eternal sunset

we grew up in western michigan where every sunset was gorgeous over lake michigan. it seemed like every day we drove down by the lake at least once. i think i just assumed that everyone does something like that everyday, until i moved here, and didn't have anywhere to drive to at sunset, anymore.

then i found this site.
























the internet is just like real life, don't you think!?!

dad survived!!

despite 1) taking a plunge face first into the beach at temperance river, and 2) tripping over the canoe face first into the drink (officially qualifying himself as asswet), dad made it through the boundary waters trip unharmed. he was somewhat sore, but not unlike the rest of us. =)



so i'll start by saying a bad day in the bwcaw is better than a good day just about anywhere else.

with that said...

1. we had a helluva tough paddle across homer lake, the first lake we dipped into
2. we didn't find an open campsite on the lake we were hoping for, which meant we had to paddle two more lakes and portage another 65 rods
3. our campsite was in an burn down area, which means no live trees to hang bear packs in. we spent a lot of time trying to hang a pack in a tree by the water, which didn't work as well as we hoped
4. since we spent all that time hanging a bear pack, we missed a canoe opportunity in the middle of the lake, watching the sunset =(
5. it was a gorgeous sunset
6. fires were banned so we got cold and went to bed early
7. after breakfast, we spent a lot more time trying to hang the bear pack again. after at least an hour of mishaps, we were finally on our way to a hung pack, when 'snap!' the line broke and the pack dropped emphatically on the ground. rude!
8. yay- we caught a bunch of fishies!!
9. dad fell into the lake and nearly took aaron and i with him
10. the dessert i brought along (instant lemon pudding) was a disaster! anyone who tells you that you can substitute evaporated milk for real milk in pudding is outa their mind.
11. beautiful moon
12. again, cold. no fire sucks!
13. on the morning we were leaving, the wind picked up again, AND it shifted. which means our trek home was, just like our trip in, straight into the wind. we did get to see brule lake for the first time. that lake is huge!! (and gorgeous)
14. success!! aaron's dad did pretty well. he carried the canoe on his shoulders like a real trooper, cast his fishing pole with all his weight from the center of the canoe, and just ask us to tell you about his pack sometime.

wilderness blah blah blah

i'm even tired of hearing myself talk about it, but i thought you should know we're going out tomorrow and returning on monday. yay!

kids do the craziest things

like build a rollercoaster ramp for a train? how is this even possible?



i wonder how they did this without getting hurt!?!

Congratulations Julie and Zack!!

my dear friend julie got engaged to zack last week and i'm so excited for them.


















congratulations to the most adorable couple!!

cat-with-bow-golf game

yep, it's a cat shooting a bow and springy arrow at a target. yep it's silly. yep it's hard.

yep, it's somewhat addicting.


















(i got an eagle on the first one, but went steadily downhill after that)

dead, i'm worth $153,825 to aaron

yes, it's macabre, but if i die tomorrow, i'd be worth more than just the $150,000 life insurance policy aaron took out on me, i'd be worth another $3,825 if aaron sells my body to science!!!

$3825.00The Cadaver Calculator - Find out how much your body is worth.

can you beat me? is your cadaver worth more?

bwcaw 2005

i have a bag of about 50 rolls of undeveloped film in the basement which i am going to try to get developed slowly over the next few months, a few at a time.

here is the first installment, from the trip aaron and i took into the bwcaw, our first trip alone.



the fishies weren't biting, the wind was crazy, and we weren't allowed to have a fire, but we saw the magical moon during this trip, which we still speak about.

certainly one of the most memorable moments of our lives. =)

lori baker makes stuff by hand

she now has her own page on etsy.com- a cool site where you can sell things you made by hand.
























over the years, lori has made us so many things that we just love love love, including:

- napkins for our dinner table- cowboys yeehaw

- window treatments for our office- monkeys everywhere

- potholders for our kitchen- hilarious retro cartoons

- an apron with kevin costner's face on it- need i say more?

three is one too many of us

this is one serious oldie but goodie...



my friend sam pointed out two hilarious things about this video:

- you never actually hear the voice of the chic (but you gotta love her moves), not even when she is very expressive during his 'woo, woo' part.

