Way too long

Holy crap--I knew it had been a long time since my last post, but I didn't realize it had been this long.
Holidays, work, shopping, etc. It is all a blur.
Ben is doing great. This week he has dropped his 4am feeding, which means that he now is sleeping straight through from 8 or so at night until we get up at 6am. We actually have to wake him up in the morning to get him ready for day care. It is so funny to watch him stretch and rub his eyes as he wakes up. Then when he sees us standing there, he gets a big smile on his face before he realizes that he is awake and hungry, when he starts to frown and then grunt and whine a bit as we put him on the changing table to get him dressed for the day. He doesn't launch into a full-blown cry until after he is changed and we pick him up off the changing table.
We didn't make it up to Spirit Lake this year for the Kollasch family Christmas due to the crappy weather. It seems like we are getting a snow or ice storm once a week around here. So we met my parents in the Amanas last weekend for dinner to celebrate my mom's and Colleen's birthdays.
Colleen turned thirty on Monday, so there was much rejoicing :)
We went out to dinner at Atlas with friends last Saturday and then spent some time in the Atlas lounge downstairs before moving on to Mickey's for a while. It was finals week, so downtown was pretty dead. On Monday, Colleen's sister Erin surprised her by flying home early. I organized it so that when we got home from work, Erin was there waiting and Colleen freaked out. It was lots of fun. We went out for dinner with Erin and Colleen's parents and then some people came over for cake and ice cream afterwards. I got an awesome lemon-raspberry swirl cake from a local bakery that Colleen loves. Yum-o. And then we opened the little bottles of champagne that I brought back from Spain this summer. The little bottles are called "Benjamin" in Spanish, so it was fitting.
So this week, we are enjoying having Colleen's sisters spend some time at our house (Megan flew in yesterday). The sisters volunteered to hang with Ben today, so we'll see how they handle him. Now that he is sleeping at night, he is awake for most of the day.
We are heading to Clinton on Friday for Christmas, and then we'll spend next weekend inColfax with my family.
We hope everyone has a great Christmas and a fantastic New Year.

Random photos

Ben in his Gap t-shirt and jeans. Looking pretty f***ing smooth.
Notice how we were very matchy-match that day. I love the fall long-sleeve-t-shirt-under-a-short-sleeve-t-shirt look.

He looks a little high in this one, but this was his Halloween outfit. We didn't go trick-or-treating, but we did get a nice bag of candy from day care. Score!

Rubbing elbows

We spent the past weekend in Clinton. Our friends Gus and Courtney got married in Hawaii a couple of weeks ago and they had a reception in Clinton for their Iowa friends who couldn't make the trip to the tropics. It was Ben's first time spending the night away from home and he did very well. The loud music at the reception didn't bother him and he slept most of the time.

Sunday we went to a Hillary Clinton appearance in Clinton. Colleen's cousin works for her campaign and we had seats in the front right by the podium. Ben was great again, which was especially crucial since the Secret Service had blocked all of our crying baby escape routes. Luckily, there was no crying baby. After she spoke, Hillary came around shaking hands, signing autographs, etc. , and we found ourselves being "those" parents.

Me: "Senator Clinton, will you take a picture with our son?"

Hillary: "Sure!"

*Colleen thrusts baby at Hillary*

The doofus sticking his head in the picture in the back is Colleen's uncle. Needless to say, we're working on the photoshop version of this picture for Ben's collection.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Babies, bad football, and sleep deprivation

That pretty much sums up the last few weeks.
Ben is now a month old and has new friends showing up left and right. Congrats Donor and Jenniffer!
The Hawks need some help. Fast. Although it was nice to be able to witness the Illinois game in person (thanks, Donor). But keep in mind, it could be worse. We could be Nebraska, Iowa State, or Notre Dame.
I am getting used to the little 2 hour naps I get through the night. Colleen and I try to take shifts, so we each have a chance at a good chunk of sleep. My students sometimes feel the brunt of my sleep issues, though. I try to stay cheerful, I really do.

Homecoming

Yes, the annual "how's your liver" weekend is upon us. Although I may not get to stick around for the full beer band circuit, I am scheduled to appear in all Homecoming activities. So tell the bartender at Gabe's/The Picador/Whatever the hell it is now to get the lemon drops ready!!
And the little guy will be joining us at The Vine on Thursday and will also get to watch his first ever Homecoming Parade! Here's a pic from us watching his first Hawkeye game together:

I'm a Dad!

