Ugly Sweaters!

This past Sunday was our 'Young Marrieds Group' Christmas party. We all came in the ugliest sweaters that we could possibly find at area thrift stores. We found ours at Goodwill. When we checked out, the girl asked if we were going to a sweater party- to which we said yes- she said she never knows whether to ask or not, but the sweater that Josh put on the counter was a dead giveaway! His won the trophy for being ugliest...
We had lots of fun, ate good food, played a white elephant game (thanks to Mark Jaolvick we played 'Travel'- which was a great time). I walked away with some coffee flavoring, and Josh came away with a coffee grinder (which we now will have two of those).

Matt & Nicole


Seth & Cathy


Thanks to all those who planned and hosted! We had a blast!

November?

I heard on the radio yesterday that there are only 56 days left in the year and somehow that number seemed a little low. Have we already lived 310 days of this year? That seems to be the case.
The weather having changed as it has, now is my favorite time of year to be outside, and having just spent a week with Tristan while he was borrowing some floor space to sleep on, I decided I needed to get back on my bike. Of course about 3 days after I decided that, daylight saving hit and I lost all opportunites to ride after work as it is now too dark to see where I am going. I rode two days anyway, and have since realized the folly of my ways. I decided I didn't like not being able to see where I was going. Nonetheless, I up and registered for a cyclocross race that was held yesterday out it Lancaster. Garrett rode with me, and we went. It was great fun to be back out racing and be hanging out with a mess of people who love to do the same thing. Long story short - I got my butt kicked. Unfortunately 13th out of 14 is not my worst race result ever, however that was the final result yesterday. Something about having my heart rate monitor record my max heart rate as a sky high 212 tells me that I'm not in as good of shape as I was hoping I was. I won't make excuses, even though I could come up with some pretty good ones. It was fun, I hope to be able to do it some more, but in order to do that, I'll have to ride more, which it will be interesting to see where that falls in the priority list of life...

Fall Festivities

Fall has officially hit the Vinson's, complete with a trip to upstate NY for Deerfoot's fall work weekend and a trip to the orchard and pumpkin patch at a local farm. At Styer Orchards we got to take a ride on a hay wagon out to the orchard to pick a few (not quite a bushel) of our own choice apples for some pie later on. From there we walked up to the pumpkin patch, which was pretty well picked over by the time we got there, so we ended up choosing pumpkins from back at the barn. Cathy found a great one, sticking to the rule that she had to carry it back to the car. I bought a few butternut squash and made some killer butternut squash and apple bisque soup, with a few extra jars worth.

That was this past weekend; the weekend prior to that, Columbus Day weekend, Lauren and I and Seth drove up to Deerfoot for an extened weekend of work in the great outdoors. Cathy couldn't make it because of work, and we had a great time without her there. Oops, I mean in spite of the fact that she wasn't there. We had gorgeous fall weather; it frosted overnight, but during the day it got up to 60 or so with bright sunshine. We definately had our work cut out for us, Seth and I were overseeing the construction of a log framed storage shed about 25' x 35', and all we had when we got there was a concrete slab to build it on. We wasted no time. Seth took off into the woods with another guy and they felled about 10 or 15 trees and had a crew of guys with a truck hauling them back to the site. Meanwhile, Lauren and I worked on a layout and drilled some holes for post anchors. We sketched some "blueprints" on the concrete slab so we would have something to go off of once the logs were ready. After the logs started coming in, we had a crew of people start peeling the bark off of the trees; we do that so that it doesn't trap moisture against the wood or allow bugs a place to set up house. We had five sections of log framing to erect, and we didn't get the first one up til after lunch on Sunday, but by lunch on Monday, the frame was there ready for rafters and roofing material. Seth and I had a blast playing with chainsaws; I think I want one for Christmas...

