Random’s from NC
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008 | Trips | Comments Off
Our bags. Taking the train to ORD. The big one is mine...Yikes
Laura in front of her college house
Laura at the Biltmore Estate goofing around.
Us in front of the Biltmore. So cool
Biltmore Winery
Me getting the new bike ready
Riding off into the forrest.
I made a friend Mark. He kept me safe and we biked until way after the sun set
Bus to Chicago And a Start to Ski Season
Thursday, December 11th, 2008 | Just Life | Comments Off
Since I’ve been making the trek to Chicago to see Laura quite frequently….I decided to mix things up and take a bus from Madison. I logged onto megabus.com and purchased my ticket. I get done with work on Fridays around 1pm, and the bus didn’t leave until 5, so Justin and I got out on the XC ski trails for an hour or so. Boy am I rusty….so rusty. But you have to start somewhere. It was exciting and fun.
Mandy, Laura, and I, walking to dinner.
The ride down wasn’t too bad, and almost every seat in the bus was filled. I slept most of the way, which was the best part. After arriving in Chicago, I beat Laura to her friend Mandy’s place. So Mandy and I caught up a little bit, and then we went out to a really good Mediterranean restaurant. Mandy’s boyfriend Tim met up with us and we had a great dinner.
After dinner, we made our way to a bar to meet up with some of Laura’s friends from Jacksonville, FL. They were up in IL for the Bears/Jags football game. It was quite the time. The dance floor was packed, we were all having a good time, and there is even a picture of Laura and I up on a “Jacksonville Social Life” website.
On Saturday, Laura, Mandy, and I went to a great Art fair/show at the merchandise mart in downtown Chicago. It was quite simply one of the best art fairs I’ve been to. Wonderful exhibitions.
Mandy #2 telling me how it is!
Saturday night we headed out of the city and up to Evanston. We went out to dinner with a different Mandy and her boyfriend Anthony. It was a blast. My stomach hurt from all the laughing. Anthony also Mountain Bikes, so I got to be a big bike geek for a while.
Anthony and Mandy
On Sunday, we kept things pretty low key. We ran some errands, Laura made dinner, the heat finally started working in her place, we watched a movie, and eventually I got on the bus back to Madison.
There has been a plethora of snow in Madison over the last week, so I’ve been able to get out and ski a bunch. I’ve also been doing a lot of Pilates (Or as Brian Smith calls it “The Rock” because as a man you can’t get sore doing something called Pilates), or “The Rock” over the last few weeks and I can really tell that my core strength has gotten better. This ski season should be interesting.
Onto another week! KD
Thanksgiving!
Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 | Just Life | Comments Off
Thanksgiving this year was great. A lot of people were back in Madison, Laura came to town to spend thanksgiving with my family, and work at a toy company becomes quite hectic around Thanksgiving. American Girl has been having a good start to the Christmas season with all the promotions and such, so that is encouraging, and I hope that good sales will continue thru the New Year.
Dad Cutting the Turkey
On Wednesday, David and Rachel came into Madison, and Laura and I met them for the movie “The Four Christmas’s”. I must say….the movie made me queasy from time to time. At one time there was a Doritos and Mayo casserole. You all know how much I love mayo! Yuck. Seeing it made me want to wash my own mouth out with soap.
Rachel’s Old Senior Picture….I believe the back says “I Like You More Than Dave 4 ever. Heart, Rach”….Ok, so I wrote it, but it was still funny.
On Thanksgiving day, I was still catching up on sleep from the Vegas trip, so I missed the Turkey Bowl (whoops) and got a good nights rest. In the early afternoon we headed over to my Dad’s for the first Thanksgiving celebration with my grandma, Sister, Clayton, Brother, Rachel, Laura, and Dad. My Dad made a wonderful meal and as usual, totally out did himself. The turkey looked amazing, and tasted even better. After a great meal, and then a nap, a group of people came over to my house.
The Turkey was so Pretty!
The list is important so here it goes. Matt and Morgan Musser, David and Rachel, Laura, Kristen Gallagher, Brad, Justin (Oh wait…Justin didn’t come), John, Johnny and Michelle Hoffner, Mary, Sam, and Jazz!
Great Guys! Johnny, Matt, and John
David saying “Yo….it’s cool”
Hope like the tree we picked out
Artsy picture of the post
Friday night David and I went Mountain biking for one last time in Wisconsin for the year. It was my first time biking in the snow, which presented its own unique challenges, but it was a lot of fun. No one crashed, or got hurt.
