Tag Archives: Kyle & Robin

General, Uncategorized

It Was a Nice Weekend

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Had a time overall this past weekend– on Friday, I went out for a couple drinks with some people from work at Bar Louie, in the Bayshore mall.  Kyle met me there just before 7 and picked me up to drive back toward my place and hang out.  Good to see the K-Man; Michelle and I agreed that it will be nice when Robin comes out of hiding in the future, too…  😛

We decided to have a couple beers at the American Legion post 331, just across Wilson Ave from my house.  Ever since I moved to Shorewood, Michelle and I have been talking (partly tongue-in-cheek) about dropping in there for the fish fry on a Friday night.  When Kyle and I got there, there was still quite a bit of fish being slung, and the atmosphere did not disappoint.  We had pint-tappers of High Life for 2.50.  Not bad at all.  Michelle joined us a bit later, but by then, it was about time for everyone to head out and get some sleep before our respective Saturdays.

Michelle had to get up even earlier than me (!!) in order to make it to Watertown for judging a cheer competition.  I just needed to be ready for Sarah & Brian to pick me up at around 12:30 for our trip to Fort Atkinson.  We were en route to Brad & Mindy’s place for a day out to bid farewell to Todd & Marcia; they are heading to Laos, where Marcia will be working on a project for her PhD.  They’re going to be gone for several months, so it was nice for everyone to get together for an evening out.  Photos from this event are in the Day to Day gallery ((Speaking of photos, I’ve uploaded some from our Twin Cities weekend, too; I only had a few, but they are in the TwinCities gallery)).

On Sunday, we made a quick shopping detour in Johnson Creek before making it back to Milwaukee.  We caught most of the Super Bowl (well, at least half of it) over at Chris/Bob/Justin’s place.  The second half of the game was pretty exciting!  I felt bad for Jason Hill, who was the only Steelers fan in the place.  Personally, I didn’t have a horse in that race, so I was rooting for some of friends who were watching (whoooo!!  Eat that lii’ smoky weiner!!!).

One thing I did discover over the balance of the weekend is that I will need more discipline in order to stick to a schedule on those off-days.  It’s hard to carve up your time the right way when you might go out and not know exactly when you’re getting in (or how late you’ll sleep).  I might just have to “power through” and do my best on those days…

Well, plenty to get done around here before the end of my short day; I have to leave work around 3:30 to head to Madison for a “Recruitment & Outreach” presentation.  Gonna be a late night, but I’m taking some This American Life with me, so I should be golden…

"Roll Your Own", General, Sports, Uncategorized

Enjoy While They Last

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It’s a hell of a Saturday out there.  Not a very good time to be blogging; better to be out taking advantage of one of those last nice weekends before the weather takes a turn toward autumn.  Just a couple quick comments then:

  • The Brewers have taken a turn toward winter, about 8 weeks early.  As amazed as I would have been if you’d said to me on August 31, “the Brewers will not make the playoffs,” I will now be SHOCKED if they manage to get in somehow.  The Phillies and Mets are neck-and-neck in the NL East, and really, what we need to do is overcome both.  It would a feat as spectacular as the September collapse to turn it around now.  But I will be there until the bitter end…
  • Michelle and I are leaving shortly to head out to my cousin Aaron’s housewarming party in Cross Plains.  I think it’s pretty remarkable that Aaron set himself a good goal of staying with his folks and saving up for a house, and it took some time, but he did it.  I envy that sort of discipline.  We’re looking forward to the party, too…
  • Kyle and I are going to try our hands at podcasting in the near future.  We’re going to have our first go of it very soon, and we’ll see if anything interesting comes of it.  Stay tuned for details and/or to download.

Have a great Saturday!

General, lists, The Singularity, Uncategorized

Some Notes for Thursday

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Couple random items from around the web for you this morning:

First, a short Obama ad about a summertime reprieve from the gas tax, with a good point:

Second, I do enjoy lists. New Scientist offers a list of the Top Ten Fictional Scientists in popular culture.

Finally, it’s exciting that Kyle and Robin will be headed to Thailand next month to pick up Thanu, but I’m a little conflicted on their plans for conditioning him to accept the reality of the coming robot menace. I guess it will be up to MY children to lead the resistance.
Thanu's robot overlords
And a PS, not from the webs, but from the real world– today is Grandma’s birthday. She is 77!

General, Uncategorized

Deeper Appreciation

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When I was a kid, I was pretty active in the Cub/Boy Scouts for a number of years– I wanna say from 2nd grade (or maybe it was 1st?) up through the end of middle school (until I was maybe 14). At that point, I was a bit more interested in sports, and then in HS, I quickly got into the arts, but that’s really neither here or there…

The point is, while kids who grow up in the Northwoods have a unique opportunity to do all the outdoor Scouting activities that people think of first (the camping, hiking, swimming, boating), it is a double-edged sword. I wasn’t conscious of it back then, but I wonder if the accessibility of the outdoors and the wealth of time that I spent in the woods, around wildlife, on the lake, etc., made Scouting sort of blasé after a while.

Now that I’m an adult, I’m finding that I really enjoy the outdoors again. Michelle and I went on road trips the last two years to national parks out west, and we had a great time hiking, camping, horseback riding, and being around nature. We’ve also gone on a few whitewater rafting trips that we really enjoyed, and Michelle taught me how to ski (downhill). As I start to think about some getaway options for this summer, I’ve realized that I’m really anxious to see a number of other national parks (even though we won’t be able to make a big cross-country trip this year). I was saying to Kyle when we visited this past weekend, I really want to go to Grand Canyon National Park, Rocky Mountain, and Voyageurs. Add Isle Royale to that list, too.

I think that becoming an adult and realizing how precious your free time is the heaviest contributor to the change in attitude. When you’re a kid, it’s so easy to take things for granted. Hope that I have time to see and do all these things as time goes on…