Mierow's Corner...

New Site, Same old crap

2007-03-14T10:26:00.000-07:00

I'm moving!

Head over to http://mierow.wordpress.com/ to check out my new site.

Start the New Year off Right

2007-01-08T05:21:00.000-08:00

I'm not one to usually make New Year's resolutions, but this year I've decided that there is something I need to do - push everyone I know to use Google Talk (gtalk) instead of AOL, MSN or Yahoo Messenger. Seriously, this thing kicks butt. Ok, so it doesn't have all the "cute" little smiley faces that those other pukes have, but it has much cooler features than that. Here are just a couple of things that you can do:

chat (duh)
show your friends what music you're currently listening to
send/receive a voicemail
send offline messages (yes, you can send someone a message even when they are offline)
file transfer

The last one is HUGE! This is totally worth changing your IM client for. Have you ever been chatting with a friend and wanted to send them a picture? Don't go to your email, just use gtalk! How about sending someone a music/video/document? This option rocks! Think of it like your own personal p2p client (Limewire, BitTorrent, etc).

So it's not really a "personal" resolution, but I think it's one that will make everyone a little happier :)

Our Productive Student Workers

2006-12-21T08:02:00.000-08:00

Yeah... we're hard at work.

Person of the Year.... You?

2006-12-18T05:59:00.000-08:00

So it's been forever since I've posted anything. So sue me.

I heard about this on the way into work this morning and I couldn't believe it. Time picked as their 'Person of the Year 2006' - You! That's right.... you, me, everyone who's part of the "digital age." I'm not sure how to react to this. On one hand, I agree with what some of the article has to say. On the other hand, I think that there are several individuals that stand out as having a major global impact this past year. Here are a couple of quotes:

"It's a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It's about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people's network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace."

"Seriously, who actually sits down after a long day at work and says, I'm not going to watch Lost tonight." - totally taken out of context because I'm no longer watching Lost :)

"And for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME's Person of the Year for 2006 is you."

Feel free to read more of it here.

Lost Season Premiere

2006-10-05T07:26:00.000-07:00

Did I watch it? No

Do I care about it? No

Am I going to laugh at all those who get frustrated and don't get any answers? Yes, yes and yes!

Granite City

2006-10-04T07:39:00.000-07:00

Last night we went out to Granite City. If you've never been there, then you are missing out on a little piece of heaven on earth. IMHO - this place rocks! There's nothing else to it. So we went there because we found out they were having a "Mug Club Members Event". This was to celebrate their new Oktoberfest beer. For the members they had free food, free beer (AMAZING!), and prizes. As the even was getting started, they announced that they had 3 kegs of their Oktoberfest beer for the night's activities. Needless to say, those 3 kegs did not last long. They figured out that they poured 1 gallon a minute! I didn't notice that the waitress had placed a beer at our table when I was in line to get food (and beer of course). So I returned to the table with a plate of brats, pretzels and cheese in one hand and a beer in the other, only to realize as I sat down that I now had 2 beers! Did I mention how much I love this place? All in all, it was a great night.

Thanks

2006-10-02T19:32:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note:

Thank You! Thank you to everyone who sent out their thoughts and prayers for my parents as they dealt with my dad's accident. Thank you to everyone who sent cards, visited, and called with words of encouragement. Thank God for His protective hand that kept others out of danger, and for leaving my dad with us a little while longer.

By the Grace of God

2006-09-06T06:48:00.001-07:00

Just pray

2006-08-18T06:08:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning for some time to post some pictures or write something witty but yesterday morning I heard some news that removed all that from my mind.

Yesterday moning on his way to work, my dad rolled his truck. There was no one else involved in the accident, but his injuries are pretty severe. He was immediately found and taken to Fairibault where they determined that they did not have the resources needed and he was airlifted to HCMC.

As of right now he is in stable condition, and the doctors are amazed that his injuries are not worse than what he has. After they read through the accident report they are still trying to determine how he was not in worse condition.

I won't go into detail about what all happened, but I ask that you just keep him and my mom in your prayers. He was in great spirits last night, but I know that it will be a long road for recovery for him. And if you know anything about my dad, he isn't one to being laying in bed for too long.

Thank you for your prayers and word of encouragement.

Great summertime drink

2006-07-06T13:16:00.000-07:00

So some friends told me about a drink. When you read through the ingredients you will probably gag like I did, but trust me, it actually tastes really good. I can never remember the correct name of the drink; it’s either a Courthouse Cooler, or a Courtroom Cooler. Call it whatever you want, I call it delicious. Here's the info:

Ingredients:
12oz can lemonade frozen concentrate (x1)
brandy
12oz beer (x4)
ice

1. Empty the lemonade into a pitcher
2. Fill the empty lemonade container with brandy
3. Empty the brandy into the pitcher
4. Empty the 4 bottles of beer into the pitcher
5. Add ice
6. Mix together
7. Enjoy!

This is a great drink for a hot day, or a warm day, or a bad day, or even a good day. It's great everyday! I don't think that there's much of a different in the type of brandy or beer that you use. The one I had tasted had used Miller High Life from a can and it still tasted great!

and it's only Thursday morning

2006-05-25T06:29:00.000-07:00

So this has been one hell of a week already. Let me bring you up to speed on what has happened over the past few days.

Sunday: Yours truly gets elected at the church voter's meeting to server as Chairman for the Board of Stewardship.

Monday: We receive 1250 laptops. We get to unload, open, sort, inventory, and load all 1250 onto shelves. Woo hoo.

Tuesday: Of the 1250 laptops that we just scanned into inventory yesterday... it seems we missed one. Time to find the needle in the haystack.

Wednesday: We get to figure out how we're going to talk to Lenovo about wireless (what a fun process, let me tell you). I also got to drive out to Chaska for my niece and nephew's graduation. That's from Kindergarten. Yes, a Kindergarten graduation. I also found out that my dad was in a car accident and totaled his car. He's fine, but currently in search for another car.

Thursday: After watching the season finale of Lost last night I am now as angry at the producers of that show as I was at the end of season 1, but I will wait with baited breath for season 3 to begin. Good thing it's only 3 1/2 months away.

Here's to hoping that the rest of the week is slightly calmer than the first part of the week.

Lost & Confused

2006-05-17T08:53:00.000-07:00

I have become a huge fan of Lost. While I have been watching the show with an almost religious fever, I continue to walk away each week saying, "Wow, I can't believe that... but now I've got more questions." This gets to be very frustrating, but yet I continue to watch. If only there would be more good tv shows, then I could stop watching this one! With season 2 already coming to a close, I thought I might just state my impression of the preview for the next new episode. My guess is that there are going to be more visitors to the island. Whether this comes from a new plane crash or boating accident... I'm not sure. But I think we'll have some new people added to the mix of our already dwindling group. Of course, no questions will be answered in the final episode. We will get a small peek at some of the "others", but viewers will be even more frustrated and have more questions than at the end of season 1. Some one asked me the other day how long I thought they could pull this off, my response was 5 years. If they're still pulling the same crap and this show goes into a sixth season, I'm pretty sure I'll be mad as hell, but waiting in anticipation like everyone else.

Springtime

2006-05-03T09:01:00.000-07:00

Strawberry Festival is here. What this basically means is that we get 20-30 minutes to go outside and pigout on strawberries. From shortcake to ice cream. It's a great time to just hang out and enjoy the weather. And according to my boss, it is "the highlight of the year". How sad.

What happens in the Techshop?

2006-04-21T11:48:00.000-07:00

Every wonder what happens if you drop a laptop while its running? If you're really lucky it shatters into a hundred pieces. You will not however be able to get any of your data back. And yes, all of those tiny bits in the upper right are all that is left of this poor drive.

Other than that its been a pretty crazy week. We've had work orders like crazy. I guess it's that time of year when students and staff realize how important it is to have a working laptop. Go figure.