This morning at 12:29am, the little guy finally decided to enter the world. We went ot the hospital to induce labor at 7:30am on Saturday, broke the water aroun 8:30 and sat around contracting, dilating, and shitting away another game to ISU in Lames. Finally, around 9pm the doctor announced that we were at 10 centimeters dilated and could start pushing. So we pushed. And pushed. And pushed. At 11:30, the doctor could still feel the baby's head, with little progress since the last check. So it was determined that his head just was too big to fit through the birth canal and all she was feeling was the top of his skull, which had been pushed into a little cone.
Off to the OR we went, with a quick change into scrubs and a big extra dose into the epidural. Sure enough, he had been pushed into the birth canal and was wedged right into the pelvic bone. He was literally stuck in there, and it took the doctor pulling him from the chest side and a nurse reaching in from below pushing his head to get him unstuck and out of there.
So it goes without saying that the little dude was pretty stressed out when he came out and it took a little bit to get him to come around and perk up for us (scary moments). But after a few moments, he was on his way and I got to hold him in recoevery while Colleen was being stiched up. His breathing was faster than normal, so we had to take it easy this morning, but his last few checks are starting to even out and everything looks perfect. Colleen is pretty sore and very, very exhausted. After all, she did all the work of a vaginal birth and also had to endure the C-section surgery.
All is well and we look forward to coming home in a few days with the new guy!

Baby Watch 2007

So the due date has come and gone and we are still waiting. If he doesn't decide to join us today, we are heading to the hospital and they will induce labor on Saturday morning. Does anyone know if Mercy Hospital gets the Vs. channel in their cable lineup?

And btw, it's 11:11 and Iowa State STILL SUCKS!! (And apparently, this year, much more than usual)

GO HAWKS!

Another quiz

Again, stolen from Wendy. I wouldn't post it, except, well, I did better than she did :)

80%The Movie Quiz

FilmCritic.com - Movie Reviews

Waiting Game

Still no baby yet. This kid seems to have a Spanish sense of time. Yesterday was the due date. We have another doctor's appointment this afternoon, so hopefully we will get some idea of how things are going and what the plan is for if he decides to keep hiding out for a while.

Fun Quiz

Blantantly stolen from Wendy. But I thought it turned out fairly accurate. Enjoy.

My personalDNA Report

Peeing my pants...

I'm so excited for football season. Especially since I have been given permission to make the trip to Chi-town for the game on Saturday. I'll be heading out on Saturday morning, going to the game and then trekking straight back to CR. I'm doing the trip Han style--solo. Can't linger around too much in Chicago because the little guy might decide to join us any day now, and we can't have Dad in Chicago when that happens.
Although we are taking a red shirt season from this season, I do still plan on being at Homecoming and marching Alumni Band, both the parade and game. I am also hoping to get to one more game at some point this season, maybe Illinois or Minnesota, depending on how things go, ticket availability, etc.
I am so excited for college football season! My normal preseason tradition of watching Rudy has not happened yet, but hopefully I can squeeze that in tonight or tomorrow night--we'll see.
GO HAWKS!!

Back to school

Yesterday was the first day of school. Although we started back to work last Thursday, the kiddies came back for a half day yesterday, making today the first full day of classes. So far, so good. I'm trying to maintain as positive an outlook as I can.

En casa

Home again. Without luggage. Thanks, US Airways. Nobody on the flight from Philly to OHare on Tuesday night received their luggage. How do you lose everybody's bags?
The first suitcase was delivered to our doorstep while we were out running errands on Wednesday afternoon. I got home to find that the back panel was completely ripped halfway down the suitcase, leaving a gaping hole. A phone call on Thursday alerted me to the fact that my other suitcase was at the Cedar Rapids airport, but it was at the United desk and they would not deliver bags from US Airways, so I would have to go out there to pick it up.
Turns out I had to go there anyway, because when I called to complain about the status of suitcase number one, they told me I had to take it to an airport to file a claim and have the damage verified. So I lugged the suitcase out to the airport and filled out the paperwork. After which, the United employee (since there is no US Air desk at the CR airport), informed me that I would have to empty the contents of the suitcase and leave the bag there. Why couldn't I be told this on the phone before I schlepped all the way out to the airport? So I threw everything in a giant plastic bag they gave me, got my second suitcase and sulked out of the airport. Damn you, US Airways!!

