Things That Are AWESOME

• Eagle Eye - Went to see a free advanced showing on campus of Shia LaBeouf's latest movie, in this case an action/mystery/thriller.... SO awesome. And funny.
  

• Destroyed in Seconds - a Discovery Channel show that brings you real video clips of things that were... well, you know. It's the most incredible show ever. Explosions, things being hit by trains, vehicle crashes, buildings toppling, bigger explosions... unspeakably awesome.

• Our chairs - My grandma gave us an awesome set of walnut chairs & table, but the pink seat cushions were rather worn (besides being pink). Val re-covered them in a nice shade of awesome:
  

• Hiking yesterday - Also very awesome.

We tried to take a nice shot of us, but it was getting towards sunset, which made the sunlight pretty darn bright...

South Dakota or Bust

I've gotten started on sorting through the thousands (literally) of photos from this summer. I'm still planning on getting photos up from the wedding, Belize, our road trip, rock climbing, etc, etc.... but with such a monumental task, I had to get my feet wet with something a little less daunting.

And so, on this month-a-versary of my last post (and a full three months since one before that....), I give you...

SOUTH DAKOTA
The Mount Rushmore State

Yup, that's the official state nickname. They're really psyched about Mount Rushmore up there.

My wife and I wanted to take advantage of Labor Day, the last official school holiday before Thanksgiving, to get out of Boulder for the weekend. The "Mount Rushmore zone" of South Dakota, about six hours away, seemed like a fun weekend trip destination.

Presidential!

Of course, there's only so much time you can spend looking at a mountain-sized statue. And learning how it was made... and about the guy who made it... and how they picked the mountain... etc etc. A few hours, maybe, half a day tops, then we moved on...

...To another mountain-sized statue. This one, though, is still a work in progress. They've been working on it for over 60 years, and all they've got done is his face. Good work, fellas, keep it up.


We did get to see some blasting. Explosions are always good.

We also hit up a nearby Celtic Festival... missed the Highland games, but thankfully we were in time for the Scottish Knee Competition. Whitest, boniest knees win.



And what trip to South Dakota could be complete without a visit to historic DEADWOOD, town of colorful characters like Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, and Dr. Valentine McGillycuddy? (Who?)


What other town has "women of the night" in the windows?


Cowboy traffic cops?




Semi-cheesy re-enactments of the shooting of Wild Bill Hickok?


The site of the capture of the assassin Jack McCall who shot Wild Bill Hickok Aug 2, 1876??!?!


An actual angry mob eager for the lynching of said assassin?


Cheesy re-enactment of said trial????

Moving on... nearby Jewel Cave was fun:






DON'T TOUCH!!!


Just your typical bottomless chasm
(Actually, I believe I took this picture looking up...)



We also checked out a motorcycle museum in Sturgis.... the guy on the left is a 1911 model. Designed to be a racing bike, it had no brakes. Brakes are for wimps. And for people who are more concerned with intact limbs and a fully functioning brain than they are with winning.


There was also a bike that's only ever been ridden by President Bush. He also signed it, although it looks like Gw3e if you ask me. Mrs. Bush has better penmanship.



A restaurant we ate at had the actual house used in the Kevin Costner film Dances with Wolves...




...not to mention musical entertainment. Yeee-HAW!!!

Otherwise Occupied

Hmmm.... two months to the day since my last post.... definitely been slacking in the blog department. Some stuff that I've been occupied with that I haven't blogged about (yet):

• Moving to a different apartment in Boulder
• Permanently joining a research group at CU
  
• ManFest '08
• GETTING MARRIED!!!!!!
• Honeymooning in Belize
• Wedding reception in Crescent City
• Road-tripping to CO from CA
• Grad school's Mega Test of Death
  

I'll get a post up "soon" (whatever that means)... until then, if you'd like, you can whet your appetite with photos from the wedding.... over 900 from the wedding photographer, and almost 40 from the ever-so-talented Dave Way. Bon appetit....

Photo shoot

Eva-Lynn's cousin Erin (see saucybritches.com) lives in Denver, and a few weeks ago she came out to Boulder to see Eva-Lynn and her mom, while they were both out here visiting. She brought her camera and took some great shots of the three of us. It was great to get some fun photos of Eva-Lynn and I, without having to "set the timer and run," like usual. Thanks, Erin!!!

Marvin, Earl, and Ilsa

I've been wanting a 4-wheel drive vehicle for quite a while, especially since I've moved out here to Colorado. Hiking, camping, even just driving around town during a snowstorm.... not so easy in "Marvin", my little 2000 Toyota Corolla. (I'll explain his name later.) The ridiculous price of gas has been holding me back, though; Marvin gets around 35 mpg or more, while 4-Runners (the gas-guzzlers I've had my eye on for a while) get around 20 mpg, if you're lucky.

In swoops my fair damsel to rescued me from distress. Eva-Lynn has a 2003 Honda Civic (recently dubbed "Ilsa") that she'll be bringing out with her in August. Since we'll have Ilsa for fuel economy, I figured I could finally trade Marvin in for something more... brawny (no offense, Marvin).

Val and I shopped around when she was out here over spring break, and we ended up snapping up an awesome deal on a 2000 Toyota 4-Runner. We decided to sell Marvin ourselves, rather than take the rather low trade-in value we were offered. I just got around to getting him cleaned up and put on craigslist this week; within three days, he was sold, for a full $1,300 above Kelley Blue Book value!

And so... goodbye Marvin, hello Earl.

Marvin. He was named from a movie line that I tended to shout when I was in a hurry: "Drive, Marvin! Drive like you've never driven before!"
(Props to anyone who can name the movie....)

Earl. Named after his color... he's halfway between silver and white, a shade technically known as "pearl." After we bought him, as we were thinking about names, Val's first suggestions were "Pearlie" and "Pearla".... I quickly and firmly vetoed both as being waaaaay to wussy for our macho mud-machine. (Although, admittedly, I've encountered very few "pearl"-colored macho mud machines....) Her next suggestion, Earl,
ended up sticking.

I have no pictures of Ilsa, but she's one sleek little hottie (just like her owner). She was actually unnamed until we got Earl, and we figured Val's car needed a name too. We'd recently watched Casablanca for the first time, and discovered that the heroine's name is Ilsa "Lund"! So the car is named after the subject of some of the most famous lines in movie history. Tweaked to fit our circumstances, we have:

• Here's looking at you, car.
• We'll always have Newberg.
• Eva-Lynn, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
• Of all the Science Departments in all the colleges in all the world, she walks into mine.
• Round up the usual used car salesmen.
  
• Play it (again), Val. (In the movie, no one actually says "play it again, Sam.")
  

Marvin and Earl... friends for so brief a time. Meh, they would've been rivals for Ilsa's affection anyway. Just like the guys in Casablanca.

Memorial Day weekend

I've reverted to my old ways... no blogs in over a month. But take heart, loyal fans; I have heard your cries (all two of them) for more posts, and here, at last, your thirst may be quenched.

This weekend I flew out to Washington to meet with Eva-Lynn and her pastor, who'll be uniting us in holy matrimony in a couple months (!!!!!). On Sunday after church, we drove over to the coast for the afternoon. I miss the ocean.... not much salt water in Colorado....

Hark, fair mermaid! Don't I get three wishes or something?








Kind of intimidating... "Don't mess with me, or I'll mess with your FACE!"



Umm.... not so intimidating.


We had a bit of set-the-timer-and-run photo fun with some railroad tracks we came across....





(This one took a lot of tries. Fortunately, no teeth were harmed in the making of this photo.)