Volume XXVII WWW.ARNEBERG.COMWWW.ARNEBERG.COM December 2014

Arneberg Argus

In true procrastinator’s fashion, the first time David

practiced his graduation speech for 2000 people was 20

minutes before arriving at the high school. But at least

he didn’t have to worry about warming up the audi-

ence: it was 95 degrees in the upper stands.

The Official Form Letter for Close Personal Friends of Tom & Beth Arneberg

This year’s Christmas card — This year will go down in

history as the first time a new person joined this family vol-

untarily! Congrats to Ben, and condolences to Camille. It is

also the year that all the Arnebergs finally got smart phones,

which can sometimes be a little distracting. (Well, almost all

the Arnebergs...Simon is not working full time yet.)

One blessed thing about this Christmas is that the

Arnebergs don’t have to endure another tasteless

party on the Shella side of the family.

Secret identity revealed

— yes, after all these years,

the secret identity of Ru-

dolph the Red-Nosed Rein-

deer has been learned by the

crack staff of the Arneberg

Argus. It turns out that none

other than Park Board Presi-

dent Beth Arneberg is the

alter-ego for Rudolph...at

least as far as Chippewa

Falls parades are concerned.

It may have been a cold day for

taking pictures on the beach, but

there was plenty of warmth at the

wedding ceremony inside.

Alison switched to Texas Roadhouse in November,

mostly for the line-dancing.

David defied the odds and seemed to ENJOY basic

training last summer!

“The trouble with find-

ing quotes on the Inter-

net is that it’s hard to

verify their authenticity.”

— Abraham Lincoln

(via the Internet)

Jasper spends many of his waking hours packing his

Wings of Blue parachute.

1st Lt. Ben & Camille closed on a condo in Reston, Virginia.

With a GUEST ROOM!

Simon got his fill of soccer in 2014, first with the Chippewa

Strikers and then with Chi-Hi.

A quick run-down of the Arnekids...

Page 2 ARNEBERG ARGUSARNEBERG ARGUS December 2014

“Quotable Quotes” “The bread-winner is home!” —

David, 12/17/2013, setting down three

loaves of leftover bread

from his job at Jimmy

John’s.

“We should watch Star

Wars again — I never

realized there was a

plot.” — Simon, 1/18/14, explaining

that he always thought it was just a

bunch of cool spaceships and lightsaber

fight scenes.

“Now I know why Mom doesn’t

have short hair.” — Simon, 1/27/14,

discovering the joys of blasting himself

with Mom’s hair dryer

when the house was 56

degrees due to the

natural gas pipeline

explosion in Canada.

“You need to raise

your expectations.”

— Simon to his mom,

1/30/14, when she

commented that his

middle school jazz

band concert was bet-

ter than she expected.

“Even the bench-

warmer gets a Superbowl ring.” —

Simon at dinner, 2/23/14, reminiscing

about the 2012 Math Meet champs led

by Jasper. (David’s team this year

“only” got second place.)

“I kind of like this! It’s like putting

a puzzle together.” — Ben, 3/17/14,

while creating the seating chart for his

wedding reception.

“There is a TV built into the bath-

room mirror!” — David’s short but

excited text message to his mother on

3/18/14 — the only one — upon arriv-

ing at the fancy Grand Geneva Resort

and Spa for the state DECA competi-

tion.

“I was thinking — the team

needed a mascot.” — Alejandro

Matrinez Luna, an exchange student

“I’ll bet there will be TONS of pic-

tures of this spot right here!” —

Ben Blake, 8/6/2014, on the second day

of Marching Band Camp, excited to

learn that he would be standing right

next to Simon for a few measures of the

first song.

“I think I even gave myself a head-

ache.” — Simon, 8/12/2014, explain-

ing about whistling his marching band

song over and over while biking home

from soccer practice. (Apparently, he

couldn’t quite figure out a solution to

avoiding that predicament.)

“Dad, TOOTSIE ROLLS aren’t even

a dime a dozen.” — Simon, 8/16/14,

when Tom tried to dis-

miss the wooden-spoon-

in-the-blender incident by

saying how cheap

wooden spoons are.

