Random Thoughts

Now that Katie’s taking a photo class, we have to get out and do some regular photography. This is fine by me as I need an excuse to get out and shoot. Last week, she had some trouble getting her film developed, so we had to make an emergency trip to the camera store, buy some film stock (and the supplies to process it at home that night), and head out for a shoot.

She was looking for perspective and framing. I was looking for whatever looked cool. I had been wanting to head down to Minnehaha falls, as it’s supposed to be pretty neat. We found it, and started hiking. The falls are cool, and we found a trail that follows the creek. Eventually, the creek runs into the Mississippi, but we didn’t go that far. We did see some great photo opportunities, however. 

That night, we got Katie’s film processed, and hopefully I’ll be able to scan some of the prints and put them up. She has quite an eye. On the other hand, you can check out some of my favorite shots on the photo blog.

I just realized that it’s been nearly a month since my last post. Sorry about that. I guess with the Twitter feed going, I feel less inclined to post a lot. Since I’m writting this on my iPod (new v.2.0 software update and the Wordpress app…) it will be brief. Here’s a recap of the last month.

• Robyn went to cheer camp in the Wisconsin Dells.
• Katie flew to NY to spend some time with my brother’s family at camp.
• Denise worked a short project grading the tests of kids who failed last time (and didn’t do much better this time).
• I’ve been able to mix (sound) for CPC some this summer, and finally got to mix Upper Room last weekend. I had a blast, and got lots of compliments on the sound.
• I had an article published in Technologies for Worship magazine. It was a full-length feature about presentation software. That was cool.
• I was on the FaithTools podcast again. I really enjoy those. Great guys to get to know.
• We’ve had great weather almost all summer, and I’ve been loving spending time out on the patio.
• We’re getting ready to head back to NY for a few weeks. We’ll be arriving on Aug 1. Get in touch with me if you want to hang out. We’ll also be in Cleveland for a few days before and after.
• I think my tech blog is going to hit 3000 views this month. Go visit and push it over the top.

So that’s about it. It’s getting dark and the bugs are coming out. If you’re reading from Cleveland or Rochester, I hope we’ll see you over the next few weeks!
Peace…

I think I mentioned that Monday we took the storm windows off. Turns out it may have been a bit premature. Why? you ask? Well, it’s currently, 33, snowing and blowing like a banshee. Our old, leaky windows are whistling as the air comes through them and it’s cool in the house.

But the good news is that the grass is really green (from all the rain), and it’s supposed to get warmer by mid-week. It was kinda sad this morning to go outside and see snow sitting on top of my new Weber. Could be worse, though. I hear they actually have snow on the ground further north! Global warming…it kills me!

So, the other day, Jake tells me that he found the beta release of FireFox 3. He sends me a link and I try it out. While I’m a big Apple fan most of the time, I really like FireFox better than Safari (even 3.1). I have to say, FireFox 3 is a hit. It’s wicked fast (much faster than 2.x), and has a great new look. Sure, there are some bugs (like the double “Back” buttons), but so far it’s been rock-solid and has some great new features.

I like new new bookmark feature; to bookmark a site, just click the star in the URL bar. It adds it to an “Un-filed” bookmark list, and allows you to sort it later. Or you can pull down a menu and drop it right where you want it. It also has better password memory features. Instead of popping up a dialog that has to be dismissed before the next page will load, it loads the page, and puts a bar at the top asking if you want it to remember the password. Much faster.

It also has a more “Mac-like” look to it. It looks like a Cocoa app now (because it is), and feels more polished overall. I’ve also been playing with a new blog-entry tool called ScribeFire. It’s a simple add on that lets me post to my blog without opening my blog. Just click the icon in the bottom bar and start writing. Very quick. I’m not sure I’ll use ScribeFire for my ChurchTechArts blog because I do so many custom things with each post, but it’s still handy for posts like this.

In other news, it was 60 on Saturday. It seemed a fine time to go buy a new grill. We needed a new grill because we sold our old one to Don in Canandaigua before we left (hope you’re enjoying it, Don!), and because I was ready to go back to charcoal anyway. This may seem odd, as everyone is going gas. However, there’s something about a charcoal fire, and I missed cooking on it. So I bought a shiny new Weber Silver One Touch 22, a chimney starter and some charcoal. I also swung by the grocery and bought some steaks. Boy was that good.

