spring in Fargo

Before I arrived here, people told me "It snows more in Colorado than Fargo, but it just never melts in Fargo."
They were wrong. Possibly it snows more in Aspen and Vail than in Fargo. Probably not. And this is a crazy mild never-before-seen-good-weather winter. Winter? Isn't it March? O yes, Spring other places, Winter here.

That said, the snowing feels more mild than Colorado. It snows most days, but never more than a couple inches at a time. The lower altitude makes a huge difference; the 14 degree sunny day we had yesterday felt like 25-ish to me. I went to the bank without a coat - in 14 degrees. The weather doesn't fluctuate like crazy here, so the barometer generally stays peaceful. Also, my knees never complain. TOTAL SCORE. If you've never had joint pain due to intense cold weather, feel lucky.

This feeling of invincibility to the cold had me under-dressed at the dog park. Not so fun. My little cotton gloves froze and flaked all over the place when I rubbed my hands together to warm up. But, Teo had a GREAT time, and we met some other dogs plus owners. Particularly there was this crazy springer puppy. Teo chased his ball around the park, the springer chased its breath. Yup its own breath. It ran up, I breathed fog into the air, it jumped, and chased (when I say chased, imagine more like a series of jumps taking it in a huge loop) its own breath ecstatically around the whole enclosure... then came back for me to breathe again. It got tons of exercise, and no one had to do much but breathe, which we had to do anyway.

Verdict? I like the weather here. I love the sunshine we get in our apartment. Check weather off my list of worries about Fargo.

North Dakota

So Katie emailed me and asked me a bunch of questions that, quite frankly, I think you all would like to know.  So, I will post them on my blog.  Overall, I am very happy with Fargo.  When you hear of Fargo, you think of some podunk (sp?) town.  But it really is an up and coming place.  We are quite centrally located to pretty much anything we could want.  To illustrate this, there is a Mongolian BBQ restaurant right across the street from where we live... MONGOLIAN.  Ya, you wouldn't think so hu?  I really like out apartment for several reasons. It is on the third floor, so we don't have people banging around above us.  Also, all the windows face south, which means we get sun all day long (maybe Lianna will stop killing all the house plants and claim its because of lack of sun =D )  That also means we will be able to house several plants on our balcony that will grow well.  Our apartment is much bigger than anything we've lived in so far (excepting mom and dad's house).  I am really liking my job, but it still can get confusing at times.  Lots of hoops to jump through to please insurance companies and odd state laws.  And yes, it is super cold up here.  Like, when you walk out in the morning and inhale the mucus membranes inside your nose freeze (weird feeling!) and when you exhale they thaw out.  Yesterday, it was -7 degrees.  But they way I see it, below 30 degrees its cold and it will kill you anyway.  I don't feel much of a difference between -7 and 30 degrees because I'm always wearing clothes.  So that is Fargo in a nutshell.  So now for some pictures!  Granted, these were taken with my blackberry (hatehate) so they aren't great quality, but you'll get the picture.

So I had to chuckle about some of North Dakota's advertising lures.  Since the entire is state is pretty much growing like a deacon hitting his growth spurt, they advertise the life here, and they LOVE billboards.  Tons, everywhere.  Anyway, here is one of them.

However, I think these next few are more accurate (at least right now)

That is fog.  Actual fog, and not snow fog (I know right?  I didn't even know snow fog existed... but it does.  It looks really similar too, but its just snow blowing so much that it's, well, foggy.)

It's not super common that we have that dense fog, but it does amazing things to the landscape.  I have only seen snow flocked trees a few times in CO, but here it is understandably much more common.  Here are some that I snapped with my dumb phone.

Once the fog lifts and if the sun comes out, the effect is absolutely stunning (I have yet to capture this on camera).  It is like each tree is covered in a million little crystals.

With all that said. I like Fargo.  Sure, the floods haven't hit yet and they have experienced an extremely rare mild winter, but we will likely be moving more into Minnesota so floods won't be too much of a concern for us.  So there you have it.  Now all that's missing is my wonderful wife, without whom, I realized, means I am a very lame person.  I can't wait to be with her again.

