Adam & Amber’s Blog

I grew up on the west coast of Michigan, went to school in the Northern U.P. of Michigan, and now live in Minnesota. Point is I have always lived around snow and truth be told Minnesota has the least snow fall of any place I have lived (although that is made up for by being the coldest place I have ever lived). Most of the time I love the snow, it is beautiful to look at and fun to play in. That being said there is a dark side to all this winter bliss, snow removal. Amber and I do not yet own a snow blower (from our time outside this morning, we might be the only ones on the block that don’t), this means we get to remove our snow the old fashioned way shoveling.

Perhaps I am getting ahead of myself. This weekend Southern Minnesota had a blizzard. Judging from the snow in our driveway, which was between 6 inches and over 2 feet deep (after I already shoveled once yesterday), I would bet we got over 15 inches since Friday afternoon. The snow wasn’t so bad, it was the fact that we first had 1/4 inch of ice first is what made things interesting. Our temperatures hovered around freezing so most of what fell was either freezing rain or really heavy snow. Today Amber and I spent the better part of 2 hours shoveling the driveway while trying our hardest not to slip down it.

I did take advantage of my time outside by taking a few pictures, check them out here.

When I was in high school the thought of going to a movie alone was terrifying, the feeling of utter rejection one must feel to walk in and sit down alone. There were times when I would walk into a theater alone (when the person I came with was getting concessions or something) and I would feel like I needed to explain to people that I was not one of those people that went to the theaters alone. I am sure all that says something about my self confidence as a teenager but these are different times.

I have seen two movies alone in my life and I am afraid that what they are might say something about me. The first I saw because there was no one to see it with which I assume is the reason most people go alone to a movie. I was in Rochester on a co-op and it was in a time when everyone I knew here had either gone back to school or wasn’t around and I really wanted to see the movie. That movie was “Lord Of The Rings: Two Towers”, does that make me a dork? Probably, but I am OK with that. The best part was it was on opening day, yeah I know that definitely makes me a dork but the beauty was the theater was packed (I can only presume with a couple hundred other people who were there alone) so I didn’t feel too uncomfortable.

The second movie I went alone to was because no one wanted to go see it. This was fairly recently when there was a number of movies I wanted to see and my friends wanted to see one less then I. I setup to go see four movies of varying goodness over the course of two weeks. The movies were fairly well attended until it came to the last one, “Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny”. A movie that, from looking at how it did in the box office, I may have been the only person in the US that wanted to see it. This time it was the opposite situation, I was the only person in the entire theater. For those of you (which assume is all of you) who have never had the opportunity to watch a movie in a theater completely alone it is cool experience. You can laugh as loud as you want, although laughing is a bit weird when there is no one there to hear it or laugh with. Also, the theater is a very creepy and dark place when no one else is in it. Even though it is a little weird, there is no reason to be uncomfortable because there was no one there to make me feel uncomfortable.

My point is that in high school I was stupid. There is nothing wrong with seeing a movie alone, as a matter of fact it would seem to be one of the best things to go do by yourself. I mean you sit in a dark room and quietly watch a large screen, the experience really isn’t that different with or without someone else. And yet, it is still something that most people won’t go and do and even though I know it is irrational I wouldn’t choose to do it. How about you? Have you ever seen a movie alone? Do you think you could? Maybe your answer says as much about you as “Two Towers” and “Tenacious D” say about me.

I just wanted to wish my wonderful husband a very happy birthday! It is hard to believe that this is the 9th Valentine’s Day that Adam and I have celebrated together. I still remember flying up to see Adam and suprise him for our first Feb. 14th as a couple. He is now closer to 30 then 20 :-D.

I also want to wish all my friends and family a Happy Valentine’s Day!

Also this is why I do not blog often. Don’t you wish you had more fluff in our life?

p.s. I had a brownie for breakfast this morning. Progressive Breakfasts rock!

