Check It Out!

Short notice, I know, but, in case you missed the Daily Show last night, try to catch the replay of it this afternoon (which I think happens at 6 on Comedy Central). The guest last night was former Daily Show correspondent turned movie star, Steve Carell. Priceless. I laughed so hard. If you get a chance, check it out - it was awesome.

Been Busy

Hey y'all,

It's been a while since I've posted anything but it's been a hectic could of weeks around here, actually.

Starting back a couple weekends ago, my dad came to visit/work on our house. The plan was for him to come up on Thursday and install new doors on our house while Liz and I were at work on Thursday and Friday. When we came home from work and over the weekend, we could visit a good bit. Well, the weather report called for rain all day that Thursday so Dad decided to stay home and come later that evening. Naturally, it didn't rain.

So, anyway, Thursday night, the three of us bummed around the town to "see the sights." In Rochster, that didn't take long. However, we did go out to a new place to eat called Newt's. I had a burger with two fried eggs on it. Is it breakfast? Is it dinner? Who cares!? It was delicioso! Num, num, num, num, num! (For any of you suddenly feeling the need to burst into a rousing chorus of "Backpack, Backpack" I'm very sorry for you...both of you.)

Work on the doors began the next day while Liz and I were away at work and continued sporadically throughout the weekend. Dad finally finished them up eatly in the week. They look great and, unlike our old doors that preferred to devour keys, these work!

Aside from that, we spent time just hanging out. We rented Kung Fu Hustle (which we later purchased) and loved it. This movie has something for everyone. If you like comedies, this one's just hilarious. If you like action movies, well, it's still a Kung Fu movie so there's plenty of action to be had. And if you're one of those folks that likes those artistic movies, well, this one's damn funny. Deal with it. If you haven't seen it. Watch it. It's hilarious. Better yet, just come over to my house (unless of course you're some weird stalker-type that I don't know...exceptions can be made for remarkably hot lady-types) and watch it with us.

After Dad left, Liz and I spent the rest of last week trying to get the house ready for a fantasy football draft party to be held at our place last Friday and Nate to come and visit for the weekend. I also got a few more coats of paint on the shutters and got them back up on the front of the house. Somewhere in there, we had to wedge in a soccer match that ate up most of last Wednesday night (which we did manage to win). So, that was most of last week, honestly. Unfortnately, I still haven't finished cleaning out the garage from the door/shutters project so I have more work to do. *sigh* But soccer again tonight, so it won't be happening just yet.

So we made it to last week Friday, the night of the draft, and I get a call from my good buddy, Nate. Turns out his car has decided to chirp like a cricket instead of purr like a panther and he was unable to make it to Rochester for the weekend. (See the "Nate Misses Out" section later on...) Anyway, without Nate present, we missed out on our first opportunity to have everyone together for our fantasy football draft. Ahh, well. Lizzy had Nate on the headset all through the draft and, really, it went very well. As long as the greatest fantasy team ever is lead by players such as Jake Plummer, Edgerrin James, and Torry Holt, I believe I've succeeded in drafting the best fantasy team ever. Don't think so? Too bad. You're wrong! :D

With Nate not coming, Liz and I suddenly found ourselves with nothing to do for the weekend. As it turns out, some friends of ours (Mary and Ryan) in Rochester had just bought a boat and decided they wanted to go up north and try it out. So off we went.

After a couple hours driving, we made it there and managed to get the boat in the water (although trying to back a boat trailer up to the water is no picnic) and, apparently, not something any of us do with any sort of regularity. Mary tried to get it backed in for quite a while before getting frustrated and had me do it. Ahh, well. A little practice and she'll be golden.

So, after getting the boat into the water, we headed out to the lake. It didn't take us long to realize that was not such a wise decision. The wind was blowing straight in off the lake and fairly hard. Being total landlubbers, we didn't think much of it, but we weren't far out before we realized that a little 16 foot boat doesn't do well in 3-4 foot waves. So, out the channel we went and then right back around and back in to dock. Disappointed, we all sat on the dock and drank our sorrows away with some drinks. Heck of a maiden voyage, really. :D

The rest of the day was spent hitting balls on the driving range, gorging ourselves on delicious food, and sitting in the hot tub until we, like the old people that we are, got tired and went to bed around 10 PM.

The next morning, we had breakfast and packed up to head for home. Liz and I just relaxed for most of the afternoon and then Liz was kind enough to make me a wonderful birthday dinner. We had rib eye steaks on the grill with home-made onion rings and a bottle of wine. For dessert, we finished off with grilled pineapple in butter rum glaze topped with ice cream and fresh blueberries. See what you missed out on, Nate?

After dinner, we sat down to watch a movie. Apparently, we picked a poor time to do so as my entire family called within about a 15 minute time-span during the movie. Ahh, well. It's always good to talk to the fam and I can watch a movie any old time.

So that was the end of the weekend. Now it's back to the same old, same old. Work is irritating as I now need to wait until Thursday to meet with a doctor to give "her blessing" on a project that she'll have little interaction with. Of course, the project should have been in production two weeks ago, but that just seems to be the way things work around here. So, for now, I'm just biding my time, I guess. Grrr....

