last day at the fair

after 5 full 12 hour days in a row, it was golden to sleep in for a while. Took my time getting ready, and played Battleship online with Leesha before her dad picked her up.

Cara and I went to Uptwon Bar to meet Greg and Mandy, Jutton, David and Eric. Cara gave me From Russia with Love and Goldfinger DVDs. Greg and Mandy gave me Justice League cartoon DVDs. Jutton gave me a gift certificate for Dream Haven bookstore. My family and friends love me.

happy birthday to me

when I got upstairs this morning, there were a pile of cards for me to open.

Last full day at the MN State Fair. During lunch, I helped with At Issue at the station. Took the 3 o'clock shuttle with the At Issue set chairs immediately after they were finished.

Cara, Leesha and Eric and Keesha came out to the Fair around 3 :30 or 4 and wondered around. They came back to our booth to watch the 6pm. The 6pm was THE WORST SHOW of the entire '05 MN Fair broadcasts. In the A block Todd Baer's sat feed wasn't ready and in the B block, Joe missed about 3 pages and jumped ahead of everyone. It was horrible. They did turn camera 3 on me and acknowledge my birthday on air. Too bad it was in that show.

After the 6 and everything was torn down and put away, I joined my clan to wonder the fair. We went to the cow barn, the milk barn up to Heritage Square and rode the skyride to find fried green tomatoes. It was fun, but very very tiring having worked 12 hours already.

Day 5 of the MN State Fair

Not as much from the fair, more from the station due to Hurricain Katrina. So during Midday some of the blocks were totally from the station, we were trying to entertain our crowd by throwing water bottles for them. I ended up beaming an old lady in the head. My new nickname is Ladykiller. We had a old school country band as our Midday musical guest. They were pretty good. At least we didn't Wright Brothers them.

I did go back to the station for lunch, but I took an earlier shuttle back with a wood staircase. Swifty picked me up in a cart and we took the long way back, driving all over the fair. We had to stop about 3 times for the same parade.

Good Day

Everything fell into place quite well, today, inspite of finding out two days ago that I work this evening even though the schedule says I'm not.

I got to sleep in
had a great breakfast
played LIFE with Leesha and Cara
not too hot at the MN Sate Fair
5pm went well
6pm went amazingly well
got home and watched new DVD.

very good day.

Great Minnesota Get Together's Eve
Today was all about getting ready for the MN Sate Fair. Me 'n Zach had the job of first making enough room on the deck to light a new chroma key wall in and among the engineers.

This whole key wall thing was Dave Dahl's idea, I've heard. He won't even be there for it. He fell off his Harley and broke his collerbone and scraped off his new tattoo! (I made up the part about scraping off his tattoo. He really does have a new one from Stirgess, but I made up the part about scraping it off)

I had to leave our stuff out for them to put away for me because I was also scheduled to work on the 5pm Newscast. Little overbooked. Lot of work today, won't have any difficulty sleeping tonight.

song - Summer Breeze - Seales and Croft or Type-O-Negative

Retro-Updating My Blog.
Here's what that means:
I've had a total of three web logs. The first was an MSN community page that I kind of loosley made myself. While that site was cranking along, James Touchi Peters created conk.com which was a competitor of the MSN communities and included a web log feature. So I ceased using the non-existant blog tools at MSN for the conk site only to find that I didn't really care for it. But that initiated a search for a real blog server that I would like. That lead to the creation of this site. So in the end, my web log was spread out over three different sites. Today I started to cut n paste the old entries into this blog so they'd all be in one web location.

This has also inspired me to try to write something here every day- no matter how boring.

Paint the Weather Wall
My first mission today was to paint the new chroma key wall out at the Fair. I was to put the first layer of primer and than go on in to work. So thats what I did. To my suprise, the primer was already on as well as the first coat of chroma key green! So I applied the 2nd coat and then went on in to work to help out with the midday show.

After lunch, Ahmed and I went back out to apply a 2nd coat. We took Schmitty out with us and brought Kevin Knapp back with us. Kevin was very pissed, because with some communication snafu he had been stuck out at the fair for something like 2 hours longer than he planned. I sinfully took joy in his anger.

Daniel chapter 5, oh wait, Bocce!
for small group, tonight, we had a social night instead of studying the book of Daniel (which is what I emailed as the agenda ^_^). We played bocce ball. Leesha got to stay up (which isn't always a great idea) and she was on my team. Eric and Laura Beth beat us all out. Leesha had a meltdown at about 8:30 which was, as Cara pointed out to me, about the time she usually does when she gets to stay up later.

song - I had a song from Sunday's worship service in my head all day, but I don't recall it now!

did you know that you will NOT hear any promo for KSTP speak the word "channel" as in "Channel 5". It is strictly "5 Eyewitness News!"

we had a garage sale today

Bobo and Laura got married today

A Path of Geekdom Observed

I started a series called Honor Harrington. Its an interesting chain back to how I got into this book.

It all started back in High School when I bought a box of the original edition of GDW's Twilight 2000 rpg from Pegasus Games in Madison Wisconsin with Terry Treleven. This formed an appreciation for quality games with more realistic rules. After playing a couple of games in study hall, the game kind of petered out and remained on my shelf for several years.

Fast forward a decade...

In 2003, T2K resurfaces due to reprints of GDW's catalog. Last year I scored a copy of the reprints and read it often at work (during the Midday newscast). Living with Lord Bobo, I had access to many different rpg books- including the reprints of another GDW game called TRAVELLER.

Having recently submerged myself deep into the world of Firefly, I've checked out alot of web sites and there has been a lot of speculation that Joss Wedon was a fan of Traveller because the 'Verse of Firefly has a similar feel to it. Dreaming about a Firefly rpg (which does happen to be in the works, officially) and being familiar with GDW I made the plunge in to Traveller with Bobo's copy of the reprints.

There is a lot of similarity, naturally, between the writing of T2K and Traveller. It was easy to get into it. The premise of Traveller is a hard science space opera. Your characters usually are retired military types out trying to make a living. Getting into this game, I lurked some of the forums and found a lot of people talking about Honor Harrington. That sent me on a search for what it was all about. Everyone who has read these books say how wonderful they are, so I thought I'd check it out for myself.

and now I find my self fast approaching the middle of the first book- Honor Harrington: On Basilisk Station and here I am, writing about how good it is. Full circle.

music - Seven Nation Army - White Stripes nothing to do with Honor Harrington. Just really enjoying the Stripes right now.

It was so hot today that my rearview mirror fell off!

Leesha and I saved a frog's life today. We named him Ferdinand.

I got my internet access!

London

I didn't see any news untill I came in to work. Thats when I heard about the London Bombing. The first thing about it was how familiar it seemed to me. I thought I had just seen this or read this somewhere or something.

Actually, what it was, was this was almost exactly how the Queen & Country novel started which I finished two days ago. Kind of freaked me out.

got a speeding ticket

watched Superfly at work for work

dropped my new mom and dad off at airport.
Leesha was unbelievably difficult- tired and emotional.
met Leesha's dad at BestBuy in Bloomington to drop her off.
Got home and napped.
Got up, went to church.
Went to Batman Begins
Went to Big V's to see BJ
went home. to bed

Howl's Moving Castle

I hadn't seen Jutton for almost a year other than at our wedding. He's been on and of the boards, but hanging out with him wasn't happening. I guess the last time we saw each other was last fall when I'd be at the MOA working on Vikings Game Day and he'd be working at there as well.

Well, the latest film from one of our mutual favorite anime film makers, Hayao Miyazaki, is out in theaters and what a perfect way for us to reconnect- Ruby Tuesday's and anime.

We went to see Howl's Moving Castle. Very cool movie, we both agreed. However, we felt the ending was a bit too cliche. Still worthy of a purchase, perhaps. Miyazaki's other films include: Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Nausicaa- of the Valley of Wind, etc.

Back Home (for the first time)

Today we came home from our honeymoon. But this is the very first time its home for me. Since 2003, I've moved every year and it looks like it won't end in the near future.

I have boxes full of stuff everywhere still.

Our honeymoon was so relaxing. We stayed at Cara's (and I guess mine, too, now) Uncle and Aunt's cabin in Wisconsin. The idea was to stay somewhere where we wouldn't feel like we'd want to do all the touristy things instead of spend time with each other. Mission accomplished! There is absolutly nothing touristy about Grantsburg, Weber, or Siren WI!

Leesha and the Mackys (Cara's sister's family- Caryn, Cameron, Caspian and Calyn) came up to join us Thursday and Today. It was nice to have time with just them.

music - Alison Krauss and the Union Station

Married!

