Happy Thanksgiving

Da man on campus

Surprise B-Day Fun

My boyfriend's 30th birthday was last Sunday, so his sister and I got together and planned a surprise party for him. He was surprised, and it was a super fun party. We had about 15 people attend and some wonderful food.

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

I couldn't wait until Friday!
I hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving.

Tour De Colleges

We've traversed the upper Midwest from the bluffs of the mighty James River to the shores of Lake Michigan reviewing institutions of higher learning. It was educational in itself and a good excuse for some family road tripping.

Thanksgiving party

I went to a thanksgiving party last weekend where we all dressed up as pilgrims and indians. There was a bountiful spread, and a good time was had by all. My costume was a piece of fabric with a hole in the middle of it for my head.

TN exercise

This is Joel, Rocco, and I getting it done.

SuccesS

Here is the answer to Michael's wish.

ps. I love this picture. the framing is brilliant.

Vote for a hero

A young woman from Bismarck, Anne Mahlum, is in the running to be CNN's Top Hero. She is a runner, and has started a program for homeless people to run with her - to get motivated, to find support and encouragement, as well as get in shape. It's called "Back On Your Feet". As one of the top ten finalists, she has already received $10,000. Her program is growing and expanding, working with job training programs, and now she's in the running for Top Hero and $100,000. Her dad, who is on Tom's basketball team, said that anyone can go to www.cnn.com/heroes and vote for her. There is a story about her at that site, as well as some short videos. A very inspiring story and a worthy young woman.

Keegan at the Zoo

Ben took Keegan to the zoo recently. He was more interested in climbing on the benches than he was with the animals........he does have good form, as you can see.

THE MARCHING EAGLES

The Kennedy Eagles marching band was back this year after about an 8 yr lapse. New leadership and increased numbers in the band program over the past 3-4 yrs (and a LOT of volunteer help from people like Carolyn) made it possible to do this again. Marching replaced regular class for the combined bands this first quarter. Their Marching Band set included "Kung Fu Fighting" "Play that Funky Music" "Pick Up the Pieces"

A classmate (Ruth) and myself have been working on an outdoor public sculpture on campus as part of the requirement for my spatial arts class. We made this giant piece out of discarded bottles that we collected from around campus. It was amazing how beautiful it was- considering we used trash to make it. I've been really interested in exploring the use of discarded and found objects as opposed to traditional art making supplies. Besides being cost effective, it challenges the notion of what is art and what can be made into art? I really enjoy taking something that is nonfunctional and purposeless and repurposing it to give it purpose.


It was also lovely to have my family up for the weekend :)

News From Chicago

We had a great trip down to the Windy City Thursday through Saturday. I think the falling barometer chased us all the way to WI.

We got to help out with the kids at Bethel's Graffiti Zone on Thursday, went to an art show that Laura organized, Ate out for some tasty Mediterranean and Mexican food. Met most if not all of Laura's housemates, got Jeff an official campus tour, and stopped for brunch with the Wennstroms on the way home Saturday. And yes it feels like November now that we are back home.

Here is a shot of the artist in her studio space.

The whole nation has been hearing about the snow in the Dakotas. All the stereotypes about North Dakota have been reinforced. But it actually was a pretty major storm. We got 9" in Bismarck, and you all know that when wind is involved, that means 2" in some places and four foot drifts in very inconvenient places. Our driveway was mostly clear, but on the front steps and under the deck was a different story. School was called off on Friday, and before 9 a.m. the neighbor kids were ringing the door bell asking if they could sled on our hill.

The weather didn't change our plans much. We stayed home on Saturday and put a fresh coat of paint on the walls in Michael's old room, soon to become Tom's more spacious office. Our streets are still icy, and the snowbanks are probably here to stay unless we get lots of sunshine and warmer temps.

Tom did decide that he should dig the rest of the carrots out of the garden. So after digging through a snowdrift and some mud underneath, he brought in two large bags of crisp, organically homegrown carrots. Wish I could offer you all free samples. The taste always reminds me of Grandpa Charlie and Grandma Ruby's garden.

Belated Halloween

Without further a do, here is the picture of our 80's Aerobics Team "Planet Fitness"


from left to right: Vanessa Hottie Boddie, William Quadtastic Vitaman, Stephen Steelabs Rodriguez, and Damien Firm Buns Salmonslinger.

actually: Hannah (my old roomate's girlfriend,) Luke (my old roomate,) Max, and myself.


to say the least, we attracted quite a crowd and burned thousands of calories.

Consider your Monday officially brightened!

music history and theory

I spent Thursday through Sunday in Nashville for the Society for Music Theory and American Musicological Society joint conference. Basically Geek Central. Almost every person there had a PhD in some kind of music. It was what I imagined a Star Wars conference to be except everyone was talking about diminshed 5ths, extended harmonies, authentic cadences, and chromatic mediants.

Anyway, it was mainly listening to presentations of papers all day. Here are some of the ridiculous presentation titles:

"'I sing, I laud, I pray, I teach': Hymnbook and Catechism in Hamburg, 1558-1598"
"Auditory Stream Segregation and Schubert's Piano Sonata in Bb"
"The Tristan Progession as an Energetic Voice Leading Paradigm"

It was pretty cool to see all of this research and to see what these guys really do, but.....let's just say I was ready to come home when it was over. Is this what I want to do with my life? hmmmm.........

I'm a Free Man!

Well, after a surprising unanimous vote, along with encouragement from my buddies............

Mr. Chin has been freed from Beard prison. For awhile he could see the light and a way out, but he was still stuck behind the bars. Then along came a rebel named Sergent Shaver, who busted through the bars and freed Mr. Chin for good.

The End

In other words, I'm clean-shaven! I felt sad and weird for a second or two while I was in the process of the shave, but it is a nice change. Below is a few pics: Before & After style!

Tomorrow is the last football game of the season for the Jimmies and it looks like it will be played in a little snow, so that should be interesting! Even though pep band was cancelled for the game due to weather, I still plan on going and cheering for the good ol' Jimmie squad! GO JIMMIES!

May the blogs continue to bring joy to our hearts,

Austin

Half Boy Half Tiger!

Hello everyone! I finally figured out how to contribute to this blog instead of just lurking : )

So Keegan is now 21 months old and has a big personality and a mind of his own...which made Halloween a bit more difficult this year than last. We had a tiger costume for him, but since he was not interested at all in the hood portion of the suit, he went as a super scary Half Boy Half Tiger (covered in chocolate).
Then we did attempt to sneak his Tiger hat on... as you can see, he was not at all thrilled and immediately removed it.
All in all it was a very good Halloween.

Election Day

When our friends Dean and Rebecca asked their daughter, Maggie (9) who she wanted to be for Halloween, she said "Sarah Palin". Rebecca's reply was: "well you probably won't get much candy in our neighborhood!" I hardly recognized her in readers, make-up and hair color. Colorado may be a swing state, but we live in a decidedly liberal neighborhood. I hope everyone voted and enjoys watching the coverage.

Halloween

What did everyone do for Halloween? What did you dress up as?

I was a flower garden, I wore a bunch of different floral patterns... everyone said I just looked normal.