Anyway, I should run - I've got a soccer match in just a little while.

Cheers, all!

The Most Famous Mother/Son Duo On the Planet...Today

So I was directed to this thread on an Internet gaming forum. Now, before you gat all up in my face like "how geeky do you think I am that I'd go to an Internet gaming forum to read some dribble?!?" just go with me on this one for a bit. Check it out and pay special attention to the 3rd and 5th posts. I guarantee it's worth a laugh.

As if that's not enough, stuff like this has begun cropping up around the Internet.

Heh heh - that's put me in a good mood for most of the day. ;)

Pictures are Up

Leech FTP was still hanging on me, but I downloaded some other shareware FTP client and, despite the goofy sounds they added whenever an upload was complete, it worked like a charm. So, if you care, there are now pictures of Gavin and Grant and our camping trip.

Cake...Again

Hi all,

Finally, Liz and I got to spend a weekend at home. It seems like it has been quite a while since that's happened.

Liz's folks came through Friday night on their way to Mankato to move Sarah home for a couple weeks until she moves to Colorado. We had a nice time simply hanging out, sipping delicious Old Fashioneds (made by yours truly) and eating chips. It was delightful.

The rest of the weekend was spent either lazing around or working on the doors that we're trying to get installed in the house. My dad is planning on coming up later this week to do the installation so I guess that means we really have to get them ready to go. We went out Saturday morning and picked up hardware for them. Now, of course, Liz wants to replace all of the door hardware in the house to match. While that would certainly be nice (since the rest of the door hardware is ugly), it's not exactly cheap. We'll just see what happens with that. We also put a coat of primer on the doors and a couple coats of paint. The doors actually go pretty fast, but Liz wanted to paint the shutters, as well. Painting shutters sucks.

You may be wondering what Cake song I have stuck in my head, due to the title of this post, but I have no such problem. I'm currently listening to Beck and quite pleased about that. The title refers to my Saturday evening activity - baking a cake. I'm not exactly sure how I got conned into that whole deal, but there I was, making a cake. That went right along with the bar food we made at home that night - onion rings and jalapeno poppers. Of course, we convinced ourselves that, despite all the deep frying going on, that this meal was somehow not quite as bad for us because we chopped the onions ourselves and the jalapenos came from our garden.

Speaking of chopping the onion - I think the onions was used came from the Devil, himself. Now I've chopped onions before and had it make my eyes water. But, never, in my lifetime, have I chopped an onion so heinous that it felt like I had been sprayed with pepper spray. My eyes burned for the rest of the night and I had to wash them with water they stung so bad.

Aside from demonic onions, the weekend went pretty well. I tried getting some pictures online last night (of Gavin's third birthday and our camping trip) but the upload process kept hanging when I tried to get the images on the web server so I guess I'll have to try again tonight. Hopefully, they'll be there soon - I just need to figure out what's wrong.

Later, y'all.

Cake

So you may be wondering about the title of this post. It officially means nothing at all, except that I've had a song by Cake stuck in my head all morning. As I couldn't come up with a better title for this blog post, that's all you get. Sucks to be you.

Went home to Sheboygan last weekend. Nothing special going on - just wanted to visit family. We had a great time and it was a nice, relaxing, weekend. Went golfing for what was probably the first time in about 2-3 years. The course was tough. It was ugly. I think I shot a 58 with about a dozen penalty strokes for hazards. I should really golf more. That was sad. Regardless, we had a lot of fun at home visiting.

Got back to Rochester Sunday night and Lizzy prompty fell ill. She was up most of Sunday night - I, of course, being the heartless bastard that I am, slept all night. She stayed home from work on Monday and, even though she went in on Tuesday, wasn't feeling so hot. She seems to be doing better today, though.

Had a couple buddies over for dinner last night. We were going to grill out, but a giant storm moved through and put a damper on that whole process. Go figure - no rain in months and, as soon as I have plans to grill some delicious brats, it pours. Apparently, the weather man is not from Wisconsin. Brats are delicious, damn you, weatherman! So, we settled for take-out Chinese. Not bad, but certainly not brats.

Aside from that, my life is horribly boring. Work, play video games, play a soccer game now and then, watch pre-season football and dread trying to put together fantasy football draft night, hate Terrell Owens, habitually check the NHL free agency signings, play some more video games, hate Terrell Owens some more, etc., etc., etc.

I hear Lagatta took the Bar exam recently - haven't heard if he passed or not, but I can't imagine the guy didn't. Honestly. Did he even have to study? ;) Well, win or lose, bud, I'll have a beer in your honor tonight. Who knows - maybe even two.

About Buying Computers...

I had a friend of mine ask me what websites I use when speccing out a new computer. I know of a couple that are useful, such as Tom's Hardware and newegg.com but I thought this was an excellent opportunity to tap into my "reader base" for some updated knowledge.

So, anyone out there know of any good websites to do some research for building new computers?

Oh Yeah...

