Blog archives

A collection of all the nonsense I've posted to the internet over the past 24 years of my blog life

  • Boundary Waters 2009 posted - 1 comment

    Well, you may have noticed that I've been completely off the grid for a few days. At least, you must've noticed that your internet was slightly less clogged with my nonsense. That's because I've been camping, canoeing, and hiking the boundary waters with Josh, Chris, Will, Scott, and Cal. No phone service, no internet, no toilets, no running water, no electricity - just straight wilderness. In fact the area we were in doesn't allow motorboats or even wheels on land... read more

  • Lollapalooza 2009 posted - 3 comments

    Let me start off on a negative note by saying that Lollapalooza 2009 was the worst Lollapalooza I've been to. I mean, it wasn't awful or anything, I just think we got spoiled in 2006 and 2007. The artists this year weren't as good, we missed a lot of acts due to traveling, we didn't go to any afterparties, we didn't get to see many friends, and the weather was rough. ...Aside from all that though - It was still pretty awesome and I'm really glad we went. We got to hang out with Jon and Liz quite a bit, had Sushi Wabi, heard a ton of good music, and of course, got to visit our favorite city - Chicago... read more

  • My 2009 80/35 Music Fest Thoughts posted

    I meant to blog about this year's 80/35 festival a lot sooner but never got around to it. For those that don't know - Des Moines started a music festival last year called 80/35. It showcases both big names and local groups in an effort to listen to awesome music, party, and promote music culture in the Des Moines area. Last year I was super impressed with the festival - We had the Flaming Lips, The Roots, and an amazing effort put on by the organizers. I don't want to discount the organizers this year, because it is obvious that they worked crazy hard again... read more

  • A week with Android and the G1 posted - 4 comments

    So, just to bring you up to speed - Harper (and Google) hooked me up with a developer version of the "Google Phone" or G1. As a developer phone it's sort of "unlocked" or rooted and comes with a fancy case. In short, it's awesome - but definitely, definitely a geek phone. I imagine the actual unrooted version you get from t-mobile is a bit easier to work with, but I still think it's more of a geek phone than a mainstream device like the iPhone. However, I can totally see this OS growing - especially with some better hardware in the future... read more

  • Welp, She Got Away Again posted

    It started a year and a half ago, when Kari and I began casually looking at foreclosed homes. We wanted something to fix up for ourselves that was in the city of Des Moines, brick, full of character, and easily customizable. ...We basically wanted to build a new home inside of an old home. So my realtor took me to a home in the Des Moines village of Beaverdale. An enormous brick home on an acre of land, secluded by woods, a stream in the front yard, and only a few miles from downtown... read more

  • Seven Things (a bit late) posted - 1 comment

    About 4 years ago I met Harper's friend, Jon Ruth. Then, about 4 months ago, Jon tagged me in a "7 things" blog. See, there was this thing going around where you write 7 interesting things about yourself, tag 7 other bloggers - then they have to do the same. I kept meaning to fulfill my duty to write my "7 things" blog, but I just kept forgetting and putting it off. So hopefully everyone's forgotten about this trend and I can bring it back to life, haha... read more

  • Joyce Turns 60 in Chicago posted - 4 comments

    So Kari's aunt Joyce is a traveling nurse. As such, she gets her choice of where (and when) to work in various cities around the country - 6 weeks here, 6 weeks there, 12 weeks at home, etc, etc. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't jealous; I'm incredibly jealous. Anyway, lately Joyce has been in Chicago to be near Kari's cousins; helping Stephanie with the baby, ya know. And Kari just happened to be flying back (through Chicago) from math camp on Joyce's birthday... read more

  • Arizona Friends and Family posted - 2 comments

    Wow, that was quite a vacation. Completely packed, totally fun, and also completely draining, ha. So, if you didn't know, Kari and I visited Arizona for 9 days. The first 5 days were spent with my grandparents and the last 4 were spent with friends. I'm gonna try to summarize my trip as best as possible - otherwise this blog could be incredibly long... read more

  • So I Bought My First Mac Today posted - 9 comments

    But first, a little history... I started getting into Apple shortly after I got my first iPod 6 years ago. I began to think of Apple as a media company and Macintosh simply as "media machines." I even said things along the lines of, "yeah they're awesome for music and photos and such, but you could never develop with them." They even released a Mac Mini to further prove my point. It seemed to be the perfect "media machine" at the time. I even had some big plans to throw one into my home theater system for internet browsing, sharing videos, etc... read more

