I forgot one update for the first half of May. On the 9th Sara ran in the first annual Jay Cooperider Memorial 5k. Follow the link to see the photoset.

Things are moving very quickly. We have been exceedingly busy. A quick list of non-work updates follows.

• 2009-05-07 : A flying trip to Chicago to witness the Chicago Blackhawks' game four playoff victory over the Vancouver Canucks
• 2009-05-08 : Watched the new Star Trek movie with Josh, et al
• 2009-05-09 : Attended Ohler's Cinco de Mayo party
• 2009-05-13 : A trip to The Rathskeller in celebration of Brad's Birthday.
• 2009-05-15 : Farewell lunch for Liz; Help Jeff pack
• 2009-05-16 : Help Jeff and Erin move; attend Tyler's graduation party
• 2009-05-22 : Attend Jill and Evan's rehearsal dinner
• 2009-05-24 : Attend Jill and Evan's wedding in Chicago

<xsd:complexType name="MyTag">

      <xsd:simpleContent>

             <xsd:extension base="xsd:string">

                    <xsd:attribute name="attr1" type="xsd:string" default="asdf" />

             </xsd:extension>

       </xsd:simpleContent>

</xsd:complexType>

<MyTag attr1="foo">some_value</MyTag>

We went to see Randi talk on Monday. The photoset is here. I was somewhat disappointed. Randi gave a very meandering talk with no central thesis. It was more like story time with "grandpa Randi" than a lecture. Michael Shermer did a much better job when he presented a Woods Lecture a few years ago.

In other news: chess has suddenly become a popular recreation activity at my workplace. This has re-awakened the long dormant chess circuits in my brain. It is interesting to me that lots of my friends and co-workers don't know me as a "chess person". Once upon a time it was a major part of my life.

My father taught me to play at a fairly young age. Once I got over losing my first game, I enjoyed playing chess a lot. My parents were always looking to get me involved in activities, but I was a socially inept child. When placed on a sports team I would just sit on the field and pull weeds. In a stroke of genius they realized that they could get me involved by sending me to summer chess camp run by the legendary Mike Zabawa. I remember him as a very intimidating man, kind of a hard-ass, but I learned a lot from him.

I played great deal of chess in middle school and early high school. Hell, I even started the chess club at my middle school (Zabawa's club across town was so good that my middle school had never even bothered to form a club). In the later half of high school I became more interested in role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons and socializing with girls and forgot about chess for a few years. In college Ryan and Andy were very into chess and we would play game after game after game just to kill time in the dorms. Once grad school started I didn't play again for a long time. Now everyone at work is interested and I am experiencing my 3rd chess era.

I think the moral of the story is that I am a big nerd.

Last night Castor and I went down to Indy for a meet and greet with The Amazing Randi at the CFI center along the canal walk. We listened to Randi tell stories and exchanged a few brief comments. At the end of the session Randi was kind enough to pose for photos with us.

This evening he will be giving a lecture at Butler as part of the Woods Lecture series.

Last night Sara and I stopped by the opening of the Tippecanus Rex show at the Tippecanoe Arts Federation. The photoset can be found here.

Apparently most artists in the area are convinced that the Fowlers were in some way associated with witchcraft.

Wow, no posts for almost one and one half months. Not good. Still, very few major events to report on so I suppose I am not too far behind.

On February the 28th Mr Kelsey came up from Indy for a visit. We watched Purdue defeat Ohio State in basketball and explored some of the new buildings that have sprung up on campus since our matriculation.

On March 8th Sara and I joined Brad and Liz for a showing of the Purdue theater department's production of "Dracula".

Sara and Ashley celebrated their birthdays together at Nine Irish Brothers on the 12th.

Saint Patrick's day came and went without much fanfare on the 17th of March. I did indulge in the annual green St. Patrick's Day mohawk once more before I turn 30 and can no longer be trusted.

On the 21st Sara and other bridesmaids helped Chrissy with envelope stuffing. In other news I have set-up the wedding website, my seedlings have begun to give true leaves, and work is very busy at the moment. Now that winter is over I think there will be a lot less cabin fever, lots more activities, and hopefully lots of log entries about the activities.

Sara and I usually have a very low-key Valentines Day. This year was no exception. We spent the lion's share of the day running around making wedding plans and securing vendors.

On our way back from Chicago we stopped in Merrillville for a dinner at Z-Grill and a quick ride on the Carosel. Photoset here.

F.Y.I. Sara has a new blog. Also, this blog needs to be updated more frequently. I need to get the remainder of the Europe vacation documented soon. That is all.

Well another year has past and with it comes another set of holiday updates. This year the rotation called for us to spend Christmas Day with Sara's family. Of course we also spent some time with my family ahead of December 25th.

Christmas 2008 photoset.

This is the fourth Europe trip post. It covers the events of July 14th and July 15th of the year 2008.

-- July 14th 2008: Dan's photoset, Sara's photoset, --

We woke up very early on the morning of the 14th, about 5:30 local time I think. You see July 14th is Fête Nationale (a.k.a. Bastille Day) in France. We wanted to watch the parade down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées so getting there early to claim a spot was a necessity.

When we first arrived we found a very nice spot right at the corner where Avenue de Marigny intersects Avenue des Champs-Élysées. Unfortunately after we had been there for 90 minutes or so, the street had become crowded. Only then did the security forces show up to cordon off the area we were in and force us all out of viewing range.

Through guile and cunning on Sara's part we were admitted into another cordoned off area that provided a decent view of the street. Given my height I could see fairly well, but Sara had some difficulty. Fortunately we met a very kindly older French couple who were there to watch their son, a military officer, march in the parade. They allowed Sara to use their step stool once they had seen their son pass by.

