RANT 'N RAVE #1

I've discovered that every time I sit down to write a post it's a lot easier to complain about something than it is to say something positive. It's time for a change! I've decided that if I want to say something negative about a topic I must also say something positive about that topic. With that having been said, my topic for the night is Minneapolis, MN.

I'll start with the negative, that way I can end on a good note!

Rants:
1. I hate traffic. It takes me about 15 minutes to get to work at 7:00 AM. It takes me over an hour to get home at 5:00 PM
2. I miss Chiefs games being on TV. As it stands, Stacy and I get to listen to them via streaming radio online.
3. Strange weather. I have a positive for this one too, but right now I'm very concerned about the cold weather right around the corner.
4. Everything is about 10% more expensive. Groceries, gas, clothes.
5. Living in an apartment after living in a duplex is not as much fun as you might think.

Raves:
1. Public transportation. We took the bus to the state fair during rush hour last night. It could have easily been a two hour drive to St. Paul, but the bus got us there in 30 minutes. The driver just drove on the shoulder around the traffic jams.
2. Easy access to "big city" attractions. We can be in downtown Minneapolis in 10 minutes where we can attend a wide gamut of events (major sports franchises, touring Broadway theatre companies, top-notch museums, etc.)
3. The weather up here has been most excellent. Sunny with a high of 75 almost every day. Perfection!
4. No sales tax on food, clothes, and other necessities. Along with that, Minneapolis is a great agricultural area. That means great beef and pork. And it's all cheap! Also, General Mills is headquartered here so we can get Lucky Charms and Cinnamon Toast Crunch really cheap. Yes, I still love kids cereals.
5. Umm...okay, I've got it. Almost unlimited hot water in the shower and we have an indoor pool.

Whew! That was hard work. I'm beat now. I'm going to bed.

THE FAIR'S A VERITABLE SMORGASBORD, SMORGASBORD, SMORGASBORD!

Question: What is better than an overstuffed plastic bucket of Martha's Sweet Chocolate Chip Cookies and a bottomless cup of fresh chocolate milk?

Answer: Absolutely NOTHING!!!

That's right! Stacy and I ventured over to St. Paul tonight to go to the Minnesota State Fair. It was so much fun. The food was insane! Deep-fried this, batter-dipped that, and anything (including governors) on a stick.

We also saw all kinds of fun barnyard animals. My personal favorites were the Blue Jersey Giants and the newly-sheered sheep. The sheep are so funny-looking when they are all pink and bare. They all looked really embarrassed. Poor chaps!

JOB LIMBO

by Stacy

As many of you know, I have been on a job hunt ever since we came to Minneapolis. After submitting lots of letters, resumes, and applications, I had received rejections from several places for a variety of reasons (overqualified, underqualified, not Minnesota certified, etc.). Finally, I had three interviews last week. Two of these interviews have yielded job offers so far which is great, but I am really hoping to hear from the third employer. Today was supposed to be the day of finding out, but alas, no news yet. So, I think tomorrow may be the day. Your prayers would be much appreciated as I am not handling "job limbo" so well. Hopefully, I will have job news to report tomorrow.

HANG TIGHT

Please forgive the lack of posts the last few days. I've been working diligently to get my homework done because mine and Stacy's parents are coming up this weekend. I don't want to have any homework hanging over my head. I made some major strides tonight though, so hopefully I'll be back to posting again soon. Thanks for hanging tight. I know you're all just itching to know what's going on up here in the Twin Cities. You'll just have to be patient!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STACY!!!

The title says it all. I'll probably get in trouble if I mention how old Stacy is today or if I make some snide remark about her being old. I can think of about 25 different comments I could make about her old age, but I'm just going to keep my mouth shut and not say anything about her getting old. I wouldn't want to make her upset on her birthday by saying that she's older than I am, and I know that it would not be a nice to call her an old lady on her GOLDEN birthday. I wouldn't dare mention that she is a QUARTER OF A CENTURY old today. Happy birthday Stacy!!! You're not ancient...............but close!


i love you stacy!

