I did not update once in September =( But I can go through google calendar and review it =)

I donated blood for the third time. I let the nurses know ahead of time that I get lightheaded. Unfortunately when the guy put the needle in I got really faint in the beginning. I didn't actually faint though! But it was not very fun. Afterward I was fine and showed off my bandage. We had an early lab that day, 7am at these fields the school owns. We did radio telemetry practice which was really hard. I don't know if the equipment is old or what. Basically you put a transmitter on an animal and use a receiver (antenna) to track its location. There was also a wildlife society meeting, this researcher working on saw whet owls came and talked about it. They do mist netting at night during migration which is late fall and FREEZING. I want to do it though, I might go back to Bloomington for that.

This semester I signed up with my roomie and friend for fitness classes. We have a pass for 20 classes in the semester and they range from toning, cycling, aerobics, kickboxing, pilates and other stuff. I have gone about once a week but I need to go more! The classes are actually really good, you work really hard and a lot more than you would on your own. In September my environmental club participated in the White River Cleanup. My friend Alex that just moved to Chicago came down for the night and he went out with us. The night he was here I gave him a tour of campus and we actually played Cranium with my roommate and her mentoring student who is 12 I think. We almost lost! But we beat them in the end. The cleanup was a lot of fun, I knew to get a canoe because that is the fun part. Some other people in my club didn't get a canoe and weren't in our group. But my closer friends were and we had a blast. We pulled lots of junk out of the river and banks. Our group found a suitcase, chairs, water heater, huge antenna, kiddie pool, and tires. Alex is a really big guy (6'7"?) and so luckily he was there to help. He wore black and yellow and I called him the bumblebee. Eventually some canoes got so full the people had to get out but I didn't want to get my shoes wet. In the end I had to because it was too shallow not to. Our canoe got stuck a few times since it was so heavy and I got out and pushed it.

The week after that was super busy. I went plant collecting with my friend Melanie for our plant class. We have to collect a bunch of herbaceous plants and identify them. We went along the greenway and found a bunch of easy plants that were flowering. We also saw some waxwings, they are one of my favorite birds. We also found the Island! It's this funny little cafe in the woods that looks like the beach. We wanted smoothies but it was closed. I had some job workshops (searching, interviewing etc) that week as well as club meetings. One afternoon I spent a while shopping with Carissa at Plato's Closet. She had never been there and I invited her since I was planning on going anyway. She bought a bunch of shirts and pants, she loved it. I have never seen someone try on so many clothes. I tried on ten things maybe but I just got one t shirt from old navy, dark blue with a white octopus. That night I was making pumpkin pies, one for the dept picnic the next day, and Melanie came over to help. The dept picnic was really fun. We hung out the whole time and ate tons of food. My pie was yummy. There weren't that many people there but I talked with some people I don't see much/ever. After that I tried to go to the movie on campus, the Proposal, but it was full and so my roomie and my friend Victoria and I went home and watched Lars and the Real Girl. It was good but kind of sad too. I also volunteered at the food bank that week, it was really fun. We were packaging different things and worked on an assembly line sort of. Then I got called away to do spreadsheet stuff. That weekend was the sustainability fair and I went to the farmer's market too. I saw some people I knew there and found my advisor and his wife picnicking under a tree. They gave me all their leftovers. The next day I had an ice cream social for one of my clubs and had huge sundaes, yummy.

The next week Mel and I went on a plant field trip and we had our first test in that class. It's actually a computerized test where the professor has it open online for a certain amount of time and can make it supervised. Then you have to go to these special comp labs and sign in and take it right there. But you can take it whenever you sign up for and for how long you need. Then the weekend was our field trip to Illinois with wildlife bio.

We left on Friday at lunchtime and immediately stopped at the Taco Bell in town. I thought this was dumb and had brought my own lunch anyway. There are 14 in our class plus our professor and the TA who is my friend Mel. She was driving an Explorer or Escalade and so I sat next to her in the front. Everyone else in our car (6 others) were squished behind us so I was really lucky. Mel and I talked pretty much the whole car ride, we have a lot in common so it was easy. When we got to the house (Mel stays there during summer research) we claimed a bedroom on the second floor since the basement smells funny and has bugs. Unfortunately it is right off the living room so we got to hear people talking forever. First we set some traps to catch rodents and dinner was spaghetti. I had known no veggies would be offered during the weekend so I had brought bananas, apples, carrots, and tomatoes. We got up super early on Sat to witness the rocket net catching wood ducks out on the marsh. We got completely bit up by mosquitoes during this and the ducks didn't end up near the net so we had to shoot it off just for show. I was very sad about this but then I got to drive the four wheeler through the marsh! That was super fun and since I had gotten soaked walking through it I was happy for a dry ride out.

