My Eyes! My Eyes!

They've gone crosseyed!

Note to self: Don't listen to Pink Floyd's "Interstellar Overdrive" while wearing headphones...

Hidey Ho, Neighbors

Been a while since I've said...anything...so here I am to blather once again.

Liz and I went to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat a couple weeks ago. It was really a very good show - quite entertaining. Most of the shows I've been to (which isn't many) have all been quite serious. There was Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera, Cats (ok, so I wish I had never gone to Cats, but what's done is done)... And now we went to see this show. It's pretty much the exact opposite - flippant, colorful, and just downright funny, it was a hoot to watch. Personally, I liked the Elvis-impersonating Egyptian pharoah, but everyone has their favorites. ;) The venue wasn't bad (the Orpheum in Minneapolis), but could have been better. Nothing I've been to has compared to the venue in Chicago, where Liz and I went to see Les Mis. Nonetheless, I think I heard this was the final tour of Joseph so I'm glad we caught it.

Not a whole ton going on over in Rochester. Liz and I have been chilling around the house and inviting friends over when we feel like it. We had some friends over last weekend and went out to an apple orchard to pick some apples - one of Liz's friends wanted apple butter. In general, we wandered around the field, eating far too many apples, juggling what we didn't feel like eating, and hurling apple cores and bruised apples across the pumpkin patch. When we got back, we proceeded to eat more apples (now coated with caramel to offset any healthiness we might have stumbled into) and Liz started working on the apple butter. Supposedly, it was supposed to take 1.5 to 2 hours to prepare. 24 hours later, Liz finally canned...something. Actually, we haven't even tried it yet because we have no bread in the house. Go figure.

Talked to the sis for a bit. The kids are doing great. Dean has to drive too far to get to work. And they got some goldfish. Unfortunately, as goldfish go, they're difficult to tell apart. One was white and black, so that was no problem, but the other two, of course, were gold. To remedy the conundrum, my sister wisely named the three of them Larry, Daryl, and Daryl. Unfortunately, Daryl died. Not that one, the other one.

The Packers are horrible, as expected. The Badgers, however, may be the saving grace of the state of Wisconsin this football season. Their win over Michigan was a total riot to watch - I still thank God that we got that game on ESPN. I did not, however, get last week's Pakcers game because the Vikings play at the same time and, after seeing how the game ended, I also thank God for that.

I know I mentioned that Liz and I adopted a cat...I was mistaken. What we adopted was not actually a feline, but a member of the species alarmus clockius, set to walk on your head promptly at 7 AM, regardless of the day of the week. Despite the mistaken identity of the beast, Liz seems to have taken a great liking to her, so I guess she's here to stay.

Been reading Morgan Llywelyn's book, 1916 (about the uprising of 1916, of course), while riding the bus to and from work and I'm nearly finished. It's not bad and has done an excellent job of keeping my interest through the whole thing. The really intriguing thing about it, though, is that, after our trip to Ireland, I can actually identify a lot of the things that happen in the book with places we saw or things we learned while we were there. It's quite the trip, really.

Ok, enough of that. I'm out'ta here. Later, all.

Did Ya See Da Tirty Pointer?

Well, did ya?

Weddings...And Such

As predicted, this last weekend was a blast. Liz and I packed into the car and headed back to Appleton to attend M/Andy's wedding. Let me try to put together a very quick synopsis...

Friday night - Liz and I arrive at the Nate Pad. Nate's still at the rehearsal dinner so I begin the process of eating all of his food and drinking his beer (it really is a weekend long process so I figured I'd better start right away). Around midnight, Natron graced us with his presence, along with Andy and a handful of Andy's friends. The night proceeded with the bunch of us (except for Liz, who somehow managed to sleep on the couch) playing Texas Hold 'Em and drinking heavily until about 3 in the morning.

Saturday was the wedding, of course. As we got to the church, Nick Lucht's mom spotted Liz and I so I started talking to her and, in my delight, Monica was standing right next to her - so I finally go to meet the illustrious "M". I told her that I felt rather funny as, even though we'd never met, I knew a lot about her from reading Nick's blog. Nonetheless, it made those initial awkward conversations a lot easier because I already knew that she was living in Chicago, doing her residency there, and even what kind of music she liked. So I guess that wasn't all bad.

Met up with Dave and Stacy at the wedding. We milled around for a little bit and ran into Andy's dad...quite the cat, that man. I haven't seen him in years, but he hasn't changed much. As we met him, he said, "Corey! Dave! Dave, you've put on weight!" Ummm...yeah. What else can you say? ;)

The ceremony was nice and it wasn't long until we were all over at the reception hall enjoying real Wisconsin old fashioneds and free beer. By the end of the night, Stacy and Monica were...well off...and Nate and I, while doing better, were probably not fit to drive. So Lizzy drove us back to the Nate pad where we prompty zonked for the night.