CHUCK E. CHEESE, OH YES!

Girls really stink! If they start pleading for something and batting their eyes, there's nothing you can do. I'm a cream puff when it comes to Stacy. Tonight, Chuck E. Cheese was my bane. Yes, I survived, but it wasn't easy fording the screaming booger-eaters and the curious "pizza." I consoled myself by playing skee-ball. I had a record-breaking score and won a monster-load of tickets. We acquired 300 tickets for our troubles, which we kindly donated to some ungrateful snot-dribbler. Gotta love kids!

BUSH SIGHTING

Mr. Bush spoke today at a fundraiser in Minnetonka (where we live). Unfortunately, I wasn't invited to the event. However, we live right next to I-394, which just happened to be the president's exit route. I noticed that I-394 was completely blocked off as I was commuting home. Being the intelligent fellow I am, I quickly put two and two together (and got seven!) and figured out that Bush was on his way. I picked up Stacy at the apartment and we got to the interstate just in time to see Mr. Bush's entourage passing by. Exciting!

RILEY O'SMILEY (NO SPOILERS, PROMISE!)

I got a very exciting package in the mail today! By good buddy and co-worker from Good News Productions, Int'l, Todd Smith, sent me a copy of his new book. It's called Riley O'Smiley. It's a really fun book for children, and it comes with a DVD. I highly recommend it. While Todd was working on the book he allowed me the opportunity to assist him with part of the DVD. Go check it out. For those of you in the Joplin-area, you can pick up a copy at For All Bible or Great Expectations. Or you can pick up a copy online at:

http://www.thomasnelson.com/consumer/product_detail.asp?dept_id=230000&sku=1400308186.

I don't think Amazon has it for sale just yet, but it will be there soon. Good work, Todd! And thanks for my copy!

HOMEWORK, OH HOMEWORK

It's Saturday in the Twin Cities! That means "Homework Day for Aaron!" I have a whole lot of work and a couple of lectures to catch up on. I am in the process of making an animated short film right now. It's about a guy who accidentally locks himself inside of a sound proof booth that he is building. I'm supposed to be revising my storyboards this week. I love writing stories, but I can't draw very well at all (see above), so that really slows down the process. Also, I've spent the entire week working on a computer, so I'm not entirely thrilled about being on a computer all weekend. My eyeballs are turning into little boxes! Time to go watch a lecture. Later!

PRE-GAME PHOTO

Just a quick pre-game snapshot. Please forgive the throwback Montana jersey and the useless Holmes jersey. We're a little behind. Stay tuned!

POST-GAME PHOTO

And this is a post-game snapshot. The Chiefs didn't look so hot tonight. I'm trying to console myself with the fact that it's still preseason, but it's still hard to watch them look so bad.

CITY TRAFFIC

I learned something about myself today. I hate city traffic! We live less than 15 miles from where I work, and it took me over an hour to get home tonight. When I got to one of the exits I normally take, nobody would let me over, so I missed my turn. Luckily, there is another exit close by. However, two garbage trucks blocked me from taking that one too. I ended up driving way out of the way through a bunch of construction and more heavy traffic. I finally found a place to turn around and get back on the highway. But once again, I ran into trouble. This time, as I tried to merge back onto the highway a big semi wouldn't let me merge on, so I ended up on the shoulder. What a mess! I finally got home in one crazy piece. And I'm so excited to do it again tomorrow!

WEEKEND WRAP UP 8/12 - 8/13

FRIDAY - Stacy met me after work on Friday night, and we had a fun date in Edina. We went exploring and found some new areas that we hadn't been to yet. We ate at Chipotle (neither of us had ever been), and we went to Dairy Queen for Blizzards. They were having a Cruise Night at the Dairy Queen so we got to see some pretty cool throwbacks.