Saturday was Thanksgiving at my Mom and Bob’s. They prepared a great meal and we hung out for quite a while. The channel of water in there back yard was completely frozen. Winter is here. It was a great celebration with them.
The picture below is of my Mom and I for her birthday. It was a great evening. Just wanted to include it.
Las Vegas Weekend
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 | Trips | Comments Off
Before I start writing too much, I didn’t bring my camera on the trip, yes you heard right, the only camera I had was on my phone, so that is where these pictures came from.
Hailing from Colorado, California, and Wisconsin, a group of 8 descended upon the brightest city in Nevada for the weekend. I flew in at Midnight on Friday and when I got to New York New York or as John likes to call it “Nark Nark” the fun had already been started.
The first night as is typical for most Vegas trip nights, I stayed out late, did a little bit of gambling, and laid down to rest at 3:30am. I had to go to bed that early b/c I had a big day the next day. I had a Mountain bike rented for the day to ride on one of the 30 IMBA’s (International Mountain Bike Association’s) epic rides. Bootleg Canyon in Boulder City, NV. It lived up to it’s title.
I was on the bike for over 4 hours, and I covered a little over 40 miles. There were a lot of really nice trails, a few really scary ones (when there was a cliff on one side and only about 3 feet of trail width…Yikes).
I did have one injury and it was actually 20 minutes into the ride. I was biking down a hill and I needed to slow down to maneuver an obstacle, well this rented bike didn’t respond how mine usually and the bike didn’t slow down fast enough, so I stuck my hands out to the rock walls on either side of me, and used my “arm brakes”, you can see the result by Clicking Here (I wanted to spare most of you).
(I drank a lot of water, listened to music, and yes Mom, I kept my head protected with this nifty helmet)
After biking, I headed back to the strip, happy, tired, hungry, and ready to lose some money! But I got locked out of our room, b/c one of the beds got broken in our room from too many “Monkey’s jumping on the bed”, but instead of a monkey falling off, the bed broke. So security had to file out a report, and to make a long story short, we got a new bed, 8 free roller coaster rides, and 8 free drinks. Not a bad deal. I wouldn’t encourage breaking beds though.
I took a little excursion by myself and went to the Hoover Dam. Didn’t I get a great picture of it!
On Saturday night, I lost some $$ at the tables, went to a comedy club with the whole group (except for the elusive Chris who supposedly got lost in The Mirage and forgot what city he was in?), and then John, Colin, and I went to a dance club. It was a blast, those two were a hoot and we finished up dancing around 3:30am. Late night.
On Sunday morning, I got up pretty early and enjoyed a morning of watching football games and hearing stories from Chris about him riding unicorns and winning a ton of money on craps. It was pretty humorous. It’s up to each individual as to what to believe. Oh yeah, I was two feet away from Mike Tyson, and I said “That’s Mike Tyson”, he looked and smiled. It was pretty cool.
Sunday night we went to a Sushi restaurant, watched the fountains at the Bellagio, and then hit up the Planet Hollywood Casino for a while. We can just say that it worked out well for our group. The next thing I knew it was 3:30am again and I needed to get to the airport by 5am. So a short nap and I headed off to the airport. 6 hours later, I made it to Madison and went to work.
This next week is THANKSGIVING! And I’m exited about it. Not only will Laura be in town, but David and Rachel will be as well. Onto another busy week.
Since I didn’t get any really good pictures from the trip, I figured I should post a few good ones. They are from a few weeks ago when I took Laura to her first Farmers Market.
My Dad and my Neice Hope
I Probably did something stupid to make Laura laugh. It’s ok, she likes it.
Quick Update
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 | Uncategorized | Comments Off
Hey everyone, I just wanted to write a quick note catching everyone up. I’ve been busy, hence I haven’t written very much. But I’ve had an eventful and great past few weeks. I went down to Chicago for one weekend….it was a blast. One of Laura’s friends was having a birthday party. Party was great, we ate Ian’s pizza after that. The rest of the weekend was fun. I’m busy busy busy with work (Christmas season at a toy company…go figure), so I’ve gotta cut this short.
Halloween
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 | Just Life | Comments Off
This past week work continued to be busy, so I kept up working away. Halloween at American Girl is a big celebration because it’s the only holiday we are working at the office. The theme for this year was “Be Green” as in recycle. The team I’m on decided that it could be a pun on many levels to celebrate St. Patrick’s day. I decided I wanted to be a leprechaun so I bought some Lederhosen tracked down a wig, top hat, and a green overcoat…and wala…I had my outfit.
