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Pictures that move. (Grades are mine, then Josh's) [updated: 9.8.05] |
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Tuesday, August 31, 2004 Meaty-orology. Not to be too weather-centric here, but... let's face it, I love weather. Though this actually has very little to do with my love of weather and is more just observatory. So our initial a-bit-more-than-tentative-but-never-finalized vacation plans from a few months ago, before we got too busy to plan a vacation and then started thinking of going a slightly different way, or at least at a slightly different time, would have put us in Florida most of this week and the coming weekend, and then in the Bahamas area next week. Yeah, um, I'm glad things came up that delayed our plans, or we might be facing some tough decisions and a potential loss of a substantial chunk of money coming up in the next several days due to a chick by the name of Frances. Hmmmph. Women. So for now we're more keeping our eye on what kind of damage it might cause to places we still might potentially cruise to come Novemberish, like the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Bahamas. Because who wants to visit a usually-tropical-paradise that isn't so much of a paradise for the time being because it got smacked silley by a hurricane a couple months ago? Not me. And, speaking of, I believe I'm still awaiting an email... 3:43 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me! Thursday, August 26, 2004 Beef. Okay, I've had enough. These stupid forecasters who call themselves "meteorologists" (ha!) have continually called for "thunderstorms," "scattered storms," "strong storms," "heavy downpours," et al, practically every day for the past week, and for about half the days of the week before. And you know what we've gotten? One or two piddly amounts of rain and a barely-view of a teensy bit of lightning in the distance. That's it. In the ten or so days thunderstorms were forecasted, we've had not one single storm hit us. It's not fair to get a girl's hopes up like that for 1) just a decent amount of much-needed rain so she doesn't have to go outside and water her rhubarb and weeds herself, and so her lawn's process of morphing into an unattractive brown blob might at least be hindered a bit, since she just can't bring herself to waste huge amounts of water trying to keep it green via sprinklers like all her stupid neighbors do, and 2) the possibility of perhaps an exciting turn in the excessively boring weather we seem to have here... I dig severe weather, but at this point I'd settle for just some good, old fashioned thunder and lightning. Geez. We need to move back to Iowa. At least there they still get fun storms. 1:59 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me! Wednesday, August 25, 2004 Quote of the day a couple days ago. "No, we want somebody better than that." --CBS television executive Les Moonves when asked jokingly by Late Show host David Letterman if he'd consider Jay Leno as a replacement for the departing Craig Kilborn. Product of the day in 55 days. This, of course. 12:56 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me! Tuesday, August 24, 2004 Sometimes people get married. And sometimes you know them. Or one of them, at least. And so you go to the wedding. Because weddings are fun. And you take pictures. Because pictures are fun. And a setting on your camera is wrong, so a lot of the indoor pictures come out blurry. And so you cry. But you get over it, because a lot of other people took pictures as well, and they put them up on the internet for everyone to see. And you smile. Because the internet is awesome. And you think you maybe could use one of them new-fangled gallery things to display your photos in a muchly better way. But that's just one more thing you don't have time to get going right now. So you'll just show a few of your favorites from your camera and link people to a directory where they can see the rest, and grab them if they are the people who got married and would like a few more pictures of what they already have a zillion pictures of.  I don't know how to write out kissy noises, but if I did... ;-)  The obligatory picture of everyone taking pictures.  Josh concentrating very hard on making the infamous Pepper Art you can see via Matt's blog. "Something smells peppery..."  Oh, okay, and here, too.  I love this picture because it's all reflection in the mirrored wall.  My favorite. Kaly and Alex's brother Peter. This is just the greatest picture ever.  Can I get a collective, "Awwwwwww..."? It's almost like they love each other. ;-)  Remember the blur? Yeah, here it is. But, hey, at least all of our eyes are open and no one's in mid-yawn/yell. (Kim, Kaly, me, Alex, Josh, Kelly, Matt) In all seriousness, everything was just beautiful. The ceremony was exactly what I expected, knowing Alex. The reception was a bit fancier than I was expecting, but then I only know half the couple (hopefully that will change -- post me a comment, Kelly!). I'm very glad we decided to make the trek, and also glad we didn't leave Richmond any later than we did, because we barely got there in time (same way we also barely got to the Sonos handbell concert in Hagerstown, MD that night after the wedding... it was really a no-time-to-spare kind of day). Now, if Alex would just post some photos from their honeymoon, or