The Profts

Ian = Jonathan + Jillian

2010-03-04T09:29:00.001-08:00

I didn't mention this about his name but here's a thought:

Ian = Scottish form of John
Ian = part of the name Jillian

So as you see, he is part of both of us. Also if you are wondering how to say Ian just say Jillian. "Eee-Ahn"

JSP

Ian's Photoshoot

2010-03-03T14:33:00.000-08:00

Photoshoot by Photos by Joe:
http://www.flickr.com/joeykenow

Here is a link directly to the slideshow but no guarantees (depending on your web browser) that it will work.
http://www.flickr.com/joeykenow/show

Otherwise click slideshow on the right and enjoy!
JSP

Arrival of Ian Walter Proft

2010-03-02T10:09:00.000-08:00

Well, this might be one of the few/first posts where I have very little in the way of wry commentary and sarcastic reparte, and instead am just a little bit stunned. This is probably exactly why God decided to make ME a father - to shut me up.

Jill's first view of her firstborn son. Her immediate words/response was: "He so perfect!" It really was a beautiful moment in my life I won't ever forget.

I think the look on her face says it all. Dad is looking a little bit scruffy...

Ian is just a little guy - 5 lb 12 oz is a bit smaller than even both his parents. (we were both small babies) Technically he is about 20 days early but is completely healthy.

Other stats/facts about Ian Walter Proft:

- His favorite activity is fussing

- He can get out of a swaddle in under a minute

- He sleeps when mommy sleeps and cries when daddy tries to sleep

- Total visitors: 2 so far. Grandma and Grandpa Proft!

- His name means "God is gracious" and is the Scottish form of John - in homage to his dad's paternal Grandmother's lineage to the Scottish Clan Stewart

- His middle name means "Commander of the Army" and is in homage to his dad's paternal Grandfather Maj. Walter Proft (ret.)

Usually the mantra on the Internet is "Post pics or it didn't happen!" so there you go... it happened!

JSP

Fort Lancer: Winter 09-10

2010-02-16T16:09:00.000-08:00

Wintertime at Fort Lancer. Everyone keeps asking about the snow. My friends in California say "What is it?" Snow is crystalized water vapor. In the summer, it would be rain, which is something most of us have seen. But the cold temperatures here cause it to form this white stuff that collects on the roads and allows the most excellent of high-speed manuevers, the J-turn.

Above you see our first snowfall. It took me 1 hour to shovel the driveway, and 20 minutes after to clear the hump that the plow created. Wow isn't winter fun?
Here is after our second snow, taken from a bit of an angle. You notice now that the snow is waist high, is drifting over our major walkways, and has the unique capacity for backpain unknown in lower climes.
Okay. Seriously. Third snow. This is getting a little ridiculous. You now can see that the snow has drifted to car-height at least in the lowest spots. In the highest spots, it is about a head taller than I am. After a snow like this, I usually complain about how bad the roads are and what my tax dollars are doing, as our street usually has a 1-2' hump on the end that I have to ramp off of, dukes-of-hazard style. I think they have heard my complains, for now the plow comes promptly and deposits the entire snowfall of the NE district of Owatonna onto my particular curve of the road. My neighbors have piles half as tall on the ends of their driveways. They also all have snow removal devices that are tantamount to grecian behemoths of legend. I have a shovel and my muscles.

Ouch.
JSP

Jake Bachelor Party: Best ever.

2009-12-23T10:37:00.001-08:00

What is cheaper and less painful than paintball, but actually a lot more fun? An 8-hour nerf war!

Participants:
Jonathan "Spray & Pray" Proft- dual weilding the 24-shot and 6-shot gatlers.
Brent "Two-shots Two Kills" Peterson - dual long-shot modified pistols.

Jake "That is a huge ammo drum" Rasp - man of honor.

Caleb "Which End Does the Bullet Come Out of Again?" - Jake's (now) brother in law. Quote of the night: "No one has said anything inappropriate about my sister yet. Is this really a bachelor party?"

Phil "Grillz Muh Bling" Hammitt with the modified Rapid-Fire... classic.

Colin "Yes this is a 45-shot ammo belt for my Vulcan Gatler" Proft.

Game modes included: Assassination (Presidental Escort), 2v2v2, deathmatch, good ol' CTF, Zone-Control, and Wild Chicken.

Very sore the day after. But how can you top that?

JSP

Summer Romance 2009

2009-11-23T13:50:00.000-08:00

Like any summer - it was full of romance and weddings. First big one was John & Heidi Douglas, old friends of Jill's. Well, I mean they'd been friends a long time - they aren't old.
During the dollar-dance-singalong Jim Remiger came back from Africa to collect money from Jill and Jen.

I ate my weight in mints and nuts.

Next wedding was another of Jill's longtime good friends Kelli VanRavenhorst to her beau Ryan Conlan. Jill was uber-cute in her scarf (gift from bride) and bump.

Ryan also got to experience the handcuffed garter removal challenge. I can testify... its fun but not really that difficult.

Dollar dance! Alicia Thayer hogged Kelli for about 20 minutes teaching her to tango. Saucy!

The Thayers are good friends from bible study. Shown here in a rare serious smiling moment.

Cutting the cake! This is one of my only good pictures of the couple as I was very busy at the wedding. I'll post more after I get some better ones. (Kelli if you see this can you send me some?)

A long night of dancing followed. I haven't spent that much time on the dance floor since a Hammitt wedding!

Lucky for us Kelli and Ryan are now in town! We are hoping to see more of them as time goes on. Blessings on all our married friends!

JSP

Pregnant with Proft Alpha

2009-11-23T13:40:00.000-08:00

The new mommy-to-be on a sunny early fall day. She looks positively radiant!

