August 2013

I started the month with continuing my Metal Roof Project. We (Ed & Adnan) did the north side of the roof, which we got 2/3 of the shingles off. Fortunately, we get Fridays off, so the next day (2nd) I finished taking 1/3 of the shingles by myself early in the morning. I then clean-up the yard of shingles by throwing it in the rented dumpster. I took a break during noon lunch by going to the 1st "Community Meal" of the 2013-2014 academic UMM season. I then worked on the garage, which I was able to take all the shingles within 2 hours by myself. I then started putting black tarp, which I wished I bought more as I was able to patch some holes of the previous old tarp. Ed then came over around 4ish to help put the circular sky window in the north side of the roof. He would help me finish tarping the garage roof before calling it a day. I decided to clean as much of the scattered "old" shingles on the ground until sun set as I wanted to prepare for tomorrow. It was a long day, which I slept good (overnight) at my other job.
The following day (Saturday-3rd), I started early preparing the garage roof for the metal sheets. Ed would help me later in the morning, which I had a slight accident (fell from the unstable ladder, which I took the risk before climbing it. I landed hard on the concrete sidewalk with my right elbow. I found out later after an expensive $250 X-ray that it wasn't broken...thank God!). My housemate (Adnan) would help me do the east side of the roof. We did pretty good overall (wo/ Ed's help) despite a slant angle as we did our best placing the the first sheet, but didn't know how to use my balancer tool right. We did this within 1 hour and a half as we wanted to check out the annual "Flekkefest" parade 30 minutes north-Elbow Lake. We were running late, so I drove towards the end of the parade route to catch as much of it

On Tuesday, August 6th-We had another hail storm. Some parts of town had softball size. Ironically, I was doing my metal roof (1/2 of north side already done), which it was replacing the damaged roof shingles from last summer's storm. Well, this hail storm did some damage on my new metal roof. I decided to cancel my claim to my home insurance because it wasn't worth it. We would finish (I was trying to get it done after 2 rain storms and didn't want to tarp it again before another forecast rain the next day, which never happened) doing the last half the following day (7th) , which we had some challenges (Ed had a hard time seeing the screws, so I had my lamp light on-hand. He almost slid down the slippery newly "oiled" panel, but Adnan caught him as he was going down-thank God!) as it got dark (9:45pm). Once we got the last panel, we celebrated with pizza (Casey's). Hallelluah!

On the 8th (Thursday), I took Adnan to the Steven's County Fair, which was his 1st time. On our way there, I popped my bike by accidentally putting too much air from the gas station. Earlier, I thought of just using my regular pump, which I should've followed my gut earlier! We live and learn! On Friday, we (Ed and Adnan) did some last finishing touches (put sides, which we ran out-short ordered. I would wait for another month or so to continue this as the parts took awhile to be delivered-due to custom order) of the metal roof for the "major paneling" part.
On the 10th (Saturday), I went to the cities and attended a couple of cultural ethnic events-Indian Fest & Irish Fest-both in St. Paul. It was great time hanging out with family. It was my dad's birthday on the 13th, so we did an early family celebration while I was in the cities.
On the 14th, Ed and Aisanne invited Adnan and I over for a BBQ with other friends (Elena & Plamen), We would do some Bollywood dancing! The next day (sorry-it was moved to the following Thursday, so the 22nd), I attended another BBQ, which my softball team hosted. Despite an "ok" season, it was a great way to end the season with a picnic. I had the 16th off, so I spend most of this day and part of the following morning to help Ed with his work as my gratitude for helping me with my metal roof project. Ed's been teaching me a lot about carpentry, gaining handi-work skills!
It was that time of the year-State Fair! I would go hangout with family on the 24th, which we decided this date because it would be the "less hottest" of the rest of the fair while I was in the cities. We went 9ish in the morning and stayed till 1ish in the afternoon. I'm glad we went because the rest of the fair the entire last week of August had temps around the 90's, which had low attendance. Good timing!
Even though I had 1+ week vacation from my full-time job, I had to go back to Morris on the 27th because of work (pt-job) the next evening and I was going to bring my newest housemate (Yuu-referred by my current housemate-Kazu-also from Japan) from MSP-International Airport to Morris. I would "last minute" bring another UMM International Student (Hannah-from S. Korea). I spent my less than a week of vacation (from my ft-job) doing some errands and community stuff (e.g. annual "Feed my Starving Children" & "Welcome UMM Community Picnic" on Thursday 29th).

