Crouton's Blog

New T-Shirt

2008-07-16T17:57:00.002-05:00

I would like to introduce the best t-shirt in the world for anyone who is addicted to making shit up. Although making shit up may be a disease, I still consider it a big piece of crap (ha).

http://faroutshirts.com/detail.php?id=235

Hola

2008-06-12T00:23:00.002-05:00

Things are going really well. This weekend I'll be attending the Brewers / Twins game in Milwaukee and next weekend I'm going camping.

Peace.

I'm Back

2008-05-27T22:22:00.003-05:00

I'm back. My attendance at the gym was requested tonight, which allowed me to participate in treadmill running and bench press pressing. It turns out I've let myself go for the past couple months, and my man-muscles have depleted as well as my pants fitting much too snug for my pleasing. This past weekend was very relaxing...I took the day off on Friday, so I went down to Rochester on Thursday night to hang out with Smallz, then on Friday I made the trip to La Crosse for the rest of the weekend, where I would partake in family time, deck building, grilling, shopping at Menards and Farm and Fleet, building fires, lighting tiki-torches, playing cards, drinking suds and teaching the nephews how to fish. Good times.

The boy from Minnesota

2008-05-15T21:47:00.003-05:00

Funny.

The boy from Minnesota
There was a boy who worked in the produce section of a super market. A man came in and asked to buy half a head of lettuce. The boy told him that they only sold whole heads of lettuce, but the man replied that he did not need a whole head, only half.

The boy explained that he would have to ask the manager and so he walked into the back room and said, "There is some jerk out there who wants to buy only a half a head of lettuce."

As he finished saying this, he turned around to find the man standing right behind him, so he quickly added, "And this gentleman wants to buy the other half."

The manager okayed the request and the man went on his way. Later on the manager said to the boy, "You almost got yourself in a lot of trouble earlier, but I must say I was impressed with the way you got out of it. You think on your feet and we like that around here. Where are you from, son?"

The boy replied, "Minnesota, sir."

"Oh, really? Why did you leave Minnesota?" inquired the manager.

The boy replied, "They're all just whores and hockey players up there."

"My wife is from Minnesota", exclaimed the manager.

The boy instantly replied, "Really! What team did she play for?"

Lyrics

2008-04-29T18:50:00.000-05:00

I have climbed the highest mountains
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you

I have run I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
Only to be with you
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for

I have kissed honey lips
Felt the healing in her fingertips
It burned like fire
This burning desire
I have spoke with the tongue of angels
I have held the hand of a devil
It was warm in the night
I was cold as a stone
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for

I believe in the Kingdom Come
Then all the colors will bleed into one
But yes I'm still running.
You broke the bonds
You loosened the chains
You carried the cross
And my shame
And my shame
You know I believed it
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for
But I still haven't found
What I'm looking for

South Park - YouTube Stars

2008-04-06T12:35:00.005-05:00

Photos

2008-03-30T17:40:00.000-05:00

I've added two photo albums to Facebook, which can be viewed here:

Berlin Pics

London Pics

Big

2008-03-30T00:44:00.000-05:00

Ooh! The spades go, Down! Down! Baby! Down! Down the roller
coaster! Sweet, sweet baby! Sweet, sweet delectable! Shimmy, shimmy
cocoa pop! Shimmy, shimmy rock! Shimmy, shimmy cocoa pop! Shimmy,
shimmy rock! I met a girlfriend a triscuit! She said a triscuit a
biscuit! Ice cream, soda pop, vanilla on the top! Ooh Shelly, walking
down the street, ten times a week! I met it! I said it! I stole my
mother's credit! I'm cool! I'm hot! Sock me in the stomach three
more times!