After breakfast (pancakes and syrup overload) we went to this old bat house and our prof caught a long eared bat with his bare hands. She bit his shirt but he held her up and showed everyone, it was really fun. We went to the Oakwood Bottoms forest for a close up of wetland/swamp management in order to keep waterfowl and hunting going. The water is not good for the trees but they need it for the ducks so they switch off the years each section is underwater. There are tons of cypress trees all around. We went to an interpretive site which had some trails and a boardwalk and ponds. We saw lots of turtles and fish but not many birds. For lunch we had sandwiches along the Mississippi right before a huge storm came. It was windy and rainy and started hailing, it was insane! After that we went to Snake Rd in the Pine Hills. It's supposed to be full of migrating snakes but we only found a couple little ones on a different trail. Mel and I had a blast poking the jewel weed! Too much fun. There were cave salamanders, newts, frogs, snakes, and we saw hummingbirds too. We stopped in Missouri on the way back since we were so close and then had a bbq at the house. I had a lot! When I was walking into my room to go to sleep my prof told me I didn't eat enough and I said I ate a ton. Then he gave me this once over, it was so strange. Mel got a kick out of that, she knows he is really strange with girls. He flirted with the undergrads the whole weekend. After one girl found a snake "I could kiss you right now...but I won't because that's inappropriate."

On Sunday we had eggs and toast and then went to see the biggest cypress trees, over 1000 years old. We stopped at the Cache River interpretive center and got to see some cool stuff. For lunch we went to this little trail head and saw a bald eagle flying! Then we went to the Cache River walking trail that ended in a boardwalk out in the swamp. We saw frogs and water snakes and I even saw two brown creepers (birds).

This weekend was homecoming so there was a lot of stuff going on. Unfortunately after the field trip I was pretty exhausted and drained and almost got sick. Then my canker sore got a lot worse. It was not a very fun week, I missed the talent show and the dance show. Friday I went to see Love Happens with my roomie and Victoria. DON'T SEE IT. It's an awful movie, they make it look like a romantic comedy but it is basically all about the guy grieving for his wife who died, how he wrote a book and does self-help seminars, and all about the people in the seminars grieving. IT'S A SAD MOVIE. Luckily I only paid $5 to see it because I signed up here https://www.fivebuckclub.net/Home.aspx
It's a deal kerasotes is doing. It's free and you sign up to get a card, then they email you every week with your local theaters' movies and which ones you can see for $5 (usually after opening week). No limit either! After that my roomie and I went to get Haagen Dacz ice cream and watched Kung Fu Panda. That movie was really funny.

Saturday I got up extra early to go see the parade with Carissa. It was long! Over an hour, but it was fun and I got candy. There were a ton of people watching too. Besides campus groups and greek life there were all the homecoming royalty, the president and mayor, everyone who was getting an award (alumni), high school bands, and a bunch of local companies passing out coupons. After that my roomie and I went to Victoria's place and walked to the football game. It was really fun but cold and we LOST AGAIN. I saw a bunch of current and former students of mine including one who took his shirt off for some reason. After that I took a nap to warm up and spent a long time watching TV and eating my parade candy. Eventually Courtney and I finished our ice cream and made Halloween tree decorations (bats, cats, ghosts, pumpkins) while watching tv.

I have a job interview?! Yeah, seriously. They might even fly me to PA. We'll see.

I moved back to Indiana and am in my house with my two roommates. On the way I got a flat tire in the middle of Ohio. The funny thing is I had packed my trunk full and had my bike rack on. The inside of my car was not very full. I thought about what a pain it would be if I got a flat tire since it would be under everything in my trunk and I'd have to take my bike off...well I found out what a pain it was. I was driving through a construction zone with no shoulder, just concrete barriers. This prevented me from being able to pull over when I realized there was something wrong with my car since there was no shoulder. Sure enough I passed by a sign so I could tell AAA where I was and then saw I had a rear flat tire. I called AAA but decided to move all my stuff ahead of time so I moved my bike and unpacked my trunk on the side of the highway. Luckily I could fit almost everything in the rest of my car. While I was getting my spare out a big company van (like electricians or heating/cooling people drive) pull over and this older guy got out to help me. I thought he was with AAA but he said he wasn't. He found out that I was lacking a lug wrench (to get the tire off) but he had one. He also had an air decompresser to fill my spare. By the time he was done AAA came. Luckily my spare was a full size tire and fairly new so I could drive on it all the way to Indiana. During the first couple days I got the tire debacle figured out, I ended up having to buy a new tire to match the spare, and then put the older one in the trunk.