And post on your blog, Nate. Apparently, the only reason anyone reads my blog any longer is to leave me comments to tell you to post on your blog. So, as that's what my "readers" want, I am obliged to fulfill their needs. So, post on your blog, Nate. My readers demand it!

Back to Civilization

So as I was walking to work this morning, I passed a sign in a storefront that read "Sidewalk Sale Inside." Wouldn't that just make it a normal "Sale"? Just seemed odd to me...

Anyway, so much for keeping up with my blog. I see that it's now been over a month since I've posted anything at all. It seems that, after I don't post for a while, I think of all the things I should post about that have been going on and, as it seems like more and more work all the time, I tend to avoid it. In that way, it's kinda like paying bills... At first, there's not much to do, so I put it off. Then, before I know it, there's a whole lot to do so I put it off some more. Eventually, I realize that someone will come and take away my precious cable internet service if I don't pay them so I hunker down and do it. Well, with my blog, no one can threaten to take away from Internet service if I don't do it so, in general, it doesn't get done. Until now, ladies and gentlemen! ;)

So, what's been going on for the last month or so? Heck if I can remember...

Liz and I made it home for Grant's Baptism and Gavin's third birthday a couple weeks ago. That was great fun - Grant is still in the lump of cuteness that does very little stage but Gavin is turning more and more into a real person every time I see him and is loads of fun to play with. I've got pictures - they may appear on the website soon...then again, they might not appear until Gavin's fourth birthday. Only time will tell. And, somewhere along the way, Liz managed to lose her keys in the C-Ville/NL area. So, if you're out walking someday and trip over some strange keys, let me know. I might have a use for them.

We've vaguely started a new "house project." As the doors leading out to our deck are rotting right off the hinges, we decided we might want to change those. And, while we're at it, we decided to change all of the doors on the house. We're putting in a more decorative door in the front and one with a larger window in the side. Honestly, I'm just looking forward to doors that will give me my key back without 2 minutes of endless jiggling every time I unlock them. We've got a couple of the doors already, but we had to order the doors for the deck and they should be in any day now. Once we've got those, we still need to pick up hardware, get them painted, and get my dad to come out and install them for us.

Liz and I have acquire a new pet (or two)...kinda. A little gray and orange cat started hanging around the neighborhood a few weeks ago. She's declawed and spayed and really quite friendly, although a bit timid. Nonetheless, it didn't take much for her to warm up to us. I've been putting cat food out on the deck for her (she has since been named Betty by Liz's aunt, who had come over to visit). We let her in the house from time to time but, with no litter box, she doesn't stay in for very long. And, I've never seen this in a cat before, but this one drools all over the place. Considering that she loves to snuggle her face right into yours, it's really quite gross. I don't know if she's eating something she shouldn't be or has a broken tooth or what. I suppose I should take her in to the vet someday or something, but I haven't gotten to that just yet. Betty isn't the only cat that's been hanging out at our place, either. Since we started leaving food out for Betty, there's been another orange cat hanging at our place. That one doesn't seem to be very friendly, but that doesn't stop her from eating all the food, either. On the up side, with the cats around, I haven't seen much at all of the rabbits. On the down side, the garden is so overgrown with weeds that it probably wouldn't matter, anyway. ;)

Picked up a new recliner for the den. It's great. I'd tell you a really great story about it, but it's just a chair, it has no great stories. So sad for you.

Last week, Liz and I left for our great American adventure of camping. We went up to the North Shore of Lake Superior. Our campsite was about a quarter mile hike into the woods and really quite secluded. I think we had been at the park for a little over a day before we saw another human being. It was really quite peaceful. We were right on a little pond (that we walked around every morning we were there - Liz loved the loons that hung out there). Got some good pictures of the campground and the surrounding area - those might or might not appear on the website soon, as well. However, I think I'm beginning to realize what a total wuss I am and how accustomed I am to living at home in the city. This whole hauling wood to the campsite to have hot dogs every night was fun for a little while, but I'm happy to me home. :)

To add to the difficulty of the trip - one of the tires on the truck went flat. And not just any tire, mind you - the same one that I had replaced two months ago because it was flat. So now I need to call the garage and see what the heck is up with that. I suppose I could be wrong but, last I checked, tires were supposed to remain inflated for some extended period of time. *Sigh*

On a side note, we ate at Betty's Pies (which, oddly enough, may be the actual namesake of our aforementioned drooling half-pet). We were told by Liz's relatives (including the one that named Betty) that we had to stop there. Sure enough, right on the side of the highway north of Duluth was Betty's Pies - easily one of the largest establishments in the area. We stopped there on the way back home on Sunday for some breakfast. Oddly enough, I really enjoyed their eggs and bacon but the pies were, saddly, only so-so.

What else has been going on? Let's see... The NHL finally agreed to a new Collective Baragining Agreement so there will be hockey next year. And, better yet, the Pens got the first draft in the lottery and will have phenom Sidney Crosby on their team next season. Liz had a birthday - I think she's 21 now, or so I'm told - it sure is nice having a hot, young, wife, let me tell ya. ;)

I think that might be about it. Certainly, it's enough for now. Take it easy, y'all. See ya soon!