Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Western Wisconsin Pottery Tour

I almost forgot to mention that I will [hopefully] be attending the Western Wisconsin Pottery Tour coming up on October 12-13th! Both my college professor (Kirk Freeman) and my pottery mentor (Steve Rolf) will be featured this year! Needless to say I am very excited. Pax will be joining me for this adventurous outing. Unfortunately Ang will be working. Sad face.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Video Feature!

I was recently asked by Berean Baptist Church to be filmed making pots for their new fall sermon series. It is for an introduction video which plays after worship as a transition to the sermon. I grew up going to Berean and was thrilled to be able to help them out! We worked together to get all the aspects of making pots, not just the throwing part that everyone already knows about.

I attended the service this past Sunday with Angela and Paxton, along with my parents. After seeing the short video I was very impressed that they managed to show in a short time much of the journey clay makes as it is being transformed into a vessel.

The video is in the beginning of the sermon, so check it out! Also, the sermon is really great too so listen up!

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Minnesota Hot Fair

My wife, Pax, and I along with Melissa and Mark Oira all headed out this morning to the Minnesota State Fair! We drove for the first time in a very long time since Park & Ride's are very convenient (so long as you don't have a baby and all the things babies need with you).  Our excitement grew as we pulled into our grassy lot spot near the northern end of the grounds.

However, the moment we opened our doors, we realized we were in for a sweaty trip. Heat infiltrated our A/Ced auto quicker than you can say "_____".  Quickly, we slopped on the 50 S.P.F. 'screen and were on our way into the entrance of the fair.

With hopes higher than the giant slide we got our gait on and, oops, I realized I had left the group in the dust because I have such lengthy legs I seem to walk at the speed of light. Thinking about fair food along with anticipation from planning that went beforehand seemed to have boosted my pace and to keep myself in check I had to frequently look over my shoulder. So here we are at the fair, walking past the familiar John Deere lane with hundreds of green and yellow tractors and lawn mowers and looking down the vehicle-vacant roads at the hundreds of heads bobbing up and down in the distance. Families, friends, fanny packs, Hover Rounds and strollers intermixed into one giant weave of Minnesota fabric. Ahhh, same old, same old.

Actually, one of the things I don't like about the fair is that everything is always the same. Some tradition is nice, but I think after going for so many years in a row all the tradition becomes blah and boring. I see the same vendors, the same foods, the same everything. The only big new items at the fair seem to be one or two new food vendors selling something on a stick. I think it would be most refreshing if the fair had a major overhaul of all the vendors, minus maybe some staples like the giant slide and the cheese curds in the food building.

Now we're waiting in line at the first stand for the day--Mark is getting walleye fries at Giggles campfire grill--and we're discussing our itinerary which goes from 9-12ish because the heat index is 110 degrees today. We need the food-building cheese curds, a poncho dog (not the pronto pup, as the poncho dog has corn bread as the breading) and a soda immediately and set off as soon as Mark receives his golden walleye nuggs. The morning temperature was a decent 87 degrees.

The temperature continued to rise until we were a sweaty mess. Full of liquid sugar and half-digested meat, my pace had slowed to a zombie crawl. We slashed our itinerary to the final necessities and bee lined to our 400 degree ride home. Somehow Pax made it through the day okay, probably from the misting fan we had on him the whole time. The rest of us were in need of a serious cool down and a nap, followed by Culvers amazing concrete mixers.

The day's damage from Ang and I: 3 Poncho Dogs, 1.25 Footlong Hot Dogs (the .25 thanks to Mark), 40 oz. of soda, and of course cheese curds. Also added to the list are two very cute wooden car toys we got for Paxton made by the special craftsmen of Greg's Toys--find them in the larger building of Heritage Square.