Rain beats snow

Especially when we are currently 45 degrees warmer than St. Paul and 47 degrees warmer than LP right now.  So I'm pretty happy about that, and I'll take the rain.  

Work is going well.  I've gotten a lot done, and I found out we might be caught up with everything that we're hoping to do for the whole year by the time I leave (which is they at first didn't think would happen, cuz they added other things in there too).  So that's pretty exciting.  I've also gotten 4 free meals in the past 2 days from them, which is great.  The holiday decorations are looking amazing too, not quite as good as last years, but they're looking pretty good.  I guess they'll be on all the morning shows tomorrow morning.  Check out the photos from last year.  I don't think it'll look quite that cool this year, but it'll still be nice.  Also you can take a 

Other than that life isn't overly exciting.  I need to start running again, I haven't run in about a week, but I did lots of walking with the parents, so that counts for something I think.  But anyway, I'll stop rambling.  Have a good night.

Austin Bleess

http://bleaus.net

Thanksgiving Weekend

It was a great time hanging out with Beth and my parents this past week.  We did a lot of really neat and fun things.  We toured the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, went to the top of the Washington Monument, toured the Capitol, and the Library of Congress, saw the Supreme Court of the United States, the West Wing of the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the Korean Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, the National Museum of American History, Eastern Market, Union Station, and probably other places that I don't remember right now.  It was good times.  

Beth and I had a chance to hang out on our own and have a date!  That was weird, in a good way.  We just don't get chances to go out on dates very often.  We went to Old Ebbitt Grill for dinner, and went to see A Christmas Carol at Ford's Theatre.  That was a blast!  It was a really good play, and it was awesome to see it at Ford's Theatre.  We had seen A Christmas Carol in MN a few years ago, but I'm not so sure about which one I liked better

My parents got out here early enough on Tuesday to see the Presidential Departure.  They were pretty excited about that.  Actually seeing the President is a great honor, and they really loved it.  Plus I enjoyed it too.  

We had Thanksgiving Dinner at my Uncle Brian's house.  It was a great dinner.  The full fledged meal, with all the fixings which was very nummy.  We got a chance to walk around the neighborhood a little bit too.  That was nice to get out of the city for a bit, even if it was only to the suburbs.  Nice to get out and see something other than buildings.  

I took a bunch of pictures over the weekend.  I'll try to get those up at some point.  The link will be posted here when I get them up.  I've got about 80 or so of them.  SOme of them are duplicates of other pictures I've taken, but some are new.  

I got everyone to the Airport on time and even got them to security on time too.  There didn't seem to be to big of a line.  I'm tracking their flight online, and it looks like they should be there on time, even though their plane left late.  I've noticed that the Flight Tracker Widget doesn't appear to be working today.  I'm not sure if it's a new thing or not, but I can still track it on the website.  

I'll be back to MN in 13 days.  Maybe I should put a countdown up for ya'll.  But I'm excited to experience everything still, so maybe not.  

I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving Weekend like I did.  

Happy Sunday

It's been a decent one.  Church at CHBC as normal.  They had the College/Intern lunch today too.  Spaghetti and Meat Balls, which were very scrumptious I must say.  It was very nice to engage in some fellowship with fellow interns and some Q&A with the pastor there.  

I must say that I'm sad that Ken Barlow is leaving Kare 11.  He's a great weather guy, and I'm gunna miss watching him.  Not like I've been able to do that lately anyway, but he's a great one to watch.  Very funny.  

I also read an interesting article about blogs. It appears rather interesting especially because I've read a few blogs of people who could take a few tips about that.  You gotta be a little smart about that. 

Tomorrow starts another work week.  It's a short one though.  Just tomorrow and Tuesday, and tomorrow I don't have to be there til 9:30 or so.  And then Beth and the parents are coming out on Tuesday!  I'm excited!  Tomorrow I get to watch the Vikings on Monday Night Football!  What a great day.  

Relaxing!

Today has been a great day of basically sitting around.  It's a nice day to relax.  I did go for a jog though.  So I did something at least.  But yeah, other than that not an exciting day.  

I read a lot of news stuff today.  My favorite was to see that Yoda made the Maxim list of Short Men  Go Yoda!  

That's all folks.

Rocking all Weekend

The past few days have been going well.  I've had a lot of late nights at work.  However we finished the big project we were working on, and so things will get back to normal now.  That'll be sort of nice.  Because we put a lot of long hours in the past 2 weeks, Lauren told that she better not see me before 9 am on Monday, and that I should sleep in.  So I shall do as I'm told.  That'll be great.  Lauren and I have had a lot of good times (not with the work, but the random stuff we discover doing the project).  Such as: Mr. Strange, and our favorite Flippin, AR.  How great is that?

Last night I hung out with an intern friend.  We went to the Lincoln Memorial and hung out.  It was good times.  The Lincoln is a great monument at night, and the view towards the capitol is simply amazing.  There isn't a better view in the city at night I would say.  Or during the day for that matter.  It was fun, even though it was chilly.

