While on a bike ride, Kris noticed that were many grasshoppers on the trail. Though many were dead as a result of many bike tires, there were even more that were alive. It made me wonder, "what do grasshoppers do during the winter?" Do they hibernate? Do they lay eggs and die? I found the answer. But did you know they also help with weather research? Next, we'll teach Kris that some sticks are actually snakes.
September 2002 Archives
Kris and I can now consider our lives merged into one. Our CDs are now one collection, only differing by the initials on each CD when lived with less than honest roommates.
Kristin, upon inspiration from Martha, invited us to her birthday celebration with the coolest invitation ever.
From pb's pictures in Yosemite:
"All things are bound together
All things connect
What happens to the Earth
happens to the children of the Earth
Man has not woven the web of life
He is but one thread
Whatever he does to the web
he does to himself"
-Chief Seattle
Kris and I went biking so I could try out my new bike. The sun was setting, making for one of the coolest skylines to be adorned in the orange glow of the sun. I love the new camera.
I look around and see today's date surrounding me at work. There's Sept 23 on the phone, 09/23/02 on all the e-mails, and even a 23 on my watch. Tomorrow, everything will be the same, except for a 24 where 23 is today. Every time a date catches my eye, it freaks me a bit, as it's a date I recognize as a date I write very often to differentiate me from all the other Rob Beuthling's out there. (However, like Waunakee, I think I am the only one.)
My birthday is becoming less a celebration in the party sense, and more a celebration in the milestone sense. I now refer to places I lived, events that happened with Kris, and events in life by how old I was at the time, rather than the types of presents received at birthday parties held in my honor as a child. It's a bit alarming, but I certainly don't feel 27. Kris said, "You're only as old as you feel," and I plan on living that to the fullest extent. I estimate that I will live approximately 75% of my true age, meaning that right now, I act about 20 years, 91 days old
I was a bit somber on last year. This year is way up there, what with the wedding and all. Also, there's a lot of resources across the world wide web on whose birthday's I share.
Evan talks about the power of pictures. Now that we have a new digital camera, I will try the same thing here, and post more pictures. Stay tuned.
From what I hear, using the microwave as your standard cooking utensil doesn't count as cooking. Maybe it does when you're single. But now that we're married, there are higher expectations. So, Kris volunteered last night to put our new waffle machine to good use. She found a waffle recipes for waffle mix and blueberry syrup and went shopping. A couple hours later, we discovered mixing bowls and cooking spray help, and that complete pancake mix does indeed include a waffle recipe. But we made it through, and soon we were feasting on some of the best made from scratch, blueberry soaked, Belgian-style waffles I have ever tasted. Sure beats two pepperoni pizza hot pockets in 4:30 on high power.
Sometimes I too get frustrated with society. Free Willy 4
Beliefnet.com has an on-line quiz that asks a few questions and either confirms or denies what religion you should practice, or start practicing. Out of the 27 listed, the religion I was raised under was at the bottom of the list. The number one match has some beliefs that I can relate to, but not necessarily believe wholeheartedly. I hesitate to align myself with any one religion, but rather a set of beliefs that I live by to make my life, and those around me, better.
We visited the ever-engrossing Schaumburg IKEA on Saturday. Spent 3+ hours buying shelves and lights to better organize our stuff and light our apartment as well. With all the gifts we received, the place is actually starting to look less poor college student-like and more poor college student/yuppie adult-like. But we still know how to mess the place up good.
Sunday was even more fun. We started putting our new shelves together. We also watched and encouraged many of the triathletes competing in the inaugural Ironman Wisconsin. We had the honor (and it really was an honor) to hold the finish line tape for all the finishers from 9:00 PM to the course closure at 12:00 midnight. It's amazing to think that we saw people finishing after 9 PM that we had seen starting the marathon (after swimming and biking) before 5 PM. While they were running, we went out to eat, came home, watched part of "Dude, Where's My Car?", took a nap, and then went to the finish line. At the line, there were about 300 people there, dancing to loud music and encouraging the finishers in with clapping and yelling. Many were finishers from that day and all were standing. There were a few proposals, and even surprise news of a third kid. The winners threw give-aways into the crowd, and they too, danced and stayed to the end. Only two people that were on the course didn't finish in the 17-hour time limit. We did speak with the last finisher before midnight, but it was hard to know who was giving more praise: congratulations from us to him, or him thanking us for volunteering. Seeing the emotion on every athlete's face, both the thrill of finishing and the agony of constantly moving for 14+ hours, it's hard not to come away with some motivation to get off my butt and start working out. Let's see how long it will last.
For two years, I turned my key to the left to unlock my door, and to the right to lock it. Now, both doors at the new place turn the other way. I constantly find myself locking the door, only to have to then unlock it, when it was unlocked in the first place. It's the little things like that, when once you get over them, you know your new place turns from an apartment into a home.
As I think about this past year, so much has happened. And so much hasn't. What was promised to be a different world is much like what was before. Amongst all the anger surrounding the actions of 9/11, I found it very hard today to overcome the sorrow felt for the victims' deaths and their families' heartaches. I constantly am drawn to the stories of the survivors, and the memories of the victims. I promise never to forget. I can only hope that ten years from now, this day means as much as it does now.
I just saw an advertisement for Jeep that had two good looking people flirting in a gas stop. As she leaves, she drops a note for him on the floor, and he reads it with satisfaction. Turns out, they meet up on a mountain edge, her note turning out to be coordinates to their location.
It's the first I have seen the use of GPS and coordinates by Madison Ave. Very similar to what are also known as event caches in the Geocaching world. There have been advertisements for GPS systems in cars, but never the use of coordinates.
I got married this past weekend. That's probably the main reason I haven't updated here in a while. It was a great weekend, but a lot of work, too. It was like having an additional part-time job getting everything organized. But it was all worth it. It's not often to get 200 of your closest family and friends together to celebrate you. It was a honor.