All posts by Benjamin Flessner

Three-and-a-half hours

Wedding Planning

That’s how much time is left. Wow. I’m in my tux, sitting on the hotel bed using free wireless. Actually, it’s the only time I cracked my laptop… to do this entry. Perhaps I should write some deep words of feeling… but… it’s kind of the same as before… sort of surreal that this is actually happening.

Yesterday morning, we set up the hall for the reception, and that felt a little bit like I was about to get married. Then in the afternoon, Amanda and I went to US Cellular to upgrade our plans, so that was kind of same old, same old… techie toys and indecisions about which model to get.

Back home, however, things started to get hectic, and I really started to feel like this was actually happening. Thankfully, once people arrived, all their tuxes and shoes fit well, so we didn’t have to make any emergency trips to Dubuque…. well, at least for tuxes. I had forgotten tapes for the FIVE digital cameras I had at my disposal for the wedding. Russ and Tom were a couple of nice guys and ran to Wal-Mart before dinner to get some last-minute materials. Thanks guys!

Rehearsal was kindof crazy… hopefully we all know what we’re doing! It’ll be fun. Now I have to go catch my ride to the church for three hours of pictures….. joy!!!

I’m getting married!!!!

Everything moved in

Life Musings, Wedding Planning

As of last night, everything is finally in the new apartment. Well, everything that is except for several large items of luggage packed with stuff for our honeymoon which are now in Farley, with us. I started unpacking some of the things… alphabetizing CDs, reading through elementary-school writings, and washing new dishes. I also have the appointment set up for internet installation the morning after we get back. Things are looking well… at least, they were until last night.

We were sitting on the new bed, packing suitcases when we heard dripping coming from the bathroom…. It was raining… indoors. Something wrong with the plumbing upstairs. Looking on the bright side, though, they have a week and a half when we’re not there to work on it! A couple other minor apartment fix-ups and we’ll be set.

Now we’re in Farley and things are officially starting to set in that, yes, I’ll be getting married in just a day and a half! And as for last minute preparations…. they’ll all yelling at me to try on my tux now, so I’d better cut this short. I’m excited: lots ahead these next few days!!

On the road again…

Life Musings

According to the car timers, I’ve been on the road 17 hours in the last two week, and that doesn’t count the time I spent driving from Ames to Waverly to Darlington… wait, maybe it counts one of those… I just know I’ve been on the road a lot! We’ve effectively moved three loads to the new place. Now Amanda just has to pack up all the little things in her apartment.

More rambling about the new place…

The kitchen is nice… tons of cabinets which is good since both of us had pretty stocked apartments and then we’re getting married which means a bunch more random kitchen items. There’s a good-sized, fairly new dishwasher, and the stove has a timer on it. Oooohhh! 😛 I guess I didn’t mention the building is a security-locked building, so we have a cool buzzer that unlocks the front door from our apartment (it’s a gadget… I like gadgets!). There’s a tiny deck and room behind closet doors in the 2nd bathroom for a washer and dryer if we ever get one. Otherwise the laundry room is right next door (adjacent to the 2nd bathroom… NOT the bedroom). I seriously have to take my tape measure and figure out how much closet space we have here. It’s a ton!

No longer homeless

Life Musings

Well, that went quickly. Saturday I officially moved out of my Frederiksen apartment, not knowing where I’d end up, and Monday we found the place where we’ll be living… for at least the next 11+ months. Then last night (Tuesday) we made it official by signing the lease and moving the first vanload (a bunch of my college stuff) in.

It’s a pretty nice place we have: two big bedrooms, a huge living room, two bathrooms (one in the master bedroom), and HUGE closets, including a nice-sized locked storage room right across the building hallway. The place has an elevator which is nice for moving in, since we did have to get a 2nd floor apartment. Another perk, however, is the underground parking with room for both our vehicles. The garage door is kindof like CyRide’s… hit the button from your car, drive in (or out) and it closes automatically. All in all, we’re pretty happy with the place.

Today, I’m taking a vanload of more of my stuff that had made it as far as Amanda’s apartment. Tonight we plan to try and make a 2nd trip with some of the bigger items. This weekend should hopefully involve another family member or two getting the couch, futon, and possibly bed moved, although we both kindof agreed that we don’t want to spend a night in the new place until we’re married. Kindof a … new home thing… okay, we’re just weird. Anyway… it’s pretty exciting, and pictures will be up in the gallery shortly. (Along with Becca’s first communion… sorry future sister-in-law… I’ll get to them ASAP!)