You know, I often hear people say that friends come and go, but the friends you meet in college are your friends for life. It just hasn't been that way for me. For me, it's mostly the friends I had as a kid that I've stuck with. Heck, I've known Dave since 1st grade or so and Andy since 3rd. Even my more recent friends, like Nate and Nick, I've known since High School and before. You know, I don't get to see them nearly as often as I'd like to, but it's funny - when I do finally get to see someone like Dave (who I've been friends with for probably 75% of my life or more), even if I haven't seen the guy in a year, it's just like we've always been together. It's great, really. The best part of the weekend was getting to see that whole group again.

So now I'm back to Rochester and "real life." Work is fine - I avoid doing it whenever possible. Football season is off to a rough start. The Packers lost miserably and my fantasy football team is now without one of my high round draft picks for the season, Javon Walker. Double whammy. On the up side, Wisconsin beat Temple a billion to nothing. That was fun to watch...for about 5 minutes until the scored was 24 to 0. The starting lineup didn't even make it to halftime.

Anyway, enough babbling. I'm out'ta here.

Like Big Bags of Sand? Stupid!

Yo, all. I hope everyone is doing well.

Here's a quick rundown of what's been going on in this neck of the woods. (Except there are no trees in this part of Minnesota - Gah!)

The long weekend was nice. Theresa (Liz's little sis) came up to visit so we hung out in Rochester for a while and took in dinner and a movie on the town. We went to go see 40 Year Old Virgin. Absolutely hilarious. A little raunchy in some parts, but not too horrible. All in all, freaking hysterical. If you get a chance to go see it, do so. It's awesome.

The next day, Liz and Theresa went up to the cities to do some shipping at the Mall and Ikea. I simply watched them go and chilled out at the house for the day.

On the productive side of life, I did finally get the garage cleaned out and the remainders of the old doors to the dump this weekend. That means that I could finally put the truck back in the garage (it's been sitting outside for the last month or so) and, even more importantly, get my car back out. So there's my little bit of productivity for the weekend. I'm sure that offsets all the time spent watching movies and the Family Guy (got the first two seasons on DVD for my birthday - huzzah!), eating big, greasy burgers, and generally slacking off.

Betty, our stray cat, has now been, more or less, officially adopted. We went out this weekend and got her a litter box and spent some time this weekend making sure she'd use it. Fortunately, she took right to it. So now she's been pretty much given free roam of the house. Lizzy just loves her because she's finally found someone/thing that likes to snuggle almost as much as she does. And I'm far too bony to be a good snuggler - cats are soft and fluffy and therefore excel in that area, or so I've been told. The best part is watching Liz try to knit with the cat lying in her lap. Quite amusing, as you can probably imagine.

I guess I'm now obligated to say something about the latest catastrophe to befall our country, Hurricane Katrina, or, as her friends call her, Katie.

So Katie pretty much demolished New Orleans. Bush didn't even bother to come back from vacation to see what was going on. Aid and support seems like it's horribly late in arriving. There seems to be total mindlessness down there. I mean, I understand the looting - I don't like it, but at least I understand the motivation: Me Here. Cops Gone. Stereo there. Me take stereo. Obviously, it doesn't take a brain surgeon to follow that logic. But what's up with the mindless violence - like shooting at rescue workers trying to evacuate people from the area? What the heck is that going to get you?!? I just don't get it, at all. Some people are just freaking retarded and should not be allowed to procreate.

Caught a bit of the Daily Show again last night. Another awesome episode - catch the rerun tonight at 6, if you can. They cover Bush's plan of action for helping rebuild after Katie and, for the most part, I'm left speechless. The man is really showing his ability to be a mindless twit at this point.

A little closer to home, gas prices are totally insane. I've now stopped driving to work - I take the bus, instead. I get picked up on the other side of the block from my house and get dropped off almost right in front of my office building. Plus, Mayo subsidized the whole thing so I ride for free, anyway. I have to say, I should have been doing this for a long time. No more driving downtown with all the idiots that love to talk on cell phones while running red lights. No more paying insane gas prices (well, I still have to, but not as often). Now I just hop on the bus and read a book while someone else has to worry about carting me around town and someone else picks up the tab for it. Not a bad situation, really.

So that's what's been going on. This weekend is Appleton-Rock 2005 (aka Lagatta's wedding). Liz is already making plans to drive Nate and I back to Nate's pad where we can eat pizza and crash after consuming free ale liberally. I hate to make assumptions, but I suspect this weekend will be a grand old time - it'll be awesome to see everyone again.

Okay - so that's enough babbling out of me. I'm outta here. Later, daters.