Add 3 parts Danny DeVito and 1 part Vizzini...

Close your eyes and try to imagine this in your mind (finish reading this before you close your eyes though). Picture a man that looks and acts like Danny DeVito, now add in a little bit of the voice and mannerisms of Vizzini, the lead kidnapper. Now throw in the subject of accounting into the mix and you will get my accounting professor, who is the dopplerganger of Danny DeVito. He has been teaching accounting for 45 years, and has more energy at his age than I could ever dream of. Sitting through his class for 3 hours twice a week is quite the experience. I want to say that it is entertaining, and it certainly is, but it is more than that. We, my classmates and I, sit in the class in wonder and amazement at his energetic lectures.

It was while I was sitting through such a lecture last week when I looked around at my 34 classmates and was astounded at the number of coffee cups sitting before them. About 2/3 of the class cannot function at 9 am without a 12 oz coffee in hand. But more amazing still is that when we have our 15 minute break at 10:30, most run out to the get another cup. I am amazed at the dependence on coffee just to function normally, at 10:30 in the morning.

Now that I am done with that rant. This week has been quite nice. The weather here is perfect, nice warm days with cool nights. Last Sunday Suzy and I took a walk around town and looked at some of the old homes near our apartment. Most of the historic homes in the town have signs on them that tell you the year they were built, it seems that the town experienced a building boom around 1850, but the oldest home was built in 1756, and it is still standing and lived in. We also found this enormous tree, I mean huge...like maybe 8 ft in diameter, there was a plaque in front of it that said that it was standing when the Declaration of Independence was signed. Cool.

Yesterday Suzy and I went with a few of my classmates to help build a home for Habitat for Humanity. Suzy got a crappy job of sanding windows, while the rest of us put up scaffolding and nailed up siding and soffits of the two-story home. I went and helped Suzy for the last 2 1/2 hours or so because she had such a crappy job and had no one to talk to. I cannot say that it was really fun cause it was not, but it was nice to be able to give meaningful service to someone who was in need. The lady that the house is for was there working as well.

The pictures that I am including are of the homes in the area and other images from our walk last Sunday. First the house from 1756, second the huge tree (kinda blurry), and third a cool old farmhouse and it is all one house!

This is NOT an announcement

Funny story... On Saturday we went shopping to find me some new jeans. Not an easy task, but you have to try. We were at a mall in Springfield and wandered into the JCPennys. It looked a lot different from your typical JCPennys and we quickly found out that it was the catalog outlet. They had a lot of random furniture so we started looking at it. We ran across some cribs and were casually looking at the prices. Most were about $130 and up. Then there was one that was $35 for both the crib and the changing table, and it was surprisingly cute! We thought it must be a mistake, so after browsing the rest of store, we decided to ask the sales person. It was indeed $35 for both pieces. After short deliberation, we decided it was too good of a deal to pass up. We had to make a quick trip to Lowes to pick up some tools to disassemble it so it would fit in the car.

We were laughing about it all night. I kind of feel like the girl who buys a wedding dress before she even has a boyfriend, but if I had found a wedding dress for $35, I probably would have bought it too!

Boston Temple

A few weeks ago we drove the two hours to the Boston Temple. After getting lost a few times, we finally found it. It's beautiful and we're glad to have one so close.

The picture is a little funny. Casey took the picture himself and he always does a funny face when he does that. Also, the sun was very bright.

Who knew moving could be so complicated...

After packing up all our stuff, selling our house, finding an apartment on the other side of the country, driving all the way out here, and finally unloading and organizing everything, I thought all the complicated stuff was over. I was wrong. It turns out that registering a car and getting new licences in Massachusetts are no small task.

I first started to figure this out back in Utah when we were looking for renters insurance out here. I figured I would just call all the big insurance companies, get a few quotes, and pick the best one. So I called Statefarm, Allstate, and Nationwide. They don't do ANY insurance in Massachusetts, not renters, not car insurance, nothing. Luckily, Geico does renters insurance, but not auto. We later found out that Massachusetts insurance premiums are set by the government. Companies are only allowed to offer discounts for certain things and the big guys want to set their own prices to be competitive.

So last week we go to the DMV to do all car stuff. Turns out you can't register a car without Massachusetts insurance (not a bad idea to prevent all those uninsured motorists, but they forgot to mention it on their website). Also, you have to have about 15 documents proving your identity (okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it was a lot more extensive that I was expecting). On our second trip back and over an hour of total wait time, we finally got new plates and temporary licences. After all this, I only had to wait another hour to get it inspected (the first place I tried had an hour and 45 minute wait).

One more random thing...The other day we were driving through "downtown" Sunderland (meaning a post office, library, church and a Subway sandwich shop) when we saw a BYU Idaho bus driving through! We could not possibly think of a reason why they would be all the way out here. It was fun to see though.

School Starts

I found a new high and am now addicted. On Friday we attended the 3 County Fair in Northampton. It was a typical county fair and we saw all the 4H animals and other crafty projects and jams and stuff that peoples won the Blue Ribbons for. Even met a guy with a pig down and the livestock pavilion that said he was gunna win him the Blue Ribbon :)

But seriously, we saw pig racing which was quite amusing to me. The highlight was, however, the DEMOLITION DERBY!!! This is my new addiction, it was so cool (if you couldn't tell it was my first). There were four heats ranging from 8 to 15 cars. The initial collisions were the best as some cars drove to the end then accelerated rapidly to smash into the others, in reverse (got to protect the engine). Pieces of car and bumpers were flying every which way, and by the end only one or two cars could even turn the tires. It was a blast. If you have not been to such an event, I highly recommend it, especially if you can sit with people with family participating

School began yesterday (Tuesday) but classes have not. I spent the last two days in orientation and team building activities with my classmates, and the real work begins in the morning, wahooo. If you don't here from me for the next few weeks it will be because I am drowning. Our first two semesters in the program are divided into terms, and they push you fast and furiously. It will surely be me doggy paddling my way around just trying to keep my head above the water for a while until I can get a hold of something.

We have done some other fun things this past week, but I choose not to comment on them at this time. That is a task that I will leave to the wonderful wife of mine. I hope all is well for you my friends and family.