Tri Fun

This past weekend we and our friend Chris did a sprint triathlon! This was our very first triathlon, so we were just doing it for fun, no real competition. It was sponsored by a YMCA, so the swim took place in their pool (which was good, so we didn't drown on our first race). That was 500 yards, then we ventured out into the cool misty weather to bike 12.5 miles. The last leg was a 3 mile run, which is surprisingly tough on your muscles after biking. We finished well and were still able to get up the next morning without too much groaning. We had the best support team ever- Seth, Garrett, Larry and Laura were around almost every corner cheering us on with much enthusiasm! We couldn't have done it without them! (At least not ending with a smile) It was a great experience, so we'll see if it will be an ongoing thing, or just a once in a lifetime event.Here is the link to the website for results, (which are not in yet, but you can check if you want when they do come up) http://www.trifind.net/triathlons/pennsylvania/southern_branch_ymca/

HA!

And you thought I forgot about this thing! Well, this is just to prove you wrong. I will update this soon. Sometime soon . . . .

Back in action.

I finally managed to scam the Coates' digital camera for a few shots. It almost looks like new except the front doesn't all match very well and the rear leaf springs are pretty saggy. I think it needs a lift. Doesn't really sound like new either. My water pump is squealing at me and it sounds like there's rocks in my catalytic convertor, so both of those are putting the hurt on my gas mileage as well. No relief in sight though, I've got two pretty solid weeks of work coming up, starting with a 15 page paper due next monday that I don't even have a topic for. Sweet! I love it when that happens- especially when it is nice outside. I did almost get a ticket for driving behind PBU's property, but there was nice police man who wanted to make sure I was going the right direction when I left, so he stopped and helped me. That was nice of him.
Lauren and I, and our team, are getting more and more stoked for Ireland, though it is hard to believe it is only about 6 weeks away. And it seems like those six weeks are pretty well spoken for too. That's about all I've got time for, check ya soon-

Back to the grind

Well, we made it back to Philly. I'm not yet sure if that is a good thing. I suppose it is. Home was good, and a much needed break and breath of fresh air. It's amazing to me how you can get in a rut, just the rut of daily life, and the only way to gain new perspective on it is to remove yourself from it for a while. You get so caught up in the day to day that after a while it doesn't even register in your mind until you can pause for a little bit and then start over.

With that perspective, I can say that though being back in Philly may not be worth throwing a party over, I feel much better being here than before we left. It's not so bad to be able to come back to sunshine and 50-60 degree weather. I like this time of year here, everything is starting to get green, but the humidity and the heat hasn't picked up yet, jeans and a sweatshirt feel great. It's that time of year you can get away with driving around with the windows down and the heat on to keep your fingers warm. Life seems to be picking up speed, daylight savings is right around the corner, and my classes are pouring on the work.

Everything seems to be happening now. Ireland is only 6 weeks away, our anniversary is while we are there, but yet there seems to be so much more that needs to happen before we can leave - Multiple research papers, exams, reading, book reports, bible study prep, throw a wedding or two in there, and Boom! - summer is here. Yikes.


Almost looks like summer doesn't it?

No place like home...

It is amazing to get on a plane and in a matter of two hours be 1000 miles from where you were two hours ago, and all you did was take a nap in an uncomfortable chair. But it is fantastic as well. As nice as it is to go someplace in two hours, it's nice to be able to get away from a place in two hours as well.
I thought I'd take the opportunity to type a little somethin' while sitting here at CFS prior to a spectacular breakfast prepared by our hosts, Larry and Laura. Even though Lauren and I are home with family, it really feels like a vacation, and I am thankful that we have family to be able to enjoy that with. This scene is a far cry from what Philly looks like right now, but it is a welcome change in scenery, even though it is a step back into winter, and not towards summer. All that said, I'm not going to waste my vacation and time with friends typing on a stinkin computer-

Saint Patty's Day

Well if you'd like to have an idea what being out on the town is like on any given Irish evening (weekend or not), take a field trip to your local pub/bar this evening. Chances are, it'll be shoulder to shoulder packed out, with pints of Guinness flowing everywhere. The only difference is that in Ireland, they have good music playing. I was actually thinking about going out this evening, just to sort of get back in shape for Ireland, but I'm not sure I can stand all of the Americans. But it is a lovely day for a Guinness! I do think it's remarkable that the Catholic Church pretty much has a saint for every day of the year, and the Irish are the only ones who got everybody to throw a big party for theirs, and a rather un-saintly party at that!

