NOTE: My old blog software (MovableType) is being an asshole again; I'm abandoning it and transitioning the whole site over to a new format, but that's not quite ready for primetime yet, so "pardon our dust" while we re-work this nearly 8-year-old design into something...slightly different.

Since I haven't written a new "blog" entry in the better part of a year, here's a brief recap of what's been going on:

Around Valentine's day Lindsay surprised me with a trip south to Alabama, to take an evening of zydeco dancing lessons in Huntsville, and we spent the next evening in Birmingham, seeing the sights of this impressive southern city. Around my birthday in August she surprised me with another trip south, this time to Summerville Tennessee, to visit The Farm (a famous former "hippie commune," which is now somewhat changed but still very interesting, and they give classes on different subjects like natural building, midwifery, mushroom cultivation, permaculture, etc.

In the spring Lindsay and I participated in a 4-weekend workshop on strawbale building right here in Louisville, and that was a great experience. I hope to use some of those techniques when building my own home someday. This summer was my first foray into gardening, and I had a fun little container garden on my rooftop. Not the ideal setup (a lot of plants would've done a lot better with more room to grow, plus traveling and gardening are a bad combination; many of my plants were damaged by too-seldom watering). Overall it was a great experience despite the setbacks and it really whet my appetite for larger-scale gardening.

Speaking of traveling, Lindsay and I took a road trip this summer to visit our moms, who live in Iowa and South Dakota, respectively. Along the way we snuck in a quick visit with Aunt Lottie (and Rene) in Chicago, stayed overnight at the new-and-more-spartan Casa de los Rynos in Minneapolis, paid our respects to the Twine Ball in Darwin (Lindsay's first time) and spent a couple of quality days visiting my grandparents (the Schnabels) in Aberdeen, SD. Then it was off to my mom's place for a few too-short days, where we caught up, communed with cows and I showed Lindsay the precise location of "middle of nowhere", took a side trip up to Ashley, ND and the ghost town of Venturia, ND, and then spent a few enjoyable days at her mom's grandiose house on a lake in Iowa, where we soaked up the sun and got a taste of "lake life," Okoboji-style. I wish we could've talked my mom into accompanying us to Iowa, as I think the two moms would hit it off, but it wasn't to be. On the way home we stopped briefly at the Corn Palace (finally made it there!) and Iowa 80. It was a wonderful trip, we both liked each other's moms, and I wish it could've been a couple of months instead of weeks.

In June we spent a week in Norfolk, VA (drove out there), stopping to visit Lindsay's adorable grandparents in West Virginia along the way. I got to see a few old friends and finally meet a bunch of my co-workers in the (new) PETA Web Department. A lot has changed there, it's so much bigger than before. The food options in Norfolk keep getting better too.

I took a trip up to Michigan by myself in August, in addition to the usual round of great visits, I dropped off some political posters to the poster show my buddy Maniotes was curating at Eastern Michigan University and got a tour of Ypsilanti, I made it to my cousin Amanda's 21st birthday party, met up with John at Dowagiac Commercial Press, got some French Paper down in Niles, reunited with my cousin Ben, toured Sunflower Ecovillage with Paul and Vete, saw my mom's friend Cyd again after 10 years or so, had a few quality days with Bobby Chmiel, and got to attend a touching ceremony commemorating the Lawton ball diamond being named in my grandfather's honor: Russ Hackenberg Field. An excellent visit, I managed to work while I was there too, from the coffeeshop in Paw Paw.

In early October I spent about a week in the San Francisco area, I got flown out there for a Web Dept. "retreat" and training session. Had a few workdays in Oakland and extended my stay for 3 more nights so that I could have some quality time in SF. I stayed in a couple of different hostels right downtown and had a fine time walking around, put a lot of miles on my moccasins. Realized that Chinatown wasn't quite as good as I remembered it, but Japantown was a real treat. I had a long-overdue visit with Mike and Lisa (talented friends from MCAD who also went to grad school together at Yale and are married), they have a cute little munchkin baby now and in addition to having their own design firm, Lisa teaches at CCA. When she found out I was coming to town she asked if I could visit her Design 1 class and show some of my poster work to her students, who were working on an "issue poster" project. I was a bit nervous, but it went well and was a lot of fun. The food in SF was outstanding, so good.

In late October Lindsay and I traveled north to Michigan to attend a wonderful conference on Peak Oil, Climate Change, Transportation and Food issues. We saw some excellent presentations and met some really good people. After that we spent a few days with Lindsay's dad in Portland, MI, and then a few days at my dad's house in Gobles. We worked during the weekdays and did a lot of visiting in the evenings.

This year saw me take a keen interest in politics, and I did several projects (mostly posters) in my own time, on political issues. I made a poster in support of Ralph Nader and got to actually meet him when he spoke in Louisville, that was quite an honor. I'm not optimistic about Obama, but there's not much I can do about it at this point, so I'm withdrawing somewhat and am going to focus on local and community issues instead. Just before the new year Lindsay moved in with me, and that is going well, the kitties and I are glad to have her here. A good and full year, I think this next year might be a rough one for the country but I'm doing my best to prepare in the face of uncertainty, and hope you will do the same. Thanks for being a part of my life. To see and read this year's holiday card, click here.