All my life I've been worried that I wouldn't sleep at all the night before my wedding. I got more sleep than I usually do! I snuck out to get some Burgerking breakfast and ate it before Bobo came home. There was nothing left in my room except for the clothes I was to be married in and my bed.

First thing that happens after I get ready to go is Greg and Mandy pick me up with Mom and Dad in tow in the their car. We then head down to Como Park and meet Chloe for photos. Once there it is discovered that we were supposed to pick Cara up! She got a ride with her folks (and that made for some really nice and more real photos- the ones where I first see my bride that day).

We took all sorts of combos with different family members. Chloe was great. She took color photos and her assistant took black and white. Overcast lighting was perfect. We took some photos down at the docks when it started to rain. We made our way to the church while it rained pretty hard.

Bobo and Eric were setting up tables in the church basement when we arrived. I told them not set up too much because I had faith that we were going to be at the park for the reception. They'd be glad to stop, but the wedding coordinator cracked her whip at them.

Before we knew it, we were in the middle of the ceremony. For the last few weeks I was in a lets-get-this-over-with mode, but I realized somewhere in the middle of the ceremony that this was really fun, and everyone there seemed to be having a good time as well. I didn't expect that the wedding would be fun. Don't know why not, just thought it was a major hassle.

And then the ceremony was over! My dad had the idea that we should give everyone some time to arrive at the reception. So Greg and Mandy took us to Maplewood to let Eddie and Cogswell out for a bit. My aunt Cele went with us (because she is a dog lover- Cogs and Eddie are Boston Terriers, btw).

When we finally did arrive, everyone was very suspicious of where we went. Nasty rumors had spread. Oh well. The reception was a lot of fun. Its strange having co-workers in line for pot-luck along side with family I haven't seen for quite some time. Worlds were colliding.
Eric and others convinced us we should dance. We finished off the already playing Promise from When in Rome immediately followed by Depeche Mode's Somebody (which I've always thought would be a good song at a wedding). We were quite aware that everyone was watching us dance. Just like at the FOCUS Gala. Then my mom and I danced to Forever Young by Alphaville (which goes way back for us Willis'. My mom has burned copies of Alphaville disks. Probably not many moms in the US with those, huh).

Things wrapped up rather quickly. We got to our hotel before sundown and checked in as Mr. and Mrs. Willis.



music - Pachebel's Canon in D, The Promise by When in Rome, Somebody by Depeche Mode, Forever Young by Alphaville pretty much sums up the wedding festivities.

Wedding Rehearsal

We had to move our rehearsal to the morning because the pastor that was marrying us had his daughter's graduation party that evening. Everyone gathered for a late breakfast first at IHOP. Thank God they had a separated room, because our clan was quite loud.

From there and it was pretty strait forward. Everyone made their way to the church. We met Kevin, the pastor, and went through the ceremony. Tweaked out some of the music details. This was the first time I met our musician in person- tangent:

We had two people commit to doing the music for our wedding and then back out. I was ready to make a mix CD and go with that. But then I felt we really should have a live person playing. So Cara gave me a woman's name from her old church. I contacted her a week and a half ago and have been contacting through email ever since. Awesome lady.

After the rehearsal, I went home and packed the last of my stuff and ran it over to Cara's house and it was torrential rain. Once that was finished, me and a keg of rootbeer went to the park where we where having our family and out-of-town people pizza gathering. We had a good evening of getting to know all these new people. At one point, Aaron, who is just over two years old, was playing with the keg just as a police officer rolls into the parking lot to check things out. I'm sure he was wondering what that was all about. His dad went down to explain that it was just rootbeer.

Not long after dark everyone went their own way and I took Cara home. We took a walk down to the lake and sat on the dock. These were our last moments together not wed to each other.

Stag Party!

here's how it went down:

• 1pm Uptown Bar & Cafe for gyro omelets

We all met at the Uptown. Bobo and I arrived to see Schneidy waiting outside. Schepp and Greg and Eric arrived not long after that. I think we all ordered gyro omelets.

• 2:30 Bobo's house for Settlers of Catan

Curtis Mayrand was going to join us at Bobo's so as we waited, we went through the entire catalog of GI Joe PSAs from FenslerFilms. Its definitely better to watch those in a group. They seem to never get old. As soon as Curtis arrived, we watched a fan made Star Wars movie.

We then started up a game of Settlers of Catan. 6 player game at max and we had 7, so Bobo bowed out and did email things while we played. After he got bored he started to help Schepp and in the end they won.

• 9:pm Jutton's house

We stopped at the gas station for food and headed off to Jutton's house. Greg and I played Halo with a bunch of people online, which was fun. We sat around and shot the shyte.

Curtis and I got into a debate about why the new Star Wars movies were so bad and how Lucas ruined the whole thing. Somewhere in the middle of it, Curtis, in his drunken logic, was arguing that Lando Calrissian wasn't a black guy, but a Hispanic!

We finished the night with the Chappell show DVD. I wasn't all that impressed, but I did enjoy the Charlie Murphy stories. "Darkness!"

• 3am back home

We got back to Bobo's and everyone left dispersed in their respective cars. I wasn't comfortable letting Curtis drive home. So I offered to drive him home and have Bobo follow in his truck. So, thats what we did.

Renade was still up when we got there. We got a small tour of the house and even looked at the back yard. Curtis felt bad for us giving him a ride and wanted to make it up to us by offering us a beer or a piece of cake. We settled for juice boxes. As we were saying goodbye near the front door I felt something on my neck. Picked it off and flung it down in front of the fish tank. It was an inch worm! Curtis instantly picked it up and dropped it into the tank and all four of us gathered around to see the fate of this worm. The worm was freaking out and the fish were circling the worm. It looked like the fish were about to strike when all of a sudden the fishtank lights went out because of a set timer! It was perfect and hilarious!

music - Where is My Mind? - Pixies on the way to Curtis's house just after 3am, reminiscent of our Comicbook convention trip.

Glorybound

Tonight, Cara and I went to a concert. The music was from our friend, Greg Wollan. He is one of the cornerstones to our church's worship team and an amazing musician, at that. The show was at the Roseville Northwestern book store, kind of jammed in around one of the entrances. We snuck in not long after they started playing and eventually he noticed us, because he dedicated a song to Cara and I being married next month. The song he dedicated to us is called Glorybound and its the song that kind of initiated Greg and I talking as friends.

I first heard the song at a small group leadership retreat, last year. After the service that he played it in I went up to him to tell him how much I liked that song. We kind of started talking after that. Found out he is a 10cc fan! He has a show at the Church of the Open Door on June 17th and Cara and I will probably be going to that one.

music - obviously its Greg Wollan, but, I've found another song of his that I just love- Why So Downcast? Awesome song!

Covenant Relationships

I became a member of Woodland Hills today. Probably about a year ago, I took a class at church called Discovering Woodland Hills with the intention of becoming a member of the church. That class was designed for people who were new to the church (which I wasn't then). The next step was to take a class called Discovering Covenant Relationships. Very cool class, btw.

Tonight, there was a membership meeting (my first) where we got to hear about the annual finances of the church. The meeting was done with videos, mainly, which were very very well done.

After the meeting, Cara, Eric and I went to Applebees for dinner. Good times.

After four years of attending Woodland Hills, I'm finally a member.

Called in sick today

I've fallen into a strange pattern. I think that Monday nights often are restless for me. This one in particular was bad. Robert took me out for dinner, but we went too late and I ordered a greasy breakfast. So, after going to bed, I actually just laid in bed and worried about wedding plans and the Bible study till about 5am when the breakfast finally decided to come up and out. I called in sick and slept most of the day.

The Family Invasion

Cara's parents are in town. Her dad arrived today and her mom has been here since Wednesday. Before her mom arrived, Cara had been busy moving her stuff downstairs, making what was the guest bedroom into her room. And moving Leesha's stuff into what was her bedroom so that she can transform what was Leesha's room back into her parents master bedroom. Leesha was very excited about getting a new room and she moved in fast. Meanwhile, I've been bringing my stuff over from my current house. I imagine Cara is feeling like her living space is being invaded.

What... The... Heck!!??!

Ran into Natalie today!

Cara and I were moving furniture from room to room and going into the evening. We finally went to get groceries at Target down the street. On the way, at a stop light, a truck next to us honks and lurches forward to parallel with us- it was Natalie and her family! They happened to be going to Target as well. So we all met up in the toy section (Leesha wanted to spend her $4.20 in dimes) and introduced and got caught up.

The strange thing is Natalie and Todd and family don't live anywhere near this area and were just killing time after going to a skate park down the street. If we had left any later or earlier, we would've totally missed them!