So back home, enjoying the unpacking, doing some chores around the house to finish getting ready for the baby and dreading going back to school in a week. Also catching up on movies--saw The Simpsons Movie today and I can't remember the last time I laughed out loud so much in the theater. Hilarious.

Vacaciones...de puta madre

With a few days before I return to the US, and classes finished this week, a couple classmates and I took a short trip north to the País Vasco (Basque Country). Two days enjoying the beach and the cool weather of the northern part of Spain. I had never been to the northern coast, and I absolutely loved it. How could you not, with views like this:

The city rests around this bay--Bahía de la Concha and the beach of the same name. Concha, because the shape is just like a seashell, or concha. Our hostal was right underneath the big statue of Jesus on the mountain in the picture.

The trip was fantastic, relaxing on the beach, taking a boat ride out into the ocean and around the bay, enjoying the view from the top of the mountain, and taking in the spectacularly cool night air. The most interesting part was the signs posted around the city that read (in English):
"Welcome tourist. Remember: You are not in Spain nor France. You are in the Basque Country." Well, if that didn't put those thoughts in the back of my head about ETA to rest, I guess nothing will :)

Despite the scary separatist propaganda, it was cool to see the Basque language on all the signs and everything. We thought about counting all the appearances of the letters t, x, and k, but decided to stop after the count hit 100--on the first sign :)

Got back to Madrid around 7:30am this morning and it was pouring rain, with a little thinder and lightning. I am not sure I have ever seen a thunderstorm in Madrid. Granted, it has nothing on the storms you see in Iowa during the summer, but it is rare to even see rain during the summer here, so the thunderstorm is a bit of a conversation piece here. I took advantage of the free day at the museum on Sundays to head to the Sorolla Museum and to make a visit to the Prado. Sorolla was Spain's best impressionist painter, and the museum is in his old residence here in Madrid. Nice, but I was disappointed there was no store to buy a print or two. The Prado store also disappointed, since I really wanted a couple Goya prints for the house. I took a stroll through the Goya wing and visited my favorite Velazquez works, the got the hell out of there, because the Prado on free Sundays is a tourist haven and the crowd was driving me nuts.

Tomorrow is my last day in Spain :(

I am having lunch with MadridMan (see sidebar link), and then the traditional dinner with Marcos and Sandra on the night before I leave. We have gotten together for dinner in Madrid on my last night in Spain every summer for the past few years, and I am looking forward to doing it one last time.

Mañana

As I have been procrastinating writing my final paper (I have the worst case of senioritis right now), I have been messing around with the blog. Check out the new poll feature at the very bottom.

Grrr...finals

Classes are almost finished...now gearing up for finals. I have two final exams and a final paper. The paper is tough, since I would much rather just show up for a test and be done with it all. Hopefully I can hammer out the paper this weekend, touch it up Monday and have it turned in on Tuesday. It's only 6-8 pages. Finals shouldn't be too bad. The dialect variation class will be fairly easy and the theater class is just a matter of reviewing and studying really well over the weekend.
I'm heading off to the mountain house for the weekend, one last hurrah by the pool with my notes and enjoying Margarita's great food. Marcos and Sandra are going too, I'm actually riding with them Friday night instead of taking the bus out on Friday morning. A little less pool time, but a much more comfortable ride (and free!).

Más fotos

My awesome friend (and official personal graduation photographer) Karri sent me some of her pictures from graduation night. I probably won't get mine developed until I get home, so this is a sneak preview.

Here are all the masters graduates--all 8 of us, waiting for the ceremony to begin.

De marcha in Huertas. Me, Daniel, John and Kayce. John is the only one in this picture without a masters degree :)

The four graduates who went out after the ceremony. We were the four who weren't old women or ultra-conservative crazies, who probably stayed home praying for the souls of those of us who did go out to celebrate.

Karri and Susan. Karri was nice enough to use her feminine influence at the bar to get them to play a song by El Canto del Loco. Susan did the windshield wiper dance all night.

John and Kayce. Kayce was the only person crazy enough to choose poetry as his speciality area on the Masters exams.

