Holidays 2008 (a.k.a. Loving the Warm Weather)

Get ready for an action packed blog post! I've got videos, pictures, you name it. I suppose that's the right way to document the holidays. Good times.

So, the first quarter at Ohio State is finished, and Meghan and I have survived the initial onslaught of the cold. I am proud to report that I landed some good grades in my first stint as a Buckeye, and I hope to continue the streak for the rest of the academic year. After cranking out multiple papers, however, it was time to take a brief respite both from the academic life and from the north. Thus, Meghan and I headed SOUTH!

First stop was Fort Worth, Texas -- home of the (now) Poinsetta Bowl Champion TCU Horned Frogs (victors over the blue-turfed Boise State Broncos)! It's also the home of one Kate Lundborg who had the good sense to graduate the same exact weekend that we were in the Metroplex (Dallas/Fort Worth area). What ensued was a celebration of everything Kate, which meant an incredible meal at a local Mexican restaurant (Joe T. Garcia's) that featured delicious fajitas and delicious margaritas. The following day, the Lundborg clan gathered together on the campus of Texas Christian University and watched Kate walk across a stage, shake the Chancellor's hand, and then promptly receive the title of "Bachelor" (watch out ladies). Here's a nice family pic in front of Frog Fountain:


Yes, that is the same suit from the history conference in Quebec. And yes, I do look just as good in it here as I did in it then. Big thanks to Donna who gave me a fantastic haircut the night before. The action then moved south to Brenham, Texas. Meghan, Kate, Donna, Blair, and I all had the chance to hang out around home, play multiple games of Dominoes (I came in last place every time), and eat good food. Brenham was also the site of the first 15-mile run for Kate and I. If I hadn't mentioned this before, Kate and I are training for a marathon in February. We're beginning to get to the point where runs are making us miserable. Here's how we felt after completing the 2.5 hour run in cold, windy conditions:



I love that picture of Kate. That's just about what it felt like. A more current update: both Kate and I completed 17-mile runs this past week, and actually I think it was a bit easier. The 15-miler was just a tough one to pull out.

While we were in Brenham, we also got the chance to celebrate Donna's 51st birthday. I'd like to say that we bought streamers and party hats and that tons of guests came over for a formal bash the likes that Brenham had never seen. But in reality we celebrated with a cozy night at home, some gift exchange, and a wonderfully delicious meal. (Segway to the first video of the post...)



Next stop: FLORIDA! That's right, the prodigal son returned to his old digs. Meghan and I booked a flight from Houston to Orlando and arrived in Vero Beach late on the 23rd. A quick side story: we rented a sub-compact car from Budget rental in the Orlando airport, but when we arrived, they said that they no longer had any sub-compacts available. The guy then proceeded to say that the next best thing available was a Toyota Tundra (BIG pickup truck) and that he would upgrade us for free. Granted the Tundra guzzles gas, but that was definitely a fun drive!

Christmas was done Watkins-style: we slept in late; my mom made cinnamon rolls, orange rolls, and coffee and we feasted until afternoon. Then we got together and exchanged presents (with the kids always somehow receiving more than what they gave) and waited for Grandma to arrive. With Grandma in house, we could then prepare the lavish Christmas meal (which resembled the type of thing you would imagine at a post-revelation Scrooge holiday shindig) and spend the rest of the night goofing around. Here's video evidence of the whole process (as well as video evidence of me being a total rock star):



Meghan and I got the chance to hang out in Vero for over a week. It was a fantastic time that was extremely restful. Not to mention the fact that sunlight and 70 degree weather has a way of rejuvenating the soul. We were certainly sad to leave on New Year's Eve but happy we got the opportunity to see my parents, Jenni and Scott, and everyone who came to visit (Grant, Matt, Tracy, Jacque, et al.). Now we're back in Columbus, ready to start up a new quarter and bear the winter for a few more months.

For your viewing pleasure, I thought I'd finish with one more awesome video of us playing the game, "Would You Rather...?" in Vero. I won't ruin the video, but I will say that the basic point of the game is to complete challenges in order to move your piece to the center of the board. Challenges were generally something embarrassing of inconveniencing that you had to undergo for a certain stretch of time. In between challenges, players had to read "Would You Rather" questions, come up with an answer, and then see if their answer corresponded with the general will of the rest of the players. Hilarity ensues.

