Pictures

I owe Grandma and Grandpa some pics of our apartment and thought I'd share with everyone! Sorry it took so long to get these up; work has been crazy confusing these last few weeks.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/spair0/sets/72157629392282835/

Also, we took some pics of a few pages of our wedding photo album. We'll be sure to bring it home when we come, hopefully sometime this spring. Enjoy and have a great week!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/spair0/sets/72157629392335751/

View and/or Purchase Wedding Photos!

If you're interested in viewing and or purchasing any of the wedding photos, you can navigate to this website: http://stoptimephotos.nextproof.com/ You'll have to create an account to view and purchase photos, but it's a very easy process. Don't be afraid to tell us what you think of them!

Once again, thanks to our amazing photographers!! They did an outstanding job and we are so pleased with how they turned out! They truly captured the details of the day--we're so excited!

Wedding Photos!!!

Here are just a few that are posted on the photographer's blog site; more details about purchasing coming soon! I couldn't be happer with how they turned out!!! David Gronneberg and Reid Atkinson are amazingly creative and talented!!! I'm just so excited! Enjoy.

http://stoptimephotos.net/

Zombie Invasions and Snorkel Bob Part II

Down three flights of stairs, making two trips, I threw myself into the faithful Taurus and sped towards Aaron’s apartment a heart wrenching 15 minute drive away. Snorkel Bob, don’t leave me, not now. Spairo needs seething cinders for the legendary staff weapon!!

The time is midnight. I made it. That leaves 30 precious minutes to set up my computer and hope that everything works. Apparently the car ride must have calmed my good old computer down as she was working as usual—almost. I had to restart WoW twice before I was able to log in but at least Snorkel Bob was there, steady as can be. Thank God for a direct Ethernet connection. Everything was back to normal. Wait. Ventrillo, a program we gamers use to speak to each other during raids, wasn’t working, or rather my microphone wasn’t. Still not sure what the problem is there.

Time flies when you’re having fun everyone always says; I guess that’s true because I felt like raid had ended as quickly as it had started. Okay, time to go back home. I couldn’t stay the night here since for some reason in my frantic packing, I took Aaron’s cell phone. Awesome. Go me. He's going to want his phone and I don't want him to worry about me since I have no way of telling him that I'm here.

It’s 315 am and time to face the darkness that lies beyond the front door. I hate this time of night. As soon as I step outside into the cold darkness, I hear panting. I freeze. Straining my head in all directions, I try to find the source of this horrible, nervous panting. O.M.G. ZOMBIES!! What do I do?! They're headed straight towards me. Run. Run to the Taurus and he will protect you. Lock the doors. Turn on the headlights. Okay, admit it; at this time of night, strange things happen and if you have a wild and crazy imagination like I, then you would be as honestly scared as I was.

I dare to shoot a glance at the incoming zombies via my rearview mirror—wow I’m brave tonight. Oh, dear. Oh crap. Who the hell would be walking their dog at 320 in the morning!!! Honestly people. Go to bed and take your dog to the vet in the morning—that doesn’t sound too good.

I start my car, still disheveled from my near death experience, and head towards our new apartment. What sort of people are driving around at this time anyways? Drunk people and zombies apparently. Or worse. Police men hunting drunken zombies. Yikes! Oh dear, a cop; hopefully I don’t get pulled over for some stupid reason and have to say the alphabet backwards—I honestly don’t think I could do that sober. WXYZ…Z…X…no wait…Z…Y…

Oh thank God I made it home. Okay, one last check for zombies and—the coast is clear! I sprint back up three flights of steps to our front door. Our new apartment finally feels like home.

Zombie Invasions and Snorkel Bob Part I

I honestly don't think that it's too much to ask for a decent internet connection no matter where you are. Let's face it; the internet rules the planet and it quietly mocks us, knowing that it has sucked us into this obsession with being "connected." The internet, let's call him Snorkel Bob (since I recently returned home from Maui; no other particular reason other than the fact that I simply think it's fun to say), subtly reminds me of the fact that he has deprived me of said "connected" feeling. For the past several days, I've sat alone and "unconnected" in my new apartment as I await the bringer of Snorkel Bob via AT&T U-verse (the 13th couldn't get here any faster). Needless to say, it's been an experience...

