mDale.com v2

Housekeeping notes

I’m in the proces of upgrading to the latest versoin of Wordpress. Actually, the upgrade is done, but I’m also giving my site a new look to better reflect my life right now (more on this in a up-and-coming post). With this in mind, you may see a few changes over the next few weeks. Thanks for your patience!

News Flash!

The following comic says it all…

In all honesty, the picture may not say it all. To fill in some of the details, Danielle and I have been dating since December 17th. I’ve known her for a long time (about three years). We spent quite a bit of time together last summer after work and on weekends and became good friends. To make a long story short, on December 17th I asked her if she would like to get to know me in a more “romantical” way and she said yes! Since then we have been spending most of our waking hours together. It has been really fun to get to know Danielle and I look forward to the coming months.

If you’ve got any questions for me or Danielle (e.g. why didn’t she choose the turkey? etc.) send me an email.

And now for December and January!

I suppose it is getting to be time for another installment in the “Life of Matt Dale” since I haven’t posted anything since mid-December ;)

I finished up the last few weeks at Focus on the Family Institute after Thanksgiving break. One of the last events we got to do was to go see the Phantom of the Opera up in Denver. The performance was really amazing. I don’t think I particularly enjoy musicals, but there is something neat about watching talented people perform in front of you. In addition, the production was fantastic. I had a great time.

On the final weekend of FFI we went back up to Horn Creek retreat center to have the “summit” retreat. It was a time of reflection and prepared us to say “goodbye” to each other. A group of us went bowling (at a tiny alley they have at the retreat center) that night. We (and by we, I mean mostly that I) got really crazy. It was mostly me jumping around and saying silly things at the top of my lungs. I don’t think I bowled a very good game, but everyone had a great time. We fit 16 people in a Ford minivan on the 1/4 mile drive back to our cabins. The next morning I could barely talk (from all the yelling the night before), but somehow managed to lead worship for the whole group. Luckily for me everyone at the institute could sing really well, so I just had to keep playing the guitar ;) The worship set was especially memorable for me because I broke (and subsequently dropped) a pick halfway through the second song and broke a string on the third song. Luckily one of my friends had his guitar there and I was able to finish the worship set.

Graduation was a lot of fun. The day before Steve (my roommate) and I cleaned the house from top to bottom. When graduation rolled around, he had left to stay at a hotel with his dad, so I had the apartment to myself. Graduation itself was a cool experience. It was nothing like the TAC graduation, but I really enjoyed Dr. Tackett’s commencement address. I said “goodbye” to all my friends and took a lot of pictures. That night I was alone in the apartment and felt sad and lonely; my institute experience was over.

The drive home was fairly uneventful. I took off around 9:00 a.m. and drove all day. I skipped lunch and hit Wendover, NV by 7:00 p.m. I had lots of time alone to think and pray while I was on the road. I also listened to pop music and 90’s hits on XM radio. In Wendover, I stayed at the Montego Bay casino for $40. The room was comfortable and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a cheap place to stay in that area. Along with my room, I was given a coupon book filled with different complimentary deals. One of them was good for $1 in nickels to play the nickel slots. I redeemed my $1 and put it towards breakfast at McDonald’s the next morning. I always like coming out ahead of the house ;)

The second day’s drive was much like the first. I almost ran out of gas, but didn’t. My car took 9.9 gallons of gas when I filled it up, and it only has a 10 gallon tank. I made it home that day by 4:00 p.m. and was really happy to be off the road.

Almost immediately upon reaching home (actually three days after), I started dating Danielle Buss (c.f. the “news flash” above). I won’t go in to any great detail here, but we have been having a great time getting to know each other as more than just “friends.”

The following week was preparation for Christmas. My brother Alden came home from college with his girlfriend, Stephanie. My grandparents also drove up from SoCal for a visit. My friend, Rick Ruhman, and his band, The Revells, had a gig at Abottswood restaurant here in Paradise. Danielle, my grandparents and I showed up and watched a few of their sets. Danielle and I left around midnight but my grandparents stayed until the bar closed, then went to listen to karaoke at another club. I guess if you can’t stay up until the bar closes, you’re too old ;)

We spent New Year’s Eve at my house. Danielle and I played Catch Phrase with my parents. My parents managed to beat us most of the games, but one of these days Danielle and I will show them! We set off a bunch of firecrakcers and bottle rockets at midnight, then (after sending Danielle home) crashed into bed.

