Chapter 97: Minnesota Invasion! or... Puppy Power!
To start of this entry, I have to introduce you to the newly crowned Jessie/James plot to take over the world. It starts with theme parties (such as colors dressing as your favorite animal or alter ego, etc.), but will also include mix tapes to be played at the residence at different points in the day. The first of such mixes has been decided upon and will be Wake Up Music. Jessie's entries are forthcoming but she has made sure to let me know that a song called "King of the Carrot Flowers: Part 2 & 3" is on the mix which begins by a peculiar admission of love for the Christian savior Jesus which Jessie LOVES to sing along to at pretty much any time of the day despite her apparent religious ambiguity. I think it is due to the fact that the singing is mostly pseudo-off-key and occasionally annoying. Anyhow, I put in for a couple of Beatles favorites (I'm Only Sleeping & Here Comes The Sun) as well as "Wake Up April" by the Promise Ring. If you have others to add, feel free to send them my way. The thought is that each roommate gets 5 songs per mix.
On the way into the center we saw a car with a scooter on the back which had a "I'm not tail gatin, I'm draftin" which cracked me up.
Moving along... today the Minnesota Crew which is here for an M-term was in full force at the Center plotting and meeting with Bill and David and one another to get going on a design/build project for John Henry Beck Park. It is really good to see them all in town and ready to get to work on what we all hope will be another great project.
On the thesis front, I got another 20 pages or so reformatted today and worked for the afternoon on the Boost Home project. I also got a chance to have a great talk with Derek who remains one of the best guys I've met down on the coast and I am glad to see him staying down to help out with the M-term coordination. We talked on the way over to the Salvation Army tent which I am proud to say still serves the best free sandwich lunches in East Biloxi :) and enjoyed its redness along with my fellow Golden Gophers.
We also got a visit from Kate Stohr, co-founder of Architecture for Humanity which was a nice suprise since I thought she was going to be dropping by on Wednesday after I left. Anyhow, for a little background, Kate was down here with me and the group last Spring as part of the AFH/U of MN trip organized by her partner Cameron Sinclair who was the College's visiting professor of Architecture and one of my instructors last spring. It was really great to catch up with Kate as well as see her darling daughter who has grown a bunch since I last saw her in February.
Kate and Cameron in their "ass-kicker" pose from a Wired Article on AFH
After the afternoon of visits and work, I headed back to Hands On for dinner since it was my last dinner during Operation: Tuesday and the last opportunity to see some of my friends who would be gone by the time I got back in June. I was pleasantly surprised to see one of the kittens that were housed at Hands On back for a visit as well as a couple of yellow lab/chow puppies which were a bit sick and kept off of a transport to Denver for adoption. Prepare for egregious and shamelessly puppy and kitty pictures.
Me and Otis
Derek w/Coffee
Sarah w/Otis and Kaitlin w/ Coffee
Sid(ney) Vicious
Anyhow, we got to play with puppies until dinner and had a great time. One is named Coffee and I named the other two Gwen and Otis. I would love to adopt a dog during my stay in Mississippi and these guys definitely have me leaning towards a Yellow Lab, but we'll see. Deloris doesn't get along too well with other dogs, so that precludes me from getting a dog during my stay with Jessie.
Wrapping up the night after a lively dinner meeting which I hosted (and featured the Question of the Day: If you were a Pirate, what would your Name be?) we headed over to The Pub. Since this was my last night there and the last I was going to spend with Heath (who was leaving Wednesday to go back and finish his degree) we got together with G-Mo and a short-termer to play a couple of games of pool and later a game of Baseball on the ol' dart board which I won with a 9th inning rally of 5 runs! Anyhow, I may not mention Heath a ton in my blog, but I don't think I could enough. He ended up being on of my best friends among the long termers and really is a stand-up guy.
I wish you all the best in the degree Spartan, can't wait to see you in August.