40 days & nights

2006-04-13T13:20:00.000-07:00

So how long is too long to be away from posting on your blog? 40 days (or close to it) sounds long enough. I could remind my gentle reader(s) that being the season of Lent I felt compelled to give something up (like blogging). Now with Easter approaching I can return to my blogging ways, much the same way Jesus returned... I better stop there before I get stoned for heresy. In truth, I've just been lazy. Maybe not entirely lazy, but there have been a lot of things going on, so updating this site hasn't always been on the forefront of my mind. With that in mind, a friend sent along a great little picture that I wish to share. Enjoy your weekend and I'm sure I'll have plenty to post in a couple of days.

VoIP... what?

2006-03-02T12:28:00.000-08:00

For as many complaints that some people have about CSP, they really do try to be a leader in technology. Ok, leader might be stretching it, but at least a leader when it comes to the Concordia University System. We've undertaken a project to move over to VoIP. "What are you talking about Jon?" I can hear many of you asking. Well, let me tell ya.

VoIP stands for Voice over IP or in common terms: phone service over the internet.

I only bring this up because we have started receiving some of the boxes for this project. Lots of boxes. I didn't think that this would be happening until later this year, but apparently they are going to get it up and running soon. In fact, if you like to learn more about exactly what CSP is doing Mike Bruder has created a journal detailing more information. You can find it here.

Jag Bomb and the mechanic

2006-03-02T05:34:00.000-08:00

So another year has come and gone. This year's birthday was one to remember. I'll start with the mechanic.

It started off with driving to the dealership to get the car fixed. The previous weekend the car was in for an oil change, and I decided to have them check on some other things. Well, 2 hours later they came back with an estimate from some testing and said the problem wasn't what I had thought, but rather all these other parts... joy oh joy. We already had plans for the weekend and I needed the car back. So they put it all back together and I told them to schedule something up right away because we'd be doing some traveling and we didn’t' want the car to break down while we're out of town. So they scheduled it for Tuesday morning (aka - my birthday). What a great way to start off the day. Later in the day they call me to let me know that they don't have the car finished and they'll need it for another day. Great. Whatever. Just get the job done. Long story short (too late I know) we got the car back last night, and because I didn't read the estimate correctly, its costing us double what I thought it was going to be! So if anyone would be so kind as to click on the Google Ads you now see on my blog, that will go a long way to help paying for this gianormous bill. If you let me know that your blog/website/whatever has the same setup, I'll add it to my list so that we both benefit.

Well, Tuesday night we decided to go out for my birthday. I talked to my brother and sister and they agreed to meet us at BW3's. We had wings and beer and just had a really great time hanging out and talking. We had been trying to contact my mom because her and I share the same birthday. Apparently she went out with some friends and heard all the phone messages when she got home, so she came right over. After dinner my brother's girlfriend decided to show up as well, which was very cool. They've been dating for about 2-3 months and so we finally got to meet her that night. Apparently one of my sister's high school classmates was at BW3's as well and it turned out it was his birthday. He didn't believe my sister when she told him that my mom and I we celebrating our birthdays as well. He got pretty excited and decided that we all had to do a birthday shot together. Side note - my mom is not a drinker, let alone a shot type of person. She looked like a deer in the headlights when he mentioned a shot. But surprisingly she agreed to do one. He came back a few minutes later with a Jag Bomb (pronounced yag) for each of us. For those that need to know, the ingredients are listed below. So Elsa ended up driving my mom's car home because the Jag Bomb was too much for her to handle. It ended up being a great night, and was the perfect answer for the crappy way the morning started. I'm pretty sure we'll be back there in 2 weeks to celebrate Biz and Elsa's birthdays.

As promised, here's what you need for a Jag Bomb:
1 can Red Bull energy drink
1 oz Jagermeister

The best video... EVER!

2006-02-24T10:11:00.000-08:00

While I didn't create the video, I must say that it is one of the best things I've seen on the internet lately. Enjoy... and spread the word.

CSP Video

007

2006-02-22T05:10:00.000-08:00

I love the James Bond movies. I've seen every single one of them. Most of them I've seen twice. Some even more than that. When I lived in Germantown my roommates and I even watched all the movies in order. All four of us worked at Blockbuster so it was easy enough to get our hands on all the movies. When Goldeneye for the N64 game out, I quickly became a master. I don't say that to boost my own ego, but when you play against people, and you're the one playing upside down, and drunk, and still winning the majority of the time. Well, I think I may have spent too much time playing that game. Anyway...

Up until now I've never read one of the Ian Fleming novels. I've already read most of the books that I own a couple of times, so awhile back I was at Barnes & Noble and decided to pick up one of the books. They happened to have several, and after looking through a couple I found Casino Royale. I found out that this was the first Bond book, and I knew that it was being made into a movie that would come out this summer, so that's the one I bought. Its very different reading through the thoughts of a character that you've seen on screen a hundred times. But that wasn't the most interesting thing. There is a line that I thought still held some truth today. Just remember that this was first published in 1953. Here's the quote:

'Of course,' he added, as Mathis started to expostulate, 'patriotism comes along and makes it seem fairly all right, but this country-right-or-wrong business is getting a little out-of-date. Today we are fighting Communism. Okay. If I'd been alive fifty years ago, the brand of Conservatism we have today would have been damn near called Communisn and we should have been told to go and fight that. History is moving pretty quickly these days and the heroes and villians keep on changing parts.' (p. 135)

Fleming, I. (2002). Casino Royale (Penguin Books). New York: New York. (Original work published 1953)

3rd and 62?

2006-02-20T05:27:00.000-08:00

Now that the season is almost to an end I can relax a little more about how parents and fans act and react to any given situation. I needed to vent a bit, so thanks for listening. The girls had a tournament at home this past weekend. The ended up taking 3rd place. It's too bad that the season is now ending, because they are really looking like a real basketball team finally. They started playing together and working the plays they were taught. The final game is tomorrow night at home. Its a team that they've never beaten, but this weekend 2 of the opponents got hurt, so we'll see what happens. This also made for a long weekend. I think we were at school from 9-6 on saturday. I at least had the opportunity to leave and get some food, but Elsa was stuck there the entire time. I did have fun watching the games though. I also got to see Lindsey! That was great catching up with her again.

As we're watching Grey's Anatomy a commercial comes on for the evening news. You know the kind. They tell you some of their top stories in about 15 seconds. Well, one story they talked about was how a 62 year old woman gave birth to a child. Now as we were watching the news commercial, they showed a picture of the mother. I knew that God would strike me dead for the things that came to my mind, but I had to say them out loud. The first thing that entered my mind was, "who was willing to have sex with her?" The picture they showed was not flattering AT ALL! I don't mean to be mean, I really don't, but I couldn't help myself. I'm really hoping that it was just a bad picture, or that I was just too tired when I saw it. I'm afraid to google the story right now because I'm still waking up. If I happen to find the picture that I saw last night I'll let you know.

Parents just don't understand

2006-02-14T06:07:00.000-08:00

Before I begin, let me say that all ideas and opinions are my own. They are 100% mine, and mine alone. While some may agree or disagree with them, they are written only for my own benefit, and to release some of the frustration building inside of me. Enjoy :)

So last night's game goes into double overtime. DOUBLE OVERTIME! This isn't something that happens everyday for a girl's grade school basketball game. The girls clearly had a chance to win the game. They were up by a basket and the coaches told them to run a play. This play was designed to keep the ball away from the other team and just eat up the clock. For anyone who has actually seen a basketball game before, you know that this is pretty common. It can be a crappy thing to do, but its part of the game. Well wouldn't you know it, LOPP #1 (Loud, Obnoxious, Proud Parent) decides there's a better way to play than what the coaches have decided. So of course this LOPP's child listens to them and not the coaches. Guess what, the girls lost the game. This wouldn't be so bad if another LOPP hadn't approached a coach at church on Sunday to talk about their child and basketball! I understand that this is a christian school, but when will parents realize that teachers/coaches need a break from work/school/sports. If their child lost the fun of science, would they talk to the teacher about letting them do whatever they wanted in science class? How many parents get bombarded with issues about their job when they're trying to worship? I understand that teachers (especially at a christian school) are held to a higher standard, but how about actually treating them with the honor and respect they deserve.