Arriving in Indiana did not improve my luck since there were tornado warnings everywhere. I don't think there actually were any. I spent the next three days unpacking all of my junk, found out I neglected to bring any hangers, got groceries so I could eat, and had a ton of errands to do. I had to go get my loan deferred, turned in some forms, had a grad student lunch, bought new shoes including flats, went to the bank, worked the activity fair my club, and tons of other stuff. Our first week of classes was last week and I also had several meetings and taught my first labs, which I have three (and one that I sit in so I know what I'm doing, so four). I am taking two classes which look like a lot of work, wildlife bio and plant taxonomy. For wildlife we do a lot of field trips and stuff outside and for taxonomy we do a lot of plant collecting, it looks really hard. Plus I need to start analyzing data and writing my thesis. And I have more people than ever that I want to hang out with!

Last Sunday I drove to Bloomington to go out on the boat with Joel and his friends. I met his roommate for the first time and we had a great time chatting, I want to go back and visit them. It's a long drive though and a lot of my weekends have field trips or other things. Rob from verizon is no longer working here so he never comes up to Muncie so I haven't seen him in a long time, one of us would have to drive. I also have a friend that graduated and is living and working near indy that I'd like to see. He's married and has a house but we get along really well (surprise surprise). Plus I just met someone through my club that is working in Indy on energy legislation. He graduated this year and is getting support from around the state so we had a meeting about it. We got along really well too, he is from Michigan and said we could go on a road trip up there sometime. Besides that I went to a comedian with Courtney my roommate and we also bought shoes together, went to the gym with her and Victoria, friend from last year and we went to see Post Grad together too, went to a toning class with Victoria later in the week, and the three of us and my other roommate went to a bar downtown on Friday. It has three hundred beers or something like that, so I had to get beer (they have nothing else). It was ok but it was very hot and smokey. I had about one and a half and we got some pics and I even saw people I knew and listened to a good band. Saturday Stephanie, Victoria and I went to the farmer's market. I got a ton of peppers, some tomatoes, and zucchini. Saturday I had a long list of things I needed to do: shopping, laundry, cleaning the kitchen, I swept, fertilized my plants, and then I found another thing to add. When I went to put my bathroom rug in the washer the rug wouldn't come off the floor- it was glued to it. This happens when it gets wet and doesn't dry right away I guess. The rubber backing was all stuck. I looked up online how to get it off and started using an old credit card to scrape it. The rubber disintegrates into powder and its a big mess. I moved on to an ice scraper to work faster and eventually got it all off, but the floor is slightly tinged now. When I went shopping I bought a small towel instead.

Saturday afternoon Carissa came over and we had a good talk/caught up. She had been working at the bookstore a lot plus working Saturdays for our late night program. Her husband just got a job in Kansas City, he graduated already, so he is moving out there soon. This makes me sad because she is a very good friend of mine and will be moving there after this semester. After that the roomies and I went to get groceries and I even saw Carissa at the store so we shopped together. At 5 the roomies and I went to a house party, but not really a college party. Their dept is pretty close-knit and this was a beginning of the year party with all the grad students. Everyone brings something to eat/drink and we all sit around talking. I was invited (or asked to be) because I room with two grad students in their dept and I know a few of the other students as well- plus everyone heard that I got engaged and wanted to see my ring! There were quite a few people there, more than 20. I talked to the people I knew and heard some funny stories and ATE. I had a hot dog and a cheeseburger, some veggies and fruit, and then two huge cookies and a cookie cake square, yum. I also had these caramel bugles which were so good. Elizabeth from their dept had a Halloween party last year that I went to and we talked about a formal party I wanted to have at my house. We decided on a cocktail party where everyone dresses up and it's going to be a wine and cheese theme. I am really excited about it and we will have fun decorating. It should happen in the next month or so, we need to decide a date first. I am excited about dressing up!

So you can see that this semester is going to be very busy socially and academically. I need to make sure I have time for making dinners, this week it was hard. Luckily I have no night classes, but I do have meetings. I took Saturday to clean the kitchen because I know I will be pretty busy, I just need to vacuum my room. Movies I have seen- Post Grad, In Bruges, Bee Movie.