The whole family! Also: we love our deck. This is at around week 14.

Here's an ultrasound at 20 weeks.

Precious little digits for now. Someday, a lethal tool of destruction.

Mommy's belly bump at week 22. From behind her, you can't even tell she's pregnant really, she's putting all the effort into a nice navel-positioned basketball. V. cute.

More coming soon!

JSP

North Shore mini-vacation

2009-11-23T13:13:00.001-08:00

Since the baby is due right about the time of our 5th anniversary (yes, we are having to delay our dance party we had planned) we took our anniversary weekend early by going up to the Duluth/North Shore area for a 3 day trip. Day 1 we hit up the amazing restaurant and relaxed.

We stayed at Larsmont Cottages - great place. V. nice shoreline to relax on. (Day 2)
Clouds moved in on our one outdoor day we had planned, but we fled North to our sightseeing locations and it was sunny there until about the time we got done. The last nice 50 degree fall day really.

The great lake just before a storm - very calm and yet still a bit foreboding.

One of the billions of pictures of the split rock lighthouse. Fun hiking all around it to get various angles, but we like this picture the best. One couple told us (out of breath) that there were "too many" stairs to get to the bottom and that they had quit halfway down. Lets just say they were shaped like potatoes. We nodded gravely and said that duty called and then proceeded to hike the rest of the stairs, trails, and shoreline for 3+ hours and 7+ miles. Man, some Americans are weak.

Close up of the lighthouse. Definitely worth a day trip if you enjoy the outdoors and a bit of hiking and aren't afraid of heights. The mirror doesn't shine for ships anymore but has been converted by Aegis' IBL system to fire lasers at incoming Canadian ICBMs and protect MN. We salute our brave soldiers.

Still a bit chilly in the shade, we walked right up to the edge of Pallisade Head... and then we jumped to our watery grave below. But I just reloaded my saved game and we were fine. Its about 200' straight down - pretty sweet.

This gives you a picture of just how high up Pallisade Head is. V. fun driving to the top as well. The road is on the back of this cliff. Its not in the picture. I didn't drive up that. Just in case you were confused.

Gooseberry falls (previously seen in our Superior Hiking pictures) from the bottom this time. This is the "middle falls" or 2nd falls. A bunch of Chippendale's dancers were at the top of the waterfall for some reason. Before I pushed them off anyways.

Day 3 we hit up Duluth, some stores and shops, and then the train museum call "The Depot"! I had been there as a kid so some fond memories there. Woo woo!

Pretty sweet trains. Definitely worth the $5 we paid to get in. Not worth $5 was the local artist exhibit included upstairs. What utter crap! Stick figures, I kid you not. That's not art.

Mommy had a craving on the way home for B-Dubs so we stopped in Lakeville. That place is so tasty I can hardly stand it! Yum!

JSP

Nightmare Cinema aka...

2009-11-23T12:42:00.000-08:00

Dream Theater Progressive Nation 2009 tour. Labrie the fruit, Myung the most amazing bassist alive, Portnoy the random master, Rudess the best rock keyboard player, and of course, the best progressive guitarist of all time - John Petrucci. Some might say the best guitarist period, but I haven't seen the other greats live yet so I'll reserve judgement and say he's certainly in the top 10 of all time.

So yeah, other than finding out we were going to become parents - the high-octane event of the summer was going to the Dream Theater concert at the Orpheum in Minneapolis. The baby kicked for the first time during one of the solos, that's how awesome it was. And 9 weeks is pretty early to start kicking.

JSP

Summer Vacation - Wisconsin Dells

2009-11-23T10:34:00.000-08:00

In the summer of 09 we took a week to head East to Wisconsin Dells. A very picturesque area of Wisconsin with beautiful geological formations and lots of touristy things to do. Also known as the waterpark mecca of the midwest, its a great place to spend a weekend or short week as we did.

Each day we had a theme or a single major destination. The first full day we spent at Devil's Lake State Park. It's called that because of the difficult hikes which cause many to take the Lord's name in vain during the ascent to the great overlooks and be damned during vacation. But seriously - one of the best dayhike state parks we have ever been to. There is lots to do, kayaking, canoeing, sailing, swimming, meet a bunch of kids from Alabama, beach volleyball - slamma-jamma. But we like hiking and getting exercise so we circumbobulated the lake proper on all the ridges.

On the vernal equinox, the ley lines cause fluctuations in the rocks I am perched on, causing a portal to open to the planes of Oblivion. This is where the lake actually gets its name. No really. These rocks (or ones very like these, all rocks look the same to me) are called the "devil's doorway" and there is a local legend about them meant to drum up further tourism.

Oh sweet angel of mercy, come rescue me... This shot begs about a million lame pickup lines doesn't it? This is near the entrance to the "Army Ducks". If you haven't done a duck tour in Wisconsin Dells you really haven't been there. Basically they are WWII era army amphibious vehicles that go through back country trails, and in and out of the lakes, dam reserviors, and rivers that feed them.

This is what you see a lot of during boat tours of "the dells" proper - the river has marvelous geological formations to see and the boat tours (or duck tours) give you a great view. This rock is one that the native indians in the area would leap to to prove their courage. Then they would write their names into the soft stone to immortalize their bravery. Its hard to make out but you can see traditional native american names on the rock if you zoom in such as "Taylor + Ashley" and "Megan + Nick forever".

We rode the Independence. We sat in the back and got very wet during "splashdowns" where the duck goes down a hill and then crashes into the water.

Jill tied up and pouting. Cold shower needed. Pirate's cove minigolf is a Proft family Dell's tradition.