You're kidding, right?

2006-02-13T05:59:00.000-08:00

I was watching the news yesterday and there were 2 stories that I found interesting.

The first one was that Vice President Cheney shot one of the members of his hunting party! My jaw just hit the floor when I first heard the story. Now a hunter getting shot by members of their own party is almost an annual event during the hunting season here in Minnesota. I would have thought that if you were going to go hunting with the VP of the US, you might be a little more aware of all of you surroundings than if you were just out with your buddies. If I'm ever hunting with someone who has their own Secret Service detail, then believe me, I will not be carrying a gun, let alone go near those carrying guns.

The second item was that Michelle Kwan was bowing out of the Olympics! Let me preface this with the fact that I've never been a fan of figure skating. While I think that they are indeed talented and athletic people, I'm just not a fan of the sport. But then this girl has the balls to petition to be in the Olympics, after she's been hurt for awhile, and didn't even make it to the competition that was used to decide who would go. In my mind that shows me how much of an ego that girl must have. I understand she's never won gold at the Olympics, but neither have hundreds of other people. I didn't hear anyone else whining and crying to get back in. And then, AND THEN to just say "oops, now that I'm here... I'll jt bow out". If that were me, I'd be with the trainers 24/7 and fighting through whatever pain I had. I'd only be stopped if I had a broken leg. I guess I've just always held the Olympics a little higher than other sports. Here are people who live and train for 4 years for 1 shot at glory. Somehow, to me it looks like Michelle just doesn't have that same feeling. Don't even get me started on what the US Olympic chairmen said about her, grrrr!

So on that happy note, here's to starting a great week at work! Adios.

Insight into my life

2006-01-31T05:52:00.000-08:00

I've been fooling around with some other items on the web and I've finally added the links to my blog. On the right you'll now find the start of a Mierow Family Tree and a Flickr account that shows several pictures that I've collected over the years.

This week is pretty much going to be the same as last. Basketball games and practices with a tournament in Winona this weekend. Work, eat, drive, sleep, repeat.

In other news I found out from my mom last night that my uncle Danny has cancer on his kidneys. He's going in for surgery on the 13th. I guess the odds aren't too good on if he'll make it through or not. I also found out that my cousin Cindy has breast cancer. The Mierow Clan is really swinging high this week. Just keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

Sooooo tired

2006-01-25T05:42:00.000-08:00

Here I thought last week was crazy with all of the students returning for Spring Semester, but no. It seems like this week is the one that is going to really tax me. So far I haven't been home before 7pm this week and today is only Wednesday! Elsa has a lot going on at school, so we've been there late each night, and I'm sure tonight will be no different. Monday night they had a home game (they lost) and then afterwards she was able to get started on prepping her room for the Open House on Thursday night. Well, we got home at 7:20 on Monday. Last night there was more prep work to be done, as well as some cleaning and getting bulletin boards all finished. Arrival time at home: 7:45pm. I was informed that tonight would be a late night as well. Yippie. I also know that Thursday will be a late night because they have a basketball game that is an away game, plus the Open House. Guesstimate at home time arrival: 9:30ish. I'm not sure yet if I have to leave work early to go down and pick her up, then drive back past work to where the game is at, to then drive back down to her school for the open house, to finally then drive home?

Oh crazy life. Where would I be without you?

Veird... isn't it?

2006-01-17T05:21:00.000-08:00

I couldn't help it. I love the movie.

So last Sunday in Bible Study we were talking about prophecy. We've been on this subject for the past few months, and somehow it turned to dreams last week. People were asking if God still uses dreams to talk to us, if dreams can still be interrupted, etc. I will occasionally have a notable dream, but it seems like all last week I had some weird dreams.

The other night I was a thief in a mall. I would steal anything from pictures to guitars. Don't ask me how I got the loot out of the mall, especially because I would be there during the day. And it wasn't like I was the only thief there. I would see about 10 other thieves all working the same mall at the same time. People walking all around and everything. Weird

The night before that I was back in college again. I remember taking some type of advanced physics class. The college was setup more like a high school, but I saw all of my friends from college there. Also, besides going to classes, I now lived on campus. I ended up going to all the different things that the college had (musicals, games, dances) and I started dating a friend of mine. Weird.

A few nights before that I dreamed that we (the U.S.) were being attacked by these people in spaceships that somehow looked similar to the Empire from Star Wars. Somehow I had this crazy idea that I was going to fight back using this airplane that had a single propeller engine. Very weird.

Oh, and then there was last night's dream. I was working in the office, but it had people from some of my past jobs all working there together. I did a number of odd jobs. The job I remember the most was working on the clock tower. Yes, I said clock tower. It looked a lot like Big Ben, but it was on a college campus. Anyway, I had to be strapped to a thin line and hang out side the clock face to replace a part. For whatever reason I was totally at peace with it. I had no fear of falling or being afraid of the height. Veird, isn't it?

So that's been my past week. There's lots more to catch up on, but isn’t going to be a crazy day here and I need to get things going. Adios.

Longhorn fans... you're welcome!

2006-01-05T05:15:00.000-08:00

That's right Longhorn fans, you're welcome for the victory. As you can see by the pic below, a few of us northerners have rallied the spirit of Texas and I believe we have helped you guys win your championship.

Needless to say, we do call our Bevo hat the "Stupid Hat", but that has nothing to do with our love of Texas. It is only with great pride and admiration that such a hat could be given a worthy title of - The Stupid Hat. This is might have to do something with the fact that alcohol is involved whenever we use the stupid hat, but that's a whole other story.

For right now we need to just soak up the victory and laugh at all those who thought they we're not in'Vince'able. Adios!

BEVO!

2006-01-05T05:12:00.000-08:00

Christmas!

2005-12-27T00:48:00.000-08:00

I love Christmas, not just for getting all the goodies, but also to see the faces and hear the reactions when other people open their gifts. My niece and nephew continue to make me smile and laugh. They truely enjoyed their gifts and everything was "exactly what they wanted". I got some amazing gifts as well.

I hope and pray that everyone is enjoying their time with family and friends.

Ring of Fire

2005-12-19T05:33:00.000-08:00

This is my prize for being able to wolf down 12 of the hottest wings at Buffalo Wild Wings in 6 minutes. My lips and tounge were numb for about 30 minutes after I finished. While I finished my wings in about 5 1/2 minutes, Jay finished his in just under 5. Kudos to him. And just for the record: real men do cry!

I'm such a dork...

2005-11-22T06:12:00.000-08:00

... I'm still amazed that Elsa puts up with me. I decided to build my own PC. While I've worked on laptops and desktops forever, I've never actually built one just for me. After saving a little bit of money and looking for deals, I was finally able to get the pieces I wanted. So now we have a machine at home that actually works... if we could only get a high speed connection at home I'd be set :)

I also found out how I can create my own ringtones for my cell phone for free. This way I don't have to pay $1-$3 for a popular song as a ringtone! So Elsa and I were joking around last night trying to find a song that could be her ringtone and eventually she picked "On Wisconsin"... big suprise :)

I'm still trying to figure out how I should put my pictures online. I've played around with Ofoto, and Flickr, but I'm not sure if that's what I'm looking for. I'll probably play with it more over Christmas break and try to have it all figured out and online for the new year. I promise, very soon you'll get to see some pics.