The next morning (at 4:00), my family and I took off for our annual trip up to Seaside, OR. The flight to Portland was great. We finally got to Seaside that evening and had our traditional halibut sandwich dinner at Dooger’s. We had three great days in Seaside. Alden and I didn’t get to surf because the waves were closing out. We did have fun at the two different surf shops. I picked up a couple of surf movies and a bunch of older surf magazines. All in all it was a really enjoyable time with my family.

The week after we got back Danielle, my mom, my grandad and I went to Macworld SF ‘O6. We saw all the stuff at the show, enjoyed riding cable cars and the older street cars to and from the show, and walked around the Fisherman’s Wharf/Pier 39 area. We had lunch the second day at Boudin’s (where they make the best sourdough bread!). I’ve posted a bunch of pictures in the “Photos” section of my site.

When I got back I became an “official” employee of Cedar Creek Publishing. It is my first “real” full-time job. I’ll probably be here until mid-summer, when I hope to move back down to the Ventura area.

Last weekend, Danielle and I drove out to Reno, NV. We went up Highway 70 through Quincy and had a great time taking pictures and stopping to look at interesting things. When we got to Reno, we played miniature golf at Magic Carpet golf and I won! After dinner (at Joe’s Diner, which was awesome) we walked around downtown and tried not to get mugged. Reno can be a scary place at night.

I have been looking for a snowboard ever since I got back from Colorado. I finally found one at Boards ‘N Motion in Auburn, CA. I’ve got an ‘04 K2 Instinct 162cm board with ‘05 Salomon SPX-Pro bindings and ‘05 Salomon Dialogue boots. I bought the board on Tuesday and went up to Donner Ski Ranch for a half day. The board is really great. I can’t believe how much better it feels than the rental boards I’ve been riding. I hope to go up every week for a half-day of riding on either Tuesday or Wednesday. I’m actually going to hit the slopes tomorrow. It’s not surfing, but I suppose that in the given conditions, it will have to do ;)

For pictures from the last two months, check out the new photo gallery! I’ll do my best to keep y’all posted on a (hopefully) more regular basis ;)

My Life: October and November

This post originally started of with the following:

Happy Thanksgiving everyone (even if it is a few days late)!

I suppose that is probably not the best way to start something that is going to be posted in late December but so be it. Merry Christmas and happy new year to everyone out in internet land.

I figured that I should give y’all a brief update on how things have been going the past few months. I’ve been very busy, so I’ll focus on the “important” events. I’ve also put together a photo gallery to accompany this blog entry. You can find that gallery here.

As far as important events go, my 22nd birthday was certainly near the top of the list. This year my birthday fell on a Thursday, and also coincided with one of the Koinonia fellowship dinners here at the Institute. As a result, I had the pleasure of leading worship for the Omega group on my birthday. To make it especially memorable, we had a dog that wanted to join in. He added his whining and yelping to our voices as we made a joyful sound for the Lord! After the dinner one of my friends, Mindy, made cake and had a few people over to celebrate my birthday. It was basically awesome!

The first, and possibly the largest, social event of month was the FFI barn dance (and it happened the very next day!). Everyone got dressed up in their boots, hats and blue jeans and had a great time line dancing, square dancing, and participating in all sorts of crazy group activities. They hired a real square dance caller, and he taught us how to do all sorts of dances. I had a really hard time with the line dancing, but was pretty good at the square dancing. To get in the door, each set of roommates had to bake a dessert. I made Rice Krispy Treats. In the process I learned that if you make them in the microwave you need to have a really big bowl, otherwise the marshmallows expand and stick to the inside of the microwave. Thanks mom ;)

The weekend after the barn dance I drove up to Denver with two friends (Bernie and Christine) to see Mae in concert. They were joined by Discover America, Mutemath and Circa Survive. The first two groups put on a great show, but Circa Survive screamed a little too much for my taste. Mae was awesome! They played most of the songs of “The Everglow” but threw a few old classics into the mix. It was my favorite show of the semester!

The next weekend we had another fellowship dinner, but instead of leading worship I got to participate in a lip sync contest. We had a group do “Thriller” by Michael Jackson, another group did the “Seize the Day” from the Newsies soundtrack, a third did the Cheerleader skit from Saturday Night Live, a fourth did “Ice, Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice. Those ladies looked pretty ghetto with their baggy pants, backwards hats and silver front teeth. My group did “That Thing You Do” by the Wonders (from the That Thing You Do soundtrack). We should have won, but somehow the judge picked another group ;)

The next week, I got to attend a Focus broadcast taping. Dr. Dobson was at the annual board meeting somewhere in Georgia, so he did not ask the questions, but John Fuller and Dr. Bill Maier led the discussion. The broadcast was on the practical evidence against living with your future spouse before marriage. It was really interesting to watch the broadcasting process, although I don’t think that the subject matter really applied to me. After the broadcast they took a few questions from the students, so I might be on the show when they air it in February :)