On Friday we woke up and got our stuff packed. Since we were only going for two nights it was a breeze to pack clothes, and we knew it would be hot so no hoodies or sweatshirts were necessary. We were going to arrive at the bed and breakfast too early so we stopped at a rest stop in Canada and got some info on Toronto. It was mostly for people going to Niagara Falls but they did give us maps. For our Toronto trip I had picked out a few destinations and areas I wanted to see, but no restaurants. Picking restaurants ahead of time is very hard because you don't know where you'll be when you're hungry. I liked just picking them where we were, and most restaurants display menus for you. Anyway, we arrived at the bed and breakfast. The house was a huge old Victorian with tons of rooms and doors. The first floor had a sitting room, dining room, and some bedrooms, with a patio in the back covered with grape vines on trellises. The kitchen was downstairs. On the second floor was our room and two others, plus a living room with a big tv and computer. Our room was very nice, probably the nicest we've stayed in by ourselves! It had a small balcony with some chairs, a big bed and closet, a dresser, and a super nice bathroom. The bathroom was very modern with a huge all glass shower and fancy sink. After leaving our stuff we set off on our first adventure. The owner told us a convenience store where we could get bus tokens. We had tried to get Canadian money at the bank in Rochester but they said you had to order it ahead of time. Since we both have bank of america, we were going to use the common Scotiabank in Canada because their atms don't charge us. But we couldn't find it, it was somewhere on our street. We ended up giving the guy in the convenience store American money for bus tokens. The cool thing is you can get a transfer and go from subway, streetcar, or bus all with one token to get to one place. We didn't know this and ended up using two tokens each, plus one to get back. But our first destination...

Rooftop Lounge, Park Hyatt Hotel
I had found this on http://www.frommers.com/destinations/toronto/ My friend told me about the travel company and I found a ton of useful info that had more personalized descriptions than my AAA book. They recommended this bar instead of the CN tower. Since the CN tower (world's tallest) costs an arm and a leg to go up, I decided to try this. While it is definitely not as tall, only 18 stories, it gives you a great view of the city in a much more classy way. You can eat on the deck (too sunny) or inside and enjoy drinks with your tray of complimentary salty snacks (warmed almonds, edamame, and greek olives). This was a great place to cool off! We ordered a small tapas of chicken and had juice but it turned into quite a feast. While we were not really dressed for a business bar, it was not busy and we were not the only ones. The best part? Using the fanciest bathrooms on the first floor.

After that we walked to Chinatown. While the streets did not have the amount of open air markets and food stands that NYC does, it certainly has all the goods! There are tons of stores selling cheap stuff. It was so hot and humid so I was not in the mood for browsing tons of stuff in shops with no AC. We went into a health food store and it was amazing, all the stuff they had crammed in there. I found a small alleyway that I thought had shops, but just ended in a courtyard. A black guy followed us and sat out there. He told us to go through the gate, but I asked him if he knew where Scotiabank was and he did! He was really nice. That was the third person I asked for help that day. Finally we had Canadian money so we could buy our tokens home! After that we looked in some vintage clothing stores, a cool candy store that sold candy bras and underwear (like those candy necklaces), and a cheese shop where the owner gave us samples and had everyone clap when I told him we got engaged. After Kensington Market, where all the shops were, we went to Little Italy. This was my favorite place. All the restaurants had patio seating, there were tons of little shops and stores, no chains, it was great. There was everything from sushi to martini bars to a creperie, pizza and pasta of course, pastries and bakeries, coffee shops. The sidewalks filled with people, especially later on because all the restaurants had bars and most people ate after 9pm! We explored it until we got hungry and stopped at a larger place called Vivoli. They had patio AND roof seating, a real pizza oven out in the open, and a smaller bar http://home.vivoli.ca/ For our appetizer we got the calamari that came grilled with garlic, parsley, olive oil, on greens with a tasty vinaigrette. I had only ever had rubbery little circles or fried calamari...but this was divine! Eating the tentacles was not trouble, they were yummy. For pizza we shared a veggie one, it had a tiny crispy crust but that with the melted cheese was so good! After we were there for a while we moved to a bar down the street. Coco Lezzone http://www.cocolezzone.com/ looked like a classy, hip place with a nice long bar. It was much fancier than the last place, you can tell by how dark it is inside! We stayed there for a long time, Mike had a beer and I had a Sex in the City martini, fruity of course. We chatted with the bartender and she took our picture. After that we decided to go back to this ice cream place we had walked by. It was in the top ten ice cream places in the city paper so we went back. I got a homemade waffle cone! After our nice desserts we walked to the bus stop and took two buses home. When we got to our stop we couldn't tell which way to go, up or down the street. Eventually we were going to turn around when we saw the street we were looking for was right there! Long day!

