Snow

So, its April 5, and I've been dying for Summer, for warmth, for longer days. The snow is still falling. It's cold and the snow keeps piling up. I got up and as I do sometimes I drove to Kwik Star to get a paper and on to Starbucks for coffee. The snow was somehow comforting. There was little traffic, it was quiet, just the sound of the wipers gently moving the ice from my windshield.

I walked into Starbucks, instantly greeted by that smell. The smell of Starbucks everywhere . . . Cedar Falls, Minneapolis, the corner of Tremont & Boylston, or Washington Square. Very comforting in ts own strange way.

I am now spending another quite Sunday with Clare, Myla, & Nessa catching up on the news and Tivo.

So, don't get me wrong, I still can't wait for summer, but the snow isn't all that bad.

Happy Opening Day everyone!

Travel Travel!

Every time I go on vacation, I get urge to travel even more.  We just got back from Disney World, and unlike last year, I'm not really ready to start planning next year's Disney trip, but I have again started thinking about places around the world I'd like to go.  There is a list, but right now there are two international destinations and a few domestic locations in my mind.

International:

1.  Ireland.  I don't know what draws me to Ireland exactly.  I do have Irish heritage, but really I think the culture appeals to me most.  Of course Ireland is a beautiful country with lots to see in addition to the culture.  Also, this would be a trip we could plan and navigate ourselves without having to rely on a tour company.

2.  Egypt.  This will be our 5th Anniversary trip.  Egypt is just awesome.  I mean, to us 100 years is old.  That time span is but a moment in Egyptian history.  Pyramids, the Sphinx, Cairo, the Nile . . . the stuff of legends and history.  I can't wait.

Domestic:

In no special order:

1.  West road trip.  When I was 12 or so my family went on a road trip through the Mountain West.  South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nebraska, etc.  However, I want to fully experience a similar trip at a more casual pace and stopping at all the cool places and bypassing the boring ones.  

2.  Boston.  No explanation needed.

3.  San Jose.  Ryan and Kristan live there and besides flying through LAX once I've never been to California.

4.  San Francisco.  I've wanted to visit the set of Full House (j/k) and Greg lives there.

5.  Anywhere else.  I'll go anywhere that looks interesting.  For instance, our vacation of opportunity in Philly was awesome and we were able to take full advantage of an already planned trip!

If anyone has suggestions, advice, or a few thousand dollars I can put towards a trip, please let me know.  Travel safe & fun everyone!!

Summertime!

So, I know its not Summer, I know its not close to Summer, but it should be.  But anyway here's a list of things I like about Summer:

1.  4 Queens Dairy Cream

2. Walking all over Cedar Falls with Clare

3. The Mustang

4. Grilled steak

5. Grilled fish

6. Grilled everything else

7. Sweet corn

8. Icy beverages

9. A tan

10. Outdoor kitty adventures

11. Fresh air

12. Camping

13. Fires

14. Dining outside

15. Baseball season

16. Big Brother

17. Driving in the country

18. Freshens smoothies

19. Much much more . . .

Departure

I was going to blog a bunch, but really my brain isn't working well enough to write.  Christmas was good.  EF College Break still pisses me off, I'll explain more after the trip.  My parents are still completely insane.  Clare is still awesome.  Anyway, I'm tired, I'm gonna finish packing.  Happy New Year everyone!

Brain Fizzle

I think earlier today I had something to write about. Now I don't really, but blogging was on my list and I don't feel like putting laundry away. It seems like I've been living at Wal-Mart lately, which is weird because I hardly go there anymore. Apparently I have just been in need of cheap general merchandise recently. The recent trips have been made more interesting as Matt provided us with a "Wal-Mart Bingo" board. Spaces include such things as unattended children and obese shoppers in motorized carts. So if you hear someone yell "Bingo" in Wal-Mart, check it out, its probably something funny.

My early Christmas present from Clare is remote start. This is an awesome invention. I did find out that in negitive ten degree temps it sometimes has trouble getting the car started first thing in the morning. However, after six hours it kicked right on at lunch time, so if once in a while I have to run out and start it, I'll be ok. It's still awesome.

I will now bid my readers a goodnight while I try to motivate myself to do some items remaining on my list. Sleep well and God bless.

And now for a cute picture of kittens sleeping:

Christmas Week

Christmas is always a time of mixed emotions for me. The holiday of course is important for its true meaning, but my feelings this time of year come from many sources. Growing up Christmas was fine, it was exciting to see how many Lego sets I might get. My two favorites were the Laser Launcher and this Ice Planet ship:


Then we would have breakfast casserole and head out for Des Moines for an afternoon of more presents and eating. My grandparents house in Des Moines was ok, but it turned Christmas into an excessively long day of increasingly distant relatives.

Along came college. This is where Christmas really took a nosedive for me. As Clare and I were together all through my college career, it was very hard on us because we were apart normally on Christmas. This in itself didn't make the holidy completely suck, but it sure didn't help things. What made it suck is the constant battle between my father and I regarding grades, money, career choices, work ethic, and pretty much anything else he could think of to argue with me about. On top of all that, my "perfect" brother and his "fantastic" girlfriend/fiancee/wife entered the picture and just made things more unpleasant. Needless to say the Christmas season and vacation time was not really all that pleasant to me.

Finally, now that Clare and I are married (really this is only our second Christmas together as husband and wife) I have put an end to the split Christmas (Boston was a whole different situation which I may discuss later) and we spend it with her family. Because of the grace and kindness of Clare and the rest of her family Christmas is definately becoming the experience it should be.

So I have mixed feelings about Christmas. Mostly things are happy and positive now, but the old emotions occasionally show up this time of year. A new wrinkle to this years story is that I haven't talked to my father directly for a few months except to tell him that the bank was robbed, and I really don't speak to my mother much. The next week may well define my relationship with my side of the family for years to come.

Anyway, I am looking forward to Christmas this year, and not just for the gifts. I am looking forward to being with my wife and a family that will love and support us no matter what.

CID(Thank you Tony)

I would just like to share a small success story of the day.  Actually its a large success.  We went to Cedar Rapids today so Lori (Clare's mom) could finish up Christmas shopping.  While Clare and Lori were at the mall, Dave (Clare's dad) took me all the way over to the airport.  We've been trying to get an earlier flight out of Cedar Rapids for our New Years trip to allow us more than 45 minutes through the tunnel with the disco lights at O'hare to our international flight.  I've called United and EF and both told me either it would be $350 a ticket to change the flight or that they couldn't do it.  So I went into the airport seriously doubting that they could help.  As I stood in line, this little bitchy woman was being completely rude to some family with a wheel chair, and I was thinking "crap, I'm gonna get nowhere."  But when I got up there, she rudely informed me that this other guy could help me.  I was thrilled, the guy was like my age, maybe younger, with a tattoo on his neck.  I knew this was much better.  When I told him what I wanted, he was like "why did they do that?  you should have at least an hour and a half for an international flight."  With no problems, no questions, no hassle, no fee, he put Clare and I on an earlier flight.  Finding the right person really does pay off.  So thank you Tony who works at CID for helping us when others could or would not.  We will be able to enjoy our trip and our time before our trip even more now.  AND we will have time for a Chicago dog!