But I couldn’t be a Leprechaun for all of Halloween. Brad’s brother Mark was throwing a Halloween party so Brad, Justin, John, and I decided to be Joose cans. Construction started earlier in the week with John, Justin, and I taking trash cans and transforming them into our outfits.
My fav part of the weekend was that Laura came to town. She was a Joose girl for Halloween along with Erin Byrd. It was so nice to have Laura here. After the party on Friday night, we spent Saturday running around town meeting a ton of people, and by the time Saturday night rolled around and we got to my Mom and Bob’s house we were both pretty tired.
Sunday morning, Justin, Laura, and myself went to Blackhawk Church and it was a sermon that was just amazing. Good food for thought. God is love, and I’ve gotta run. Busy week!
Urbanathlon Under the Harvest Moon!
Thursday, October 30th, 2008 | Just Life | Comments Off
Hi everyone, I might as well start with the obvious. Yes, I am dating this Laura lady that keeps on popping up in all of my pictures. She’s cool, and I’m happy. For any more information you’ll just have to hang out with me.
So two weekends ago I had my capstone race of the season. Originally it was supposed to be the Xterra USA championships, but logistically it ended up not working out, so I tapered down and actually fattened up (I know you all are shaking your heads right now) 15 pounds to 210 so I could compete in the Clydesdale division of the Men’s Health Urbanathlon. I like hardware and It looked very doable to do the race in a time that would garnish a medal. Last year a 1:43:21 took first place in the Clydesdale division. I really didn’t have any clue how I’d do because I have never done a race like this, and I’m not especially good at running races. It was just shy of 12 miles total. It is a run with urban obstacles in your way. We ran up and down the stairs of Solider Field 3 times, jumped over walls, Taxis, etc.
Recreating the Taxi slide to finish.
Here is a picture of me doing it during the race.
My Goal for the day was to cross the finish line in under 1:40. My committed fan for the day was Laura, and she said that she enjoyed watching the race. One of the coolest things about the race was that it benefitted CAF (Challenged Athletes Foundation), so they had some of the CAF all stars there. There was a female that I had a hard time keeping up with whom only had one real leg!
Awww…isn’t that cute!
Me with my Medal after the race.
We went out to dinner that night
The past few weeks have been very busy at work getting ready for Christmas season. That is why the delay in writing. But in the midst of all the craziness around here, I did host a dinner at my home last Thursday as a part of the 20’s something group I belong to at my Church. It was called 7@7 because you have 7 people come over at 7pm.
Kristen Making her Crab Rangoon Appitizer
Well, this is the 4th time I’ve hosted a dinner and as typical I ended up having 12 people over. It was great! My friend Kristen Muenster helped me co-host the dinner and she made a really good appetizer and dessert. I made the main course and the dinner went off without a hitch.
Justin trying not to smile during “Snort Smile”
After dinner we played to infamous games of “Animal Sounds” and “Snort Smile”. You will just have to hang out with me to learn more about the games, but as you can tell by the pictures, we had a blast doing it.
Mary giving into the snorts. I think she made herself laugh.
The next day I headed down to Chicago to meet up with Laura. She invited me to be her date to a charity event called “Under the Harvest Moon”. She lives north of downtown, so it has been a blast getting to take the train into the city and do the Cab and walking thing.
Laura and two of her friends.
Just Cute huh!
Me helping to loose all of Laura and mine play money in Craps.
“A little bit softer now” -Song = Shout!
Laura Comes To Madison
Monday, October 13th, 2008 | Just Life | Comments Off
This past weekend I was lucky for two reasons. I got to spend time in Madison, and my new friend Laura came to town and I had the opportunity to show her what I find so captivating about this area.
On Friday I got to go out to Blue Mounds with Justin and we hit up Mountain Biking for a few hours. With all the fall colors changing, it was beautiful. Justin is getting really good at mountain biking and gave me a run for my money on some of the uphills.
Pretty! Justin booking it up a hill
On Saturday Laura and I headed up to Devil’s Lake via the Merrimack Ferry! I hadden’t been on the ferry this year, so it was fun to give it a go. Once up at Devil’s lake we met up with Justin (He Biked there) and did some hiking around the park. Here are some pictures
Land!!!! Justin says. LAND!!!!
Jill and Matt made it up via bike too…so we all rode back together and stopped at the wollershiem winery.
After getting back to Madison…it was badger football time! Justin decided to be a badger!
Laura showing off her bike skills…let’s get to this tailgate!
We met up with Jazz and B-Rad. It was a blast
I just had to post this picture. Brad took my camera for an hour or so…when I got it back…this picture was on it.
