The Lazy Bachelor

So I wish I could say I had a good reason for the recent hiatus. In fact, I thought I would have loads of time to build up a big buffer of prepared posts. Well, I have had loads of time...

You see, right after the end of the school year back in the 2nd week of June Meaghan left the country and I've been living the bachelor life ever since. It turns out I'm apparently really lazy when I'm all alone, or maybe just demotivated from doing things -- not sure which.

Why is Meaghan gone? Remember that German teacher exchange? Well, she got to go to Düsseldorf to visit Cordula for the 2nd half of the program. In fact, she'll be staying in Europe for the better part of a month. She co-sponsors a writing-based trip at her high school. Last year, she took about a dozen kids to London, Paris, and Rome. This year the trip size is up to 20 and they're going to Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and England. What am I saying? We're going to those places. 20 was the magic number that they needed to hit for me to go along as a chaperone. I leave Monday, and am starting to get amped up for the trip. Hopefully, not too many of the teens give us grief.

So what have I been up to for the last couple weeks? Good question. I've attached a couple small pieces below along with a teaser for the series that will hopefully keep you company while I'm gone -- assuming I can get them all written before I leave. Enjoy!

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Before Meaghan left the country, we went to see another movie at one of our local art house theaters. This probably deserves its own post, but I'm probably not eloquent enough to do it justice. The film was Terrence Malick's new work The Tree of Life. Like all of his films, it was beautiful and strange if not lacking a little bit in coherency. For those not familiar with Malick, despite the fact that he directed his first movie back in 1973 this is only his 5th full-length feature. I've only seen the two previous to this: The Thin Red Line and The New World.

It's a largely autobiographical story about his childhood growing up in Texas in the 1950s. Depicting his father as a violent force of "nature" and his mother has a beautiful force for "grace" (nature vs grace is the dichotomy set up in the opening narration, hence the quotes), it's essentially a series of related vignettes showing their interactions, their troubles, and the events that shaped him into the person he is today.

My childhood was not nearly as contentious as Meaghan's (she's compared us to the Cleavers on more than one occasion), so I didn't relate to the actual story elements as much as she did, but that doesn't change the fact that it's a beautifully made film. And oh yes, there are dinosaurs!

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Last year when Meaghan was in Europe, I spent a lot of time watching the World Cup, so it's only fitting that this year I've been keeping my eye on the Gold Cup. What? You didn't know that North America's largest soccer tournament has been going on in our country over the last two weeks? I'm shocked.

Wait, no I'm not. Apparently this is the year that I spend all of my sports-related energy on the sports that Americans just don't care about. The finals are tonight, but the only places you can see it are on FOX Soccer (who knew that existed?) and Univision (in español). Predictably, the USA is facing off with Mexico. It's not been an easy road to the finals for the US, so I'm expecting them to get pasted by "El Tri". We'll see what happens.

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Lastly, I spent a lot of time on an unexpected journey that I'll be sharing over the next two weeks. It started with me questioning my sanity, and then I thought I'd completely lost my taste. In the end, though, I came to grips with reality and learned how to stop worrying and love the tween.

Project: Disney

We're going to Disney World... again! This time we'll be celebrating the Christmas holiday there with Meaghan's family. In honor of this trip, we've decided to do the unthinkable and attempt to watch all 50 of the Disney animated "classics" (plus the Disney/Pixar films as time allows) prior to leaving on our trip. Not only are we watching the movies themselves, we're also enjoying the special features on the DVDs.

Our progress so far:
1) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) - the first feature-length animated movie ever. When you stop to consider that Disney went from Steamboat Willie to Snow White in less than 10 years, this is truly a remarkable film. It helps that it's still entertaining to watch all these years later.