Me with Kayce and Michael. Michael lives in Rome and works with the study abroad program that Duquesne University has there. Kayce is a modern day hobbitt.

Laura, Daniel and I celebrating our graduation. Perhaps a bit too much? Nah.

El niño

Soooo, apparently my son likes to cause trouble.
A couple weeks ago, he evidently pressed himself against Colleen's kidney area, causing a backup of fluid which led to a urinary tract infection. After about 10 antibiotic prescriptions, things seem to have cleared up. The nausea is back, painkillers are helping with the back pain, and I don't think there is room for me in the bed when I get back. It sounds like sleeping requires some complicated system of pillows and stuffed animals positioned in just the right places. Of course, this set-up has to be repeated after each of the several bathroom visits during the night. I almost forgot the heartburn that comes with eating anything, even plain toast and water has been known to cause some reflux at times.
On top of all this, his favorite position to be in is with his butt wedged as far as he can get it into Colleen's ribcage, which, I am told, is incredibly uncomfortable. But at least he takes a break from this position around 10pm every night to swim laps back and forth (and hopefully practice his fútbol moves!).
I also want to point out that any of this behavior causes him to immediately be labeled "my son", because any trait that causes his mother to be annoyed is my fault, of course.

Cojonudo

Tonight about 5 of us from the masters program went downtown here in Madrid. Placido Domingo was performing at the Royal Opera Theater and they were showing the concert on a big screen outside the theater in the plaza. If you know Madrid, you know that the Royal Opera Theater is just across the street from the Royal Palace. So there we were, in the plaza with the Royal Palace behind us, watching and listening to one of the greatest voices that has ever lived on an absolutely gorgeous night in Madrid. After the concert, there were fireworks, both from the roof of the opera house and from in front of the palace. It was amazing.
After the concert, we went for some tapas around Plaza Mayor. We just hung out for awhile, went to about two or three bars for a cerveza or two, then ended up having churros and chocolate at the best place for such a snack in Madrid, the chocolatería San Gines.
Now it's about 4:30 am and I am heading to bed so I can get up and work on my romanticism paper tomorrow.

A friend passed along her pictures from the evening, so I am attempting to put them here. This is my first time posting pictures, so be patient if things don't quite go as they should.

Top picture: Daniel, Susan, Kayce and I in the plaza before the concert.

Picture 2: The sun setting behind the Royal Palace

Picture 3: The fireworks at the end of the concert, a few feet away from where we were standing

Master of my Domain

Master being the degree and Spanish being the domain. Yep, passed the oral exam today with little problem (stupid linguistics and language acquisition theory). So all I have left is to finish my current classes. As far as that goes, two midterms down--93/100 on one and today's was suuuper easy. One more midterm on Wednesday, two presentations in class this week and then finals on the 30 and 31.
Graduation is on Thursday. Why the graduation ceremony occurs two weeks before classes are finished is a bit of a mystery. And ceremony is a bit of an overstatement. Basically, this things consists of all the masters students (about 50) and professors gathering in the patio of the classroom building here. They say who is graduating, the graduates get the chance to make a little speech if they want, and then there is food for everybody. I think there might be a small gift for the graduates, who knows. It also tends to change a bit from year to year. Hell, I just found out today that it is this Thursday. But it is a nice chance to have some free food and drinks, talk to the few other students who I can stand having a conversation with (usually complaining about the other students we can't stand), and getting to talk to some of the professors outside of class.
Updates on the homefront, baby issues and etc will be forthcoming, now that the comprehensive exams are out of the way.

Aprobado!

I passed!

So now with the written tests out of the way, the only thing standing between me and my masters degree now is the oral exam. Well, I have to pass my courses this summer, too, but you get the idea.
My oral test is on Monday at 4pm. That's 9am for you central timers. The good thing about that time is that I have a class at 5pm. The professor who teaches that class is the chairman of my jury. So I am guaranteed an oral exam of no more than one hour. So I have this weekend to study and prepare. The jury of three professors can ask me anything about any class I have taken in the past 4 summers here, including the classes I am currently taking. Today, I talked to the chair of the jury about what I should focus on and if there was any advice he could give me. He more or less told me the questions he would ask me about each of the four classes I have taken with him. So that was very helpful, especially since he taught the literary theory class that was the scariest in terms of remembering all of the theories and names, etc. He narrowed that class down considerably for me, so I am feeling much better about it now. So it's a question of studying everything and then not getting so nervous that I either forget it or lose the ability to speak.
And to top it all off, it is midterm. So I have a test tomorrow in my theatre class, another Monday morning in my dialects of Spanish class, and one more next Wednesday. 4 tests in one week--woohoo!

