Just a quick heads up for those of you that heard about the tornado in western Omaha early this morning, we’re ok and intact; the tornado passed about a mile southeast of us. Some homes were pretty severely damaged and the Walmart about a mile east of us had part of its roof blown off, but we made it through untouched.

More updates on life in general coming, as I’m still adjusting to my switch to nights.

Maggie and I will be hosting a New Years/belated graduation party at our place on Monday night. We’re going to do a semi-potluck; Maggie and I will cook up a crock pot of chili, and you folks bring something to go along with it, a snack or side dish or dessert or whatever. We’ll have plenty of Diet Coke and Diet Mt. Dew to drink, if you want something else make sure to bring it. John will be providing the bubbly.

We’ll have the Wii set up, if you happen to think of it bring extra Wiimotes and whatever other controllers are needed, and games too! I’m going to grab Mario Party 8 beforehand, but we don’t have much else for multiplayer on the Wii. Also set up for movies and whatnot, and if anybody has any fun board games they’d like to bring, we’ll have a surface to play those on too.

(Also John, feel free to invite Sheng and Brett if they don’t have anything else to do, I don’t have their contact info and I highly doubt they read this).

Maybe post a comment with what kind of foodstuff you’ll be bringing so we don’t have duplication.

(Oops, forgot to hit save earlier… also, if you need directions to our place just get ahold of me).

So here’s the update.

• Done with class for the summer. 6.5 credits to go! I can smell the end.
• I must have made a good impression at work. My raise was… shall we say, better than I expected.
• In case you hadn’t noticed yet, I bought the iPhone. So ends my gadget-buying for awhile.
• Maggie and I are celebrating our first anniversary in a couple of weeks. We’re going to see Spamalot in Des Moines. It will be fun.
• My shaman is 63. Fear the leet pwnage. Ok, not really. It is fun throwing around lightning though.
• I’m still not social enough. But I’ve spent time with friends two of the past three weekends, so it’s helping.
• Did I mention I’m almost done with school?

So, it’s been an interesting couple of days.

• Had a reading quiz yesterday in Philosophy over an assignment where he really didn’t tell us how much of it to read… it was a two-day reading, and his exact instructions were “get a good start on it.” He quizzed us on stuff that was on the last five pages.
• I tried to kick down a doorjamb and rewarded myself with a (likely) broken toe. Best part is, Student Death is apparently closed today so I can’t go in to get it looked at! And since my insurance is through the university, I have to go through them to get covered, unless it’s an emergency (which, while painful, I think a broken toe doesn’t quite qualify). I’ll just tape it up and hobble on it for a couple of days, sounds like that’s what would happen anyway. Advil is my friend.
• We started moving into trailers at work yesterday. There’s actually more space in the trailers than in the old offices, it’s almost kind of nice. The layout isn’t great, but there’s definitely more space to work with. Trying to move stuff with a hobbled foot wasn’t fun, but it was nothing a little Advil and can-do attitude couldn’t fix.
• Much to my dismay, I got a letter from the University yesterday telling me that I’m not eligible for aid this SUMMER either; originally I had thought I was only on the hook for fall. I’m putting in a request for eligibility extension, but I’m not sure how it will fly.
• I think I made a friend’s day this morning. It felt really good. She’s been going through a rough time, so she deserved it.

Well, that’s the rundown… time to get ready so I can go have my advisor fill out his part of the extension form, head over to student health and see if they’re REALLY closed or if somebody forgot to turn of the phone message, and then get to work.

So, I know we get to see each other less and less anymore… but, did you guys want to do something for New Year’s this year?

See you in a few days!

Wrapping up a great New Year’s party with some episodes of Family Guy.

Must do this again. Sooner than next Dec. 31.

What are your plans for the year?

…I learned that Ann has too many finals for her own good.
…I learned that Austin is as huge of a Family Guy fan as I am.
…I learned that Elyse wants to be a cross-country coach as well as a music teacher.
…I learned that Chris and Trevor are also becoming hobbyist programmers.

…I learned that it isn’t beyond me to talk to people if I really put my mind to it.

Is anybody interested in doing the New Year’s Eve party thing again at all? I’d sure like to, but we haven’t really kept in touch much this year, so I understand if nobody else does.

This is Liz. Before Wednesday, we had not seen each other in 14 years. Facebook is a wonderful thing.