Mr. and Mrs. Kraus Blog

Ouch! Broken Toe

Let’s see, what’s new? Let’s start with the broken toe. One afternoon Mrs. Kraus and I were goofing around at the kitchen table. She was sitting across the table from me, kitty-corner. I was using the chair directly in front of me as a foot stool, and she was attempting to do the same with the chair in front of her. However, she couldn’t quite reach the chair with her foot because it was pulled out a ways from the table.

She said, “Could you please push the chair in so I can use it as a foot rest like you are doing with the chair in front of you?”

“I dunno. I’m kinda busy right now,” I teased with a smirk.

Well, it ended up with her yanking my foot rest out from the table and taking off down the hall shortly after, running and laughing. I decided to chase, and before we knew it she had stubbed her poor toe on the corner of a wall and was on the ground with a very unpleasant look on her face. She broke her poor toe. This was a very unfortunate thing to do the day before her Spring break, when she just got ice skates last month for her birthday, and we were going skiing the following Saturday.

She managed to wrap it up with tape and take good care of it for a week though, and we did make it to the ski hill the next weekend. We had a really fun time. I hadn’t been skiing for many years, probably not since Luther Ski Club (WOW!).  I decided to get daring once and go off a large ski jump.  It was the kind of jump that had a short ramp at the top, and then a flat area that gradually raised up to a larger ramp.  The point I am told is to get enough speed on the short jump to completely clear the top of the second jump and come down on the downward slope of the second jump.  I however, did no such thing.  I hit the first jump at half speed, went straight up, spin sideways in the air, and landed hard on my right shoulder on the flat area at the top of the second jump.  Ouch!

Inspired by a stream in Minnesota

Next we’ll talk about my step-dad, Alan. He has been painting up a storm lately, really enjoying getting oil paint all over the floor. But he’s also doing a nice job of getting it on the canvas. He’s got a really nice style of outdoor paintings he has been doing, and has been selling them to folks around town. I made him a website to display his paintings, AlWaggie.com. I’ve shown an example here as well. This is one of my favorite paintings he’s done.  I just really like the way he painted the stream, with all those colors.  It makes me want to get my fly rod out and try to outsmart those blasted trout again.  They sure got the better of me last year.  Maybe I’ll have a fly fishing victory or two this summer.  But if not fly fishing, I’m really looking forward to other fishing with my dad out at the lake.

Art Show

Al had an art show on March 15th at the house, so we went over to check it out. Him and Mom had hung up all Al’s paintings in the living room, which was pretty cool. Probably about 25 people or so came over, and he sold a couple paintings, so it was a good time. Mom and Emily set out snacks and made some punch. Mrs. Kraus took a lot of pictures for the website. She’s been doing a really good job there, taking the pictures and cropping them for the site.

Minneopa Falls melting

A couple days after the art show, everyone was feeling like it was a good day to be inspired by God and nature, so we all went to Minneopa Falls. It was really cool because the ice was just melting, so some of the falls were frozen and hanging over the edge of the the falls. Large chunks of ice would break off and fall down into the water below. I had my iPod and was in a very contemplative mood that day, thinking about how beautiful creation is, and how lucky I am. My wife and I had just watched “Fireproof” a couple days before, so I was also thinking about how fortunate I am to have her in my life. Our 2 year wedding anniversary was just around the corner. I just couldn’t believe how fast it had gone. They say the first 2 years of marriage are by far the toughest, but for us it was a breeze. Generally, I don’t know if I buy that line anyway. How can being newly married, with no responsibility of children yet, be anything but fantastic? All that freedom you have to just enjoy each other and be together. Yeah, good stuff.

Munny from Kidrobot

So next came our 2 year wedding anniversary on March 24th. Mrs. Kraus got me a copy of “Fireproof” on DVD, and I got her something you’ve probably never heard of before: Munny. Not money. Munny. They are little 4 inch tall white figures that you draw on, paint on, or add clay and accessories to. Take a look on Google sometime for “Munny pictures” and you’ll see some of the things people have done with them. I’ve seen the Joker, Master Chief, Michaelanglo the Ninja Turtle, Davey Jones, and crazy designs by artists that sell on eBay for around $200 - $300. Rosie O’Donnell also loves these things, and sells the ones she does online for charity. This kind of arts and crafts project is right up my wife’s alley! She can’t wait to start on one, but has a few tough exams in Physics and Chemistry to get through first. Physics and Chemistry in the same semester… yikes, that’s brutal!

