A wonderful tribute from a new neighbor

I was back in DeKalb for a few hours this weekend with Jess for her
alumni symposium for the journalism department, and on the way out of town I wanted to go past Upstaging, since I hadn'tseen it since all the construction was finished on the buildings. While it looks much nicer than I remember, it was also nice to see they had a gobo made up with the remembrance ribbon for the NIU shooting of Feb 14th. You can count the number of years Upstaging has been in the neighboring town of Sycamore on one hand, but I know they've already taken up a relationship with the theatre department at NIU, as well as giving many students employment, of which I was one my last year there. Whoever made the decision at the company to put this up, I thank you. It's been tough for me, still knowing people living and attending classes in DeKalb, and while this tribute is a little off the beaten path, it's nice to see such a new part of the community making this kind display tobremember the tragedy that happened on campus which won't soon be forgotten.

Just an update

Lots of exciting things for me in this post, not so much anything profound though.

Jess and I found an apartment downtown together, and will be moving in at the end of August. Now I just need to pack some things and get rid of some others.

My passport came. HOORAY!!! I was hoping I wouldn't have to be freaking out with the trip to Greece coming up in about 7 weeks. It's here, and I did a little dance to celebrate its arrival.

This weekend might bring about two great parts of summer: small town festivals, and movies. Possible happenings for Friday are going to Riverfest in Watertown to see Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, which would be quite a bit of fun/nostalgia. Saturday could include going to the drive in theatre in Jefferson to see the double feature of The Simpsons Movie and the new Die Hard flick.

I'll also probably do some packing and disc golfing while I'm at it. In the meantime, I'm just waiting for laundry to get done while watching some baseball.

wheels and wishes

It's been a bit too long since I threw something up for the masses to read about my life.

Well, I bought a new bike a couple weeks back. Done a few long rides so far, todays was about 13 miles. I'm planning on starting to ride to work at least a few days a week, and I want to start tomorrow, but I think that's going to depend on how bad the weather looks, as there's a possibility of rain. But with gas steadily climbing, and wanting to get into a bit better shape, a 12 mile one way ride to work sound like a pretty good way to do both.

I can't understand why Wii's still can't be kept on the shelves. I've been trying for 6 weeks to try and get one to no avail. Why six months after console release they can't produce them is completely beyond me. I'm glad its popular, but get with it Nintendo.

In much more fun news, Jess and I are going to Greece! After we stock up on some vacation time over the summer we're heading out for 2 weeks of ancient civilization goodness. Anyone with thoughts on where to go visit, I'm all ears.

And this weekend was great. Friday night Jess and I went up to Baraboo to hang out with Val and the long lost and now found Nate Anderson, who had secured a campsite up there for a few days. Had some drinks, played some guitar, sang loudly and somewhat off key, and then played Scattergories before heading home. Saturday morning spent some time at the farmers market downtown, then met up with Chris and Tori to enact an ingenious plan: they bought salsa at the market, we went to Frida's, sat outside (while some very loud mexican musicians played to the outdoor seating) ate the free chips with the great salsa and split a couple pitchers of margaritas. Nothing like being buzzed before noon on a Saturday.

A new start

While I know this is somewhat syndicated as well, I feel it's a bit more individualized than the LJ or Myspace blogs. That might be total bullshit, but it's my perspective on the issue. Plus while I'm on the kick of trying out the Google takeover, might as well dabble with this one too.