Saturday was even longer! We had a hot breakfast on the patio, pancakes, sausage, and eggs, and then an apple turnover type pastry on the way to the street. We went to the convenience store first and bought a day pass for transit. On the weekends it is good for two people for any subway, bus, or streetcar. We really got good use out of that one! We went to the St Lawrence market first, it's like the city's farmer market in one building and the next is a bunch of small stores with everything from chocolate to coffee to bulk food, produce, fast food etc. At the farmer's market we got tons of samples, from olive oil to sausage to milk made from quinoa. After a while at the market we took a bus and walked to Riverdale Farm, a kind of working petting zoo/nature park with trails and ponds. I petted goats and we saw turtles. It was starting to get pretty hot by now, and not every place has AC. Our next stop was the distillery district with microbreweries and art galleries. We had lunch at Mill St, the most famous of them. I had a veggie panini and salad, Mike got a steak/gouda burrito with sweet potato fries and a beer sampler. Then we took the bus to the "Times Square" or city center to the ticket agent to see if any good shows were playing. But there weren't any we wanted to see. There was a reggae band playing on a big stage and we got free samples of Fuze. We headed back into the mall to find the subway station and ended up walking to the next one. We ended up at Union Station and walked down to the waterfront where the ferries were. We had to wait in line a long time for a ferry to go to Centre Island, it's really popular. There are ferries to three islands, but the other two are too far to walk and you can't rent bikes there. Centre Island has bike and canoe rentals, an amusement park, wading pools, a swan ride etc. When we got there we looked for ice cream and ended up buying a popsicle from a cart. Next we rented a tandem bike and rode through all the islands. This was really fun because it was scary at first. Mike was in front so I couldn't steer and I couldn't see where we were going. We got the hang of it, it was just a little harder starting and stopping. We rode to the end where the airport was and came back and stopped at the nudie beach! Neither of us had been to one, it was kind of strange. I don't think I could ever get used to seeing strangers completely naked. The other island was only a quick pass through because we spent so much time, we only had an hour on the bike, we raced to get back. Good thing we went when we did because there were long lines when we got back! That was one of the best things we did. After that we were both hot and went to the wading pool! It cooled us off right away with just our legs in. We had to wait for a while for the ferry to get back to the mainland. We walked around the harborfront for a while but the restaurants are all fancy and huge. We saw a street performer and got a video of that. We decided to head back to Little Italy for dinner, it's a good place to browse. I wish we could have gone to Greektown too, but I loved the restaurant we went to.

Marinella, Simply Italian http://www.marinellasrestaurant.com/ was the place we decided on, mostly for price and their option of small plates. We came right before the rush when people started lining up to sit on the patio, but we wanted to sit inside. We had been outside all day! The best seat in the house, near the door, so we could watch the customers. It seemed like the restaurant was short-staffed. The owner/bartender, a waitress, and an elderly waiter all served us equally. There was no hostess, whoever was available answered questions. There was no bartender, whoever was available poured drinks. Since we got there early enough we didn't have to wait too long for our food. First we got salads, I got the garden salad with beets and Mike got a spinach salad with orange, walnut, and goat cheese. I got to see the steady stream of people, mostly couples, look at the menu, decided to come in, wait for service, and then decide to wait for a table outside or eat inside. Everyone was rushing around but my favorite was Jose, the elderly waiter. He was so nice and sweet, filling our water and making sure everything was ok. When I asked if they were shortstaffed he looked at the ceiling and said "Oh yes, very much so. They are sick, they don't show up for work" he looked like he was praying for a server angel. I wanted to act like the hostess, all they needed was someone to seat or turn away people. For dinner I got fettucini with mushrooms and chicken and peppers and Mike got gnocchi. Everything was homemade, it was so good! We ate it all. We stayed there for a bit before making our way down the street to a gelato place, a bakery/pastry/gelaterie, where Mike got a cannoli and I got strawberry gelato. It was a while to wait for our bus, our transfer bus, and then when we were two blocks from our stop, the driver gets out and closes the door, leaving six of us still on. He went down the street to a convenience store to buy something! He was gone quite a while talking to another bus driver as well. But our night was finally over and we went back to the hotel.