On November 5th, Jeremy Camp, Bethany Dillon and the Afters came to Colorado Springs. I didn’t feel like paying for another concert (I had already attended 3 this semester), but my good friend Jeremy Pond happened to get three free tickets (he knows people that know people, and that’s what really matters in the music industry). Anyway, he invited me to go with him. In addition to the tickets, he had Meet & Greet passes, so I got to shake hands with all the artists. The concert was pretty good. I enjoyed Bethany Dillon much more than I thought I would. The Afters were a little to “pop” for my tastes, but they put on a good show. Jeremy Camp has certainly matured as a performer since I saw him three years ago at Spirit West Coast. There were lights, lasers, lots of smoke and ear-splitting rock and roll. I especially enjoyed the last few songs of the set when he really rocked out (his acoustic stuff is alright, but I wish he would either go Alternative or Acoustic Pop, not sit on the fence between the two). We wound up the evening at Waffle House (which is probably the coolest, if not the only, fast-food waffle place in the world).

In the next few weeks I had two tests and two papers due. I spent my first late night studying this semester (and that was only until 1:00 AM). We’re actually almost done with our tests and papers right now. I’ve got two more papers to write and two tests to take and then… FREEDOM!

Before I came to the institute, one of my big goals was to become more “domestic.” I wanted to make sure that I knew (at least to some small degree) how to use the Joy of Cooking cookbook (I also wanted to learn how to iron my clothes, but I think that will have to wait until Christmas). To this end, namely, becoming a better cook, I invited four young ladies over for dinner. Instead of picking something easy, I decided that I was going to cook a chicken for dinner. It was an interesting experience. After many emergency calls home for maternal guidance, I pulled Mr. Chickie out of the oven and served him with baked potatoes and green beans almondine. Nobody died. Actually the food was quite good. I have a new desire to learn how to properly carve a bird because this was the hardest part of the whole process (along with pulling his frozen neck out of his body and washing him in warm water to quickly thaw him). I had a great time.

Over the next few weeks I spent quite a bit of time studying and having fun. On Thursday, November 17 we got to hear Ray Vander Laan speak about the “eastern” perspective. He talked about how we, as westerners, miss many of the subtle details found in Scripture because we don’t know the context and background. He was an amazing speaker and I got a lot out of our 6 hours together.

Our Thanksgiving vacation began after class that day. I had a lot of fun during Thanksgiving break. In the first couple of days, I finished the Calvary Gateway website and started working on the Hooker Oak Alliance website.

All work and no play makes Matt a dull boy. To this end, I took off really early Monday morning with my friend Troy to go snowboarding at Arapahoe Basin just outside of Keystone, CO. We had a great day snowboarding. I biffed it pretty good a few different times. We spent the night at the Arapahoe Inn which was staffed by weird european girls who did not seem very helpful. The rates were very reasonable, however, and the company was excellent. On the second day, we were joined by about 30 students and staff from the Institute. Troy ended up skiing that day, but I stuck to the snowboard and by the end of the day was able to race down the hill with my skiing friends while staying mostly in control. I don’t think I had a bad fall the whole day! I can’t wait to buy a snowboard and season lift ticket for Donner Ski Ranch this winter.

The next day I picked my buddy Andre Fox from the Denver airport and brought him to Colorado Springs. Andre graduated from TAC in my class and is teaching at a private school in Napa this year. The next day was Thanksgiving and Andre and I spent the entire morning and most of the afternoon cooking. We made a turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, and a bunch of other stuff that I’ve forgotten at this point. We had Troy and Jen, two of my friends, over for dinner and they both brought goodies with them. The rest of the day (after the clean-up was done) was spent vegging out in front of some excellent videos (Christmas Vacation and a few others). All in all it was a pretty awesome “first” thanksgiving on my own.

Andre hung around for a few more days. We visited the crazy sales/shoppers on Black Friday, but started at around 11:00 A.M. and didn’t buy anything. On Saturday we made the drive up to the top of Pike’s Peak. It was incredibly windy at the top, and I heard that they closed the road soon after we left. A few days later it snowed on the top and I would imagine that it is pretty difficult to get up there right now.

That’s pretty much what happened during October and November. I’ll get to work on the update for December (and should probably start on January while I’m at it!). Check back soon for more updates!

It is really cold!

I just wanted to let everyone know that. Check out the weather report here.

P.S. I am still working on the next “big” update on my life. Stay tuned…