douggeiger.com

Life: things you drink in the morning

In order:

1. Breast Milk
2. Formula
3. Apple juice
4. Mountain dew
5. Beer (depending on your college)
6. Coffee
7. Decaf Coffee
8. Low acid Coffee
9. Ensure

#6 and holding...

F U Barney Frank

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/easescredit.asp

Back in school

This last Monday I signed up for all online classes at Walsh college. It is weird being back in school, but I already love the idea of never having to actually talk to anyone, never park at a parking garage, never have to deal with Wayne State's lousy employees again. In a mere three or four years I will have my degree. No, I am not kidding. But, alas, I'll get older either way; I might as well have the degree.

lil O'Reilly

Undecided

Everything seems to be decided by a sliver; our country is almost perfectly 50/50 ideologically; so is the Supreme Court, and congress. So are my decisions to do almost anything; as in "do I want to let being productive or treading water win today?"

Given that; sound-bites to sway the sliver, along with good playlists and coffee may be more influential than foreign policy, paychecks and good character. Just a thought.

Online apps redux

I am suffering from twitter fatigue. I kinda just don't care now. There seem to be different types of twitterers. I am about 10% social and 90% social networking and it is tiring. The appeal is that you have a more raw version of the people you interact with in business. So, for instance, you get to know things like the musical tastes of your graphic designer. You learn that one of your customers is a dog owning uber-liberal, you find out when so-and-so is going to some conference. These are all great little nuggets. But when you are feeling like saying, "that is the biggest load of s***" I have ever heard, you can't because they may pull their account or something. Whatever. I am not deleting my account or anything but I am not going to try to learn that dance anymore. For a while. :)

I love Remember The Milk and Evernote. The foremer is a task manager that was built by people that apparently have tasks which they want to remember to do. I say this because it is built really well (not a common trait amongst to do apps/services). The latter is your brain on steroids. It remembers everything. It looks for text inside pictures. It is available anywhere you can get online. It is taggable. Hot. Oh yeah, one more thing; if you have an iPhone and an evernote account, you must buy this case for your iPhone. It has a macro lens that slides in front of the standard lens for capturing documents and business cards. It is $35 well spent. Very very cool.

I am still trying to get all online. Enter: Gliffy (flowcharting), Google docs (replaces MS office for casual use), and Mind Meister (brainstorming). I diagrammed this all here, fwiw. I like that I can switch out computers without missing a beat and all of my stuff is backed up and easy to get to.

What is the best technology, hardware, application or web service that you have adopted this last year?

A panorama from our trip

How it happened

Jordon and I have been dating, as of tomorrow, for one year. That is to say, one year ago we went on our first date. This is a very important point. I did not know that these were interchangeable expressions prior to meeting Jordon. About a week ago we were engaged to be married. I did not get a ring; but I have been assured that in the near future I will get one. In the meantime her proof of engagement is sitting on her left-hand and mine is my smile. The following are two accounts of the engagement. To make it easy to tell who is speaking; I have italicized Jordon's words.

The last week has been such a flurry of activity and excitement that Doug asked me to document my memories. I will leave the multiple redundancies to him.


It was on our trip home last Christmas to meet Doug's family that he first vocalized his intention to marry me. In the months that followed there were many conversations that hinted at marriage and wedding plans. Ultimately, we decided not to have too many of these conversations until we were able to actually begin planning and moving toward a wedding.

It was decided that the diamond from my grandmother's engagement ring would serve as the centerpiece for the ring Doug would have made.  Doug took the diamond and I showed him an example of a ring I liked. The ring became a family project when our parents and their partners offered their own sentimental gold rings to be included as part of the ring that Doug would have made.  I asked several times about the ring and if it had been started, if he had spoken to the jeweler, etc.  Doug reminded me that I was like a little kid snooping for Christmas gifts and should allow myself to enjoy the surprise. I tried. He went on to apologize, lamenting that it would be next to impossible for him to genuinely surprise me given my knowledge of the diamond and our family rings. Frankly, I figured he was probably right, but I assured him that we had the rest of our lives to surprise each other and that the point was the commitment not the surprise.

(the old setting for her grandmother's stone)

I was not sure that I would, in fact, be able to surprise Jordon with the engagement while on vacation. There were a number of pieces that had to come together at the last minute. Chiefly, among these, was the creation of the ring. My mom's husband's nephew, Jerome, is a jeweler in Wyoming (thegoldenbuffalo.com) and he was very accommodating and went out of his way to help me meet my desired time line. Meanwhile, my good friend Dana was working day and night to produce an altered book (mentioned in detail below). Had either of these been delayed, so too would the engagement have been delayed; as both were required.

As my birthday approached, Doug insisted that we make plans to go on a trip. We landed on Miami after my mom offered us access to her timeshare for the week. As the trip grew closer, I couldn't help but wonder if he would propose while we were gone. The impending engagement was small talk for my Bible study group as the trip grew closer.