In the morning we had the continental breakfast, cereal, pastries and croissants, fruit, and toast. So much food! We got to listen to two couples (didn't know each other) talk about their vacations, that was the only bed and breakfast-y moment. Just chit chat between strangers, eck. At one point they were comparing Canadian and American college students, saying Canadians were more studious and focused and Americans were lax and socially-centered. This made me mad. But we finished, packed, and left on our next adventure: IKEA!

We had never been to an Ikea store, but everyone made such a fuss over it so we stopped. First of all, everything is in Swedish. The books are in Swedish, the signs, posters. The store is a one-way walk through so you see everything. First floor is boxes of junk to sell and second floor is the layouts of rooms. It was cool to see the different furniture and layouts but everything was so basic, simple, and plain. Not a lot of designs or color or personality. We saw all the sinks and cabinets, doors and pictures, loads of accessories and knick knacks. We were the only ones in the history of the store that DIDN'T buy anything. Just kidding, we bought a sandwich from the "Swedish grocery". Yes, they have a swedish grocery section selling cookies, jams, meatballs, pies etc. Everything frozen or packaged with ikea on it. There is also an Ikea cafeteria with fancy breakfast ikea food served on ikea plates. Kind of like being transported to another world.

The end of Part Canada!

Things since then:

Stopped at grandparents and told them, plus uncle on phone
Ate amazing homemade cheesecake
Unpacked, started packing for Indiana :(
Batting cages- DONE
Cat has turned into attack mode

On Tuesday (Aug 11) we woke up to lots of rain. It was pretty cloudy for the morning so everything was wet again. It's not very fun! Our screenhouse kept out the bugs but it was not very good with the rain since the sides slope outward. Our picnic table benches were soaked, our bikes were wet, and we had to hang up wet stuff in the car because it kept raining. For camp breakfast we had granola, cheerios, blueberries, and craisins or raisins with soy milk and I mix pumpkin in mine. After making lunch we went into town and found the canoe rental office on the Clarion River. I had seen the place when we drove through, it is right next to a bridge over the river. When we pulled in we saw what I think were two Baltimore Orioles in the bushes in front of our car! They are very pretty. Renting the canoe was pretty cheap but we had forgotten all our spare batteries and had to drive to a gift shop to find some. For the trips they take your canoe and junk and you in this big van up the river and drop you off at varying distances. There were actually two other groups, one with nine people and one with two (and two kids). The smaller group did the shortest ride and the rest of us went for the ten mile. The funny thing is, we actually went across the bridge that we had turned around the first day looking for our campground. By 1pm we were in our canoe on the river. I had brought towels to sit on because the hard metal seats hurt after a while. Canoeing was really nice, we could take our time and still be moving because the water was pretty fast. We saw lots of mergansers (ducks) and a kingfisher. There were a ton of houses near the river of course, some cabins, some big mansions, a campground. It started thundering but it sounded like we were passing it. I was not worried at all, the other people in the canoes that were near us started going faster. When we were about 3 miles away it started lightning and the thunder was much closer. At this point I started paddling as hard as I could. I really didn't want to be out on the water! One of the canoes went faster and beat the storm. The other two eventually stopped pretty near to the end and a lady actually fell out of the canoe. We kept going, it had started raining a little. Just when we got to the landing spot it started pouring buckets! The two guys from the office had left in the van to go rescue other customers but the guy from the canoe that beat us helped us get out. We had eaten some lunch in the canoe but stopped in town after that to buy a tarp and lighter fluid so we could have a fire even if it rained. For dinner we had sausages with veggies and corn and then finally we made s'mores!

On Wednesday we drove to Buzzard Swamp, a hiking-only location. We saw deer and maybe bear tracks but not much else. It was so wet everything was muddy. We decided to go to Beaver Meadows and stopped at the entrance. There was a big dam with a passage for water on one side and a bridge over it. Beaver Lake was filled with lily pads and the other side of the dam was marsh and river and trees. We walked out on the dam and did some birdwatching, there were a ton right there. We saw cedar waxwing families and flickers. We did some hiking but it was very wet and we gave up. We did see salamanders and a ton of mushrooms. We drove around the campground seeing everything and then went back to make lunch. We had sausages again but my stick burned and broke off. In the afternoon we finally took our bikes out for a long ride! There are lots of forest access roads and the road we took was actually better maintained and not gated. We found a bunch of primitive campsites on it. It was really nice because there was no traffic or houses and it followed Millstone Creek most of the way, which goes through our campground. We saw a ton of these blue butterflies, they gathered at random places on the road or campsites. We tried not to run them over but sometimes it looks like they are going to get caught in your spokes and then they bounce off. We saw some hawks and there were two small bridges. The coolest part were these pine groves where the trees grew right up over the road, it was like something from a movie, and it was really dark inside. Eventually we decided to turn around, we had not brought any water with us. We did see one truck going the other way, but it was a state vehicle. Unfortunately the road was so bumpy and we were going so much faster on the way back (because it was mostly downhill, we were following the creek remember) that my butt and arms hurt from bouncing! It took us no time at all to get back but I was really glad because my muscles were sore from all the bouncing, Mike's bike is more of a mountain bike so he was fine. We took showers after that and made hot dogs again.