Today I got myself a haircut. I know all of you are dying to know that, but it was pretty cool because Lauren cut it for me. Now, many of you may not know this, but I have cut Lauren's hair on a fairly regular basis. I'll only cut it if she wants it short - no, not with a pair of clippers. So today, we traded and she cut mine. It looks good and I like it - not that I really have any options there.

We also filed our taxes today - yes it's been a rather thrilling day. We had somebody else do it, and it was awesome. It took us less than an hour, and we're done. He told us what we're going to get back and when to expect it, and the best part was that I didn't even have to break a sweat over it!

Happy Birthday Mom!

I suppose that means I have to apologize to my brother and to my dad for missing theirs, or at least not advertising for it, but 1 out of 3 isn't too bad is it? I guess that depends on whether you are talking about baseball or birthdays.

Today, so far, seizing the day meant beginning it with a breakfast of champions: Starbucks Guatemalan coffee and blueberry muffin chased by a thought provoking conversation regarding what "church" might have to do very differently to really connect with this current ultra-electronic generation. No conclusion drawn. Stimulating though.

I also painted my Jeep. Sort of. Krylon makes this cool spray paint that you can actually paint plastic with - it "bonds to plastic on a molecular level." That's what the can says anyway. So I bought some black to freshen up the trim on my Jeep which had faded to a sort of grayish-green.

That's sort of the before picture. You at least get the idea of the grayish-green. Someday I'll add a new picture. Not bad for $5 bucks and a couple hours work. Almost looks like new. Someday I hope to be able to do this:

Instead of this:

But it will be awhile $5 at a time.

Whoops, Wow, Woohoo!

Well, I guess I should apologize to all of my faithful few followers for my own ineptness at knowing how this blog thing works. I just figured out why all of you that submitted stuff didn't get to see it posted - I had to "approve" it. I just didn't know that. Consider it done, and I'll try not to let it happen again.

With that said, maybe we can try this all over again.

Hard to believe it is nearly the middle of March already; it's spring break at school, which I am glad for. I guess I'll just update a few "life" things, not much of it is too interesting at this point in time though - just to warn you. Patrick Saia was home to PA here for a few days, so Lauren and I, Seth and Cathy got to spend about 24 hours with him, which was about all we could take, so after that we sent him home. Seth and I did manage to get the incredible privilege not only to take a ride in The Cobra again, but we both got a chance to drive it for a short while. If you want to get an idea of what we were behind the wheel of, check out this link: http://www.factoryfive.com/table/ffrkits/roadster/roadsterkit.html Go to their homepage and check out some of the videos if you've got a good connection. It's worth it. It just kinda makes you want to drive for hours. In a sort of odd way, it reminded me a lot of my old back Jeep (my CJ7). I think it was the raw feel of a machine that communicates every feel of the road to your body. A machine that was meant for that, for driving, for the experience of the drive, not simply for the purpose of going from point A to point B.

Lauren and I will be going home to Wisco for the better part of a week, from March 22-26. It will be a busy five days, but it worked out without either of us missing any work or school stuff. We're going to make a trip up to CFS to hang out there. We'd love to be able to make the trek up to WWC, but I just don't think that is going to happen.

On another note, we're nearly finished teaching through the book of Ruth at The Porch, and looking forward to what might be coming next, but to anyone that is interested, I highly recommend studying Ruth. It has been awesome to read and study it, allowing God to define himself to me through what he has chosen to reveal about himself through that story, instead of me bringing my preconceptions about God to the story and reading them into the story itself. I've been studying through it with two other guys, Jeff and Josh, (yes, that's Josh, Jeff, and Josh) and it has been a great journey to study through the book together and share the teaching responsibilities. A book that I highly recommend as a sort of companion to the book of Ruth is a book by Larry Crabb titled "Shattered Dreams." It looks at the book a little more from Naomi's perspective, and it doesn't really stick to the book in train of thought, but it raises some very important and difficult questions. Maybe I'll post a few of them this week.