even just tell us where they went... 3:11 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me! Monday, August 23, 2004 "And now, we bring you uninterrupted coverage of the men's 100m finals." I love Bob Costas. He'll be witty or snarky at times when you least expect it, and I appreciate that. These Olympics have been disarmingly addictive for me. I've always been into a lot of the winter Olympics, but summer not so much. I figured I'd be watching gymnastics and diving and not much else. But somehow I've found myself not only watching, but actually riveted by, almost every televised sport I've come across, whether it's beach volleyball, shot put, swimming, rowing, trampoline (who knew this was an Olympic sport?), soccer, weightlifting, or even the women's marathon, which was inexplicably televised live without interruption for all 2 1/2 hours (I'll refrain from commenting on how crazy it is to run 26 straight miles in such an amount of time -- nah, I won't: that should not be humanly possible). Sport I'm most surprised I got into this year: swimming (I suppose it didn't hurt that there were so many American favorites). Sport with the highest overall weirdness factor: synchronized swimming (it's really just odd). Sport I have no idea how the athletes' ankles don't snap: triple jump. Sport most likely to take a cute female and make her look the absolute-farthest-thing-from cute: swimming. Sport that is not the marathon that should not be humanly possible: men's gymnastics still rings (and, in a completely different way, women's balance beam). Upcoming sport I'm most looking forward to because an Iowa State athlete is competing: freestyle wrestling. Go Cael! 4:51 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me! Thursday, August 19, 2004 WAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! Am I THAT out of the entertainment loop that it took me almost a week after it was announced to find out that Craig Kilborn is quitting "The Late Late Show"? Noooooooooo!!!! Come back, Craiggers! And already on August 27??? Geez, give a girl some warning. To put it the bestest way I know how: this sucks, Craig. :-( 2:30 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me! Anyone who didn't watch the men's gymnastics all-around final last night missed a great show. I was actually riveted to the TV screen (and I didn't know how it was going to end up beforehand). We knew Paul Hamm was from Waukesha, which is just west of Milwaukee, but we didn't find out until last night that we watched his sister, Becky Hamm, compete on the Iowa State gymnastics squad when we used to go to their meets back in college. She was good, too. Duh. --- Also from the People-Who-Live-Near-Us File: on the new season of "Survivor" (this would be the cue for most of you to tune-out) there is a woman from Kansasville, WI, which is about 12 miles west of where we live, and also a man from Des Moines. So I have two built-in favorites right from the get-go. Nice. --- Time Warner Cable does not know how to woo us when they try to woo us with the promise of being able to see every single Packer game. 1:14 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me! Wednesday, August 18, 2004 From Beth-Annie's fuzzy head. 1. Cubs suck. 2. I reeeeeeeeeeeely want to redesign my blog... maybe even drastically. But I'm roughly two weeks to a month to six months to two years behind on all the web-related stuff I want to do, including reading (other people's blogs, messageboards, etc.) and doing (updating my movies and CDs, posting entries and pics from all my goings-on, finishing our homepage, corresponding with friends I've ignored for too long), and it's going to be slow going for a while, becuase I'm also behind in other non-computer-related areas of my life. But things should be coming, slowly but surely. 3. Cubs suck. 4. I am the idiot who will suffer with a sore throat for three days before buying any medicine to help, and who even after that will not have learned her lesson and will suffer with a nasty, sometimes absolutely relentless cough for three days before going out and buying some medicine for that. Someone please knock some sense into me. 5. Cubs suck. But, hey, let's look on the bright side: if they don't even make the playoffs, Josh and I won't have to worry about missing any games if we go on vacation this October or November. Which we need to decide soon, because the travel books are due back at the library next week. I wonder how many of the places we were thinking of going have been semi-destroyed by Charley... 12:58 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me! Tuesday, August 17, 2004 For Kaly or anyone else who loves Mark Ruffalo. There's a quite nice article on him -- with lots of pictures *wink*-- in the August 13 issue of Entertainment Weekly with the Julia Roberts mosaic on the cover. THIS is why you have a subscription, dear. :-) 4:23 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me! It's a beautiful day for a short, easy post. Because the St. Louis Cardinals are a ridiculous 77-40 and 14 games ahead of the Cubs in the NL Central, we can no longer realistically hope the Cubs can catch them and win the division. So, our only hope is the NL Wild Card race, in which Chicago is currently half a game back from the Giants and half a game ahead of the Padres. So everyone needs to root for the Cubs and against San Francisco and San Diego to make me happy. I like being happy. And I will be happy tonight when I get to go to my second Cubs-Brewers game of the summer. 