- you never hear a piano. you do hear a keyboard, but when he stands up, you still hear it.

the lyrics are the best.
i don't want to own her but i can't let her have it both ways
no one gets to get it for free
three is one too many of us

enjoy!

(thanks chris!)

google map- collapsed bridge

i admit: it's wrong that this is funny, but i've told too many people about it not to post it here...



















(click on it to see it full size)

i apologize for any callousness this may demonstrate.

i didn't create it, i just found it on the INTERNET.

amazing pictures of the bridge collapse

jeff willer

minneapolis- sad day

first- aaron and i are safe.

as far as i know, no one we know was on the 35W bridge when it collapsed into the mississippi river.

pics from kare 11:
























read all about it at startribune.com

amazing security video here.

if you visit the mndot site and click on the cameras in that area, you see an eerie site which i'm calling 'the cliff' and then two cameras are black. very surreal. the first camera has been circling around and showing different views as i've been watching.






































i'm sorry minneapolis. this is going to be so sad and painful for you, my favorite city.

tim and melanie boerger

my friend's tim and melanie got married this weekend on a riverboat on the st.croix. the reception was tons of fun cause they reserved a bowling hall all night for free bowling and beer.

here are some pics:



congratulations tim and melanie!

doctors are irresponsible! (ocular rosacea)

so according to ophthalmologist jeff stephens, i have ocular rosacea, NOT pink eye.

since i had already been to two doctors, paid for by me thanks to my high deductible health insurance, i was a little weary about hearing a new diagnosis and getting a new $70 prescription and setting up another follow up appointment.

so i asked him if he was sure.

he was pretty condescending, but also pretty sure. he mentioned the degree he has in ophthalmology and the fancy equipment he used to look at my eyeballs, things the other doctors didn't have.

i told him i meant no disrespect.

really, it's the other doctors i disrespect for 'diagnosing' without really knowing for sure and wasting my money. unfortunately, i now have to pay for two wrong diagnosis's and one right one.

michael moore is right.

so yeah, another week with my glasses (jeez) and more eyedrops (jeez) and some stupid warm washcloth treatment (jeez).

thanks heredity!!!

the internet has crashed!

the video says it all!



best part- 'tipton then pulled the computer powercord from the wall and replugged it in (shaking of head)'

harry potter- done

i'm not sure anyone will be interested in this news, but i feel like i need to tell someone. the internet is someone, right?

i finished harry potter last night. i liked it.

i look forward to reading the whole series to my kids some day.

aaron stopped reading at book four, i think. last night he made me tell him everything. it seemed wrong, but i did it. what do you think- vote in my poll------->

church signs- so much fun to violate

if you're like me, you're an atheist and you get annoyed every time you have to drive by a church and read some silly twist of truth on a sign that is designed to get people to go to church and tithe more often (wow, that whopping dose of cynicism even stings me a little).

okay, i'll concede that some of the churches really think they are offering up insightful tidbits of perspective on their signs, though in the world of religion, that's something of an oxymoron.

anyway, because i have this moderately cynical view of the whole church sign thing, i had fun at this site. i went there, and i made my own church sign... =)
















i love the internet.

find a bathroom?

i have some friends who get to travel a lot and this post is for them.

there are many reasons why a person may want to conduct bathroom location/quality research ahead of time, none of which really need to be mentioned specifically.

when i searched in kuwait just out of curiosity, i found myself hoping that not ALL the bathrooms in kuwait were listed. so if any of you readers are from kuwait and know of any other bathrooms than the three listed for the entire country, please add a bathroom to the list. =)

mom: hi

so i was working at my desk yesterday and all of a sudden i got an instant message from "mom". it said, simply, hi.

i just kind of snickered at first. what a great spam ploy... who's attention wouldn't that catch?

as i went to close the window, i scanned the email address just out of curiosity and realized, wait- that is my mom!

my mom totally instant messaged me. she was even throwing down all sorts of shortcuts and abbreviations as we chatted. the inner geek in me was proud, somehow.