Business in Quebec

Hey Everyone! Alright, I didn't meet my deadline, I know, but I did want to at least post the videos that I took while I was in Quebec. It really was a fantastic experience, and the city was absolutely beautiful. In case you don't know, I'll give you a little recap of why I was there and what I was doing.

Last year, a professional acquaintance (yes I said professional acquaintance, though you can read that as "another graduate student") of mine contacted me and asked me if I would be interested in serving on a panel with him at the Western Society for French History Annual Conference in Quebec City, Quebec. His work was similar to the stuff I was doing at the time (16th century history of France), so I agreed; lo and behold, a few months later we hear that our panel had been accepted. The Western Society is a pretty serious forum (i.e. not just for grad. students), so we were both thrilled to get the green light.

November 2008 comes, and I made my way up to Quebec to present my paper. I won't bore you with the details, but I'll just relay that the panel went extremely well. People seemed to like my paper, and the chair of our panel (a very notable scholar in the field) mentioned that he would recommend my paper for publication in the conference's Proceedings, a journal that they publish following the conference. Huge deal! I'm going to try to edit the paper and submit it for consideration. A publication of that magnitude at this stage in my career would be really great. I'll keep you posted on that.

Anyways, on to the stuff that you guys really want to see. I will warn that there isn't a lot of action in these videos, but there is some pretty scenery. Enjoy!


This is my best attempt to capture the parts of Quebec that I was able to see. It really was a gorgeous city, perhaps one of the most beautiful ones I've ever seen. It was like a cleaner Paris. People were there were really nice too. My favorite moment of the weekend was when I took a run in the park that borders the Saint-Lawrence River. Incredible.


Okay, I know I come across as egotistical in this video, but I took it mainly because I know Meghan wanted to see what I looked like in the new suit that we bought (on sale for less than $100!). Also, I needed a little pick-me-up as this was just before when I gave my paper.


Completely unrelated, but nevertheless kinda cool. A few days ago we had our very first snow here in Columbus, and as I am from Florida, this was worth walking outside and taking a quick video. The snow melted relatively quickly after this, but it was beautiful while it lasted.

Alright, I'm done. I'll probably throw up another post following Thanksgiving. Everyone loves videos of family!

Short Weekend in Pittsburgh

Hello again. Here is part two of the "three posts in three weeks" promise that I extended last week. I'll admit that I was hoping to get this up last Sunday, but things have been busy, and I'm just now trying to throw this post together as I frantically edit papers and read for class. It's been an interesting few days.

Last weekend Meghan and I had the pleasure of enjoying a quick sojourn to Pittsburgh, PA, the site of the 2008 NYWC youth convention and consequently the site of our friends Brian, Amy, Chris, and Nikki. These four are all friends from our days working for Group Workcamps, and we rarely get to see them. Moreover, Brian and Amy were coming all the way from Arizona, so the sacrifice of driving three hours seemed minute. On Friday afternoon, Meghan and I packed up and headed out; we stayed in Pittsburgh for only a day, but it was really great.

I took some videos of our time there, but I will admit that they didn't come out quite as cool as I wanted them to. Brian showed me some tricks on iMovie (the program I use to make the videos) to make videos really cool, but I came to find out that my version of iMovie (the '08 version) is significantly more limited than the version that he has. For example, I was going to film us walking across the Roberto Clement Bridge and have it play in fast-motion with music in the background, but I came to find out that iMovie '08 doesn't allow you to play things in fast-motion. Weird, I know. Anyways, I did my best, and hopefully you'll still get a kick out of them.


Meet our friends, the Andersons! They were the initial impetus for us making the trip, and they were also our kind benefactors, providing us a place to stay while there.


This was the video that was going to be really cool, but iMovie '08 tanked on me. Nevertheless, it is cool to see some shots of Downtown in the daytime and of course the beautiful PNC Park and Roberto Clemente Bridge.