Seriously…the Badgers sucked it up! Let’s go.
It FEELS Good be a Democrat!
Monday, October 13th, 2008 | Food For Thought | 1 Comment
This will be my only political post about the election…and I’ll keep it relatively short.
There are many many people I know who HATE Bush. HATE him. There reasons can be many.
I remember two years ago, there was an opportunity to “BRING CHANGE” to America by electing democrats into the majority and appointing Nancy Pelosi as the speaker of the house.
Well America wanted change…and we got it….YAYAYAY. I could list off how so many things have changed since then (gas, unemployment, consumer confidence), and that stuff is in the news everyday. But if I were to ask most of you out there to tell me what the unemployment rate is…could you tell me? Or, if I were to ask you to tell me who is rated as the most and least monetarily wasteful senator…could you? Fact is, most people don’t really care about facts; they care about feelings. It feels good to think that everyone should go to College, that everyone should own a home, that everyone should have top notch health care. So what have we done? We have allowed pretty much any semi motivated person to go to College and to own homes, and it FELT so great! But as time passes, what do we now see? Homes in foreclosure everywhere, people in there mid twenties with tons of debt whom have a degree that they can’t use, or won’t be able to find a job that will pay the bills. NOW….today good people who CAN afford a home, can’t get home loans. How does that feel? How does it feel when you look at the news every night? We wanted to give handouts to everyone, we did, and what happened. It ended up hurting everyone.
America is the greatest country on earth (but who knows for how long) because it is the land of the free! Where the best idea wins (even if it isn’t an Americans), where the driven are rewarded with there hard work, and you can be lazy, but you should pay the price of being lazy. Currently the USA has the second highest corporate tax rate in the world…and people rip on McCain because he wants to lower the corporate tax rate….but Obama wants to increase them. If we raise taxes on Corporations….my guess is that more corporations will just leave this country and go elsewhere (It’s already happening). Where will that leave America? The point being with all of this is that we need to allow people and corporations to succeed wonderfully and to fail miserably. More and more each day we are turning socialist to make sure everyone is taken care of. Socialism is not American, but the media and now politics is warming people up to the idea….because it FEELS good to help everyone. Remember again, it FELT good to give all those people home loans too. If we want to help everyone, it will end up hurting everyone. America will go from the top of the world to the bottom of the barrel. Is this the CHANGE you really want?
Now let’s look at something that matters in the future. Health care. It FEELS really good to think that everyone can have top notch healthcare in this nation…but what is the price? People say “but we can afford it”, and technically we can afford it (for now), but it comes at the cost of using that money for other things that can keep America on top. If you look at countries where they have universal healthcare, there healthcare quality stinks. I had family that lived in the UK for many years, and they would fly back to America for all doctor and dental appointments…why? Because universal healthcare quality sucks. Why would someone want to go to an extra 4 years of school, and a crappy residency so that they can have there productivity hindered by politicians and the government. Again, by helping everyone, you end up also hurting everyone. As much as this is repetitive, it felt good to give people all these home loans, but does it feel good now?
The point in me writing all of this is not to get you to vote one way or the other, but it is to become a factual voter, not a feeling voter. Feelings are great! but this world ultimately revolves around money. Money doesn’t have any emotions. A rich person doesn’t worry about money as much because he has it, but the person starving sure is worrying about how he is going to pay for his next meal. We are ALL and I repeat ALL rich in America (which means we can focus on things that make us Feel good), but if we isolate ourselves with taxes, tariffs, and bigger government, in the long run we won’t be caring about being green, or universal healthcare, or any of that. America is not the world leader it is because of the government, but because of people like Henry Ford, and Bill Gates.
A random point, If you don’t think that everyone in America is rich….go to a third world country.
As much as it sucks for me to write this (because it doesn’t FEEL good), but I believe that you should let people do what they want to do with there lives. By letting the drug addict destroy his life, or the boy who doesn’t care about his education not finish high school, or the lazy person who just isn’t motivated enough to pull them self together. If that is the price that we as a nation to pay (and realistically we do) to make sure as a whole we remain the most prosperous nation on earth, then that is a choice I’m willing to make. I believe that each person is the master of there destiny and if someone wants to do nothing with there life….let them. On the same token, if someone wants to do everything in there life…let them. If you truly believe that we as a nation can do it all and stay on top….just look at our little experiment with home loans.