Not much left in my room… except Christmas Stuff!!!!

Life Musings, School

I suppose I should post since I haven’t in a while. I’m officially done with everything class-related. I had an Operating Systems final on Tuesday that went, in my opinion, fairly well. I spent the rest of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday getting my room completely packed up into all the crates and boxes I had left. My parents came on Thursday and we loaded up the van and cleaned the apartment. It was probably the most prepared for a move that I’ve ever been.

In the middle of loading the van, I got a surprise phone call! Without detailing too much in a public journal, I’ll just say I was finally able to go pick up some things that had been sitting in a warehouse for two and a half years!! It was like Christmas going through everything last night and seeing what I had been missing. I’ve been cataloging everything, even the big pile of CDs I’m accumulating that will be tossed. I definitely have something to keep me busy the rest of today! Unfortunately, I think I AM still missing some of my favorite country CDs… but with getting everything else back…. it’s really not that huge of a deal. One thing’s for sure… I used to spend WAAAY too much money on DVDs. This effectively tripled my current (new) DVD stash! Finally, I have my “Back to the Future” and “Short Circuit”s back! Among others…

Anyway, in other news, I officially graduate Saturday (ooh, I guess that’s tomorrow) morning. That has DEFINITELY not sunk in yet. Oh well… exciting times ahead for me!

Server relocated (again)

Computer Stuff

Well, once again the webserver has moved. It’s not housed at my good friend Russ’s place. We got wordpress, gallery, and mail all up and running, so I went ahead and did the switch. Mail was a little shaky this morning, but I think everything’s coming through just fine now. Let me know if anything’s missing or if anything’s broken on the site, but it should look about the same as before. Gallery was upgraded to a new version so it got a neat little facelift. Otherwise… happy surfing!

Oooh… I’ll get to turn my computer off tonight! Hooray!

Last two weeks of my primary educational career

School

So… I only have this week, next week (dead week), and finals (only one final), and then I’m done with 22 years of education. Wow.

Okay, so it really hasn’t quite sunk in, but around this time each semester, I usually post about what I have left to do. I’m also usually quite stressed about it. Not at all this semester. Maybe it’s the senioritis; maybe it’s just because all my classes are more or less done. But I’m definitely relaxing and not too worried about these last few days. I have two exams and two presentations left. That’s pretty much it. Detailed remaining activities follow…
Continue reading Last two weeks of my primary educational career →

It’s a wrap

Life Musings

After several days of delibrations, the verdict is in: I will be starting work at Epic Systems in Madison, WI on June 6, 2005. Now I can ramble on about all the stuff I’ve been wanting to journal about, but didn’t really want to since this is public (yeah, I know, nobody ever reads this) and I hadn’t yet made a decision. So if you want to hear all about the search and my deliberations, read on. If you want the short version… it’s just this:

I have a job finally! And I’m really looking forward to it. Busy couple of months ahead! (okay, so that last part will be in another post)

Continue reading It’s a wrap →

Exercise is Dangerous

Leisure

Ow. So, probably a couple of hours ago I decided to head out on my bike and put in a good hour, if not more, of biking as I was so bored in the apartment and didn’t really have anything major to do.

I had planned to ride the trails that go just east of Elwood, but when I crossed Elwood and started riding along 6th, I noticed the trail I wanted was 20 feet over. So, like the shortcut-taking man that I am, I just rode down the small valley between the two trails. Unfortunately, the shadow from a tree was falling on a nice hole at the bottom of that valley. Since I was going fast to make it up the other side, I hit it at full speed. My bike stopped; I didn’t. I landed hard on my left shoulder as I watched my bike go flying over me.

I’m fine; well, a little (okay a lot) sore in my left shoulder, but nothing’s broken or cracked (or so “they” say at Student Health). Ice and Ibuproffen are my therapy. And no playing piano for Intervarsity Christian Fellowship tonight. As for the bike… the front fork is bent in a bunch and the wheel is, of course, nice and mangled. Big bummer since I had just gotten into the habit of biking to class and everywhere else I went. *Sigh* Only a few more weeks and then I’m out of here anyway. Thank you to my nice roommate Tom who picked me and my bike up and carted me over to Student Health.