i very much organize my life in my head, sorta like a california closet... this thing goes over there and that thing goes over here.

my mom just popped a hole out from her shelf and climbed into a whole bunch of other shelves. it was a good thing, but until she did that, i didn't really realize that i rely on shelves to keep everything organized.

i'm not even sure that makes any sense.

abstractor tv

"turn your tv into art":



seems like it might be a fun idea for a party, eh?

it'd be cool to cut other small windows into the matte board too, so it's not just one long window...

the man is freefalling from outer space

seriously, i watched this after reading the description:
The images in the video are a collage of footage from 1960 about Joseph Kittinger, a man who in that year took a giant helium balloon up to 102,800 feet and then jumped, setting records for highest ascent, highest jump, longest freefall and fastest fall.

and i thought to myself, okay, big deal. he goes way up and then jumps. but holy crap, he didn't just go way up, he went way way way up... then jumped.



sheesh

infectious disease- quarantine

yep, i got pink eye somehow.

since i documented aaron's latest injury so well, it would seem inconsistent if i didn't document my own illness, so here is a picture.



















i really don't think this is all that gross. at least i cleaned out all the goop before i took the picture.

i think it looks cool with all the little squiggly blood veins. for example, what if you just look at this part:






















see? pretty cool, eh?

why am i fascinated by this stuff so much?

taylor falls minnesota

this was our first trip up to taylor falls minnesota.



it was fun to see the area. hard to share it with so many people. the crowd sort of took away from it a little. guess we're just accustomed to the boundary waters where we don't have to share with hardly anyone. =)

stone arch bridge- pics

aaron and i hung out at the bridge for the sunset on saturday.



it was nice.

(cool pictobrowser- thanks lori!)

kitty- sparkle

along time ago, i discovered that little sparkle balls insult my kitty, especially if they are hanging out in plastic bags.

i'm not sure what they say to her, but i think it's something about how she isn't really in charge of the household like she thinks she is, and that she could work a little harder at keeping herself clean, and that real kitties don't need humans to give them their food.

anyway, it really ticks her off, and so this is how she reacts when they insult her:



no matter how often she teaches them a lesson, sparkles always insult her anyway.

consumer breaks up with advertiser

snicker...

The Break Up
Uploaded by geertdesager

having worked in advertising, i always found it interesting the perceptions (and mis perceptions) people have about what goes on day to day inside the industry. this ad plays on that advertising reputation and i think it's pretty funny.

people seem to think that there are a bunch of people sitting in a room somewhere scheming for a way to get all their money!!! tricks and manipulations and downright lies!!! really, advertisers are thinking more about winning awards, i think, than they are about manipulating people.

the saddest part for me was seeing that clients are always looking to sell more of their product and ad agencies are always eager to help. sell more? we can do that.

nevermind the big question- should we sell more?

crazy question, i know. we should always sell more, right?. at any cost, right? make more money for ourselves, right? nevermind the consequences to making more stuff and selling more stuff and polluting the world in the process and using up all our finite resources. we have to sell more stuff!!!

for example, those little plastic crap toys in cereal boxes- who needs that crap? kids don't. land fills don't. let's sell some more cereal by advertising cheap plastic crap. it's working, let's do more of that. how creative can we be at inventing crafty cheap plastic crap, packaged liberally, so we can sell more stuff?

to me, whether advertisers are listening to consumers is an interesting question, but even more interesting is the scary relationship between brands with money and their hired help, who are infinitely capable of thinking up how to sell, but seem unable to ask themselves the bigger questions- is selling at any cost worth it? is the money we're spending on advertising really doing a disservice to our world? if we sell 5 billion more of these widgets, how does that impact the world we live in?

it's like advertisers skip over that thought completely. we could do ads for x company- wouldn't that be sweet?

this is probably why i could never be successful at running an ad agency, but i also think that's a good thing.

oops, when i decided to blog this video, i wasn't expecting all this to pour out. =)

castle draw

i know aaron will enjoy this new game...


you have to draw rocks with your magic wand and drop them on the stick people trying to kill you.

very funny

t-shirt subscription?

so i think this is way cool, especially if you wear a lot of t-shirts and you like to find original trendy designs.