Lastly, regardless of who gets elected to office, I will be fine with it. I am not a victim, and am in charge of how lazy or prosperous I want to be… One thing that continually baffels me is how many Madison residents run around acting like they have been victimized. A great question is, how powerless do you make yourself when you become a victim? So, you choose to be powerless, I’ll choose to be powerful. My rant is now done, and if you find spelling errors or poor grammar that’s ok.
I’ve had a few days to think about what I’ve written and I have a few comments to add to it. The first is, I do care greatly about the kid who doesn’t want to finish school, I do care about the drug addict that doesn’t know what to do with there life….I just trust people like you and me to help them out, and to do it much more efficiently and effectively than the government.
The second is, two leaving thoughts. Maybe it’s just the city I’ve grown up in, or maybe it truly is the nation, but why is it continually suggested that I be ashamed and feel bad that I lean towards the conservative side of politics? Last thought, Liberals are coined as being “Open Minded” and Conservatives are “Close Minded”, then why do I see McCain signs being stolen out of peoples yards (I’ve seen this twice now in the past week), or cars with McCain stickers on them getting vandalized, or people telling me that I should be ashamed of being a republican?
If you feel the need to write a reply to my post. Just send me an e-mail with it to karl@karlsplace.com. You can see people’s replies by clicking on comments at the top of this article.
Weekend in Chicago!
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 | Trips | Comments Off
This past weekend I headed down to Chicago to take Jeff (John’s Old Roommate From Colorado) to the Airport…and after successfully getting there with just enough time for him to not catch his plane (He got on another flight 2 hours later…Phew) I headed out to Mountain Bike at Chicago’s premiere spot. It was pretty good, and for being in Illinois I was surprised. There are very few hills in Illinois.
After getting done and being tired and sweaty from Mountain Biking, I headed to Evanston to meet up with my friend Laura. She had friends in town from Florida, so after I got presentable, we took the train downtown. There is something about public transportation that I really like. We met up with her friends Thom and Kristine and went to a restaurant called “Bin 36”. They specialize in wine and cheese and let me say, other than the fact that it was wonderful company, the food was amazing. Thom and I split this big hunk (classy I know) of some of the best meet I’ve ever tasted.
I needed some help feeding myself.
Ah Oh, that smile means that I did something over the top.
I just like this picture. It’s edgy.
On Saturday Laura and I headed downtown again in the afternoon to go bowling at Lucky Strike. The first Lucky Strike I went to was right across the street from where John’s friends lived out in Colorado and I’ve always had a great time there. It was a repeat hit in Chicago. Laura and I made a bet on the game and I had fallen pretty far behind everyone else leading up to the 9th frame. Well, almost ready to throw in the towel. I got a spare in the 9th and then two strikes in the 10th to take home the victory. I think there was a bit of luck involved.
Serious Pinky swear on the bet! I don’t think either of us pull off the serious face well.
This is not out of victory…this is out of despiration. I’m blowing it at this point!
Shoes! These shoes Rule. These shoes suck! Shoes (inside joke)
For dinner we all headed to a place called “Room 21” which is an old Al Capone Brew house. Again, Laura chose a place that rocked. The interior design was amazing (some of it by Louis Vuitton) and the food was even better. I had the best pork chop of my life.
Kristine and Laura at Navy Pier.
Laura and I at Room 21.
On Sunday I headed to the Whitewater area to meet up with my friends Brian and Brian. We went Mountain Biking for my biggest ride of the year so far. Over 3 hours. All of us were champs and it was a blast. No broken bones or major crashes. A trip to Culvers was in the making for sure after the ride.
I know you are all going to hate me for writing this, but I’ve been trying to gain some weight for this upcoming race so I can legitimately race in the Clydesdale division (200+), and this weekend I actually lost a pound! So I’m 199. I hope to be 205 by the race in two weeks.
Below are pictures from Johnny’s wedding that I thought were too good not to post. That was one fun event. If you want to read about Johnny’s wedding, just search for Johnny in the search box.
Classy Groomsmen!
Us Ushers with Johnny. It was an honor to be there for him.
You just had to have been there…All I have to say is that Ben was awesome!
Oktoberfest fiesta!
Monday, September 29th, 2008 | Trips | Comments Off
This weekend I keep up the fast paced life and had a great time. On Friday after work, I took Brad out to Blue Mounds State Park for his first time mountain biking. He did amazing! I have to say better than anyone else I’ve ever taken on there first time. Blue Mounds is technical, and long. I even went over my handlebars once. We rode for 2 hours…and both of our legs were cashed.
Me goofing off…what would you expect!