2) Pinocchio (1940) - I hadn't seen this in years, but it's regained a position high in my list of favorite Disney films. Three things of note, if you happen to see this again:
- The music in this is fantastic; it actually won the Oscar for Best Score.
- There is an amazing shot about 25 mins into the movie that takes place the morning that Pinocchio is about to head off to school. It involves a lengthy panning zoom down from a bell tower to Geppetto's front door. They had to set up special equipment just to get it on film.
- Lamp-wick's transformation into a jackass on Pleasure Island is one of the most horrific scenes in a movie ever.

I'll keep you up-to-date on our progress or lack thereof over the next few months.

Up next: Fantasia (1940)

Checking in from Vienna

Just popping in from the lobby of our hotel in Vienna for a quick hello. We've only been here six hours and already have had so much to do.

- Went to a great little pasta/wine bar that's so good at what it does that they audaciously only serve two dishes each day: one vegetarian, one not. All their pasta is made on-site.

- There is music everywhere here. When we arrived, a string quartet was busking in the main square. I could hear "My Heart Will Go On" as we made our way to the hotel. After dinner, we enjoyed an Italian street band that sounded a bit like Devotchka. They employed everything: multiple accordions, a violin, mandolin, ukelele, banjo, even a saw.

- We're right down near the center of the ring, so everything is a whirl of activity around us. Open-air restaurant seating is everywhere and the many horse-drawn carriages go right past our front door.

Looking forward to our 4-day stay here.

P.S. This German keyboard is going to be the death of my typing skills. I'll have to take a picture.

Brief Hiatus

I had hoped to have a handful of posts queued up for while I'm on vacation, but wrapping up work and prepping for the trip have gotten in the way of producing anything of quality. There will be a post tomorrow, but after that you can consider this space to be on a brief two-week hiatus.

If Internet cafes still exist in Europe, I'll see what I can do about throwing a couple of live updates together while I'm over there. Otherwise, until I return...

Searching For the Beast Within

Our summer vacation officially kicks off today. We had been planning a much advertised 2010 trip to Greece, but for some reason we decided that we'd do something else this year. Instead, we've been busy putting together a whirlwind tour of three central European cities: Prague, Vienna, and Munich. Prague is Meaghan's pick. She taught English (the language, not the high school subject) there for a few months ten years ago and has been wanting to go back and show me the sights ever since I met her. Vienna is our collective pick. Filled with museums, parks, and music galore, it looks to be our kind of place. It also happens to be geographically convenient to the other two cities, which brings us to Munich.


This choice is unabashedly mine, and like most things it seems is inspired by a video game. In this case, the classic adventure game from 1995, Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within. Based in Munich, the game details our hero's investigation into a series of grisly werewolf murders. No, I'm not expecting to find any shape-shifters myself, but like all of the Gabriel Knight games GK2 is set in a real-world location that is portrayed with painstaking detail. As a result, ever since I first played this game back in high school, places like the Marienplatz and Neuschwanstein have been rattling around in my brain waiting for the right time to get out.


On the games front, whilst digging up info for this post I discovered that Jane Jensen (the creator of the Gabriel Knight trilogy) is finally coming out with a new adventure game, "Gray Matter", for Xbox 360 and PC later this year. It might just have to be the first new computer game that I buy in a long time. For those not familiar with the GK games, I highly recommed you give them a try. They rank amongst my favorites of all time and can be downloaded for the low, low price of $6 each from Good Old Games.

Want to Know a Secret?

A lot of people have asked me over the past few years how it is that Meaghan and I thought to go to Estonia for our honeymoon. Behold! The truth revealed. In a roundabout way, it all starts with my dad. When my brother and I were younger, we played a lot of computer games. Every once in awhile, my dad would give us a random selection as a present for a birthday or Christmas. Unerringly, this ended up being something high quality which provided us with hours of fun. ex. Drol, 2400 A.D., Out of This World.

