i’ve sort of got a pattern going here, where i don’t post for a few months, then write a post with a lot of litte updates about things that have happened in the meantime…seems to be working, so i will continue it here

• Put in flooring in our townhouse - Nicole and I have wanted to get rid of the carpet at our house for a long time. We finally decided it was time, so we enlisted some help (my stepmom and grandpa) and I took a week off of work to get started. We laid down some nice Pergo in our bedroom, and our living room downstairs. After that week, Tim and Chad came over and helped me put in some tile-ish laminate in our kitchen and bathroom downstairs. Tim has been coming over every week or so, and we finally have the downstairs completely done. I’m going to try and get some more help this summer, and finish off our upstairs, which is a loft, hallway, and our little office/Nicole’s room. Can’t wait to be done, it sucks having all the shit piled up in the garage.
• Broomball spring season is over. It was a completely different experience this year, since we played both full-ice and half-ice. It was pretty amazing to see how much better we’ve all gotten, and to actually know what the hell we were doing out there. Full-ice is pretty nuts, its pretty much just flat-out running up and down the ice for the whole game. We had a good year, we were second in the full-ice standings during the regular season, and won the full-ice tournament at the end of the year, which was awesome. In half-ice, we were fourth during the season and got fourth in the tournament, so that seemed about right. It was a great year, we got some new people started in half-ice (maybe just Todd?), and i’m already looking forward to the fall season (I know Nicole isn’t, haha).
• I had a birthday, Nicole had a birthday. They were both fun, did a lot of stuff with friends and family, got and gave good presents, all-around good times.
• I went to Bockfest for the first time this year. Its an annual festival held at the Schell brewery in New Ulm, Minnesota. They open up their grounds, and serve beer and food all day. It was a ridiculously crazy time, since we were drunk pretty much the entire weekend. Friday night, we met Josh at his house, and crashed/trashed the local bars, and then came back to his house wasted, stripped down to our underwear, and passed out. Saturday was the actual day of Bockfest, so I was good and hungover for it, but I manged to enjoy myself and have some good beer. Saturday night we went out in New Ulm, and I finally felt better around 9pm, so we toured the bars in New Ulm. I was surprised by the number and variety of bars there, and we had another great night that ended with us walking through the McDonalds drive-in at 1:30am, and with people running around and burning each other’s body hair off (which i avoided). I was really happy to come home Sunday, just to sleep finally. Still, it was a great time, and I can’t wait to go back next year.

Last night was the first meeting of the Beginning Drawing class I’m taking this fall at the Des Moines Art Center. I’ve really liked to draw since I was a kid, and most of the people in my family are talented artists (especially my brother Eric).

I normally like to draw with graphite pencils, since this is how most of us learned how to draw back in elementary school, and it is always the medium I’ve felt most comfortable in. When Nicole had to take Illustration classes in college, I was always amazed at how cool charcoal drawings turned out, and I’ve always wanted to try them out. When I saw this class was being offered, I decided to jump at the chance to get some formal training, and to try charcoal out for myself. It is also really nice to just have 2 hours a week dedicated to drawing, and only drawing. Not drawing while I’m watching TV, or just telling myself “I’ll draw something tomorrow”.

The first class went really well. The teacher was very good, and really helpful and insightful about our drawings. Our first assignment was to do a self-portrait of ourselves, and we could do it in any medium we wanted. I chose to try charcoal, just to get out of my comfort zone, and because I was really excited to try it out :). I think it turned out pretty well, especially for my first day of class, and my first try at charcoal.

I am so excited about this class, and I already can’t wait until next Wednesday to go back and keep drawing! Fun stuff…

teeth, that is…about two weeks ago, i finally got my wisdom teeth pulled…i’ve been avoiding it for a couple years, since it seems to me like an unnecessary way to lose about $1000, but i had one tooth erupt through the gums and get a cavity on it…it started hurting like hell, so i decided to get them ripped out of my skull…

the surgery went well, i liked the anasthesia, it makes you feel sorta strange while it wears off, but still awesome…i totally thought i was awake through the whole thing, because i remember them telling me to open my mouth wider, and then they started just pounding on my tooth with some chisel-like object…then, in recovery, i noticed it had been over an hour, so there was no way i was awake through any of it, haha…

my mom took me home and got me my meds, then nicole came home and baby-sat me for the rest of the day…since i am a little bitch, i took the rest of the week off from work, and just chilled…i watched a lot of movies, ate pudding and soup, and just hung out…the pain wasn’t too bad, it actually hurt worse the next week…then my teeth and jaw just ached for 4-5 days, and now, i am finally over it…i still have to flush out the lower sockets where the teeth were with a little syringe thing, which is awesome, but that really is about it…

so yeah, it really wasn’t a big deal, nothing i would want to do again, but nothing to be afraid of either. go lose some wisdom!!!

i’ll start out by apoligizing to kari for the title of this article, i said i would, so i am…i’m sorry kari, i can be an insensitive bastard sometimes

anyways, i finally got a Nintendo Wii this last weekend…i went to the Target on Valley West Dr around 6am on Sunday morning, because i found out they were handing out tickets at 7am…there were only two other cars when i got there, and nobody in line, so i decided to return home and grab something to read…i got back around 6:30, and there was probably one more car at most…from then on, everybody just kind of hung out in their car and waited to see who would get out and go up to the store first…finally, right at 7, a guy got out of his car and then pretty much everyone followed…i ended up being second in the line of about 8…the girl from Target came out and said they had 12 consoles, gave us each a ticket, and told us to be back right at 8am when the store opened…i went and got some breakfast, and just relaxed in my car til 8…everyone lined back up again, and when the doors opened, these two teenagers went sprinting to the electronics department…i knew i had a Wii no matter what, so i really didn’t care to run…when we got there, we found out they were taking customers in the order you got your card, since the cards all had numbers on them…hahah, stupid teenagers…i got the Wii, and extra Wiimote, and the new Zelda game…i was so tired that day, that after hooking it up i didn’t even bother to play, haha…

nicole and i finally decided to play last night, and omg, its even more fun than i thought it would be…seriously, it is so addictive…we just played the Wii Sports games that came with the system, but we ended up playing for almost 2 hours without even realizing it…my favorites are definitely Tennis, Bowling and Golf…it is just incredible how intuitive it is to use the Wiimote to control things…i mean, in tennis, you swing your arm like a racket, in golf, you hold it like a club, and in baseball, you hold it just like a bat…nintendo is really on to something, and i think this stuff is the future of games…

eveyone should go get one, just be prepared to wait in line or something…you won’t regret it