After we got back to Madison, I headed downtown to meet up with my friends Jill, Matt, and Katie. It was such a nice evening. Katie brought a deck of cards and we played a game of euchre. I think she fixed the deck because she pulled out a “loner” hand and took all the tricks to pretty much secure the win for her and Matt.
All of us enjoying the union!
There was a concert at the Union where I met up with more friends…which then led to some poka at the Essen Hause. It was a fun evening. Below is a picture of Megan and Lauren at the Polydream (”Pennies and Change” inside joke) concert
On Saturday morning I woke up early to head up to Oktoberfest with Brad and Justin. The first order of business when we got up there was to get some exercise in….because that wasn’t going to happen later in the day. Brad hit to the road; Justin and I enjoyed the off road. Biking the Bluffs is amazing. Such good trails.
Justin looking like a pro!
Did I mention….Stud!
So Justin was too fast and broke the chain on the bike….only about 6 miles and one bluff inbetween us and the car. We took turns running the bike up hills, riding down, and then on the wider sections…one person would bike and push the other person sitting on the bike. It must have looked pretty funny. Justin said that it was good training for me for this “Urbanathlon”.
After we got done with workouts, we all went down to the fest grounds and played a game of “Hammerschlaggen”. Each person has a nail and you have a heavy hammer with a little head to hit the nails with, each person gets one hit and then you pass the hammer to the next person….the first person to get there nail all the way in wins. Justin schooled Brad and myself. He won the glove and a free beer.
After Hammerschlaggen and the fest grounds, we watched the Badgers football team seize up against Michigan @ the La Crosse Brewery. Brad and Justin were hiding there tears behind sunglasses.
We found the king of La Crosse! Brad and Justin had to get there picture with this celebrity.
This is Oktoberfest spirit at it’s best. Too funny.
This Oktoberfest was a bit more tame than others, but we still had an amazing time. Everyone stayed safe, and I even got a full 6 hours of sleep.
When we got back to Madison, I went to Church @ blackhawk, and it was a great message about compassion. I know that compassion is something that I’ve had laid on my heart (to change it) for a long time, and there has been progress with that recently. So I spent some quality time in prayer…and it was good. You should check out the sermon…it’s at this link.
http://www.blackhawkchurch.org/resources/sermon_lib.php. The title is “Grace Works On Us”….the “large video” will be the best choice.
Onto another busy week
I wore pink, you’re jealous aren’t you?
Monday, September 22nd, 2008 | Just Life, Trips | Comments Off
To explain the title briefly, I went to the Packers/Cowboy game with Brad, Justin, John, Jeff (from Colorado), Megan, and Jazz. Brad was able to get tickets for us (thanks Brad!). Well, I was helping get the tail gate food going, and Justin set off to get some Packer apparel. I told him to get me a shirt….and he did. He was actually nice enough to get me a jersey. A PINK jersey. I was faced with two options. Not wear the jersey, and just be a dick about it, or accept the gift, support my team, and enhance the party atmosphere. I asked myself, does it really bother me….Umm Nope. I’m comfortable with myself, and for how many smiles I got, how many Women wanted there picture taken with me, and a few kisses on the cheek (keeping it classy), I didn’t have a problem with it at all. Although I don’t see myself wearing this jersey again, so if anyone wants to borrow it for the future…let me know.
Megan and I dancing!
So onto my weekend…It was a busy one folks. On Friday after work, I went for a run with Brad in my attempt to get ready for this Men’s Health Urbanathlon in a few weeks. We ran along the lake and it was so beautiful…and windy! If I’d had enough time, it would have been great to get out and give kiteboarding a shot, but there wasn’t enough. So I met up with my friend Emily and went sailing….for a few minutes, until the wind kicked up enough that the sail ripped clean in half. She steered the boat back as I held onto the sail….My arms were TIRED! I probably had to hold onto that sale for 20+ minutes.
In the evening I took out my Mom’s boat with a few friends for some dinner and a sunset. Scott Mottice and I did some wakeboarding. After watching the most beautiful sunset, we headed back to my Mom’s and hung out in the hot tub for a while. Hope was at “Nonnie Kitty and Papa Bob’s house:, so we had a good time playing with her. Life is so rough isn’t it.
On a side note, I took John and Jeff out Mountain Biking on Thursday. It was Jeff’s first time, and John was trying out a pretty sick new bike. We dinked around, and had a good time.
Love the big smile!
Catching some air off of a teeter totter.