 "You'd better get your nails done, just in case" was everyone's favorite advice. My girlfriends and coworkers all asked,

"Don't you think he'll propose?"

"No. I really don't think so." I'd reply, and I really didn't.

In fact, he had specifically mentioned several weeks before the trip that he hoped I did not have any expectations about timing and the ring and that he was afraid I might be disappointed if I were expecting him to complete the ring in the near future. I took him at his word and began talking myself out of any expectations I had about coming home from Miami engaged.

The week before our trip I was sick with a sinus infection and barely had the energy to get myself to work and home. I only saw Doug once that week when he asked me to meet him for dinner after a nail appointment. I called him that day and said I planned to cancel my manicure. I was tired. He insisted that I keep the appointment. I proceeded to receive the longest manicure in the history of the world and met Doug for dinner in downtown Royal Oak. I didn't know he'd been using all of his extra time that week to wrap up loose ends related to the trip and the engagement.

Dana needed to show me the book so that I would be able appreciate all of the surprises and nooks and crannies. Since we were closing in on our trip out of town I had to buy some time. I did this by nudging Jordon to keep her manicure appointment. This had two purposes; first, to allow me time to meet with Dana and second, I knew she would be glad to have a manicure for all of the pictures we would surely take after the engagement.

Five days before we left, Doug asked me to stop by a jeweler and have my left ring finger sized (I had this recorded in my BlackBerry before the not taking app I was using crashed. I was pretty sure about the number, but not positive. Engagement rings seem like something one would want to work correctly the first time...plus, i rationalized, it would further lower her expectations to ask her so close to the date).  I assumed this meant that the ring was just beginning to be made. I stopped by the jeweler, confirmed my size and set my expectations accordingly.

During the same week three separate hurricanes were moving along the Atlantic any of which appeared to be ready to take aim at Miami. So, I was sick, we were headed into the jaws of a hurricane and there was no ring coming my way in the near future. Even with all of this, I was confident we'd have a good time. I was just expecting more "Little Miss Sunshine," less "Cocktail."

I started feeling better about the time we got to Miami. We spent the first day at the beach in Hollywood and the next day with Kathy in West Palm Beach. We were having a great time and all of the hurricanes seemed to be heading other places. The weather was beautiful and we were having so much fun relaxing together. On Wednesday the rain from Hurricane Ike made it up to Miami and we had some torrential rain for a few hours. We sat in the condo like little kids taking pictures and watching the storm move across the resort.

When we'd seen as much of the storm we were interested in, we decided to head to a mall for shelter. After an accidental trip into the Great Lakes Crossing of Miami, we found our way to a mall that met Doug's expectations and we proceeded to get our shop on. I have a tradition of picking up a ring or a necklace each time I go on a trip so that each time I wear it I will remember where I was when I bought it.  So, when we stumbled upon a jewelry store which was going out of business, Doug helped me choose a beautiful sapphire ring which he bought and presented to me as my early birthday present. It was lovely and I was thrilled.

(Jordon is too kind when she relates my reaction to the first mall we went to. The place was a freaking oulet mall. I pouted. We left. The next mall was significantly nicer and I had my first coffee of the day. I was better behaved at this mall. I knew from previous conversations that Jordon made a habit of purchasing vacation jewelry and so when she started eyeing the jewelry it seemed like another perfect red herring.) I took a picture and promptly posted it to my facebook page with the caption "It's on my right hand, people. Calm down." When he handed it to me, Doug said, "Here. Now you have your vacation jewelry."  Again, I believed him. I expected my new sapphire ring would be a great memento of a great trip.

Thursday came and we had more beautiful weather, so we headed to South Beach. We spent the whole day lounging in the sun and swimming in the ocean. It was the best kind of day. By the time we left I was tired and a little sunburned but in the best possible way.

We gathered all of our things and headed back to the car. I sat in the passenger seat and took pictures of everything that stood still long enough, per Doug's instruction to "take contextual shots." 

(she took this through he sunglasses)

After about forty minutes in the car and about six or seven pictures worth keeping we got back to the condo and I headed to the couch to lie down. Doug went to the front desk to pick up the package his mom had sent.  There was still no sign of the package from Dana, so he called to have it tracked. It had in fact arrived to the resort that morning but the staff had no idea where it was. After a few calls, a staff person found it behind the desk.  "the writing on the package was really faint" he said. "whatever" (more like, "WTF?!") Doug said and went quickly to the desk to pick it up. (I actually waited three hours so as not to arouse suspicion)


