Words from the Shallows

I did it!

2008-04-19T08:44:00.003-05:00

I passed the Black Sash test in our Kung Fu system and am now an Assistant Instructor! Four and a half years of work, but well worth it. Check it out: www.SchoolofShaolin.com I'm on the Instructor's Page now!! Woot!
Almost golf season...c'mon sun, shine!!

6 MONTHS?

2008-03-27T15:26:00.002-05:00

How silly to have a blog in cyberspace, then let it sit and collect dust in the internet attic.
No changes to my location...or Amy's. We've both had brutal letdowns and disappointments in our job searches, she here in the Cities and me in Milwaukee, Racine, and Chicagoland. But we're keepin' on keepin' on.
Testing for my black sash / Asst. Instructor level in Kung Fu in a couple weeks. It's a two-day test that will cover all the material I've learned in 4+ years of training. Empty hand forms, weapon forms, kicks, throws, self-defense, good lord I'm nervous. But it'll be among the greatest accomplishments of my life, no doubt. Wish me luck!

Boston Wedding, Rochester Conference, Michigan Wedding

2007-09-29T07:13:00.000-05:00

The speed of life. Sept. 22 brought a stunning outdoor wedding in Sudbury, Mass. High school friend Josh got married at the Old Arabia Inn, a beautiful property older than Minnesota. Very cool. Then back home for a couple days back in the office. Then down to Rochester, MN for a conference of Minnesota planners. Being on the planning committee made the whole thing more interesting, so there was lots of quality shmoozing and talking. Great group, as a whole.
Then Friday morning we piled in the Mom Jeep to drive to Michigan for today's wedding on Sept. 22. Hotel and wedding are in St. Josef, MI, which is a great resort city on Lake Michigan. The event will be fantastic with so many rellie's in one place. A rare occurrence, but always a blast. Great group, as a whole. Ha.
Glad I will have down time at home after these three marathon weekends (Baraboo, Boston, Michigan). Martial arts is falling behind!

Another weekend, Another Adventure

2007-09-22T09:44:00.000-05:00

If I showed up to work on Friday, I could have slept until 6:30 in the morning, had a nice quiet breakfast and a normal day. Instead, I woke up at 4:30 AM, left for the airport at 5:00, and caught a 7:05 flight to Boston.
Air Trans treated me well, but the TSA gave me a run....they took my toothpaste, man! I had a normal tube of Crest, which is over the 3 oz. limit, but it was half used! Honestly, the tube was half gone, the end all rolled up and everything. But the tube SAYS that it holds over 3 oz., right? So the guard made me throw it out. Now in his defense, he was pretty nice about the whole thing and even felt a little bad. But let that be a lesson to you. They go by the writing on the package, not a reality-based judgment of what comprises 3 ounces of a gel or liquid.

I got a sweet rental car...Kia Rondo. Armed with great directions, I took off for the lovely city of Leominster, MA. Met up with Cousin Tiffany and had a great afternoon. We settled to watch the Red Sox pummel Tampa Bay. Fun to watch local sports with sports-crazy locals!

Andy the Travel Critic - Pinehaven B & B in Baraboo

2007-09-17T08:55:00.000-05:00

Amy and I met in Baraboo, Wisconsin for a little weekend getaway. Here's my little travelogue!!
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Pinehaven Bed & Breakfast, Baraboo, Wisconsin

In the Midwest, Baraboo, Wisconsin is synonymous with the Dells, tourists, waterslides, and sunburns. Images of Jellystone and circuses come to mind as soon as the words “Interstate” and “94” make it out your gob.

When Amy and I agreed to meet in Baraboo for a weekend getaway, I was afraid our relaxing mini-vacation would collide with distracted families shepherding legions of five-year-old versions of me…spilling pop, whining, and bumping into people as a general pastime. We thought that a Bed & Breakfast might be a great way to avoid the largest teeming pits of urchin me’s, so we started poking around. We stumbled on Pinehaven B&B, run by Marge & Lyle Getschman.