I can't keep quiet

Theres a viral video going around posted by a very talented poet who loves Christ and believes firmly in Him.  The video itself is immensely popular, being featured on CNN.com and has over 16 million views on youtube.  It's called "Why I hate religion, but love Jesus."  I believe that it's popularity stems from two things... the fact that it is expertly worded, and secondly because at first, it sounds like it makes sense.  When I first heard it, I was fascinated by the young man's talents, but at the same time, it made me sick.  It literally made me nauseous.  It was so full of misconceptions and half truths, ignorant claims, and illogical conclusions that when combined together, seemed to make sense.  It wasn't before I actually broke down what he said sentence by sentence that I realized just how misguided he was.  I started a post a response, breaking down each sentence and explaining why it was wrong, unfounded, illogical, or just simply wrong.  But it just didn't feel right.  So I'll post a simple(r) response to it.


I think that the main misconception the young man had was that if you called it religion, it is religion. True religion, or pure religion as James describes it in the bible, is "... To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." James 1:27.  It could also be more simply put in the words of Christ himself. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and will thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it.  Thou shalt love they neighbor as thyself."  Matt. 22:37-39.  


The poet also said  "The problem with religion is that it never gets to the core. Its just behavior modification, like a long list of chores."  I want to say that religion is truly at my very core.  It is all that I am, all that I do.  I am who I am because of religion.  See religion is a path, a way of life, not just an idea.  I sincerely believe Christ when he said "Not everyone that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." Matt 7: 21.  Now I know that I am nothing, that without Christ I would be lost, no matter how righteous tried to be.  But I also know that Christ said I am the way.  He didn't say I'm the get in free pass.  He showed us the way by living a perfect life.  He, knowing that all humanity couldn't be watching is every move, told us the way, and did so through commandments.  You say chores?  I say freedom.  Keeping the commandments has set me more free and kept me more safe than anything else I could do.  I will always be grateful for my religion, because it has led me to God.  I hope it will for you too.

What to do...

So what do you do when you have no friends, no family, no wife with you, and you live in Fargo ND, where its 5 degrees out and snowy?  Nothing.  Yup, that's me.  I contemplate going to Walmart just to be around people. But alas, I can survive.

So what do I do in my loads of spare time?  Stay at home and watch the 10 movies I brought with me, do some home projects, and BLOG!  Yes, its been a while, and so I figure I'll keep you all appraised of my ridiculously exciting life up here in Fargo.

So, I decided I wanted a spice rack.  So I looked at all of the different types, and frankly, I didn't like what they were.  So expensive for sub-par styles.  I remembered that Lianna's cousin had an awesome one... It was magnetic.  So I got google and found out how to make one.  

 These are the tins with the magnets gorilla glued to the back.

 That is where I mounted it to the wall.

 Close up picture #1

and #2.

I made it for less than the other spice racks cost.  Now, I can make as many as I want, always upgradeable if I end up needing more tins (Just buy a bigger steel sheet).  Sure, I only have 6 spices now, but the rest are in CO with my sweet wife.  So there you have it.  This is what I do in good old Fargo ND.

if you're interested in doing this yourself, I got the tins HERE and the magnets HERE.  You can get the sheet metal at any home depot, and the glue I used was gorilla glue.  If you don't have some, you MUST get it.  It is amazing, I daresay better than duct tape!

Learning to speak Teo

I have begun a new language: Teo.

My progress is so far:

Lying down, looking at you = I love you, I am inviting you to cuddle or notice me

Standing up, looking at you, tongue slightly out, slight pant= an invitation to play

Standing, slight woof, looks at you and then at an object = i want that object and whatever usually happens with it, OR I think there is an object there that I enjoy using please get it

These above work both ways so far, I can do this to him and he responds, and he does it to me and I respond. It's like a conversation! Below are so far, are one way: either we have trained him or he has trained us I suppose...

Drops a ball in your lap = demands to play, will not be ignored

Tapping the noisemaker we have on the doorknob = i need to pee or chase a squirrel away

Nosing the arm = I am itchy please scratch me now/ continue that feels nice

Whining at the bedroom door when my alarm goes off (its a quiet vibrate; the dog has good ears) = this is your second wake-up call, and i'm hungry, need to pee, and want to play.

He just learned this last one.. MAN how does he know I'm snoozing in?? So not fair.

Proof

Here is the photographical proof that Lianna and I were in Hawaii.  The pictures don't look too good through blogspot... but they are amazing when you see the originals.

 This is by far my most favoritiestesed picture I took

I hope you liked it