Or at least some cold surfing at a waterpark! We went to the Kalahari because it was an awful, miserable, cold day and the Kalahari is an enclosed indoor park. The highlight for me was this surfing machine where it shoots the water up at you. Most people can't do more than flop in, wipe out, and moon several hundred people when their trunks come off - but I managed to knee board for a few minutes and then attempted getting into a standing position - which lasted for about 3 seconds of wobbling before I crashed.

Definitely our surprise find and top tourist experience of the trip was Wollersheim Winery. Just pulling up to it felt like I had warped into southern France. The sun fell lightly on terraces hills of grape wines and a rustic charm pervaded the entire plantation.

Shown here is the original cave used to age the barrels of wine. There was a very nice gift shop, picnic area, and of course a full tour of the facility and wine tasting. Super educational, very delicious, and absolutely fun.

History recalls that during times of war - some legends have been traced back inside the castle walls where soldiers came to hide in barrels filled with wine - never to escape. These tombs of old, how well they died. Down the cellar stairs - we dissappeared. "Come and have a taste! A rare vintage! All the finest wines... improve with age."

The Count then led us upstairs for a wine tasting. The last bit of wine Jill would have in years, given the fact that we discovered on this trip that we were expecting a child. Holy cow! I'm gonna be a dad!

Frantic research and house projects followed.

JSP

Backyard Upgrades

2009-11-23T10:04:00.001-08:00

We've been busy in the backyard this summer/fall. So I thought I might show you some of the back-breaking work we did back there.

The previous owners removed a tree but left a huge stump. I went to town with shovels, two axes, one hatchet and an angelo bar for the better part of 3 hours. Unbeknownst to iPod-wearing Jon, Jill and her friend Jen were on the deck watching and talking. I say watching because apparently at one point I started "Talking Ninja" to the stump.

When I finally got it out, I yelled "THIS... IS... SPARTA!" and kicked it into the hole.
So then I needed dirt to fill the hole, so I put in a fire pit. Its amazing how far down and how big you have to dig to get proper drainage in an inset pit. Its about 3' in diameter, and about 1' deep, with 2' of pea gravel below that, and about 2 dozen 4' deep drainage tunnels dug via angelo bar. (that thing is totally AWESOME). It drains like a charm and also charms... uh... like a charm. Cozy fires and many s'mores have been had.

So the wheels continue to turn... how can I harvest more resources out of my backyard without building an expansion... In our SE sunny corner we put in a berry patch! 15 strawberry plants and 7 raspberry bushes. For now, they are small but we got our first strawberries near the end of the summer. They are unlike any I have ever tasted. Seriously. Fresh organic fruit off the vine is not just 25% better than storebought, its like 200% better.

Here is the planted garden. We made it 25% bigger by cutting 3 more rows. We only planted 6 rows across, but gained space so that each row was now easier to maintain and able to produce more. From L-R, starting on the near half: Rhubarb, 5 different herbs, green pepper, jalapeno pepper, cucumbers, cayenne pepper, pablano pepper, serrano pepper, potatoes (the leaf-mounded row) carrots, snap peas. Back half, tomatoes (which went nuts this year), broccoli, onions, swiss chard, spinach, lettuce, kholrabi, green beans. We found that lining the garden with marigolds dramatically reduced the occurence of whitemoth/greenworms we found in our finished goods.

A turtle makes a beeline for the (dubious) cover offered by the plants. Boy was he ever lost. And by the way, painted turtles are quite quick for their size.

Here is the trophy shelf of all of Jill's hard work. There is a lot in the freezer or in the root cellar, but this shows some of it. I had to build her about 24 sq ft of shelving in the laundry room to hold all of it. Pickles, lots and lots of salsa, jams, apples, tomato sauces, brushetta, etc etc. Pretty amazing haul.

Total costs: $280 - mostly in reusable tools, bricks, ziplock bags, and poles. Total gain: we aren't totally sure, because its hard to put a dollar value on not dying young eating the absolute crap the food industry pushes to our supermarkets - and its also hard to put a price tag on how much better it tastes - but it comes near $1350 worth of food production if we were to sell it at the farmer's market.

Why aren't more people doing this? Oh yeah, it was a LOT of work. Its really good exercise and fresh air too - another intangible benefit.

JSP

Dart Update 2009

2009-11-23T09:45:00.000-08:00

Everyone asks about Dart. Since he is sortof like our kid, for now, I figured an update was in order. First off, the big accomplishment for the year, he tested for his black collar in Jeet Kune do. Pictured here majestically contemplating his inspirations: Bruce Lee and the style of the dragon.

He absolutely loves to be held by Jill exactly as shown. Not many cats relax like this when held like a baby on a person's lap.

Doesn't he look quite attentive? He is sitting in the hammock created by Jill's blanket on the couch. And if he's attentive, it means she is holding food. He is coiled like a cobra. The smallest crumb dropped will not even reach the blanket before he surges forward like a bullet to snatch the morsel. Popcorn he goes especially crazy for...

Some days I nap on top of the stairs - something I learned from my mom. Dart joins me on the banister.

When he's bad I lock him in my gun safe for a few minutes. Just kidding. He goes in there himself.

Dart has also picked up on the pregnancy. He cuddles more than ever now with Jill, often laying one paw on her belly or putting an ear to her navel to listen for the baby. He knows he will soon have a new friend.

And if you believe that, you need to crank the cuteness gullibility up a notch.

JSP

Chris & Trisha... er Proft and Trisha.

2009-10-22T08:56:00.000-07:00

This post is long overdue... well I suppose they all are. Last labor day (yes, Sept 08), my brother Chris (aka "Proft") married Trisha and we gained an amazing new sister in law!

Darling... I'm lost in your eyes. Also, you have spinach in your teeth...

The newlyweds with their 'Rents and new 'Rents-in-law. Personally, I think the purple was awesome.