One such game was a little franchise-starter by the name of Command & Conquer. In C&C, you take on the role of commander of either the UN's defense forces or the terrorist organization that they're trying to crush, the Brotherhood of Nod. If you choose to play on the side of the government, your first mission is to establish a beachhead in eastern Europe from which you can drive out the terrorist forces. Specifically:


The game goes beyond just naming the country where the action is, it gives you a specific point of conflict. In this case, your hovercrafts storm across the Gulf of Riga in the cinematic opening to land on the beaches of Pärnu, Estonia.


Going there for our honeymoon is perhaps an extreme example, but I often like to take the time to learn more about the world around us through video games. Don't get me wrong, it's definitely not the only reason we went there, but C&C is the spark that even put it on the map in the first place. Without it, we never would've had the experiences that we did like staying in this gorgeous hotel 100 feet from the gulf in Pärnu.


Perhaps in the future I'll share more of the things I learn through gaming, if I ever find the time to play more games. For those of you wondering what the next C&C-inspired vacation might be? Latvia, of course, with a special stop in Jelgava. Be thankful I didn't find inspiration in Nod's campaign of terror. It starts somewhere in lovely, seaside Libya.

Bonus Material: Even if you never get to Estonia yourself, I strongly urge you to check out the story of how it gained its independence from the Soviet Union in The Singing Revolution.

Salvaged Pictures

Today's post isn't quite as content rich as yesterday's, but it's late and I'm tired so you're just going to have to deal. I thought I'd share a few of the pictures from our trip to Disney World in June. We lost the majority of the pictures from the first six days in Florida (two with Meaghan's grandparents, four in WDW), but we still had everything from the last morning we spent in the Animal Kingdom with Meaghan's parents.

People always get a little slap-happy when they've spent so much time in a theme park, as evidenced here by our attempts to emulate cavemen, bugs (those are 3-D specs), and African drummers.




For those who haven't been before, the centerpiece of the Animal Kingdom is the Tree of Life, a gigantic (145 ft) artificial tree that towers over Discovery Island in the center of the park.


The tree not only houses a movie theater amongst its roots, but it's also a fantastic work of art. Over 300 different animals are carved into its trunk, branches, and roots. You could easily spend an entire day walking around it to see how many carvings you can spot.


It also wouldn't be the Animal Kingdom if it didn't feature some animals. As well as being a theme park, it's also a top-notch zoo. There are a lot of neat critters there like this crested porcupine from Africa.


One of the best places to spot animals is the Kilimanjaro Safaris attraction. You ride in a 40-seat open-air vehicle back through various African habitats. All of the animals (including rhinos, lions, and the like) there are free ranging with the ability to walk right up to your vehicle if they want to. Sometimes there are traffic jams when a herd of wildebeest crosses the road. Other animals, like this here giraffe, are just curious.


To wrap up this Disney saturated post, I thought I'd mention a website that I just discovered in the past week. If you sign up a free account, D-CoT has a jukebox where you can listen to various pieces of music that have been played in the Disney parks throughout the years. This includes things like the Country Bear Jamboree, Fantasmic!, the Wishes Nighttime Spectacular, and Finding Nemo: The Musical. If these sorts of things put a smile on your face, I strongly urge you check it out.

Disney Pictures

So I know I promised Disney pictures in my last post, but it seems that the great Apple Computer has chewed up the hundreds of pictures we collectively took and has spit out 13. That's right, we have 13. Don't ask, because honestly I have no idea how this happened. Needless to say, that's the last time I ever let someone else use their computer as a repository for my pictures.

I think we still have some on the memory card in our camera. I'll take a look tonight and see if there's anything worth posting. Anything there would be from our last morning in the Animal Kingdom, so I'm not holding out a lot of hope.

Deja Vu All Over Again

Meaghan and I have been talking recently about where to go on vacation this summer. We knew it had to be shorter and less expensive than last year's magnificent two week binge in Disney World. We are looking at buying a house in July or August after all. A camping trip somewhere, maybe? That would be pretty cheap and fun. We could go up north and hit Itasca. Hike to see the headwaters of the mighty Mississippi. Perhaps we'd wander to the west and see the sights of South Dakota: the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, Wall Drug. On Sunday, our choice became clear. Our trip this year would be to Walt Disney World in Florida.

