Hello again parents,

Sorry it has been a while, things are a little hectic at the moment. I have a paper and a test tomorrow and then another test on monday. I am spending a lot of time preparing for them. So I have been in college for over a month now, and I still love it. A few observations or comments however: all the socks I own are now a very nice shade of pink, this includes a few white shirts. The chair that we bought had met its end, although we guessed that it might be due to the cheap price of it originally. I have been eating more in the last month than I think I ever have before. My sleep schedule is more messed up then usual. I tend to not get much sleep at night and end up getting the majority of what I need to survive during the day. Debbie is coming, she will arrive on the 13th of October and then leave the following monday. I am excited to see her, considering she is the first person from home that i will be able to see in over a month which is kind of a weird idea. I do miss all my friends, and am excited for thanksgiving even though we are not that close.

Along with this, I am now the third floor representative for the peabody senate committee. This just means that I go to a meeting once a week and give input as to what kind of programs or activities my floor wants to participate in. No one else on my floor wanted to do it, and Vaughn asked if I would. I figured that I might as well get involved in something so I agreed.

I almost forgot about my eye. A few days ago I was going up the stairs in my dorm and there was a kid who was running down them. He caught me in the face with his elbow and gave me a very large black eye. He felt terrible and I just told him not to worry about it, seeing as that it is not a very big deal. It does look pretty gruesome though, it reminded me of mom falling down the basement stairs.

That is good news about mattel, although i bet now it will shoot to the moon since we decided to sell. Oh, and maybe the money could be used for the following if needed?

On a more somber note…..
Last saturday i was at a party with my roommate and a lot of other people… 220 to be exact. It was a frat which are usually a pretty safe places to go, even if it is over crowded and not that fun always. Everyone in college goes to frat parties, it is just how it works. However on this day, not that long after we got there the police arrived. It turned out that there had been an investigation into that specific frat for reasons that we had no idea beforehand. Although they did not find what they were looking for they did take down the names of all the kids. I did not think that they would ever do anything about it, considering they have broken up frats before and not done anything. But on this occasion they have decided to send us all notices saying that we broke school policy. I have attached the notice to the email as well for you and dad to have a look at. I do not know if I am going to appeal the finding considering they have no proof that anyone was drinking. They are just saying everyone is guilty because we were all there. They did not breathalyze anyone or do anything of the sort. There is a meeting tomorrow that I have to attend on the matter and after that I will figure out what I need to do and whether I should appeal it or not. It is just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’ve talked to a lot of people about it and this has like never happened before. They believed the frat was into drugs and stuff and me and john had never heard anything about the frat before. It was also our first time there. It just sucks. If you could give me a call later that would be nice, whenever it is a good time for you of course.

Love always,
Matt

Michael,

I know you are an insomniac and early-morning riser, so If you have some clear skies in the next few pre-dawn mornings, look up with binocs near the Big Dipper just east of the last star in the handle.

Comet SWAN

Quoted from APOD:

A newly discovered comet has brightened enough to be visible this week with binoculars. The picturesque comet is already becoming a favored target for northern sky imagers. Pictured above just last week, Comet SWAN showed a bright blue-green coma and an impressive tail. Comet C/2006 M4 (SWAN) was discovered in June in public images from the Solar Wind Anisotropies (SWAN) instrument of NASA and ESA’s Sun-orbiting SOHO spacecraft. Comet SWAN, near magnitude six, will be visible with binoculars in the northeastern sky not far from the Big Dipper over the next few days before dawn. The comet is expected to reach its peak brightness this week. Passing its closest to the Sun two days ago, Comet SWAN and will be at its closest to the Earth toward the end of this month.

ed/rakkity

This year was not as cold as some, even so, it took me forever to get into the water. Later you’ll see Adam hanging out as if he were in a heated pool.

This year was not as cold as some, even so, it took me forever to get into the water. Later you’ll see Adam hanging out as if he were in a heated pool.

Hi Mike,

We’ve finally decided how to get our worldly goods west for our big move from Bowie to Boulder. The Mrs looked at the costs of various ways to ship our furniture from MD to CO, and said to me last night,”After looking at the costs of paying movers, I think you’ve got to drive a U-Haul from here to Boulder.” Conveniently, she forgot that I had suggested this mode of transport some months ago (imagining another great road trip), and she had rejected it out of concern for me and my advanced age (late 40s, in case you ask, very late 40s).

But now the load has been put on my shoulders, and I’m looking forward to it. The trip starts on Dec 1 or 2 and ends in Boulder on or before Dec 6. Afterwards, I fly back to MD for 3 or 4 more weeks, before heading west permanantly.

Anyone want to come along? I’m thinking of stopping along the way in Evansville, and looking up my uncle Ed’s homestead, and the Miller homestead. And of course, in Ohio I’ve got to see one of Grohe’s murals with my own eyes.

