In the style of Mikey Q

Whole lotta catchin' up:

Trips:
- Erie with UK in the motor home for Labor Day
- Pirates game --> Grove City --> Cleveland to hang with Charlie --> Akron --> home late Sunday night
- Akron second-to-last weekend of July for band practice. Half with Alex, and half with the original trilogy, since Alex was leaving
- Akron last weekend of July for Pure Boss concert at Brian's grad party

Visits:
- One big distended and extended blob of Akronites :-) Steve and Jon Detweiler here to do the roof. Allisons here for a weekend visit. Mike Hoffman here Sunday to help. Steve staying till Monday, then coming back Wednesday with Craig to finish, then coming back again Thursday afternoon for Kennywood

Good times:
- Kennywood with Betsy, Rachael and Steve-O! The *second* company picnic. First one got rained out. Though we still went and got free food. And did rides. And got a set of free tickets since the park closed early :-) Booyah!
- Fuel 'n' Fuddle: hit it up after Ritas and wandering around Pittsburgh Saturday night with the Allisons, etc. in tow.
- Pirate's game, Styx concert + fireworks, the Fuel 'n' Fuddle! Hoh hoh -- amaaazing! One of the shining highlights of the whole summer. The game was great - competitive, lots of action, and great people. Styx were great: kinda quiet, and not a lot of songs, but so seasoned and skilled that they rocked with winsome ease. Betsy got majorly into the concert, which was a lot of fun since I'm often the only super-vocal enjoyer of things. Fireworks dazzled us with their spectacle, and their volume! I truly liked Pittsburgh for the first real time. F'n'F capped off the night with great food and extended time to enjoy people.
- Recording "Sick as a Dog" with Stephen. He needs to move here!
- Steve Gole!

Work:
- No longer in the "new guy" phase
- Taking over raw materials from Jay
- Given responsibility for the batch house. Classic engineering: pursuing goals is like grasping oil with the hand. Hangs over you constantly. Easy to back burnerize, but critical to make efforts on, in order to demonstrate get-to-it-iveness, which is a key intangible in the work world.
- Brian--the only other process engineer--left. Leaving me, BT, unloaders, Bobby and Earl in the hot end office.
- Doing lots of unloading. Getting pretty good on the payloader.
- Finding myself at many classic work issues: stress, irritation, worried about getting noticed/getting credit, longer hours, poor communication. Augh! What am I becoming?
- Getting my jeans dirty most days. Yessss
- I am still a new guy, even if I'm past that phase. Now it takes more effort to get out and about, watch, ask, and learn. I know enough to make a comfortable rut for myself. *DUN DUN DUN*
- Boredom is now. no longer. an issue.

Home:
- New lappy. Frickin' iTunes still won't play videos. COMPUTERS!!! GAAGHH!! (Otherwise pretty spiffy, though)
- Dad doing house planning a ton (incl. right now)
- Stripey pants!!
- Not playing much consistently, but dinking around a bit. Recorded Dr.Pepper song, Sick as a Dog, and A Thousand Fair Admirers. Wrote the college song, which is probably my best song in many important ways, but haven't recorded it yet. Gotta do it justice. More chill with recording than perfectionistic. Getting better at guitar, and enjoying it. Electric >> acoustic. Drums = I suck, but Steve Gole plays my kinda stuff... WELL.

Church:
- Jeremy got College Night rolling for the year
- According to myself and a startlingly large number of independent commenters, I should be on electric as much as possible. Seems to add a lot to the sound. And I love it :-)
- Still benefitting from the Abe, Isaac and Jake sermons!
- Philippians series
- Fuse. Haven't been much recently.
- Ohiopyle camping trip! Tired as death Friday night, but Saturday made up for it. Hung out with Erin and Anna first half, then rode back. Absorbed a disproportionate number of injuries at Cuke Falls. Sober time up at the cross at J-ville.

Currently:
- Enamored with The Who. Literally can't get enough of "Let My Love Open the Door."
- About to order a slew of CD's, plus tri-tone gray All-Stars from amazon.com
- Bought some shows and movies on iTunes. Bug's Life is great!
- The lawn is spiffy from a good mow and a recent trim job
- On the upshot of another attempt at devotions and exercising. Iffy, but you just keep trying
- Baleveine Double Cask was fantabulous tonight, but in general not my style
- Daisy is still cute
- Chick-fil-A is still >>amazing<<
- Grovers back, but Daniel, Justin, Hezz, Rebekah Booher, Betsy and Rachael are all gone.
- How how how should I record "When You Were in Love?"
- Praying for grace to devote and exercise. I can only pray, and see what happens, and not let eyes stray to past history and mind decay to hopelessness.

Upcoming:
- Transition to Crystal Gray starting Saturday. Working Sunday, minus time for church. Yay, but boo, but overall yay
- Folks in for Brad Paisley concert this weekend
- Switchfoot/RelientK concert in November! Hoh hoh -- amaazing!
- Really want to be in Akron. Like it there. But I was hurtin' for the 'Burgh last weekend.
- I've been up way too late every night this weekend. Time to read some Biblio and end that trend. So much for exercising.

Arise, my soul, arise.
Shake off they guilty fears.
The bleeding sacrifice
On my behalf appears.
Before the throne my surety stands.
Before the throne my surety stands!
My name is written on His hands.

--Clear Ambassador