More Toolyweed Pictures!

Okay boys--this is the continued posting of the original pictures of our faithful members.

Celebrity Matches to come!

Adam

Tooleyweed Original Pictures!

Hey--this might not make sense to anyone that's not in my fantasy football league. But I'm going to have the original pictures for the Celebrity Doppelganger feature here. So here's what I have so far:

Len and Jesse Koller

More to come!

Adam

It's about time!

Yes, it's true. It's been more than 5 months since I lasted posted anything. Much has happened since then, and I think once you hear/read what, you'll be a little more forgiving...

For starters, I'm engaged! That's right, y'all. I proposed to Krystal on the night of December 12th, on the Stone Arch Bridge (site of one of my favorite dates with her). She said yes (exact words: "Yes! Of course! Yes!" then not much else for about 10 minutes), and we even have a date!

Side note: If you would like to hear the full story, give me a call! I'd be more than happy to fill in the holes...

While we don't have everything nailed down, here's what we do know right now about the wedding:

Date: June 23, 2007
Time: 2:00pm
Location: Redeemer Covenant Church--Brooklyn Park, MN
Dessert Reception to follow

Now, if I was really fancy, and didn't have pictures that were all over 3 MBs in size, I'd throw one in this blog of the aftermath of the proposal. Unfortunately, I'm not really fancy.

What I can say is this: if you are looking for something do to on that weekend (and who isn't? It's summer dangit!), please let us know. We may already have contacted you about one duty or another, and we may be contacting you further as we continue to sort things out! Any, and I mean any help would be greatly appreciated. Also, if anyone happens to know a solid yet inexpensive photographer, that would be wonderful information as well.

At that, I must be off, as I'm supervising two test-taking young gentleman in a very quiet and calm classroom. I hope to start back up with this blogging thing--perhaps we will have a wedding blog of some sort (sorry Kyle for stealing that idea)...

grace and peace,

adam

Till the Sun Turns Black.

Today's post will double as an album review and travelogue.

We left my apartment around 5 or so on Friday night. Traffic was a lot lighter than we previously expected, and we were out into the boonies of Lakeville and Farmington before we knew it. Krystal drove, and I had the distinct pleasure of leaning over every 30 seconds or so to make sure she wasn't going 20 over the speed limit. (She never did, by the way.)

We made it to our first turnoff just south of Mason City just before dusk, and we began scouting out potential locations for dinner. If there's one thing I learned about road signs in Iowa, it's that when there's a town listed on the occasional mileage sign, it doesn't mean that town is necessarily on that road. This was made painfully clear to us as we made our way west on Highway 18, with little or no food options available to us, and our stomachs growling louder and louder as each mile passed.

Finally, we settled on eating in Waterloo, and although there was a Panera there (random, I know, but more random restauranting comes later), we chose Wendy's. Apparently, all but two of this particular Wendy's employees were gone for the evening, so it was left to one extremely harried gentleman who appeared to be managing the place (as well as cooking, salting, packaging, and delivering the fries, and running the cash register at the counter). After that unsatisfying meal, we headed over to Target, as we had run out of CDs, and the current tape adaptor for the iPod was less than stellar.

As we entered the store, we were immediately greeted by the electronics section, a constant temptation for me, who is always looking to expand his musical collection (some may call it pissing my money away, but I call it research for the one song I write every two years). Anyway, there were three or so CDs I wanted to purchase, but my faithful financial accountability partner would not allow it. This frustrated me, as my accountability partner was bold enough to actually stop me from doing something. We decided on a compromise of one CD, and that became Ray Lamontagne's latest, Till the Sun Turns Black.

Once we had made it back on to the tangled web of confusion known as the Greater Cedar Falls/Waterloo freeway system, and aligned ourselves southward, Ray went in the CD player. Maybe it was the chance to spend some quality bonding time with Krystal, maybe it was the not-quite-cloudy, not-quite-clear night that presented itself, or maybe it was just the music, but it was one of those perfect convergences of music and a situation that leaves one absolutely transfixed. I haven't had very many of these in my life, and this was a special one.

From the very beginning notes of TTSTB (hereby shortened to save you, the readers, some time, as I'm already quite wordy enough), you are surrounded by a warm, well-arranged musical cocoon of strings, acoustic guitar, and Ray's distinctive voice, demanding at once both the subject of the song and the listener to "be here now."

The album continues on in sheer loveliness, paying tribute to the best sounds of the vinyl era. One of the album's highlights is track 4, "Three More Days." It's a perfectly crafted 70's era soul song, complete with glorious Wurlitzer by John Medeski, he of MMW fame. The track fades out with horns, voice, moaning guitar, and keyboard all grooving together.

This nugget is immediately followed by the starkness of "Can I Stay," one of the most tender love songs of this new, harsh millenium. It is a study in the beauty of simplicity, with the silent spaces simply serving to further highlight the interplay between guitar and voice.

I would love to wax rhapsodic about each song on this album, but time forbids me working much longer. There should be no question on whether or not to buy this album (or burn it, if you're amoral), but rather, how soon. Its single greatest quality may have been to lend beauty to a night, and a landscape that is not often considered much to look at. You can enjoy this album at any time of day, but it is most comfortable, and the most masterful as the sun fades, and the moon takes its place.