Still little kids at heart. Mutti and Dad.

Pretty adorable. Also bordering on rated-R.

Agents in the matrix or just two fine lookin' young men? Or both? Actually, who am I kidding, I'm not young anymore.

My girls. In a tree. Lucky me.

The siblings have never looked better. We've looked more intimidating before, but not this good. My burly hugeness, Chris' radiant locks, Megan's stunning smile, Colin's mountainlike tallness... This combo could smite you with fear and envy simultaneously.

Best man Alan gets his tie fixed by his lady Laura. I don't know them very well, but thought this was probably the third best-looking couple moment at the wedding.

The whole wedding party. Note our yin-yang male-female thing going on there. Freakin artistic eh?

And luckiest/best of all was that now Chris and Trisha and their three "kids" (Lou, Screamy D, and Zelda) live just a block away from us! We get to see them all the time! And the Proft clan gets bigger. And the Wencl clan gets weirder.

JSP

Evil League of Evils - Villian Mastermind Party

2009-09-03T10:43:00.000-07:00

Lame person: "What are you doing this weekend?"
Me: "Going to a party."
Lamer: "Cool, cool... What kind of party...?"
Me: "A costume party where we dress up as made up evil supervillians complete with backstory and a nemesis and a special weapon or move..."

It can't really be described, it must be shown... (L-R): Colin as "Poopy PJ", me as "Mr. Arkham Horror", Megan as "Double Drag", Trisha as "Claire Voyance", Jill as "The Sock Bandit" and Chris as "the Turd Burglar"...

The Sock Bandit! Steals all the missing left socks that go missing across America! Nemises: Laundry Gnomes. (for obvious reasons)

The Turd Burglar: Special move: Banging on your stall door in a public restroom to make you too nervous to finish the deed. Shown here burgling a turd.

Claire Voyance - special move - steals your thoughts and replaces them with her own.

Poopy PJ: Sleeps in late and never changes out of his PJs. Doesn't shower. Smells poopy. Special moves: #1 - shown #2 - the little kid turning leg kick.

Double Drag: A woman who thinks she a man who crossdresses as a woman. Special move - can transform into Liza Minelli.

Mr. Arkham Horror - wears a pallid mask that drives those who look into it insane.

Also carries a sweet stick with skulls on it - those are totally not softballs I drew on and drilled holes into. Skulls man. Horrifying.

Action shot! Poopy PJ little kid turning leg kicking! Mr Arkham wields the fetch stick! Double Drag strangles with his/her boa! Turd Burglar burgles turds from Poopy PJ's PJs!! Claire steals your thoughts while being strangled! The Sock Bandit wields her sock chucks!

Good times. Crazy times. Now what do I do with this creepy mask? Halloween is coming up...

JSP

Jake + Cora = ... um... Jake and Cora?

2009-09-03T10:39:00.001-07:00

In case you didn't know - our good friends Jake Rasp and Cora Coppock (I hope I spelled that right) are getting married here in a few weeks. So a pre-wedding party was thrown. Basically, they wanted twice as many gifts so there you go...

The happy couple. They are gonna have the cutest kids. Nerdy, but cute. Like I should talk?
Rebecca, Ella (Jake's sisters), Jill, and Megan pose at the party.

Megan, as usual, eating the local flora.

SISTERS!!!!

One of our typical took-it-ourselves shots.

Soon comes the bachelor party... NERF WAR!

JSP

2nd Honeymoon - with a new Honey!

2009-09-03T10:25:00.000-07:00

So in Jan-Feb of 2009 Jill decided that she has so much fun in Florida's West Palm Beach that she'd go back... WITHOUT ME!

Training schedules at work did not permit me to get away, but my parents offered to pay for my sister Megan (aka Honey) to bring a friend to FL (Far off Lands? Foreign Leadership camp? Fish Lake?) and Jill was free, and hence, an adventure was had...

Megan started off the trip like most, by eating a bridge...
And making friends with the locals. Food works well. Want a cracker? How about chicken-fried-chicken? This zoo they went to was called "Lion Country Safari" but it gained the nickname Lion Country Buffet after a verbal gaffe by Megs...

Jill's favorite animal is the giraffe. Later she leapt onto it and rode off into the sunset...

Some lighthouse or something...

Dad also recommends the chicken-fried-chicken at Lion Country Buffet.

I have an entire photo album of people tricking Jill into standing for a photo long enough to get hit by waves. Reaction = priceless. To be fair, the Atlantic Ocean is frigid in February. The Floridians were wearing JACKETS and Jill and Megan were snorkeling.

You can't see the right-half of the sign, so I'll fill it in for you: It says:

ME TO

RY BUFFET

TCHESSS!!!

My parents enjoying the view. What do you say kids? (in unison) "Thanks Dad..."

And you thought jellyfish or sharks were a problem? Look closely at the sign and see what hazards swimmers faced on this day... Imagine going out for a swim and getting a face-full of pusticles from R'yleh.

A great vacation was had. Meanwhile in Minnesota Jon spent 2 weeks sprawled out on the living room floor admist a whirlwind of pizza boxes, beer cans, potato chips, and socks.

And just for the record, I cooked* while Jill was gone.

JSP

* I made venison chili with a heat level of nuclear and had it for every meal for a week.

Summer Romance... last Fall...

2009-09-03T10:09:00.000-07:00

9 months is a very long time to not update a blog. I apologize. I will make up for this by posting several times all at once to recap some of the highlights of the last year. First up is family wedding #1 - Jill's sister Jess married Mark O-something. I can't spell their last name. Seriously, its like 20 characters long.

Mmmm. Organic goodness... The flowers are nice too.

And... the flowers... just peed... on the bridesmaids...