Not much else going on. We're hoping that Jay hasn't caused too much damage in Texas. At least Jill will be down there soon to try and control him. We did find out what God had in mind why we weren't going to Texas. Our car was in the shop last week for a couple of days and about $900 later... needless to say that payed for our trip. Hopefully we'll get to see a couple people over Christmas. To those in Texas - we WILL get down there, we promise! We want to see all y'all.

Well... back to the grindstone. Adios!

59, 20Q and snow

2005-11-16T04:55:00.000-08:00

So it's been awhile since I've posted anything, but there realy hasn't been too much to write about. Work. Eat. Sleep. Repeat. That is until now!

Last night we went over to my parents house to celebrate my dad's 59th birthday. This is kinda a big milestone because his older brother is the first male on his side of the family to live past 60. My grandpa died at 59, and I think great grandpa was 58. I don't get over to see my folks as much as I should. Its easy to tell yourself that you've been busy and that you'll make the time, but then you usually never do. It really hit me last night, because my dad mentioned several times that we could "stop by anytime". This is usually mom's territory, so I know that its important to him if he's going to say it to me several times.

Before we went over to my parents house, we stopped by Kohl's. Big surprise. I feel like I should buy stock in the company, or they should at least give me a parking spot for how much we go there :) Anyway, Elsa found this game called 20Q. You pick an object and then this thing will ask you 20 questions. After 20 questions it will tell you what you were thinking of. Its pretty addicting. Last night we picked: a key, Christmas tree, car, cake, and ham. It got almost all of them.

And finally, last night we got our first taste of snow. Elsa was SO excited to finally see some snow. I think there was only 1/4 to 1/2 of an inch, but it was enough to make the ground white and the roads slippery. I know there was a huge accident this morning in Burnsville, so it should make for an interesting ride home tonight. Back to work :) Adios!

Brother in Christ

2005-10-25T10:15:00.000-07:00

I found out today that a friend and classmate from Mayer Lutheran has died. Matt was indeed, from all that I saw, a true man of God. While only God can see into a man's heart, I believe that I will one day get to see him. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends as they continue to deal with the flood of emotions that are surrounding them at this time.

I happened to find a Prayer of Courage. It comes from the Lutheran Book of Worship.

Lord God,
you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mill-e-wah-que...

2005-10-25T06:31:00.000-07:00

Which is Algonquin for "the good land."

This past weekend we went to Milwaukee to see a bunch of friends that we haven't seen in forever! It was a blast getting to catch up on what's been happening in everyone's life. Seeing how people and places continue to change and grow even when you're not there. All in all, it was a great weekend. You never seem to truly realize how important it is to see your friends, until you haven't seen them for years.

We have been struggling over going to Texas for Thanksgiving. We thought we were going to be able to go, and then we ended up being short on funds. I know that Elsa really stuggled with this because she has a real close connection to Chad and Erin, and we've never seen Maddie yet (in person that is - keep posting the pics guys). And then there's Josh and Sarah (I always forget if it's with or without an "h"). I haven't seen them since before I was married I think. After last year's trip to Texas we really wanted to make it an annual thing, but it doesn't look like we'll make it, at least at Thanksgiving.

I'm hoping to have some pictures of our trip up by the end of the week. We'll see how much energy I have to actually do that as the week rolls on. Time to get back to the grindstone. Adios!

Interesting Reading

2005-10-24T13:30:00.000-07:00

I've been visiting various websites that have been making me think. These mainly have to do with various politics going on in the Lutheran church. Some of them have some good points, some of them actually make me sad and afraid to see what the future of the church may be. Either way, its good to see people talking about such issues and hopefully we can make some headway in this world. Here are a few of the sites:

http://thecrownedones.blogspot.com/

http://talkingdonkey.worldmagblog.com/talkingdonkey/

http://concordblog.blogspot.com/

http://cranach.worldmagblog.com/cranach/

http://www.crisisinthelcms.org/

http://allwashedup.blogspot.com/

http://www.jesusfirst.net/

http://whatyoudodoquickly.blogspot.com/

My future?

2005-10-14T11:29:00.000-07:00

So I happened to read my horoscope from The Onion. Here's what it says:

Pisces February 19 - March 20

You always knew you'd be sent straight to Hell when your time came, but you never thought they'd make you go there in a tacky white Hummer limousine.

Gotta love those guys. Where do they continue to come up with all this stuff? And then there's this:

Reeses Peanut Butter Cups

Very popular, one of you is not enough.

What Kind of Candy Are You?

Thank God for the internet...

2005-10-13T12:38:00.000-07:00

And for friends everywhere. Below are pics of Mr. Sommermeyer. One pic even has him actually working! I know this may be a shock to some, but I swear I didn't alter the pic at all. As far as I can tell, it's actually him doing something. j/k Josh. You know we love ya.

Joshua part 2

2005-10-13T12:35:00.000-07:00

Joshua part 1

2005-10-13T12:30:00.000-07:00

Beer... and other stuff

2005-10-12T05:40:00.000-07:00

So last Friday a bunch of us decided to Granite City Food & Brewery. All I can say is WOW! I love this place. The food comes in huge portions, and of course they have A-Mazing beer! They only offer about 4-5 different beers, but it is so good. They even have this deal called the Mug Club. It's $20 for a lifetime membership, but then you get a 25 oz. beer free, 10% all food everytime you come in, and all other 25 oz. beers are only $3. For life! I've been a member since last Friday :)

We've been looking for a new washer and dryer ever since we moved into the townhouse. The set that came with the place are total junk. If you don't stop the washer at certain points then it will never drain, or move to the next cycle. You'd be lucky to get a load of laundry dry in 1 try with the dryer. We finally found a great deal on a new washer and dryer on Saturday. They delivered everything yesterday and now we have no more laundry troubles. It even means that I can do laundry without shrinking all of Elsa's clothes.

Sunday there was a special voters meeting at church. There was a screwup with the staff checks awhile back. The error was found right away and things were made right, but it made the budget a little screwy. So they had a meeting to try and correct things. Overall the meeting went better than I was expecting. No one's perfect and we all make mistakes sometimes, and in the end it all worked out.

Jon's Rant of the Day
I truly wish that some people would open their eyes to see how much Satan is attacking the church. He doesn't need to worry about anyone who doesn't believe in Christ. Instead he attacks those who are working to further the kingdom of God. The Lutheran Church (like many denominations) is dying. I have said on many occasions that the politics in government are far better than that of the church, and the past several months have continued to prove that to me. The infighting that happens is horrible to see. Especially when this fighting comes at the expense of tearing down the workers and volunteers of the church. Here are people who are pouring out their time and energy in service to Christ. I know that many of these workers (in a lot of congregations) agonize over what to do everyday. They create special lessons plans so that they can meet the kids/adults where they're at. They look at each child/adult as an individual and figure out the best way to reflect Christ's love to them. This is what Satan is afraid of! He doesn't want us to further the kingdom of God. Why do you think he's working so hard on us!

I just needed to get that off my chest. Time to get back to the grindstone. Adios!

Life

2005-10-05T13:17:00.000-07:00

It's been an amazing 24 hours.

Last night Elsa and I met with our Financial Advisor (hi Dave) and we talked about what to do with our life insurance and other things. I then opened my email this morning to find out that the grandfather of a good friend had passed away. If thoughts of death were not already surrounding me, I found out that another friend from CSP passed away. Melissa Theel was a wonderful young woman who always had a smile on her face. It seems that her health was ok, and she passed away in her sleep, so I truly hope and pray that she didn't suffer. It just really happens to make you realize how you should indeed live each day as it was your last.

On another note, I found an interesting Irish lullaby that really hit me. Here's part of it:

I would give the world today
If I could hear that song of hers again".
So laments an Irish lullaby of a life passed
Like a leaf on the wind.
Innocently it yields to the winds call.
The leaf and wind, then, soar together as one,
With no thought, as the journey is begun,
That when it lands the journey is done.