Makes you wonder how many other times and places we just missed each other like that...

music - LUSH

I'm Your DJ Now, Princey!!!

Last night I woke up from a nightmare. This is the first time in many many years that a dream so freaky actually woke me up. Trying to describe it now certainly doesn't do it justice, but it had something to do with a serial killer setting up their victims to be found as they die- holding their own throats. The dream was left unresolved and I woke up in shivers. As unpleasant as that was, it was kind of a thrill.

music - various mix cds

Dog Walk

I tried organizing people for this Walk for Animals event, but no one wanted to go, except for Cara. So we went by ourselves. Screw them. We had a great time. This is an annual event where people walk their pet to raise money. I've been to this once before- like 6 years ago and loved it. This happened to be the next year I was able to go. We asked a lot of people about their dogs. Sat and let some of them come up to us for a quick petting-stop. Dog-people are really friendly. There are so many different breeds out there. And the breeds are so very different from one another. We even saw some very nervous cats.

I saw one person I knew- Kathy, one of the people I went to this the first time with, but that time there was about 12 of us. And Cara recognized a couple who was in the same pre-engagement class we were in. I have no idea how she recognized them, but it was pretty cool. They didn't have a pet, like us, and were glad to see they weren't the only ones.

I think I got my dog fix for a while.

music - The Cure (because it was a wonderfully overcast day)

The Longest Day

I passed out last night shortly after getting home. This lighting project is exhausting. Woke up around 11pm and went back to bed around 2am.

4:20AM Perry calls me at home- "Trish called in sick! Can you come in early?"

So I roll into work around 5:30AM.

Around 8:15 Jason from 45 comes down and asks if I'm ready to go! So I tell him why I really can't go with him on the 45 shoot and he sort of freaks out. (I was scheduled for promo shoot. but lighting wasn't finished. Monica and I decided that I needed to stay and work on lighting.) I felt bad. Hoped he wasn't really pissed at me.

Burned out on Monday- already!

passed out at home, woke up around 11:30 pm.

there was poop on the operations table, though.

Chutes and Ladders... only without the Chutes, but lots of lights instead!

I haven't had a day off since one week ago and I won't until this Saturday! This weekend was the annual lighting weekend with our lighting consultant, Dan. So Seth (the new guy) and I were scheduled to do the lights with Dan.

The begining of our lighting project looked bleak.

• Our brand new board was shipped without a power supply and Dan (who was already on the phone, trying to find one in town for us) said one wouldn't be here until Monday afternoon.
• Months ago, Monica had me do a tally on the amount of fluoresent bulbs we had on hand for this task. She told me to find out how many we needed total and then figure out how many we had on hand and she would order the difference. Turns out Dan wanted the whole amount ordered.
• We were also going to adjust all the lights in the studio. Its amazing how many lights burn out just before Dan gets here every few months. We were desperatly short on the bulbs we needed. The order had gone out but the shipment hadn't arrived yet. So we were short several bulbs. Monica has scheduled me to be out on a shoot for 45 on Monday. It became clear Sunday evening that we weren't going to be finished, that we would need to do more on Monday, so I called Monica and she agreed that I should be at the station.
• A guy from Engineering (who is very difficult to work with) set up the prompter area how he interpreted the instruction- not how one would set it up logically. Its probably going to be left that way until he has settled down and isn't so mad about the project before its fixed.

One really cool thing did happen, however. We started later today so Dan and I could go to church. Since Dan is from D.C. and just wanted to go to any church, I invited him to mine! And he went!

All this work means not much Cara :(

music - The Long Walk Home - Peter Gabriel (soundtrack to Rabbit Proof Fence)

Where there's a Willis... There Will Be More Willis'

This morning Greg and I met with our uncle Mike and aunt Mary. They stayed the night in the Twin Cities on their way up to a retreat in Alexandria. Last they knew of either of our whereabouts was Brooklyn Center, where Greg moved in with Mandy when they were married. Just so happens that they stayed the night almost directly half way between Greg and I. I guess it took them an hour and a half to find our phone numbers with their old hotel directory (they had us listed in Bloomington- hah! that was ages ago). And finally called us. Great timing, too. I wasn't home too many nights this week and the happen to call when I was- and not long after I got up from a nap.
It was nice to visit with them.

music - Ayreon ( I think I need to give this album a break)

Settlers and Testimonies

Cara and I visited Greg and Mandy tonight. We meeting at sports bar for a nice dinner (I have to say, though I don't agree with it, I do enjoy the smoking ban). While Cara and I were waiting outside with our pager, I held one of the doors open with the host. She gave me greeting tips as we discussed the good and bad about the ban. Greg and Mandy arrived shortly after the paged us in. We had a nice dinner and when we ordered dessert, the staff gave it to us because of all the help I gave them hosting at the door.

After getting in the house and greeting the nice guys we fired up the VCR (which hadn't been used for quite some time) and popped in a video tape my dad sent us to view. The tape was of my dad's testimony he shared in front of their church (it might have something to do with his nomination for church-elder). We watched and it was very nice. My dad is a public speaker. The strange thing is, I've had very few opportunities to see him doing what he is so good at. Seeing him with his speaking mannerisms, I wonder if those of us who know him so well benefit from our relationship with him when subconsciously receiving the body language. With all that mixed with the topic of his talk and the fact that it was just nice to see him- I'm still not sure how I feel about the tape. It was a much higher emotional experience than I expected.

After we finished the tape and talked about it we set up for a Settlers of Catan game. The game went really long, maybe the longest Catan game I've played yet. Mandy was leading everyone and the rest of us kind of plotted against her which bought Greg and I time to be competitive. Poor Cara fell behind because she was the main force competing with Mandy. In the end Greg won- he went before me in the turn and if he hadn't won, I had enough points to win. BLAST! But it was fun.

April Fools Eve

Tonight, Steph and I did a practical joke on our senior pastor. This is quite a nerve wracking task to be in on.

Steph is a friend from Woodland Hills who leads a small group like Cara and I do. I've gotten to know her through different church singles events and retreats and what-nots. I also got to know her improv and acting ability.

About two weeks ago, an associate pastor from my church called me with a plan. He asked if I was interested in helping out with a huge practical joke on Dr. Greg Boyd.

The setting was Boyd was going to go to a bar on the first day of the smoking ban and smoke a fat stogy with a couple of other pastors- just to do it (in St. Paul, establishments that make 70% or more on alcohol can apply for an exemption from the ban, their boys night out was obviously in St. Paul). The joke was to have a media crew come up to him and start asking questions about the ban, and once he was on the hook, start to get into some very controversial topics that would just make him squirm. My media connections made me a prime candidate and Stephanie was the first person I thought of for an assailant. I'd be the camera man, she would ask the questions as the reporter.

The caper went down beautifully. Steph led right in, he protested. Greg was getting upset that this reporter wouldn't leave him/them alone and Steph kept pushing. The other two pastors were totally in on it with us and urged him on till he finally started to share his opinion about the ban. She asked him what kind of work he was in and he answered honestly (which was a funny image. Greg telling the media he was a pastor sitting in a bar with a fat cigar in his hand). From that point Steph started asking more direct and controversial questions that have landed Boyd in trouble before- like about abortion. He still didn't catch on. So she finally asked "what is your opinion on April Fools day?" and he realized.

Just then the other pastors came out of the back and everyone was laughing at how well it went. Greg was duped pretty well. We got him.

Coast to Coast on the Way to Work

This has been a strange week pretty much only because my work schedule is giving me jet lag. I've been on the morning shift all week. 4am to 1pm. All week. My sleep pattern has been fish-tailing inspite of seemingly getting enough each 24 hour period.

Today, after work, Cara and I went to apply for our marriage license! What a simple little task it turned out to be.

Green Light from Before You Say "I Might"

Bobo asked Laura to be his wife in October last year and she said yes. I asked Cara the day after Thanksgiving and Cara said yes. The last couple remain- Eric and Keesha. We all knew Keesha had a communication system with Eric about him asking her to marry him. She wasn't ready and would give him a green light when she was. And he wasn't to ask her until he got the green.
So for weeks we've been praying for him and her to get this green light.

Today he received it.

He got a package in the mail with several printouts of different types of engagement rings from different websites and on the front was a note written on a very bright green post-it. It seems hard to mistake what the message is here. So, congratulations to Eric. Now it will be neat to see how he asks her.

Black Friday

It was not a fun day at work today. There were layoffs. For some time everyone was talking about them under their breath, we seem to know they were coming. Everyone heard they were coming on Monday. But then there was an article about it in the Star Tribune and the Hubbards had to do them earlier.