It didn't rain that night and it wasn't cloudy so we actually got to see some stars. There was a little opening where our tent was but there were a lot of trees. We didn't get to see the meteor shower because it started much later, but I wish we had gotten up to see it. On Thursday we had a lot to pack up. Luckily it hadn't rained but our stuff was still kind of wet. Even though we got up early we couldn't do much until it dried, so we had to wait for the sun to come up more. We moved our stuff into the sun and road. Eventually we got it mostly dry and packed up the car. Oh, this reminds me, we had a little thief in our car during the week. Something had chewed through a bag into sunflower seeds and chewed the bottom of our chocolate bar! We figured out that it was mice in our car so we put the food in the trunk the last night. Luckily my car needed cleaning anyway, I vacuumed it out.

Thursday we drove through the forest up to NY. I fell asleep for some of it and woke up to Mike pulling into an ice cream stand. He got vanilla with chips or chunks and caramel mixed in and I got chocolate peanut butter. It was very hot standing in the sun waiting and our ice cream melted fast when we got in the car. We traded and he said he liked mine better and I said I liked his better! Finally we arrived back home in time to unload everything and shower before my parents came. I had not told them, I wanted to tell them in person and so they were driving up. It was a lot to unpack and we had a lot of laundry to do as well. My parents were happy when I told them, I wasn't sure what to expect. Nobody cried this time! For dinner we had spaghetti and meatballs with salad and corn and fruit pie for dessert. Yum. After they left and we did the dishes we met Alissa at Chen Garden for drinks. Alissa and I got Oh Yeas, which are melon-peach-pineapple fruity and pretty strong. We were very tired by the time they closed, we had started off in the campsite sleeping on the ground and ended up in Rochester drinking at a bar!

We finally made it to a baseball game! On Tuesday Aug 4 we went with Alissa, Chris, and Jenna to see the Redwings play a home game. I had not been to a game since Baltimore so it was really fun. Only about 6000 people were there but there was a ton of stuff to see. We got peanuts and ate those for a while. There were a few good plays but we lost unfortunately. Then I got an ice cream cone. The temperature was perfect and we weren't in the sun either. Thursday night we were busy getting ready for camping. We got new windshield wipers for me and Mike fixed our bike brakes. We watched baseball and ate Ga Ga ice cream http://www.gonegaga.net/ On Friday I went to Canandaigua for a dentist appointment and I brought Sylvia to Geneva to stay while we were away. I had a doctor's appointment and then I drove home. Friday night was really busy, we ended up getting dinner at Five Guys because we didn't have any food to make. We stole some of their peanuts to take camping with us. Then we went to see Julie and Julia, it was really good. But the ending was kind of abrupt and didn't really tell you what happened! I liked that Julia Child's husband was not just a minor role.