1:59 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me! Monday, August 16, 2004 I am still sick... and yet not sick... First off, I'm very, very sorry to everyone who's been wanting to read entries and hasn't been getting any. But here's what's been going on with me: Late last Wednesday afternoon, Kaly and I got back from running errands/grocery shopping, and I pretty suddenly started feeling not-so-hot and decided I needed to lie down -- for just a few minutes, because I needed to start making supper soon. But those few minutes turned into almost two days as I rapidly felt worse and worse. Kaly and Josh were stuck making supper for themselves both nights as I was living off of oyster crackers and Gatorade. I basically felt like I had the flu: upset stomach with no appetite, headache, dizziness, ultra-sensitive skin and a tingly feeling all over, alternating chills and sweats, a fever, and less than zero energy. We had to get Kaly back to Ames this weekend, so early afternoon on Friday I had to make the decision whether to brave the 6 1/2-hour drive to Iowa or stay home by myself that weekend -- and neither option sounded terribly appealing, but since my flu-like symptoms were greatly diminished when I woke up, I decided to go for it. And it really wasn't that bad. I had a bit of my appetite back and wasn't feeling the nausea anymore, though I was still tired and had acquired more cold-like symptoms, including a stuffy head, sinus headache, runny nose, sneezing, and sore throat. Friday night I barely got any sleep, mainly due to how my throat felt, and I sat out disc golfing with everyone that morning for the first time in a long time so I could stay home and sleep. But on Saturday afternoon Kaly and Josh and I drove up to Okoboji, despite how I was feeling, because I still really wanted to. We camped at Gull Point State Park (see Kaly's post for more details), and went out on the dock at Camp Okoboji Friday night to watch for meteors from the Perseid meteor shower, just like Kaly and I used to do when we spent a week out of every summer there for most of our childhood. We saw maybe one meteor, but it was a very nostalgic experience (for us, anyway, if not for Josh), and, as an added bonus, we could actually sort of hear the last few songs from the Weird Al concert across the lake at Arnolds Park amusement park -- the reason we had initially been planning to go up to Okoboji that weekend until we decided we didn't want to spend the money right now. I recognized "The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota" and "Yoda," and it was just a wacky little coincidence that we were able to hear what we could from Camp. Way cool. And despite the fact that I spent a chilly night sleeping on the ground in a tent, I slept much better that night than I had the previous.  In the morning we went to church at Camp, just like old times except there wasn't really anyone there we knew. We had (free!) brunch in the dining hall, again just like old times except there were way fewer people there than we were used to. We drove back to Ames, and Kaly went to work and then home while we, including me this time, went disc golfing at the new ISU course. I didn't have all that much energy, and the most I could get out of my voice was a whisper (as had pretty much been the case for the last couple days), but I think I posted a pretty decent score, considering. I'll know better when I've played the course more than once. The car ride back to Racine was the most miserable I've experienced since the infamous drive back to Iowa from the Independence Bowl in Louisiana in December of 2001 when I had gotten sick midway through the trip and felt like I was going to throw-up the whole way home. But this time it was purely my throat. It hurt much worse than it had the whole time I'd been sick, a combination of regular sore throat and that kind of swollen, closed-off feeling from a big, bruised lump that caused me excruciating pain every single time I swallowed, which on a 6+ hour car trip is a lot of swallows. Throat drops didn't help, water didn't help, and my cough that was getting increasingly worse certainly didn't help. I was literally almost crying from the pain, and I told Josh I'd never be able to survive childbirth if I couldn't even handle a stupid severe sore throat. When we FINALLY got back into town after being forced to take several road construction detours that lengthened our trip, we stopped at the wonderful, beautiful, lovely 24-hour Wal-Mart and stocked up on stuff that would take as much of the pain away as possible and help me sleep (THIS, folks, is exactly why I live in a town this size: so I can buy Chloroseptic, Sucrets, and Tylenol PM at 1 in the morning). So I doped myself up pretty good and slept mostly through until about 2 this afternoon. Despite having a bit of a hangover from sleeping so much (sleep I really needed, incidentally) and still not having any voice, my throat is feeling better, so I'm hopeful for the future. I am glad I decided to go to Iowa this weekend, because I did have fun and I know Josh had more fun than he would have by himself, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the activity and lack of sleep of the weekend probably contributed to me getting worse in some ways. So