Adios.

October already

2005-10-03T18:47:00.000-07:00

Man... time has been going by pretty quick. Here its the beginning of October already. It doesn't even seem possible. Not too much going on here the past few weeks. We've been keeping everyone in our thoughts and prayers for all those affected by the hurricanes.

We went bowling with Jill and Jay awhile back. They asked us to fill in on a league? We reminded them of how much we suck at bowling, but they said they didn't care. It was actually a lot of fun. I only got a 129 my first game, but then something kicked in and I bowled a 178 and a 180! I'm not quite sure how the hell that happened, but I'll take it.

This past Saturday morning was another golf day for Jay and I. Needless to say he beat me by 3 strokes (I got a 49). But I'm still really pleased with how my game is coming. For this being my first real year of playing I think I'm going pretty well. We went out for lunch afterwards at Granite City Brewery. I had the Bedda Chedda Bacon Burger. Two words - damn good! I took a short nap in the afternoon and then went to a movie with some friends from CSP. We saw Serenity. Only the best movie I've seen in many years! I could take up way too much of my time to go into details about it, but if you're looking for a good action movie that is well written, filled with comedy, suspense, and even a tiny bit of romance - then this is the movie for you.

We found out yesterday that Seth and Emily are now officially engaged! Congratulations to the both of them. I did indeed welcome Seth into the Whip Men's Club. Tomorrow we should be buying our tickets for Thanksgiving. Once again we have decided to embark on a great adventure to the land known as Texas. This time we will be flying instead of driving. This should save us much of the sanity that we lost on last year's trip. That's about it for now. Adios!

Its been... 2 weeks

2005-09-16T11:12:00.000-07:00

Man, its been awhile. I've kept up with most people either through IM or email.

** Side note (Tech Geek Moment) **
For those that haven't heard, stop using AIM, MSN, or Yahoo Messenger and go to Google Talk. You can talk to people over this thing. Its still only in beta, but I love it. If you need an invite to Gmail, let me know, I think I've got about 100 left.

Back to what's been happening. I went golfing with Jay last Saturday and lowered my 9 hole score from 63 to a 47! Needless to day I was happy about that. As you can see from the pics, we also went over to Seth's new place and played some card games. It was a great night. We had Applebees before that and both Jill and I won a beer bucket (what Seth has on his head). We we also over at Jill and Jay's last night. They grilled out for all 8 of us (Jill, Jay, Mike, Karlee(sp?), Seth, Emily, Elsa and myself). We then played Apples to Apples. What a great game. Not much else going on. Same old, same old at work for Elsa and I. We say her folks a couple of weeks back and that was a lot of fun. We will probably remain home this weekend and relax a bit. Since lunch is almost over, I'll get back to work. Enjoy your weekend all. Adios!

Go Texas

2005-09-16T11:11:00.000-07:00

And some people think that we're weird?

P & A

2005-09-16T11:10:00.000-07:00

For anyone who has played the game... well, our group always seems to take it to new heights.

Hell week is OVER!

2005-08-29T17:51:00.000-07:00

OMG. Last week was just unreal. I still haven't figured out how many hours I worked, but it felt like I worked 100. I'm glad that it only comes once a year. Incase you're wondering, last week was Welcome Week. This means that we (CSP's I.T. Dept) had to setup laptops and provide training to all of the new/transfer/returning student. We offered 20 different class times last week! I don't know how many laptops we setup but I would guess it was around 250-300 at least.

The end of the week was probably the best. We decided to go to the MN State Fair! We went by ourselves this year and spent 4 hours just seeing all the things we wanted to see. We heard a lot of great music, saw a lot of great sites, and ate some amazing food. We had cheese curds, a pronto pup, a chocolate malt, and deep fried oreos! I love the state fair food. Beyond that I pretty much rested and tried to recover from last week. We had Culver's for supper tonight and I think I'm in the early stages of a food coma :) Good night for now. Adios!

Just Because

2005-08-23T16:00:00.000-07:00

I was taking my supper break and decided to do some searching for different interesting images and this one made my day. Enjoy!

Fighting Fishermen

2005-08-22T16:23:00.000-07:00

Evening in Duluth

2005-08-22T16:20:00.000-07:00

Enough...

2005-08-22T16:09:00.000-07:00

There's been enough harassment from friends that I've FINALLY taken the time to sit down and update this place a bit. Let's see what's been happening since I last wrote:

- bought a home (we actually had this at last post, but we're now moved in and we've made it our own)

- bought a set of golf clubs (I still suck, but I consider this to be my first real year of playing)

- went to Duluth
I elaborate on this one a bit because it was just so cool. Elsa had never been there, and it was about 17yrs since I was last there. We walked down Canal Park and saw the lift bridge and all the shops. We drove to Two Harbors and saw the lighthouse there. There are so many cool things to do there that we're planning on going back again.

That's pretty much all the highlights. I've been working all summer, and Elsa went back to school a week or two back. This week is pretty much hell week at work. We've got laptop training classes every day this week, and we've got about 4-7 classes each day. Yippie :) At least they're not all 2 hour classes like they were last year. We've gotten them down to 30-50 minutes. It's just going to be a long week. I will definitely be needing a beer come friday night! The MN State Fair starts this weekend, and I know that Elsa and I would like to go, but I think we'll have to wait until the following weekend to go, just with our schedules this week. Elsa also starts school next monday. She's only got 8 kids this year, but she's excited. Hopefully she won't get too stressed out this year. Take care all, and drop a line sometime. Adios!

Crazy Swedes

2005-06-02T08:37:00.000-07:00

So we decided to go to IKEA last Saturday morning and let me just say - holy crap! The place is HUGE! We spent 2 hours there and we didn't even see everything they had to offer. Of course we walked away with $100 worth of their stuff. Watching Elsa was like watching a kid in a candy store. I thought she was going to go into shock. She got all giggly and excited - it was just too funny to watch.

We are no longer officially newlyweds. We have now been married 5 years. Those 5 years have flown by, but I guess when you move 5 times in 5 years, that helps the time disappear. Of course, everything worked out on buying the townhouse so we will be moving again in a week or so. Why should our life begin to slow down and get boring at all? Why not move again? At least this time it's into a place of our own. It still doesn't seem real that we actually own a home. I'm sure the excitement will fade soon enough. Last night we bought a new stove for out home. It's one of the flat-top ovens. It should look great compared to the one we currently own. Momma Busse is also going to be coming up tonight to help us move some things over and get the rooms taped and painted. This will be a big chore. All of the rooms are currently a golden brown! Who in their right mind paints an entire house golden brown! Apparently the previous owner. So that's the big goal for the weekend - tape & paint. Hopefully it all gets finished so that next week we can move over our big items.

I'm sure there's more to talk about, but I'm having a brain fart right now since I've been up every morning at 5am to try and make up the hours I missed for closing on the house. If I happen to remember anything important I'll get it up here. Adios.

Waking up

2005-05-27T07:59:00.000-07:00

So as I'm trying to get myself motivated and out of bed this morning, my wonderful wife decides to ask me a question. Let me play it out for you:

Her: Do you remember where you were 5 years ago right now?
Me: mmm... sleeping
Her: Do you remember where?
Me: (after thinking a minute)... in the hospital
Her: (laughter)

To bring some of you up to speed. We were married 5 years ago tomorrow, and 5 years ago yesterday I had my bachelor party. Yes, the party got to the point where 5 years ago this morning I awoke to find myself in the hospital. For anyone who is going to get married in the future - don't let your bachelor party get this far. Trust me. When a nurse tells you that your blood alcohol level was .34, then you know that your party went to far. When people can still smell the alcohol on your breath the night AFTER the party, then you know you drank too much. When your "friends" try to convince you to NOT tell your future wife about the party, then you know that it may be time to look at new friends. While it was a VERY, VERY crappy way to start off a marriage, I am glad that we are both able to laugh at it now. I also consider myself to be truly blessed by God to have such a wonderful woman in my life. She has supported me through everything and loves me more than I thought humanly possible.

