Ever wonder what it must be like to be one in 30,000, slowly making your way down a “body” of water (dare we call it a body) for almost one mile, taking over 45 minutes in the absolute hottest part of the day? Well I didn’t really stop to consider it but I bet it would be pretty undesirable.

Good thing I’m not a rubber duck.

Yesterday I was at the Rotary Club’s 4th Annual Duck Race and had a blast of a time. Dwight York, Rotarian, won the grand prize. I didn’t win anything. But I was the first person to know who won. Me and my computing prowess. Haha, yeah, whatever. I’m very thankful that God had given me a clear mind to program a software product that worked without defect.

Then last night, Laquie and a bunch of us went to go see Cindy de la Fe and Salvador at the Civic Plaza. Andy was up on stage playing with Cindy, and it was a rockin’ time. They had a massive fireworks show that went on as well–one of the best I have ever seen, in fact. It sure makes a difference being, oh, 50 feet away from the fireworks as opposed to miles and miles. And it was long, too–a good fifteen minutes or so. Blessed.

Well so concludes the weekend after the first week of school. I get to talk to someone very special tonight–I’m very excited. So, off the stinkin’ computer and on to better things!!!

Updated: somewhat new pictures.

“… and we are the dreamers of dreams” says Willy Wonka, owner of the Chocolate Factory. This line was recently heard in a techno song that Dan let me listen to. So what kind of deep meaning can you find?

Being the first week of school, things are extremely busy, but I think it’s going to be a grand semester. CRU started last night. It’s good to be a child of the King. The Duck Race is tomorrow, and I’m am getting ready to get down with my bad self at Duck Central as I work with data analysis and finally determine the winner. Funny that they should leave the entire conclusion of the race to one college student.

Mike, methinks you should update your website much more

You see, I don’t actually have class until tomorrow. I have Mondays and Fridays. A big “haha” to all those who have class on Mondays and Fridays.

Okay, so I promised a little detail into the past four days. There’s too much stuff to type out, but I’ll do my best.

Thursday

It started with a trip to the airport to see Tiff, Renee’s best friend and former roommate. She was here in town for a layover on her way to Oregon for a little rafting action and relaxation time. Ahh, relaxation. I am definitely envious. We had a great time chatting on the observation deck, taking a couple snapshots (to appear later) and then saying quick goodbyes as she and her travel partner April continued on their merry way. It was quite strange, however, because I knew everything that was going on in her life because Renee had told me, yet I hadn’t seen or talked to Tiff for a good three months or so.

So then I went to work and tarried until 2pm, then went home to do more work. Exciting. Not exactly worthy of webspace.

That evening, we had our last summer Bible study for CRU and celebrated with a little ice-block action at Netherwood. Even though some of us got lost on the way, it was still an enjoyable time until the weather started moving in and we had to dodge the lightning bolts. So we booked it to Frontier and proceeded to relax and hangout over sweet-rolls and caffeine until about 11pm or so. TJ demonstrated his neat new toy, of which I’m sure you’ll hear about soon.

Friday

Friday was busy simply because there was a lot of work involved. It started with a trip to the office, was interrupted with some lunch, and then completed with a trip to the northeast Heights to install a CD-writer for a client. Fun stuff.

Then came the exciting stuff–CRU stuff. We had a servant team meeting at 4pm to discuss about what involvement and structure is going to look like this year, with plenty of questions and answers. I’m going to be a “shepherd”, meaning I am in charge of preparing content for my Bible study and basically leading it. I’m sharing this role wtih Jean, and we’re going to be doing a Bible study in Hokona on Wednesday nights. It’s going to be a blast, I’m very excited.

Then we had a barbeque at 6pm with other CRU people who showed up. Once again, the staff drew people together to explain what we’re going to be doing over the next week as far as reaching the campus for Christ and introducing them to Him. And we just had a good time playing some ultimate and also kickball. Kickball. Kickball–baby. It was quite enjoyable–I haven’t played kickball in years. We had to stop not because we were bored or tired, but because we couldn’t see the ball any more. Next time, we’re going to get a neon ball.

Saturday and Sunday

Saturday morning, bright and early, I went down to school to help the freshmen move in. It was a CRU deal. However, there were no freshmen to move in. I guess people sleep in on Saturdays. Imagine that.

Finally around 10am or so, people started needing help and Joash, Justin, and I helped move in a gal from Denver who’s going to be a part of our Bible study on Wednesday nights, hopefully. After our move-in experience, we closed down shop, headed over to Frontier for some food, and then returned to the campus to do some chalking and poster hanging. I had errands to run, so I left a little early.

That night I went over to the folks’ house and ate fried chicken for the first time in years as well, and had an enjoyable time talking witih them for a little while, until I found out that Renee was online and so I was hooked. I hadn’t talked to her in a few days and I had a ton of stuff to talk about and I justed to hear from her, so it was a good hour we talked online until we both had to get home and get to sleep.

Sunday was a fulfilling day too, filled with church, cleaning, and critiquing of a CD. A very good CD, I might add, but I can’t say which one. Then, the moment I had been waiting for all weekend–the evening hours when a guy and girl decide to talk to the telephone to each other and blessing and blessing after blessing is received. So I talked to Renee for a little over four hours, and enjoyed every minute of it. Sigh…

So that was my weekend. Kind of fonky eh?

Those little specks of dirt have gone into hiding for the time being, but the big overlord bases that resided on tile 4:5 have been obliterated. Bacteria by the thousands have been wiped clean. All thanks to super-strength Pinesol. Furthermore, millions of the enemy have been mowed down thanks to Mr. Trott. The enemy forces have been severely weakened as they regroup and try to determine their next strategy to take over the lawn.

