Tag Archive for kate

Very Much In Love

May 26, 2010 Life One comment

This will come as a newsflash to no one: I am still wildly in love with Kate.

About three months from now, we’ll be tying the knot, and I’m pretty excited about that. (Yes, you can expect a lot of pictures being posted here.) So excited, in fact, that I am having trouble writing my wedding vows. My mind is all over the map when it comes time to sit down and write. God help me, I may have to write an outline, just to get my thoughts in order.

It’s amazing how one person can come along and totally rearrange your notions of love, marriage and family.

Another Monday, Another Weekend Gone

May 3, 2010 Life One comment

Frame progress. Click to enbiggenate.

So another weekend is in the books. This one’s kind of a wash.

Friday, I got laid off from Penn. A downer, to be sure, but at the same time, I’m not really surprised. It’s been pretty slow there so far, plus we were overstaffed every time I was there. Thus. Yeah, well, you know. That evening was a barbeque at MK’s, which was a lot of fun. Saw some friends, met some new ones, and saw MK not incinerate herself while eating fire. I was very glad she didn’t because that would be sad, despite how many YouTube hits I could have gotten from it.

Saturday. Hangover. Slept a lot. Played a lot of Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Spent a bunch of time on the couch with Kate.

Sunday, framebuilding. Spent a ton of time getting the seatstays mitered for the frame — like most of the day. They’re very complex cuts, and they’re being done by hand, so it was very time-consuming. But hey, they’re fitted and ready to be attached to the frame during my next session, which will result in a frame that’s essentially done. There’s some small stuff left after that, and then it goes off to paint. In the evening, Kate and I went to Legend’s for dinner. The bacon-wrapped rib tips were pretty underwhelming. The BLT was absolute heaven, though.

Afterwards

December 8, 2009 Life One comment

Last night was the perfect two-year anniversary. I got her a card and flowers. While she cooked, I hit up Surdyk’s for wine and beer and cheese. After dinner, we left the TV off and sat on the couch together, alternating between talking and reading. Then we went to bed around midnight.

It was an awesome anniversary. And the last one we’ll celebrate as unmarrieds.

Two Years

December 7, 2009 Life One comment

It was a very cold December night. I was working at the bike shop and was pretty nervous. See, I had a date lined-up around the corner at the Herkimer.

Kate was waiting for me in front of the shop. We did the small talk thing while we walked over. There was beer.

I don’t remember what we ate. I was too fixated on her eyes, what she was saying, the sound of her voice. The way she laughed. I didn’t know where it was going to go when all this happened, but I knew that the journey was going to be a good one.

That date and these two years have just been the start of things. I can’t imagine a life without her, I can’t imagine growing the way I have without her. And I can’t imagine her not being around to share in everything.

It’s a good thing I’m marrying her, huh?*

* That is predicated on her ability to survive the nine hours my wedding vows are going to take me to recite.

Learnificating

November 4, 2009 Life 2 comments

One of things that’s bugged me since leaving college, Internet, is that I can feel my brain slipping away as time goes by. This is doubtless the result of not feeding it enough in the last eleven or so years, and is compounded by the advent of microblogging and typical Gen-X malaise. The combined factors have turned my brain into a thin gruel wherein occasionally a pair of neurons will pass close enough to one another form a synapse, a spark will jump, and I will have a fleeting Thought of My Very Own™.

In the past year, I have endeavored to learn new things. In late 2008, I finally got around to taking formal swimming lessons which, for me, was a pretty big accomplishment. This year, I’ve been all about the framebuilding class. I’m learning a wide variety of things there — welding, frame design, metallurgy, and all-around general awesomeness.

There are two other things that I’m eager to learn — photography and a martial art. The former, I’ve always wanted to learn, and Kate and I have been discussing taking that class together (and buying a nice D-SLR). The latter I want to pursue because the old skills I developed have gone badly rusty — last year, while wrestling with Kate’s brother Drew at the family camping trip, I was in a position where I found myself thinking, “Well, from here I can either kill him or get my ass kicked. Neither of these is a positive outcome.”

After I’m a learned scholar of photography and kicking ass, I think I’m going to start looking for low-cost and free classes on a wide variety of subjects, just so that I can continue to keep my brain happy. The sources will be community education classes, MCTC, and probably the U of MN.

A few of the other things I want to learn:

  • beer making
  • public speaking
  • sword making
  • gardening
  • lead climbing
  • to play an instrument other than the Rock Band guitar

Miscellaneous Crap

October 20, 2009 Life No comments
  • I have a doctor’s appointment today. Follow-up on a few things, and going over some new things. I won’t go into detail here — not until I know for sure what’s up and the people closest to me have been made aware of anything important that comes out of this.
     
  • The Vikings have eked out a 6-0 start to the season, but I suspect that that won’t go past Sunday, as they travel to Pittsburgh to face the Steelers. Minny’s pass defense has been lacking, and was really hurt by Winfield’s absence after the first quarter against Baltimore. All in all, I have us down as losing to the Steelers, Bengals, and Giants, though that second one could go either way now that they’ve lost Odom for the season. Final record, most likely 13-3, possibly 14-2. Unless the Saints get some catastrophic injuries, they eat us alive in the NFC Championship game.
     