  • Bock Fest 2009 posted - 2 comments

    Well that was another successful Bock Fest - filled with drinking and laughing until your face hurts. Despite how awesome it was, Rico had to drop out at the last minute, which was LAME... however Cedric stepped up and stood-in for him. Tobbie also tagged along since she's been fitting in with our crew so well. So this year I felt more prepared than ever... read more

  • Upgrading via Trading - Real Life and the Internet posted - 4 comments

    About a year and a half ago, my father-in-law, Jeff, gave me a studio flash kit. You've seen them; the white umbrella-flashes that photographers have. Well, Jeff had one that'd been sitting in storage for years. It looked like it had never, ever been used. So one day he offered it to me and I accepted... read more

  • Two Things that Des Moines Needs posted - 12 comments

    Des Moines has come a crazy long way in the past 5 years. But there are still 2 very important things that I think it's missing. 1. Basic Shopping Downtown (groceries, hardware) I live in Ankeny. My house is 1 mile from Target, Menards, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, a whole slew of restaurants, and soon - a Best Buy... read more

  • Get More Bank Accounts! (How Kari and I Bank) posted - 6 comments

    Let me start off by saying that this may not be the absolute right way to manage your money, but it's definitely the best way for us; it's simple, it keeps us happy, and it keeps us responsible... so I wanted to share it. Hopefully it'll work for someone else. Everyone knows that money management can be a real stressful thing for any couple (and single person, I guess). In fact, Kari and I's marriage counselor, Dr... read more

  • Bring on 2009!? posted - 1 comment

    Well, 2008 seemed to suck pretty bad for a lot of people. The economy, floods, etc. It was a rough time. I gotta say though, aside from gas prices, 401k losses, and a missed job opportunity, mine was pretty damn good. And our new year's eve celebration also bounced back to being good this year... read more

  • With a Rebel Yell posted - 4 comments

    She cried, "more? more? more?" So Kari got me a digital Rebel xsi for Christmas. For those of you who don't know what that is - it's a 12 megapixel digital SLR camera made by Canon. I love taking photos... read more

  • Amy and B Vaughan's Wedding posted

    Geez man. I am really bad at this. It's been like 2 weeks now, but I definitely need to blog this event. So yeah, a couple weeks ago we went over to Chicago for Amy and B Vaughan's wedding. We started by meeting our hotel roomie (Tara) at the Lisle Hyatt... read more

  • Our First Emmitt Visit posted - 5 comments

    This past weekend, Kari and I flew down to Texas to visit my sister and Chris. We've never really hung out with just the 2 before, so it was nice to finally get to visit - just us. And as an extra bonus - travel was crazy smooth. NWA didn't charge us for checking bags (in fact we could've each checked an extra bag if we wanted), plus we got free sodas, and 1 of our flights even landed 30 minutes early, nice! So anyway, we got into San Antonio late Thursday said some words, then we all basically crashed... read more

  • Cornell and a Wedding posted - 2 comments

    Man, my weeks are getting so busy that it takes til thursday to blog about the past weekend, ha. Or maybe it's because I actually work at Red 5 and can't blog at work like I used to. Either way, it's a good thing. But I do sorta feel bad for not journaling as well. So anyway, as you may have gathered from photos or tweets, Kari and I visited Mt Vernon last Friday for Cornell Homecoming... read more

  • Des Moines Oktoberfest and Sushi Class posted

    I forgot to mention, aside from tweets and photos, that Kari's parents were in town last weekend to visit and do some early birthday celebration for Kari. We started out saturday by brewing our first batch of beer since... last december (wtf). During our 10 month homebrew drought, we made some major plans to upgrade our process and do our first "full boil." So we spent most of the day running around and getting supplies for this fancy brew. We found everything we needed - except for 1 item... read more

  • Slapping Harper With The Froehlichs posted

    Kari and I's buddy, Steph, recently bought a place in Chicago - a really nice place right downtown. Last Friday was her condo-warming party and we of course couldn't miss it. So we planned the trip and everything fell into place. Family was in town for Elias' baptism, and our Chicago friends were ready to party. There was much visiting to be done... read more