subscribe at this site to receive a t-shirt every six weeks which has been designed based on a current event (which is printed on the inside of the shirt). you get a cool, limited edition, timely shirt design for only $35 (which includes shipping from sweden).

i also like to peruse their gallery of previous shirts...


look for the cool old people. =)

pachelbel canon in d- hilarious vent

as a cellist, this totally resonates for me, but it's funny even if you're not a musician, i think.



when i played that music in high school, i wasn't quite so peeved as this guy cause i saw the eight repeating notes as an easy thing to play while i listened to the fun stuff. i think i felt that even while participating, i got to be a spectator of sorts.

it felt much more like a personal pachelbel attack for rob, i guess. =)

i totally identify with the taco bell joke...

transformers- more than meets the eye

aaron, my friend chris and i saw transformers tonight. ya know, ya kinda go in there expecting it to be cool effects but a bad movie and it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be.

let's just put it this way, it really didn't suck completely like it could have. i really enjoyed it.

aaron always sings the transformer song for me- it's one of my favorite songs he sings.

it's always a bad idea to look these things up, but if you wanna hear the song, go here. aaron's version is much better- you should ask him to sing it for you.

magellan- our platypus

my brother scott sponsored a platypus in Australian in our names.

he is magellan and he is cool and anyone who says different is cruisin' for a bruisin'.

(the little guy is so cute swimming through the water)

=)

stephers

she's a graphic artist now for the army. she rocks!!

i love you stephanie!

bwcaw again!!!

aaron and i are going out into the wilderness again!!!! woohoo!!!

we have invited (and they have accepted) aaron's dad and brother (david and david respectively).

we are going in at homer lake, heading to pipe lake to do some fishing. i feel pretty lucky to be able to go out there twice in one year. =)

august 17- reentry into paradise

find your happy hour

do you ever just need a happy hour, right this moment?!

you're in luck. just visit unthirsty.com and you can get your drink on!

be sure to share your favorite happy hour spot with others!!

reyka vodka site

visit a cyber-iceland at this site for reyka vodka.

it's got a lot of fun, dry humor... for example, when it asks what year you were born, put in a year less than 21 years ago.

make sure you watch tv.

fitting for the fourth

my sister recently graduated as a graphic artist for the army. (congrat's stephers!!)

she called me yesterday, fourth of july, to tell me she is being deployed to iraq.

i know she is excited and so i'm happy for her. seemed like appropriate news for independence day...

sicko

go see the movie. take your friends. tell your neighbors. go see it.

name statistics- whitepages

apparently, in america, people with my name are most densely populated in california, texas, florida, new york and pennsylvania...

lots of interesting info at this site based on white pages data.

it's a good thing you came in, you really need this massage

working your buttocks...



we'll keep it on the up and up...

(thanks lindsey!)

video is now working

check it out below...

bwcaw- revisited 2007

aaron, my brother scott and i dipped our canoes in wilderness water again. we dipped in at baker lake and stayed on weird lake for two nights.

it's not easy to find the right words to describe the way we feel about the boundary waters. aaron and i brought our favorite book of poems up with us to read by the campfire, and we found this poem by william stafford which does a nice job of articulating the happiness for us:

Why I Am Happy
- William Stafford

Now has come, an easy time. I let it
roll. There is a lake somewhere
so blue and far nobody owns it.
A wind comes by and a willow listens
gracefully.

I hear all this, every summer. I laugh
and cry for every turn of the world,
its terribly cold, innocent spin.
That lake stays blue and free; it goes
on and on.