And as if Running, Sailing, Boating, and Mountain biking wasn’t enough to fill up a weekend; I headed up to the cabin Saturday morning to spend some much needed quality time with the Prochaska’s. Jason (Becca’s boyfriend) had some of his family up at the cabin as well, and his cousin is an avid “Bow Fisherman”…which is where you shoot at fish with a bow and arrow! Yeah, as if just fishing with a hook wasn’t hard enough, now you get to shoot them with a arrow. I’m not going to lie, I had a great time. It was a thrill. I got my fishing license, went out on the boat when it got dark, and the hunt began. The boat had bright lights on it, and you trolled around until you saw a shadow in the water and hoped that you were a good enough shot to hit it. The fish were very skittish, so you really had to be on your game….and for some reason, I could not hit anything that was 3 feet from me, wither it was a leaf or a fish. But at 20 feet, I could hit things dead on. After missing a few close fish. One was swimming away about 20 feet (I guess perfect for me) it jumped out of the water and “WHAP” I shot and hit it. It was exhilarating. We had a great time. Since I didn’t plan on being out on a boat at night, I had my nice running shorts to wear. Enjoy the pictures.
Chilling at the camp fire before fishing.
The boat lighting up the water
Shot! You can see the arrow…I missed that time!
Nice shot Jason!
Look out Fishies!
Cool shot of Jason
Terry Got This One
On Sunday morning I left the cabin early, got in some Mountain biking at blue mounds and was on record lap pace for me. I wanted to get a loop in in under an hour when I was dinking around and tried to jump over this sharp rock….the rock won, and my tire blew. So I got in a little running workout getting back to the car.
I then went to the UW Medial School’s “White Coat” ceremony. Mark and Annie (My cousin) were in it. The speakers were pretty good, and the main applicable message was “practice self compassion”…that is an important message indeed!
Annie with a big smile…getting her coat. Congrats!
Mark with Jamie, and various family. Congrats Mark!
Keeping in the tradition of keeping busy, Brad and I went straight from this ceremony to meet up with everyone and go to the Packers game. I already explained the pink jersey above. Even though the Packers lost, I had a wonderful time. Some Joose did make an appearance, and Justin came thru big time with great tail gate food. It was my first time at Lambeau, and hopefully it won’t be the last.
Jeff and Jazz hanging out in the back of my car
What a great group shot in front of Lambeau Field.
Brad is the grill master!
Brad thinks “IT’S GOOD”
John is so suave with his beads.
The best part is in the field. Love John in this picture!
Is that Justin or the Joose sneaking out.
Jeff getting ready to “Regulate”
Jeffries!
This is what my night was like…how can I complain with this?
A weekend of no sleep awesomeness!
Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 | Just Life, Trips | Comments Off
This weekend was a weekend that won’t be repeated for quite some time, if ever, but I wouldn’t have changed a thing about it. Friday afternoon we had our end of the year golf outing for my works golf league. I had a really fun time, but golfed horribly. On the last hole I did have a monster drive. The hole prize was for farthest drive on the fairway. I pretty much closed my eyes, swung away as hard as I could and I connected! It was way past the current standing drive, but it ended up 5 feet off the fairway…no hole prize for me. After the after golf party, I headed over to Justin and Brad’s for there infamous (or soon to be infamous) Joose party. Joose is a spiked energy drink, and it has plenty of both caffeine and alcohol.
The night was out there, over 400 pictures taken on my camera, and I went to bed at 3am….but I woke up at 5am to head out to meet up with my friend Lauren. She helped to organize a trip to Notre Dame for the football game against Michigan. I did not feel 100%….more like 60%, but Lauren was a champ for putting up with my poutiness when I don’t feel very well. We watched Rudy on the way down, it gave me chills as usual. Lauren took me around the campus for a tour…and it made me think that I may have missed out on some things in a college choice. Don’t get me wrong…I loved La Crosse and wouldn’t change things. Notre Dame had class, history, and as weird as this sounds…there were many places that I could feel God’s presence smiling down on this place. The football game was amazing. It was the loudest stadium I’ve ever been to. This picture was taken right before the rain started to pour down.
ND took home the victory and it was a big upset for Michigan! After the game we went to the dining hall and had a very good dinner. Then went to this area on campus called the “grotto”. It is a little cave, where you can light candles, and pray. I had lot’s to pray about, so I stayed there for a while. It was one of those “magical” moments in your life. The ride back to Madison wasn’t too bad, I was feeling a lot better at this point. We got back to Madison around midnight, which was just in time to catch the last part of the Badger football game. I headed over to Mark Welnick’s house and saw them win. They had a bunch of people over, so I stayed there until 3:30 (why? I don’t know), got home around 4…so again, another late night. Sunday I got some work done, went to breakfast with John, went mountain biking with Justin (he did really really well!), then got to bed early…..so as you can see this weekend was one of no sleep awesomeness!