Pinehaven B & B was an absolute delight. It’s a blast from the days of rooming houses along highways before big hotels were around. OK, it’s a lot nicer than that. If the term “estate” can be used to describe a beautified, well-manicured former pasture, then Pinehaven is Baraboo’s prize estate B&B. With so much open area, you feel like it must be meant for more than Pinehaven’s four rooms. The whole grounds are really the brainchild of the owners, and there is some real pride in the family about the progress. The before and after pictures in the living room are memorable because they show the staggering amount of work and design that have gone into creating the Pinehaven property. (Note that the Before pics are yellowed black and whites from 1959.) The whole property rests on former pasture grounds. As Owner Lyle said, “There wasn’t nothin’ here then…” Now there is a man-made lake, an acre of mowed lawn, acres of horse pasture, and active corn farming east and west (Lyle’s sons live in two adjacent farms….the area is referred to as “Getschmanville because of all the Getschmans living around here). A gazebo, trails, and wonderful plantings and landscaping beautify the grounds all over.

Pinehaven exudes the rural ethos of the farms that surround it on all sides. First, there is just the shear amount of work that must have gone into the grounds. In the same way that old Victorian-era mansions with fine stonework and stained glass can’t be built anymore because the labor is too expensive, creating a Pinehaven from scratch these days would be a bank breaker.

Second, the house’s living room is the social center Pinehaven. The B&B’s only television is cabineted there, and Marge, the octogenarian co-hostess and wife of Lyle, asks ahead of time if you intend to watch any TV or VHS movies that evening. You reason that if her boys lived without TV in their rooms, you will, too. There are also a handful of games in the living room and a gaming table on which to play. An elderly piano rests in the corner, replete with a yellowed Sousa-esque collection of sheet music.

Marge, a farm wife of half a century, puts her kitchen to hard work. The homemade breads and applesauce evidence her years cooking for a houseful of hungry farm boys. The Getschman Belgian horses are known around the State and have pranced and pulled in dozens of parades and circuses. They laze and munch around the pasture, greeting guests with an odd snort or vacant stare.

If our weekend stay in Baraboo began with visions of Kool-Aid smiles on hyper mini-me’s, it ended with smiles and regrets of leaving the farm. Bed & Breakfast houses have a wonderful charm that leave the most well-intended hotels and motels in the dust. Maybe it’s because you’re staying in the hosts’ homes and sharing their roofs. Whatever the magic is, Pinehaven has got it in spades.

"Mom" computers

2007-09-07T16:21:00.000-05:00

My mom's work gave her a great new laptop to use, so I inherited the one she bought in 2005. It works great, except....well....it was in full-fledged MM (mom mode). The HP Pavilion was bought at Best Buy, so it came with a slew of HP ;software packages pre-installed, along with the obligatory software trials and samples. And all the stuff is programmed to start up with windows, so XP took 7 minutes to boot with the stellar 256 of RAM.
So after a few evenings of work (and a little time at work), this machine is approaching refinement. I uninstalled all the crappy stock software, massively reduced the programs that fire up when you start Windows, and bought a crapload of RAM. Now it's ready. Thanks, Ma!!

New Technology, new Frustrations

2007-09-05T15:13:00.000-05:00

Got my hands on a nice laptop. I figure it's karma repaying me for the CD player faceplate stolen from my car. I'm due for a new cell phone, too, but that'll have to wait for a little while. First I need new tires...and then new work shoes...and by then something else expensive should pop up. Sure am glad that money grows on trees.

Turns out that getting a new job isn't very easy. Yet another rejection letter....god those suck. But I'm keeping every one, so that when I'm king, I can go back there and be like YEAH! Check me out NOW!

New Post

2007-06-19T19:26:00.001-05:00

I'm not a feverish blogger here, but not a lot has changed since March. Went on a great vacation to the Florida Keys. Spent Father's Day with Father at a Twins game. The job search continues as Amy and I try to live in the same state. Oh, and I got called up for jury duty. Fun fun! Drop a line and say hi! andycross at charter.net

Words

2007-03-21T20:46:00.000-05:00

Hello! Thanks for dropping by the site. Hope you enjoy poking around at the stuff here. I've tried to make this a place on the web where I can publish all the fun stuff to share with friends and family.
As for me, I'm living in the Twin Cities and I'm still a Planner for the City of Andover, MN. I spent two years in Milwaukee ('01-'03) getting my Masters at UW-Milwaukee. Thats where I met Amy, my lovely girlfriend. I moved back to Minnesota and started at Andover that fall. Amy is still in Milwaukee. We live far apart. We're working on that.
When I'm not slaving for the man at work, I'm at the School of Shaolin training in Kung Fu, at guitar lessons, or at Buffalo Wild Wings playing trivia and drinking cheap beer.

I'm glad you stopped by, so feel free to leave a Comment below and say hi.

-Andy