Spring has hit this weekend, Friday and Saturday were about 60-65`, Monday is supposed to be over 70. I'm not complaining. Now, if it would only stay this temperature all summer. I'd be okay with that. Well, that's all for now. If Lauren and I ever get around to either buying or borrowing a digital camera, we'll post some pictures of our new apartment now that we're all moved in and well settled. Until next time-

Depressing?

Well I think I might take the "hit counter" off the bottom of my blog - it's simply a little depressing to find that in fact the whole world is not beating a path to my blog doorstep. If you had asked me before, I'm not sure what I would have said, but I think I would have guessed that I could get more people interested in what goes on on this page than Tristan, my brother Zach, and my mother. And when you put it that way, it even sounds depressing.

The last week has been crazy insane and insane crazy. Wow, I guess it's been two weeks. Oh well. I feel like I've been going nonstop and running on little more than high octane Starbucks coffee. Which isn't an all bad thing, except I think it is aiding to ruin my sleep habits, and I'm sure things could be much worse.

As I sit here at my desk, I am surrounded by what seem to be towers of books. Books for school, books for Bible study, books for fun. There are a lot of good books and authors there, ranging from naturalist John Muir to C.S. Lewis and Francis Schaeffer to Dwight Edwards, John Piper, Larry Crabb, to a beautiful 450 page book entitled "Modern Psychopathologies." I just can't seem to put that one down. If you're looking for a good read, I can come up with something for ya. I think there's something like 13 books I have to (want to) read, not including 5 commentaries, two bibles, and one journal. Hence, the IV of coffee that pumps caffeinated goodness through my veins.

Dead Poets Society

If you have not seen the movie Dead Poet's Society, I highly recommend that you do so this weekend. I thought that I might explain a little of the title that I chose for my blog, since not everybody knows what that means. "Carpe Diem" is Latin for "seize the day." For those of you who didn't know, it's not just the title of a Metallica song off of one of their sweet metal albums. It is also a kind of running theme to the movie Dead Poet's Society. If you haven't seen it, you were perhaps like me, thinking it to be some sort of weird movie about the ghosts of long dead poets, which by the way is very false. On the contrary, it is about a group of high school boys who, more than being alive, are very much full of life. The movie follows them through the better part of a school year where they are all boarding students. It is very interesting to watch the movie all the while thinking to yourself, "which one of these guys am I most like?" Also asking "what would it look like for me to seize the day, make the most of every moment, where I am in life right now?" Hence, "Carpe Diem."

A good January weekend

-I'm not really sure where the weekend went, now that I think about it. Both Saturday and Sunday seem rather blurred in my 20/20 hindsight. Saturday, at least most of it was taken up by going down to the Philly Rock Gym in Valley Forge for a bouldering comp. I didn't finish as well as I hoped - 8th I think, but Seth took 3rd out of about 15-20 guys in the intermediate class. I would have liked to have done a little better, but I know my endurance simply is not there. It was probably one of the most fun times that I have had climbing in a long time. The problems were good and there was a good variety of stuff. Sometimes it's just good to climb on stuff that somebody else has set, someone other than what you're used to.
-Friday I got out for probably the last beautiful day of winter, it was about 60 and sunny, I couldn't have asked for a sweeter January day to pound out some road miles. Again, my endurance just isn't there, but it's coming. I've been doing the same road loop consistently, and I've been consistently dropping my times in completing it. Right now it's about an hour to do the loop, which is a good lap for me.
-Yesterday was an altogether different day. I skipped church because I went to the climbing comp Saturday, which meant I had only Sunday to pound out a 10 page research paper for school. I had all of the research done, but I didn't even have an outline yet. I wasn't too worried, though maybe I should have been. The downside to this was that I knew I couldn't sit down to watch any of the football games on, as much as I would have liked to. I also forgot about a meeting that I had at 12:30, after church to start some team-building stuff for going back to Ireland this summer. All told, that took a solid 2.5 hours out of my typing time. When I left for the meeting I at least had a rough outline done to go off of when I got back. Well, I finished my paper, all in good time, enough to do some reading before I hit the sack- I finished the reference page with some help from Lauren at a bit after 10. Not bad for ten pages. I think it's a good paper too. I hope my prof does-

