Howdy Doody from Dustin!

Well, well, well... The Mrs. has been tugging my chain to make a post on our blog, so here it is.

I thought I would start by talking about what I'm up to this summer. I'm not taking nor teaching any classes at MSU, which leaves lots of discretionary time. However, I've been keeping rather busy. I will categorize my summer activities into five areas:

1. Pushing along current research projects: I've got about five projects that have been in process for some time. The first one involves a series of experiments studying the relationship between organizations (for instance, coffee houses) and their customers. Another involves studying the way people view the fairness of dispute resolution mediators. A third project is about how personality affects the way teams perform. I'm also on a research team that is studying team decision-making at an Air Force base in the southeastern U.S. Lastly, I am a member of a research team in a psychology department where we are designing studies about how people make decisions.

2. I am catching up on books I've been wanting to read for a while: They are mostly books on statistics, philosophy, decision-making, economics, and business/management. I've been a political junkie too, reading about the 2008 U.S. political race night and day.

3. I've been taking care of my new "baby", the Toyota Yaris. I've got quite a routine of care established for both the interior and exterior. I won't bore you to tears (for the moment, at least), but essentially I have created a 5-step process for the outside of the car: (1) wash ONLY with mild soap and a microfiber glove, (2) dry ONLY with a genuine leather chamois, (3) clean using the "Cleaner" product by a well-known auto company called "Meguiar's" with a fresh applicator pad, (4) Meguiar's "Polish" product, and lastly, (5) Meguiar's NXT Generation Tech Wax 2.0 (liquid). At that point, I'm usually too tired to do Leslie's car. And by the time I've worked up the energy, the Yaris needs another cleaning. Oy vey!

4. Forget spring cleaning! I've been doing some summer cleaning and selling a myriad of junk on eBay. So far, we've made a couple hundred bucks. Apparently, people will pay for junk. Don't you love the Internet?

5. Finally getting to spend some time with Leslie! I think we've spent more time together in the last four weeks than we did from August until June. We've recently gotten into Netflix movies, read together, drive around Lansing, shop, go to movies, out to eat, and many more fun things. We're going to make the most of the time from now until August 25 (first day of fall semester @ MSU).

Adios!

-D