So finally, Saturday was the day we went to Meadville. We woke up at 6:30 and Mike wanted to leave right away. We packed everything in the trunk and then put the bike rack on. By nine we had left. I drove for the beginning and then he finished while I slept of course. I woke up before Meadville when we went through construction. It was exciting to be back, seeing the familiar places. We drove straight to campus and he parked in the security lot which is the first campus lot. He wanted to start walking but I was pretty hungry and asked if he wanted to eat first. We ate on the lawn by Carnegie. When I sat down he sat down on my right, and then got up and sat on my left. I didn't think of it, there was a mushroom there and I thought maybe he didn't want to sit near it. While I was finishing my sandwich he stood up. Finally we started walking toward campus on N Main St. I saw the library and suggested we go see the renovations but he said we could later. When we got to the end of Brooks walk he stopped. We stood there for a minute and I pointed and said 'that's where we met'. And he said he knew, it had been 5 years, 11 months, and 20 days. I thought this was strange because he usually has to think first about how long we've been together. Then before I knew what was happening he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I was pretty much in shock and said yes and we hugged. When he stood up he showed me the ring and put it on my hand. I hadn't even thought about a ring, it all happened so fast. I loved it when I saw it. Then I started crying and he told me the whole story about how he has been planning this for so long, trying to get me back there, picking out a ring, having it arrive the same day I did, hiding it, having the box in his pocket. I had absolutely no idea. I guess if I thought about it I should have guessed but it was never about us going back there to visit where we met, it was always to see the campus. After that we went to the gator statue and got pics with it and walked around campus- student center, vuk, renovated Caflisch, demolished Arter and lawns, and the new Brooks cafeteria. We even got to go into the Admissions building which is the old abandoned frat house. They completely redid it and the landscaping, it looks like a hotel now with all wooden floors and banisters. It was only open for some more construction but they didn't mind us in there. Campus was mostly deserted. We went to the hotel and then tried to find something for lunch. We tried Julian's and Chipper's but they were only open later. We went to Pampered Palate and had a veggie sandwich that was really good. I met with my advisor and caught up while it started raining. We went to the hotel after that and got ready for dinner. We were going to Peppercorn and Vine, our favorite place during school. It rained off and on for most of the rest of the day, luckily we got there just as it started pouring. The restaurant looked a little different, maybe the lighting or pictures. For an appetizer we got shrimp quesadillas which were really good. Then I got a seafood platter with haddock, shrimp, and scallops and Mike got his favorite tortellini with artichokes and olives and scallops. Cory, our favorite waitress was gone. Her replacement was a girl who looked more like a waitress at a diner or family chain restaurant. She didn't have the presence or composure of Cory or the other waiter, an older Asian guy. And I felt like she was rushing us, she took our plates the second we picked up the last piece of food. I told Mike to eat slower because of this so we weren't done with our meal in twenty minutes. The salads were good, with nuts and cranberries, but the entrees were not as good as we remembered. One of my sides was asparagus and exactly four tiny stalks came on my plate. The colors were not as vibrant, though they still had the fruit garnishes. And the taste was just not as good as it once was. But it was still great to go and even better was our dessert. A while ago I had decided to go to Hank's for dessert (custard place). We went out there after a bit and decided to get sundaes. I had only ever gotten cones. Mike got Apple Pie and I got a Pecan Caramel Turtle sundae. Vanilla custard with caramel topping, his came with apple pie topping too and mine had hot fudge and pecans. Let me tell you, those were the best sundaes I've ever had! They started melting so we ate them in the car and went back to the hotel and finished them watching baseball. They were so yummy! We wanted to go to the batting cages but it was closed because it kept raining.

Sunday we got up and finished packing before going back to campus on our way out. We walked around Brooks and got to see the renovated rooms. All new dressers, desks, and beds. No more radiators. We went to the alumni center but it was closed, the library was closed so we looked in the windows, and we went across the bridge. The plan was to drive to Pittsburgh to see Mike's parents for lunch. I had not been to Pittsburgh in a long time, we went to the Church Brew Works for lunch http://www.churchbrew.com/ For apps we got chicken pierogies, I got chicken pot pie and Mike got a mushroom pizza. His mom made us brownies! We drove to the campground which was a long drive and stopped to buy corn and ice and firewood. We found one part of the campground but then we couldn't find the other side. On the map it looked like it was far away so we kept driving, and the miles to the next town were wrong so we kept going. Mike swore the whole time. Finally we turned around and drove the whole way back, 500 feet from where we were was the entrance to our loop. There were just no signs! When we got to the site it started thundering but we set up the screen house and tent. For dinner we had hot dogs and corn and brownies.

On Monday we explored the campground on bike. Our loop was on the side of a hill so to get back we had to pedal up this long incline. We walked around the teeny dam and beach as well as one of the group sites for many families. It was right next to a creek. The water was pretty fast since it had been so rainy. We raided the other sites in our loop for firewood, a lot was left behind. We were the only ones there on Sunday night. After showering we drove out to town and went to the Forest Office for maps and ideas. We ate lunch in the parking lot and then went home to spend time at the "beach" this tiny sandy strip above the tiny dam. I ended up falling asleep while Mike read. As we got back to our site it started thundering and getting windy. The camp hosts came up on their golf cart to tell us that a big storm was coming. We decided to put some more stakes in our tents and drive down to town. If there was a lot of lightning it would be scary. Fortunately we seemed to drive around it, it rained some in the car and then when we got to town to a bar to watch the weather, it rained a lot more. Since it was so wet we couldn't have a fire for dinner, we made mac and cheese on the stove.