Alone again

Yes folks, Dan is a bachelor again . . . well at least for the last four days. Julie has been at a National Teachers of English conference in Indianapolis since Thursday, so I have been missing her. Although, I did realize that not to coordinate schedules for once allowed me to do whatever I wanted. (In no way am I implying that I was glad Julie was gone, but rather just an observation.) In fact, I realized that I miss here lots and cannot wait till she comes home tonight. So here is what I did the last couple of days while on my own . . . (the read more should work now) . . . go ahead click it . . . you know you want to even if its never worked before . . .


Did it work, yes, dan is a geek roid. I just did a dance around the room as a celebration! Anyways, back to my weekend. It also happened that I didn't have to work on Fri and Sat so I was expecially free to accomplish tasks. Thursday night a hung out at the Humble Bean, did some reading, talked to people, and went to bed fairly early. I was up around 8:30 and took 45 min to get out of bed. Popped in a Ben Harper DVD and listened/watched a studio version of "I shall not walk alone" with the Blind Boys of Alabama. Quite inspiring gospel soul music.
The day was spent making phone calls, visiting proffs about grad schools, searching grad schools, and general reading. Friday night, I made dinner (calzones with fresh salad) for some friends (SamG, Kevin, Jon) and then went to some one act plays. Off to a Dordt Volleyball game (my second one ever, even though I spent 4 years here!) Then we watched the "Ring" A scary horror movie and made cake and pizza.
Saturday, I sleep till 10 because I was up till 3. I spent the afternoon at Proff Hendersen helping him build a boot room on around his front door. Fun time because he has two little girls that are crazy wild. Had dinner their and then worked some more on the boot room. Later I went and saw National Treasure, entertaining, but that is about it. Then went to Sam G room (check out his blog

just to talk and hang out. Went to bed and then it was Sunday, went to church, had pastoral dinner (Sam G acting as my wife Julie so he could have a meal) and then came home and made bread and rested. Well, Enough said I just really wanted to make it worth your clicking on "read more" Happy Thanksgiving and remember those who have little amongst our plenty. Dan P

Where have we been . . .

Well, we really haven't gone anywhere! We did make a quick trip to Fargo to see Matt and family. Mom and Dad were there to so it was a good time. I had to work Sat from 6 am to 12 so we got there Sat night and left Sunday night, so a very short visit. Shot a bunch of clay pigeons and I thought my arm was going to fall off after. Quite sore
I finally finished my grad school essay's for Iowa State! Man, what a process to sum up your interest in a particular subject in order to convince an entity that one is worthy of intense study in an area. I will be sending off the final parts of the application this week and then contacting potential advisors and research possibilities. Pray that the right match may happen since a huge part of good study is who your studying under.
Went and saw "Ray" a film about the life of Ray Charles. I grew up listening to some of his stuff in high school and it was intriging to get more of his life story. Powerful musician, but broken father and family man. Well, must be off
Dan Perkins

Dan and Dayna in Fargo 

Julie and Dayna from our visit to Fargo 

Still Getting Used To Blogging

As the subject suggests, I'm still getting used to this whole blog thing. I just read some comments from our 17th of September post that I had never read and, of course, never responded to! For instance, I read a comment from my junior high band and choir teacher (Hi, Mrs. Funderburg!); it's crazy how these blogs get spread around. Also, I think I'm a bit rusty on the language of blogging, so feel free to correct me if I misuse any word derived from the root "blog."

One more thing - I have some exciting news! (If you're a member of the Oudman family you already know about it, but I thought everyone else should know too.) My older brother Tim is getting married May 21 to Heather Cleveland!!!! Rebekah (my younger sister) and I are both bridesmaids in the wedding, and Dan is an usher, and we are all very excited to gain Heather as our sister-in-law!

Whew, I'm worn out from using all those exclamation marks. Time for a nap.

Julie