It's taken a turn for the cold here.  It's in the 30's right now.  Day time highs of 50.  So it's not totally cold I guess, but for a person who's not acclimated to the cold weather I'm feeling it.  Of course my friend who I hung out with last night is from Cali.  She was pretty darn cold.  I got to tell her the joys of MN, and informed her about block heaters in cars.  She had never heard of them before.  I thought that was cool.

Have a good Friday night!

I'm still here

It's been a busy few days.  

Sunday:  Church was pretty good.  They had a potluck afterwards.  Those are always good.  So I enjoyed some good food and fellowship.  

After that I came back to watch the Vikings game.  First game that has been on TV out here all season.  I was pretty darn excited about that.  It was great to watch them play.  They did alright.  Well Defense and Special Teams.  They were lacking in the area of offense.  I watched the game until right after the Giants scored the touchdown to make it 19 -21.  Then right before the Giants went for 2 they cut over to the start of the Redskins game.  I was so mad.  So I tracked it online and watched the highlights as they came from the Game Breaks.  I was glad to see the Vikings won.

I get to watch them next week too.  Monday Night Football!  Sweet action!

Yesterday: I worked sort of late.  I think I got home at like 8:15.  I've been doing a lot of Christmas card stuff.  Basically going through the Duplicates List.  That's been exciting.  Okay, not really.  But I think I finished them up today.  I may help Lauren with some tomorrow, but we'll see.  Otherwise I think we're done.  That's pretty darn exciting.  

1 week from tonight Beth and the parents come out.  I'm excited to see them again.  It's going to be good times.  We're also doing a West Wing Tour and a bunch of other touristy stuff out here.  That'll be really sweet.  I'm looking forward to that.  We get to do all the fun stuff.  I'll be sure to take lots of pictures. 

I'm officially a History Minor now.  That's pretty cool.  No longer does it say that I'm in the evil computer science world.  Plus I talked with the Registrar today and everything is worked out to still graduate in May.  That's pretty cool I must say.  It's a lil sad cuz that means I'll be leaving the world of ITS.  But I think I'll live.  I shall live on there in spirit, or maybe I'll just move on to bigger and better things.  I think I'll do that.

A touristy day

Pictures from yesterday are up.

It was pretty darn fun.  I went to the Post Office Tower today.  It was an amazing view.  Very cool.  I think that it's the second tallest tower in DC, besides the Washington Monument.  I'm not to positive on that though.  It was a great view, I loved it.  I've got pictures, and they are here.

I also went to Ford's Theatre.  I couldn't go up to the theatre and see the box where Lincoln was shot, because they were practicing for the play they're putting on.  So that was a lil bummer, but I got to go to the museum and see the stuff that was there.  I also went to the Petersen house across the street.  That's the place where Lincoln actually died.  It was small, but interesting to see.

After that fun stuff we went to the National Archives.  We saw the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.  That was pretty cool to see the real documents.  I took some pictures too.  They turned out alright.  You can't use flash though, so they are a lil dark.  It was good though.

Tonight I went to the CHBC College/Intern fellowship night.  It was good times.  There were snacks and apple cider.  We played Taboo and did a lil bit of a study on the sermon scripture tomorrow.  1 Cor 11:2-16.  It's an interesting verse.  We studied that a lot in Male and Female last year and in the Life and Teaching Paul.  So that was kind of interesting. 

I'm pretty excited about tomorrow.  First off there is a potluck at church.  That's going to be scrumptious.  Second I get to watch the Vikings!  That's right they're on TV out here.  They're playing the Giants tomorrow, and the Redskins play the late game.  So tomorrow is going to be a good day.  After that I'll head to the coffee shop and post my pictures, work on my website a lil bit, start writing my paper for my course, and then maybe doing some work on a few other things.

I can be a History Minor!

I got an email back from the Registrar's Office saying I can do
that. That's pretty darn sweet! So now I can drop my Software
Engineering course, and pick up a History course. I think I'm going
to go for Modern America.

Of course there is American Public Policy that I wanted to take which
is the same time as Software Engineering that I could take too. Oh
the options, they are abundant. What shall I do? I don't really know.

Okay, I got it all figured out. It's going to be a fun semester, but
it will be busy, that's for sure! I think I might take my internship
without credit, so I can take another class that I want to. It'll be
fun!

Oh and to answer Brad's question I'm taking Perspectives On Christian
Marriage with Michelle Louis.

Another Holiday

It's Veteran's Day, and I would urge everyone to thank the men and
women who have served and are serving to keep America free and safe.

Today is a nice day. I went into work today for a little bit.
Lauren told me not to come in until 11. So I slept in, went for a
jog, and headed to work. Turns out that she decided to postpone most
of what we were going to do today. So I was there for only a half
hour or so. That's fine with me. Yesterday I was there 14 hours,
and the day before that was 12. So it's been a long week, but it's
been good times. After the majority of people leave we put on some
music, and talk about a bunch of random things. It's a more relaxed
office setting, which is good times. It's the only way to stay sane
doing that type of work, and those hours.

I'm going to hit up a museum or two today. I'm going to go to the
Postal Museum today. Depending on how long that takes me, I would
like to go to Ford's Theatre and the museum across the street where
Lincoln died. So that should be pretty interesting. I'll try to
take pictures if I can.

