http://neckbeard.wordpress.com/

Grandmother Kathy

NeckBeard — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 15:17:47 +0000

We met on a windy Spring day this week at the park ... one of the best ladies you'll ever meet -- Kathy Bettger and her daughter Molly and two grandsons, 3-1/2 year-old Graham who is allowed to say "I'm almost four" soon, and Caleb who turns a BIG ONE this month. Molly is in town visiting her mom this week and gave me a call to have me take pictures of her mom with the boys.

Random Friday update

NeckBeard — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 17:33:54 +0000

I need to start posting here again. Yesterday I sat down as soon as I got home from work and wrote an email to my family… so I’ll use that as a kickoff to a new post.

I just got home from work and am now sitting on a stool in the kitchen typing to y’all

Lauren is making a meat loaf. Garlic, Basil, Lean ground beaf, chorizo chicken sausage, mozzarella, onions. Instead of bread crumbs she is using toasted wheat germ. Meatloaf was a request of mine. And since she is on Mid-Winter break she is taking requests. :-) We’re also having steamed broccoli with thyme and fennel.

We are pretty excited about having a weekend at home. Last weekend we were in PDX, the weekend before was skiing at Crystal with Dana & Josh. The weekend before that Lauren had her Master’s weekend… and the weekend before that we were in Wenatchee. Phew!

Lauren went to goodwill today and bought jars, serving spoons and two board games. She also made $22 selling old clothes at THE BUFFALO EXCHANGE. She also labeled anything in the kitchen that is “bad fat.”

Tonight we are going over to Katrina & Justin‘s for dessert at 8pm. We are bringing a chick-pea cookie pie.

Tomorrow, we both have a little work to do. And we are going to two classes at the gym. I’m not sure how we will feel about the second after the first, but I’m going in with a good attitude. I was just told, “We are going to both.”

We are going to try and squeeze a bike ride in. Lauren got some biking shoes for Christmas that she wants to finally try. But that includes me mounting new tires on my road bike (I usually ride my single speed) and swap pedals from my MTN. bike to her bike. I doubt this will happen. But it’s been on my to-do-list for a while now!

I’d like to see THE ARTIST at 4pm on Saturday before the Oscars on Sunday… but that’s pretty low on the priority list.

My buddy DSM’s (Mike Gerig… but we call him DSM for “Downstairs Mike) parents are going to be in town from Oregon. He’s hosting a dinner and then taking his parents to square dancing at the LITTLE RED HEN. He invited a group of us to come along and meet his parents. So that is at the top of our priority list. He’s pretty special to us.

Sunday we’ll go to the early service and then going on a Valentine’s day date Lauren bought for me. It’s a Living Social Adventure. We meet at Westlake Center and take a bus to a shooting range… then the entire group attends a brewery tour + lunch at Scuttlebutt Brewery. It sounds pretty man-tastic. We are excited. ;-)

I think that covers it! I need to help with dinner.

Where is my head?

NeckBeard — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 01:21:08 +0000

NeckBeard — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 07:51:32 +0000

Fun with forums

NeckBeard — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 04:52:42 +0000

You got to read this forum. I googled this very question… because like this guy, I genuinely miss this windows function. And I was rewarded with some classic “Apple vs. Mac” debate with everyone unwilling to admit that there might be a view point available besides their own.

Follow me on Tumblr

NeckBeard — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:27:39 +0000

I know — it’s been too long since my last post.

I even have Izzo’s ID cards all scanned and ready to go. In the meantime, if you don’t follow me on Tumblr… you should. It’s just a collection of interesting things I’ve found on the internet. Most of which I haven’t had time to read/watch yet. So I save them on Tumblr for my perusal later.

http://theneckbeard.tumblr.com

Click here if you need to catch up.

Happy Father’s Day Dad

NeckBeard — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 07:27:21 +0000

My LOST reaction, and response to a NYT article

NeckBeard — Tue, 25 May 2010 16:05:40 +0000

“Rendered insignificant, in this scenario, were the particulars of what they had done on the island. Pushing buttons, building rafts, blowing up hatches, living, dying — all the churning action and melodrama that made “Lost” so addictive in its early seasons — none of it was directly connected to this final outcome, beyond that it constituted “the most important part” of all their lives.”

This article echoed a bit what Brogan and I talked about last night. I don’t feel any desire to re-watch the whole thing. Sure I expected I wasn’t going to get all the answers I desired … but I didn’t get a pay off for my investment. It wasn’t rewarding. The show put so much energy into the Hanso Foundation and the Dharma Initiative, the button pushing, the magic numbers, the time traveling bunnies — and we got no pay off for that. Remember all the viral websites and tv advertisements for the Hanso foundation? That stuff was fun… but didn’t pay off.

Which is why episodes like “Ab Aeterno” were so rewarding. Seeing the Black Rock crash into the huge statue fulfilled at least three questions we had. “How did the Black Rock get on the Island? Who was on it? How did the statue get broken?” I’m glad it left some open ends so we can still discuss it — but I don’t feel a return on my investment for at least 3 seasons. Season 6? Certainly. Season 6 was extremely rewarding. The themes Season 6 brought up, it stayed true to and completed.

And that is my complaint. Sure I liked the final episode. And I’m glad I finished it. I consider it a perfect finale to Season 6 — but not to all 6 seasons of LOST.

I don’t think I’d ever recommend someone to watch all 6 seasons. Watch Season 1 for character development and then 5 and 6… but only after you’ve watched all 5 seasons of THE WIRE.

A video that combines all the unanswered LOST questions after the break.

Happy Mother’s Day

NeckBeard — Mon, 10 May 2010 04:32:10 +0000

Happy Mother’s Day Momma!

Sorry I wasn’t there to celebrate with you.
I am so proud of the family you and Dad built. I can never thank you enough. But I’ll continue to try.

Thank you Mom for everything — especially all the rules that confused me then, but now I understand. I love you.

The ice cream truck she is driving was her summer job when my father met her.

The group shot is right before my mom went to SPU to teach French. She was worried the girl on her right would scoop in and steal Dad when she left.

Some more recent photos of my mother and her family as well an Idaho Statesman article about her summer abroad in Russia after the break.

NeckBeard — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 16:49:36 +0000