Haunted House

I am so loving the haunted house. We had basically no paying customers for scout night on Thursday but we totally made up for it on Friday. They were lined up and groups were being sent in constantly. I felt bad for the workers who never got their break so we took five minutes and I ran in pizzas for the workers and got whatever they wanted. I felt like a waiter. It was vigorous for all but it was so worth it in the long run. We also had a huge turnout for workers which really helped out. We had a decent night last night. People had time to come out to eat and scared a good number of people. Today was awesome. We didn't have as good of a turnout but everyone had a great time socializing. We were about to close up but another group came with 10 minutes to spare. I don't know why but we had so much fun with them. We scared the crap out of them and everyone was just spinning. I envy those who couldn't make it because it was a blast. Luckily, we still have tomorrow and Halloween!

Neologisms in Papers

I'm writing my Anthropology paper and I keep making up words that Microsoft Word doesn't recognize. They include:

• gravitic: relating to gravity. "This causes a gravitic problem."
• civilizational: of a civilization. "a civilizational breakdown" (recognized by Webster)
  
• naturality: relating to nature. "realize the naturality of the situation" (recognized by Webster)

I don't know where "gravitic" came from, most likely Star Trek.

Finally, Some Good Customer Service

My iPod has been goofy for quite a while. I just never cared. In about February or March it started doing this thing where after a while, the volume would no longer respond. The bar would move but there was no change. I had to reset the thing to get volume control. I tried searching Apple for the reason but all I got was angry Europeans whining about how they can't make the volume louder because of restrictions there. I hoped a future update would correct this. Nope. In fact the 1.2 update made it slightly worse. The volume thing was gone, but now it would freeze if it stayed idle most of the time. It would also play like 20 seconds of a video. So I deal with that for a while but it frustrated me on the Duluth trip because it would freeze and drain the battery. Sometimes it would shut down properly, otherwise it was a guess. It would even freeze in the dock.

I noticed the Apple Store opened in Village Pointe in Omaha a few weeks ago so I thought that perhaps they can service it without having to send it in to Apple. I brought it in and the took a look at it. They listened to it and tweaked it a little. Luckily it was frozen when I brought it in so they knew what I was talking about. I'm glad I remembered to bring the Best Buy receipt because that helped immensely. After a while they went into the back and gave me a new iPod of the same model! I was thrilled. The new iPods scratch like a son of a gun so I am going to be smart about this one. I used the first one as a testing ground so now I have a case to care for the iPod. I'm just so happy to have great customer service after the Cingular debacles.

Duluth and North Shore

On Friday I had to wake up and go on the Explorer's Club trip to Duluth. I brought a nice supply of reading material for the trip plus the great and powerful iPod to solve boredom problems. We went to Interstate State Park in Wisconsin after heading through Minneapolis to see the St. Croix River that serves as a border between Minnesota and Wisconsin. I'm so glad we went in autumn because it was beautiful. We lost a couple of guys but huzzah, they were found. We also formed a grudge against Wisconsin due to the lack of open visitors centers. We headed up to Duluth and ate a Fitger's Brewhouse but first we wandered through stores. There was a Benneton. Eww...Benneton! Tee food was good and I tried new things. I didn't know what alfalfa sprouts were (sadly) but they had no taste and they were good. I also figured out what chutney was. The other table gave us their excess appetizers so Rhea began to break the two pieces of pita bread so that everyone could have some. She was almost like Jesus! We then went to our Motel 6 which was interestingly dumpy. I got basically no sleep the first night because I'm weird but it didn't matter.

The next day we went to the Aerial Lift Bridge and saw Lake Superior meet the St. Louis River. We then went up to Two Harbors and ate brunch. Then we went to Gooseberry Falls State Park. That was really neat. It reminded me of Sioux Falls as there were really no rules about where you could wander. Steph, Heidi, and I went down to the Lake Superior shore which was neat and hurried back so Dr. Bertolas wouldn't leave us. I also squished a couple of pennies and got a patch. Neat! We then drove up to Split Rock Lighthouse. We watched a film on the lighthouse and watched them really accentuate the need for the lighthouse.The lighthouse was nifty and the view was spectacular. I squished another penny and then we went up to Palisade cliff edge which scared Dr. Bertolas into believed everyone would die. After that it was a trip up to Tettagouche State Park to see Shovel Point and more of Lake Superior. I have to say, that although breathtaking, you get really tired of seeing trees and water out of one side of the car. It was a really peaceful day but you just wish the Great Lake would do something great. Anyways, we went over to Northern Lights Roadhouse to eat. I tried Walleye, Elk, and Caribou. Not to shabby. We then stopped for pie on the way back. When we got back to Duluth, we went aimlessly up to Enger Tower to get a view of the whole city. I finally got a shot of the Aerial Lift Bridge at night after several attempts with my camera.

At the motel, two of my roommates never came back and I wish I used the other bed because no one else was. We checked out of the motel one hour early and drove down to the Twin Cities. We stopped at Tobie's to get the world's best frickin' donuts ever! We then went to the Mall of America. Ahh, memories. I'd hoped we'd get to wander for another hour because we were kicking time's butt on the way there but no such luck. I was pissed because when we got there at 10, none of the stores were open! Aah! But we were lucky: Spider-Man was making a stop at the time we were there on the day we were there. We saw him run, run, run over to his podium which was hilarious. We wasted an hour with very little to do except smash pennies and then we went to Barnes and Noble when it opened. They no longer sell the Onion in print there. What a bummer! Then we high-tailed it to the game store where I bought some miniatures and over to the LEGO store where I picked up some LEGO Batman magnets. We then had to get food because it was our lunch stop so we went to McDonald's without a dollar menu and walked back. I had hoped we'd gain an hour for when it was not open, but with everyone back already Dr. B was not about to let us go back in. Such a shame because I wanted to go back. On the way back I discovered exactly how magnetic the LEGOs were. Let's just say they don't clump together in a nice way. We got back super early on a good note and I'd love to go back sometime.


The St. Croix River on the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin


The Aerial Lift Bridge in Duluth, Minnesota


Gooseberry Falls State Park


Lake Superior from Split Rock Lighthouse


Split Rock Lighthouse


Tettagouche State Park


Aerial Lift Bridge with a barge on Lake Superior at night from Enger Tower


Spider-Man running through the Mall of America