SATURDAY - I've spent a large portion of this weekend watching/listening to football games and catching up on some much-needed sleep. We didn't get to watch the Chiefs game up here, but we were able to listen to the radio broadcast online. It's not the same, but it's a decent consolation. We should be able to watch the game Thursday night, though! I'm watching the new Sunday Night Football right now. I think it's going to be better than Monday Night Football (which I will be watching tomorrow night!).

I've also been working on my homework quite a bit this weekend. I have to make a 30-second animated short film by December 17. Believe me, 30 seconds is a lot more difficult than it sounds. I really hope to finish school, but it's going to be tough! After spending 9 or 10 hours on the computer at work every day, I'm going to have to come home and spend 3 or 4 additional hours working on homework. I hope the computer screen doesn't burn holes through my eyeballs!

Actually, I'm pretty concerned about my wrist holding up through the workload. I've had a lot of problems with it after sitting at the computer all day. I've tried a lot of remedies, including using a tablet instead of a mouse and learning to sit properly, but it still hurts a lot.

SUNDAY - Stacy and I tried our third church in three weeks today. There are very few Christian Non-Denominational or Baptist churches up here, so we don't have a lot of options as far as that goes. The church we went to the first week is looking more promising every week. We are really looking for a small group Bible study to join. Hopefully, we make some new friends that way.

Tomorrow starts week three at my new job. I'm excited about this week because I'm hoping to get a little more attention and training. We have a major project due tomorrow, and then I think everything is supposed to settle down for a couple of weeks before we start our next project. I'm pumped about the new project because I'll get to start on it from the beginning and see it all the way through production.

And now, ladies and gents, a special guest...please click your mouses and pound your keyboards for my lovely wife, Stacy...

STACY - Thank you, Aaron, for the lovely introduction. My life is not as exciting as Aaron's right now, but I do have a few things I can share. Today was an important day for my sister and her fiance, Nicholas. They had a wedding shower at Forest Park! I heard it was a great success, but I have to tell you, I was a little mopey the past couple of days because I was not going to be there. However, I enjoyed hearing about it and I can't wait to see the pictures of the mountains of FiestaWare they received.

Another thing that feels weird right now is not buying loads of school supplies for my classroom. My cousin Ashley is starting her first year of teaching (4th grade in WC) and getting nervous and excited. I am excited for her--she is going to be a great teacher. I, on the other hand, am now an unemployed teacher. My position has been filled at North, which is good because school starts on Wednesday! I have been able to email my replacement and I think she'll do really well. I have applied for jobs in several local school districts here (all suburbs of Minneapolis) for teacher's aide or paraprofessional positions. I haven't heard anything back yet, but I get the feeling that the school districts here are not in a huge hurry to hire because school doesn't start until September 5! I would really like to work in a school again so I am hoping I'll be hired for one of these positions. I'll let you know what I find out.

Meanwhile, I am trying to find the best grocery store that is near us. All of you probably know this, but the cost of living in MO is below the national average. Minneapolis, however, being a big city, is above the national average, I believe. So, I have sticker shock with almost everything we buy. I get really stressed out grocery shopping because I am constantly thinking in my head, this bag of shredded cheese would cost $1.50 at Wal-Mart in Joplin, not $2.43! Maybe I shouldn't stress out that much, but it is still disconcerting. The only thing that is cheaper in Minneapolis: General Mills cereal (because it is based here in Minneapolis)! Anyway, I am adjusting and learning which stores have the better deals. Aaron and I have been exploring a lot and found some great things that are near our apartment. Thanks for reading my first post! I hope you all have a wonderful week! Happy back to school for those of you going back!

MINNEAPOLIS SKYLINE

I took this picture of the Minneapolis skyline the other day. This is what I get to see on my way to work every day. Don't worry. I pulled over before I snapped this picture. Later!

POTPOURRI

Yesterday, after five days of hard work, I completed and turned in my first shot. I really questioned my ability to finish the shot, but I managed to get through it. Today I started working on a new shot. This one isn't nearly as difficult as the first one. In fact, I almost finished it today. I should be able to turn it in by tomorrow afternoon.

