This is our fifth annual excursion to Nick's wife Katie's family cottage on Blueberry Island. It is a yearly tradition, filled with smaller traditions.

Tradition #1: Lunch at Culver's in Valparaiso.

Nick and I got there a little early, so we waited outside for the other dudes.

Nick: Is that Dick Van Dyke eating lunch inside?
Me: Yeah, I think so. It looks just like him.
Nick: Hmm. Diagnosis Burger.

Tomorrow we embark on our yearly trip to Blueberry Island, on beautiful Lake Dewart in Northern Indiana. I took my car in today to get the emissions something something fixed, and to get new brakes. $983 later, I can rest assured that my car will not emit illegal quantities of pollutants or go careening off the Skyway.

We played Whirlyball in honor of Kate's (my boss at the College of Nursing) last day. She is moving to Minnesota with her family, and will be missed in the Office of Academic Programs.

As many times as I have played Whirlyball, I should be a lot better than I am. But that's the wonderful thing about a game in which you drive a bumper car and fling a wiffle ball into a hole; nobody is going to be very good at it. Except Grant, the IT guy. He was kind of a natural.

This car was parked in front of my building.

Apparently the committee in charge of approving license plates at the Wisconsin Department of Transportation needs to update their database of questionable words and expressions.

Julie and I went to Winnemac Park this afternoon. After strolling through the prairie path and buying ice cream from the two obviously stoned high school students at the little cafe, we went and sat under a willow tree to decide what movie to see. I was a little creeped out by the wicker Blair Witch symbol nestled in a low crook of the tree, but nothing bad happened to us other than a brief stalemate over what time to see The Dark Knight.

We had an end of school celebration at Moonshine. Usually I am reluctant to venture out of my comfort neighborhoods, but I was kind of excited to brave the streets of Wicker Park. Despite the almost exclusiveley negative reviews on Metromix, I had a good time and thought the bar was all right.

We were all in excellent spirits, happy to be done with what will probably be the worst semester of our program. I have nothing but fun things to look forward to until August 25th when we go back.

Two finals down, one to go. The academic portions of this semester have been kind of crappy, the clinical experiences great. Tonight I took the online final for Community Health, so far my least favorite class.

Almost all of our books have electronic versions that are downloaded to our computers. Initially I didn't think I would ever use this feature, but it comes in quite handy, especially when you have a three hour open book exam, and will rely heavily on the "Search" function because you didn't read all of the boring material you were supposed to.