No more writing!

The wrriten Masters exams are done! Second day went about as well as the first, I rocked the first question, because I knew the book very well and also because it was the book we read and discussed last week in my Spanish Romanticism class! So after writing 3 1/2 pages on that, I moved onto the second question. Luck would have it that the second day the two latin-american lit questions were over books I had not gotten to on the list. But, knowing this the night before, I looked up some of them online and found lots of useful information. There was one author I couldn't find and one I could only find general info about, not really anything about the work of his that was on the list. Which two authors show up on the test? You guessed it. BUT--the wheel of fortune keeps spinning and one question was "Talk about the general aspects of Emilio Carballido's work and what makes it stand out". This was the author I could only find general information on, and the question was asking for general information! I threw in a couple examples from his one play on the reading list that I was able to find and wrote what I could.
So given that it is a pass/fail exam, I would say I passed. But I guess we will see when the results are posted later this week.
After the test, a bunch of us started drinking at a bar near the campus here in Madrid. It was about 11:45 when I started there, then we moved downtown around 4:30. I got home around midnight, because we called it a night early, thinking that 12 hours of straight drinking was good enough.
Today I am reading a play for class tomorrow and working on the presentation I have to give over it. I also plan on going out this afternoon somewhere to watch Rafael Nadal in the final of Wimbledon. ¡Vamos, Rafa!

One down, one (two?) to go..

Day 1 of Masters exams is now over. Today was the written test over the general reading list. I went in thinking: 6 questions, pick any three. Since the university doesn't like to share information with us, I found out today that the test was broken into areas. So the test was: Spanish peninsular literature-two questions, pick one; Spanish American lit--two questions, pick one, and Applied Linguistics, two questions, pick one.
This was completely different from how I studied the list. I was under the impression that I was going to be able to pick any questions, the majority of which would be on Spanish peninsular lit. But, I got a little lucky (a lot lucky actually).
The peninsular lit questions was a matter of choosing which one I could answer in more detail--I knew both easily.
The Spanish American section, I was lucky enough to have had one of the books in class last summer, so I answered that question with half of what I could remember from class and half of stuff I made up.
The linguistics section was a total curve ball. One question asked to compare two specific authors and their theories of second language teaching/acquisition. Yeah, right. The other one was discuss the differences between the Spanish used in Madrid and northern Spain vs. the Spanish of Souther Spain and the Americas. Cha-ching!! This was the topic of the past three days in my "Spanish in the World" class this summer.
So, a little bit of luck.

Tomorrow is the test over my chosen area of specialization, which is theater. I am currently conducting a quick cram session on the five Spanish American works on the list--just in case.
I'll find out next week if I passed the written exams. If I pass, then I have to sit for an oral exam over my coursework the past 4 years.
Wish me luck!

The Stones, the Gays, and the Tests

This past weekend in Madrid was an eventful one.
1. The Rolling Stones were in concert on Thursday night at the Estadio Vicente Calderón (home to my beloved Atlético de Madrid, 7th place in this year's Liga). They didn't sell out the joint, I think only about 30,000 tickets were sold. I thought about going, but then the idea of paying 70 euro and missing a night (and part of the next day) of studying deterred me. The next day, while the crew was tearing down the stage, two guys died and two more were seriously injured.
2. The past weekend was also gay pride weekend, or "Orgullo Gay" as they say here. Not only was it the traditional celebration in Madrid's gay district, Chueca, but this year Madrid was host to EuroPride, the gay pride celebration for, you guessed it, ALL of Europe. Huge parade right down the center of the city on Saturday afternoon.
3. I did not witness any of this. Since I have my huge comprehensive masters exams on Thursday and Friday, I fled the city for the weekend. When classes were over at 12:30 on Thursday, I packed my bag and headed to the mountain home of my Spanish family. I spent all weekend there, sitting by the pool rieading and studying, having wonderful home-cooked Spanish meals prepared for me. Afternoon café con leche and a snack, and a perfectly quiet place to study.
Now back in the city, just spent the evening having coffee and reading through my notes. Now I have to read the second half of a play for my theater class tomorrow. I will be VERY glad when this week is over!