On that sappy note, time to end the coffee break and get back to work. Enjoy your holiday weekend. Adios.

And now... the end is near...

2005-05-11T09:33:00.000-07:00

It still hasn't hit me that school is finally over. So its taken me awhile to finally get a college degree, but its done. I think the scary part is that I've already started looking at classes that I can take to help keep me educated. Well, its a busy day at CSP since its laptop return time. Just a quick update and then back to the grindstone. Adios!

Scheduling

2005-05-09T05:49:00.000-07:00

So half the class is sitting outside of our classroom waiting for the first final of the day to begin. That was supposed to be 20 minutes ago. It looks like the prof had the dates mixed up and our final isn't supposed to be until tomorrow morning. I am not waking up at 5am again tomorrow to take this final. Arg! It would figure that our class would get screwed at the end like this. Its happened a couple of times it seems like, so why not end the semester the same way. I can understand mistakes, they happen to all of us, so I'm not mad at the prof, I just was expecting to get this out of the way right now. My plans are already set for what I'm doing and where I'll be tomorrow morning. Hopefully since it's all online, he'll just post the final, put on a time limit and let us do it when we get the chance. Well, if I'm going to be sittin and waiting, I guess I can get some more studying in. Adios.

Texas

2005-05-04T08:11:00.000-07:00

Well I just found out the other day that a good friend from Mequon is moving to Texas! My jaw hit the floor when he mentioned that he was going to Tomball! So I'm pretty sure the end of the world is coming since it seems like good friends are all going to Tomball, TX. At the very least this gives Elsa and I more of a reason to make the 1250 mile trip on down there. If they could just ease up on the heat a bit down there I'd be all set for moving, but oh well.

Not much else new on the homefront. This is the last week of classes, and then next week is finals. I can't believe that 3 years has gone by this quickly. Of to do some more work and get ready for final papers and projects.

5/19

2005-04-27T05:26:00.000-07:00

Alright, I admit it - I'm a geek! There I've said it and now it's out in the open. I promised myself that I wouldn't get all geeked up, but I cannot deny who I am. After seeing the trailer for the latest Star Wars film I must say I am excited. Very excited. I have also found yet another reason why I love the woman I married. We saw the preview for the movie this past Saturday and she actually said that she'd like to go see it! If that's not a reason for love then I don't know what is :) No need to worry about being too geekish, I don't own a costume or any figurines, and I won't be waiting in line to see the film. I will wait until things settle down and then finally see it.

Not much else happening. The girls had their last volleyball game last night. I'm not sure how the 5-6 graders did, but the 7-8 graders had an amazing game. They lost their first 2 games, and came back to win the last 3. It was quite the way to end a season. I believe their last game they won 15-4 or something like that. It was pretty cool. It was also neat because they only had 6 girls, while the other team had about 12. So they all had to play and work together.

Still looking for a new home. We went out this past weekend and saw some, but we found out the one we loved and wanted already had an offer on it. So I'll have to call our agent and ask him to set up some more viewings for this weekend. The only way we'll find one is if we actually go out and look I guess. Adios for now.

Weird Science

2005-04-13T05:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday our Physics class had to entertain a group of thrid graders with different expereiments. It turned out really well and it sounds like everyone had a great time. LJ and I decided to do a Cartesian Diver. After doing some research online I found out that you don't have to use eye droppers, you can also use condiment packets (mustard, tace sauce, etc). Some condiments work really well, and others don't work at all, but it was a ton of fun getting to experiment with them all. The kids asked a lot of great questions and we really well behaved. It was fun to hear them "oo" and "ah" at different experiments that they saw.

Today is just a full day of work. I'll actually be putting in some extra time today because I have to leave early tomorrow. Elsa needs the car for one of her volleyball games. That's the only thing that sucks about having one car, but at least its saving us money on gas and insurance. We finished our taxes the other night so I'm hoping and praying that it all works out and that we don't get audited. Other than that its been a pretty calm couple of days.

Weekend Update

2005-04-11T09:14:00.000-07:00

Ah Monday - crap. That's all I have to say. I woke up this morning at 3am! For no good reason at all. My body just decided that it's going to screw with me and wake me up at 3am and not want to go back to sleep. I finally did fall asleep around 5:15, but by then what's the stinking point!

Anywho... the weekend was pretty good. Elsa and Jill got back Saturday around 6pm and we all went out to Applebee's for dinner. They were in Indianapolis for the LEA Convention since Thursday. It was nice to have Elsa home again :) I spent Saturday morning cleaning up the apartment, and then Jay and I played our first game of Axis & Allies. All I can say is - awsome! Let me backtrack to Saturday night the week before. We were over at Jay & Jill's place for dinner and a game of cards. We about to pick a card game when Jill mentioned that we could choose a board game if we wanted to do something different. Jay mentioned playing Risk and the girls actually went along with it. So the 4 of us played a game of Risk and the boys got their butts handed to them by female world domination. Jay and I were talking about other strategy games and Axis & Allies came up. Neither of us had played, but we both heard that it was a great game. I went out and bought it and we ended up playing on Saturday. We didn't read the rules all to closely for our first game and it took us about 5 hours as we made things up, and searched the rule book and generally took our own sweet time to figure out what was all happening. Jay took the Axis power (Germany & Japan) and that left me with the Allies (Russia, U.K. & USA). Needless to say, and much to my disappointment the Axis powers won this time around. You just wait Jay! This Saturday your doom awaits!

Yesterday was pretty good as well. We slept in and went to late service. Got home, had lunch, and we both fell asleep on the couches. We woke up in time to get ready for our small group bible study. That was a lot of fun. We met Dave and Amy Wenthe, and some really good discussions about prayer. Over all, not too bad of a weekend in my book. Now we're back to Monday. The day is almost over for me so I can't complain too much about it. Except for trying to get my butt out of bed this morning, its actually been a good day so far. We get to grill out at Mom & Dad's for dinner tonight and hopefully (for the love of God) finish our taxes :)

Blah!

2005-04-07T09:38:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I've been sucking it up lately at adding my thoughts and journals to this thing, but here I go.

So what's been happening since the last post. Well, the girls we had stay at our place from Mayer were really nice. They told some great stories and it was great to hear how things are going out there. I just received the new "Crusader" a few days ago. Its the newsletter that keeps all the alums, parents, etc informed about what is going on. I still can't believe it's been 12 years already.

Since then Elsa and I have looked at more townhomes than I'd like to even think about. I am pretty sure that I have now driven down every street of Eagan - twice. We've found a number of homes that we like, but until I find a job its not going to help us much.

At this time, Elsa should be arriving at her hotel in Indianapolis for the LEA Convention. She'll be gone until Saturday night which means I'm living the bachelor life again for a few days. Good thing I've got school and work otherwise I'm sure that I'd get into some trouble somewhere along the line. I'm still not leaving that possibility out tough because it also menas that Jay is on his own for a few days. Now if we just had the Fat Kid with us for a 3-day spree we could really raise some chaos.

Gotta drive over to Shakopee to get the car in. It seems like the shocks are going which really sucks because we need them to hold on until I get a job so we can actually pay for the repairs. I'm happy that our car has help up as long as it has so far. Besides regular checkups, and buying tires, windshield wipers, etc... we haven't had any major problems with it. It also gets great gas mileage for its size. It gets an average of 27-32 miles/gal. Not to bad for v6 Dodge Stratus in my book. Depending on where I get a job we've also started talking about getting a second vehicle. While I would love to get a truck, I just can't justify it right now - especially with the gas prices. I've found a couple of SUV's that I like that seem to get 20-27 miles/gal. We'll see what happens.