That’s the kind of weekend it’s been, I guess. Just kidding–it’s actually been quite exciting, all of which is too lengthy to explain in a journal entry at the current moment. Wait until tomorrow, then I will post the exciting happenings of the weekend.

In church this morning, Skip talked about all the many theories attempting to discount Christ’s resurrection. Each one of those theories, I’m happy to say, falls apart. There really is no adequate explanation except that Christ did indeed rise from the dead. Yay!

Time to make a run to Marble Slab with Laquie. More tomorrow. Tata, tots…

This weekend Brian and Julia got married. It’s exciting to see everyone getting married but goodness gracious, there’s a lot! It was a beautiful wedding though. Andy and Cammy did a beautiful rendition of Be Thou My Vision with guitar and flute, plus Azin did a very special slideshow. It was swank.

It has also been the weekend for moving. Roomie, Scott, and myself helped Kathleen move in on Friday night on what we thought was going to be an hour extravaganza. Ooops. We meant six hours. But the pizza was good (although it took an hour to get it, yikes), the waterbed was heavy (but is now dry), and the 24 ft. U-Haul now empty. Praise the Lord. So after that, Clint and Dan switched places in the Big House–Dan in, Clint out. More furniture in and out of the house, up and down stairs, making about six 90 degrees turns each time. However, I blissfully “slept” as they began moving.

Last night, Bocka, Scott and I had a little surprise for the birthday boy–we met him at Olive Garden along with all the wonderful birthday festivities–a nice card and a Nerf gun, plus singing from the great staff at Olive Garden. It was a very enjoyable time to catch up with them both. I can’t believe that they have been married for over a year already. It blows my mind. Just a month ago a year ago I was on a plane home to be a part of their wedding. Wow. But I got a couple cute pictures of Rico… watch for ‘em.
I’m really hungry. That bowl of Cheerio’s just didn’t quite make me as cheerful as I had anticipated. Sigh.

Happy eleven months, Renee. I still can’t believe I’m dating you and that our average is so bad! But it’ll improve soon. I miss you–I can’t wait to see you.

The week is winding down. The summer is winding down. Life is about to get a whole lot more hectic with school. However, it’s going to be a good hectic because a) I graduate this semester b) CRU is always worth the effort c) I’ll be staying at my job d) lots more.

Last night was our last actual Bible study. You know, I realized last night that trying to plan a summer Bible study is actually extremely difficult. No where else do you have a group of people who are so unpredictable! It’s very difficult because you never know who is going to be there which week and so it is difficult to have any–any–type of cohesiveness. Since it’s summer time, people are out doing everything from vacation to moving to whatever else. I guess the advantage to during-the-school-year Bible studies, at least with my group. Several guys want to grow in their relationship with God and make Bible study a priority. That’s cool. I think you learn faster through a concentrated group of peers.

Y’all ready for this? New website coming soon.

Ryan and Kristie got married yesterday. Now I can’t say “Kristina Gonzales” with my white-boy-wanna-be-not-white-boy accent anymore. “Gloetzner” just doesn’t have the same flair as what it was before.

But beyond names, they got married yesterday about three o’clock in the afternoon at a church near my parents’ house. It was definitely not your “traditional” wedding in the sense that the music was of a very special sort. For instance, the music played when the bride and groom walk down the aisle as bride and groom, you normally hear this jubilant, triumphant music, right? This is to celebrate what just happened, right? Instead, Ryan and Kristie chose to play a little ditty by Right Said Fred, the song title which rhymes with “I’m Too Sexy.” It was great–it’s always fun to do things a little bit differently, and it was their wedding, so who am I to comment? Overall, though, I had a great time.

I saw a lot of people I hadn’t seen in a while. One such person was Emily Cox from the days of Gold Rush. She’s studying music (liberal arts) in Boston but has known Kristie and Ryan both; plus, when she’s home, she goes to the church which held the wedding. I also saw Ashby and we had fun dancing to techno late last night. That was the other great part of the wedding–the dance party that night. We danced to tons of good techno, a couple hip-hop songs, and then the ominous yet always present electric slide. There was a great limbo contest which Andy almost won. Gee, that man is flexible. Of course, he’s got some of the most animated toes I’ve ever seen. There was ninja cake-cutting, pizza buffet, and tons of B.O. That wasn’t the best part, but the dancing was certainly enjoyable. Somehow, I ended up with a kiss on the cheek from Mike, though. I wasn’t too crazy about that.
Unfortunately, I only got about six decent pictures–none of the party, few of the wedding. But that’s okay, I had a very enjoyable time. Next week: Bryan and Julia.

On Monday, the parents, Scott, and myself celebrated a little something I like to call “Mom’s Birthday” by treating her to seafood at the Pelican restaurant. Grilled salmon, crab legs, shrimp cocktail — all for the halibut. It was delightful. KH6JTM, Dad.
Right now I am in mid-move from one office to another. My computer is about ready to go down but I am the one in control of that, so I thought I’d say some last words before computer comatose-ness. Unfortunately, I’m moving from a nice windowed corner office to a cube, no where near a window. That’s a bummer, but I think in some ways it’s good–no more glare on the monitor. Gee, am I a nerd or what?

Andy Peck from project is in town through the weekend, so Laquie and I are gonna go hang with him on Friday night after dinner and church. The fun is going to start at 9:15pm, which is almost a little late for the likes of me nowadays, since I’m usually up at 6:30am for work. On Saturday, however, I won’t get any relief because I have to go get new tires for my car and a haircut. But there’s always the blessing of a nap.

“Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more.” Phillipians 4:1