And I know where it is.

all my pics on www.flickr.com

here are some of the highlights of our trip:

aaron tipped his canoe while shooting some rapids and took a long cold swim in the drink (btw, going into the drink deeper than your rear is known as getting asswet, which aaron did with grace)

we saw about a zillion bald eagles- one of which was enthusiastically eating something on the shore of the lake we were fishing in.

we caught a few northerns and one super huge small mouth bass.

we witnessed the procreation of a couple of turtles who laid their eggs on the shore of our campsite.

we had three days of uninterrupted sunshine, amazing weather.

i took my digital camera with me- a huge risk, based on my track record of losing two cameras to the wilderness so far. my canon made it out alive with no injury and with almost 4 GB worth of images and video. thanks wilderness for not harming my camera friend!

this is going to sound incredibly macabre, but it's really very settling for me... while we were out there canoing around, i decided that if anything ever happens to aaron and he is gone, i will go out to the boundary waters for a solo trip to find some solace. i know which lake i will go to. aaron says if i am gone, he will also go there... as an atheist, there isn't much i can do to feel better after the passing of my best and most treasured friend in the world. it's so reassuring to know that i have a plan for the best possible thing i can do at the worst possible moment in my life.

we're planning another trip to the bwcaw this year, possibly with aaron's dad. we're also planning another car camping trip hopefully with some new friends- carla and tom. oh yeah, and we're going to pull off another fall colors camping trip for my birthday, perhaps in northern wisconsin!!

minnesota is a great place to live. =)

here is some of the video i shot (7:46)(it's working now):

boundary waters- yes, again!

we're going up tomorrow night. it will be awesome, as usual.

the usual warning- if i don't come back, please don't come look for me. know that i am happy. =)

flickrvision- neat-o frito

so it's kinda neat to see what images are being uploaded to flickr every second around the world.

if you agree, check out this site.


thanks julie!

roxy and turbo

oh glorious kitties!!!

my friend melody and her family adopted two new kittens and she was generous enough to share pictures with me- can you beat that on a friday morning?!

here is roxy:



and turbo:

seriously, folks, these are real kittens...

... that I LOVE!!!

(thanks melody!!!)

we're here, we're queer, get coverage!

when we found out bubba jay was gay, we was terrified we'd lose our beautiful home...



...they're a whole lot nicer than other folks...

(thanks edmond)

7 lucky years times 2

happy anniverserary buddy!!

removal of a fish hook

you must be thinking there's some code out there that says- when your husband/buddy/friend has a fish hook impaled in his finger, it is not appropriate to photograph or video tape the event.

i'm not so sure any such code exists, as you can plainly see below.

if you're even the slightest bit squeamish, it's probably not a good idea for you to check out all the pics here.

these are a few of the less graphic pictures...

we used to call this lure 'princess' but will refer to her as 'the bitch' from now on. oh yes, we've decided to add a couple of hooks back to it and throw it out. with the blood sacrifice already given, it's bound to catch us a few big ones.


i love the matter of fact language on the discharge papers... "We removed the fish hook that punctured your skin."


yes, the code in your head may say- you don't take video of the fish hook being removed from the finger of a loved one. i enjoy the blissful absence of that code in my head.




take the poll in the top of the right margin and tell me if i've crossed the line ---->

btw, i have purposely not answered the question- so how did the hook actually became embedded in aaron's finger?
i want to leave some of the story for him to tell. =)

mammoths- frustratingly fun

so all you can do is jump. that's it.


this game drives you crazy! i find myself sitting forward in my seat to make myself go faster... rude.

criss angel- freak your mind site

my friend worked on this site, which in the world of INTERNET makes me a little famous i think.


go there and put in your info first, just to see what happens. (i did this a while ago and there has been no misuse of my information)

then, if you wanna mess with people, put in their information and send them the resulting link to the site. the best is to pick people without a whole lot of technical knowledge... they will be most freaked, i think.

(thanks justin!)

wee planets?

at this site, panoramic pictures are used to create these 'wee planets'...



i think it's pretty damn cool!

a few fun ads to check out

these are kinda funny:

redheads and blondes- keepin' it real

i don't know what a 7-day croissant is but i want one

match.com- hilarious
match.com- another one
match.com- another one still

do you know what they do to puppets in prison?

this one actually brought a tear

you can't deny- kid's work it

i love how they are so patiently moving back and forth.



the dog's easy attitude is priceless.

a great monday morning video!

wisconsin has waterfalls and bears!

here is a small random selection of images from our wisconsin camping trip!

this is a link to the whole set on www.flickr.com.

here is a hilarious video of one of wisconsin's black bears, which we met up close and personal...

