Simulation

I had to give a presentation in my Cost Accounting class yesterday. My group had to demonstrate the Theory of Constraints, which, if you don't know what that is, is not very exciting. However, we really spiced it up by giving the class an activity to showcase what they had learned. The output of this simulation: Accounting-themed Christmas ornaments! I think that they will be a huge hit in the upcoming holiday season. Here, the lovely Abbie markets some of our product. The "MOH" is an acronym for "manufacturing overhead," and the "COGS" stands for "cost of goods sold." This project was especially useful because now I won't have to do any shopping for Christmas presents!

This week, we had a career fair at Truman, so I got to meet a ton of potential employers. I am feeling pretty excited about my actuarial opportunities after graduation.

So how 'bout it? How 'bout marryin' me?

Seriously, who in his right mind would not want to marry this lady?
Let's consider a little list of pros and cons about Abbie.
Pros:
1) Perfect
2) Wonderful
3) Brilliant
4) Beautiful
5) etc.

Cons:
1) Not very confident at parallel parking
2) That's about it

Basically, everything is stacked in favor of my wanting to be with Abbie all the time. Which is why we decided to get engaged recently. Yep, that's right, we're gonna tie the knot.

In case, by some miracle, you are a reader of this blog who is not already intimately familiar with all my goings-on, here's some background. Abbie and I have been dating for nearly two years, and it has been basically wonderful. We had talked about marriage before, but had always agreed that it would be years before we ever decided anything. Then the travelling started.

Abbie spent last spring--four months!--in Prague, followed almost immediately by a month in Washington, D.C. During these times, we both missed each other so miserably that we realized how important we were in to each other. Upon being reunited, our love for each other grew exponentially, and we very quickly confirmed that we wanted to spend our lives together.
That's when I started concocting secret plans. This past Labor Day, Abbie and I went to her house to pick up some school supplies, and I put the first step of my plan into action: I talked to her father. This wasn't just any old conversation either. It was a real heart-to-heart about my wanting to marry his daughter. Now, in case you are unaware, Mr. Hesse (Abbie's father), is quite mean and sometimes has an unstable temper. He also has won awards in the past for bare-knuckle boxing.* Understandably, I think, I was ridiculously nervous. After all, it's not every day that a fella has to tell another fella that he wants to marry his daughter.
*not actually true

After that step, I moved on to planning the talk with Abbie herself. I decided to scratch my original plan for asking her to marry me on a gondola ride because gondolas are in short supply in Kirksville. So I mused to myself for a while about possible schemes, until finally putting one into action on a chilly Wednesday night, not too long ago.

So here's what I did. On the fateful Wednesday, I had to work at Domino's. I made sure that I would get off early, but I kept calling Abbie to tell her that I was going to be stuck there until late. Then, after getting to go home, I prepared everything and then went to Abbie's house. We had planned on going for a jog that evening, which was when I was going to ask her. Upon my arrival, Abbie began telling me about how it was so cold and icky outside, and how she had a bunch of homework to do still, and that we should just go jogging on a different night. After much discrete cajoling and teeth-grinding, I finally convinced her to take a quick jog.

We headed out toward the football field on campus, where I led her to the uprights. At this location, I had cleverly hidden a love note for her. I imagine she suspicioned what was up right away, but she didn't let on. So we continued on our way, until we discovered another note. You probably get the idea: I had hidden a bunch of notes all around campus and town that she had to find. It was like a little scavenger hunt. At one point, we walked by a local ice cream shop. I thought that some ice cream would really hit the spot, as well as make Abbie more inclined to grant me a favorable answer later. Unfortunately, I didn't have any money on me. Fortunately, I had stopped at this ice cream shop and pre-ordered and paid for a delicious concrete, which they handed over to us during the middle of our jog.

As we neared the end of the hunt, Abbie kept counting up the notes. "22, 22 notes. I wonder how many are left." Uh-oh. At this point in the stroll, Abbie was supposed to have 23 notes! I had skipped right over the note planted at the Farmer's Market site! I decided just to play it cool and hope she didn't notice.
Our last stop was a little playground near my house. This playground has been the site of much revelry for Abbie and me because we used to joust on the playground equipment there. Sadly, we can't do that anymore since they ripped up the jousting equipment, but the park still has a lot of sentimental value. When we arrived there, I led Abbie over to a small pile of flowers and the final love note: "If these reasons haven't been enough to show my love for you, then I will happily write 25, 50, or even 100 more. But if they get my message across..." At this point, I dropped to one knee and pulled out the ring while asking her to marry me. Luckily, she agreed!

