If you’re a frequent reader of Fresh!, you know that I’ve always had problems getting my newspaper delivered. Either it comes, it doesn’t come, or it’s ripped off by some jackass in the apartment building who’s too cheap and lazy to go out to the office and buy a daily paper for fifty cents.

Anyway, about four weeks ago Roger and I thought about lacing our paper with flour, so that when the robber attempted to steal our paper, a “white powdery substance” would get all over him.

(Really. It was funny four weeks ago.)

Thank goodness we got a new delivery person or nicer neighbors, because we haven’t missed a single paper this week. If it happens again we’ll go the web cam route.

Paula sent a great link today on how anthrax and how cipro actually work. (Go to the How Stuff Works site and find out how Halloween works, too. Odd.)

We’re busy, busy, busy! Almost everything is prepared for the wedding. But if that weren’t enough stress in our lives, last night we decided to make a major purchase! We’re thinking it’ll look kind of cool with a few tin cans and a “just married” sign in the back window.

This is our new toy:

This past weekend I had drill for the National Guard and since we didn’t have many people there it was pretty dull. Half of my unit is doing their normal Annual Training in Fort Polk, LA with the 82nd Airborne. Another fourth of my unit are on State Active Duty covering the state strike as volunteers. Some of them are there for the money ($130.00 a day regardless of rank), while others sort of got roped into the deal. They are expected to be on duty for two weeks and then they will be replaced by other volunteers who will do two weeks as well. I just hope that they end the strike soon, because if it goes longer than a month I may not have a choice about being activated. Which of course doesn’t go well with a new job and especially since I’m getting married in only a few weeks. I guess I can only wait and see what happens over the next couple of months until my enlistment is up on December 15th.

After 12 years, I’ve decided to hang up the old Army boots and move on with life. The biggest reason is that it conflicts with my new job with the Boy Scouts which requires work at both nights and on the weekends. To give up an additional weekend for the National Guard would be too much time away from home. For the longest time I wanted to get 20 years in so I could retire, but now I think that 12 years of service isn’t something to be ashamed of. Heck it’s 12 years of service more than most people I know and I can proudly say I served my country for the time that I was in. Yes I will be a little sad saying goodbye to all the friends I’ve made over the years, but life must go on sometimes.

Today we are continuing to meet with Jennifer our pastor to plan our wedding ceremony. Tonight our friends Wendy and Tim are throwing us what’s sure to be a wonderful wedding shower in there home. For me, I ‘m off to work again since I still can’t blog from work. I can only hope that changes someday since I feel so disconnected from the world compared to my last job.

Just about a month ago, Roger and I headed up North for a few days. Finally, our pictures are online!

I’ve heard the rumor every year: Playboy’s got their list out again — the sexiest college campuses and St. Olaf is on it. Hey, why shouldn’t we be, with our blonde-haired blue-eyed Scandinavians running all over the place? Sounded legit to me!

However, I’ve never actually seen the list. So, my brother decided to check things out. Typing “St. Olaf” and “Playboy” into his Lexis-Nexis search, he comes up with an article called “Life on the Internet” from the archives of the Bismarck Tribune (we grew up in Bismarck). Featured in the very article is my brother himself! Turns out he participated in a roundtable discussion about the “new Internet” back in 1995 …. someone in the roundtable discussion mentioned Playboy in one sentence, Ryan mentioned St. Olaf a few sentences later. Thus, “St. Olaf and Playboy.” Pretty freaky when the results of your search are actually …. you.

Turns out the list is actually an urban legend that’s traveled around college campuses for years (hey, your college was probably on the list, too!). Until Playboy decided to turn the legend into truth.

St. Olaf isn’t on it. Are you?

Oh-so-humble Roger forgot to mention that today, October 2, is his birthday! So, go on now, send him a little lovin’.

It seems like the only time I have to blog these days is before work. Especially since I don’t have access to the internet at the office, which I find very hard to believe. I came from a job where I had complete access to the internet so I could fully do my job. This included being able to look up info on my customers, vendors, and competitors. It is very strange not being able to just go search for info. In fact, my office has only had email for about 6 months, which again I find is very hard to believe. Our Scout Executive (the head guy in our office, kind of like a general manager) has been against giving us full access because he wants us out in our districts working with our volunteers instead of behind a computer. This I can understand to a certain point. That is until volunteers start saying, “Our Unit has a website, you should check it out.” Then I say, “well let my write it down and I’ll look it up at home if I remember to take your address with me.” Our only hope is that enough volunteers squawk loud enough that we get full access. We can only hope.

We had a pretty good weekend, although it was too short. Lynsey’s parents were in town over the weekend and was nice to spend some time with them before the wedding. They met Lynsey in Northfield Friday to help pick out flowers for the reception and on Saturday we were at the Mall of America helping her mom shop for dresses to wear at our wedding. On Sunday Lynsey’s parents and mine met for the first time in my parents home for Sunday dinner. We were a little bit nervous, but everything turned out wonderfully. Just one less thing to worry about come wedding day.

Several of my Mom’s friends threw us a couples shower on Sunday afternoon, check over here for more on that soon. Thank you to Cindy, Lois, Judy, Char, and Mary for a wonderful time. We didn’t quite no what to expect with five of them getting together, but it was great