Sadly, today it’s back to around 40 and it was snowing when I went for my walk this morning. Nothing stuck, though, it’s all good. I bought Miami Vice today on DVD and watched it (it’s my day off). I got the unrated extended version because it was on sale, and it may have been a mistake because I felt it was too long and plodding. I expected more from Michael Mann (Heat, Collateral). By the end it was a good thriller, it just took too long to get there. The good news is that because I had some Best Buy reward certificates I got that film, Memento, and The Good Shepherd for all of $3.50. I can take Miami Vice to FYE and probably get $4.00 for it. I’ve seen Memento before and loved it, and am looking forward to The Good Shepherd.

So that’s it. My first post from ScribeFire. Thanks for reading!

Since I had a day off, and the girls are spring break, we decided to do what every fun-loving family does when they have time to spend together. We slept in until 11. Actually, Robyn and I were up at 10. I shoveled the drive and walks, then made french toast. We then settled in to the arduous task of deciding what to do today. After much though, consideration and AAA book reading, we decided to take the light rail train from Mall of America to Minneapolis and walk around the skyway.

Minneapolis, being a northern climate city and all, had the foresight to install all these skyways between the buildings downtown. Turns out there are some 8 miles of indoor walking that you can do down there. We didn’t expect to cover it all, but decided to see what we could see. So this is what we saw.

Robyn and Mike sandwiched in our seat on the train. It’s Robyn’s first ticket (train ticket that is…)

Katie chills in her seat with her iPod. What a better way to see the city?

One of our stops was the very architecturally cool Minneapolis Public Library. It’s also the home of a Dunn Bros., where we had some tasty treats.

A really, really tall building.

This was a neat water feature inside one of the buildings we walked into. I think it was the Gaviidade Common. I have no idea what that means.

This was up one level of the Gaviidade Common. Behind the girls is a giant bird/water feature that pours water into the above fountain deal.

Katie looks a bit confused… (I stand corrected, Katie says this is a “Hmmm” face, not a confused face)

Robyn reaches out and touches the force…

Yup, spring is definitely here. You can tell by the blue skies. And it’s warming up, too. 52 on Thursday!

So here it is, March 31. I have no idea where the first quarter of 2008 has gone. Time really does move faster as you get older. It’s been warming up here in the Twin Cities. It’s pretty obviously spring, as you can tell from this photo.

Today we are under a “Winter Storm Warning,” which seems odd to me given the fact that according to the calendar, it’s now Spring. Apparently the weather dudes didn’t get that memo.

So it seems as though I’ve been a long time in posting again. That’s mainly because of Holy Week (which I re-dubbed Holy Week!–as in “Holy Week, Batman!) The ramp up was a bit crazy as I was filling in for the CPC folks since their former tech volunteer moved on to other pursuits. Then we had our own heavy workload at Upper Room, with 2 very production heavy Good Friday services (dubbed “Tenebrae,” or darkness), and 2 hoppin’ Easter services.

Tenebrae at Upper Room

Easter at Upper Room

Last week, I felt like I was in slow-motion. Actually, it was more like normal, but the 2 weeks prior were so crazy, that the contrast was amazing. When I woke up last Monday, I realized that I was exhausted. I think mainly it was from working a 60 hour week, followed by a 70 hour week. Then I realized that I used to always feel that way, and that I haven’t felt that way in a while. So it was a good contrast. And best of all, I’m taking tomorrow off (the girls are on Spring Break, so we’ll do something fun), and another day off next week.

For some reason, I scheduled an all Tech Team meeting at our house the first day back (Tuesday). I spent much of Monday cooking (pulled pork for Tuesday, and homemade tomato sauce for Thursday). The meeting was good, though a few couldn’t make it. We still have pulled pork.

On Thursday, we hosted Meal Group. I made lasagna (with the aforementioned sauce), my puff pastry onion and smoked Gouda appetizers, and brownie sundaes with homemade chocolate sauce. Yeah, they all pretty much want to come back every week now. Everyone was quite impressed with Katie and Robyn. I was proud of the way they engaged with everyone, and actively participated in conversation. I think it’s because we never talked to them like they were idiots, so they are pretty comfortable around grownups.

