Ryan and Debi & Toren

Travel, Tech, Thoughts…

  • Utah trip – the 18th

    We flew into Utah on Friday, the 18th, arriving around noon. We lounged around most of the first day, then went to Subway with Steve, Suzy, and Mike, one of Steve’s close friends. We then rented RV and watched that; it was surprisingly funny.

  • Any Star Trek fans out there?

    I saw a link to this website on Slashdot this morning.  I got a good laugh out of it.  But I have to admit I’m not a big enough trekkie to actually have understood all of the posters… Oh well.

  • Ohio state fair

    Thanks to my participation in the Butter sculpting (

  • Shadowbox Cabaret

    We went to the Shadowbox Cabaret this past Wednesday with a few of Debi’s co-workers. It’s the second time we’ve been and, as was the case with the first time, it was an enjoyable experience. They have decent food and, while the band is a bit loud, the sketches they performed were mostly funny (a…

  • What would a trip out of town be…

    … without a little social commentary? As my previous post mentioned, I spent last week in Columbus filming the butter sculpture for the American Dairy Association. While on the fairgrounds I was privy to some of the things taking place there. There were horse shows going on the entire week. Having less than no interest…

  • butter sculpting at the Ohio State Fair

    I was out of town most of last week filming a project. Over the last three years or so I maintained a simple website offering to transfer VHS tapes to DVD for people (I’ve since taken the site down). Through that site I met a sculptor, Bob, who leads a team of toy sculptors to…

  • a shocking example of racism

    In the latest edition of Contexts, a sociology magazine that presents sociological research for a wider audience, I found the following photo taken in New Orleans just after Hurricane Katrina hit: If you click on the image you’ll see it full-sized. I couldn’t really tell what I was seeing at first, but the caption quickly…

  • Brent and Suzy’s Baby

    We found out last Friday that Brent and Suzy, Debi’s sister and brother-in-law, are having a baby boy. His name is going to be Ethan Brent Robbins. They had the ultrasound on Friday and found out the sex. I guess they already had the name picked out. One of Debi’s brothers told her the name…

  • something other than a book review 😉

    Debi’s brother-in-law, Brent, is a pilot for SkyWest Airlines. He called me up Monday to tell me about an incident he had on one of his flights. He had just finished his pre-flight check on a flight to Butte, Montana and was waiting for the passengers to board when he noticed an elderly man being…

  • greetings from North Carolina

    Our friends in Winston-Salem, NC recently had a baby (about 6 weeks ago). Debi desperately wanted to see the baby and it had been a while since we had gotten together to visit, so we decided to head down for a quick weekend getaway. We left Friday afternoon and are heading back Sunday afternoon. We’re…