Who wants more cake...

So today we had another Graduation party for Matt at his parents' house in Huntington. Most of his family is in town this weekend for Dave and Jeannette's wedding, so it only made sense to have the party the same weekend but back to the party...

Eric, Bill, Mike Jr, and Anna


Mike Sr, Matt, Aunt Cel, Grandma Knittig, Michelle Schmaltz




Jacob really wanted some cake


Jen and Eric (getting married on 5.8.2010) and Bill



Jacob was trying to climb over the gate like the rest of us but he's not quite tall enough...yet.



Jen and Michelle


Mike Jr, Jerry and Michelle Schmaltz




Sweet, a shadowbox with room for the tassel.



Michelle was having too much fun with Matt's foot.


One of a kind artwork :)

Welcome to the Vargo Alumni Association

It's official, as of 12:00pm on Saturday, May 16, 2009 we are both Purdue Alumni. Mathew and I decided that if Purdue could create an association, so could we. So if your last name is Vargo and you're an alumni of Purdue University, Sims, or PS3 you too can join for only 3 easy payment of $79.95

Matt's mother(Sharon), father(Big Mike), brother(Mike Jr), sister-in-law(Anna), and nephew(Jacob) came down for Huntington for Commencement. Whoever decided that engineers should have a commencement ceremony at 9:30 in the morning has obviously never met an engineer. We all could have used another cup of coffee, another hour sleep, or both. Not to mention all the students that had to be there by 8 am in the Armory,and according to Matt all they did was stand around for an hour looking important.

The procession aka let's parade half the campus into Elliott Hall of Music started at 9am. I was surprised and proud to see Prof. DeCarlo as the Grand Marshal and all the other familiar faces during the ceremony. With 1,166 candidates, it was a packed house and stage. After the introductions, my godfather received an honorary PhD of engineering and looked very stoic on stage, Matt compared his stance as very James Earl Jones-ish and who doesn't like James Earl Jones.

Then the PhD's and Doctors of Vet Med. were hooded and then the Masters received their diplomas. Finally it was time for the Baccalaureates and after waiting what seemed like forever to watch Matt graduate; his walk on stage went by so fast. Three hours and fifteen minutes later, all I could think of was part of the closing speech from Pastor Williams " If you can't be a tree, be a bush. If you can't be a bush, be a blade of grass but be the best blade of grass you can be." I'm sure what he was trying to convey 'was be the best that you can be' but had to make that statement ten minutes long.

We had a graduation party later that afternoon. Matt tivo-ed the program and was happy to show everyone that he graduated; he even memorized his tv appearance - 2hr 34 min into the program. Call it a hunch, but I think he was excited.

Congratulations Mathew!!

ECE HDR Celebration Dinner

This weekend my godfather, Dr. Arthur J. Bond, received an honorary PhD of Engineering from Purdue University. Unbeknownst to me, regardless of your specialty, PhD candidates are Doctors of Philosophy; this is why the PhD of Engineering is the highest award the University can bestow.

Friday night, the Electrical and Computer Engineering department held a celebration dinner at Mountain Jack’s. The company was great, conversation was stimulating, and the food was delicious but apparently mother nature did not get the invitation and she was rather upset so she gave us flash flooding.