I did finally run into some pictures from Adam and Annie’s Wedding. Believe it or not, I didn’t take even one picture at the wedding!
They are So Beautiful
Best group of guys ever! Not bad looking either
Big wedding party
Does this photo even need explaining? Umm…Yes. It’s tradition in Annie’s hometown for the wedding party to come out dressed like the bride and groom. Since Annie works at Target…the girls were Target employees. Since Adam rides bikes, we all wore spandex. Spandex may have been a first for this tradition in Little Shute.
Ironman Wisconsin 08′
Monday, September 8th, 2008 | Just Life | Comments Off
Hey everyone. So Ironman WI was yesterday and I had quite a few friends who did the race. The weather leading up to raceday was all over the board. Hot and windy, Cold and rainy, but when the day kicked off…it was beautiful. Brad Welnick, and Justin Pernitz were my main people to cheer on, and they both did awesome. Since most people just look at my pictures anyways…I’ll stop writing and put some pictures up.
For the 6th year in a row, we have done a pre-ironman dinner at Brad’s parents house.
Justin stoked to get in the water
Brad’s hair was out of control
John being the wonderful John that he is, said “we should change this to Manny Melvin” I laughed for a long time
Brad finished the swim in 23rd place overall! Crazy…53minutes
Justin is off to T1
Justin killing the bike!
Brad crushing it up Old Sauk Pass
Brad had a crazy day! Crazy Finish! Crazy time!
This is the last person to finish the race. 16:59:55….only 5 seconds left to spare. It was simply electric.
Adam and Annie’s Wedding!
Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008 | Just Life, Trips | Comments Off
Adam and Annie’s wedding was this past weekend. It was such a blast, and so wonderful to see everyone. There were many new stories created, friendships built up, and spandex worn.
On Friday morning I went on a bike ride with Kristen Gallagher. She can BIKE! She pushed me for sure. It’s great to see how far she has come in biking.
On Friday afternoon, I got the boat out for another time. John, Brad, Justin, Jazz and I hit the lake. This time it was WINDY! That means Kiteboarding. Finally I get a chance to really use this thing.
I set everything up, got everything in the boat, and the wind was still pouring on strong. I hop in the water, we let the kite hit the water, and the wind died. It almost felt like negative amounts of wind. But I was determined to make it work, so I sat…and sat….and sat….I sat for 2 hours in the water, and no wind came. Eventually we packed everything up and then went wakeboarding instead. BUMMER!
On Saturday morning we headed up to Little Chute, WI, for the wedding. We strapped on 5 bikes to my car, 4 people piled in (which took the MPG from typical 34 to 22) We picked up our tuxes (great choice by the way Annie), and got settled into our hotel. Brad, Justin, and I went for a bike ride, then met up with everyone for the rehearsal. I didn’t bring my camera to much of the wedding because I just wanted a break from being the guy with the camera. After the rehearsal, we had a great dinner and a crazy night ensued from there. Ice Cream, bachelor party, college ave, Anduzzis Bar, Random Bachelorette parties, cribbage, shuffleboard, etc, etc, etc. It was a great night. They even had a breathalyzer at the bar, and I blew a 0.0. I was also the DD, so that makes sense.
The morning of the wedding, Adam, Dan, Justin, Brad, and I took the bikes out to High Cliff State Park.
What was really funny, is that I grew up less than 2 miles from this park (till age 5) and I never realized that there was a huge lake next to this park. Lake Winnebago.
The bike ride was great, I snapped off a few pictures, and the wedding was underway. The wedding went off without a hitch. Everyone was beautiful…especially Annie. All of the groomsmen got a long really well, so we were having a great time together. In Little Chute there is a tradition that you go to the brides home inbetween the wedding and the reception…so it was a pre-reception. Live music, snacks, and a beautiful day to boot. The reception was a blast. The groomsmen got a bit routy. We sang the first three songs of the dance (being the couples first dance, father daughter dance, and son mother dance), yikes! The dance was a blast. Even after the DJ was done playing music, we still sang and danced two songs by ourselves. There is also another tradition in Little Chute where the bridal party dresses like the bride and groom. So the girls dressed up as Target employees, and we dressed up like Adam. So all the guys wore spandex. Yes, we went out in the middle of the reception and danced in our spandex. Annies brother Sam even danced a few songs in his spandex. All in all a great wedding. On Monday morning, we packed everything up and headed back to Madison.
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