The production department wasn't hit very hard. Losing one director- Kathy. I heard she found out right away and left immediately after. I feel bad for her. I'm not completely surprised she was let go, she wasn't very good with change and she worked slowly. Its just that she's been working here for over twenty years and, not being good with change, I don't imagine she's taking it well.

Another big change for the production department was for Monica. She gained a whole lot more responsibility- our department was merged with Master Control and renamed Operations. So now she is responsible for twice as many time cards and schedules.

It was not a fun day.

South Dakota and Compatibility

This weekend was all about a road trip to Beresford, South Dakota, for a wedding of David, a friend of Cara's. There is nothing in Beresford. Beresford is what exists when you exit off the highway. It was a few roads intersecting between farmland. Out in the middle of one of the fields was an hot old church. It was a nice wedding- David and Kristin.

Our trip there and back again was pretty good. We've found, once again, that Cara and I are quite compatible. We listened to alot of music, talked about our wedding plans, and just talked with each other about anything. I am looking forward to being married to this girl.

music - lets do a list:

• Life Aquatic soundtrack
• Air - Talkie Walkie
• Beatles - Abbey Road
• Cure - Staring at the Sea
  
• Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose
• INXS - Kick
• Donovan - Greatest Hits
• Kula Shaker - K
• Pink Floyd - Final Cut
• Genesis - Invisible Touch

12:30 on a Friday Morning

This may be the most frustrating night of my life. It is the night after one of the longest days of work I've experienced at KSTP, not the first time I've pulled a double shift, but one the few. One would think you'd have no problem finding sleep after a day like that, but one could be wrong about that, as well. As you can see by this post, I was wrong.

I can't believe I'm still awake. I have to be at work in 3 and a half hours and I haven't slept for 21 hours. I simply cannot stop my mind. Every single time I feel sleep creeping over me, my mind pushes it away with some thought about work tomorrow. I can't stand this!

We'll see if George Noory will be boring enough to induce sleep. Please George, you're my only hope.

The Last Jay Day

Today was the last day Jay will work at KSTP. He put his two week notice in about three weeks ago and the time has come. His leaving will result in some major changes in the production department- probably more change than anyone else could have created leaving.

Good luck, Jay. Thank you for your knowledge and friendship.
he left us with this:

Dear Friends,
It has been a good 8 year run for me. I want to thank all of you for teaching this farm boy what it means to be part of the news business and giving me the chance to challenge myself. I will miss all the people that I have grown to know and care so much about. Good luck in the future. I'll be watching from Winona.
Sincerely,
Jay Asfeld
Production Assistant
p.s. I wonder what being able to sleep past 2:30am will feel like?

Jay will be missed here.

All the Young Dudes Carry the News

Today was breaking news day. First we heard stuff about a robbery in Bloomington, then there was an Amber Alert, next was Randy Moss being traded and all hell broke loose with a St. Paul Police Officer getting shot. The energy in the News Room was crackling. Toss all scripts, we're winging it folks! Tempers flair and voices compete. I love this type of newsroom energy.

No TV, Music, Water or Bathroom!

This was a great weekend. Eric, Keesha, Cara and I went up to Keesha's family's cabin and had lazy, cold, roughin'-it weekend. Friday morning I was all packed to go after work. Picked up Cara and we headed off into the Wisconsin north woods. We were supposed to meet Keesha's brother at an intersection and he wasn't there. Just on the edge of cel phone reception, he told us his truck was in the ditch. We found him and gave him a ride to the cabin. From there the boys (Eric, me, Taylor- Keesha's brother, and Bob- Keesha's dad) went back to the truck to get it out. After a greater part of an hour or two we got the truch off the snow back and back on the road (with the help of my bick rack of all things). After we got back to the cabin and sent Bob and Taylor off, it was well into Saturday morning- middle of the night. The cabin was never truly warm. We had a good time anyways. Cooking, playing Settlers and other games and just cuddling to be warm. Two nights without water, electricity, tv, music, etc. It was very relaxing. This morning we had breakfast, launched Eric's rocket off the river (got stuck in a tree) and played a game of settlers, then packed and went home.

music - we didn't have music, but Dreadlock Holiday from 10cc was running through my head quite a bit.

Home, 694, Church, Disco and Polyester

This has been a busy weekend. I figured out that after leaving work on Friday till getting home this afternoon, I have driven between my house and church a total of eight times this weekend. And to think the first nine years of my ten year stay here in Minnesota I may have been able to count the amount of times I drove on 694 on both hands.

Friday night I stopped by the church to finish a video shoot. There is going to be a ministry spotlight on the FOCUS ministry- that is Woodland Hills' singles group (obsolete for some of us, now, isn't it?). They needed some ideas for the video promo for the spotlight and came to me. Well, when you come up with ideas that people like, sometimes you become the idea and I was casted for one of those ideas. We shot it on monday night and finished some of it Friday night. It was in and out- quick and in ten minutes I was on my way to Cara's for dinner and to finish the Firefly series.

Yesterday I was at church to attend the Discover Covenant Relationships class to become a member of the church. I wasn't looking forward to it at all and was going to go through the motions, but the class is lead by Paul Eddy and his teachings turned out to be incredibly interesting. I even sat with him at lunch and asked him a bunch of questions. I also shamelessly promoted our small group to a couple of couples who were also at the class.

Lastnight Cara hosted a 70s themed party. That was pretty fun dressing up in horrible clothes and listening to funk and disco.

Cara and I were supposed to meet with Kevin Johnson today to talk about wedding plans, but he canceled because of the stomach flu. We did see Greg Wollan and received the CDs he was selling me. His music is very good. I've been on a huge 10cc kick and it turns out he loves that band maybe as much as my brother and I do.

music - Reds in My Bed 10cc

Most Depressing Day of the Year?

I update this site on what scientists have said is the most depressing day of the year. And that might hold true for me today. I was scheduled to work the morning shift today (3:30 am to 2pm) but about half way through the morning show, I got sick. I spent about 45 minutes in the bathroom throwing up my guts. So as soon as I finished the last wave I bolted to the studio to tell Trish and Jay, "hey, I'm puking here, I'm going to go home." and they were fine with that. I made it home (with only one pull over to dry heave) and just stayed still in my bed.

8:30 am the construction crew arrived to work on the fireplace (remember the fire last month?) so I was laying there in half sleep.

its 5:04 as I write this and the dry heave out the car was the last wave but I feel very week and my stomach is a tiny knot. I've been eating crackers and water for the last hour, played Settlers of Catan online against a DragonLance author listening to BeeGees, Queen, Shins, Cowyboy Bebop, etc.

sorry if this is incoherent, I'm a bit out of it. I think the workers are going to leave soon.

Google Toolbar Installed

my ladies come home today

hey kid, I'm a computer

I got me a new one

Burning Down The House...

Tonight, Bobo and I sat down in front of a great rerun of LOST with coffee and apple pie. He got a pizza and boneless buffalo wings for dinner just before and we were settling in. He chucks the pizza box in the fireplace and things start getting smokey. Just then my brother calls, we talk for a bit and Bobo was off somewhere. He's yelling for me to get off the phone- so I do. He then proceeds to call 911! His house is on fire!
At first it seemed like we just ran around getting esentials like jackets and IDs. We then cleared a way to the attic for the firemen when they arrive. I went outside to wave down the trucks, first one was an ambulance. Then the trucks started rolling in. I guess the Fridley department and the Columbia Heights departments were there. There were like 5 full trucks on our street! We sat in the warm ambulance and watched the ladder extend out over my jeep and onto the house while they contemplated chopping their way in through! We waited while they proceeded to tear down the wall in the living room! Soon the ambulance was dispatched to leave so we were sent to one of the fire trucks to stay out of the cold. Bobo and I watched from there, listening to the cb transmissions. It was over that system we heard it was ok for us to return to the house. For about an hour and a half, guys were coming in and out of the house, bringing tools and axes in and smoldering debris out.
In the end, there wasn't very much fire damage. Almost all the damage was from the guys getting to the fire. It looks like it was from the fireplace burning so hot, so long today on account of the furnace being out.

After all this, a guy came over to evaluate the house for a new furnace since ours died this morning.

Last night, Bobo was so worried about my room getting too cold, so he set up a space heater in my room for me (what a nice guy). This morning my room was fine. It was rather cold between my room and the bathroom, but thats normal. What was unnormal was Bobo running up and down the stairs checking stuff- turns out the furnce had died sometime in the night and my room was the only comfortable room in the house!

I guess the furnace was kicking out some high levels of carbon-monoxide- but not enough to trigger our alarms.

I was supposed to go bowling tonight with everyone from work, but I think it would be better to hang out with my poor poor roommate tonight.