Like a machine...

I am blazing through books on my Masters reading list, making up for all kinds of procrastination on my part. I have read three complete books in the six days I have been here in Madrid. In addition, I have read articles and literary analysis of 6 or 7 more and written notes on all of them for studying purposes. As a result, I am feeling a little better about the prospect of taking comps in a few weeks. And just for the record, here is a little rundown of my comps and what I can expect:
Start with the reading list of about 60 novels and plays, plus a big ass poetry list, spanning the whole of Spanish literature, from Middle Ages to the 1990's.
Three tests:
1. Three hour essay test, choosing three out of five possible questions, dealing with the entire reading list.
2. Another three hour essay test, 3 out of 5 questions, this time dealing with the area of my choosing: poetry, prose, or theater. I have chosen theater.
3. If I pass those two exams, a two hour oral exam. Picture me in a room with three professors, asking me questions dealing with all of the classes I have taken over the past 4 summers in Madrid.

So I am making some progress. I have spent some time on this prior to this week, of course. But now that I dedicate almost all day, every day to the task, it is starting to seem a bit less daunting.
Almost all day is dedicated to reading and studying, but there is always time for Matt Damon. Yesterday I went to see Ocean's 13 for the first time. I know, I am slipping, but I was out of town for a wedding on opening weekend. Loved the movie--this really is the one they should have made last time, as Soderbergh has been quoted as saying.
I also got to meet MadridMan, a dude who runs a website dedicated to Madrid and all things Spain, which I read regularly. The message board is full of dorks like me who live for anything Spanish. There's a link somewhere over there in the sidebar, if you're curious. But MadridMan used to live in Columbus and last year moved to Madrid. We had a few beers after the movie at a rooftop café and it was a great way to spend the afternoon, on a gorgeous day in Madrid. The summer heat hasn't quite started up yet, so it has been in the 70s all week--I am loving it!
OK, back to the History of Spanish Theater in the 20th Century. Woo-hoo.

Estoy en España

Well, I made it here, despite the best efforts of a thunderstorm in Philadelphia. Close to a two hour delay, 90 minutes of which was spent sitting on the plane with a three-year-old screaming at the top of his lungs incessantly. Finally, they put a cork in the kid and we were on our way.
The apartment this summer in Madrid is ok. Not as good as last year's accomodations. Not as clean, not as quiet, and not as close to campus. But it's only 7 weeks, and I can deal with it. As long as I wash the smoke smell out of my stuff as soon as I get home. I'm also keeping my bedroom door shut as much as I can in an attempt to thwart any bad odors, since it is right off the living room.
Yesterday I took the day off of studies, to just relax from the flight and get settled. I unpacked, went shopping to get some essentials (like the electric converter I forgot at home, so I could plug my laptop in). I also bought a fan to help me sleep through the heat, but the weather now is fantastic. It's probably around 65/70 degrees and I am loving it. But I know the heat is coming...
So today, it's off to the grocery store to get some stuff for my little shelf in the fridge. And then I'll be typing notes and doing some serious reading.

One Day More

One day left of school for the year!! Yippee!! I can't wait for it to be over. This has been a very challenging year for many various and differing reasons and I am very glad to see it come to an end.
Now I am preparing for my yearly trek to Madrid for grad school. I leave June 12 and will be back in August. Before that I have a social schedule that is filling up quickly with goodbye dinners and spending time with friends before I leave. We also have a trip to Door County Wisconsin for Colleen's cousin's wedding. And somewhere in there I have to spend some quality time at the library finishing my notes and study materials for the reading list so I can have a shot at passing my comps this summer.
Hopefully I'll have some time between cramming for comps, going to class, and enjoying the Spanish food and sun to keep up with some posting here. If not, shoot me an email to see what's up. Hasta luego.

It's a Boy!

At our last doctor's appointment, we found out that we will be having a boy in September! We have a name all picked out and are in the process of buying a few more clothes in blue (and black and gold, of course!).
Last weekend, we went into the 'burbs with Colleen's parents to do some baby shopping. We managed to spend 4 hours in Babies R Us and ordered a crib and changing table, while registering for other stuff, and walked out of the store with a crib mattress and a changing table pad. Now we have top work on re-arranging everything at our house so we have a place to put things when they arrive. And we want to do this before June 12, when I leave for Spain to finish up my masters degree. We still have our big priorities, though--like seeing Shrek the Third and the 3rd Pirates of the Caribbean movie!