Our last stop in Pittsburgh was the Church Brew Works, an amazing brewery/restaurant established in an old Catholic church. The decor was incredible (much of the church ornamentation was still in tact), and the beer wasn't that bad either. I have, what I find to be, some funny clips of Brian and Chris doing some "official" beer tasting reports.

Alright, that's it for me. I'll post another one pretty soon, as I took some video footage of my trip to Quebec this past weekend. Really good stuff. I'll tell you more later.

I'm Back! A Return to both Posting and to Gainesville.

Hello everyone. Let me begin by offering my sincere apologies for having slacked off so much with my blog posts. I believe it's been two months since I last posted, which is inexcusable. I'm hoping to make it up to you in the following ways:

1. You may have noticed that I decided, for the first time in my blogging career, to post homemade VIDEOS! I'll admit, they're not that great, but it's my somewhat-pathetic first attempt at being a movie maker. Anyways, more on that later...
2. I'm also going to be relatively busy with some cool stuff in the next few weeks, so I thought that I'd try to do three posts in three weeks to make up for my lackluster start to this academic year. If I get a good reaction from the videos, I may try to include more of them in the future. Plus, the next few posts may very well take you to such exotic locales as Pittsburgh, PA and Québec, Canada. Keep your fingers crossed there (that's foreshadowing at its finest).

Hopefully that will be enough incentive for you to not give up on reading my blog and on keeping in touch. Now, on to the good stuff.

Life in Columbus has been going really well lately. Meghan has been able to work her way into the substitute teaching ring in two different school districts around Columbus. One is Bexley, which is the super-nice area of town right next to where we live, and the other is the Southwestern Columbus school district, which has also turned out pretty well. She seems to be doing a lot of elementary school subbing, and it seems that she's enjoying it quite a bit. I am in full-swing now at OSU taking three different courses. My professors are great; my fellow graduate students are kind and helpful; it's a good situation all around. I've even had a small bite on a potential dissertation topic. No celebrations yet, but Dr. VanKley, my advisor, appears to be really jazzed about my interest in a particular 18th century Jesuit who wrote this awesome paraphrase of the bible, which compares very much to a 18th century French version of the "Message" by Eugene Peterson (for those who know what that is). Cool stuff. I'll keep you all posted if the topic continues to be fruitful. I won't go into it much more, but it could lead me into some really awesome research.

Now that you've gotten the basic update on life, I thought now I could share some videos from my (somewhat) recent trip back to Gainesville. I was invited back to Gainesville by my old advisors to attend a lecture series that they helped organize. The speaker was a very influential historian of the Reformation; he was absolutely fantastic. I would've taken video of him, but first I think that might've been inappropriate and second I doubt most of you would've been quite as enamored with him as I. Instead, I took videos of hanging out with friends and family in Gainesville. Unfortunately I didn't have a ton of time to see everyone I wanted to, but I was able to enjoy some quality time with my sister, brother-in-law, and a handful of other friends. Here are four short videos of some of the things we did.


Upon arriving in Gainesville, I was immediatly rushed to the small field behind the Oaks Mall in order to play a round of ultimate frisbee. Great times, but I did end up with some bruises that are still not fully healed right now. I'm not complaining....I'm just saying maybe the Oaks Mall should take better care of their fields.


That night, Jenni took me to participate in one of her favorite activities these days: rock climbing. I took a lot of footage of us rock-climbing, but I thought it would be funny to make a "blooper reel" of us falling on our butts. While you don't get to see it, Jenni is actually quite awesome at rock-climbing. I, however, am a different story.



On Sunday, the guys from the Servants of Christ Fantasy Football League met up at David LaCagnina's house to watch some games and enjoy some delicious grub, compliments of Mr. LaCagnina himself. Fantastic time.


Back in the day, Grant, Jenni and myself used to meet up for lunch on Thursdays. We decided to keep that tradition alive by going to Chop Stix while I was in town. Grant (no surprise) managed to convince me to try consuming two bowls of Egg Drop soup at the same time; I wasn't as sucessful as I would've hoped.

Altogether, I had a great time back in Gainesville for the short while that I was there. I'm hoping to return soon, but it all depends on how things come together. Thanks to all who hung out with me while I was there, and sorry to all those I didn't get the opportunity to see.