Just this past weekend, we told all of our families. They were quite overjoyed about the good news. Now we are in a frenzy of wedding planning since we only have about 8 months until the big day! On June 29 or 30, we will look just like this couple here (except we will be in Vandalia instead of Rome):

You can read Abbie's account of the wonderful events here.

Passing the time

Abbie and I were driving around this weekend for a while, and our conversations eventually dwindled and died. We then rode for a few minutes with an awkward silence until Abbie happened upon a perfect solution. "Let's see who can yell the loudest inside this car," she said. One minute later, our ears were bleeding and no longer functioned, which provided a perfect excuse not to keep trying to make a convo.

This weekend is midterm break (already!), which means I am going home for a few days. Hopefully, this will involve much table tennis and game-playing. I also will get to see my younger brother's football team, which is purported to be decent. We'll see if that's actually true.

An effecient study session

Abbie and I are working on homework right now (at least, I was until I started writing this post). She's been having a stomach ache all day, and I joined her to help comfort her so hopefully she'll feel better.

Just now, Abbie decided to perform some diagnostic work to determine her illness. She started clearing her throat a bunch, and then began gagging. But instead of turning her head slightly to aim for the trash can, she just stuck her hand in front of her mouth. After a little dribble of saliva and stomach acid comes up, she just shrugs and wipes her hand on her jeans. I suppose this is normal behavior if one "just wanted to see if I could puke up some blood."

Edit for people who are foolish: puking up blood is a symptom of ulcers

Missing: shoes

I just finished taking my very first test of the semester. I've gone about a month without a single test, and now I have 5 in just 6 days. I still consider myself lucky, though, when compared to many of my friends. Just about everyone I know is trying to get into grad school, and right about now is prime grad-school-entrance-exam taking time. Abbie will take the LSAT tomorrow, and I know that her one test is more important than the rest of mine. But I my easy weeks now will come back to haunt me when I have to take 8 actuary exams over the next several years.

About a week ago, my tennis shoes decided not to be in my closet. This baffled me, but I just assumed they'd turn up somewhere, and I wore my older shoes. Time went on, and my shoes still had not appeared. This means that I had been wearing my old tennis shoes with bloodstains (see below) on them for a whole week.
Every time someone has asked me what is covering my shoes, I have tried to make up a new story: I created some roadkill while walking down the sidewalk; I dropped a set of knives on my foot; I dropped some of my loot while robbing a blood bank. Little do these people know that the real story is much more gruesome: I spilled deck stainer on my shoes while staining a deck. Luckily, the deception can finally end, because Abbie's roommate Julie had my regular shoes hidden in her car.

Rome revisited

Not many exciting happenings have been happening lately, so I'm gonna add one last post about my visit to Rome over last spring break.

On the second day in Rome, Abbie and I mostly walked through the ruins and then toured the rest of the city on foot. During one memorable moment, Abbie and I heard music wafting through the city. Looking into the distance, we discovered that a parade was taking place about a mile away. Abbie quickly told me of a parade she had seen in Europe in which ordinary people could walk; they just hopped in line and strolled down the street along with the marching band and the Shriners in their go-karts. Excited about our chance to take part in a parade, we raced through the streets and alleys, always running toward the music.

When we finally arrived on the scene, we exuberantly sprinted out into the street to join the hoi polloi in the parade. About two seconds later, we looked at our co-paraders, listened to the speeches being said, and swiftly exited the street. We had stumbled upon a monstrous Italian Communism parade which was rallying the comrades for the upcoming elections.

Later that night, we wandered through half the city looking for interesting sites. We found one that struck our fancy.
Legend has it that telling a lie while sticking one's hand in the mouth of this Mouth of Truth will cause your hand to be bitten off. Abbie decided to risk it anyway, and you can see that picture here. I was not quite so lucky.

If I already posted about either of these things, then I apologize. I will try harder the next time.

coincidences

I hope that the title of this post doesn't trick you; I only have one coincidence about which to blog. Today as I was walking out of the bank, I walked into a fella I know named Andrew. I said "Hey" and went on my way. On my bike trip home from the bank, I next encountered a guy in my fraternity named Peter. Again, we exchanged greetings and proceeded on. Next, I arrived at home, only to be welcomed by my roommate Sara. Coincidence? Certainly, after you consider that my three siblings are named Andy, Peter, and Sarah. As an aspiring actuary, I have calculated the odds of this happening, and they are 1 in 231893254.

I guess that I can think of another coincidence. I have had the song "Count It Higher" by Chris and the Alphabeats stuck in my head for the last two days after watching this video four times in a row. I also calculated the odds of this coincidence, and they are "pretty good." For your enjoyment, here is the video. For best results, watch only three times in a row.

