May 2012
3 posts
tough mudder
despite my reservations, tough mudder ended up being a blast. team “Landscape Architects Do It Best In The Mud” managed to complete the whole course as a team, even with a couple of hobbled runners. and since that was the whole purpose of the event (it’s not a race, and there’s no timer), i’d consider it a great success!
for the most part tm was “just” a...
:o
tough mudder tomorrow, wish me luck.
February 2012
2 posts
zoom
so this is the new car. i drove all the way to omaha to get it because none of the mazda dealers here negotiate prices. i saved about $1200 by making the trip, AND got a white one to boot. naturally, the weather (which has been non-existent for the entire winter) foiled my initial three attempts to make the trip down to get the car. in the meantime i had been starting to wonder if i...
ode to the avenger
this is long overdue of course, as i bought the new car almost a month ago now, but the avenger, my trusty vehicular transport for the past 10 years, deserves a little recognition. it was not the most entertaining, comfortable, or efficient car ever made, but it got the job done, and never once left me stranded by the side of the road.
i won’t pretend that its amazing durability...
January 2012
1 post
nothing to see here
“It was far and away the warmest first 10 days of January ever measured in Minnesota history, averaging over 20 degrees F above normal statewide (27.2 F versus a normal of 7.1 F).” — Mark Seeley [source]
1,363 High Temperature records set nationwide in the last week, along with 266 Highest Minimum Temperatures [source]
Warmest, driest start to January in U.S....
December 2011
1 post
merry christmas!
Dear Santa,
Please send snow.
Much love,
Scuttles
November 2011
2 posts
happy 11-day
best day to put up a post. also OMG ROSS.
“It’s official: first flurries of the winter season late Wednesday night in MSP; 3 weeks later than average.”
not a good start if we’re going to have a nice snowy winter =\
October 2011
1 post
August 2011
1 post
one more weather post
while not nearly as bad as the insane heat and drought in texas, i just read some relatively-startling stats (weather fuh) concerning the wretched humidity we’ve had here this summer: mpls has spent 301 hours at a dew point of 70F+ so far this summer (the average is 182), and 102 hours at or above a very-tropical 75F (the previous record was 78 hours). it’s been miserable — good...
July 2011
1 post
the temperature is still too damn high
today was a beautiful day. a perfect summer day. the first day in what feels like weeks where i wasn’t drenched in sweat by the time i walked from my door to the car. if only the whole summer could be like this.
below is a screenshot of WU from last tuesday afternoon, which was the hottest and most humid day in minneapolis history (119F heat index, 82F dew point). also on this day:...
June 2011
1 post
the temperature is too damn high
it’s only june 7 and we’re dealing with this crap already. 103F in mpls today (fts)… apparently the highest temperature we’ve seen in 22 years. the good news: supposed to dip into the 40’s by tomorrow night. much better.
also, happy birthday steve! 31 is the new cool.
May 2011
1 post
tastes like ... victory
just finished proctoring a final exam for the class i was TA-ing, effectively ending my responsibilities as a TA — hopefully forever. and about damn time, too. i had saved an oaked AB to properly celebrate the occasion; it will taste like victory.
March 2011
3 posts
February 2011
1 post
January 2011
1 post
woo
last day of being 20-something…
December 2010
1 post
merry christmas!
i successfully passed my phd defense last week, got all my grading done, and made it back to ames in one piece. the phd party was a great success and much delicious beer was consumed (also congrats to dr. ross!), i’ve gotten to see a lot of old friends already, and yesterday we pulled off a chc thursday. and today it is snowing. life is good <3
merry christmas everyone!
November 2010
2 posts
200k
so the avenger rolled over 200,000 miles today. absolutely incredible. it had about 30-odd miles to go when i left cafe de sam, so i picked up oscar at home, queued up purple on the ol’ ipod and headed out to little wall lake. it rolled over at sleepy hollow access north of ames just as pretty penny came on, roughly a few miles after i passed another white avenger headed the other direction....
thesis page count:
214.
first final version complete and submitted to committee. (also wtf $90 to print 4 copies). so tired.
need to finish — starting to dream in latex. \begin{sleep}…
afk i need a beer so bad.
bleh.
