I wanted to make this entry closer to the new year, but I've been just too lazy ever since I finished my PhD...well technically it'll be done tomorrow, but the hard work was done Dec. 10th. So the idea here is to make an entry to remember everything that happened over the past year. There has been some sad periods, but 2008 has been a year of blessings for me for the most part. Even the trials had some very positive outcomes and since it is so easy to forget our blessings I figured I would give a review of my year to remember.
January1) New Years
New years was spent with friends relaxing at the beachhouse with a couple Newcastles and playing board games.
I couldn't remember what we did for her bday, but she reminded me that we had a dinner and went and saw Juno. If you haven't seen this movie give it a try...I think I can safely say that this is one of our favorite movies. Plus I think the soundtrack is pretty awesome.
My parents, Dem, TC, Chad, and I were all able to go to the same Red Wings game. Even though TC and Chad didn't have seats with us they were able to sit with us because two seats were empty next to us.
Later in the month our family got together to celebrate my Aunt Debbie's bday...I won't say which one :) Everyone had a really good time...as you can see my dad and uncle Gerald enjoyed themselves.
A few days after our family got together Dem and I got engaged. In spite of my lack of planning the proposal Dem still said yes...and come June we'll be getting hitched.
February had less going on...mostly I just had some fun. Above is my 5-on-5 IM basketball team after our championship. My Graduate/Faculty/Staff team also made it to the championship game but lost that one. Sadly I was in Memphis and didn't even get to play in the GFS game that was played at Chrysler Arena.
Then Dem and I spent our time working on the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore puzzle we got from her parents. We had a lot of fun putting it together.
During March I don't have much memory of what I did...because not much is on the blog and I don't really have any pictures. However, I did get to make my first ever visit to California. I went there to talk with some fluid mechanics researchers at Stanford.
There are probably a very large number of more significant moments that I'm not including, but I have pictures of this and I find it funny. There are actually three pictures we have of this. Dem and I decided to take some pictures of us so we set the camera on the opposite side of the table and set it up to take 3 timed pictures in a row. As soon as the first one was about to be taken the waitress walked up and asked to take our order. Trust me...it was funny.
My sisters got me two tickets for a Tigers game, which was awesome. I decided to take Dem. Even though it was a night game and super cold the game was amazing. Our seats were in like the third row right along the first base line. Plus the Tigers were getting beaten really bad and then made a late comeback, which made it a really exciting game.
The game was awesome - fighting, Wings crushing the Avs, going with Dem and my parents, and our family made it on espn's website (see upper left corner for proof).
Sherry graduated...well she finished earlier, but as I'm learning right now you don't get to walk for like a half a year later.
During April Dem and I worked on the puzzle Sherry got me for my bday....it was an extremely difficult puzzle of Homer from the Simpsons made of pictures from the show.
For Mother's Day weekend Dem and I went up north and visited her parents. We spent the weekend up there and then visited my parents on Sunday on our way back to Ann Arbor and had a nice dinner in Bad Axe with them.
For our friend Karen's bday we had a lot of fun with a dinner mystery party. Dem shown above was a debutente while I was a scuba instructor. Everyone had a really good time and surprisingly the murderer turned out to be the pregnant young girl with a knife.
One of a number of weddings we attended this past year was for our friends the Pyles. A good time was had and Dem and her friends all matched...which was not at all planned.
Memorial Day was spent doing some grilling and enjoying friends, food, Red Wings, the beachhouse, and fire...good work with the fire Mike.
On the last day of May Dem and I went and gave blood together...suggestion to Red Cross: if you are going to take appointments they should take priority over any walk-ins.
No matter how many times they win the cup it just never gets old. With the Pistons and Tigers being an up and down franchise, Michigan football sucking right now, and the Lions sucking consistently we should all be very thankful to have the Red Wings.
Even though I have so many pictures from this wedding and our trip to Missouri, I really like this picture of Dem and I so I'm using it even though it has the photographer print over it. Dem looks so beautiful. The trip was a lot of fun with Dem and I getting to spent quality time together, seeing the gateway to the West, seeing the tremendous flooding of that area, and going on our first trip together.
