Hello, Scary Weather

It looks like the apocalypse will take place Wednesday.

From the Wikipedia article (which also mentions "extratropical cyclones"): "Thundersnow, while rare anywhere, is more common with lake effect snow in the Great Lakes area of the United States and Canada, the midwestern U.S., and the Great Salt Lake." 3+ more years, huh? :D

As long as it doesn't turn into this...

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Much-Needed Winter Breakthroughs, and a Furry Animal I Like

Man, it's so cold and gloomy outside--it's been really rough getting up and motivated for work these last few days! Aaron's getting back in the school routine once again, which for him also means taking a temporary break from sci-fi books... at least until spring break. Despite having an obscene amount of winter lethargy, we've made some decent strides since Christmastime...

Ah, a bright blue sky during a wintery day on campus! Can't wait to see that again soon!!!

-Re-organized our huge closets. Though our apartment is tiny, there is certainly no lack of storage. Unfortunately, throwing miscellaneous items in there when we moved in was all too easy, but we have a great system now. Thanks, pretty clearance baskets from Target!


-We officially settled in a church! I know I have said this in the past about another church, but that one didn't work out as well as we had hoped, mostly due to the distance. We starting going to the Evangelical Free Church of Libertyville two weeks ago after a lot of discussion and prayer. So far, so good.


-Finally, Aaron and I have health insurance. Hoorah! This was an item that had me nervous for a while--Aaron hadn't been insured since he graduated college, and my individual plan was pretty...cheap. We finally enrolled in Trinity's student health plan, which means we really have no excuse to avoid going to get our check-ups.


On a completely different note, last night we watched Late Show w/ David Letterman and Late Night w/ Jimmy Fallon, and they both had their respective "animal guys" on, which stirred up in me the desire to go to the zoo, buy a hedgehog, or become a zoologist, as it usually does. I mean, look at this thing!

It's called a bearcat. No, really, it is. Jack Hanna brought it onto Letterman's show and told Dave that bearcats walk around cobras quickly in order to make the snakes dizzy before the bearcat attacks the snake. So cool! To me, anyway. Consider this your animal trivia fix for the winter...

Off to eat a midday snack. BONUS.

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The Gary's Dance Their Way to #1

It's a new year, and this is a new blog post. I know 2011 will be awesome--I'm relatively-newly married, homemade marshmallows are in our living room, we "Better Homes and Gardens"-itized our shelves (example), and I know how to make marshmallows. So far this year is unbeatable. Did I mention it also started out like this?

Which resulted in me feeling like this:

Good game, Aaron. :D

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Shake a Hand, Make a Friend

Hey friends, check out my newest post on the Trinity Magazine site. It's about our expectations and realizations of discovering on-campus community. If I've learned anything thus far about making friends here, it's this: Don't be too shy to entice people with food!


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New Friend Invasion!

Wheeeeeew-weeee! Guys, last week was a great week. As previously mentioned in a former post, Aaron and I love having people over to our cozy (a.k.a. tiny) apartment and giving them food. We had a record number of friends over during the course of the week, the grand total being 12!! My small group Bible study meets at my place on Mondays, which greatly contributes to this high number... but even with that, the number is rarely greater than seven.

A picture of my small group--taken by fellow small-grouplet (that's what we're called, right?) Christy Nieh--and no, I wasn't trying to be obnoxious and cover my face! Haha--though I suppose that's what happens when you decide to kneel behind a present...

Thursday and Friday evenings were grand. My dear friend Megan (the one who climbs apple trees) traveled down from Wisconsin for some quality chillaxin' and our next door neighbors dropped by to watch The Office. Usually Aaron and I only get to talk to them in passing--but now we can confirm that they're so cool and a lot of fun, for anyone who wanted to know. And on Friday husband and I had a dinner date with another couple on campus, Molly and Daniel. We had such a great time getting to know and laugh with new friends, and getting to share Aaron's favorite dinner with them. I must have ended up going to bed by 10:30 that night--it's been a while since we've had so many group activities in a week. How did I manage it as an undergrad? 

A taste of last week (again, thank you Christy!)...

We're hoping that this is the beginning of some solid on-campus community-building. Now if only we can finally and seriously decide on a church...!


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P.S. I totally forgot to tell you all--I'm now blogging for the Trinity Magazine website! So exciting!! I'll be updating at least every week, so be sure to check it out!