Grandpa Dave Boeddeker, all-time funny-man, and mother of the bride Donna (Jill's mom) prepare to release a white dove for the trap-shooters...

Kyle Lindsay and then-fiance Erin Boeddeker. My "brother" and step-sister-in-law. We say we're brothers because we are too lazy to figure out what we really are now that my wife's mom married Erin's dad. Kyle is also the bassist of signed and touring band Camera Can't Lie...

http://www.myspace.com/cameracantlie

Not signed and not touring, is the hottest new signing duet in the midwest... me and Jill! Singing country music! For the first time ever! Also for the LAST time ever! Only for my sweet sister in law and her awesome guy would I sing a country song in public.

But seriously, I actually grew to like the song, but I'll always be a prog-metal guy. And Jill finally got her wish of doing a duet with her man...

Craig and Donna - my mother-in-law and step-father-in-law. Yeah. I think that's right. Also, they won cutest couple.

And we won hottest couple. I don't mean to toot my own horn or anything, but HONK HONK! How did I ever snag that hottie?

They had a great dance and we stayed up and out very late partying. Great times.

A picture of the couple finally, doing what they do naturally... look awesome.

A fun and blessed wedding. Who is next to get married in the family? Well actually, I have to post two more weddings here yet... I think the cat might be next.

JSP

Winter at Fort Lancer

2009-01-28T19:00:00.000-08:00

Well, like most blogs this one has gone untouched for quite some time. I blame work, personally, for taking me away from the Internet for 9 or so hours a day.

Thought some of you family and friends in southerly climes may like to take a look at our house in mid-winter. Its quite the cheery haven from the snow 'rizzards.

Getting to be a lot of that white stuff...

JSP

Star Wars Nerdiness - no text needed...

2008-08-23T11:36:00.001-07:00

Super Hike and Split Rock

2008-08-22T07:51:00.001-07:00

So Day 4 we spent all day relaxing on the Split Rock river. No doubt a RAGING FURY during the spring, now it is a calm and relaxing brook. Since it drops several hundred feet over the 2.5 miles of it we day-hiked, its just one waterfall after another into nice shallow pools. Great for bathing in after a hard day's hike.

What you don't see in this picture is that the rocks I am sitting on are covered... completely COVERED in small worms. Little black, leechlike guys. So beware when you meditate that you don't become one with the worms. Here you see me channeling Duke Leto Atriedes II. Unfortunately, the worms did not merge/fuse with me and change me into a laser-resistant near-immortal Emperor.
So we ventured downstream for the entire afternoon, eating lunch on the rocks, wading at parts, and sometimes hopping rock to rock. You could definitely hike it without getting wet but what would be the fun in that?
The walls of the ... canyon we'll call it ... were this fractured type of rock that seemed to shear off at quartz lines. This meant that there were very few spots to get in and out of the river valley. A flash flood would have been the end of our adventure that's for sure.
Just down from our campsite there was a great wading pool we cooled off in before bed. The rocks were almost perfectly shaped to allow you to sit and then lean all the way back to dunk comfortably. Good dare opportunity too. And yes, Jake did dunk here just after this picture.
Final picture before we left our SPR campsite. Lookin pretty chipper!
So, 30 miles, 5 days, 2 fuel bottles, and about 70 L of purified water later we finished our trip. Now we are around 10% done with the SHT. Next year... the Split-Rock to Silver Bay leg!
JSP

Superior Hikers Trailing Superiority - Part 2

2008-08-21T10:44:00.001-07:00

So at this point we had hiked roughly 8 miles, enduring water shortages, and then, late the evening of Day 2 our fuel ran out. I had never run out of fuel before, or even really dented my bottle and was quite shocked. We made do with a dry breakfast for our day 3 hike down the Gooseberry river. 5 miles of nice scenery. Pictured here is "5th Falls", which was our midmorning break location.
The original caged animal. This is why you don't go in caves. You might run into freaks.

After hiking down to the Gooseberry State Park visitors center, we ran into the hikers we shared Crow Creek with. All 4 of them were throwing in the towel. I finagled a fuel-bottle trade and got us double our initial fuel reserve. Thus equipped, we sat on a rock high above the masses of loud, stereotypical American tourists daytripping the 0.2 miles in to the Upper GB falls and made ourselves another great brunch, complete with French-pressed dunn bros. coffee. Glorious. Sneering at the proletariat daytrippers, we turned back to the trail and began our longest hike of the trip.
Beautiful groves of silver birch and sugar maple greeted us for this hike. All in all, we would have liked to have stopped at Blueberry Hill (no gradeschool dirty jokes please) but again, no water at the "creeks" so we had to push on to Split Rock River. Total mileage: 13-14 miles. We officially verged on hardcore backpacker status here on Day 3.

The trail got long, the sun was hot, and it was your typical BP trip misery - the sore feet and shoulders and hips, the lack of water, the swimming in your own sweat... the dragon that longs to burst forth into its freedom but you just feel the need to wait for the latrine you know will be in the next official campsite... if you... can... only... make it....

Well we did make it. but it was a hard day.

When we arrived at the Split Rock River (see the rock wall Jake poses with below) we ended up passing our initial campsite, and a second overflow one, and finally ended up in the very back of the Split Rock River loop trail, about 2.5 miles past where we had originally expected to stop.

The Split Rock River was well worth the hike. 3+ miles of winding waterfalls, rapids, shallow pools, and all in all a paradise to camp next to. More about it in the next installment...

JSP

Superior Hiking Trail - Part 1

2008-08-21T10:24:00.000-07:00

I know what you're thinking: "Didn't you just go on vacation?". Yes, yes we did. But sometimes you hear the call of nature, and sometimes nature hears the call of you. And I have no idea what nature heard but I bet it sounded a bit like a train of stallions and their siren significant others blazing a Sherman-like path of glory through the brush. Scorched earth style.

