What the internet has done for me lately

Last week I noted that we had a $600 travel voucher from a friend that expired yesterday. I asked for suggestions from all of you for where we should go and here's what I got:

(If it's in italics and underlined, we've been there together; if it's just underlined, we've each been there separately; if it's in bold, I've been there but Jamie hasn't.)

Savannah, GA (4x)
New York, NY (3x)
Washington, DC (3x)
Hilton Head, SC (2x)
Charleston, SC (2x)
Orlando, FL (2x)
California (2x)
Florida (2x)
Charlotte, NC
Roswell, NM
Yakima, WA
St. Louis, MO
Cheyenne, WY
Hot Springs, AR
Napa, CA
Chattanooga, TN
Whidbey Island, WA
Boston, MA
Maui, HI
Rhinelander, WI
New Orleans, LA
Bar Harbor, ME
Grand Canyon, AZ
Newport, RI
Grand Cayman
Wyoming
Aspen, CO

This is a great list and it was great to see which destinations were most popular. We even got an invitation to stay with some friends of my brother's in Savannah!

We ended up surprising ourselves and going with a destination that wasn't on anyone's list (unless you include the generic "California"): San Diego.

We've each been there but not together. Flights and hotels are reasonable and it's warm, which was a KEY factor.

My mom offered to watch our kids for us so we booked the trip for April and then got a hotel room through Priceline.

A few minutes after I booked the trip I realized we had tickets to The Civil Wars in Minneapolis on the first day of the trip. They're in town the day before as well so we could still see them but I needed to sell the tickets I'd purchased already.

I posted an ad on Craigslist at 7:52 PM last night. At 8:28 the tickets were sold. It took all of 36 minutes on a Sunday night to sell my tickets.

To recap, in the last 4 days the internet has delivered:

• An email with a travel voucher
• 27 ideas for where to use that travel voucher
• A hotel
• A buyer for our unusable concert tickets
• New concert tickets on a day we could go
• Daily updates from Wide White

(Okay, so the last one was lame.)

What has the internet done for you lately?

If you could go one place...

A friend offered us a $600 airfare voucher through US Airways last night. We're still working out the details but we'd like to use it.

Problem: where to go? (Oh, and we have to decide by March 27th.)

So I appeal to you, my readers. If you could go anywhere for a week or even a weekend, where would it be? (Keep in mind that we still have to pay for 1 ticket and any potential hotel or rental car expenses.)

Thanks for your suggestions!

Let Me Take You There - Plain White T's - For Jamie

I've been wanting to make a video for Jamie since before we had the twins. I wanted to show who we were without kids so that if and when we felt like we'd forgotten what it was like to "just be us," we could rewind.

I finally got the chance to put it together over the course of the last month. If you care to get a window into our lives over the last 3.5 years, take a look.

As a bonus, you get to hear me sing. Actually, you'll want to turn the volume down for that part.

Tree spirit?

Last fall when Jamie and I were in Charleston, SC - one of our favorite cities in America - we went to see an old oak tree. The Angel Tree is believed to be over 1500 years old and is considered to be the oldest living thing east of the Rockies.

There were only a few people there and one of them was a photographer who had his tripod setup. He seemed to be waiting for the sun to slowly move into just the right position. He offered to take a picture of us with the tree and struck up a conversation. Jamie quickly became bored with the conversation and headed for the gift shop. I don't remember much about the conversation, but I do remember that he had a layover in Charlotte on his way back home from New York to the San Francisco Bay Area and decided to extend his layover, rent a car and drive 3 hours to photograph this tree.

The photographer handed me his business card when we parted ways and thought I might look him up later to see what he photographed. The card said, "TreeSpirit Project." I didn't really know what that meant other than he was probably a nature photographer. I pocketed the card and went on my way.

I don't remember when it was that I realized what was on the back of the business card. I think Jamie found it. I may have glanced at the back and noticed a black and white photograph of a tree taking up the entirety of that side of the card. What I didn't immediately notice were the fully nude people IN the tree. They were sprawled over branches in postures that didn't hide a thing.

I later found out that the TreeSpirit Project is an effort to save trees by - what else? - photographing trees with nude people in and next to them.

To my knowledge there were no nude people in the Angel Tree when we visited it. I haven't found them in any of my pictures of the tree and I was taking pictures at the same time as that guy was. But I have to wonder if they were around, just waiting to strip down and jump in the tree when enough people left.

I like trees, but I also like wearing clothes.

Back in Wisconsin

I had a great week in Washington. I'm not a city person, but I've long held that it's the only city where I can visit for more than a week (or a day, for that matter) and not get bored. I met Congressman John Kline (R-MN), former Congressman Steve Stockman, Congressman Kline's Chief of Staff, Senator Tom Coburn's Chief of Staff, the Assistant Director of FEMA, and numerous political consultants who have worked under everyone from Ronald Reagan to George H. W. Bush to our current president

Arlington National Cemetery had to be the highlight though. While walking through, I happened to see "Rehnquist" on one of the tombstones. Sure enough, it was William H. Rehnquist's grave. It has his birthday and the date he began serving as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, but they still haven't marked his death on the tombstone. I also saw Warren Earl Burger's grave (graduate of St. Paul College of Law - now called William Mitchell College of Law - Nixon appointee, Chief Justice on the Roe v. Wade decision, voted with the majority) and the grave of Thurgood Marshall. Also watched the changing of the guards, saw the mast of the U.S.S. Maine (I've written numerous papers on the Spanish-American War, so that was especially of interest to me), toured General Robert E. Lee's old house, and much more. In addition to seeing Rehnquist's grave, I think the highlight had to be the United States Marine Corps Memorial, better known as the Iwo Jima Memorial. That's always been a pretty powerful image, and to finally see it was just awesome. I may have seen it last time I was in DC, but if I did, I sure don't remember it.

If you've never been to DC, I'd make it a priority!

Oh, and I was wearing a t-shirt in DC with a high of 70. Now I'm back in Wisconsin, where in 12 hours we've gone from no snow to over a foot.

A new brother and Marine One

Real quickly...

First, I have a new little brother as of today, which now makes me closer in age to my dad than to my brother.

Second, Washington is great! I watched President Bush fly into the White House on Marine One today! I had no idea he'd be coming in then. Was just hanging out at Washington Monument when he came, which gave me an absolutely perfect view of the landing on the lawn of the White House.

I'll be back up soon. Might head home to see my new brother, but I'll definitely be back up and running within a week.