I am so excited about football season starting. Stacy and I have been watching the Colts and Rams tonight. I always look forward to Sunday afternoons and Monday nights. I hope we are able to see the Chiefs games this season, after all, we are in Vikings/Packers country now.

I am suffering from a lack of sleep so my thoughts are a little disjointed in this post. Please forgive me! I really appreciate everyone leaving comments. I'll keep posting if I know people are interested. I do have an assignment for you, however. If there is anything you would like to know about my job, our apartment, Minneapolis/Minnetonka/Edina, animation, Stacy and her job, or anything else, leave a comment and I'll try to answer with a post. I'd gladly take your suggestions for topics, as I will probably run out of ideas soon. Later!

Things on the horizon for this blog:

• More pictures of the apartment/apartment complex
• More information about how my schooling is going (I'm working on a short film)
• Pictures of Wet Cement (No, not the stuff sidewalks are made from. The place where I work. This is, provided I don't get in trouble for taking pictures. Top secret stuff!)

CENTENNIAL PARK

Centennial Park is a really neat park in Edina, the town where I work. It has paddle boats, lawn games, gondola rides, an amphitheatre, and the best miniature golf course I've ever seen. Stacy usually meets me at work every day and we go to the park to eat lunch. Tonight we decided to try out the miniature golf course. While we played, a jazz band was playing in the amphitheatre. I won't embarrass myself by telling you what I shot, but I will post some pictures of the park. If you click on the pictures, you can see larger images. Later!

OUR NEW PAD #1

I just wanted to post a picture of our new living room. It's my favorite room in the apartment. At night we close the curtains, and in the morning we walk in and the room has this cool red glow to it. It makes me happy!

MONDAY, MONDAY

Today I started my second week of working at Wet Cement Productions. Today also marks two weeks in our new apartment here in Minneapolis. It was a tough beginning to the week. I'm still working on my first shot, and will be for the next several days. The shot is eating my lunch! But I'm trying my best. I'm supposed to do five seconds of completed animation every day. Right now, I'm way behind schedule because I'm still trying to get comfortable with the software and the characters. I'll let you know when I finish.

I have to brag about two things. My car has had a lot of trouble starting when it gets hot. Apparently, it's a fairly common problem in Honda's with the main relay (whatever that is). My amazing wife found a Honda repair shop, scheduled an appointment, and took my car in for repairs for me today. Two cheers for Stacy! The other thing I must brag about happened at work. At lunch time, all of the animators go outside and play four square. I was champion of the day, beating out 10 other guys!

That's about it for today. I'll try to post pictures of our new place soon. Thanks for reading. Leave comments or something terrible might happen!

CHIEFS VS. VIKINGS...FOOTBALL SEASON HAS ARRIVED!!!

Tuesday night Stacy and I were reading the Star Tribune (the Minneapolis newspaper), and we noticed that the Chiefs and Vikings were scrimmaging each other Friday night in Mankato at Minnesota State University. Realizing that this might be the only chance we had to see Kansas City play this season, we hopped online and found some cheap $10 tickets.

We had a blast! The stadium (a little bit larger than Hughes Stadium at Missouri Southern) was packed. In fact, we couldn't get a seat in the stands, so we had to sit in the end zone on a large hill. For most of the evening we sat next to the guy who wears the KC Wolf costume. We eventually were able to sneak down to the front row ten feet from the end zone. The crowd was a 50-50 split between Chiefs fans and Vikings fans. The teams scrimmaged for about two hours. The Chiefs, who spent most of the evening on defense, didn't look too bad. Close up, we got to see Herm Edwards along with Gunther Cunningham, Trent Green, and Dustin Colquitt. We also got to see Dante Hall return a few punts, which made Stacy very excited.