Joining us on this backpacking trip was our good friends Jake and Cora. Some of you may recall seeing Jake in tux at Jill & I's wedding. We picked them up in Minneapolis on the way up to our trailhead just north of Duluth MN along the Superior Hiking Trail. The SHT runs from Duluth to Grand Marais, right on the Canadian border. 270 miles of MN wilderness and fun.

We hit the trail with 35-40 lbs each on Thursday afternoon and began a visually stunning and physically shocking hike up to Wolf Rock, a great overlook point on the great lake. Tweaker Halo players carrying sniper rifles would have absolutely wet themselves over the field of fire provided from this excellent position.

This hike brought us to our first campsite (not pictured), Crow Creek. And by Crow Creek what they mean is "Neither Crows Nor Creek". So here we are at 800 ft elevation, a few miles from any water source with about 3.5 L of water for dinner, breakfast, and the morning hike. the unlucky hikers who came in after us had hiked further and had even less water.

It was a great, if a bit dry, campsite. We elected to tough it out as we knew that Day 2 would see us at the Gooseberry river. There were plenty of berries on the trail actually, and we feasted like idiot schoolchildren at every clearing. However, if anyone ever asks you to eat a "Goose Berry", I highly recommend you do not eat what they hand you next. Or even shake hands with them.

Our 2nd day saw about 6 miles of hiking up to our campsite on the GB river. Nice place. We set up camp around noon and had a huge watery brunch, including oatmeal with berries found on the trail. We stocked up on water and re-hydrated and then spent all afternoon goofing around in camp, playing in the river, hunting for agates and such. our campsite had a tent up, but no sign of the owners. They tromped in around sundown with a puffy wound - seems they had a run in with a large hornet and had dayhiked to the state park to get medical attention.

It was a great campsite, and nice to have had a fire pit (rare for a backpacking trail) and benches in camp. Very nice spot right there on the river.

Jake and Cora pose for the cam. We all pretty much spent the day on this rock bar and had a blast. Very refreshing after being so water-poor the day before. Yes, there were many Dune jokes on that trail.

Here is a shot of the campsite proper. As you can see, benches and fire pit. Fire is a luxury not easily afforded by most trails, so it was quite welcome. Not pictured: Our reclamation chamber, thumper, and maker we used for transport to the site.

JSP

Green-thumbin'-it

2008-08-05T14:29:00.001-07:00

Okay, I know I promised to post these like 2 months ago. So I apologize to both our regular readers for taking so long.

Just before our Colorado trip we broke ground on our garden. Its 12'x40' on our W side of our back yard, and has been doing great. Here's a view from the south:

And from up on the deck:
Looking down from the deck onto the southern half.
The bamboo trellis was cheap, easy to make, and is working great! We got the bamboo for $0.33/ea and they are fairly strong for that cheap. Not to mention a renewable resource and excellent for spearing squirrels in the yard.

The north side of the garden has (from West to East)
Potatoes
Carrots
Onions
Lettuce (3 kinds of swiss char), Spinach, and Kholrabi
and the giant climbing Pea Pods of doom

The south side (rougher across the tracks) has:
Rhubarb, Cucumber, Squash (1 ea), Tomato plants (5), Tomatillo (1), Peppers (4) and various herbs (cilantro, chives, parsley, ... I think one more), Broccoli and then Beans - which have been repeatedly ravaged by the neighborhood varmits.

So far we have tasted the fruits of our labors and they were good. Had one really bad storm with 75 mph winds and that did knock the pea trellis down, but it wasn't anything an old Eagle scout couldn't lash back into place.
JSP

Colorado Trip

2008-07-07T07:52:00.000-07:00

Last month we took a trip to Colorado. Many hijinks ensued during the 8-day fracas.
We hung out for a few days with Sketch (college roomate of mine) and Errin in Boulder. It was like being back in college and all those fun times again. Only there was less ramen and the fun was a whole lot more sophisticated.

Royal Gorge bridge. Apparently the locals call it "Royal Gouge". It *was* very touristy. Quite a clunky wooden bridge to be 1050 ft up on. Winds were also quite high.

Not as big as the Brooklyn bridge, but the drop is good for bungee and BASE jumping. You *can* drive across but they apparently don't want you drifting on the bridge. Bor-ring.

Special moments at the bottom of the canyon. We rode an "inclined railway" to the bottom. It was like a diagnoal jail cell on a track.

The bro-ternal order of many-colored hats will now come to order with a rousing rendition of our theme song! "Ever and more, ever and more, ever and more!" Now get to work on that secret handshake!

Small trains that don't move = good picture moments, but not much of a thrill ride.

Hanging lake is a heck of a hike, but totally worth the view. One person we saw hiking up the 2.2 mi rock trail was barefoot. Either she was totally hardcore, totally insane, didn't prepare, or lost a bet. I'm thinking the last two are more likely.

After our fun on the East side of the state settled down we went West to Grand Junction to visit Jill's family - who she hadn't seen in over 10 years. Pictured here are (back row) Ron and Judy, Eileen and Floyd Dobson (uncles & aunts) and Grandma and Grandpa Dobson with us on the couch. It was a great time!

This, I believe is Mount Garfield. So named for its resemblance to a piece of lasagna.

Heading back East to Colorado Springs we toured the Garden of the Gods. This rock formation is called "kissing camels". Which is pretty gross if you think about it.

Special moments on the rocks.

Sort of a recurring fantasy of mine brought to life here.

If I were a vampire, I'd look a little like this.