So add all this up, this has not been a good day for my poor roommate. On a brighter side, he did get confirmation on his job, so he will be going back to work very soon.

pictures

Hey Kid, I'm a Computer!

Interesting morning at work. Right off the bat there was a Rusty music project to tape. We had a clash of staff in front of the music guests and it was very unprofessional. Everyone dispersed unhappy. How many times does this have to happen till something gets changed?

I bought a new computer today. I used the earnings from the recent Bobo swords sale on ebay to purchase them. It will be nice to be closer to the rest of the world as far as computers go. The computer I'm on right now is so old it doesn't even have a CD Rom drive on it! [0^^puter

Bobo and I exchanged our Christmas gifts today. After spending an hour in two different comic shops he finially just gave me a check to be used on geekflag stuff. I got him a couple of Settlers of Catan expansions that he asked for. However, I wrapped it in a box shaped as a perfect cube and then cut post it notes into circles and taped them all over the box to make a 6 sided die. Here is some trivia for you... how many dots are on a 6 sided die?

music - Alison Krauss (who just so happened to be on GMA this morning)

I Take Swords for $600, Alex

Bobo's swords sold today! For a lot of money!

S-Words

KSTP Holiday Party

BJ and I went to Molly Quinn's and then to Austin and Perry's film.

They Flew Away

Cara and I had another very nice day together. We had breakfast with BJ at the St. Clair Broiler then the rest of the afternoon to just be. She and I left to pick up Leesha from her school and then strait to the airport. Got them checked in, went for some dinner and then had some time before then flew out. Cara looked awesome in the shawl I got her! Right after dropping them off I rushed back to Cara's house for the last small group bible study of the year. I already miss my girls.

Holly Jolly

Today is Christmas for Cara, Leesha and myself. They leave tomorrow and won't be back till after the real Christmas so we celebrated today. I had off from work so I got to spend a some time with Cara before Leesha got home from school. We had a lot of fun opening up our presents from each other and from my parents to all of us. Cara suprised me- she got me the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy boxset! I went from having none of the extended versions to all of a sudden having them all. One thing I gave Cara was a fleece shawl, this gift may be more for me than her because I think she looks so cool in it! It was a good night. (however, Leesha did feel the need to push mom's boundries tonight, we didn't get by without some conflict, but thats ok. She was a very tired kid and thats what happens when kids are tired)

All You Can Fit In Your Body-Shrimp

After work today, Bobo, Paul and I went to Red Lobster for all you can eat Shrimp. We try to do this every year and its great. This year they added a coconut shrimp- awesome!

Pat was invited and declined because he doesn't care for seafood, yet he is absolutly starving for social contact. Foolish.

Viking Game Day LIVE makes me feel undead

Today was all about Viking Game Day, like it always is when they play at home. The whole day is dedicated to that show and I'm zombified for the rest of the day.

Everything went well this time round. The only thing that was really strange was a guest- some strange little night club act singer from Arizona who flies to MN every time the Vikings play at home. He came on and was intereviewed aukwardly. Hammer, our director described it perfectly- "This segment makes me feel icky!" That was exactly what it did. Oh well. We also had Benchwarmer Bob on and he sang some Wells Fargo jingle or something and did the moonwalk. Good stuff.

What did I learn today? A Ford truck key has a pretty good chance of opening other Ford truck doors.

Lets Go See the Nice Guys

Cara and I went to Greg's and Mandy's with out saying a word about the ring on Cara's finger. Lets see how long it takes for them to notice.

What a strange scene it was when we got there. Greg and Dad were dancing around with a light and half of the ceiling open and a light switch hanging off the wall. Mandy and Mom were shoveling out the fireplace and hauling out bags of ash.?! I thought they forgot to tell us to bring work gloves or something. So obviously, everyone was too busy to notice right away.

About an hour later we all sat down by the fire to talk. I knew Greg knew. He caught my eye looking at Cara's finger. And I caught his catching mine. We hid our grins. Everyone else was harder to read. Finally, Mom exclaims "I can't stand it anymore!" at the very same moment Mandy points at Cara's hand and gasps "OH MY GOSH!" and then the whole room exploded into laughter and congratulations. I'm sure Cogs and especially Eddy were startled. Turned out everyone was onto us except for Mandy. We all saw when she realized Cara had the ring on.

It was a wonderful time visiting. We went out to eat, came home and visited more.

9 Lunar Months/Proposition

This has been a crazy week. With Mom and Dad in town and staying at Cara's I haven't been at home much. It felt like go go go. All of a sudden we find ourselves with a night and it just happened to be a full moon- our 9th Lunar Month anniversary!

Work was very strange. Both the shows that I work on on any given weekday were cancelled, but I still had to be there. So I got there, and did nothing- well... Jay and I played a fantasy boardgame; Jason and I feasted on yesterday leftovers; Josh, Robyn, Scott and I played Crazy Rules Uno with some crazy Ahmed rules and then I left early. Stopped at The Source for a few minutes and then went on to Cara's house.

We watched an anime with Leesha and then she went to bed.

Cara and I found we had a night to ourselves on our ninth lunar month anniversary. So we cuddled listening to Enya. Except, I couldn't settle down. Cara could see I was all goofy and when she finally asked what was up with me tonight I broke down...

I dug into my backpack and pulled out a folded papertowel and gave it to her. She unfolded it, and inside was a blue satin bag, inside that was a small fancy fabric bag. Inside this small bag was...

a ring.

Then I said "Cara Joy, will you marry me?"

And she kissed me, and said "Yes, yes, yes!" and kissed me again.

Then I told her that she has seen this ring before. It is a ring that was going to be given to me by my mom's mom when she was gone but she had the idea to give it to me early for this reason and I thought that was a great idea.

We waited till 12:15 am or so to call her parents (who live in Kenya) and told them. They were very happy for us. About 30 minutes later, Craig and Tracy (Cara's brother and sister-in-law) called all excited.

It was a good night.

music - Flora's Secret - Enya

Thanksgiving Surprises

Work was that typical holiday work day when all the hallways and cubicles are dark and quiet. Today, however, I gave my family a tour of my work. They arrived for the second half of the Midday broadcast and after we were off the air I showed mom, dad, Cara and Leesha everything, newsroom, edit suites, control room, front entrance, makeup room, studio B, locker room, everything. After they left we feasted like kings in the newsroom with Thanksgiving catering from Boston Market. It was awesome.

After the 5 broadcast, I took off to Cara's house to meet up with everyone for our Thanksgiving feast. Little did mom and dad know, but the Trelevens were en route to Cara's as well for a surprise. They were getting out of their car as I pulled in- everything falls into place, doesn't it. We surprised them big time. We had a wonderful time- Cara, Leesha, Mom, Dad, Eric, Terry, Teresa, brand new Lucas and me. Wonderful food, wonderful entertainment (Lucas), good times.

Thanksgiving Eve

Today was a virtual Friday at work because we recorded At Issue early due to the Holiday (which means I'm spent). While I worked, my mom and dad with Cara to Leesha's school to see her in a holiday performance for the student's grandparents. They said it was wonderful and I'm sure it was. She is a cool kid.

After work, I imidiatly went to Cara's house for dinner and to hang out with her and my folks since thats where they're staying. Cara made a great dinner and we had a nice relaxing evening just visiting. As we all started to fade, we listened to the Mischke broadcast.

music - The Man with the Golden Gun soundtrack - John Barry

Bible Study/Mum & Dad In Town

My mom and dad are in town today. They arrived at Cara's just after dinner and just before bible study. We had a tiny chance to talk and they met Leesha, Eric and Laura Beth, then we got right into study. Bobo, Laura and Jonathan were absent tonight for various reasons, but my folks made up for it in conversation. They fueled great debate over Romans chapter 9. It was very fun.

Monday Monday, Can't Trust That Day

Today was focused on the tragedy in Wisconsin with the man shooting eight people while hunting. This kind of news darkens the day. I felt better having rested much yesterday.

Tonight I dug through Bobo's cds and founds some wonderful music. Namely the original Enya album and especially The Long Walk Home (Rabbit Proof Fence soundtrack by Peter Gabriel). AMAZING!

Tomorrow me mum and my dad will be in town.

music - Enya and Pete

Viking Game Day at the Dome/BJ's Birthday

Another early early morning at the Metrodome. Today, however, was very cold. The show went well as usual and the only thing different of note was I went picked to help get the McDonald's food run. It was kind of fun ordering 15+ breakfast meals and see how the employees deal with that.