Wha? Huh? But you...

This is apparently what you get when you don't return phone calls. Last Monday evening we got a message on our answering machine from Meaghan's mom. Her annual Summer trip to see her family back in NJ and PA had apparently fallen through and she was looking for somewhere else to go. Perhaps they would come visit us for a few days instead, she said. If only that were the case. Meaghan had late lacrosse practice all last week, meaning that she didn't get home until 8:30 or so every night. From Thursday evening on, my parents were in town for the weekend. There was no chance to call her back until Mother's Day.

In the five days that had passed, Meaghan's parents had decided that they weren't coming to visit, but were instead going to Disney in June and had already booked flights and a hotel. They also wanted to know if we wanted to come along. I guess they saw that we had such a good time with my parents there last year and wanted to recreate the magic. In the process, they seem to have missed the point that this was just last year. We like the Mouse and all, but we've never wanted to be the type of people who go to the same vacation spots year in and year out. So why are we going?

Meaghan's grandparents live in Florida, and we pretty much only get to see them at weddings. This trip includes spending a weekend with them. And although they seem indestructible, those of us who have been through it know how quickly people can disappear. We also don't see Meaghan's parents all that often, least of all when they're happy. And there's nothing like themed rides, shows, and games to bring out the happy in everyone. Consider it $1000 well spent on improving everyone's mental wellness... I hope.

It wasn't my first choice of vacations, or really in my top ten for this year, but it'll be fun. If it floats your boat at all, you can't go to Disney and not have fun. What more could you ask for?

I'm Going to Disney World!

Meaghan and I had saved up some vacation money over the last year or so with the intention of visiting central Europe some time later this year. She wants to go back to Prague (where she taught English for awhile in the midst of her college career) and I'd like to see Munich and all of the crazy castles in the Bavaria countryside. However, the rapidly tanking dollar has caused us to put our European aspirations on hold for a little while. Besides, what sort of Americans would we be if we took our Bush rebate check and spent it in a different country?

So we considered a few options stateside and eventually decided that for the first time as independent adults (Meaghan's been 3 times previous; I've been 6(?) times) we would go down to Walt Disney World in Florida this July. So after a week or two of planning, I'm happy to report that we've finalized all of our flight, lodging, and dining plans. We've also put together a rough itinerary for the length of our visit. For those of you who've never been to WDW before, it's the kind of place that you can really waste a lot of time if you don't plan your trip out before you go. There are so many places to go, things to see, and other people to avoid that it can be overwhelming.

We decided to do it right, so we don't feel like we have to go back for awhile. We'll be down there from the 16th through the 26th and we'll take our digital camera with us, so I swear some pictures will appear here this time. We're staying at the All-Star Music (one of the gaudy, cheap resorts), but as long as our room is far away from these puppies (yes, those are ginormous cowboy boots) I'll be all right.


More details to come in July...

That's right, woodchuck-chuckers...

It's Groundhog Day!

Well, not yet... but it will be soon. To celebrate this year, we're finally taking our friend Brent's annual offer to go celebrate in Punxsutawney, PA. As a huge fan of the Bill Murray movie it can't possibly live up to my expectations, but I'm hoping it'll be fun anyway. I promise to take some pictures and write all about it when we get back.

Road Trip Pt. 1: Nebraska Wedding

8/17-8/19


The first leg of our three part August road trip took us to a friend's wedding in the tiny northeast Nebraska town of Bazile Mills. We started out Friday night by staying another night at the wonderful HarrisWorld B&B where we would be leaving Zelda for the duration of the trip. Many thanks to Mike & Kim for continuing to look after her whenever we leave town.


