Everything that can be invented has been invented. --Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899. What Up, All? 17 September 2003 BABY!!! Have I got some news for you faithful (or not so faithful as the case may be) readers. It seems that Shelly and I are going to be parents! Eep! We've set up a weblog so that she can keep everybody happily updated on all those little ennui that I'm sure you all will be interested in reading. That way I don't have to keep updating this page :) Go to Shelly's Journal and see what's going down. We're still learning about this livejournal thing. She's populating it with back information from her journal, so you can all see how she's doing and make all those happy cheery comments, and all that. This web page is due for a huge redesign in the near future. We'll get around to it eventually. Until then, the weblog will do, no? Oh, and congrats to James and Rianne, who are pregnant with their second, and Paul and Kelly, pregnant with their first. Babies galore! 24 April 2003 This is a test of the emergency update system, this is only a test. If this had been an actual update, it wouldn't have taken a year. Seriously though, I figure it's time for the yearly update of the ol' web page here, to fill in the 1 or 2 of you who are actually checking this as to what's been going on. Last time we chatted, I was unemployed. Not anymore. I now work for a NASA subcontractor, doing fun Space Station related stuff. Yep, that's right, I'm pretty much a rocket scientist. Shocking, yes, I know. You never saw THAT coming. The basement project's long since done, and the collaboration between me and the Children's Museum people is pretty much over. Their funding fell through, and stopped being able to do pretty much anything for me. C'est la vie, I guess. They still haven't given back my Pooh sculpture either, darnit. Once again, about 75 billion new things have happened over at BrickFrenzy, so don't forget to head over there and check it all out. Meanwhile, I'll be getting my Cedar Point season passes soon, so I shall spend plenty of time on the Point riding many a roller coaster. Ahh, yes, what a way to spend the summer. James and Rianne's kid was a girl, Catherine Elizabeth. She's a sweet little thing, and I've already started spoiling her with Lego. Yes, color yourselves shocked, I get to spoil ANOTHER niece with Lego. Don't you people know how to have boys?? Not much else of interest has happened in the last year. Shelly and I are doing great, the house hasn't fallen down, the cars haven't broken, and no mysterious pregnancies have sprung up. All in all, quite satisfactory. Let's see what's going to be in store for the next year :) 22 April 2002 What the heck? Is this an update? Really? For sure? NO WAY!! Yes way. It seems that a few people had been complaining that the distinct lack of updates on this page had to be rectified. So here I am, updating. Many a thing has happened in the last few whiles. I was laid off shortly after the September 11th tragedy, and am still unemployed. Shelly, however, has switched jobs from LTV Steel, where she used to work, to Ryder Logistics. At least, until this Wednesday. She's changing jobs once again, going to work for a company called Northern Stamping, which makes parts for the auto industry. Here's to hoping I can get myself a new job soon as well. Shelly's been putting me to work in the basement, and I can't take the manual labor anymore! Yes, we're redoing the atrocious basement. The wallpaper and paneling have come down, and new drywall will be going up eventually. Shelly's planning on banishing my Lego collection down there, so I have to lighten it up with a brighter wall color and some new lighting. Speaking of Lego, I have of course been working feverishly on many Lego projects, including one that was sold to the Lakeshore Children's Museum in Grand Haven, Michigan. The Grand Haven Lighthouse is hopefully the first of many collaborations between us. In other entertaining news, James and Rianne have moved back to Ohio, taking up residence in New Vienna. James is a Quaker minister down there, and I had the priviledge of attending one of his meetings. He's quite the preacher man :) Also, it seems Rianne is going to have a baby this year. Here's to hoping it's a boy that I can spoil. As much as I doubt that I'll keep it up, I'm going to try to update more frequently. It won't happen, but since when have I been bothered with hypocracy? 15 November 2000 I've added some more pictures of my niece Caitlyn on the aboutme page. Check 'em out. And don't forget to head over to BrickFrenzy.com to see what I've been up to over in the Lego side of things. 10 October 2000 Yeah, it's been a hugely long time since I updated, but in the meantime I've actually done quite a bit. I've moved all my lego pages to a new domain, it can be found at BrickFrenzy.com. I will no longer be posting updates to the lego pages here. You'll have to check there to see what's going on with my lego projects. And while I'm plugging, go there now and check out the Marvin the Martian and Winnie the Pooh sculptures, as well as all the other cool stuff I've added since the last update. Actually on this webpage, you'll find pictures from the first Annual Case Alumni (or soon to be) camping trip. Pics can be found here. 28 August 2000 Congrats to Shelly's sister Mindi, who gave birth to a healthy baby girl yesterday. pics can be found here. 22 July 2000 I saw a Tribe game this week from 13 rows behind home plate. I am pretty sure I've been forever spoiled by those amazing seats. I'll never be able to sit in the nosebleed