Gratitude: October 2011

The first weekend of the month ended a 4-day visit of some friends here for homecoming weekend at UMM. One of them wanted to visit the dairy farm, so we checked out one of them outside south of town. I then took them to one of the group homes I worked at just to show them where I worked at. One was interested in the work I did.

That same weekend on Sunday, it was very nice out! A friend and I went to play tennis and then checked out the 1st of a 4 Sunday series of Spanish films. I'm very interested in films of this particular country because of my family's roots (great-grandparents in my father's side). This particular film ("Bitiful") had a sad ending, but it gave a great message about compassion for family in desperate times (nearing death) and it brought up a global issues of the treatment of "migrant workers". This was very relevant to my work I and others personally do here with the ESL classes I do at the local school.

The following day, I was able to spend some quality time with my housemate as he' a very studious guy. We were able to play golf (driving range) as we try to enjoy the "last warm" days of Fall.

The next day, it was a very close friend of mine's Birthday,so some other friends and I had a small party for him. My other friend made some pie dessert crust, the other bought pizza, and I made a cake as we watched t.v. and hungout (with a bonfire) at their place for most of Tuesday night.

The second weekend of the month I went to Fargo, North Dakota for almost 2 whole days. I was invited by a church connection there to help ushering, which turned out to be a great experience (see Dream Deja Vu Experience: Scheels Arena in Fargo, North Dakota, from goodnewseverybodycom.wordpress.com)... ...

Impact World Tour Day #3 (Fargo, ND on Sun., Oct 9th 11') -Island Breeze-Hawaiian Performance Part 1




*this is just one 20+ videos I've uploaded "so far" on youtube

It was another nice Fall day on Tuesday (October 11th), which I had an "ideal" project at my work (raking leaves in 74 degree temps)! I took a 4-day weekend vacation during the 3rd weekend of the month to spend time with friends and family. I saw the movie "Soul Surfer"(see Xtreme Sports) at the local church I attend in St. Paul with my mom and sister on Friday. The following day, I went to hangout with my brother and his family with my sis & mom at a nearby mall. That same evening, I got a rental from Red Box and watched "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - Green Mist" (3rd movie of the series by C.S. Lewis). It was a great movie about ways to "avoid" temptation (e.g. greed, selfishness, etc..).
The last day of the weekend, I went with my sister and her boyfriend to the Wabasha Street Caves (across the river from downtown St. Paul).

The 4th weekend I took advantage of the time staying in-town by working in my car. My confidence built from last month when I had a friend oversee my work in replacing my rotors and brake pads. This time, I replaced my own spark plugs (with another friend to oversee, which I haven't done since my first vehicle (mini van) back in college (with a college friend overseeing my work during a cold wintery day)!

My workplace took their once in a blue moon trip to Chanhassan Dinner Theater by Minneapolis on Wednesday of the last month. We haven't seen a show here since 2006 (saw "Singing the the Rain"). This year, we saw "Hair Spray", which had a great message about reconciliation amongst different race groups in Baltimore. It was a great performance and awesome bus trip to and from..

I was referred by several people in the community to "welcome" a new guy in town, who is all the way from Pakistan to work at a local place to do research. A good friend of mine was able to meet him first, which he introduced him to me by coming over to my house Thursday. We chatted a bit getting to know one another in my living room before heading out to the local gym to get some exercise (e.g. bench press, basketball, soccer, and racquetball). I'm looking forward to showing him around our small rural college town community, which is part of the groups (Stevens Forward) goal that I belong too!

I forgot (updated Dec. 8th 2011) to mention my Halloween (not many would agree) outreach, which I've been doing the past 4-5 years now. I read this article about what Christians can do during Halloween. Instead of turning the lights off to avoid participating in giving candy. I decided to give juice and gum (instead of just candy) with Bible verses. This year I had some friends from different countries, another friend, and I over at my house for Filpino food and a movie (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang..lol) and passed out these "treats" with Bible verses.