After the show was done and we had everything packed we were waiting for the cargo truck, I walked out to the sidewalk just past the Metrodome's shadow the soak up some sunshine. There was a bohemian looking fellow scalping tickets who noted my KSTP ID badge. He asked if I knew a guy named BJ who worked there- I said "oh, you mean Pinnerman?" (happy birthday, BJ)

The afternoon was spent in my bed trying, and seemingly not succeeding, in trying to reheat my body core. It was nice to stay off my feet for half a day.

Defrag/GirlyCon

Took 9 hours for my computer to defrag its harddrive. I was given this computer about 2 and a half years ago and in all that time never defragged the harddrive because I could see it was taking too much time. Today I gave the computer the time it needed. I figured it would have plenty of time during...

GirlyCon- Laura, Keesha, Cara, Eric and I played D&D run by Bobo today. Bobo made up simplified characters for each of the girls and then made up a regular character for Eric. I rolled one up as people started to arrive. It took some time for the girls to get the hang of how to play a roleplaying game, but once we were into the story, I think they all liked it. It was hard for Cara and Laura to sit and play a game like this for such a long period of time (5-6 hours), but surprisingly enough, it seemed like Keesha really got into the game. I had a good time inspite of my character getting tied up by the rest of the party because they didn't trust him. Good times.

Bobo really went all out for Girlycon. He cooked up a giant pot of beef stew, had round loaves of bread and wheels of cheese. It was quite a feast. More than enough for all of us for two meals.

music - Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings soundtrack, Princess Mononoke soundtrack, Buldar's Gate soundtrack

Dinner like a King/LOST/Walk

Work was fine. We had a production department meeting today and it was a congratulations-session, pretty much. It appears that our managers recognize that this is a very good group we have currently. Looks like there will be opportunities on the horizon. It is time for me to learn more.

I was very much looking forward to getting home today because I'm not feeling very well. I got home and Bobo started making dinner for both of us (with no request from me- awesome!). We ate very well and watched LOST. This show is amazing. Its fun being addicted to a show when the show is worthy of addiction. After that we had pumpkin pie and brandy/eggnog. Feasted like hobbits.

Then we went for a walk and talked about the end of the world. Got back and did some eBay tasks. Good day and I'm off to bed reletivley early.

Last Before-You-Say-I-Might class

This was the last class. Our breakout group leaders- Ethan and Robin, were awesome and I think we were lucky to have them. Alot has changed since starting the class in alot of different ways. I feel my relationship with Cara is stronger as a result of the class. Our friendships with Bobo and Laura and Eric and Keesha are stronger as well. It was a good experience, I feel.

When we got home I had an email from my grandma so I called her back and we had a nice talk. She wishes she could be here for Thanksgiving.

When I got off the phone, I found Eric hadn't left yet and joined he and Bobo in discussion for about another hour. I think we all feel as I have stated above about the class and our relationships in general. Its a unique and good time right now.

Church/Viking vs Packers

Spent almost ALL day at church. I picked up Cara for church. After church, she and I took our friend Dan to Culvers for lunch. After that we returned to church for the FOCUS event which was the Packers vs Vikings game. It was held in the new Phase 1 Youth Center with the big screen projector and audio equipment. Pretty fun hanging out with the FOCUS crew. and the Packers won.

music - Solsbury Hill, Down the Dolce Vita, Here Comes the Flood - Peter Gabriel

The Three Trelevens/UP

Today is the day that Cara and I went to see Terry, Teresa and the band new Lucas Treleven. We drove out to Eau Claire and spent the afternoon with them in their apartment. It was a really nice time. They hadn't met Cara yet and we hadn't met Lucas yet, so it was good all around. Lucas is about 10 months old and is full of wonder and energy. Its fascinating to watch a little human like that. Its even more fascinating to watch your best friend from childhood with his own child. We took a walk, had some pizza and played a game of trivial pursuit and the T's won. Shortly after that Cara and I went home.

Once home, we built a fire (in my room, -sigh-) and watched the Peter Gabriel DVD- UP. It was a nice time to cuddle in front of a fire.

music - Goldfinger soundtrack - John Barry. And Peter Gabriel - UP dvd concert film

Nonstop Work/At Issue

I didn't sleep well. My subconciouns mind kept worrying that I was going to run out of oxygen from the embers in the fireplace. But I warmly restless.

Its a little rough coming out of lastnight's intensity of work, going to bed and having a day like Fridays at work. Its go go go almost from the moment I get there till I go home and thats because of At Issue. That show fills the gap between live news quite well and you come out the other end spent. Poor Cara suffers at home while I'm in my zombie state of having a night at home without anything planned for a change.

So I spent most of the night on the phone with Cara, mum and dad and Terry (not all together).

Veteran's Day/Viking Game Day (or Viking's LowLight Night Special)

I had a bunch of things I was going to send out in the mail from eBay and didn't realize it was Veteran's Day. D'oh! Thats fine, they get their day. Thank you, to all the vets who ever read this board, for your service.

Arafat died today and the media is making it seem like a wonderful and great man has passed away. Was I wrong with the impression this guy was out to wipe out the Jews? What is wonderful and great about that?

Viking Game Day started off like they all have. Played a couple of games of 4 way chess with 3 guys. Around 4pm is when things start to go wrong. Something is wrong with the lights. They can't seem to get them all working at once (They, being the lighting company that was hired to light Game Day). Something has changed. For the next 2 hours the guy is running around sweating his head off trying to figure out what was wrong. Our time is ticking away and we need to do something. We start running power cables for our own little light kits each photog has with them and get to work just throwing light around. Meanwhile, the lighting guy is still messing with his thing and all this power is overloading the breakers. All of a sudden, with a pop, we lose all audio power. Get the power back on and it happens again! Its the light guy, messing with things. Finally we get him to stop and he just leaves. We do the show with our little kits and it looks alright. Just not fun. What else could go wrong? Well, we had a heckler in the audience and it happened to be a lit up Viet Nam vet! I swooped in on him and asked him to be quiet and soon a security guard talks to him so I leave since the situation was cooled off. The guy was fine after that, just giving anyone with eye contact the thumbs up and peace signs. I felt bad for the dude.

Cara and Leesha came to watch the show. I don't think they made it in any bump shots because they were sitting in an unlit area and lit areas were limited tonight.

Scott, Josh, Bryce, Glen and I had a beer at Jillians- this one was kind of earned more than the beers before.

Bobo and I mad a fire in my fireplace tonight. It smelled so good and cooked up my room to a nice warm temperature. Nice way to end such an evening.

music - Because - Beatles

Church/Lord of the Rings

Met Cara at church. This was the first time in about a month that I've been able to go to church. It was nice and Greg Boyd had a pretty good message about freedom from fear. The coolest concept I got out of it was:

your fear of [blank] causes more pain than the actual [blank]. your fear of [blank] will make it more likely that you will have [blank].

Insert [blank] with:

• rejection
• poverty
• aging and death
• failure
• being wrong
• past experiences
• etc.

I really enjoyed the message.

Cara and I went out to lunch after church, today, and used up the gift card Jen gave me for watching Dasher. Jeremy dropped off Leesha at the Applebees we were at and we all went to Cara's house. We hung out, had some french toast and then sat down to watch Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. I had been wanting to watch it since our anniversary night a week and a half ago because of Enya and Ian McKellen and I started reading The Two Towers yesterday. When I have to move, I believe I will have to pick up this trilogy, for sure. These are worthy to be owned.

music - Howard Shore

BoboCon II/8 Months

All day was dedicated to BoboCon II. From 2pm till about 10pm, around 21 guys were gaming in our house. Most were regulars, some new people gaming here were Jay from work and Eric from church- both in my group. It was pretty fun all around. I think it was maybe too much time gaming, but since its so rare that we ever do for that length, its ok.

Didn't do anything for Cara's and my 8 month. We celebrated it already on the lunar 8 month. Sometime durring our gaming, she snuck over and put a magnet picture of us as Han and Leia on my car- funny.

music - Lord of the Rinds: Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack, Baldur's Gate soundtrack, DUNE soundtrack, Princess Mononoke soundtrack, Nausicaa soundtrack (which Wally hated)

Viking Game Day MOA

Today was the first Game Day in the giant rotunda at the Mall of America. It went pretty well. Before we started taping, Scott, Josh, Robyn and I got two games of 4 player chess in. That game rules.

Afterwards, a bunch of us met at Jillian's for a beer. Hammer and his wife, Steph, stopped by. Its so fun talking with those two. In the end everyone else left and the three of us were last.

Crazy Schedule/BUSH WINS

So I start work today at 2:30 AM! The plan was to start the morning news at 4 AM, but since nothing was happening, they started at the regular 5 AM. So I sat in the prompter booth listening to George Noory. He had a guest who was talking about how either candidate was bad enough because they're both part of this global conspiracy where Europe will, in the end, 'save' Iraq and US will be on the offering table. If any of that's true, bring it on! I'm fine with a Mad Max kind of world. One thing I'd miss would be this web page- Sinking In the Quicksand of My Thoughts!