I guess I should get back to work. I swear - I SWEAR I will get more posts in this month than I did last month!

Music to my ears

2005-03-16T15:49:00.000-08:00

Tonight we are going to have the choir from Mayer Lutheran High School singing for us at our Lenten supper. This is the beginning of their choir tour for this year. Elsa and I decided to host some choir members as a payback for all the times we were in choir. It's also kinda cool because Mayer is where I graduated from high school (way back in 1993). I was looking forward to it until last night when Elsa mentioned that we will be hosting 3 girls! I am planning on not seeing our bathroom tonight or tomorrow morning :) Keep the choir in your prayers not only for safe travels, but also that they are able to spread the Gospel through their talents.

Tonight TLO is also having a Board of Ed meeting. In fact, that is where Elsa is right now. I pray to God that they have a worthwhile discussion and are able to resolve and issues that may come up. I thought about attending the meeting myself, but I figured it is probably safer that I don't. I never know what might come out of my mouth and I'd rather not say something I'd regret. If I actually worked here, that would be a different story, so I'll just leave these battles up to Elsa for right now. If she comes out fine, then she can continue the fight, but the crap starts coming down and no one defends the teachers then I will be sure to make the next meeting. Aren't you just waiting with anticipation?

Not much else going on. I need to find a job so that we can buy a home and get out of our apartment. The apartment is nice, its just that they raised our rent $125/month. At this price we know we can find a townhome at least. In fact we're approved for a loan, it's just dependent upon me getting a job! Go figure. So the sooner I can get a job, then we can actually start looking at houses. I should get going before church starts. Adios!

Wonder Twin powers activate!

2005-03-07T05:57:00.000-08:00

So once again the girls have gotten themselves into wonderful situation. This time they decided to put themselves up for auction at the school's fundraiser. Their auction item said that they would babysit for up to 2 families, 4-5 hours and have a pizza party with the kids. I thought it sounded pretty good myself so I opened the bid at $50. This got a good chuckle as well as some evil eyes from the girls themselves. I think in the end they went for $110. The auction went really well. I think the school raised $8,000+ by the end of it all. They're going to give 10% of whatever the final total ends up being to help with the tsunami efforts. The rest will go towards improvements for the school - namely the playground. The equipment is so old that it falling apart and is starting to become a hazard for the kids and probably a liability for the school. It amazes me how many people don't think about the different liability issues for the school. You would think that faculty and staff would see some of the issues more clearly, especially in light of how lawyer happy everyone is these days.

We played cards Friday night with Jill and Jay. We played a couple rounds of euchre and the girls won each time. They kept rubbing it in our faces, but we knew that we were off our game because we didn't have the Fat Kid with us :) If we had all three amigos together we would have kicked some ass, but I guess we'll have to wait until we get together with them again. Class is about to begin, so I guess I'll be off for now.

30!

2005-02-28T08:14:00.000-08:00

Today I turn 30 and I don't feel much different than I did a year ago. Its amazing how fast the time goes by. I can't believe that I am 30 already. It also happens to be my mom's birthday today as well. That's kinda cool that we share the same birthday. What a present that was for her :) So I've been bored and decided to do some searching and see what might have happened on this day or who else was born. Here's today's history lesson. Enjoy!

Births:
1928 - Smokey The Bear (icon)
1928 - Tom Aldredge (actor)
1940 - Mario Andretti (race car driver)
1948 - Bernadette Peters (actress)
1953 - Ricky "Dragon" Steamboat (wrestler)
1962 - Rae Dawn Chong (actress)

Events:
1759 - Pope Clement XIII allows Bible to be translated into various languages
1917 - AP reports México & Japan will ally with Germany if US enters WWI
1940 - 1st televised basketball game
1954 - US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Bikini Island
1981 - Calvin Murphy (Hou), sets NBA record with 78 consecutive free throws
1982 - AT&T looses record $7 BILLION for fiscal year ending on this day
1993 - Gun battle erupts at Waco TX between FBI & Branch Davidians
1997 - FBI agent Earl Pitts pleads guilty to selling secrets to Russia

So all in all, some pretty interesting things have happened. I'm just hoping to make it through the day and go out to eat with the Mrs. tonight.

On a side note, we've started looking for a home. I'm not sure yet whether it is going to be a townhome or a real house, but I'm sure it will all work out either way. We've spent the past few weekends driving all over the place and just grabbing info from every home that's for sale we could find. I just called a realtor this morning who's in the process of getting us all lined up. I've also got a call into a loan officer so that we can get pre-approved and determine how much we'll actually get to spend on a home. And so begins the process of growing up :)

OMG!

2005-02-10T05:29:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe that we still have to hear about this damn fish! ARG!!! Ok, so here's what happened. I read through our church's newsletter last night and there happens to be a little paragraph about the "hero" fish who saved the school. Let me just give you some of the hightlights:

"...the fire fighting fish... died peacefully after a weeklong illness in her fish vase...she was well known for saving the school...she will be missed by all."

OMG! That's all that comes to mind. I am so pissed off that I can't even describe some of the emotions. First off, this fish is no hero. It was pure dumb luck (and the grace of God) that saved the school from burning down. If the candle wouldn't have been left burning in the first place... never mind. And I can tell you that she will not be missed by all. I thought we were finally to a point where we weren't going to hear any more about this thing, and then they go and print this. Well, I guess I can be happy that this should finally be the end of it.

This whole thing caused such an uproar when it happened that I think that is why I'm probably still bitter. If people would have just taken responsibility, or if they would have even thought about the rest of the staff that would have been a breakthrough. But no one seemed to care. Attention was focused on the unimportant, and it took away from the important. Its easy to say 'forgive and forget', but when something hurts someone close to you it makes it very difficult.

Ok, enough ranting. Just had to get that off my chest.

2005-02-08T11:14:00.000-08:00

TLO Girls Basketball

This past weekend I was down in Winona for a 7-8 Grade Basketball tournament. It was a lot of fun, but it also took a lot of energy out of me. In this pic the TLO girls are in red. They won this game and took 5th place in the tournament. The boys did pretty well, they ended up with 3rd place. Overall, not a bad weekend.

A year in review

2005-01-10T14:22:00.000-08:00

Ok, so 2004 was one heck of a year. Here are just a few things that happened that stick out in my mind.

Saw Pat McCurdy live at the Fine Line Music Cafe
Following the above incident, a friend's car got towed
Moved on one of the coldest days of the year
Played Beer Pong for the first time every
Had my 29th birthday
Celebrated 4 years of marriage
Finished internship
Traveled to Orlando, FL for the National Youth Gathering
Started classes once again
Drove to Texas and back in 5 days.
Learned how to play Phase 10
Became addicted to NASCAR 2005
We bought our 1st Christmas tree

That covers most of it. Can't wait to see what 2005 has in store.

2005!

2005-01-01T13:44:00.000-08:00

Well, its finally here - 2005! It certainly came sooner than I thought it would. This past year has been pretty crazy. I've been putting together the list of everthing that I've gone through, so it may be a day or two before that all gets posted here. Right now I'm still working on trying to just relax and enjoy Christmas break! Not much to say beyond that. Enjoy and stay safe everyone.

Things you find on ye old internet

2004-12-22T14:49:00.000-08:00

Here a jsut a few things that I've found today just searching through various sites. Since I probably won't be on for a few days with Christmas and everything. Enjoy them at your pleasure.