More posts to come in the next few weeks. Hopefully some more videos too!

Home Sweet Columbus

Summer vacation is officially (or actually not really...more on that later) over; Meghan and I are now moved in and settled in Columbus. It was quite an adventure getting here. After spending a few weeks in Texas with Meghan's parents, we got together with the whole Lundborg clan (Matt, Kate, Donna, Blair, Meghan and I) and did a moving spree the likes the world has never seen. In three different cars, we caravaned up to Fort Worth first to move Kate into her new house that she's sharing with two roommates. The move went smoothly with the exception of one couch that gave us a bit of trouble up the spiral staircase. Nevertheless, it was quick and by that afternoon we were back on the road heading north.

Stop two was Indianapolis, where we helped Matt move in to his new apartment. Matt's starting up a year of training with the grocery store, Aldi; at the end of his training he'll be taking over stores in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Cool stuff. Matt is definitely going to become a titan of the business world.

A mere 180 miles to the East was Columbus, OH -- the new home of the Watkins family. It has taken us a little while to get settled (honestly about a few weeks now), but now we're good to go. The apartment is looking sweet (pictures to come), and we're starting to enjoy life in the Midwest. While it is nice to have everything together up here finally, I must admit that since school hasn't started and since Meghan is continuing to look for a job, we've been a bit bored just hanging around. We've done a lot of little things like getting our licenses, voter registrations, and new Ohio plates, but all-in-all we've just been sleeping in and watching the Olympics (not an altogether bad life). This weekend Matt is coming to visit, which will be really fun; we're definitely looking forward to that.

Anyways, on to the pictures! In light of the new transition to Columbus, here are some shots from our now decorated new apartment.

Here's our living room setup. On one side of the room we have our couch and lamps, and on the other the new TV, graciously gifted to us by my parents (thanks Mom and Dad!).

I think this is kinda cool. This is our "once-real-but-now-fake" fireplace and mantle. We decided to make the fireplace into a bandstand for our jazz figurines; the mantle we left to a number of pictures of loved ones and some cool things we picked up along the way.

Here's out sweet dining room. Not much to say other than we get to eat lots of delicious meals here (including the pasta e fagioli I cooked tonight). Not tooting my own horn -- I'm just saying...yum.

Where the pasta e fagioli was born...

An interesting feature of our kitchen: our new microwave that we bought while visiting Meghan's grandparents in Lexington, KY. We got this particular model because it was on sale for $74 eventhough the retail price was $180. One might ask why this model was on sale for so little; our theory has to do with the defining feature of the microwave -- the toaster oven attached to it. On the right side of the unit (what my finger is pointing at), there is a two-stall toaster, which explains the name of the unit: the Toasterwave. The reluctance one might have with the Toasterwave perhaps has to do with the fact that four large metal coils are about an inch away from the one appliance in the kitchen that you CANNOT put metal in. Hey, it was cheap...

Our bedroom and bathroom. Not much to see here -- just comfy home stuff.

I like to call this room "The Temple of Learning." I also toyed with calling it "The Palace of Knowledge," and "The Castle of Crainial Activity." Meghan just calls it the office. I predict great things being produced from these confines.

This is the door to our next-door neighbor's apartment across the hall. We've had a few run-ins with them in the week we've been here, and they seem to be really nice. They lent us their drill so we could hang stuff on our walls; I baked them bread as a token of our appreciation. Keep your fingers crossed -- we think they might become our first friends in Columbus!

Okay, I've gone on long enough. Thanks to all who helped us get out of Gainesville and into Columbus and for all those we've talked to along the way. Love you all!