I was finished with work at noon, went and did some errands and started to lose my energy. I was home and asleep by 2:45pm

I got up to watch LOST. Awesome show.

At 10pm I was at the Mall of America to help set up lights and cabling for the new location at the mall- we're now in the giant rotunda by Underwater World for the rest of the season. Dave Hammer was there as well and we mainly just stood in place and let the guys set the lighting while we shot the shyte.

Oh, yeah. Bush won the election.

It feels like I haven't seen Cara in a long time.



music - Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Tears for Fears

Election Day

Bobo and I went to vote together. We talked about gaming while in line. This was the first time that I can remember going to vote with someone else.

Social night at Cara's house for bible study. We had two new people come. Ross was one, not new, but his lady friend, Lindsey was new. We played some kind of DVD Trivial Persuit which was fun, but I seemed to help the girls team more than our own.

music - Election Day - Arcadia

Viking Game Day live at the Dome/Halloween

Today was pretty much nothing but Game Day. It was too early to be up. Being that it was Halloween, I dressed up as Indiana Jones again. Why again? Well, thats what I dressed up as last year. Joe Schmitt doesn't take the time to learn the production crew's names. Last Halloween he saw me and obviously recognized the costume because for 1 year he has called me Indiana. So I wore it again for him today.

The show went fine. Not as good as when Burt showed up. But I did get some air time in the last block. Joe had me come up on stage and introduce me as the floor director and I gave my whip a couple of snaps on the set. It was alright.

Game/Costume Party

First thing I did today was go to the Army Surplus store on 1st. Ave in down town Minneapolis to find the rest of my costume. Found everything I needed there! A ranger vest, a belt and a 'holster'. I then picked up some pizza for gaming. Pizza is almost the staple for gaming.

The game was pretty good. I had missed the last one so it was a bit awkward getting my character caught up with the party. There is a new player in the group named Ron. He creates a whole different dynamic to our party and our gaming group. Nice guy. The game went on pretty much as usual till the end when Jason's character and Bobo's character faced off in an argument and just let it out. They happen to be half brothers in the game and this was almost genuine sibling rivalry. It was great roleplaying.

Later was Cara's costume party. I arrived before anyone else... including Cara. So I put on Star Wars: A New Hope while I waited. Pam was the first one to arrive and we got to know just how high each other's geek flags flew. Her's is pretty high, but not as high as mine. She had stars glued to her shirt- she was the 'center of the universe'.
The party was pretty good. Cara looked amazing as Princess Leia. I guess I was a pretty good Han because we won the costume contest. Eric was a cowboy with a HUGE beltbuckle. Mike D was Indiana Jones. Salo was the pirate she was the weekend before. Had a good round of CRUno.

music - John Williams- various theme songs of movies containing Harrison Ford

Date Night

After work I went to The Source to find a Star Wars Blaster and lo and behold, they had one. The last one. From there I went to Cara's house. We planned on going out tonight, having dinner and watching a movie... in the theater!! So thats what we did.

Had all you can eat shrimp at Red Lobster. Then, we went to a mall to find some clothing for my costume for the costume party on Saturday. Cara suggested JC Penny's or something and we found what we needed. Then we went to sports stores like SportsMart or REI to find other elements of my costume, but got no further because we were running out of time. We abandoned the search for more costume parts and went to Team America: World Police. That movie is hilarious and far from wholesome. It was really nice to have two nights to be together.

When I got home, before I went to bed, I spray painted my Star Wars Blaster black, because it came in a what-the-heck/politically-correct orange!??!

A Night to Just Be - 8 Months

Cara and I finally had a night to just be. Today marks our 8 month anniversary. We measure our dating by the lunar month since it was a full moon on our first date. Leesha was in bed already and Cara made a simple candlelight dinner for us. It was very nice. We watched a movie after we ate and guess what she chose... X-Men (how did I find this woman??!!). After the movie we watched a video tape I borrowed from a co-worker he taped off of public television - The Question of God: Freud vs Lewis. It was fascinating and had a lot of relevance with the Before-You-Say-I-Might class we're in with all the talk of love (you know, Lewis's Four Loves book and all).

Obviously, Schmitty had taped the show on an old tape because after the recording was done, the remainder of Black Stallion was on the tape, taped from a 1984 Christmas broadcast. The best part of that was seeing the vintage commercials. We figured out the date because there was a commercial for The Chorus Line coming to theaters that Friday. Looking it up in IMDB.com pegged the year. Its funny to see how non-politically correct everything was then. Ahh, the Reagan era.

music - Enya (Cara had Enya playing when I got to her house. With that playing and seeing Ian McKellen, I'm feeling an urge to watch the Lord of the Rings movies soon!)

LOST and eBay

Tonight's episode of Lost was pretty good. This show is proving itself worthy of addiction. There are some very small details that could be more realistic, but even with those, this show is WAY better than pretty much anything else I've seen on lately (which isn't much, actually).

After that, I pretty much dedicated this night to catching up and posting more things on eBay.

music - Nowhere Again - Secret Machines

Breaking News Day/Before-You-Say-I-Might Session 4

This morning was relatively normal at work, but as soon as the Midday show was over it seemed like the world fell apart. We had three potential breaking news stories happen- only one was worthy enough to actually cut into programming, but behind the scenes, we're all on standby when we go on or not. First one was the Amber Alert kid was found- actually he escaped and returned home on his own. Crafty. The second was a wall collapsed in Somerset WI and the third was a fire in a St. Paul house. Strange day. We go for weeks without any breaking news and then we have a day like this.

Tonight's class was probably the most valuable one yet. It was about intimacies- how they can be good and/or bad for a relationship. This is the meat of why marriages often fail, I think. It was interesting. Our breakout group even split by gender to further discuss the topic. It was interesting and I feel I've connected with others in my small group on a deeper level. Very interesting.

After we got home, Bobo and I took a walk and smoked a couple of stogies and talked some more. Nice night out. We really ought to do this more while we can.

music - Blame It on the Rain - Milli Vanilli (due to the Ashley Simpson lip-sync story)

Bobo Gets Engaged!!!

After about 10 months of dating, Robert and Laura are engaged. He asked her last Thursday on Honeymoon Bluff along the Gunflint Trail in the Boundary Waters in the last moments of sunlight and she said yes. They will be married next August (so I have to start looking for a new place to live soon). They met in the bible study that I inherited and now lead with Cara. We're all currently attending a before-you-say-I-might class about marriage. This is so awesome. Congratulations!

oh, and he asked me to be a groomsman and of course I said yes.

Dasher Goes Home/Medieval Birthday Party

Today was the last day I watch Dasher for jenny. She picked him up right from the airport. My time with Dasher was interesting. He has an insecurity that can get annoying. He needs to be on one's lap almost all the time, which would be fine if he would stay still, but he can't seem to.

As soon as Jen left, I threw on my costume and flew down to Keesha's house for a collective birthday party of various FOCUS people. I got there a bit later than most and missed some of the activities like jousting and sword fighting. Everyone looked great in the costumes, Eric had full chainmail and people were sticking magnets on him, Rob Kistler (spelling?) came in full tin-foil armor that kept tearing, etc. Cara looked great. I've been missing her lately because of our schedules. I had to leave a bit early due to Viking Game Day early tomorrow morning.

I have a friend over tonight and tomorrow till Saturday. My little friend Dasher. Dasher is Jen's dog- half Basenji and half Jack Russell or something like that. He is a funny little dog, Bobo and I think Dasher hasn't experienced much dude play. He doesn't seem to know how to roughhouse. He's a little girlie dog. Oh well. Its fun anyways.

music - theme from On the Road

What do you do when there is something at work that saps your energy like a sponge? Not just my energy, everyone involved was drained. An energy vampire is among us.

I brought home the tech manual for the video switcher today.

Bible study was fine, tonight. Everyone was tired. These busy weeks are wearing on us all- having class Monday nights and then bible study Tuesday nights. Romans chapter 5 is short and very repetitive of chapter 4 so we allowed a lot of tangents tonight.