There are many ways to obtain Snorkel Bob, one of which my husband, Aaron, and I decided to use in lieu of a landline connection.

"So this will be easy," Aaron was saying on the drive to our new home in Ohio. "We'll just download a program that will tether our phone's 4G Snorkel Bob to our computers and viola! Snorkel Bob!"

"Sure, that sounds great. Just as long as I can have enough stable, reliable Snorkel Bob to raid and I'll be happy." As an aside, "raid" refers to a group of people (10 or 25) coming together to play an online mulitplayer game called World of Warcraft. I've been "raiding" every night from 1230AM to 300AM for the past nine months. I know, don't judge, I consider this group of people to be a second family! I digress, where was I? Oh yes!

As I was busy unpacking, organizing, and rearranging our new apartment, Aaron was busy working on the magic that is needed to summon Snorkel Bob. At long last, he finally announced that his plan was working and we indeed, succeeded in obtaining Snorkel Bob via our phones and an ad hoc (wireless) network. And of course, as with all things in the matters of connections, computers, and networking, nothing stays consistent.

This network worked for a time (hours of epic mage fire-wielding later), but of course my computer, as picky as it has always been, decided it had enough of this ghetto Snorkel Bob connection. Nothing worked. It was as if all of the sudden, Snorkel bob decided he had somewhere else he needed to be and he was breaking up with my computer.

The time is 1130PM. I start to perspire as I realize that I might not be able to fix this on my own in just one hour. Snorkel Bob abandoned me and my computer was giving me attitude; I felt like I was 16 again in my parent's dining room as my brother, our friends, and I tried desperately to figure out how to network our computers for a LAN. Only worse. Combining the new technology of networking with the old technology of hubs and switches is a mountainous task. What in the world do I do? Wait. If I leave now, I can go to Aaron's old place--Snorkel Bob is still there! I still have time before raid! I can still make it! I think to myself in a panic. Praying that everything would work properly at the old place and that I wouldn't forget to bring any essential computer components, I packed up my compy as fast as I knew how.

Insert Name Here, Wielder of Magic

magic: a quality that makes something seem removed from everyday life especially in a way that gives delight.

You might call them nerds, geeks, or over-enthusiastic fans, but the truth is, there is a small, flickering life of imagination hidden within all. There is no doubt in my mind that at one point or another, we retreat to this soulwell of child-like dreams; creating and pretending that life, while we continue to live it, is different somehow. We deny it outwardly, but on the inside, things seem less mundane. Suddenly, a meeting or homework assignment becomes more than just work--it becomes an adventure that you, among all others, have been chosen to see through to the end. Flying via airplane becomes an alternative means of travel since your broomstick was shattered during that battle of good versus evil. Traveling via car becomes your subtle way of transportation since portal-making and teleportation are too much for the ordinary human to comprehend.

There are many ways in which we play this game, but the question remains, why do we deny to others the existence of this world in which we retreat to? Is it because our culture teaches us to be serious, hard-workers, and investors? Or is it because we deny it to ourselves, pretending that stress and being overworked are simply unavoidable pieces of life with no reprieve? The cliche phrase "find a happy place" is something that only seems to exist within children's stories; perhaps we need to take a lesson from these stories and find, retreat to, and live for a while in our imagination's splendor.

So dream on, you of fantastic imagination, you of wishful thinking, and you of world-saving powers. Continue to have your adventures and teach the rest how to live; magic is, after all, a quality that makes something seem removed from everyday life.

Question & Answer

Q: What do you get if you breed a groundhog with a KU football player?
A: Six more weeks of bad football.

Q: What do you get if you drive by the KU campus real slow?
A: A degree.

Q: How do you get a KU graduate off your porch?
A: Pay him for the pizza.

Q: Why do KU students hang their diplomas from their rearview mirrors?
A: So they can park in the handicapped spot.

Q: How many KU freshmen does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None, it's a sophomore class.