  • This weekend looks to be interesting. Will be “up north” this Friday night and Saturday — for you non-Minnesotans, “up north” is defined as anywhere north of the exurbs (Monticello, for example). We’re going to be doing food tastings at caterers and looking at reception sites. After that, it’s back to the Cities. Sunday, I’ve got my framebuilding class, which I’m looking forward to. More welding and mitering. Possibly some blueprinting.
     
  • Been spending a lot of time and lovin’ with the Cyclist’s Training Bible lately. Figuring out a two-peak plan for next racing season — with peaks in August and November. Wanting to do well at the various State Championship races next year. Going to be competing in road, track and cyclocross. Need to find a yoga class to start attending, too. I think there’s a weekly one at the Y. Maybe.
     
  • In the geek realm, I’m designing a new website for my framebuilding venture, wondering what the hell the point of Google Wave is, and thinking about getting another Airport Express on the home network — this one for the living room stereo, which I should really get around to hooking-up one of these days when I have some time.
     
  • Have I mentioned lately that I am madly in love with my wife-to-be? Yeah, well, I’m going to mention it again. I look at her and I get butterflies in my stomach. I think about all the awesome things we’ve done and all those still to come, and I can’t imagine doing those things with anyone else.
     

Weekend, Food, Etc.

September 25, 2009 Bike, Life No comments

Well, I was all gung-ho about racing ‘cross this weekend, but that’s off the calendar. I was going to race Saturday, but that’s all the way up in Fargo. Too damn far to drive for a single race. I’ll settle for hammering a couple of hot laps in a local park and doing some mount/dismount practice.

Some cookin’ is on the agenda for the weekend. Since Sunday is the Vikes-49ers game, I will probably get up and take a stab at a pierogie pizza. The whole concept is something I cannot ignore and sounds like it would be a good game-time food.

Also have a chimmichurri recipe that I’m dying to try — we discovered the Agentinean green sauce while we were in Vegas, and fell in love with it.

In other news, we’ve had to move our wedding date because our locale and the associated hotel rooms are inundated by the Bayside Blues Festival. Dammit. Now I gotta wait another two weeks to marry Kate. Ah well. She’s definitely worth the wait.

I am sleepy. Work is too long today. I want a beer. And a nap.

I’m Back

September 23, 2009 Bike, Life, Writing No comments

So it’s been awhile since my last post. Partly because I had a short week at the office last week and a normal workload. I got everything done, then blew town for Vegas, which was awesome, as usual.

The first thing you’ll have noticed is that I reverted back to the old theme I’d been using. The garish one was too damn obnoxious for my tastes. The second thing you’ll notice is that I deleted all the accumulated spam in here. (Okay, maybe you didn’t.)

Life: Wedding preparations are starting to roll. We’ve got a location, but it’s going to necessitate two separate lists — one for the ceremony (small) and one for the reception (huge). I want Kate to walk down the aisle to “Brick House” by the Commodores. She’s having nothing of that.

Bike: ‘Cross season starts this weekend and I’m not really ready. But I’m going to hit it anyway. Might as well suffer a bit and use it as training. Worst case scenario is that it becomes training for next year. Framebuilding class is starting soon. Real soon. Oh yeah, and the debacle with my RA’ed mountain bike shoes has been resolved. Got them. Heat treating them tonight.

Writing: I think I’m finally completely burned-out on reading. Vacation’ll do that. To maintain my relationship with the written word, I’ll be trying to wrap-up the rough draft for Bubble over the next few weeks. Hoping to keep it under 130,000 words. Going to be close. After that, I have to start my next novel, which is about humanity’s first (indirect) contact with extraterrestrial intelligence.

A Long Summer

August 26, 2009 Life 2 comments

It’s been a long summer. Terry, Mooch, mom, and my sister-in-law. My weirdness with the neurological symptoms. The plight of friends that have lost, or are in the process of losing, people close to them. And through it all, Kate has largely — but not always, thankfully — been a distant voice on the phone and via email.

Thankfully, she’s home this Sunday, and won’t be returning to North Carolina again (that I know of). I’ve missed her more than you can imagine. And not just all the perfect things about her — but the imperfections, too. I miss her morning grumpiness. I miss the looks I get when one of my jokes falls flat. I miss trying not to talk to her during a TV show that I’d never choose to watch by myself. I miss all the good stuff, too, of course. But the longer this has dragged on, the more I’ve come to realize how important she is to me.

The next few months are going to be a little tough as we have to re-integrate and plan a wedding, but I believe that it’s nothing we can’t get through. Our little family (us and the cats) will be back togther again, and that is pretty kick ass.

T-Minus One Year and Counting…

August 14, 2009 Life One comment

A year from today, I’ll be standing in front of a group of my family and friends, declaring with absolute certainty my love, affection, and intent to spend the rest of my life with Kate. It’s been a few months since I spun around the Scrabble board with MARRYME across the triple word score, and for most of the time since then, she’s been on an extended business trip to North Carolina.

They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, and they’re right. I’m not sure who “they” are, but they’re pretty smart cookies.

Our engagement, knowing that we’ve got decades ahead of us, has made the summer apart much less angst-y and easier to endure. A year from now, I’ll be making my vows, looking in her eyes, probably trying not to cry (because I’m a giant sap).

It’s a big step to take and there’s no one I’d rather take it with.

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