Mrs. Kraus and I are also in the process of buying a house. Our lease ends at the end of May, and so we have been shopping for homes in town. We found a good REALTOR name Russ, and he’s taken us out a few times. We actually have an offer in now on a home in short sale status. We’ll have more details about that soon I hope, but it’s probably not safe to use the word soon when referring to a short sale. Here’s hoping we are pleasantly surprised.

2009 Twins Opener vs. Seatle

Last but not least, yesterday I was very fortunate to go to the Minnesota Twins 2009 home opener with my cousins Jacob and Andrew. It was so much fun, it didn’t even bother me much that the Twins lost 1-6. It stayed close most of the game, and it was just fun to be at the Dome that evening, eating peanuts, drinking Coca-Cola, and joking about what our entrance songs would be if we were in pro baseball. We even got to see Ken Griffey, Jr. hit a home run.  He still has a pretty swing.  Getting out of there after the game was a bit crazy. A 9 mile stretch of I-35W S was bumper-to-bumper for about 50 minutes. As I sat in the slow-moving traffic, I thought of Aaron and his Garmin GPS. Perhaps it would have something brilliant to share with me, such as a extra secret route home that the other 45,000 Twins fans wouldn’t know about.

All-in-all, we’re off to a fantastic Spring. We’re looking forward to seeing family really soon during Easter weekend and the following week.

Chad Kraus Aaron, holidays, Mrs. Kraus, Twins Baseball, Waggie Art

Last week was Mrs. Kraus’ 25th birthday, so I threw her a surprise party. She had a test that evening and was due home about 7:30pm, so I had the perfect opportunity to load the apartment with friends and family after dinner. People started showing up around 6:45. We had fun playing Wii Fit and Mario Kart and chatting until about 7:15 when Mrs. Kraus called to let me know she was on her way home. I went down to the parking lot and hid so I could see when her car drove into the lot. When it did, I bolted back inside and upstairs. I shouted, “She’s here! She’s here!” and we turned all the lights off and hid in the dark living room.

We heard her key in the door and she came in without turning the lights on (perfect!), hung her coat up, and started to come down the hall. One of the guests hit the lights, and we all jumped out from different areas of the room, and shouted “SURPRISE!”. She let out a very high-pitched scream, and then shortly after a big smile lit up on her face as she saw some of her friends. We ate cake and snacks, played more Wii Fit, and chatted until about 9:30pm. Mrs. Kraus and I had a great time. Thank you SO much to everyone who came over! Pics of the party are up on Facebook.

For her birthday, I got her a pair of figure skates- her first pair ever in fact. She was really surprised about that too. She had mentioned she wished she had skates a couple months earlier, but had no idea she’d get them because it’s not something she specifically asked for when her birthday was getting closer.

After she opened them, Mrs. decided that it would be more fun for her to go skating if I could go with her. Well, of course I wasn’t going to buy dude’s figure skates so the next day I got hockey skates (so my birthday present is covered now too). Also my first pair of ice skates. We’ve been to the pond in the park a couple times now, and have been having a lot of fun. Poor Mrs. though- apparantly figure skates are more painful to break in than hockey skates. But they’ll be great after 5 to 10 skates!

Tonight we went to the pond and there were a couple guys there just shooting around at the nets. One of them was a middle-aged man who asked me if I had a stick. With a grin, I told him I just finally got my first pair of skates last week and haven’t gotten that far yet. He said he’d go grab me an extra stick and puck from his truck. It was really fun, I had a blast! The Mrs. skated around me, weaving in and out next to the puck saying, “It’s mine! It’s mine!”. I practiced my puck-handling and shooting. I really liked skating as fast as I could from one end of the ice to the other, keeping the puck moving and then shooting it into the net.

So this weekend I just might have to pickup a pair of sticks and a puck, if they aren’t too spendy. Then the Mrs. and I can pass the puck back and forth and shoot around. She thinks that sounds fun- she’ll be that girl who plays hockey in figure skates.

Hey you guys who live nearby and read this blog, you should consider getting some skates and a stick too! We could really have a lot of fun in the winter.

Speaking of hockey, Mrs. and I went to our first Minnesota Wild game last Sunday with our friend Aaron and his wife. Wow, that is a great time! I’d put a Wild game right up there with any pro sporting event I’ve been to. What a great game too. The Wild won 3-2. The game was tied 2-2 after the 3rd period, then it was a scoreless OT, followed by a shootout! Backstrom stopped all 4 attempts, and Mikko Koivu scored the winning goal. I put pics and a little video on Facebook.

