I’ve wanted to make a number of posts of the last few weeks, but never found the time. So, since WP can magically make things appear in the past, I’m just backposting everything I wanted. Eventually.

It is storming a lot right now. Chance of rain most days this week. I’m moving to San Diego or something.

Went to the 92nd running (and my first) Indy 500 this past weekend. I’ve always enjoyed racing in a passive sense; I sometimes watch it when an interesting race is on TV, but never really seek it out. After a couple years of persuasion, Jenny finally got me to join her family’s annual trip. Gotta say it was pretty sweet.

The track is ridiculously immense. Yet, although there are 300,000+ people at the race, it doesn’t usually feel crowded. No lines in the bathrooms! Our seats in the paddock, about half way down the main stretch, were quite good. The stands don’t really go very high, so we were pretty close to the track. We could see the cars come out of turn four, and we got a slight profile view as they came through the apex. Those cars go insanely fast. Only in the turn do you really get a feel for how fast 220mph is.

If you don’t like racing at all, you’d probably be bored. But if you have any interest, it is quite a fun, albeit long, day. Leave for track at 7am, tailgating by 8am, to the track at 11am, seats at 12pm, race at 1pm, end of race at 5pm, tailgating again until you can get out of the parking lot until 7:30pm. Thank goodness for no rain delays.

Thanks to Jenny for forcing me to have fun sometimes.

Most of you probably already know, but Jenny and I have bought a house. It is in St. Louis Park. Insert your own snide suburb comment here. We close on May 30, and will probably move in that weekend even though we have a whole month left on our lease.

The house is move-in ready, which is nice. Not a whole lot needs to be changed right away. Nice back yard with deck, awesome kitchen, and most everything is finished really well.

I need to buy a lawn mower. I’m very excited about this.

Sometime we’ll have a housewarming party (we never did have one for our apartment). If you read this blog, you’re probably invited.

My grandfather’s funeral service last week was at the church he had attended for many years, the same church that I was forced, in my younger years, to attend on holidays and other random occasions. I had not been to this church in a number of years (I think my last visit was for another funeral), and while it was mostly the same, I noticed a few key differences.

The church has web cams, and they appear to be pretty expensive ones. They have tens of thousands of dollars worth of A/V equipment. They have a full set of band equipment (guitar, drums, etc). All of this, somehow, makes a church “better”, apparently. Keep dropping those donations in the basket; Jesus needs us to have another wireless microphone.

The funeral “sermon” felt like any other Sunday sermon. It should have been a celebration of a wonderful life, a remembrance of someone dear to us all. Instead it was a fucking recruitment speech. Sure, some nice words were said about my grandfather, but the focus seemed to be more on how we should all be finding Jesus so that we can have eternal life. This was spewed at us constantly, and I just stopped listening half way through. If I’m going to be lectured at about how I need to accept the “correct” religion instead of saying anything kind about the recently departed, then I’m just going to tune out.

I loathe the church. I abhor it. I can’t describe the disdain I felt as I sat there being told to believe in a magic book while all I really wanted was someone to help us remember the life and times of a dear relative. If I were a Christian, I’d be ashamed.

My grandfather passed away last week. He had been in relatively poor health over the past year, but took a worse turn a couple weeks ago and, well, that was it. His quality of life was so poor recently, and while I wouldn’t call it a silver lining, at least he’s no longer suffering. He was 83, and lived a very good life, which is about as much as you can ask for in this world.

So long, Grandpa. We’ll miss you.

I must be getting old. I can’t keep up with the new albums and tours of my favorite bands. I used to be all over that sort of thing. I’d have it all planned out months in advance. These days I just happen to stumble across new release from weeks before, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have known for a while. I guess I’m too busy to follow all that nonsense. Funny how priorities change without even realizing it.

Having a dog can really keep you in shape. I don’t walk mine as much as I should, but I’m getting out more now that it is semi-nice. A good 45-60 minute walk does us both good.

Anyone know of any good dog parks in and around Minneapolis? I’ve heard the Lake of the Isles park is a bit crowded. I’ve also been told there is a nice one right by the airport, so dad can watch planes while the puppy runs around and gets into mischief. Sounds fine to me.

I’ve never had a corporate job, so I’m not sure if it is odd that I work until 3am sometimes. Oh well.

Jenny and I are trying to buy a house. So far it has been going OK. I think we may be making an offer soon. Stupid stressful life-changing decisions.

I’m really digging WP. So much more polished than Nucleus, and seems to be easier to use from an admin standpoint.

Hi all. You probably notice this site looks different. You’re right. I switched to WordPress. So far, I’m happy.

I’m still getting everything sorted out, so bear with me. No comments or categories have been ported (yet). Pretty default layout with no custom links or anything. But I promise I’ll work on it in my copious free time.

Until then, enjoy the new stuff, and let me know if something doesn’t work.

Today was great in one regard in particular: it was light out when I left work. It hasn’t really been that way in three months. It is very refreshing, I must say. Springtime in MN is good times.

Also, I’ve been working on converting this thing to WordPress. No, really, I have. It’s pretty close to being done. You’ll see a new theme soon, I guess. Probably a captcha. Enjoy that.