seats again without thinking of those other seats I had. Alas. In the meantime, I have finally gotten the BrikWars writeup for our 7/15/00 Lego BrikWars battle online. Check it out on the lego page. I am not a vegetarian because I love animals; I am a vegetarian because I hate plants. --A. Whitney Brown 3 July 2000 Happy Independence Day Eve to you all! The most interesting thing to happen in the last couple of weeks was Paul's Wedding. He and Kelly got married over the weekend. I was in the wedding, and it was an interesting experience, given that I was wearing tails. Tuxes with tails are certainly strange beasts. I'll likely add some pictures from the ceremony and the reception in the near future. Of course Matt and Sarah are likely to get a little annoyed, since I don't have any pictures from their wedding in January (sorry guys, I can't find any! Send me some and I'll make a page for you). I updated the lego page just a smidge, adding a few more Lego sets bought over the weekend (I should be at 60,000 pieces pretty soon). I also created a new page for Shelly's second quilt, a baby quilt for her sister Mindi, who is currently pregnant. It can be found off the about me page. Don't be humble, you're not that great. --Golda Meir 5 June 2000 It's been an adventure of epic proportions the last week. I recently concluded a most adventurous weeklong vacation with my good buddies James and Rianne. It all kicked off, rather unfortunately, with a trip to New Concord, KY., to attend the funeral arrangements of Rianne's grandfather. It put a little damper on the beginning of the vacation, but such is the way of life. We got started a little late on the fun, but oh the fun we had! Starting on Tuesday we headed off to Cedar Point, the Roller Coaster capital of the world. The newest ride there, the Millenium Force, is quite an adventure. I've heard it described as sitting in a lawn chair on the back of pickup truck as it drives off a cliff, and that description is pretty accurate! It's a wild ride, although the Raptor is still my favorite coaster. On Wednesday, we went on a tour of Jacob's Field, home of the Cleveland Indians. It was quite interesting to see the stadium from the other side. We got to step out onto the dugout and the warning track, but they wouldn't let us touch the grass. Oh well. Then we went off to the game that night, which Cleveland actually won! That's the first game this year that Shelly and I have attended that the team actually won. I guess J&R are our good luck charms. On Thursday it was off to Six Flags Ohio, which despite their assertations of $40 million in park improvements, is still Cedar Point's little brother. It's a fun park and all, sure, but it can't hold a candle to Cedar Point. The best ride there is probably the Batman Ride, although Superman Escape is sorta fun too. Friday was our lone day off, so we relaxed. On Saturday it was time for a night on the town. After getting all dressed up (pictures pending, I'm sure) we went off to Sans Souci, a very fancy French/Italian restaurant. The food was pricey, but delicious. Then it was off to the Theater, too see Phantom of the Opera. Shelly's been bugging me for years to take her there, and I finally got off my ass and did it. She's a happy camper. Then finally on Sunday James and Rianne left us. So now the house is all very empty again, and Shelly and I revisit our efforts to get those slackers to move to Cleveland permanently. It's only a matter of time before their willpower breaks down. MUAHAHAHAH!! Some minor updates (very minor) occured over on the lego page. Mostly just updating the lego set count. Soon, perhaps, there will be a couple of pictures from the vacation fun. We'll see. Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. --John F. Kennedy 24 April 2000 The pages for the Dragoon MK2 and the Rampage are up on the Lego page and ready to go! That's all I have to say for this update, as it's way past my bedtime. We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it -- and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again, and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore. --Mark Twain 16 April 2000 Yesterday I played my first game of BrikWars, and it was quite a lot of fun. There wasn't a clear winner, though, as we didn't have enough time to finish the battle. Next time we'll play somewhere that we won't get kicked out of at 6:00pm. There will be some pictures soon, and possibly a write-up of all the action too. I am in the process of making web pages for the two vehicles I created for the BrikWars action, another Dragoon, and the Rampage heavy Assault Transport. It should be lots of fun! In the meantime, I have made a small addition to my Lego Page. I added some new pictures of my current workspace, with the sorting buckets and all that highlighted. Look for them at the bottom of the Lego Page. Sacred cows make the best hamburger. --Mark Twain 10 April 2000 Everything looks a little different now, doesn't it? I decided to rework the format a little bit. I also deleted a couple of pages (I don't think they'll be missed...RIP Descent and Durango). There should be some content upgrades pending too. We'll see what happens when I get a little more time to play. One content upgrade I did make was to add a link from the About Me page to Shelly's first quilting adventure. It's an amazing piece of work. The baseball season has started up again (yay!) so I can root on the Cleveland Indians once again. They're 4-2 thus far, and on their way to scoring lots of runs. It should be a fun season. 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