I was napping on the couch when he got back. He took the package to his room and called out "I asked Dana, and she said I have permission to give it to you before your birthday, but she said I need to check to make sure the pages aren't stuck together. The glue was still drying when she sent it." He emerged from his room, book in hand and set it on the table in front of me. I began pouring over every page. It was incredible. Each page was filled with memories Doug had saved and given to Dana to memorialize. There were handwritten timelines, journal entries, emails, blog posts, ticket stubs and other treasures adorning every page. There were also pieces of the email I had sent to Dana listing my favorite sentimental memories of our relationship when she had originally proposed making an altered book to surprise Doug. We sat together on the couch, moving slowly through the book, enjoying each memory together. As I reached the last page I read, "So, ah, do you want to do that thing where I ask you to be my wife?"  I read it aloud and then looked under the tissue paper below for a clue. A small envelope fixed in the corner and simply said "please?" on the front. Tucked inside the envelope was a tiny vellum envelope held shut with tiny clothespins that read, "Pull here for yes."   As I pulled the tiny envelope toward me, I spotted the silhouette of a ring. It was actually not until this moment that I realized what was happening. I looked over at Doug to be sure and he leaned toward me and said, "Will you marry me?" I can't even be sure what I said. I know I shook my head yes and cried as I hugged and kissed him in celebration. He looked relieved and explained what a nerve racking week it had been for him (waiting for the book to arrive...) and what lengths he had gone to to surprise me.  We sat together the rest of the night making phone calls, twitter and blog posts to let everyone we loved know what had happened.

My original plan was to wait until about 11:30pm on the 11th to begin looking through the book, assuming we would have rolled over midnight prior to the proposal and the proposal would be for her birthday. (The rationale being that whatever little part of her thought I might propose would probably convince her that it would be at dinner in Key West; which I was sure to trump up to add to this notion.) However, after seeing how tired she was, and after considering that she would want to call everyone, I decided to bump it back to just after 8pm. We lost the "it happened on my birthday, but whatever...) It turned out to be a good decision. As Jordon read carefully the last page she whipped her head around and asked me with her eyes and then her voice, "is this for real?" I said, "yes...Will you marry me."

The next day was my actual birthday. We woke up before dawn and set out to drive to Key West at least a three hour drive from Miami. We stopped and had the first meal of our new engagement at Cracker Barrel.

Doug had done research (of course) and had already found our lunch and dinner spots in Key West. We had lunch on the water in a small café in which we were the only patrons. We made conversation with the waitress and heard all about the storm surge from the hurricane that had warranted an evacuation, just days before we arrived. We walked around, took pictures and enjoyed each other's company all day. The weather was perfectly warm and sunny. We sat in the sun making plans over cold drinks. Every so often one of us would turn to the other and say, "guess what? We're getting married!" We practiced introducing one another as "fiancé" and we got excited together as we realized our next vacation together would be a honeymoon.  As the evening drew closer, we changed into our dinner clothes and walked to Mallory Square for the sunset celebration.

After watching a perfect sunset together we walked to A & B Lobster House on the marina and had dinner by candlelight on a patio overlooking the water.

We got in the car and Doug let me sleep as he drove us back to Miami.


On Saturday, we packed up and headed back to Detroit. Doug told me he'd arranged for Trevor to pick us up from the airport. When we made our way to the luggage carousel, I was surprised again to find he had actually arranged for Jenny Gebhardt to be there waiting. She met us with hugs and balloons and flowers. Then she drove us to the WAB where she and Mike Morrish had invited twenty of our friends to greet us with a surprise engagement party. We celebrated and shared the book with everyone over beer and a giant chocolate chip cookie cake.  Friends came and went and by the end of the evening, Jenny, Dana, Mike, Karen, Doug and I retired to my mom's house and closed out the evening over a bottle of wine and some lively conversation.

On Sunday as we got settled into our seats at church, the couple seated next to us pointed to the over head screen and asked, "Is that you?" I heard cheers from my Bible study girls as I looked up and read "Congratulations Doug and Jordon on your engagement!" projected with the rest of the weekly announcements. 

A little update.

So, as mentioned previously, I am engaged to the lovely Jordon. I will be creating an account of that week and posting it here shortly. In the meantime I wanted to let you all know that Jordon and I have created a website; which, in the beginning will be a wedding planning website, but will over time become a family site. Please visit www.dougandjordon.com.

Hopefully, before the weekend, I will be posting "the details" of the engagement. Thank you for your patience. :)

Wordle from Dana

Yes; that's what she said!

I'm engaged.

:)

Miami

Tomorrow morning at about 10 o'clock in the morning I will be sitting next to Jordon in a plane on its way to Miami, Florida. If all goes well I will be sipping on a very large cup of coffee and listening to music and there will be no children, old people, people my age, etc., but I digress.

We will be gone for seven glorious days--and a hurricane may pelt us--but like the guy in my head from some movie I saw when I was a little kid, I will gladly run outside and grab onto the flagpole and pray to God to take me rather than be here right now. Detroit is ok, and I am sure it'll be cool to come back and all, but I am really glad for the reprieve. I am really glad to spend a full week with Jordon walking around and doing fun stuff, reading, eating good food and doing nothing.

I'll probably take a few pictures while I am gone. I will upload them and drop a link. I can't wait.

I am sorry

I haven't posted in forever. So much I want to share that I can't. Jordon is as beautiful as ever. Work is pluggin along. I'll post soon--promise.

Deep thoughts with Paul's auto

100,000 miles