3 chapters formatted, 1 left to go.
… because quantity > quality
two chapters down — two longest to go =\
now featuring bibliography and working references —...
October 2010
2 posts
10 10 10
most beautiful bike ride ever(?), from last weekend on madeline island. oh yes, and applefest.
September 2010
2 posts
August 2010
2 posts
July 2010
2 posts
“summer days of joy
watching the jabulani
dissertation waits”
– enlai, 2010
June 2010
1 post
scuttle scuttle
the month of june is almost gone, and apparently i haven’t updated since the beginning of may. i guess it’s no secret where the previous two weeks or so have gone, but before that i had quite a bit going on (relatively speaking).
on memorial day weekend i made my first trip to the UP for a weekend of wedding-related festivities, and had a blast. while the wedding was a lot of fun,...
May 2010
2 posts
beerweek
maybe it was just a coincidence that carlos miller was born this week, but i’ve been doing more than my casual beer-drinking this week. it began with a beer-tasting on tuesday (the first one i’ve ever been to, i think); i’ve also got an elusive surly brewery tour lined up for tomorrow, to be followed by a large graduation celebration (not mine, of course) on saturday. but i...
=)
congrats erin and samm! happy birth-day charles miller! <3 <3 <3
April 2010
1 post
March 2010
2 posts
bears!
last week was barrel-aged week at town hall, and being the poor and/or lazy grad student that i am, took full advantage of that fact this weekend. on friday i ditched ‘work’ early to watch the us hockey game and try the port barrel-aged baltic porter (see above), which was as good as i remember it being, although i’m not sure how much the port flavor really added to it. i tried...
February 2010
3 posts
January 2010
4 posts
This befalleth when thou firk’st a stranger ‘twixt...
So the weekend got off to a bit of a rough start when I awoke Saturday morning to find that Brian’s car had been broken into with an ice chipper. Upon closer inspection I noticed they had not touched any of his CD’s or his (rather nice) soccer shoes, and was rather puzzled, thinking it a crime of spite. Of course it turned out that Brian had left his backpack in the front seat, and...
twenty-ten: year of the lobster?
we’re more than two weeks into 2010, figured the new decade was worth an update. so far not a lot going on, but the semester starts up again tomorrow, and while for the last couple years this hasn’t meant much, i have to TA again this semester. i had planned on being done at the end of last semester, but that plan got derailed when i had to teach. the only thing i got out of that...
December 2009
4 posts
scallion!
having been thwarted the last 4 or 5 times i’ve tried to eat there, i would have put the chances somewhere around 1 or 2% that it would actually be open, even to the extent of trying to decide what i was going to order at our backup option. perhaps it was steve’s proximity, or maybe just the decade’s last effort to throw us a bone, but the scallion was open for lunch! given that...
woo
it’s been a pretty awesome christmas break, i’ve really enjoyed being back in ames and relaxing a bit. i think i’ve managed to hit up most of the ames staples (jessbar, chc (2x), gps&d, sg, and the cafe) and engage in all the usual activities (playing mario + watching foreign-language war epics at sam’s, drinking lots of coffee and generally overeating, and last but not...
smbw update
janke bros: world 7-1, 100% stars + cannons. performance really suffers after about 1am.
November 2009
3 posts
new smbw update
janke bros: world 5-ghost, 100% stars + cannons. could do without the dark levels.
wo
as sam was kind enough to remind me, it’s been almost a month since the last update. guess i’ve been getting a bit lazy but there hasn’t been a whole lot going on, save one pretty awesome weekend when steve graced mpls with his presence. sadly the weather was not too cooperative (we had snow… in october) but we managed to hit most of the usual highlights: post-band beers...