But I walked into my office the other day and realized that I need to design a creative space to work in! I spent last night checking out bookshelves at IKEA, looking for prints at AllPosters.com, and checking out paint sites to get an idea of cool colors for my office. I was getting kind of bummed because I couldn’t find anything that fit my style.

So with some motivation, I hopped on my bike and rode down to the Carmel International Arts Festival (www.carmelartsfestival.org). I was looking from tent to tent looking for stuff and then I came across Trudy’s booth. I was so excited to see some of her work because to me, it inspires creativity, fun, and the casual look I was going for. Here are the three prints I bought.

I’m thinking I may have to go see her for more prints, but for now, those were the three that I really loved. To see more of her work and to order, you can visit her on the web at www.TruDysigns.com. She has drawings of your favorite college campuses (IU, PU, Notre Dame), places around Indianapolis, and so much more.

Now if I can only figure out what colors to paint my office… sigh… Oh well, my jambalaya is ready to be consumed and it’s a beautiful day, so I’ll worry about my office later.

Back in 1995, long before Facebook and MySpace, a site called Classmates.com popped up… it was one of the first “social networking” sites. Sure, places existed on the internet to connect (chat rooms, message boards, reunion sites), but Classmates.com made it easy.I signed up for Classmates.com around the year 2000 before I graduated college. Since I didn’t have Facebook or MySpace, it was a great way to see what my friends were up to, unfortunately, to see any real information or make contact, you have to pay. Unfortunately, Classmates.com hasn’t evolved with the times. I am now more connected to my friends in Facebook than I am in Classmates.com.If you look through Facebook, you may notice that the Class of 2001 going forward to today are heavy users of Facebook, while the pre-2001 classes don’t typically have Facebook because it wasn’t around when they were in college (or they were one of the select schools to be on the Facebook platform prior to 2001).

I personally keep the program on the screen at all the times, but you can customize it so it pops up for a certain amount of time (first five seconds, etc.). It’s just a really cool little program that I think all of you should check out! And don’t worry, it supports various players (including Windows Media Player, iTunes, WinAmp and others).

So I was sitting around thinking of something to do on Saturday when I thought to myself, “hey, I’ll have Jake drive up from Bloomington.” Well, apparently he had somewhat of the same idea, except that he thought that I should drive down to Bloomington. So what did we do? We met in the middle at Gray Bros. Cafeteria.

I have heard about Gray Bros. in passing, but it’s in Mooresville and I rarely make it down that way. But I have to say, I was not disappointed. The reason I labeled this post “not just for old people” is because I remember when we had a Laughner’s Cafeteria on E. 86th Street, across from the fire station. One of my grandparents’ rituals was to drive to Indianapolis from Lebanon every Friday evening, have dinner at Laughner’s, and then come over to our house for TGIF on ABC. So whenever I ate at Laughner’s it was typically with my grandparents.

So I knew that Gray’s had to be good, because I couldn’t find a spot in the parking lot. Jake had mistakenly gone to Poe Bros. by mistake, but he noted that they didn’t seem nearly as busy. Well, we walked in and it was very warm and inviting. There are fireplaces throughout the restaurant and it’s bigger than I thought. I was shocked when I turned the corner for the line and saw how long it is. I think people in Mooresville really love their cafeterias! It took about 5-10 minutes just for us to get to the serving line, but it was also a good time to scope out what was being served that night.

I have to tell you, just looking at the dessert section was extremely tempting… all kinds of pies, made from scratch! They had a pretty good selection of other food this night: fried chicken, roast round of beef, noodles, white meat chicken tenders, baked cod, fried chicken livers (yuck!), country fried chicken, fried shrimp tenderloin, fried pork tenderloin, and lasagna. It was glorious!

Jake and I both decided to go with the country fried chicken with a side of mashed potatoes, gravy, and macaroni and cheese…. and we both went for the banana creme pie. It was delicious and filled us up… both our bills came to around $10 for a good portion of food.

The atmosphere was very warm, felt like home (if your home has lots of tables and at least three fireplaces), and the wait staff did good keeping our drinks filled. We both chose Gray Bros. honestly because it was an hour drive from Bloomington and an hour’s drive for me from the northside of Indianapolis. But it was a good choice and I would definitely recommend that if you’re on your way down to IU or have a little time, drive down to Mooresville and check out Gray Bros… it’s pretty sweet. Their website is http://www.graybrotherscatering.com/. From there you can check out their catering business and check out what’s on the menu for the week. Are you hungry yet?

Having gotten out of class early yesterday, I decided to watch Pixar’s Ratatouille and I have to say, I wasn’t disappointed. The story is about a rat named Remy who has an affection for cooking and learns about cooking by sneaking into a woman’s house and watching a famous chef on the cooking channel.

What Remy doesn’t realize is that he’s in Paris, home of great food and of his cooking idol, Auguste Gusteau. Remy runs into a clumsy garbage boy, Linguini, who works at Gusteau’s restaurant. Linguini, afraid of being fired, tries to make himself useful by trying to help prepare food in the kitchen only to realize how bad he is at preparing food. So Remy works to correct Linguini’s mistakes before the sous chef of the restaurant finds how that Linguini has been tampering with the food.

To make a long story short, Linguini finds out that it is Remy who corrected the soup that Linguini has messed up and they develop a friendship.

I am a big fan of Pixar and while I was skeptical of this movie, I really enjoyed it. The movie is different from other Pixar films:

• Smaller cast of characters: Most Pixar films seem to have a wide cast of characters and you will typically see a variety of toys based off of those characters in toy stores. I don’t forsee that happening with Ratatouille aside from the two main characters and maybe a couple of supporting characters.
• Feels more intimate: One reviewer of this movie on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) said that this movie had an “artistic/indie appeal” to it and I would have to agree. The scenery is really well done and the lighting is more romantic/intimate because of the setting in Paris, France. Most Pixar feels seem to have a brighter, lively use of colors.
• Storyline is not as childish: It seems like most Pixar films try to balance enough content for both the young and old audience. I got the impression that this movie is geared more towards ages 5 and up. That’s not to say that pre-schoolers wouldn’t enjoy it, but it just seems that the story is written more for an older age group.

Overall, I would probably give Ratatouille four stars out of five. The animation is awesome, the voice actors do an excellent job, and the story line is pretty good (although it could’ve been slightly better). I would definitely recommend watching this movie!