The parade itself was quite a production including soldiers in dress uniform, mounted cavalry, tanks, jeeps, jets, helicopters, and even paratroopers. We also saw President Nicolas Sarkozy pass by to go inspect the troops.

After the parade getting back to the apartment proved somewhat difficult. Many streets were barricaded against both vehicular and pedestrian traffic. I suspect that they were being used to get VIPs back to their hotels and offices. This meant that we, as not so important people, had to walk a very long way back to our apartment. We punctuated our hike with a stop for a snack and made it back without incident.

Back at the house we showered again, much needed after being out half the day in the hot sun, and rested a bit after our long walk. Then, secure in the knowledge that we were both spiffed up a little bit, I slipped a little black velvet box into my pocket and asked Sara to join me for a walk in the gardens.

We had discussed seeing both the Jardin du Luxembourg and the Jardin des Plantes when planning our trip. Heading over to the south side of town I was pretty nervous. I only picked at my lunch.

At the garden I discovered, to my dismay, that since most french people don't have to work on the national holiday the park was more crowded than I had hoped. Walking around I noticed how different formal European-style gardens are from the landscape architecture influenced parks common in the US. Instead of winding trails you find straight well-maintained gravel paths. Flowers are arranged in geometric patterns in beds that themselves form geometric patterns.

It took us a while to find it, but eventually we stumbled upon what I had been looking for, the Medici Fountain in the northeast corner of the garden. I was happy to see that its secluded location meant that it wasn't nearly as crowded as the rest of the park. We walked around it admiring the sculpture and then sat down on a pair of wrought iron chairs to enjoy the beautiful day. Then beneath the canopy of trees I asked Sara to be my wife. Of course we all know how that worked out.

We walked over and explored the Jardin des Plantes while enjoying eachother's company. Unfortunately we arrived to late to explore the natural history museum, but we didn't really care. Eventually we grew tired of walking and acquired an excellent engagement meal at Le Loup Blanc near our apartment. We retired for the evening happy, young, and in love in Paris.

-- July 15th 2008: Dan's photoset, Sara's photoset, --

We awoke on the 15th with the certain knowledge that our six day Paris Museum Pass was about to expire. We had already gotten more than our money's worth out of it with our many trips to the Louvre and other museums, but none the less we were determined to hit as many more as possible.

The most glaring omission from our list was obviously the Musée d'Orsay, and that is precisely where we spent our morning.

The Orsay used to be a train station and the layout betrays this. It is filled with excellent work by impressionists and members of related movements. We had lunch in the little café at the top of the museum before strolling through some of the Art Nouveau furnishings in their collection.

By mid-afternoon we were burned out on impressionist masterpieces. Still intent on using our passes to their fullest effect we headed to the Rodin Museum. The most famous work there is The Thinker.

As the afternoon stretched on we decided to hit one final museum before everything closed. We made it to the Picasso Museum just in time to make a hurried tour. We didn't capture any photos because (a) they were not permitted and (b) there wasn't time to be sneaky about it. I was fairly unimpressed with the Picasso Museum. It was small and contained only a few interesting works. I think anyone planning a trip to Paris could easily skip it if time were tight.

Later we made our way over to the The Panthéon. Across the street there is a government building associated with the 5th Arrondissement somehow (I gave up trying to understand the hierarchy of government levels in Paris). In that nice old government building the organizers of the SSIB conference had rented a ball room wherein they held a reception for the conference attendees.

After we walked about eight blocks to the registration site to pick up Sara's badges they even believed we were conference attendees. At the reception we rendezvoused with several of Sara's friends namely Ashley, Chelsea, and Lindsey.

With the reception completed we all gathered to make the trip up the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately the very top deck was closed for repairs, but we were able to ride up to the lower two decks. It is an impressive feat of engineering and provides an amazing view of the city. And despite how much the French complain about the new sparkling lights on the tower that are triggered every hour or so after sundown in thirty years they will all love it.

It is December and I haven't finished the Europe posts or updated on daily events for more than a month.

On November 14th Brad, Liz, Sara, and I attended a performance of "Evil Dead: The Musical" at the Theatre on the Square in Indianapolis. They appear to fill their season up with a number of oddball works, so we may be back there before too long.

Needless to say, Thanksgiving yielded lots of delicious food and good times with the family. This year we attended the Noland clans' celebration. Photographic evidence is available.

Now Christmas is fast approaching. Sara and I have been scrambling to get gifts and the like in order. The 6th of December was particularly Christmassy. We took a walk downtown during Lafayette's annual Dickens of a Christmas event. The weather was particularly cooperative this year, providing light flurries for ambiance. After warm coffee, strolling around downtown, and taking in the performance of Stave I of A Christmas Carol we went shopping for gifts. By the time night fell we had erected a Christmas tree.

We recently engaged in some seasonal fall activities.

On the 15th of October Sara's sister, Katie, was in town. We made a heaping pile of macaroni and started a new brewing experiment with the first fermentation of our hard apple cider.

On the 17th we got together with some of Sara's grad school friends to make some caramel apples and spiced hot apple cider at Chris & Lindsey's place. After dark we made a trip out into the county to explore a corn maze.

The 25th was homecoming at Purdue, and somehow I was conned into going out to breakfast club, a Purdue tradition of heading to the bars very early on the morning of a home game. This was the second time I have attended a breakfast club event and I must say that it was vastly preferable to the previous attempt. The key seems to be to get blisteringly drunk as soon as possible.

Our group went as characters from the Batman comics. You can see the photoset here.

On All-Hallows-Eve we spent the early part of the evening at the house where we received 22 trick-or-treaters. This is down significantly from last year. Later in the evening we spent some time at the Black Sparrow with RJ and Tiffany.

You can also view the All-Hallows-Eve 2008 photoset.