splat the mat

this site fascinated me for at least 3 minutes!! that's an internet record, i'm sure!



















i don't really care if the mats in my car get dirty, but if i did, this would have done it for me.

very fun!

wisconsin camping

aaron and i went camping over the weekend in northern wisconsin. we had a bear put his front paws on the front of our car and we found some fantastic waterfalls and glorious nature areas.

i'll be in chicago for a couple of days for work but i hope to post pics and video of the bear soon soon soon.

cursors are fun? really?

there are 72 different cursors and they all have a different personality.

















i was surprised to hear myself laugh out loud at a couple, or smile at them. those ones were my friends.

like:
45
21
43
65
58
50

google maps, the greatest directions ever!!

google maps gives great directions from new york to london, including this nugget:





check it out.

(thanks scott)

someecards.com

this site is super fantastic. go ahead, select a thoughtful eCard for one of your closest friends...

aaron's nephew- carson

isn't he great?

dreams

i've been dreaming a lot lately, and the one this morning was the final insult!! i declare i'm never dreaming again!

i had just landed a great job at northwest airlines with all my professional friends, when i became interested in some other job that i didn't know anything about. i quit nwa and took the other job- seems like a good move, right?

the new job was as a waitress at some stupid restaurant.

i spent the rest of the dream agonizing over ruining my career forever.

i seriously had a moment after i woke up when i thought the dream was true and then i was relieved when i realized i was safe.

i already like going to work, but it made me like it more today. =)

yes, another cute kitten

the cute kitten isn't the only reason i like this ad.

okay, maybe it is, but that's okay, right?

swivel- random useful data

"Swivel is a place where curious people explore all kinds of data."








i think this site is pretty cool to check out from time to time...

people can leave comments and discuss graphs and what could be better than that?

hair down there?

are you a true blond, or do you dye?









when i showed this ad to aaron, he said 'why would you want to do that?'

just wait til he sees my bright pink!!

papa watch, watch this!

i love you, emma!



thanks lindsey!

pics posted- the kid

when aaron and i learned that cole was going home, we decided to spend our last afternoon together at the children's museum, enjoying every last moment we had with him.

i'm so glad lindsey, kat and max joined us. aaron and i agree, without them, the afternoon would have been super depressing.

instead, it was hilarious and glorious and a wonderful way to say goodbye to a little boy we love.

tears are coming as i write this. it's been really tough letting go of all of the fun we hoped to have with cole and his sister. we're really sad that the fun had to end and there has been a lot of tears since cole left. we just didn't have enough time with him. =(

here are some of my favorite pics:









































i've added all the latest pics to flickr.

here's a little video i put together:

gone

no cole to wake up to this morning. no diaper to change, no milk to get, no cartoons to turn on.

john came and picked him up last night.

yep.

don't know how to feel

stephers just called me. john has told her he's going to leave after work tomorrow to come here and get cole from us. he says he misses his family and doesn't want to be alone without them.

what can i say? so manyfeelings about that. so many thoughts.

i hope he doesn't take cole.

bliss

sitting on the porch, connected to the INTERNET, the kid is sleeping, the lightening is lightening, the thunder is thundering, the rain is raining, the bliss is blissing.

good times.

=)

cannon bods

a fun little activity.

















the sound they make when they hit the water is so satisfying... kerplunk



















have fun!

the kid

cole has been with us for two weeks now and it's been great! it's nice having him around. his little personality is so precious, and he really is a good boy.

pics are here.

some of my fav pics:


he has already gotten a little banged up- aaron took him to the playground and he fell on his face somehow. aaron says there was plenty of blood, real tears, and a bunch of parents standing around staring. =( he required two spongebob bandaids on his face and one on his uninjured arm.






playground pics- he goes to the playground nearly every day. i think he enjoys having two parents all to himself and not having to share with his sister... that is until she arrives next saturday.
























better enjoy it now while it lasts, cole.









































soon the two-kid craziness will set in... what will become of us?

i'm billing my time

clients don't understand how their actions affect a project, and that's frustrating sometimes...

this is about lawyers, but it works on many levels:



thanks tracy!!