Well that's all for now from our Colorado trip. Maybe I'll post more after I make that vampire picture of me into an animated GIF or something...

JSP

Fort Lancer

2008-02-25T10:16:00.000-08:00

Seeing as how we've lived at our new address for about 8 months now, we figured it was high time we posted some pictures of our humble abode.

A look down on the entryway. This is usually the last thing a guest sees before I give them a push-kick to the sacrum and send them flying.

The previous owners thought that sheep would be cute on the walls of the upstairs 2nd bedroom. We call it "the sheep room" since we are particularly inventive with names. You will also notice that the previous family's baby was also learning a different kind of math.

Bathroom. I spend as little time as possible here. It is a hollywood style bath and we do like that. Although the locks were backwards when we moved in. Figure that one out.
Master bedroom. Recently painted. It was a shade of dark vein purple before and now it is a more eye-pleasing ... whatever the color is. I don't know the name. I would say beige but I'm probably wrong. Test of your visual skills: Can you find where my katana is being kept in this pictures?

Here's our upstairs living room. The couches get nice and warm in the sun by about 1 PM. Good place for a nap. Not pictured: A second katana under the big couch. Seriously.
Dining room matches the decor in the adjacent living room - I have been told its "mission style". Sure, lets go with that. You can see the deck behind. We'll post pictures of the yard sometime. No katanas in this room (yet).
The Kitchen, which sports a secret passage to the Study. It is very spacious compared to most we've seen - this is the North half. We use the table there for most of our meals and love love LOVE having a dishwasher.
South half of the kitchen. It has lots of knives and therefore no need of katanas. For now.

We'll post some pics of the outside later. Maybe after all the snow melts.

JSP

d'Artagnan "The Ivory Dart" Proft

2008-02-22T10:40:00.000-08:00

The newest member of the Proft family is a half-siamese feline with a taste for adventure and chips. And broccoli, and carrots and apples and anything we leave out. He will eat the top off of bread if we leave it out.
We named him d'Artagnan, after the protagonist of Dumas' Three Musketeers. He is brash, headstrong, and quick to both attack and retreat - but has a good heart - so the name fits pretty well. His nickname is just "Dart" and this name is also particularly apt.

He frequently lies in wait for some unknown invisible creature that patrols our house and engages in fierce battle with it until completely winded. We call this his "cat jibblies".

He's also a nice warm pillow and companion for Jill during the day.

We picked him up from the humane socieity and he is fully clawed and so far has only scratched one piece of furniture. We are training him using a clicker method and so far he has learned to come (at a full run) when called, use his litter box and scratching post, jump up on things we point to ("Up!"), and down from things we want him off ("Down"). He knows "Sit", "Sleep" (in his bed, pictured above and handcrafted by seamstress Jill), "High Five" and "Wait". We are working on "Shake", "Catch", "Fetch", and of course "Backstab interloper for double damage".

So far he is a fun little guy and a blessing to the house. Except when he tries to sleep on my head.

JSP

Back to Hawaii...

2007-12-12T07:49:00.000-08:00

We liked Hawaii so much in October that we went back in November. Here are the pictures from that. ...okay so we only wish we went back.

Either I have hit by a shrink-ray - or that is a HUGE shell. I distinctly heard a woman onboard the ship call them "bombs" and it took some measure of self control to not correct her.
This view of the Pacific Ocean is from the top of Diamond Head crater. I like how the variations in depth showcase the color differentiation of the water.

Also, you can make out Elvis' face in the reef structure. The King is ALIVE!

Jill at "The Shorebird" restaurant. We were literally on Waikiki beach and watched the sun go down while we ate fresh pineapple and grilled our own steaks there. Glorious meal.

This is an ancient Hawaiian temple structure called Puuhonua O Honaunau. Yeah, try saying that 10 times fast. It means "The John" in Pigdin.

A supposedly endangered sea turtle. We saw about a dozen of them so that sort of annoyed me. First its the supposed curse if you take home a rock - ooh scary. Then its this subversive "well we don't want them skipping the sea turtles like stones, so lets say they are endangered..." trick. Yeah, I'm on to them...

The Arizona Memorial Visitor Center. Normally these memorials and parks and things are lame - but this one had so much content - really good content, that I can't say anything bad about it. Go to it if you get the chance.

Here Jill teases a beach-bum chicken with some food. Not pictured: His 700 wives in the nearby tree. Seriously, this chicken had a harem of hens nearby and seemed to be scouring for food for them.

More pictures to come later!

JSP

Christmas Wish List

2007-11-29T05:45:00.000-08:00

Been compiling our Christmas list recently and have been noticing some trends. In order to avoid miscommunication I'll just talk generally about what I think makes a good gift - for anybody but also specifically for us.

Consumable: Something we can use up. Movie tickets, food, coffee, gift cards to restaurants, etc. These are things we want to spend money on but usually are too thrifty to do so. Consumable gifts don't clutter up the house or end up in a box somewhere silently waiting for us to garage sale it.

High quality: We like to own just a few really nice things and not lots of cheaper things.

Know the preferences: So often, someone makes an assumption that I will like a gift. Buying me a CD based on your own preferences, or based on the cover art is an easy mistake to make. Its an easy one to fix too. Here is what I think is cool, funny, etc.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/3J4384ZLMK9KR

Here's Jill's:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/registry.html/ref=wlem-si-html_viewall?id=UYRH6JEV5CQB

In all honesty, if a family member came up to me and said "lets not buy each other gifts this year" I'd be fine with it. I really enjoy the family time, and the gifts can be such a distraction from the actual meaning of Christmas, the family time, and the joy. American Corporations can't tell me what Christmas is. I'll tell them.

JSP

Halloween... happened weeks ago didn't it?