–rakkity

For DebbieCakes who told me told me to listen to the lyrics .

For Adam who still rides a motorcycle .

For me .

For the heck of it.

Michael,

The Rakkity-Katie game came and went without any serious injuries (sorry Michael!), but the games were livened by a few wall and ball collisions and many calls of “Hinder!” Katie is a semi-cautious player, “semi” not meaning that she doesn’t dive for the wall sometimes, but she’s really careful about careening out of control into her opponent (which Patrick, Dom, and Yours Truly are not.)

Our first game started at 5:00 sharp, and began tentatively, both playing right-handed, without any handicap points given. (No left-handed playing yet for Rakkity, thank you.) A number of times when we were on intersecting trajectories, Katie stopped the game with a “Hinder!” call, and we re-started from the serve. One of her shots slapped me on the back of my left shoulder (the bum one), and re-bounded into my jaw. Katie was very apologetic, but needlessly, since ball-hits are a part of the game. Katie put up a good fight in the game, but those good years of trickery and treachery learned in competition against son & Dom were too much for her, and she lost a quick game 15-8.

Being a gentleman of the court, Rakkity offered a handicap–he could only serve to and return to the right half of the front wall. Any serves or returns to the left half would be a losing point or a losing service. Katie gained a lot of points that game when old rickkety rakkity couldn’t quite scoop the ball to the right side. She won 15-13, but not without a trophy red spot on her wrist, where one of my balls clipped her on a return. (Oops! Sorry, Katie!) You could hardly see the red spot there, since her arm was glowing red from exertion, but she had to rub it a lot before going on.

The third game was marked by about a dozen calls of “Hinder!” when Katie couldn’t return the ball without a risk of beaning me, smashing into me, or creaming me with the racquet. She complained that this right-wall handicap I had given her was putting us both on the right side of the court all the time, leading to lots of near collisions. The number of near-collisions didn’t seem so excessive to me, but that’s from a perspective of a more aggressive style. We changed the handicap rule to make me hit to the left half of the front wall. While it might have opened up the game, it didn’t help her, since my serves and returns were to her left hand, which wasn’t as good that day as usual, so Rakkity won that game. Time was up at 6:00 pm Father and daughter retired from the court, steaming with sweat, and grinning together happily.

–rakkity

Michael,

The Rakkity-Katie game came and went without any serious injuries (sorry Michael!), but the games were livened by a few wall and ball collisions and many calls of “Hinder!” Katie is a semi-cautious player, “semi” not meaning that she doesn’t dive for the wall sometimes, but she’s really careful about careening out of control into her opponent (which Patrick, Dom, and Yours Truly are not.)

Our first game started at 5:00 sharp, and began tentatively, both playing right-handed, without any handicap points given. (No left-handed playing yet for Rakkity, thank you.) A number of times when we were on intersecting trajectories, Katie stopped the game with a “Hinder!” call, and we re-started from the serve. One of her shots slapped me on the back of my left shoulder (the bum one), and re-bounded into my jaw. Katie was very apologetic, but needlessly, since ball-hits are a part of the game. Katie put up a good fight in the game, but those good years of trickery and treachery learned in competition against son & Dom were too much for her, and she lost a quick game 15-8.

Being a gentleman of the court, Rakkity offered a handicap–he could only serve to and return to the right half of the front wall. Any serves or returns to the left half would be a losing point or a losing service. Katie gained a lot of points that game when old rickkety rakkity couldn’t quite scoop the ball to the right side. She won 15-13, but not without a trophy red spot on her wrist, where one of my balls clipped her on a return. (Oops! Sorry, Katie!) You could hardly see the red spot there, since her arm was glowing red from exertion, but she had to rub it a lot before going on.

The third game was marked by about a dozen calls of “Hinder!” when Katie couldn’t return the ball without a risk of beaning me, smashing into me, or creaming me with the racquet. She complained that this right-wall handicap I had given her was putting us both on the right side of the court all the time, leading to lots of near collisions. The number of near-collisions didn’t seem so excessive to me, but that’s from a perspective of a more aggressive style. We changed the handicap rule to make me hit to the left half of the front wall. While it might have opened up the game, it didn’t help her, since my serves and returns were to her left hand, which wasn’t as good that day as usual, so Rakkity won that game. Time was up at 6:00 pm Father and daughter retired from the court, steaming with sweat, and grinning together happily.

–rakkity

(click)

We (Adam and Mark Schreiber) just returned from our annual Maine camping excursion , and while we have stories to tell, none of them are of the death-defying type you’ve come to except from rakkity’s camping exploits. Our original intentions were to tent on the south side of Enchanted Pond in Somerset County, but after six and a half hours of wandering in the woods, we surrendered and drove to Misery Pond. Yes, we were attracted by the name. And, yes, this year we do have videos.