Robyn gave us a bit of a scare on Thursday. As it was the first day of spring break, one of her teachers was holding a cleaning party. Since she loves to clean (everything except her room), she wanted to go. Except both Denise and I were working, so we told her she couldn’t. At about noon, Katie called me in a panic. She had just woken up (I know, right?) and found a note from Robyn. Apparently Robyn had decided to walk the 3.5 miles to school. She looked up directions on Google maps and took some change in case she had to call me (from what I’m not sure; one doesn’t see pay phones around much anymore), and a whistle just in case.

I called the school and finally got to the room. Another student told me she had just left. I hopped in the car and headed out. A few minutes later, I found her skipping down the sidewalk in front of Normandale College, not a care in the world. I was angry and proud of her at the same time.

On Saturday, Denise decided to go into work for a few hours to get up to 40 hrs. for the week and capture a bonus. The girls and I went up to meet her afterward and we went to D’Amico and Sons in Edina for lunch. It’s a fun Italian-type deli. They have some great food, and a cool old-world feel to the place. Everything is super-fresh and tasty.

Afterwards, we went up to the Lake of the Isles and walked around it (2.6 miles). I looked so nice, but the wind was blowing at like, 20 mph, and when it blew across the ice, it was wicked cold. I would have taken more pics, but I was too cold. It was a good walk nonetheless.

There are some nice houses around the lake. This wasn’t that much larger than most…

Another view of Minneapolis, this time from the south end of Lake of the Isles.

Then we went to Trader Joe’s for the first time. I really like that place. It’s kind of a discount store that caters to the DINK- (dual income, no kids) granola crowd. I found some good stuff there, and they even have a decent wine and beer section. I found some quality 85% chocolate that was under $3 a bar, and tastes darn good. Not quite as complex as Green & Black’s, but good nonetheless. We found some new cereal, some cookies and saw all kinds of cool meat and vegetable products.

So that’s it. You’re caught up.

I woke up this morning planning on shoveling the drive. I knew we were going to get snow, and planned on that being my workout for today (it’s rather warm now…). However, to my surprise, when I got up, the drive was already done. Denise was just finishing it up. Suspecting the roads to have all the traction of a greased cookie sheet, I didn’t expect to go for a walk. I donned my vest and went out to clear the path in the front for the mailman, and took a good look around. It was rather pretty.

All the trees looked like someone carefully airbrushed white on the tops of their branches. It was rather Norman Rockwell. I grabbed my camera and decided to take a few shots. An hour later, I was returning from a 2 mile hike down to a pond near our house. I shot almost 40 pictures. So not only did I get some exercise, but some great pictures as well. You can view some of my favorite shots on my photo-blog. I’ve been putting up some others as well, so enjoy.

I liked the format of my previous summary, so here goes another one.

• The creative team meeting was canceled, so we had a ton of food to eat. I ended up inviting some of the staff over to help us eat up the food. The guacamole was a huge hit; the “Awesome Chicken Chili” was good, but not awesome. It was however, gone.
• Derek and I went to retrieve the “ring of fire” used for Good Friday. It’s steel candelabra that we hang over the congregation. As we took it out of the van, pieces started falling off. I’m pretty sure this is not good.
• Kurt and Jeannette got married. It was a good wedding and a fun reception. Except parking was $7. And it was an all-cash bar. I only had $7 on me. The valets were bummed and we were thirsty.
• I made corned beef on Monday. It was amazing. The cole slaw to go with it was not so amazing.
• We had our second Meal Group on Tuesday. The meal was pizza from Pappa John’s. Better ingredients, better pizza.
• Our obligatory staff lunch was the next day. The lunch was pizza from DiGorno’s. They’re right, it’s not delivery, it’s DiGorno’s.
• I worked like a madman all week re-wiring and fixing our tech booth to get ready for Easter. It’s done a week early, looks much better and everything actually works.
• Our 4-year old Canon digital camera died a few days ago. I took it apart to see if I could fix it. We bought a new camera yesterday.
• We watched Zoolander in hi-def the other night. I laughed. A lot.
• I made buttermilk pancakes yesterday morning. They were devoured.
• Today, the sky is cobalt blue, it’s warming up and I’m off to church. The good news is tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer and sunny and I’m off. Sweet.

That’s it. All caught up. And check out the photo-blog!