Twins having twins

From News of the Weird

Recurring Themes

Six weeks ago, News of the Weird reported on two New Hampshire mothers who had been arrested for viciously assaulting their own children over rather petty provocations. Later, in November, came Nicole Mancini, 29, who was arrested in Rochester, New Hampshire, after she, wearing pajamas, walked into the St. Mary's Church with her three children and was overheard mumbling about the need to "sacrifice" the kids on the "altar" "before 3 o'clock." After charging her with three counts of child endangerment, a police lieutenant said, "Eighteen years I've been doing this, and I've never come across anything like it." [Valley News (Lebanon, N.H.)-AP, 11-14-04]

Readers' Choice

In Kent, Wash., in November, a 24-year-old man, whose reasons will probably never be known, tried to heat his lava lamp on a stove; he was killed when the lamp exploded and propelled a piece of glass into his heart. And on Thanksgiving day in Worcester, Mass., Frank Palacios, 24, apparently got tired of being criticized for picking at the turkey with his fingers and stabbed his cousin and his uncle, sending both to the hospital. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer-AP, 11-29-04] [Boston Globe, 11-26-04]

Angry people at Christmas time?

2004-12-21T08:21:00.000-08:00

WOW! I know that there are some people who don't believe in God. That's fine. Not everyone is going to believe, but a coworker came across this today. Either he's got a real beaf with the church or he's that bored and too creative. What made me laugh was the line "Tell them that Santa is no kindly old man; he is an evil demon."

Then there are those in the church that are angry at NFL for things like this and this. I understand the frustration, but the NFL schedule has been out for a long time (since April I believe). Why all of the complaints now? Is one football game going to stop either Christians or not-Christians from going to church? I doubt it. If people were already planning on going - then they'll go. If they weren't planning on going - then what was your church doing to try and reach the lost?

And of course, the anger (or maybe sarcasm in this case) isn't lost on politics. I am continually amazed at the time people have on their hands. If all of these creative people actually put their efforts to good use we might be able to solve some of the world's problems. Instead we live in a society that just says its ok to try and whine and cry the loudest so that you get heard.

Enough of my rant. I'm enjoying the day because we finally got some snow. It just ain't Christmas without the snow. I don't know how people in other parts of the world do it. I just don't think I could have a Christmas w/o snow. Anyway, back to the grind stone. As my brother would say - Peace y'all.

Finals... yippie :)

2004-12-14T06:47:00.000-08:00

Yes, finals are upon me. I just finished taking my 1st of three finals today. It started at 7:30 this morning! It went pretty well. We had to come up with an idea for a church plant - how would we want to see a church grow. I believe that I will do ok on the essay. It was pure writting. We just came in, sat down and started. I've got another one at 1:30 this afternoon and then my last one for the day at 7:30 tonight! I guess I shouldn't complain too much. It could always be worse. On the upside, I get to sleep in tomorrow. At least for a little bit. I'll still have to drive my wife into work, but it beats getting up as early as I did today. Off to grab some food since I missed breakfast. Chao.

Christmas @ Northwestern

2004-12-03T06:06:00.000-08:00

My sister-in-law, Amanda, goes to Northwestern on the north side of the Twin Cities. She plays the oboe (sp?) as well as piano and another instrument or two I believe. Anywho, it has become a tradition for us to go the the Christmas concert and hear her perform. I must say, IMHO it is the best concert at the college level that I have ever heard. Each year I am blown away at what happens. Thie first year we went, Amanda had a solo in this huge Russian piece - totally amazing. It also seems to be tradition to go to the Olive Garden before the concert starts. So we'll meet up with Mom and Dad, Amanda and my other sister-in-law Heidi around 5pm. I'm looking forward to the concert and to spend some time with family. I need a break from the chaos of school. I can't believe that 2 weeks from today the semester will be done! Holy crap!

Thanksgiving in Texas

2004-12-02T07:29:00.000-08:00

WOW! What a trip. It was great to be able to see Chad and Erin (and Peanut). I know that it was great for Elsa to be able to just get away from the stress of MN. It's amazing how much you get to know about someone when you're trapped in a car with them for 40 hrs. That was about the total amount of time we spent in the car from MN to TX then back to MN. I'm using 'car' in the widest sense of the term. We actually rented an SUV from Enterprise. It was supposed to be a mini-van, but when I went to pick it up, they said they didn't have one and instead upgraded us to the SUV. They wanted to know if that would be ok? Like I could really say, "No, excuse me, I know you don't have any other large vehicles available so I guess I'll jsut cancel my trip." While it guzzled gas, it was also a pretty sweet ride. They gave us a 2004 Durango. I was just happy not to rack up 2600 miles on my own car :) The trip was a ton of fun. We got to see how Texans live, eat, and even partake in their night life (bowling if you're wondering). We also learned that massive amounts of swearing will occure from anyone (male or female) who plays any type of driving game. The guys spent numerous hours playing NASCAR 2005, while the girls enjoyed Mario Kart. Swearing became the standard for any driver that day.

I can hardly wait to go back. I know that Elsa, Jill and Jay feel the same way. I'm sure that next time though we will end up flying down. The drive was fun to do once. Maybe if we had more time for vacation we would drive again, but I think we'll be saving up for some flights. And flights should be cheaper when its not a holiday weekend. I know that Elsa would also like to actually see more of Texas. She's a HUGE fan of the TV show Dallas as well as a JFK history buff. We would have stopped at South Fork (I think that's the place where Dallas was filmed) if it would have been closer to our route. Too bad she found it on the map too late ;) I also wouldn't mind seeing some of Houston, or going down to the Gulf. We will what happens. For right now its back to the grind stone. SSDD.

Where do they get all that money?

2004-11-16T11:33:00.000-08:00

How does this happen? I mean if I had this kind of money lying around I know that I could find some better uses for it. I mean really, how do stupid people get so much money? This was taken from News of the Weird. Read on:

Things People Believe

(1) The sheriff in Tucson, Ariz., warned the public in August of a gang of women who lure horny men via newspaper ads into believing that they can buy a starring role in an adult video, citing the recent case of a man who was enticed to send $1,100 to set up a video shoot, then $7,000 more, then $8,000 more, and then another $8,000; he quit only when he learned that the women had persuaded his parents to pay $20,000 more for their son's "acting" career. (2) Lau Yat-fai, a 5-foot-9, 23-year-old basketball player in Hong Kong, paid the equivalent of about US$1,400 for electrical treatments from two "beauty centers" that had promised to make him tall. (After filing a lawsuit, he got a partial refund in October.) [Tucson Weekly, 8-26-04] [Associated Press, 10-8-04]

Monday Mornings

2004-11-15T06:35:00.000-08:00

Everyone says the same thing, "I hate Monday mornings". Well, I have to say that they're really not as bad as some days. Here I sit in class because our professor talked non-stop about being 'on time' because we were going to watch a video and he is not 10 minutes late. I don't mind just sitting around doing nothing. It's not a great use of the time, but oh well. So far the days is going well and the fact that I don't have many classes is always a bonus.

9-1

2004-11-14T11:48:00.000-08:00

Damn you Michigan! Ok... I forgive you because last year you got your butts handed to you by a bunch of kids from the land of cheese and beer. And, I can't completely blame you. After all it does take two people to dance and boy did it look like the Badgers showed up to the wrong dance! And I still have several friends in Michigan who I'd like to see get out alive so... nice game :)

2004-11-12T10:37:00.000-08:00

What Lutheran Grade School Teachers really do during school.

2004-11-12T10:24:00.000-08:00

Elsa & I

And we're off

2004-11-12T09:59:00.000-08:00

So I've decided to take some time from work today and finally get into this whole blogging thing :) This came up because I was looking at websites and really wanted to have my own (www.mierow.com) but it seems that it has already been taken by someone who doesn't like to update their site. I next thought about a free site that I could create and make my own, but I realized that I don't have the time to make it work the way I'd like. So... tada - here I am. This seems easy enought and gives me the freedom to do some of the things that I'd like. Anywho... so with my own unique sense of style and humor I picked a name that suited me. We will see how long I keep this up. Wish me luck and go out and enjoy your weekend.