2007-11-20T07:58:00.001-08:00

Okay, so since this happened weeks ago, its a bit less relevant but at this point I'll be caught up on life and posting normally. So since we got home from Hawaii the day before Halloween, our constumes were a bit generic for us. Jill was an island girl, with sarong, leis, and island jewelry, most of which came right out of the suitcase.

Jill poses with (L-R) Hayley, our Godchild dressed up as Dorothy, and our friends Andrew and Celeste. Jill nannies for Celeste 2 days a week, so she sees a lot of Hayley.

I was, of course, a ninja. Its the only outfit I have just lying around the house.

The first little boy who came to the door said "Cool a robber!". I am of course doing my Obnoxious Engrish Ninja voice, mixed a bit with AskANinja "Hai. More trick-or-treaters I see."

The next few doors of kids were a bit quiet and afraid - so then we decided to have Jill answer the door and me to be more or less behind it.

When any kids showed up dressed as ninjas, I gave them throwing stars in addition to their candy (plastic ones). The highlight of the night was a kid who ran back to his car "Daddy! That was a NINJA!". Pretty cute.

A few doors later Jill was busy so I opened it and a young mother screamed when she saw me, and ran away. Her kids got out the words "Trick-or-..." and weren't scared until mom ran off. Then they all came back laughing and she apologized. She seemed genuinely scared. Good thing I didn't drop off the roof like I had planned!

She knows how to use this you know.

JSP

Hawai'i

2007-11-16T07:53:00.000-08:00

Okay, after we thoroughly offended the population of Oahu, we moved on to a more laid-back location - the Big Island of Hawai'i. Its hard to explain how diverse this island is if you haven't been there... but the scenery totally changes minute to minute as you drive around. A road encircles the entire island, and it is pretty much the only road. It is narrow and unsafe in pretty much any condition... and a ton of fun. I so wish I would have had my Spec-V there. Anyways... on with the pictures:

Here we are visiting Volcano National Park - at the point where the more recent lava flows have totally destroyed the old road. Fun hiking on it.
If you hike too far though, you are liable to die a horrendous death being flung or scorched out to sea on a collapsing lava bench which can be many square miles sometimes. I enjoyed how the sign was damaged by a lava rock flung in by a seaside steam explosion.

As if to emphasize the point that the road really is closed, the lava had engulfed this "Road Closed" sign. We found it amusing. "Gee... ya think?"

Waipio Valley is a beautiful place to visit. But if we ever go back, we are renting a 4WD vehicle rather than hiking that deadly slope. It was 30 minutes of hard cardio - which yeah we are used to that, but this was all focused on one muscle group. Legs were sore the following day...

Welcome to the jungle one and all. It was fun. We played games.

Jill loved her rain gear. The whole NE side of the island was rainy the whole time we were over there. Very lush and green. And wet.

Akaka falls. 300+ feet of WATERY DOOM!!! How nice to find a spectacular waterfall which you can almost drive up to. You just have to BASE jump the last 300 feet... Here's another shot of Waipio valley from up top. If you look really closely, you can see people dying on the climb back up.
Us at a Luau. Incidentally, this was my 30th birthday. Jill gave me a game, some pictures of herself (which I put at my desk), and ... oh man she's gonna kill me... what was that last thing she gave me? Other than the obvious I mean. Oh yeah! Despair.Com posters. Also now at my desk.

Everyone seems to think this is a great sunset picture. Little do they know that its actually a picture of a nuclear blast...

I *am* David Hasslehoff. Sometimes you just feel like running... in slow mo... towards the camera...
This enormous banyan tree was growing by Rainbow Falls. We were amazed at its size and I am now prohibited from making giant wood jokes.

Well, that's some of our big island adventure for you. Enjoy!
JSP

Oahu

2007-11-13T11:24:00.000-08:00

The catalyst behind this blog is very simply the communication cost of talking about anything in length with what seems to be an expanding universe of people. Some people say: "we want to see your Hawaii pictures!". And they shall be satisfied by this post... if I can figure out how to post pictures...

Here is us on Oahu - we made a sandcastle on Waikiki beach. ..

It was destroyed a few moments after this picture was taken when we accidentally rolled over it while making out.

Here we captain the USS Bowfin, a submarine at Pearl Harbor. We ran aground a few minutes later, so distracted were we by the shiny buttons.

The USS Missouri. I can fit my head inside of those barrels - which is one of the Krull criteria for owning a gun.

The scale of the ship is hard to explain or show in pictures. Needless to say, I was like a kid in a candy store. We didn't need a tour. In fact after a while we noticied the tour guides following us and taking notes.

Jill was very happy to snorkel at Hanauma bay. For future reference: If you wear snorkeling gear with a strap down the middle of your back, apply sunscreen to the rest of your back often - otherwise you get a nice stripe down your back.

View of Waikiki beach and Honolulu from the top of Diamond Head. We hiked to the top and were amazed to see people attempting the climb in flip-flops and without water. It was a brisk climb.

Jon: "YEEEHAWWW! YEEEHAWW!!!" Those are some of the highlights of Oahu. I'll post more about the Big Island later.

JSP

At first, all was Chaos and Void...

2007-11-02T12:45:00.000-07:00

...and that's pretty much the way this blog will roll.

Nothing but a heapin' helpin' of Proft humor, a dash of our daily activities, all smothered in a creamy, buttery photo gallery celebrating hotness (Jill) and egotism (Jon).

The main point of this whole mess is to post random pictures and whatnot without mass-mailing all our loved ones. I know you so cherish your daily spamvertisements, but this way, YOU choose how much Proft you can handle at one time, and don't get involuntarily inundated with so much Proft that you are reduced to a gibbering gelantinous mass.

Although that might be cool to see happen.

JSP