In which I try for some sympathy

I was gonna post a pic of my bloody, gash-ridden feet, but Abbie beat me to the punch, so I stole this from her blog. Zoom in to observe the gore that coats my foot anew with every step.
Update: Chlorine water burns a little on bloody, blistery feet.

In which Abbie and I are beasts

6 a.m. - Wake up
6:17 - Force myself to open my eyes and actually get out of bed
6:30 - Drive to 1000 Hills for the race
6:52 - Drive back home for a forgotten bike helmet
7:18 - Return to race course
7:19 - Realize I have no socks
7:40 - Ride shuttle to beach before the swimming portion of the race; scare Abbie with my competitive intensity
7:53 - Work up the nerve to enter the 74 degree water
8:03 - Begin swimming8:43 and 1200 meters later - Exit the lake to a crowd of cheering fans and a trio of bagpipers; force Abbie to run with me to the bike corral
8:44 - Worry briefly about the sand coating my feet compounding the lack of socks; begin lengthy bike race with nobody in sight
9:24 - Realize that Abbie and I aren't actually in last place; we are totally smoking a 74-year-old woman
10:01 and 18 miles later - Amid more wild cheering, begin running portion, observe people already finishing the running portion10:04 - Notice that sand in my shoes has begun to chafe
10:22 - Stop to clean out my shoes to absolutely no effect; notice that my feet are bleeding in several places
10:31 - Pass old guy who is barely walking yet still cheers us on
10:35 - Struggle through a wall of exhaustion to hear Abbie ask, "David, do my eyebrows look all right? I don't want them to look bad on the pictures."
10:35:02 - Pretend that I am hallucinating from the tiredness
10:39 - Pass second old guy on lengthy downhill
10:51 - Cross the finish line at a blistering sprint amid much more wild cheering and many photographers

I must say that this triathloning business brought back a lot of fond memories of my racing days. I absolutely love the communal racing atmosphere, and how everyone is so encouraging throughout the day. Another triathlon probably won't be too far distant, I hope. Or maybe a marathon. I feel like I could tackle just about any competition after our performance this morning.

Not as exciting as I had anticipated

Remember that hidden cavern beneath my house? The one housing escaped prisoners and a slew of other vagrants? Apparently they all skipped town before we actually looked around inside, because the only thing in there was a pair of lamps. There were no bloody fights against pirates over buried treasure, not even any large rats. Hopefully my next adventure will be more adventuresome.

Tonight Abbie and I hit up the pool again. This brings our number of swimming practices up to three. Some might say that this is a sure sign of disaster on race day, but I actually am not all that worried about the swim anymore. I discovered tonight that if I get tired, and if I don't mind water in my nose every 15 seconds, I can just coast along on the backstroke.

This week and next week both of my fraternities are having their fall rush. This means that I have multiple mandatory events just about every night on top of my work and homework schedule. Plus, I am planning on joining another fraternity in the next week or two. I don't rightly know when I'm gonna find time even to sleep these days, much less play World of Warcraft, but I'll have to make do.

something scary enough to drive me back to blogging again

Hello, all. Nice to see you again.

We just had a bloody adventure at my house. I got home from Abbie's, walked in the door, and encountered all of my roommates standing in the kitchen in a serious manner. My "something's amiss" detector went off immediately. My roommate Josh led me over to the water heater in an obscure corner of the kitchen to show me some mysterious light shining through two holes in the floor. Everybody is bewildered by this, and some chalked it to homeless folks, meth dealers, and even the neighbors' running of an underground theater between our house and theirs. I considered these rather unlikely, as I had never heard any sounds emanating from the floorboards before, but the rest of the roommates were still concerned. We decided to investigate. By "we," I mean everyone except Amy (another roommate), who stayed inside with a broom for defense and shouted to us to give her updates through the windows.

I grabbed a knife and a flashlight, Josh picked up a short sword thingy, Sara (the last roommate) armed herself with a cigarette, and we set out to explore the base of the house outside. What did we find? Nothing, at first. Further inspection led us to a door in the side of the house, one which has always been firmly secured to the house so that it doesn't open despite very persistent urging. It looks sort of like this, only much lower quality and less obvious looking. As far as we knew at this point, it led nowhere. Josh and I decided to double check this conclusion, which was quickly disproved by my lifting the door completely away from the house, after which it promptly fell to the ground.