A little mud on the tires

Well now that it's been about a week since that ride, and it's supposed to be 50 degrees again tomorrow, I suppose I ought to clean off my bike so it looks presentable again. I'll have to see whose garden hose isn't frozen. I'm looking forward to this upcoming season, though I am wondering where all the training is going to fit in. The '06 schedule is out, you can check it out at www.masuperseries.com and as it turns out, I am actually going to be gone for what would be my home course advantage on the 21st of May. Which is also the day before my 2nd anniversary, crazy to think about. There are 12 total races to score in, so that gives me plenty of time to find that time to train.

On a different note, I did find out what my next vehicle will be, or at least what it should be. Jeep just released specs on what the 2007 Wrangler will look like, and I think it rocks. Check it out yourself(they wouldn't let me steal any pictures) at Jeep.com (http://www.jeep.com/07wrangler/index.html?CMP=AFC-Autoshow). So what if it isn't all that practical? How many of the things that each of us do in a given day are all that practical aside from eating and defecating?

An Epic

The whole thing about an epic ride or an epic something is that it really is epic. I don't know I've ever heard of anything else being called "epic" except for a lot of old classic stories like Homer's Odyssey and so on, and here and there a few storied bike rides. Well, I wouldn't exactly call this story the Odyssey, but it was really long and certainly was odd.

As I started out before, it was a 60 degree day in January with the sun shining high overhead, quite a contrast to today's weather of pouring rain and 35mph+ winds. It felt more like September than January.
Jason(J-Core to those of you who know him) and I had planned this the week before, knowing the weather was supposed to be so fantastic. There is a sweet loop of mostly singletrack all the way around this lake called Blue Marsh that makes for a 30 mile loop. There is one spot about 10 miles into it that you can cut of 10 miles and make it a 20 mile loop, but that is the only shortcut. We had tried to organize a trip to do this loop in the fall, but it got rained out, so here we are in January, stoked that we get to do it.

So I took off first thing in the morning, well it was close anyway, to meet him up at his apartment in Kutztown about an hour away. I got there right about 10am. We load up and head out to the trailhead, driving separately so that I can head home for dinner right when we're done. With a lot of putzing around and some minor getting lost, we finally hit the trail at 11:30, a bit later than I was expecting, but shouldn't be a problem right? 30 miles of track, I figured 3 hours optimistically, but no more than 4, taking into account that neither of us are exactly in tip top shape.
Well, we hit the first 10 miles and we, relatively speaking, tear it up. It was a gorgeous day, I just couldn't comprehend that it was possibly January. The trail was a bit soggy from some rain the day before, but it wasn't too bad, just a little slow. All told, with one break for a breakfast bar, one hour and thirty minutes. I sort of wished we were moving a little faster, but no big deal, we had plenty of time and it was a sweet day.

We decided we were feeling pretty good and we weren't going to get a better shot at doing the whole trail probably until May or June, so we skipped the shortcut and hopped on the 2nd section of 10 miles. This is where I started to get worried. It started with about 3 miles of mostly flat singletrack close to the lake that was just really soggy. You know, the kind that just sucks the energy right out of you. As we continued, I began to watch my cpu record the steady and slow decline of our average speed. No big deal, I just figured we took too long of a break at the road so, I suggested we just keep on plugging away to keep some of that momentum. It turns out that the oatmeal that Jason ate for breakfast wasn't really cutting it, nor were the Combo's he brought along for lunch. Granted, Jason has only owned his bike since August, but this was bad.