The most exciting part of the evening happened once the scrimmage was over. We could see where the players were leaving the field, so we rushed over hoping to meet a few of the guys. As luck would have it, we went to the Vikings side of the field. Suddenly, we were the only two schmucks with Chiefs jerseys on. We noticed that all of the Chiefs fans were on the other side of the field, so we rushed over to that side. By the time we got over there only a few of the guys were still signing autographs. One of them happened to be LARRY JOHNSON!!! I was easily able to get up front where I got Larry's autograph. We were also able to get up close enough to see Patrick Surtain, Greg Wesley, and Benny Sapp. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get their autographs.

Overall, it was quite an exciting night! That's the exciting news I had mentioned a few days ago (probably a let down for some of you non-Chiefs fans out there...I pity you). I didn't want to say anything in case we weren't able to get in or we got lost on the way. I would have felt really dumb. But as it stands, I feel like bragging now because I got the chance to go! I'm blowing raspberries at all of you who didn't get to (don't worry, you'll have plenty of chances to blow them back as you are watching the games on TV and I'm stuck watching the Vikings). If you don't believe anything I've said in this post, just look up above. There's the proof. Later!

MY FIRST SHOT

Today I was handed my first shot assignment at my new job. I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to say about it, so I better just keep it under wraps for now. Hopefully I can talk about it soon. I will say that it's not the most exciting shot I've ever done, but I'm glad that they are easing me into production as I still have a lot to learn.

WARNING! This next paragraph is bound to be boring. Read at your own risk!

I finally got my computer back from the shop. Before we left Joplin, I sent it off to have the hard drive replaced (it went bad), and I was nervous about it finding its way to its new home. But everything went well. I've spent most of the evening trying to get all the software and drivers put back on it. Reinstalling everything and getting it back to its old settings is always a big pain in the posterior, but I guess it's worth it in the end. Later!

A WEE BIT HOMESICK

We've been in Minneapolis for about a week and a half now, and our families went back home a week ago today. I have to say that time has passed very quickly. However, there is still that bottomless pit feeling in my heart because I miss home. But, we're pressing on!

I know that God's got a plan for us, and we must stay focused on Him. We must continue to trust Him. He's never let us down before, so why would he start now? I read a really insightful passage in my daily devotional (Oswald Chambers' My Utmost For His Highest). It talked about how God doesn't teach us things so that we will learn something. Rather He teaches us things so that we will unlearn something. Maybe this whole experience is helping me to unlearn my habit of leaning on my parents so much for everything. Maybe He wants me to unlearn my habit of leaving Him out of the decisions and trials so that I will lean on him more.

Having a full-time job makes one grow up very quickly. I suddenly feel a real burden to do a good job so that I can support our habits of eating and sleeping. I've never had to get up at 5:30 in the morning for so many consecutive days. I think the hardest part is getting home at 6:00 and having only a few hours with Stacy before I have to go to bed. Those few hours have already become so precious. I used to come home and watch TV until I went to bed, but now I want to spend every minute I can with Stacy. I'm home when I'm with her.

All right! Enough sappiness for one night. I've got some exciting things to share soon, but I can't reveal any of it just yet. Besides, who doesn't like a cliffha.......

TWO DAYS IN THE CAN AND STRANGE WEATHER

As the title states, I have completed my first two days at my new job. It has been a difficult couple of days. I've been learning my third 3d animation software package, Lightwave. I miss using Maya (the software I use at school). However, by the end of the day today, I started feeling a little better about everything. All of the people at Wet Cement seem really fun. I think I'm going to enjoy working with them. They are scrambling to finish a big project right now, so they haven't had a lot of time to help me get adjusted to the job. Hopefully things will calm down a bit before the next project starts, and I'll be able to jump in and be useful.

Naturally, when one thinks about Minnesota, one's mind instantly thinks--cold! Not true. Not yet anyway. In fact, when Stacy and I came up a couple of weeks ago to scope things out the temperature was in the mid-90's every day. Yesterday the temperature reached 101 degrees. It was the first triple digit temperature in 11 years! Today, it was 75 and rainy. Go figure! Oh, and I didn't mention all of the tornado warnings in the area. Later!