At this point, I'm getting a tad concerned, because these are freaky goings-on. The door's absence didn't reveal a hole in the house, though; a large block of styrofoam-like material was still blocking the doorway. Josh snuck up and shoved his sword into the foam and yanked it out of the doorway, revealing a little hideaway under our house. It's entrance is underneath the stairway that leads to the upstairs of the house. We perused the crawlspace from a safe distance, observing a light shining from some unknown source, several cinderblocks, two new-looking extension cords, and a dirty towel. Sara convinced us that, despite the mace that Amy was offering us through the kitchen window, further exploration would not be in our best interests at present, so we promptly resealed the hole.

Another diagnostic exploration is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. Amy suggested a slumber party in her room tonight because it is the most defensible, but I think we are just contenting ourselves with locking the doors. Hopefully tomorrow's searchings will be more fruitful.

I suppose that'll do it for me for now. Perhaps more awaits as this mystery unfolds.

I'm finished with two weeks of class and work and living alone in Kirksville. Finally. Just last night, my roommate Josh moved into the house, so now I will have some human interaction outside of the Domino's crew. Now don't get me wrong, I like some of my coworkers, but there are only so many times I can make fun of a person for having Hootie and the Blowfish as a favorite band, and only so many conversations I can hear about pimping out a car so it will drive 135 miles per hour before I get bored.

My two classes are going pretty well so far. I have a test already this coming Thursday, so much of my free time this week will actually become slave-over-marketing-book time.

I will have a pretty nice reward after that, though, because I am going home this weekend. As a Christmas present, my parents decided to take my brother and me to see Phantom of the Opera at the Fox Theater, so I get to see that this weekend! I absolutely love this musical, but have never before seen it performed live. As a surprise bonus, my dad's chorus is giving a concert this weekend that I am getting to attend. I will get to stay at home for four or five days, so that will be a nice change of scenery.

In just 12 days, I will be heading back to St. Louis again to pick up my lady friend!

I guess the summer has finally fully started for me. I am in the middle of my first week of class, and it's going pretty well so far. That is to say, nothing much really happens during the first week. I'll let you know how things go when I actually start getting real homework.

I've been working a lot since I got to Kirksville, trying to fill up my empty hours as well as bolster the bank account. Unfortunately, the latter goal may be a bit counterproductive. When I work more, I drive more, which causes one's tires to go flat and one's engine to start making funny noises. I'm having the noises checked out tomorrow, and hopefully it will only be a minor problem.

I hit a bird with my car the other day. Has this ever actually happened to anybody? They are usually so nimble at getting out of the way, but this one apparently was not as talented as its brethren.

living on my own

I am now back in Kirksville, where I am living all by my lonesome. Where I will be living all by my lonesome for the next two weeks. Where I will not be washing any dishes or cleaning for the next two weeks.

Today, my first full day here, I actually lived like a normal person. At least, as far as waking up while the sun is still climbing. This morning I went to the farmer's market for some groceries before heading to the local table tennis tournament. Now this tournament was no walk in the park. I wasn't too nervous going in, but I certainly was after I noticed that everybody else in my bracket was Asian (how many names on this list are NOT Asian?). But I decided not to drop out immediately, and I played pretty well, and I ended up in very first place! That's right, I beat out two opponents.

I also started up my running tonight. I felt like I was in pretty good shape for a while, but that was before my legs started getting all tingly after about 70 feet. I guess that will go away with some more practice. If not, it's gonna be pretty painful when I start running marathons.

Hey there

It has come to my attention that folks miss my updates, so I will do my best to oblige in the future. I haven't blogged much over the past few weeks because I've been so caught up in doing nothing that blogging just hasn't made it to the top of my list.

So here's what's been going on in my life. I've spent the last three weeks at home, mostly relaxing, and doing some visiting. I spent several days visiting with the lady friend; this time with her was somewhat bittersweet. The sweetness came from the fact that she is rather wonderful, and I can't think of a more fun activity than making up songs for a musical together while jousting on playground equipment, or teaching her to climb trees, or even riding around in a car with her old Uncle Ralph. The bitterness derived from our knowledge that our time together was all-too-brief.

Last week, Abbie left for Washington, D.C., for a 5 week long internship. She's trying to fiddle with the constitution, which makes my proposed summer of delivering pizza to Kirksville's high society seem somewhat mundane. Hopefully, after she returns in July, she won't take off for another long-term vacation again.

Tomorrow I must head back to Kirksville to rejoin the rat race. My duties will involve classes for 6 hours a week, working for 30 hours a week, sleeping for 35 hours a week, and playing WoW for 97 hours a week. Actually, I'm planning on taking up running again as a summer activity, so hopefully I won't waste away in front of a computer the whole time.

insomnia

I just finished reading a book that was so exciting that I can't go to sleep now. So here's a quick update on my life.