Summer Vacation Continued (Part Two)

Greetings everyone. Forgive me, but this might be a slightly longer post than usual. As I explained in my last post, with Meghan and I both finished with our Florida obligations (school/work) we've taken the rest of the summer to vacation and get ready for the eventual move to Ohio. The lineup of summer activities has been stellar. After Matt and Kate returned to Texas (and then eventually headed off to their respective desinations: Germany and the entire USA), Meghan and I went on a cruise with Meghan's best friend, Megan (yes I know that's confusing, but notice the difference in spelling), and her husband, Ben. I failed to take very many pictures, so unfortunately I don't really have anything to display here. I will, however, let you know that the trip was absolutely fantastic. We sailed to Key West and Cozumel, Mexico and enjoyed the sun and leisure of being on a cruise. Ben and I played probably 30 hours worth of ping pong throughout the cruise, and we had a very interesting time wandering the streets of Cozumel. Quick story: As we are meandering through Cozumel a number of vendors were trying to convince Megan, Ben, and I to come into their stores and buy things. Most of it is relatively cheesy stuff: hats, t-shirts, postcards, etc. Most of the time we just ignored them and walked away, but occasionally I wanted to practice my Spanish so I said simply, "No gracias." Upon hearing this, one guy says back to me "Hablas Espanol? Hey, if you speak Spanish to me I won't rip you off so much!" We just about went back there and bought a t-shirt.

The following weekend I met up with some college friends in Tampa for a guys' weekend. Once again, not much photo evidence for this one (my camera was having problems), but a lot of great stories. I won't overwhelm you with all of them, but we did manage to watch a Cubs vs. Rays matchup, play some wiffleball, watch soccer, eat at some good restaurants, blow $75 at an arcade (yes it was a throw back to middle school), and go on a casino cruise. All great times, and a really awesome chance to hang with all those guys again. At the end of it, we were talking about making this an annual outing.

Okay, here come the pictures. After traveling to Key West, Cozumel, and then Tampa, Meghan and I journeyed to Columbus, our future home, in search for a dazzling domicile. It also happened to be our two-year anniversary, so we made sure to get some fun into the 13 hour days of apartment hunting. Here are some pics:

We rented a car when we got to Columbus in order to get around to all the different apartments. Though we ordered a sub-compact (Ford Focus), they ended up giving us a Sebring convertible. I thought this fitting considering that it was our anniversary and on our honeymoon we rented the same exact car for our trip down the PCH. Cool stuff.

Here's me in my awesome "summer-casual" outfit (just purchased at the Banana Republic) going through our apartment checklist. Meghan and I were super organized on this trip, which made things significantly easier. This apartment, by the way, was immediately withdrawn from consideration (it was super small).

Along the way, we noticed an Aldi Grocery Store and decided to take a peek. For those of you who don't understand the significance of this: Meghan's brother, Matt, is working for Aldi and will eventually become a district manager over a number of stores presumably in Fort Worth.

After checking out numerous apartments, we took the evening and went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. It was located in this interesting little upscale village in the center of Columbus. Very sheik. I was just happy to eat cheesecake.

Here's our place for the next year. It's a two-bedroom townhouse owned by an University of Florida alumni. Crazy stuff. It has new appliances and an interesting floorplan; it was also very cheap. Altogether, I think it's going to be really great.

Because you've waited so long for a post, I figured I'd give you two sets of pictures for the price of one. Just two days ago I returned from the high school youth group's mission trip to Birmingham, Alabama. We went to a Group Workcamp there and had an amazing time. Some really awesome stuff happened in the lives of the kids and in my life too. Here are some fun pictures from the trip:

Here we are at the beginning of camp. This is the three guys of the high school youth group, myself, and Gram, the new youth minister. For all you former workcamp staffers, notice that the name of our group is WAT1. It was a dream come true...

Here I am at my worksite with my double crew. In the middle is Ms. Annie Wormley, our resident, whose house we painted and fixed up that week. My crews were also great.

At Group Workcamps we always say: SAFETY FIRST. That's why I was demonstrating appropriate ladder safety to our photographer, Andrew. My question was who was going to keep him safe from those white knights I'm flashing.

In previous posts, I've mentioned my buddy, Brian Anderson, who I met through workcamp. It just so happened that at this camp was Brian's brother, Jake. It was great to get to know ANOTHER Anderson through workcamp. Interestingly, Jake was also a member of Kate's summer staff crew last summer. The connections are mind-boggling. Also at this camp was a great friend of mine, Drew Jones. He directed the camp and did a fantastic job. He also managed to Seran-wrap our vehicle the night before we left. Thanks again man.

