll accept my invitation to become co-author of this blog. I think she will, because she has been reading other blogs and commenting that she should join in. In any case, once school starts again I'll either have no time for this or use it as an excellent procrastination tool, so we'll see how it goes.


The holiday season is pretty much over. We had plenty of activity over the past couple of weeks. The weekend of Dec. 12 we drove with Grandma Noordyke down to Jill's parents' house in Elkhart for Christmas with her immediate family. The next Sunday, we drove up to Greenville for Christmas with my dad's side of the family, only to turn right around and drive back up on Christmas Eve a couple of days later for Mass and Christmas with my mom's family. Both of these trips Jill made on little sleep after working the night before each (she had a couple of drowsy moments during Mass, but otherwise did awesome). We drove back to GR that night so we could have Christmas morning brunch with Jill's parents and Uncle Bill, Aunt Robin, Cara and BJ at Grandma's out in Lamont. With Jill's Christmas celebrations over, she went home to take a nap before working Christmas night, and I drove back up to Greenville for one more Christmas with just my parents, brothers and sister (and her boyfriend Matt). I stayed the night up there to get some quality time with the bros. I beat Vince Vaughn by one - Five Christmases for me! Every one of them was a blast and it was great to see all of our family. It was also fun how each get-together had it's own special personality. Elkhart was different from Lamont was different from Greenville, but all of it was special (and delicious).

Not to be outdone by Christmas, New Year's Eve had its own travel plans for us. We headed to Mr. and Mrs. Kevin Burns's house in Commerce Township, with a side trip to my Uncle Tom and Aunt Sheri's house in Rochester. The original reason was to get their Christmas gifts to them, since Jill had to adjust the bracelet that she had made my aunt and my uncle's gift had not come in the mail when we last saw them. Since they only live 20 miles from Kevin and Megan, it made sense to stop there for lunch and give them their gifts. One key element of that plan, however, involves actually bringing my uncle's gift and not leaving it at my apartment. Oops. Forgetfulness aside, we still had a great time visiting with them; we stay much longer than I had anticipated and enjoyed every minute.

New Year's at the Burns place was too much fun. Jill's dog, Allie, was the life of the party.

And after a couple of days of recuperating from all of that, I plan on taking advantage of my last week of vacation by relaxing and trying to get some things accomplished that have been on my to-do list since about September.

I hope everyone had as good of a holiday season as I did. Again, Happy New Year!

Jim

PS. Yesterday, I got my first grade back from last term (none of the grades are due until mid-February - it's excruciating). I got an A- on the article I wrote for Scholarly Writing, which means I will officially be on the Law Review! This is a huge honor and great resume-booster. It's going to mean a lot of work mostly editing footnotes, but it will be worth it. Here's hoping the rest of my grades are as good...