My parents finally arrived home from England where my dad's barbershop chorus sang some songs. To prepare for their arrival, I had to do all the jobs this morning that I was supposed to be doing all week. Washing dishes for two hours straight is not much of a blast. Also, my sister and her adoring niece visited today, and I have misplaced my glasses.

Soon World of Warcraft will release an update which will completely redefine how I play my mage. Instead of primarily casting fire-based spells with some arcane spells thrown in, I will start using frost-based spells to complement my fire ones. It should make for a pretty exciting time.

All in all, this is a completely worthless post.

In which I am attacked

I visited Abbie in Farber this weekend. The first thing I did was stop by the Van-Far high school where her mother was cleaning out her classroom. A few minutes later, a visitor arrived to meet me. After a few seconds of introduction and small talk, another visitor arrived. Followed by another, and another, and six more! These people surrounded me and all pounced at once! Not only are were about 10 women staring at me, none of whose names I could recollect, they all knew everything about me: my college major, my present job, my current address, my checking account balance... Apparently, shortly after my arrival, Abbie's mother had rushed down the hall alerting everyone in the school that I had arrived. They must not get much excitement in Farber.

Today I went golfing with Abbie and her brother Ryan. That is, Ryan golfed while Abbie and I tried to golf. The only other time I had been golfing I went with my brother Andy, and we only had time to finish four holes before I had to leave. So I wasn't all that good to begin with, obviously. But add in the fact that I golf left-handed, and Ryan only had right-handed clubs for me to use, and you come up with a complete disaster. My main problem was consistency: I had a ton of success driving the cart and putting the ball on the tees, but not much talent at hitting the ball every time I swung at it. Over nine holes, I wound up with a score of 70, which is abysmal. Ryan completely smoked me. I don't know how Abbie would have ended up because, due to time constraints, we were forced to stop her after about a hole and a half.

test

So my previous post was apparently a completely unsuccessful and unintelligible experiment. Feel free to disregard it. I have learned the hard way not to push the limits of the blogging world.

busy

This has bin a pretty rough weak four me. What with playing World of Warcraft awl the thyme, and sleeping fore ten ours a knight, Eye have knot had thyme even two think about blogging. Butt I am taking a brake from my hectic schedule to regale ewe with a tail of adventure.

Aye took a walk last knight to get a breath of fresh err. I had bin pent up inside all day, sew being outside was quite a relief. This peaceful atmosphere wasn't too last, unfortunately. While strolling along, Aye herd a clamor behind a house. I piqued around the corner to assess the situation, but I couldn't sea anything because of all the landscaping. I stole into the yard two get a better look, with howling and screeching awl around.

Suddenly, I was hit! A small dog flying threw the ere maid me its landing pad. Before I could even adjust to this knew development, some shadowy figures chasing the dog pummelled strait into my leg, knocking me to the ground. I rolled away, the dog still clutched in my arms, and stumbled to my feat. The attackers were two apparently bloodthirsty raccoons. I kicked at won, but struck only a glancing blow. The second raccoon took this opportunity to try clawing it's weigh up my leg. I took careful aim and slugged it across the snout, sending it flying. This seemed to weaken there resolve because they broke ranks and fled. The dog also ran away at this point without so much as a "Thank you very much for saving my life. I thought I was a goner." Animals are pretty rude these days.

Oh weight. Did this really happen? No, I'm pretty sure I made this all up. But I'm lichen it more--and it is more exciting--than my alternate adventure story: Making a Burrito in the Microwave.

Well readers,

It appears that I have neglected you for some time. I had a pretty rough week and was unable to devote much time to the blogging. But you may be pleased to learn that my semester is finally over, and I will be hopelessly devoted to you for at least a few days.

Abbie finally came home on Thursday! In case you were somehow unaware, I haven't seen her in about 2 months, so it was quite nice to see her again. Despite my trepidation, conversation luckily flowed like...something, so it appears that we are still in love.

I visited Abbie's house for the last two days. Today, her brother ran the hurdles in his district track meet, so we got to see that. I haven't been to a high school track meet since my own high school days, and all the memories flooded back. The atmosphere at track and cross country meets can't be duplicated anywhere.

Now I am back at home again. I will be here for a relaxing three weeks or so before heading back to grueling Kirksville. Goals for these coming weeks: none.

This post is dedicated to Andre the Giant, because I'm watching him in "The Princess Bride" right now.Andre, you will always be an all-star.