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July 1, 2004 - I'll archive when I get back

So things are more of the same. Pella pretty much rules. Prime examples: Monday, we went out to eat, followed shortly by Ultimate Frisbee, and a movie. Fortunately, Marie, Janet, Lisa, and I had some artsy-crafty things to be working on while we watched Win a Date With Tad Hamilton, so I didn't actually have to watch it.
Tuesday night, Solomon and I went for a twenty-mile ride north of town; we just took main street north until we got tired. It was pretty cool; We went down a hill that brought us to 34 miles an hour. Of course, coming back up it sucked, but you'll have that. It was also an interesting and far more RAGBRAI-like experience, riding on the county roads, and not having a sidewalk, and coming within two feet of a car going 60+ miles an hour. Good times. Oh, and then I made an interesting cajun chicken dish for the girls for dinner - and peach smoothies on Dan's new blender. I'm sure everyone reading this is absolutely hungry for these meaningless little details.
Wednesday night was pretty sweet; Lisa got a voucher for two eighteen-hole rounds and a cart from Bos Landen, which we instead cashed in for four nine-hole rounds. Bos is a hella tough course, for those keeping score at home. I shot a 55, and lost at least seven balls. The course has no leeway at all; you hit a second shot ten yards to one side, and it's gone. We're talking long gone. On one hole, i got an eleven. Yes, eleven. Gorgeous drive, second shot ten yards right and lost. Penalty out. Fourth stroke duffed. Fifth into the bunker. Six, seven, and eight to get out of the bunker, and nine, ten, and eleven to putt. And then on the next hole, I got a straight-up birdie on a 160-yarder. Ah, golf.
And tonight, Marie, Solomon, Sarah, Neil, and myself participated in the City of Pella's Corporate Challenge, which entailed such activities as a three-legged race, water balloon toss, carry-a-ball-between-four-of-you-down-the-road, and much more. I have pictures to be put up at some later date.
Speaking of pictures, you should all definitely check out the intern pictures mini-site I made. Check out the pictures from the ropes course, the intern olympics, the Iowa Cubs game, and then the scavenger hunts we went on last week. They were definitely fun, and we came out with some good pictures from them too. Don't miss it.
I'll be gone for some time now; tomorrow, I'm leaving work at noon to go home for the long weekend. I'll be coming back sometime Monday night. Should be cool to see the friends, family, etc. Until then, hope everyone enjoys their holiday weekend!

July 6, 2004 - Wow, tired.

Man, I'm so tired. Solomon and I rode the whole Volksweg Trail tonight, in just under two hours. That's 28 miles and change round-trip, stopping only once at the end for about fifteen minutes. So yeah, I can't move.
Let's see, this weekend was a good time. It was awesome to be home for some time and to see the family and the friends - though it was kind of weird, too. I haven't been home since Christmas, so hanging out with the friends again was kind of like ... so ... what now? But, on the other hand, it was also just like 'old times' too - we did some of the same stuff, made the same jokes, and it was like nothing had changed. So, slightly confusing, but certainly a good thing on the whole. Saw a couple movies, played a round of golf, chilled some, fixed a computer, and now I'm back in Pella for a two-and-a-half day work week. hursday at noon, all the interns are going up to Minneapolis to see a Twins game, stay the night, and then tour a sales branch and a factory the next day. That should be fun too, especially considering I'm rooming with Solomon, Ryan, and Mike. Throw me in and you have about the four most random, different people you can find.
Since I'm tired, this is short. Happy Tuesday.

July 11, 2004 - Washed away

It has done nothing but rain here today. Armageddon-style rain for a long time, too. Without having any basis, I'm guessing we got at least a couple of inches. It had to be going all-out for at least half an hour, plus a couple solid hours of normal, non-apocalyptic rain.
But anyways. The trip to Minneapolis was pretty neat. In a nutshell, we went up there, saw the Twins beat the Tigers 7-1 (which felt so strange - it's just not baseball if it's inside), went back to the hotel, got up at 6:00 the next morning, toured the Pella sales branch, toured a couple multi-million-dollar homes that happen to have Pella windows, toured a plant in Story City, and came back. Start to finish, about 30 hours - five of which were spent sleeping, and at least twelve of which were spent on a bus. So while it was a cool trip to take, it was very tiring, and everyone was kind of crabby at the end after being on a bus for so long. But hey, it's still better than work.
This weekend has been exceptional. I have basically done a whole lot of nothing. Yesterday I got up at eleven and got my hair cut, then came back and watched The Ninth Gate, Nick of Time, a soccer game, The Negotiator, and G.I. Jane before crashing at 9:00 with a headache. What an eventful day. And then today, I woke up at ten and have done little but some coding as I sit here on the couch. Another relaxing, if incredibly unproductive, day. The biggest thign I have done all day is adding next semester's schedule to the school section.
This next week at work is going to be serious crunch time - here's hoping I can get everything I need to taken care of real quickly. Since I have to wait on a database administrator, though, I'm thinking that might not be so likely. Who knows.
Two weeks until RAGBRAI!
Oh yeah, and be sure to check out the new intern pictures from the corporate challenge and this week's trip to Minneapolis.

July 19, 2004 - Serious slacking

So it's been awhile. I've been busy, or asleep, or lazy. Funny how that works.
First order of business: I promised some RAGBRAI links, so check that site, or hit these: Route overview, Daily maps, and Daily mileages.
Next, recapping things since last weekend. Well, this past week was pretty much crazy-busy, both at work and not. I don't remember the exact specifics (I'm tired and have a headache at the moment), but it involved a lot of good times - among others, seeing a NASCAR show car at work. Then came this last weekend, which was just crazy. On Saturday morning, the interns did a food drive of sorts, which ended up with us collecting a lot of food. Then we went out to breakfast, hung out at the clubhouse for awhile, did a little computer troubleshooting, took a nap, and headed golfing. Didn't do so well - after starting with a par and three bogeys, I finished with two doubles and three triples. But after golfing, we went to Marie's and had Thanksgiving dinner! It was awesome, complete with turkey, pie, and much more. Sunday brought 46 miles of bike riding, a brief visit to the pool, leftovers, and an unfortunate accident: At the end of the trail, Solomon's wife Jessica flipped over the handlebars and injured her left wrist. They went and had it X-rayed, and the doctor doesn't think it's broken, but it's wrapped and swollen, and with just six days until RAGBRAI, the timing couldn't have been worse. We'll have to see how she comes out in her next X-ray on Friday.
This week involves more fun at work - another critical week for my project, and I don't know how it's going to go. We have an IT department picnic scheduled for tomorrow, a birthday party tomorrow night, a bike ride Wednesday, a farmer's market and town festival-thingy Thursday, and on Friday I leave for Des Moines to start my first RAGBRAI adventure. In short, I'll throw one last update out before I leave; until then, enjoy the fading days of summer.

July 23, 2004 - It's here

Well, ladies and germs, it's time. RAGBRAI is upon us. And we all know what that means. In short, I'll be gone until August the second or so. I'll be taking lots of pictures, and I'll be sure to throw an update out there when I return. Until then, go check out the Des Moines Register's coverage of it.
Got three minutes and speakers? Go watch this. Worth your time, I promise.

July 31, 2004 - I survived!

I'm back. I rode every mile. I've never been this tired. I have 100+ pictures to put up, but that's happening tomorrow. Goodnight.