The Saturday after camp, the youth group went to Atlanta and had a day of fun. Gram planned out a visit to Six Flags during the day along with a Braves game that night, and a sleepover in a great hotel suite downtown. Gram wins MVP for that weekend. The first pic is us at Six Flags and the second is us at the Braves game. The third pic is of William displaying his exuberance over eating at The Varsity, Atlanta's famous hamburger joint.

That was a bit of a whirlwind of activities and pictures. My apologies for the length of the post. Anyways, it was in fact a whirlwind of a month, which was really a lot of fun. Meghan and I are moving out of Gainesville for good tomorrow, and we'll spend the rest of the summer hanging with family and getting settled in Ohio. More posts to come.

It's Vacation Time (Part One)!

This whole year you all have suffered through numerous posts about such academic topics as my progress at UF, conferences, research trips, and PhD applications. I know that most of you would much rather read about more entertaining topics. Well, have no fear! Since June is here, it's time to vacation and have fun. With school done, my PhD decisions made, and work for Meghan just about complete (this is her last full week), we're preparing to spend the rest of the summer relaxing and having a good time.

Actually, I'll admit that I've already gotten a bit of a head start on the revelry. Two weeks ago, Kate and Matt, Meghan's siblings, came to Gainesville, and we got the chance to hang out and have fun for an entire week. Though it wasn't an extravagant weekend, we did make sure to go out and enjoy all that Gainesville had to offer (or at least some of it). Here are some pictures from their visit:

Day One: Matt and Kate arrived in Florida in the afternoon, so we didn't get to much that day. That night, however, we made it to Meghan's band's spring concert. We loved it; great time was had by all. Here's a pic of the jazz band performing in the cafeteria after the official program. I think they were playing something by Chuck Mangioni. I love me some Mangioni.

Day Two: On their first full day in Gainesville, Matt and Kate agreed to take a biking tour of the University of Florida. We rode from our house to campus (about 2 miles) and then all around the university including a stop in front of the stadium where Kate was sadly attacked by an alligator. These things happen. I must admit, the bike tour was actually really awesome. If I ever get to show someone UF again, it will be on a bicycle.

Each Night: Matt graduated about a week before arriving in Florida, so as a gift, Meghan and I made him a big cookbook full of a ton of different recipes (almost 100). He really dug the gift, which was great. As a kicker, we also told him that we'd pick two or three nights during their visit and cook some of the recipes together (our treat of course). We made such delightful meals as Italian Shrimp and Cherry Tomato Spaghetti, Mediterranean Tostadas, and Cuban Flank Steaks. All tremendous hits. Matt also proved to be a very able chef. If you're even in Indianapolis next year, make him cook you something.

Day Three (or something like that): One day, Matt, Kate, and I all traveled up to Alachua to hang with Meghan at her work. Work was stimulating; everyone was super engaged at all times, and we were all awake and ready to help with every activity. (Sarcasm aside, it was actually really great to watch Meghan do her thing; she's super good at being a band director. It's quite impressive. We also got to play some Guitar Hero at one point, which was sweet.)

Day Whatever: One afternoon was spent chilling by the pool (and as you can notice playing pool baseball -- one of my favorite games), which was great. Another night (I think it was a Saturday), we went to the Santa Fe Raider Regiment Band Banquet. We got to get dressed up, fed a nice meal (chicken, but it was good), and try to guess who was winning which award. Good times.

The Matt & Kate visit was fantastic, and Meghan and I were super glad that they came. Only a few days later, we traveled down to Vero Beach and spent Memorial Day hanging with my family (including my sister, brother-in-law, and Grant) and helping my Mom and Dad reorganize one of the rooms in their house. Though I suffered from a small bout of what I think was food poisoning (Oysters Rockefeller are delicious, but I think they may have kicked my butt), the weekend was wonderful and relaxing. Meghan and I failed to take very many pictures of the weekend, but we did take some videos on her Flip Video Recorder. She doesn't have it right now, but I'll try to make another short post in a day or two with those videos so you can see the progress that we made and also how cool the Flip is.

Another post will probably happen in June. In a few weeks, Meghan and I are going on a cruise with her best friend from college, Megan, and her husband. There should be great pictures there. Also workcamp is slowly approaching for me. I'll make sure to get that documented too. June is going to be an AWESOME month.