Also I realized today something that made me very happy. I am
enrolled for 2 courses that carry cross credit in History. I have
also taken 3 other courses that carried cross credit in History.
Now, if I'm thinking correctly, that means I should have 15 History
credits. If that's the case I am only 3 credits away from a History
minor. That means I could take a History Minor instead of bogging
myself down with Software Engineering this spring, and trying to find
a place to take web programming from. The only hitch is that I don't
know for sure if I can get both History and Poli Sci credit for the
same class. I sent an email to the registrars office to find out if
that's possible or not. It would be great, and I would love it!
We'll see though. I'll keep you informed.

I'm off to enjoy this beautiful day and go check out some museums.
Have a great Friday!

I'm still a student!

I registered for classes tonight. That was good times. I got
everything I wanted. I didn't get the section I wanted for
Perspectives on Christian Marriage, but that's alright. Right now I
only have 1 class on M-W-F. That's alright. I'm going to Intern on
those Afternoons I think, or maybe just M-W. That'll be nice. Have
Friday afternoons free.

I have a fun story from today! It was cool. Here's the work
approved version:

Yup so that's all I can say about that. Work is going well though.
11 hour days the past few, which has been fun. Okay, maybe not fun,
but it's been alright. After a while we start to go crazy, and
Lauren and I have start laughing over the smallest things. It's fun.

1 month from today and it's all over. I'm a lil sad. I'm going to
miss it out here a little bit. Definitely going to miss the office.
It's a fun place to work. I really like it. 1 month from tomorrow
and I'm back in MN. Not really looking forward to the weather. It
was in the 70's here today. Very nice.

Anyway I'm gunna get some sleep. Have a good night. Good luck to
all those who are registering for classes!

I did the touristy stuff!

That's right. I saw a bunch of stuff today. I hit all the Memorials
(Washington, Jefferson, FDR, Lincoln, Korean War, Vietnam War) and
the buildings (Capitol, Library of Congress, White House, Supreme
Court, Department of Ag, Department of Education, Department of the
Interior, Watergate), and saw some great fall colors around the
Jefferson Memorial. Of course I didn't do it in the normal tourist
fashion. I jogged it all. That was a long jog, but it was fun.

I must say that the FDR is probably my favorite. It looks really
cool. But the Jefferson and Lincoln are really sweet cool. It's a
toss up. I don't have a favorite building, but their are a lot of
nice ones. I'm going to miss the great buildings to see when I run
around here, when I get back to MN. It's going to be a lil strange.
I have a bad feeling that I'm going to be stuck running in the SRC.
Oh well.

I got up at 5:30 this morning so I could get to the Ellipse today and
get tickets for the Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony. I got there at
6:10 or so, and they were handing out tickets that ensure you get the
real ticket. They handed out 700 of the first tickets, and I got
number 501. My friend whom I was meeting there got there about 25
minutes later and got number 642. The first people in line got there
at 8pm last night. I'm not quite that into it, but it'll be great to
see. I'm looking forward to that. Afterwards my friend bought me
some coffee at Starbucks, and we headed to Eastern Market to get some
BlueBucks. They were scrumptious. Plus we had some great
conversations about a variety of things, and some interesting
political ones too.

So that was pretty much my day in reverse order. It was good times.
Hope everyone had an enjoyable Saturday.

The Dashblog ate my post!

I had a great post last night, but it never appeared. I think it might have even eaten another post or two. I'm not sure. Anyway, I'll try to recover some of the greatness from my post last night.

So I still can't believe that October is gone. It seems like it started yesterday. It's so crazy. It flew by. I had a lot going on with work stuff, and the weekends weren't to bad. Usually busy, but also relaxing.

This week has been good. Very busy. Tuesday I met with Senator Coleman. I talked with him for a while, and it was fun. I really enjoyed that. He seemed interested in getting to know me a little bit. That was nice. I got a picture with him too. He's going to sign it and send me a copy. That'll be neat.

We had a Habitat for Humanity Service Project on Wednesday. That was pretty fun. I got to pound some nails, and climb up some scaffolding. It was good times. We had a (mostly) good group. That definitely helps out. It was a great day too. About 60 degrees or so. I was in the sun pretty much the whole time and it was great. Really loved it.

Today I got out of work kind of early. Okay really early (comparatively speaking). I left a few minutes after 5. I think that was the first time this week I didn't have an 11 hour day. Those are typical. It's fun though. Plus stuff is actually working well there now, unlike the slow servers and stuff we did have. Its' a great improvement. I feel a lot more productive.

The weekend is going to be pretty good. Tomorrow is going to be an early morning, because I'm meeting some people at 6:15 am to get tickets for the National Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony. That's going to be a great thing to see. It's happening on Dec. 1. I'm looking forward to that. It seems like December is just around the corner, which is weird. Some one figured it out today for me, and it's 36 days until I return to MN. That's going to be kind of weird. I haven't been there for so long, but it does kind of feel like I've only been gone a week or so. Oh well. It'll come.

Enjoy your Friday night!