Semi-formed Thoughts & The Office

Aaron and I kinda (and by "kinda" I mean "really, really") like to watch TV in our apartment. We tend to gravitate toward comedies, and we almost never miss the Thursday night comedy block on NBC which includes, among a few other very funny programs, The Office. This week in particular this show has been a vehicle for me to go beyond being merely entertained and instead think about words said and themes expressed. This past Tuesday I was able to use an episode from a past season that I had on DVD to facilitate discussion about English vocabulary and expressions with my friend Younbi, who now comes by once a week so that we can eat tasty food together and learn about each other's cultures. Tonight's episode struck a chord with me as an involved church-goer, a former short-term missions participant, and as a Christian. 

I really hope that some of you who read this--"you" probably mainly being my family and friends (thanks for reading, by the way!!)--also watched tonight's episode of The Office because I'm really curious about your response to some of the different scenarios involved. It was about Jim and Pam's baby's christening, which all of their co-workers ended up attending (of course). As a result, the episode showcased the characters in a church setting and post-christening luncheon. If you missed it, check it out on Hulu. Anyway, some points of interest:

• Everyone's attitudes: Michael being uplifted/obsessed with the congregation's kindness and appearance of having fun, Ryan's abrasive attitude toward religion, Toby's hesitancy to "catch up" with God, Dwight seeing the congregation as potential clients, Stanley's complaints of being hungry, etc.
• After the actual christening takes place, Michael is greeted by some members of the congregation and immediately begins to act on the warmth he received from these people. He notices a group of young adults at the luncheon who will soon be going a service trip together to build a school in Mexico and expresses to his co-workers that he wants to hang out with them outside of work in the same way those young adults were hanging out with each other. Darryl told Michael that they were currently together outside of work, but Michael desired to have the "fun" he saw in the other group within his work group.
• Michael Scott is impulsive--and, being caught up in the moment, he chooses to get onto the service trip bus and go to Mexico as a result of seeing the group of young adults enjoying each other's company, being praised by the congregation, and their goal to do good in a different country. Andy decides to tag along in order to impress Erin. 
• When Michael and Andy start to freak out about their decision, Michael wonders why the Mexicans aren't just building their own school--and realizes that he doesn't know the first thing about constructing any kind of building. Michael's realization resonates with some critics of short-term missions trips.
• What do you make of the reaction of the young adult group when Michael and Andy are adamant about getting off the bus? Also, how about the one member of the group who leaves with them--and asks Michael and Andy to not tell his parents about his decision? 

Other interesting bits of action and conversation took place (such as the portrayal of church-goers being a mixed-bag, so to speak--some being genuinely kind, others trumping the christening celebration with their disappointment that all of the cider was gone...) but I've become a sad adult who gets sleepy sooner than I used to. I think I'm going to watch the episode again tomorrow, form some more cohesive thoughts on the subject matter in the episode, and either edit this post or write a follow-up post on my reaction. In the meantime, please let me know your thoughts! Or just let me know if you think I'm reading too much into it. :D

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Our house is full of apples

Apples, apples, and more apples abound in the Dean family abode here on Trinity's campus. We took a day trip to the fine, historic (self-proclaimed) town of Cedarburg, Wisconsin (also a "Wonder of Wisconsin" in 2008) to meet up with our crazy fun friend Megan (pictured in the tree!) and steal the fruit that some trees so laboriously grew over the season. Ha!

Though I always make fun of Aaron's rural-ness and make up silly things that he supposedly used to do when he grew up in western Pennsylvania (e.g. pick-up truck drag racing, play the banjo for his hogs), it was his first time to ever go to an orchard and pick apples. He had a great time, especially when he got to carry around our 20-pound bag of "sweet-pickin's" (his words).

At the end of the day, I celebrated my love for the internet sensation (and perhaps maybe even my best friend) Keyboard Cat by devoting five hours of my evening to carve my newly-bought "punkin" (again, Aaron's word).

So, what to do with all the apples? So far I've thought of: make three pies (all for me to eat), dip in cheese fondue and caramel (as of yesterday, done and done), add to oatmeal, um... wash and eat as normal, make applesauce, target practice a la William Tell (borrowing the intense compound bow that Aaron uses for hunting*, naturally), prepare as a dinner side, and bake into tasty cakes/muffins. Any other suggestions welcome.


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*a non-truth