The long wait is over

I have been accepted to the Ph.D. program in Spanish at the University of Wisconsin-Madison!!


Now I have a decision to make. Part of me wanted to just say "I'm doing it" and start packing, especially given how my current job has been over the past weeks. But then I started thinking on a more practical and prudent level and have realized it may be best to ask for a deferred acceptance and see if they will let me start next fall, after my life has calmed down a bit and I am more able to move to another state.

But it's good to know I am in, after waiting for a decision from Madison since January.

Spring has sprung

We missed the spring "game" last weekend. In the morning on Saturday, we both supervised the ACT test at Kennedy. We got paid 95 bucks for 4 hours of work, most of the time just sitting in the room while the kids took the test. Not bad. Then we left straight from school to go to our nephew's first birthday party. 3 hours roundtrip to watch a kid try to eat some cake and open some presents. Not exactly worthwhile, but good in the eyes of the family. It's good karma for when our little one has birthdays.
I bought Volver on DVD. I saw the movie last summer in the theater in Madrid. Amazing film. Too bad I haven't been able to watch the DVD, since I have loaned it out to people. No worries, though, I 'll get to watch it eventually.
Prom is coming. I am one of the two teachers in charge of organizing and planning with the senior class officers. This currently means that I have to arrive to work early to sit in the front foyer and sell tickets. So far things are going smoothly, but there are still about two weeks to go until the big day.
I have purchased my plane ticket for this summer. I leave for Madrid on June 12 and get back on August 7, hopefully with my masters degree in hand. My wife is thrilled, as you can imagine. This also means that we are trying to rearrange the apartment and get everything ready for the little one before I leave--in less than two months.

I do...

So the recent respite from blogging is due to the fact that I have been planning our wedding. I have to say that I am pretty proud of my fiancee and I for planning such a major life event in a little more than 8 weeks.
But the day could not have been better. I didn't even expect everything to go as smoothly as it did.
The day started off with major thunderstorms, which I have to admit, made me a little nervous. But about two hours before the ceremony, the skies cleared and the sun poked through the clouds, making for a gorgeous afternoon. The ceremony was at Danforth Chapel in Hubbard Park, which was a perfect size for our group of 68 guests. I always pictured myself having a larger wedding (mostly due to the size of my family), but this was just perfect. Yes, there are many people who I wish could have been there, but we will also have a wedding in the Church sometime in the future, so that will be the big guest list event.
But I digress (as usual). We had the principal harpist from the Cedar Rapids Symphony play at the ceremony, which went perfectly with the size of the chapel and the mood of the ceremony. The reception was in the IMU in the Richey Ballroom (formerly known as the Triangle Ballroom). Again, everything went very well and I think everyone had a good time.
Highlights of the whole weekend for me:
1. hanging out in the hotel before the ceremony with the groomsmen, watching the NCAA tournament. Just chillin' with Austin, Roberto, Donor and Marc was calming and it made me realize why these were the guys I chose to be closest to me during the events.
2. All the wonderful things people shared with us throughout the weekend. Donor had the amazing and surprising ability to say exactly the right thing to me all weekend long, most of which made me tear up.
3. Speaking of tearing up, my father-in-law gave the most wonderful speech at the rehearsal dinner that still gets me choked up whenever I think about it.
4. My best man, despite all of the jokes at his expense all weekend about his lack of organization or reliability, was amazingly thoughtful and dependable throughout everything. His toast was very typical of him and although a bit disjointed, I wouldn't want it any other way. He even got a canopy for the front of the chapel when it looked like the rain just wasn't going to stop.
5. And of course, I would be remiss if I did not mention the feeling I had when Colleen walked into the chapel. Undescribeable.

We spent a few days in Chicago after the wedding, since we were on Spring Break. It was a good time spent doing the downtown stuff. Shedd Aquarium was a madhouse because as it turned out, the Chicago schools were also on Spring Break, so it was packed with strollers and crazy kids going apeshit.
We did the Art Insitute, Second City, and Wicked. Food was outstanding--the Melting Pot (mmm...fondue), Café Ibérico (mmm...tapas) and our friends Courtney and Gus gave us a dinner at the Palm for a wedding present, so we had dinner there before going to Wicked. It was amazing: great wine, excellent lobster.

