Friday, August 6, 2010

Guest post: A Man's Perspective

TGIF everyone!  Since I had a termination trial yesterday and was busy with that, T has graciously offered to guest post for me today.  (Isn't he the best?)  So without furter ado...
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Hi, everyone out there in Blogland! I am T, the future husband of Nain. Many of you liked her idea of a guest post from me, so I decided it might be fun to give this a try. Besides, I always look forward to reading Nain’s posts everyday, so I figured I would give her a break for a day and take the reigns.

First, I will tell you a little about me. I am an engineer for Cummi
ns here in Indiana. If you are not aware, Cummins makes diesel engines for many different types of vehicles. I work in the on-highway heavy duty engineering department. I help develop engines for the large semi trucks you see on the highways. I work as a combustion / performance / emissions engineer. That means I work on developing the calibrations that control the fueling and air handling of the engine. The engines have to perform and meet emissions laws in all environments and the calibration helps it do that. Because it has to work in extreme environments, we take test trips to some strange places. Right after I started there, I took a trip where we drove three trucks from Indiana to Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories of Canada in the middle of February! Needless to say, it was the first time I got to experience an air temperature of -30 degrees F! It was cold! That summer, I was on a trip out to Frisco, Colorado for altitude testing. Frisco is about 70 miles west of Denver in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. I will tell you that is some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. I am including a couple pictures I took when I was out there. I have not made the trip to Death Valley yet, but there are trucks out there right now. I hear the temperature is 125 degrees F out there right now. That would be interesting, as well! I love my job and couldn’t be happier with it!


Now, on to the topic about which everyone wanted to hear. The bachelor party, or as we called it, “The party to end all parties, the moment in time that will go down among the most important events in the history of humankind. The bachelor party.” My dad and brother made the 5 hour trip from Michigan to join in the festivities. I was very excited to see them! Around 3:15 on Saturday, everyone arrived at the house. You have got to love a meeting of a bunch of men that don’t know each other too well. We were sitting watching TV having a very painful and awkward conversation about weather and other awesome topics. But, if you know men, that is how they are. We are not always the most social of creatures.

We left for some go-karting. Nain’s brother planned it, but was a little unsure of how it would go. Truth be told, we all thought it might not be the best. But we went. I will say it turned out to be a lot of fun so I have no idea why we were all worried. We raced four separate times on three tracks. We did the hardest track twice to test our skills. There was some serious male bonding taking place. We then headed to Oaken Barrel for dinner. Oaken Barrel is a local microbrewery around where we live, and the beer and food are awesome. After our round of beers arrived at the table, Nain’s dad gave me a really nice toast. I had two IPA’s with dinner. If you don’t know, an IPA is a strong beer, around 7.5% alcohol so needless to say, I was already buzzing at this point. Once dinner was complete, the men of ill repute headed off for a night of pub crawling. We met a couple of our friends at the Chatam Tap, which is a British pub. We ordered our round of beverages and watched the cricket and soccer on TV. There was also men’s only discussion. We then headed to the Biergarten at the Rathskellar. If you don’t know about the Biergarten, it is an outdoor bar with live music. That night was a Santana cover band that was pretty good. Nain’s brother bought me a tall beer. Now a tall at the Rathskellar means a glass of 32 ounces of frothy goodness. At this point in the evening, I was feeling really good. We finished the night at McNiven’s Tavern with a specialty beer that was 10% alcohol. I was really feeling it at this point. We came back to the house and Nain’s brother and I were up talking until 3:00AM. He left to head home and I crashed into bed. It was an epic night by my standards. The next morning, we woke up around 9:30 and my dad made some strong coffee. I was still dizzy, but not too bad considering the amount of beer I drank that night. We went out to breakfast and my dad and brother hit the road. I was sad to see them go, but my dad said the big day is only 6 weeks away. Overall, it was a great weekend and I got to experience something I had not done too often in college.

So, to conclude, I wanted to let you know that Nain is truly my best friend. I now know that soulmates do exist. I now understand why a man would want to give his everything to his wife and care for her as if he was caring for himself. I love you Nain!

16 comments:

  1. Your job sounds interesting--especially the travel part. It's so great when you can love your job!! Glad you enjoyed your bachelor party---you are a sweet fiancé to do this guest post. My Hub reads my blog, but I don't think he'd do any writing for it (but that is actually fine with me!)

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  2. Great guest post and what beautiful photos! Colorado is a gorgeous place. I am not sure how much I'd like going to Northern Canada in the winter. That must have been really cold! But how did the trucks do?

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  3. Awwww! What a nice post! Glad the bachelor party was fun.

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  4. Sounds like a FUN bachelor party, love the go-kart idea! My husband and his friends did BBQ and swimming for the first few hours. Then they went out to some microbreweries, but only after having rented a huge van since they assumed many people wouldn't be in driving condition! ha.

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  5. The pictures are beautiful! It is nice to here that you guys are best friends! Friendship will make all the difference in the world when life gets tough.
    Peaceful wishes,
    Melissa

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  6. Beautiful pics! I will have to come back to read your post because i'm limited on time. I'm following you from BF FF. I hope you can pop in for a quick visit too.
    Julie @ Bunches of Bargains
    http://bunchesofbargains.blogspot.com

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  7. Great post!
    Luff it!
    I'm glad you had so much fun!

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  8. Sounds like you had a lot of fun! You two seems so in love and I wish you the best!

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  9. Those pictures are breathtaking!

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  10. How neat of you to do a guest post=) Glad to hear you enjoyed your bachelor night out!
    bf ff=)

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  11. Sounds like you had fun! Glad Nain's getting a good guy!

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  12. Sounds like you had sooo much fun! But you will have even more fun with Nain in the years to come. After 7 years, my husband and I are still best friends and stuck together like glue! I wish the same for both of you.

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  13. I can't believe I actually understand your job description, but I do. :-)
    Sounds like you had a wonderful weekend! So much beer in one night!
    Alaina's a lucky girl, but having been a reader of hers for a little while now, I'd have to say you're also the lucky one.
    Congratulations!

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  14. D'awwww! I love the hell out of this post. It was cool to learn more about you, T! So awesome that you guest-posted. I've been trying to get my boyfriend to do so for the last nine years!

    I'm glad you had a killer time at your bachelor party!

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  15. Beautiful pictures!

    What part of Michigan? I was born and raised there :-) I love Michigan...

    Sounds like an awesome party! Glad you got to experience that and that everything worked out well :-)

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  16. Glad you enjoyed your last guys night out :), I have to basically force my husband to do these kind of things but I think it is good for you! Simply lovely pictures too. I am so happy you two are getting married soon, there is nothing better then finding that special someone to share your life with!

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