4) Wall-E
After waiting half a year Wall-E finally came out for Dem. We went and saw it and even with her extremely elevated expectations for the movie, it was not at all disappointing to her...even to this day.
I'm still loving it and just last week I got wii fit, which makes the wii even more awesome. This has really been great as we have spent plenty of time with family and friends playing it and having fun together.
July1) 4th of July Vacation
For the 4th we visited Dem's family and stayed at a cabin on Long Lake. It was a lot of fun and a great time was had. Quite often when we spent time with hers or my family there aren't a ton of stories to tell, but we are never disappointed...in fact we love our time with our families.
The Elbing reunion was a blast as always. It turned out to be more of a workout than anticipated, but man it was fun.
We saw a concert of Matt Nathanson in Ann Arbor with some of our friends...Ciara is a huge fan. I had heard him on the radio and wasn't that excited about him, but he is really entertaining and would recommend anyone that gets a chance to go see him.
While the list of blessings is long, there was the very large trial of 2008. Only a couple weeks after our family reunion we got word that my youngest cousin Paula Jo had pasted away. The lose has been hard on the whole family, but it should be noted that our family has also come together. I think we have a great family that gets along better than most, but this tragedy has made us pay a little more attention to our family. Rest in peace Paula and we'll join you soon enough.
Dem and I have a tendency to match even without trying. The first pictures of us after we started dating we matched (blue jeans and blue Michigan sweatshirts)...our friend Mike noticed it when I came over and went and got his camera and "secretly" took a picture. So when Dem and I met at Mike & Karen's place to hang out they got a kick out of how well we matched and took another picture...we didn't see each other until we walked in.
August1) Olympics
Not sure what I did in August besides watch the Olympics...I suppose at least during them it was basically all I did. They are just so captivating, especially when there is such a historic performance like we saw during this one.
For Labor Day weekend Dem and I went up to Pigeon and spent some time with my parents. We had a good time that included watching a sunset over Lake Huron (above), having a nice 4 mile run, bonfire with aunts and uncles, and a well deserved Diary Queen run.
The story of some of our steal from the Hiplate project being stolen has made much more headlines then I had expected. It was on the tv and made it at least to the Chicago news. I'm not even sure what the status is on the trial...last time I heard anything about it I was told I might have to testify about it (just to "identify" the steal).
At the time Dem and I were glad we had done it, but actually it didn't feel like that big of a deal. Now that we aren't in quite as good of shape and less sure if we could still do it we find it much more impressive that we ran 6.2 miles.
That was really good cake...hey that is the same knife used in the murder from Karen's bday party...I think.
Dem and I went to one Michigan football game...actually the first football game we went to together. Turns out we got to see the highlight of the year for Michigan football. I think whenever Dem and I go to games together our team falls way behind only to comeback in very exciting fashion.
October1) Guest Blogger
Since I was gone for awhile Dem stepped in as a guest blogger. She did a great job and we are still in negotiations to get her to do another guest post...she is just demanding too much money.
I was absent because of my trip to Japan and S. Korea for the 27th Symposium on Naval Hydrodynamics put on by the Office of Naval Research. Above is the group photo from the symposium.
I got back just in time for the IM 3-on-3 basketball playoffs where I won my third championship.
November1) Writing my Dissertation
There isn't much to write about in November because I spent almost the entire month sitting in my chair writing my PhD dissertation. Even for Thanksgiving I just went to Clarkston, had dinner, and returned to work in Ann Arbor.
2) Trip to San Antonio
The one thing I had to do in November was attend the Applied Physics Conference in San Antonio. This was my first visit to Texas and it was actually quite enjoyable of a trip. I was able to get some work done, relax, tour a little, and felt good about my presentation.
December
1) Defended my PhD Dissertation
I don't have any pictures from the defense but it looked something like this...but replace the podium with a conference table and the Mac with a Dell. I'm still very thankful to be past that point now.
My Christmas vacation was so great. I really did just about nothing besides either siding on Dem's parents or my parents couch. It was just what I needed so that when I returned and started 2009 I was ready to get back to work.