“The apple doesn’t

fall far from the tree.”

— Roger Bethard

(Tom’s cow-orker) at

lunch, 9/16/2014, when

Tom showed a photo of

Simon dressing up in

“Greece” garb for

“Grease” day at the high

school. (Roger was ap-

parently referring to

Beth).

from Spain, after becoming attached to

Dixie (the Arnedog) at the tennis team

sleepover on 4/26/14.

“On the Slingshot Channel they

were explaining how to weaponize

your old Christmas tree.” — Simon,

at supper 4/28/14, recounting his typical

day surfing Youtube.

“I hope she doesn’t actually *use*

them.” — Simon, 5/11/14, muttering

under his breath as he was scrambling to

make coupons for Mothers’ Day.

“You just have to know your

woman.” — Beth, 5/25/14, explaining

to David that it was okay

sometimes to get a pressure

washer for Mothers’ Day.

“Good job, David! BTW,

I’m about to jump out of

a helicoptor.” — Jasper,

5/29/14, answering an email

about David’s tennis sec-

tionals match while waiting

for his turn to parachute.

“Games are the most

important. It goes

games, food, then

drink.” — Simon, 6/14/14,

rating the relative importance of vari-

ous aspects of graduation parties.

“That’s what Calvin did.” —

Simon, 7/26/14, explaining why he has

had a snowball stored in the freezer

since January.

“Get a whale.” — 8-year-old kid at

Irvine Park, 7/28/14, in response to

Beth’s survey question about the pro-

posed new small animal building, asking

what would be a good addition to the

park.

“Oh, are they having trouble get-

ting speakers this year?” — Dan

Faschingbauer’s innocent question on

7/31/14 when he heard that Tom was

asked to speak at a “Leading With

Power” lunch event in March 2015.

“Quotable Quotes“ cont’d on page 3

The Roseville Arnebergs enjoy their last holiday

at Arneberg Acres before moving to China.

Simon was thrilled to graduate

from middle school band to the

mighty Chi-Hi Marching Cardi-

nals!

December 2014 ARNEBERG ARGUSARNEBERG ARGUS Page 3

“Quotable Quotes”: The year in quotes (cont’d)

“It’s like painting the

Golden Gate Bridge —

after seven years you

finally finish, and then

you just have to start

all over again.” —

Simon, 11/25/14, com-

plaining about having to

clean his room yet

AGAIN.

“Oh, no...did she

strain herself?” —

Tom, 11/25/14, when

his brother Paul men-

tioned that Wendy had

walked right through a

screen door.

“Eight years ago, this would’ve been like a regu-

lar Saturday lunch in our family.” — Simon,

11/27/14, disappointed about having only seven people

at the Thanksgiving table. (Strangely, Beth didn’t seem

to mind not cooking for the usual 20-25 people.)

Simon learned a new technique for effi-

ciently playing two recorders simultaneously

while eating. His parents are so proud.

David’s dream of becoming a Division 1

College Athlete came true when he won

a spot of the USAFA fencing team as a

walk-on! He even won a few bouts

against MIT and other Ivy League

schools in Massachusetts in December.

Not to be outdone, Simon has his eyes

set on his own fencing career.

“Because you can have food in

your mouth while you’re playing.”

— Simon, 12/3/14, describing why it’s

actually better to play the recorder

through your nostrils. (Not to mention

that you can play two at once.)

Beth and her siblings had to say goodbye to their

childhood home this summer in Jasper, Minne-

sota. Grandma Claire has lived there 57 years,

since 1957! But she’s relieved to no longer worry about the roof or driveway, and can almost see it

from her new apartment a few blocks away.

Tom tried out a new quartet (left) but quickly realized that although their

rhythm was snappy, their voices seemed to crackle while singing some of

the new pop-style songs. Fortunately, his old quartet, CHIPS, held together

in 2014, singing again at the Heyde Center, the Northern Wisconsin State

Fair, Chi-Hi, Singing Valentines, and other venues. Their favorite new gig

this year was a series of Mayo Clinic employee appreciation banquets. In

fact, they would often find themselves singing to not one but TWO different

physicians at a single table. Tom considered this a real paradox.