the next few days are going to be all about getting as much rest as possible so I can get better and start tending to some of the things that were put on hold much of the past month-and-a-half, like yard work, job hunting, and just organizing and getting rid of stuff we don't need around the house. I CAN'T WAIT until next weekend when we don't have anywhere to go or anything to do. The last time that happened was June. 5:54 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me! Monday, August 09, 2004 "It's like donkey-bunny shish-ka-bob or something." I'm still pooped from the last couple weeks (er, more like month, actually), but I'll try to fill you in a bit, going backwards because what just happened is nice and fresh in my mind, while the older stuff prolly isn't going to get much staler than it already is if I wait a few days to write about it. So.  Patty the Sailor is all gradumated (intentional, from the same school as comes "edumacated") from Basic Training, and we videotaped the ceremony, which when we get it all edited snazzily will become the long-awaited sequel to the popular "Patty Gets a Haircut." We'll have to find a way to let people see both of those sometime. Hopefully in a theater near you. Thankfully she had Liberty the whole weekend, so we were able to spend Friday afternoon and all day Saturday and Sunday with her. She has a brief summary of our weekend's activities on her blog, to which she was able to post her own self for the first time in quite a while. Some of my personal observataions: 1. Wow, the military is VERY formal and VERY ceremonial. I mean, sure, we all know that, but I had been exposed to very little of that sort of thing first-hand until this weekend. The graduation ceremony exhibited this trait full-on, and it was quite something to observe. 2. In the same vein, the military, especially at this low, let-us-take-every-privilege-you've-ever-known-except-breathing-and-sort-of-eating-and-sort-of-sleeping-away-from-you-for-the-first-two-months-of-your-career level, has all kinds of crazy rules. Rules about how you wear your uniform, how and when to address officers, etc. are to be expected, but then there are the things like: no holding hands, whether it's with your wife or your three-year-old; no carrying your baby while walking (you have to stand still and not move at all, even to turn around); no carrying a cell phone, and ESPECIALLY no talking on a cell phone while walking (you can, once again, stand still and talk on a cell phone, but you have to get rid of it as soon as you're done); women with pierced ears can only wear earrings that are silver ball studs between 4 and 6mm in diameter (we had a fun time searching the Gurnee Mills mall with Patty for some regulation earrings); anything a recruit buys, receives as a gift, etc. while on Liberty is NOT allowed to be brought back onto the base with them: no civilian clothing of any sort, no candy or snacks, no cute little Navy-t-shirt-wearing teddy bears, nothing; your military-issue raincoat must be folded and tied a certain way and carried with you at all times in case of rain, and if you have to put it on the tie that held the folded it together must go in the left pocket of the coat with nothing else ever in either pocket, including your hands... All kinds o' crazy. 3. There are animals at the Lincoln Park Zoo that look like a cross between a donkey and a rabbit (hence the above quote, courtesy of Patty).  4. Basic Training makes one tired. Every time Patty sat down on Saturday, the poor girl fell asleep. With every bathroom visit we crossed our fingers no one would have to go bang on her stall door to wake her up. ;) Then she napped on our couch for a few hours Sunday afternoon. It was very needed and very well-deserved. 5. The USO is way cool. I never knew exactly what the USO was, and I still don't entirely entirely, but what I do know is that we went to their location at Navy Pier and they gave all of us (even though we were only one military and three civilians) free coupons, snacks, candy, gum, refreshing beverages, even sandwiches if we'd wanted them. They had comfy seats with a movie playing (even if it was Forrest Gump), internet access, Sony Playstation, all kinds of cool stuff. And all free. They were practically begging us to stuff our pockets with candy bars as we leaving. That is so wicked sweet.  6. People pay attention to sailors. Patty had so many random people come up and talk to her, ask her questions about where she was going next (Mississippi, incidentally), etc. People love people in uniforms. Especially pretty Navy whites. I've had more exposure to military atmosphere, practices, and people over the past few days than I had in my whole life previously, and I have to say, it's actually had an effect on me. Not an effect like I want to sign up for the Navy anytime soon myself or anything (as much as Patty tried to recruit all of us all weekend ;)), but the respect I have for those who do and for the whole concept has taken on a much more personal bent. I really admire those people who are willing to put their lives completely on hold and go through what recruits have to go through. It takes some real you-know-whats. Congratulations as-of-Thursday Seaman Tracey. We're very proud of you. :-) 7:58 PM || I want to be a comment. Post me! |
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Disc-shaped music. [updated: 9.8.05] |