I chucked a digital alarm clock tonight. A clock I received from my folks upon graduation from 5th grade (I think). It still works- sort of. The clock part works, but the alarm had no control for volume. The only setting left is MAXIMUM VOLUME. So I chucked it. I have a new small digital one anyway. One that automatically resets itself every morning at 2am. It receives an AM radio broadcast from Fort Collins, CO that updates the exact time from the atomic clock there.

music - Election Day - Arcadia

Cara and I have returned from the small group leader's retreat in Alexandria. It was a good time. On the way up, Friday night, Hwy 94 was packed all the way till around 8pm. We almost turned around and came home. Its been such a crazy week and we were tired. Once we got there, it was clear that we belonged there. Like the Woodland Hills retreats that I've been to before, this was just so much fun. Its license to be a kid again. There was a treasure hunt on Saturday evening that we had to dress up like pirates for (I won the pirate costume contest, thanks to Bobo's selection of renaissance apparel). We stayed up late playing games and talking and laughing and it seemed like we ate and ate and ate. While the ride up there was so slow, the ride back was very fast it seems. Good times.

This evening I packed up a couple more sales on eBay. Another collectible game action figure and a battle axe!

music - I had Shake the Disease by Depeche Mode in my head most of the time while there, but Greg Wollen's song Glorybound was, for sure, the song of the weekend.

Yeah, tonight was a bit of an adventure. We'll get to that in a sec.

First. This was a Viking Game Day day at the Mall of America. The best part of these days is over time and 4 player chess. After we set up the set its becoming tradition the four production people (Scott, Josh, me and another- rotating person, today it was Robin) play chess against each other with a special board made for four. It is really fun and it leads to chess theory discussions.

The show went fine and packing up the set is getting faster and faster. We're hitting our stride. Tonight's was the last one in the Sears rotunda. Next time we're there it will be in the giant Sam Goody rotunda. We may have to find our stride again.

After we were all packed up I went to a Halloween store to buy cheap swords. Cara and I are going out of town this weekend. We're attending a small group leader's retreat up in Alexandria. They told us to bring pirate costumes for some reason. So I bought swords.

When I got home, Bobo and Laura were upstairs. Not long after I got there, she left. Soon Bobo comes downstairs. Lets go check the trap- I say.

So we go out and look and sure enough, Bobo caught an opossum (he had seen one around and picked up a rather large trap). So as soon as I was packed for the weekend, we took the opossum in my jeep across the river and let him out. We figured it would have to cross the Mississippi on Hwy 694 to come back and that probably wasn't going to happen. He was a strange looking chap. "marsupials do, though". Didn't smell good either. But once we got the trap opened, he was gone -"'cause, they're fast!"
yeah, that was the adventure.

music - song from Night at the Roxbury

I mailed the first sale from Bobo's line of eBay products today. The HeroClix Silver Surfer is away!

[warning... venting ahead!]
Work was fine. There is one guy (the guy who always clears his throat) in engineering who has gotten on my nerves. I guess he sees me as the most willing to help in the production department or something, but come on. He has no care if I'm on my break or not. He expects me to drop whatever I'm doing and help him every time. The thing that is annoying is the difference in nature of our department's days. His department- they have all day to work on whatever they need to. Our department is very dependent on what time it is to if we're available or not. We can only take breaks at certain times. I don't think he sees that.

Infact, he is an interesting person in that he is one of the most self centered people I've ever met. I don't mean that in an insulting way, I mean that in a most littoral way. He has a strong need to show you how you are wrong and he is right. Condescending. I recall one morning, there were about 3 of us production people sitting at the table. The other two guys were reading or something like that. I was eating breakfast. He comes over to our table and sits down and asks if I could help him with something. I say sure- between bites and he says, ok, I'll wait for you to finish... and he sits there, watching me eat until the moment I swallow the last bite. It was incredibly awkward and annoying. aaaaaaarrrgggg!!!
[/vent]

We had social night at bible study tonight. No study, just play games. First we did our highs/lows and for Erik's praise report, he pulls out a ziplock back with a mouse caught in a trap, quite dead and says- "answered prayer!" (which, obviously was a prayer request last week or the week before), quite hilarious, though, Laura didn't appreciate a dead mouse in bible study. What game did we play tonight? Taboo- boys vs girls. I found I kick ass at Taboo. We laughed a lot. Then we got on a strange kick about carnivorous and making puns with all the food names that could apply to humans as food. Fun odd night.

Found out that disk 2 of the Jeremiah DVD set doesn't work. That was a bummer. I'll have to figure out how to resolve that problem with the eBay seller, get all hard-assed and mean.

Bobo got me the 1st volume of collected out-of-print rpg books Greg, Terry, Orion and I used to play way back in the day. Twilight 2000 volume 1. Very nice presentation with more than I had before. Brings me way back.

music - Love, In Itself & Shake the Disease - Depeche Mode

2nd night in our couples class. There was some kind of grouping problem with Bobo and Laura's group and maybe Erik and Keesha's as well so they took the 'problem children' (the Woodland Hills folk) and made a new group, consisting totally of us. So its the six of us and our small group leaders, Ethan and Robyn Craig, who are awesome people. We all kind of knew something was going to shift around but none of us saw it coming out like this. I like it. It seems like God is directing us down a path where these three couples [Keesha and Erik, Bobo and Laura, and Cara and I] are growing into a group of friends. Sort of like when you'd see your parents go out with friends, it feels like that.

Bobo and I watched the first episode of Jeremiah last night. Cool show. Its a post-apocalyptic setting, so I gotta love it. Looking forward to seeing how the show continues.

The events around that accident are fading. Thank you, God, for time and the effects time has on the mind.

music - Growing Up - Peter Gabriel

I saw a man die today.

Cara and I were in Woodbury visiting her friend Kristin and his husband, Matt. They just moved into a house and we returned Sadie, their dog, that Cara was watching for the weekend. We stayed for a good chunk of the Twins game. We took off at about the 10th inning. Took 494 north which becomes 694 as it turns west. It seemed like a lot of people were driving recklessly all over and I even made a comment to Cara like "What's up with people tonight!?". Then we had just passed 35E and a red SUV was merging into our lane about 50 yards ahead of us- perfectly fine. Then, very very fastly, a large grey pickup truck, weaving between cars behind us, whips around my jeep and obviously wanted to get in our lane ahead of us, but the red SUV had just merged there. Too late. The back of the big grey truck clips the front of the SUV causing the truck to redirect perpendicular with the highway and he keeps going off the highway to our right, hits the ditch, rolls over on the frontage road. The red SUV manages to pull over on the on-ramp of Rice Ave. they were fine. Cara starts to call 911, I park the jeep on the side of the highway, hazard lights on and run down and up the ditch, jump the fence and join the 3 or 4 other people assessing the situation. The truck was on its roof, pieces of truck and glass all over. Another car comes up the frontage road and in its headlights we see the driver of the truck kind of hanging out of what was the rear window. There is blood and he is moving a little. It seemed like 4 or 5 minutes and a cop arrives. In his flashlight beam we see just how much blood has pooled. It doesn't look good for this guy. The red SUV guy comes down and he is superwired-in shock, but he is physically fine. By now more cops and ambulances are there. Cara was up checking on the red SUV guy's son, he's fine too, a bit shaken up. She gives a cop her report, I give mine and eventually we're on our way.

music - Too Much Rope - Roger Waters (Give any one species too much rope and they'll f* it up!)

Happy Birthday Gregory!

Worked out at the Mall of America for Viking Game Day and it went rather well (unlike the last two times). Stopped by the Franklin Covey store- which has become a tradition this year. After we set up the set, Josh, Scott, Zach and I played 4 player chess. We've been doing that on and off all week and its been a blast. Somehow, I became the designated liaison between us and the cheerleaders. One of the regulars calls me Indy because she heard Joe Schmit call me that (Joe doesn't know my real name so he calls me Indiana because last year I was Indiana Jones for Halloween). And I broke my leatherman.

I'm scheduled to work at the Metrodome tomorrow evening for a Twins pregame show. After that I'm going to Greg's and Mandy's again this weekend to watch the nice guys (see below).


music - Hold Back the Reigns - Duran Duran (Rio) and Here is the House - Depeche Mode (Black Celebration)

Happy Anniversary, Greg and Mandy!

Its been a while since I updated this blog. I've been at Greg and Mandy's hanging with the nice guys. Hanging with the nice guys is kind of like a miniature vacation for me. It forces me away from my usual routine and gives me a period of time to just sit on my ass and watch movies or tv. Thats half of why I haven't posted for a while. Those dogs are wonderful. They even got to chase a rabbit this weekend!

Tonight was the first Before You Say I Might class (of 7). Its a couples class for those who are involved in a serious relationship and are thinking about marriage. It was interesting and I can see the potential for how this could help Cara's and my relationship. I have homework. I'm due to write more, but I'm feeling quite unmotivated tonight, so I'll just have to write more tomorrow.

music - Downside Up - Peter Gabriel (been listening to a lot of Pete lately)