Labor Day Weekend

Well, the weekend was what I needed. Although during the summer months I had all the time in the world to do other things (besides work), but after the first week of school and having the three-day weekend, it was welcomed.

On Saturday, I paid the $20 over Dish Network to watch Michigan's home opener against Miami of Ohio. A tight game during the first half -- there just wasn't much scoring going on! Matt Guiterrez, Michigan's senior starter at quarterback, was out with a shoulder injury and head coach Lloyd Carr put in a true freshman, Chad Henne -- who didn't do too bad of a job!

• Chad Henne -- 14 completions on 24 attempts, 142 yards, 2 TD's, 1 Int.

Michigan won big, 43-10. Miami of Ohio simply ran out of gas in the second half, making stupid plays (Michigan picked them off 6 times) and the penalties were unbearable.

Next week though, Michigan goes to South Bend to play the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on NBC -- a game at least I don't have to pay for.

Later on that Saturday, Katie and I drove to Sioux Falls to do a little engagement ring shopping. We first stopped at Riddle's (on the corner of 41st and Louise) and that place was an absolute joke. For something that Katie wanted, I was looking at $3000 for a 1/2 carat, and she agreed, that wasn't going to happen. We then ventured over to the mall, looked through Kay's and a couple of other places, but we found what she wanted at Greenberg's. All together, it'll probably cost me around $2400 (it's no secret, Katie knows), but the deal on the wedding band for her was too hard to pass up. It'll only cost $140! Greenberg's also has a sale, and the guy said that if I come after October 2nd, he'll still give me the sale price. But, on the downside, I still don't have my financial aid and I cannot do anything about it.

On Sunday, we slept in. I really didn't do much all day, just eager to watch the Sunday night NASCAR race at California. When the time did come around, I was nervous as hell. Ryan Newman was sitting in 10th in points, and after the race in Richmond, Virginia next Saturday night, the top 10 drivers are locked in for the Chase for the Championship. More on that later.

Katie got a call from her aunt in Madison, saying that she found a sickly-looking cat underneath one of her shrubs. Katie drove into town, finding a malnurished kitten. So far for the past couple of days, we've had it in our basement, feeding it and cleaning out its eyes from krud. It must not have eaten in a while, since it puked all over, and it had the "trots." But today, it looks better -- it's starting to meow and we've also found out that it's a female kitten, so we promptly named it "Eleanor,"keeping in check of the other Roosevelt kittens that we've adopted, "Teddy" and "Franklin."

On Labor Day, I didn't have to work but Katie did, so I cleaned the house and played the PS2 all day long. Later that night, I drove into Madison to stop at Andy's house (a native of Renville, MN) and dropped off a PS2 game that he wanted to borrow (NHL 2004) and while I was there, I mopped them all up on Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004.