David’s senior year of high school tennis was a roller coaster. After

injuring his knee skiing in March, he didn’t even play the first part

of the season. Then he eased in at 3rd singles, finally working his

way up to 1st singles. At Sectionals, he lost the first set 1-6, and

came back to win it and the right to go back to State, where he won

the first round! Never a dull moment with this kid, especially with

the Arnebucks he handed out. Oh, and in the Woody Classic, he

BROKE Tom’s beloved 1974 Jack Kramer racket. :-(

Actual unretouched photo: Tom’s tooth

filling is in the shape of MINNESOTA!

He is thankful for cell phone cameras.

Cray’s CEO celebrates

the “Product of the

Year” earned by the

supercomputer chip

that Tom’s team de-

signed in 2011! Too

bad the team is no

longer at Cray to enjoy

the ensuing revenue.

Jasper spent 2/3 of his three-week break from the Academy hiking with his old troop at Philmont! Troop 72 sent two

crews with 19 guys total on a high-altitude backpacking trip

where they covered, naturally, 72 miles. Crew #2 featured six Arnebergs: Tom and Jasper were joined by Simon, Uncle

Jim, and cousins Jesse and Levi.

Jasper flew home in April

for David’s Eagle Scout

Court of Honor. Three down, one to go!

#nopressuresimon

Page 4 ARNEBERG ARGUSARNEBERG ARGUS December 2014

Jasper made his way to the “Competition”

team of the Wings of Blue parachute team at

the Air Force Academy. So no trips home for

the holidays, as he’s suffering through their

training trips to CA, AZ, and FL.

A Look Back in Time...

25 years ago: 1989 10 years ago: 2004

The Arneberg Christmas card of 25

years ago featured Tom & Beth’s first

offspring. Beth was showing Baby Ben

a photo of his absent father, who had

committed to quartet shows all over the

Pacific Northwest before he knew he

was going to be a father. Don’t worry;

Tom made up for lost time...

The card from 10 years ago featured a

play on words using the title of a

popular TV show that none of the

Arnebergs had actually seen. But how

else do you get your pet duck in the

picture if not by taking it while every-

one is submerged in water?

Contact us!

Tom & Beth Arneberg

1900 Eagle Street

Chippewa Falls, WI 54729

TomAndBeth@Arneberg.com

Web: www.Arneberg.com

Facebook: “Tom Arneberg“ (duh)

“The Word became

flesh and made his dwell-

ing among us. We have

seen his glory, the glory of

the one and only Son, who

came from the Father, full

of grace and truth.“

- John 1:14

Tom declared victory in his four-year fight against high blood pressure, finally getting weaned off all drugs in

early 2014! As part of the battle plan, he set new personal records in cross-country skiing 64 times (best winter

ever!), running 500 miles in the first four months of the year (leading to a half marathon), and pedaling 4000 miles on his bike (commuting by car only eight times from May through November). But who’s counting?

Simon teamed up with Andy Stoll to juggle at the Middle School, and with David at a medieval company picnic gig.

Simon remained on the PLC with his appointment as ASPL.

Always classy, David drove his friends to Prom in the timeless Arnebus. Speaking of

classy, Chi-Hi Principal Becky Davis has

great taste in watches, both GPS and smart.

Thanks to Facebook, Tom reconnected with some old friends and got this great photo of the last day

of business at the Har Mar Farrell’s Ice Cream

Parlour, where he first learned to sing harmony. (That’s him at 18 in the red vest and bow tie.)

David had a pretty hectic five months at the Air Force Academy in Colorado, but it was all worth it when he was treated like a rock star by the kids at his home church for Thanksgiving.

Alison spent most of the year working at Schmoldt Law Office by day and Picanha by night. But her favorite “job” this year was nanny-

ing the Burr kids in Sun River, Oregon for three weeks in August.

Ben spearheaded an igloo

project last Christmas to

help his then-fiancé Camille

and her mother Candy im-

merse themselves into the

culture for their first visit to

Winter in Wisconsin. (David

and Simon slept in it Christ-

mas night, of course.)

Tom and Beth had an ice day in the sea caves on Lake

Superior in January.