I have listened to the album all the way through at least five times since I bought it, and its beauty and strength in craft have not faded in the tiniest bit.

Unfortunately, one cannot say the same thing about Keokuk, our eventual destination for the evening.

More to come.

The City of Five Seasons.

Okay, okay--so I didn't really stay in Cedar Rapids on my trip through Iowa. But Krystal and I did drive through it, and we discovered that the city calls itself "The City of Five Seasons."
You might ask, "What could possibly the fifth season?"
You would be 100 percent correct in wondering if these Iowans have added to their calendar in a vain attempt to make people notice them, or if they just can't count, like the politicians in Indiana who once sought to set the value of pi at 3.2.

Don't believe me? Paste this address:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_341.html

Well, worry no further, for I have uncovered the answer to the mysterious fifth season.
It is, according to the city's website, "a time to enjoy."

One might easily wonder what people in Cedar Rapids have to enjoy, and why it is so important to lengthen the calendar to make sure people enjoy it.

Of course, one could also wonder how such a wonderfully inane city motto got past the planning board.

I have much more to write about our travels to the great land to the south, but I have to head to bed, as tomorrow is the first day of my new teaching career! Woot!

Thanks for being patient, all 3 of my faithful readers (thanks Mom!).

More will follow.

I am employed!

Some of you reading this may be familiar with my employment crisis from earlier this summer, as I swore I never wanted to be an EBD teacher again.
Some of you may also remember that I had no other good ideas, so I applied to a few positions in the district I grew up in.
Those of you would be pleased to hear that last Thursday, I interviewed for an E/BD position at my old high school (Champlin Park--what what!).
Those of you would also be pleased to hear that I was offered the position as of yesterday afternoon!
Thanks be to God.
I'm excited for this for more than a couple reasons:
1. Continued employment--always looks good when buying cars and houses and whatnot
2. Continued benefits--always looks good when trying to get fancy machines to help you sleep
3. A second chance. Now, if you are familiar with my situation, you might say to yourself, "Isn't this his third year of teaching?", and you'd be right. However, my last year was a complete crapfest, and I didn't give as much as I should have, and I'm grateful to have the opportunity to prove that I am capable and qualified to do what I'm about to do.
Given just how poorly last school year went, I was surprised that Champlin Park gave me another chance, but I am incredibly grateful.
4. Time during the school day to complete paperwork (something completely foreign to my previous position.)
5. The opportunity to be a part of a big school faculty--85 kids is great and all, but 3200 is so much better! I like big numbers.

The best part about this whole thing is I got hired a full MONTH before school started--which is by far the longest amount of time I've ever had to prepare for a school year. I'm not going to waste it, either. MacGyver's calling my name!

So to end what is undoubtedly my shortest blog in quite some time, thank you to everyone who was praying for me, and I hope to talk to you all soon!

Grace and peace,

Adam

The man in the comfort gel mask.

Before I get started, I'd like to thank everyone for their comments and prayers concerning my blog from last week. I think some of my hopelessness was due to an overwhelming sense of exhaustion, and on Monday night, I went in for a sleep study to find out exactly what that exhaustion was caused by.

The sleep study itself was an experience in itself. I arrived to meet Ed, the gentleman who would be taking care of me for the majority of my stay. He directed me to my room, which had the general appearance of a hotel room, complete with queen-size bed and cable TV. The only difference was this massive box on the wall that I soon would be plugged into. I waited a little while, and my new friend Ed began attaching wires and sensors all over the place--nowhere inappropriate, but there were a heck of a lot of them--I think I counted 30 by the time he was done. There were EEG sensors, EKG sensors, a snore microphone, a finger oximeter, and a couple belts he put around my waist and chest to see what kind of expansion I was getting when I breathed.

The last, and most intriguing piece of equipment was a CPAP machine. For those of you that are unfamiliar, it stands for Continuous Positive Air Pressure. The CPAP machine combats sleep apnea, and since I had some symptoms that reminded Ed of apnea, he thought he'd get me some practice on it.

A quick course on sleep apnea: When you get into REM sleep, the muscles in your throat relax, especially when you're on your back. For most people, this doesn't create a problem. But for people with apnea, this tissue relaxes to the point where it closes off your airway, and you stop breathing for a very small amount of time. Eventually, the brain realizes it's not getting as much oxygen as it should, and it triggers you to move, ever so slightly, enough to get you breathing again. Apnea is considered more severe the more times an hour you go through this process (each incident is called an apnea). For me, we discovered at my deepest point of sleep, I was getting up around 30 times an hour. Now, this is considered moderate sleep apnea, but it's easy to see why I might be feeling exhausted, no?

What the CPAP machine does is keep your airway open by pushing air through your system by means of a mask you wear over your nose (see above). You can control the amount of pressure, as well as the humidity of the air, with this nifty little machine, and it's supposed to work wonders for sufferers of apnea.

As a result of my test, they recommended I get the CPAP machine for myself. I met with a nice man named Brent, who showed me all around my machine, and instructed me in cleaning and care of my new toy.

Well, I've written two really, really long posts, so I'm going to leave this one short. Basically, I'm able to stand the mask on my face for about 3 hours at this point, and the longer I use it, the better (hopefully) I will feel!

So wish me luck!