Random Thoughts

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!

So, Jake tells me I have to get a Flickr account. So I do, and upload some pictures. Problem is, you can’t really organize them into sets (well, you get up to 3 sets…) unless you go pro. And that’s bucks. I was all set to upload a bunch of cool pictures I’ve taken over the past year. But with no way to organize them, what’s the point?

Then it occurs to me that I have my own domain, with a ton of storage and a MacBook Pro loaded with web development software. So I made my own photo site. And I can organize it into as many sets as I want. So there, Flickr.

Now you can check out my photo page right here. As I get to it, I’ll be uploading more. I figured out a way to make it easy and fast (and it looks cool….). I’ll also put a link to the page on the blog here somewhere.

Yup. I’m older now. No big. Still feeling young.

I’ve been crazy busy the last few weeks. Between re-inventing the tech infrastructure at church and doing the middle school musical and running the girls around and meal groups and…

Whew…it’s been a wild ride. I’m looking forward to Easter, because that will mark the end of a super-busy time. I hope anyway. It should slow down at work, as I will be out of budget by then. I’m looking forward to doing more video production as soon as I’m done rebuilding.

So it’s time for cake and House. Peace out, yo.

So that’s why I haven’t been blogging. Since I’m trying enjoy the last bit of my day off, I’ll summarize the last 2 weeks.

• We had 5 nights of “house gatherings,” meetings with people from the church in houses. They were a lot of work.
• Denise and I started our meal group (aka small group, only with a meal).
• We went to a parent/teacher conference with Robyn. She’s doing well in school and her teachers like her.
• Robyn did sound for the middle school musical. I helped. Now they want me to come teach the teachers how to do sound. For free.
• I worked at Kurt’s house (Upper Room Director) on Saturday for a while, helping prep for painting. He gets married on Friday. The house won’t be ready.
• It was cold, it warmed up and now it’s cold again. It snowed one day, too.
• I watched Casino Royale last week.  It was the first Bond movie in a long time that didn’t suck. I also watched The Kingdom. It was surprisingly good, though Justin Bateman still reminded me of Micheal in Arrested Development.
• I went to Best Buy today to look around and held a MacBook Air. It’s thin and light. But I don’t really want one.
• I ordered 6 books from Amazon today using my education fund at work. That was cool.
• Tomorrow night the creative team from Upper Room will meet here to brainstorm ideas for our next series. Denise and I made a white chicken chili. I hope it’s good.

So there you go–all caught up through tomorrow. That was easy, no? I should do this more often!