All in all, an amazing week. So now I am married.

We brought sexy back

My fiancee and I traveled to St. Paul, MN on Saturday to attend the Justin Timberlake concert. In one word: awesome. Great show, and if you get the chance to see it, don't hesitate. Pink opened and she was very entertaining. Upbeat, funky, and she ended the show singing "I'm Coming Out/Get the Party Started" while hanging upside down from a big fabric/rope. It was very Cirque du Soleil-esque.
Then Justin came out. He did some tunes from his last album, Justified. Such as "Rock Your Body", "Like I Love You" and my favorite, "Señorita". And of course, the majority of the songs were from his current album. We like "What Goes Around", not one of the bigger hits, but a good tune. He surprised with his talent, playing guitar and piano during the show. In fact, there were several segments where he just sat at the piano in the middle of the stage (which rotated while he performed). There was an intermission, which featured a 25 minute performance by Timbaland. This part was the low point. It wasn't anything I couldn't have heard in any club. It was alright for a few minutes, but it started to get a little long. Thankfully, Justin returned and closed the concert with a fantastic, rocking, kick-ass version of "Sexy Back". It was sweet.
The encore was tight. JT came back out in just a t-shirt and warm-up pants, rather than the suit he had worn the rest of the show. He sat at the piano and played one of the ballads from Justified. He also was more chatty here, making the concert seem a little more intimate. He gave the usual "I appreciate my fans" speech, but he comes off as such a cool guy, I found it to be pretty believeable.
And then it happened. The girl two rows in front of us, dressed in a black button-down shirt (her cohorts were wearing the skank uniform--tigh jeans, crazy high heels and some slutty almost-shirt) made me almost go into convulsions of laughter. She stood up at the end of the ballad (nobody else in the second balcony was standing at this point), made the punk rock/devil sign with her hands and screamed at the top of her lungs. It was so out of place and random, it was hilarious. It was almost as out-of-place as the music they played to warm up the crowd between Pink and JT--"Closer" by Nine Inch Nails. The same girl in the black button-down sang along to Nine Inch Nails at the top of her lungs before the concert, so come to think of it, her post-encore antics should have been somewhat expected.
Anyway, it was a kick-ass concert and even better because out hotel was connected to the arena by the Skyway system, so we didn't have to fight traffic or walk outside in the bitter cold. And the Xcel Energy Center is a great place to see a concert--much better than its cross-town counterpart, the Target Center.

Here it comes...

The standard, quick blog update. The bulleted list.

• I have realized that I haven't addressed my engagement on here. Part of that is just a privacy thing (mostly a work issue, but God knows who reads this), but now that word has gotten out, I think it is time to tell the cyberworld that I am engaged to be married. So there.
• Christmas was great. Nice to get away form work , spend time with family, yadda yadda yadda. Next weekend I get to enjoy one of my Christmas presents--a trip to St. Paul to the Justin Timberlake concert. Oh yeah--he's bringing sexy back. I want to know where it was all this time. Maybe he'll tell us at the concert.
• Work is interesting (well, at least the ancillary parts of it). Last week a bank robber came into the building to hide out and change clothes. He left without causing any harm and was quickly apprehended afterwards, but my question is, "Why don't we lock the doors during the day so that unsavory characters like this can't get in?" The administration looked at me during the meeting when I asked that, then proceeded as if they hadn't heard it. I guess ignoring the problem can make it go away.
• Winter sucks. My car doors freeze, I have to shovel snow for the first time since I lived with my parents, and it is just too damn cold. There. My annual griping about winter is done and my life can continue.
• Film awards season is upon us. There really isn't a movie that is contending that I am rooting for. Other than The Departed, which I thought was fantastic. But without any individual recognition for Matt, it is hard to really jump on the bandwagon :) If you get the chance to see Volver, the latest Pedro Almodovar film starring Penelope Cruz, do it. I saw it in Spain last summer and it is outstanding! Stupid Clint Eastwood making films in Japanese that will steal the Oscar.

There. I think that does it. Consider yourself updated.