That is all.

It’s kind of fun to see these updates, and you might even comment or “like” a few of them.  But, if you’re like me, the majority of these updates you just glance at and move on.  You might do that for several months and think nothing of it. I know I have.

So, my question is, at what point do these people, whom at one point you considered yourself a “friend” with, stop being a friend but more of just someone you observe in the virtual world from time to time?  It’s similar to those of us that read blog posts from our friends (which seem to happen with great irregularity these days) and never comment.  You just observe them and keep moving on with your life like nothing really happened.

At what point do these “friends” become “just some guy I know” or “some person I had a class with” and not really a friend?  And, when it reaches that point, is it really fair to have them counted as your “friend” on facebook?  To those that have several hundred, or even thousands, friends I say are you really “friends” with them all? (I’m included in that.)  Or does the term “friend” mean something in the facebook (and virtual) world that is different from that of the real world?

So get out and go golfing! And if you’re around Wells let me know! We can go golfing together.

Enjoy your favorite green beverage today!  (And might I suggest that if you’re at work it be Green Tea.)

I’m very exited that the snow is pretty much gone. There is just a small pile of it left in the yard. The weather has been nice and I’ve gotten the the grill out. I bought it last year on a great clearance price, and was finally able to use it this spring. It’s really nice to have some burgers done on the grill. It makes me wonder how I went so long without one!

The back yard is pretty much snow free, except for the giant ice pond that is the pool.  Although I think that’ll be ice free before long.  So then we’ll have the grilling and the pool up and running. I’m super excited for that.

Otherwise life is good. Work is fun, and it has slowed down just a bit.  The big project is over and I’m looking over some other projects and deciding which one to pursue next. It’ll be kind of interesting to see what will happen.  I love the freedom I have in this job to really choose some of fun projects that I want to go after and see it through from start to finish. It’s a lot of fun.

I’ve got some meetings in the cities this week, which means I’ll be back in Blaine for a while. We’re going to do a house project or two, which will keep us out of trouble. We’re going to be tiling the Master Bathroom, thanks to the tile we bought from my brother and sister-in-law who bought too much when they redid their bathroom. So that’ll be a fun project. It won’t be too bad, as the bathroom really isn’t that big of a space.  But it’ll be nice to get it done.

For now that’s about all. Keep on a rocking blog readers!

Flash forward to 2010. You have blogs that are in most cases free, or relatively cheap.  All political parties have blogs that are the standard bearer for that party, or even the party in a certain geographical area. New ones spring up all the time.  Of course these blogs can be read by anyone in the world. They are more advanced than the news papers of the 1800’s. But the general idea is the same. They convey the same messages.

People evolve and use the new tools that are out there to reach the people just the same as they did back then.  It was interesting to read that, because it is so easy to just gloss over it or not even realize how things used to work. We’ve come so far since the 1800’s, but essentially it isn’t anything new.

I guess I didn’t blog about it a lot.  It was dominated by work, I would say.  It started out with another Legislative Session.  That was what it was.  A year of budget deficits, and craziness.  In March I was appointed to the Blaine Planning and Zoning Commission.  That was a great experience.  I really enjoyed working with the great folks there, and I learned a lot about the Planning and Zoning laws.  Come June my time at the House came to an end.  Some what unexpected, but for the best.  I had been looking for a new job, something to utilize my Master’s Degree, that I was working on.  I already had an internship lined up with the City Administrator of Oak Park Heights.  So I interned there and got some great skills and experience.  During that time I had a few interviews at various places.  I was offered the job of Community Development Director for Wells, MN. I took the job, and it’s been a lot of fun.

One of the big projects I’m working on is utilizing state, county, and local funds to help get a meat processing plant into town.  The plant is working on moving into an old meat packing plant currently.  They should be up and running, with a small crew to start, in a few weeks.  Within about 2 years it should be up to 250 jobs.  It’s been a lot of fun to work on.  The other parts of the job, Planning and Zoning and Housing Redevelopment, have been a lot of fun as well.  I’ve learned so much.  The P&Z stuff I learned during my time as a P&Z Commissioner with Blaine has been very valuable.  It’s been interesting bringing what I learned in a town of 55,000+ to a town of about 2,500.

Other highlights included a week away at Lutheran Island Camp, which was fun.  The whole family was there and we were able to hang out.  We did some fishing, and had our own mini-fishing contest.  I’m proud to say that my boat (consisting of me, Beth, and my brother-in-law Barry) caught 7 fish while the other boat (my mom and dad, brother-in-law Jeff, and nieces and nephews) caught 1.  Go us!

Looking back through the archives of my blog for this past year I remember I did some house stuff.  That was kind of fun.  Being a “handy man” of sorts was interesting. Some worked well, some not.  In August and September we really spiffed up the house more.  Of course that was to sell it.  We really like what we did with the place and it’s kind of fun to be able to enjoy it still.  We have more stuff that we want to do, and we’ll probably be able to do some of it.

So, my friends, after much waiting, that is what I will call the year in review.  This coming year should be more interesting.  I’ll try to be better at getting pictures up for y’all to see.  In the mean time, enjoy life!

If you want to see me walk across the stage and get my Masters Hood you can do just that! There should be a link on Walden’s site that you can click on to watch commencement live online.

I love you Beth!

Work goes well. The projects are picking up and taking a lot of my time, which is good.  I’d rather be busy then bored. And there is always something to do. It’s a great match.  But nothing new on the house selling front yet though. That’s still in the waiting game. It’s a very tough time to be selling a house.

I’ve been getting into Lost lately. My boss let me borrow the first season. So I’ve been watching that, and am liking it so far. I’ll have to borrow the rest of the disks at some point.  Now that’s I’m done with my grad school I have a lot more free time in the evenings.  Come summer in Wells that will mean a lot more time on the golf course! But in the winter in Wells it means more time reading some books, ones that I actually want to read, and watching some TV.

So I’m officially graduated with my Masters of Public Administration.  I say officially, because the grades are all in.  A 3.93 GPA over all.  Not too bad.  Commencement is not until January and it’s in Dallas. I’m excited to go to that. It will be a nice mini-vacation and should be a little warmer. We have some friends in the Dallas area that we’re going to see and do some of the touristy things as well.  Thanks to Priceline.com we’re going to be staying there for relatively cheap as well!

Now it’s time to clean up the house a little bit before our Open House this afternoon. Then I think tonight or tomorrow it will be time to do some Christmas Baking! Yummie.