I sit here in a room surrounded by three laptops, my personal laptop that I am using to write this post, my work laptop that I probably should be using right now to get work done, and Amber’s work laptop. Down the hall there is a desktop making such a loud noise I can hear it from here and in the garage there is the trusty manroom computer keeping a watchful eye over the tools (and supplying Jon with all sorts of data about my garage door habits). That is just at home and just includes the computers that are currently turned on. At work I have a desktop that I use for at least 8 hours a day, I connect to countless servers to do my work, and carry around my PDA and smartphone to keep me on task and readily available (mostly to Amber). Point is it is safe to say that computers play an important role in my life. Which got me thinking, when was the first time I used a computer?

For me, thinking of when I first used a computer is easy, it is a vivid memory (or at least I have a vivid memory of using a computer and I don’t remember using one before that). I was in fifth grade (which would make the year 1991ish), I went to a small private elementary school so computers were not in large supply. I would imagine for people my age fifth grade is probably fairly average for first using a computer, maybe a little on the late side. My fifth grade class had worked on a writing assignment were we had to each compose a short story (I think mine involved a mouse and a maze, and to the best of my memory was fantastic). After we had written our story we went to the schools office and worked with the secretary on creating a cover using the only computer in the school. Incidentally, this is how I remember what my short story was about because the clip-art we used for the cover involved a mouse and a maze (As I said a freakishly vivid and random memory). That was my first computer related experience, I couldn’t tell you what type of computer it was or even what program was used, it doesn’t really matter, from that point I was hooked.

The next year I moved on to a public middle school and had multiple computers at my disposal (mostly because none of the teachers or students had any idea what to do with them). This year was also when my family bought our first computer. A Packard Bell 486 from Sears. It is amazing to me how clearly I can remember that day. My dad read the manuals cover-to-cover, I took a slightly more cavalier approach of just trying everything (a methodology that still proves useful). I can also remember the next year getting the upgrade pack that included a CD-ROM Drive and a sound card! No more beeps for us, now we had dings! At first the computer served as an expensive solitaire game for my dad and a gaming station for my sister and I. It is strange to say but I will always remember that the biggest change in the house after we got a computer was that my father went from playing solitaire on the living room floor all the time to playing it on the computer all the time.

It wasn’t much after that my sister discovered the modem and Michnet and my Mom discovered how entertaining it could be to read over her shoulder. AOL soon followed with its fancy “graphics” and eventually its instant messaging, leading inevitably to the Web (a world were you downloaded the graphics when you went to the page not when you signed on to AOL). After that technology seemed to move so quickly that it is almost hard to connect how I got from there to here in a room with three laptops sharing a high speed cable modem connection, in a house that even if I wanted to I couldn’t use a modem in because seriously who has a land-line anymore?

I decided to share these memories because I realized today (not for the first time) that I (along with millions of other people) am in a unique position. There are not that many people younger then me that will have a first memory of using a computer, for them computers have always been there. If you get too much older then me then technology isn’t as ingrained in your life as it is mine. I am part of that generation (however we define that) that sat for a brief time in between two cultures, on the brink of a technological revolution that we are still experiencing. Not so young that I can’t remember life before it and not so old that I practically live my life as if it (or at least some of the best parts of it) never happened.

I am certainly not alone in this position, so what’s your story? When was the first time you used a computer and how did it effect you?

This is a very cool use of something that all of us did when we were little. It just goes to show you, if your dream as a kid was to go out there and make shadow puppets for a living, you probably could do it (at least part time).

What is a Buckeye? Well to be frank it is a poisonous nut that grows in Ohio. However, the people of Ohio couldn’t stand for being associated with a nut that is inedible by humans. Their solution, turn it into a delicious piece of candy. Amber and I gave them out as part of the wedding favor at our reception (the candy, not the poisonous nut) which is what brings us to the topic of this post. One of the people that was impressed by these candy creations that Amber cooked up was our photographer Scott. He was so impressed that it was all he could talk about when we went to pickup our photos a couple weeks after the wedding.

Spring ahead to two weeks ago… Scott gives Amber a call and wants to place an order for 30 dozen buckeyes. Yup, 360 of these little buggers. Seeing as how we really enjoyed having Scott as our photographer and that he was going to pay us, we were happy to fill the order. Is this the start of a new side business? Only time will tell.

Oh, ever wonder what 360+ buckeyes looks like? Check out the photo set here.