We left Rochester early Saturday morning in order to arrive with enough time to secure our lodging and change before the 5:00 ceremony. We knew there weren't a lot of places to stay in the area, so we opted to camp for the night at the nearby Willow Creek SRA. We don't take the time to go tenting often enough, so this seemed like a good excuse to get out there for a night. The catch was that Nebraska state parks don't take reservations on the weekend if you're only planning on staying for one night, so we had to get there as early as possible.


We made it all the way to South Dakota before we realized that we had forgotten to bring any of our cameras, so we stopped in at the Yankton Wal-Mart (the first time I've set foot in one since the great Boo-Berry search of 2006) to get a couple disposable ones. As a result, we had no zoom, and everything you are about to see looks like it was taken from at least 100 yards away. We tested it out with this picture of a bowling alley/family fun center there in Yankton. Only in the heartland can you get away with painting the word "SH-BOOMS" on the side of your business.




We made it to the state park in no time, but that's where the trouble starts. It would seem that the park system doesn't receive a lot of funding in Nebraska, especially the ones in extremely rural areas, so the signage was poor to nonexistent, there were no maps anywhere, and everything is self-service (meaning that there are no offices or rangers where you can get help). I had looked at a map of the park while drawing up this plan and had picked out the tent campground on the NW edge of the lake as our destination, but when we got there all we found was a barren loop with a bunch of signs saying, "Do Not Camp Here".


I hadn't brought a map of the park with me and there wasn't one to be found, but I luckily remembered that the main trailer campground was around on the south side of the lake. I just didn't know how to get there. After many false turns due to poor signage, we made it there and picked out a site by around 3:30. That left us about half an hour to pitch our tent, fill out all the forms, pay for our park pass and camp site, and change into our nice clothes for the wedding. We managed it in about 40 minutes and bent a few speed laws to get to the church on time. (I understand they're loosely enforced 'round those parts anyway.)


I suppose I should probably tell you whose wedding this was we were going to. The groom, Brett, is a friend of mine from work. We play on the same Rochester city league football and basketball teams, are bitter foes in the work volleyball league, and have been to each other's game nights, etc. He was marrying his lovely girlfriend since college, Sarah, whose father presided over the ceremony. The ceremony was in the lovely little 19th century Lutheran church where Sarah essentially grew up. Here's the happy couple now, being bombarded with bubbles on their way out of the church.



Their getaway vehicle was a school bus (which we somehow managed to not get a picture of) with enough room for the entire wedding party and more. I landed a seat on it, and we whooped and hollered through the streets of nearby Creighton (where Brett grew up). It was fun to see how they knew everybody that we passed on the streets. There was even a sign congratulating them in the window of one of the local businesses. I guess that's small town America for you.


The reception was relatively uneventful. Instead of a toast, Brett's best men (his twin brothers) sang him a song to the tune of "Don't Worry Be Happy". Thank you for not doing that, Steve. As you might expect, the DJ played a lot of oldies and country music. Despite the urgings of our friends, Meaghan and I managed to not find a song worth dancing to before retiring to the campground relatively early. We had a long drive ahead of us the next day.


Before hitting the road the next morning, we took a quick spin down to the beach and took a walk out on the stone jetty that protects the swimming area. It reminded us of the much longer jetty protecting the much larger beach in Pärnu, Estonia that we walked along on our honeymoon. Here's me with proof that there are bodies of water in Nebraska (even if they are man-made reservoirs).



I'll continue with the next leg, visiting with Meaghan's family in Pflugerville, TX, sometime in the next couple days.

Coming soon: Road Trip Review

We just got our pictures back from Target yesterday, so a big overview (with pictures!) of our sprawling road trip across the country will be coming soon. For now, I'm off to the Mall of America to meet up with friends and partake in my 2nd of a possible 4 fantasy football drafts. For a guy who doesn't like it that much, that seems like an awful lot of drafts. Oh, well. Keeping true to form, I'm selecting 10th out of 10 in this one.