Next up, now that we were half way through was a section up and around a small ski hill, but nonetheless it was a ski hill. I was stoked and ready for some good long technical climbs. Jason was dying a slow death. Here is where the walking began. His technical skills really weren't matched up yet with how strong his legs were, which isn't saying much. We made it through, got back to the road, 10 miles to go. Time passed, now three and a half hours. That puts it at 3pm in the afternoon, 10 miles to go, and the sun sets in 2 hours. Uh-oh.
I knew I couldn't say much of anything to him, I've been in his shoes before, I just hoped we could make it out by dark. Well, we began counting down the last of the miles as Jason slowly seemed to disintegrate before my eyes. I had to really try to go as slow as he was, especially on the hills. I never thought I would see the day where my granny gear on a 27 speed bike wasn't low enough. With about 7 or 8 miles to go, he started walking every hill. I mean every single one. He hardly had the energy to stand on his pedals to coast through the downhills. I knew we were sunk, and I could see it in his eyes. I gave him my Clif Shot, my Gatorade, my breakfast bar, and I think all it did was help him keep his eyes open. We started out with an average speed of close to 8, we were now under 7mph and dropping fast. In case you don't know, it really is faster to pedal your bike, even in granny gear, than it is to push it. Trust me.

We're down to about 4 or 5 miles to go, and it is now nearing 5pm. I suddenly don't need my sunglasses anymore, and there is now a chill in the air. Jason's legs are starting to twinge and threatening to cramp. He tells me to just go on, go back to the parking lot and leave, he'll make it out sooner or later. Well, from the looks of things it was going to be a lot later than sooner. Though I was tempted to take off, I wasn't about to leave somebody who has no energy, whose legs are nearly cramped solid, who doesn't have any food and only a little water, out in the woods by himself, now that it is nearly dark. We did have one thing on our side though, it was a totally clear night, and from the looks of things we were going to have a full moon.

I hit the next section, a long winding downhill that I just had to bomb through, I couldn't take it anymore. I probably could have fallen asleep at the bottom waiting for him, but I had an idea. It was going to be dark soon, no doubt about it, so I trashed my way back to the parking lot, the last 2.5 miles, opened up my Jeep, grabbed my headlamp and my Maglite flashlight, and headed back down the trail to find Jason. When I left him, he had totally given up on riding altogether, that means he is now walking, pushing his bike, probably at about 2mph. I found him, riding while holding a Maglite in my hand, and we walked out the last 1.5 miles. The last section of road we climbed to get back to the parking lot, Jason was so drained I pushed my bike up the hill, and I pushed his bike up the hill. He was nearly delirious from not having any energy. He was really looking forward to going to the gas station and buying fruit roll-ups, pop tarts, and Gatorade!? Nobody in their right mind eats that combination. He really sounded like he was talking in his sleep, I wish I could have recorded it.

We finally reached the parking lot at 6pm. On the trail for 6.5 hours. That amounts to less than 5mph average, which is painfully slow, but to Jason, it was just painful. I felt bad just leaving him, I couldn't drive him home because we had two cars, but I think he made it. I assume so, but come to think of it, I haven't heard from him since......

Truely an Epic Ride

Yes, I will tell you about it. Soon. But not yet. It starts with a 60 degree day on January 12, 2006. What a beginning. You should hear the rest....

Verizon Sucks

I could use up way too much web space to go on and on about that topic. I have had nothing but problems with their crappy customer service and entire business infrastructure. I can't say anything bad about their cell service because I can't speak from experience with that. Anyway, long story short, I moved almost a month ago, and called Verizon to move my phone and DSL services, but they screwed it all up and totally canceled my DSL account. Though this temporarily leaves me with sporadic internet mooching off of friends, I took it as a sign from God to switch internet providers. So when this is all said and done, whenever that may be, I will no longer be a Verizon customer, never to be one again, and I will have unlimited local calls instead of just a dialtone, DSL that is twice as fast, all for the same price, by switching to Cavalier Telephone. Sorry for the rant, but it's my space. Well it's not myspace, but it is my space. I'll be back online soon. I hope.