Chad Kraus Aaron, Minnesota Wild, Mrs. Kraus

I love weddings! Last weekend Mrs. Kraus and I flew to Minnesota for my best friend Chris’s wedding. We had a GREAT time! Not only is it perfect weather up there this time of year, but it was so fun seeing every one. We got there on Thursday at 2:30 and my other best friend Aaron picked us up from the airport. And yes, it is ok to have two best friends. Three amigos kinda thing. Anyway, the first thing we did was drive to Mankato for Chris’s bachelor party. As far as bachelor parties go, everyone was very well-behaved. We just hung out, played video games and ate some good food. I got to see Adam and Lisa’s pad and it was really nice.

After the party, the wife and I crashed at my mom’s new townhouse. It was very nice and I was really impressed with it. She seemed so happy too, and very proud of her new pad. Sounds like she really loves the neighbors and pretty much everything about the place. It was nice to see mom so excited.

Day 2 we drove to Sheldon, Iowa. We decorated the reception hall and had the rehearsal dinner, which was a luau in the park. Everyone had on Hawaiian shirts and we had burgers on the grill. We stayed at a hotel that night, and I had some fun with the buds sitting in the hot tub, watching a Twins game, teasing Chris about his last free night on Earth, and playing a little Clubhouse Games and Bomberman on DS.

Then Saturday was the big day! The wedding was very nice and everything went off without any problems. The bride and groom looked so happy, and everyone had huge smiles on their faces. Be sure to check out all the wedding pictures I have posted. Take a look at the gallery! We stayed in the hotel again that night, and the next morning we had breakfast at the Family Table. The happy couple opened their wedding gifts and we all said our goodbyes.

After that we head back to Aaron’s house, which by the way is very nice. We took a relaxing walk around his neighborhood and enjoyed the brisk air. The following day we flew home to Florida and it was back to work the same day.

The wife and I really enjoyed the trip. Ever since I started dating her I have joked about moving back to Minnesota. Only thing was, I was serious but it was a joke because she never would have gone for it. But after this trip she has changed her tune. I think she’s starting to like Minnesota, and she has made some friends there too. Could there be a change in the winds? You never know, but we’ll pray about it. One thing is for certain– if that turns out to be the case, it’s certainly a slightly colder wind than here!

Comments from old site:

Written by Lisa P
Posted: Friday, June 8, 2007 at 10:08 PM

What great pics from the wedding! FMD forever!! (Adam & Chris should have done the “antlers” too) Amanda, Minnesota really IS a great place to live. The cold winters aren’t so bad when you’ve got someone to snuggle up with. :o)

Chad Kraus Aaron, Chris, Minnesota, Mrs. Kraus, wedding

One thing that has really intrigued me lately is RSS feeds. I knew it wouldn’t be that difficult to figure them out, but I just hadn’t taken the time to research it until last week. Aaron and I set out to learn the details of this increasingly popular aspect of the web.

What it comes down to is that they are very basic. If you have a website with multiple articles in a blog or multiple news stories, then you can easily create an RSS XML file. RSS files are made up of items. Each item must have three things: a title, a link and a description. The title is the name of the article. The link is the link to the full story located on your site. And the description is the text you want to show up from the article.

I discovered there are basically two ways to go about the description. You can be really nice and provide the entire article, even including images and links. Or you can simply provide the first few hundred characters as a sort of teaser. This way if someone who subscribes to your RSS feed is interested by the beginning of your newest article, they will click the link (Ah ha! Remember one of the three parts of an item is the link) that takes them to the full story. This is not a bad idea if you are trying to bring more traffic to your site. And who isn’t?

So while I feel privileged when the feeds I subscribe to provide the entire article, thus allowing me the ability to never leave Google Reader, I completely understand when a majority of them only provide a teaser.

If you are interested in learning more about the structure of an RSS file, just look at mine! It is located at http://www.mrandmrskraus.com/rss.xml

One thing worth noting. Not only does each item have a title, link and description, but these are also provided at the top of the RSS file in order to specify the main title, main website URL, and main description of your website.

Well, I will be excited if you all subscribe to my RSS feed now. The link to it is signified by the little orange icon on my main page. Happy reading!

Chad Kraus Aaron, web development