The Guy's Rules

2008-03-21T08:44:00.002-05:00

The Guys' Rules
(transposed from other sources)

1. Men ARE not mind readers.
2. Learn to work the toilet seat. You're a big girl. If it's up, put it down.We need it up, you need it down. You don't hear us complaining about you leaving it down.
3. Sunday sports It's like the full moon or the changing of the tides. Let it be.
4. Shopping is NOT a sport. And no, we are never going to think of it that way.
5. Crying is blackmail.
6. Ask for what you want. Let us be clear on this one:
Subtle hints do not work!
Strong hints do not work!
Obvious hints do not work!
Just say it!
7. Yes and No are perfectly Acceptable answers to almost every question.
8. Come to us with a problem only If you want help solving it.
That's what we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.
9. A headache that lasts for 17 months is a problem. See a doctor.
10. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument.
In fact, all comments become null and void after 7 Days.
11. If you won't dress like the Victoria's Secret girls, don't Expect us to act like soap opera guys.
12. If you think you're fat, you probably are. Don't ask us.
13. If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one .
14. You can either ask us to do something Or tell us how you want it done.
Not both.
If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.
15. Whenever possible, Please say whatever you have to say during commercials.
16. Christopher Columbus did NOT need directions and neither do we.
17. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings.
Peach, for example, is a fruit, not! A color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.
18. If it itches, it will Be scratched. We do that.
19. If we ask what is wrong and you say "nothing," We will act like nothing's wrong.
We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.
20. If you ask a question you don't want an answer to, Expect an answer you don't want to hear.
21. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear Is fine...Really.
22. Don't ask us what we're thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as football, motorsport, or golf.
23. You have enough clothes.
24. You have too many shoes.
25. I am in shape. Round IS a shape!
27. Thank you for reading this. Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight;
But did you know men really don't mind that? It's like camping.

Colorado Skiing Traveling

2008-03-18T19:34:00.003-05:00

So...I'm going skiing in Colorado next week. My brother reserved a 6 bedroom resort condo back in October, and I finally managed to buy my plane ticket yesterday. No big deal though, I'm getting fairly comfortable traveling these days. I hope to travel somewhere tropical, or at least to a warm environment near the ocean in the near future. There's nothing like the the scent of an ocean breeze while walking in 70+ degree weather, especially awesome at night.

I'm still working on the pictures from Europe, gathering photos from Goose and Pete, then editing and commenting as necessary. Not sure where to post them yet, as not everyone has facebook.

Europe 2008

2008-03-12T17:44:00.002-05:00

Well, I'm back from Europe, and still paying the price for having way too much fun. I was fortunate enough to get sick on the 2nd to last day of the trip, instead of at the beginning of the trip. My time at home has been spent in bed, while I do still manage to get to work during the day.

Anyways, Berlin was a blast, enjoyed it much, especially meeting individuals while there. Wombat's Hostels are amazing!!! Anyways, on Tuesday we took the train down to Potsdam, where we took a stroll through town to view the palaces of beauty. Tom and I were delayed from leaving right away, so we went separate. We ended up walking around the old city of Potsdam and became depressed as we walked through old Communist housing, this created much appreciation for the freedom of America. Since we didn't plan well for this part of the trip, we kinda wasted a day. I was terribly tired from not sleeping very well since arriving, so I was excited to get to our next Hostel and take a nap. Well, we ended up napping until around 8:30pm, and eventually making it to a restaurant for dinner. We called it a night shortly before midnight, as we were to be up early the next morning for our flight to London.

Here lies the worst day of traveling in history. On Wednesday, we get up around 6:30am, eat breakfast, get on the train to Berlin's airport, and eventually get off at a station so we can catch a bus to the airport. We were all excited to be on a good schedule, so no rushing was required. This happiness was soon to be discarded, as we waited and waited for the airport bus to pick us up...sadly this was to not happen for at least 1 hour. Reason to be found out later, was there was a bus strike that day, so there were very few buses running. Lucky us, so now we are freaking out, and almost to the point of flagging down old grandmas on scooters asking if we can get a ride to the airport. We were almost interviewed on tv, but about 5 minutes after communicating with the tv station crew, our bus finally came. Yeppie. Not so fast though, as we finally get to our gate at the airport, we are on time and almost relaxed, until we find out that our flight has been delayed 1.5 hours due to the airport workers striking. So, now we have to find an alternative method of traveling to London from the connecting airport. Well, we get to the connecting airport, knowingly we missed our next flight, then we are told by the airline that we can take a 45 minute taxi ride to another airport, which has a plane available for us to take to London. We eagerly accepted, as we didn't want to sit around the airport for 6 hours waiting for the next available plane. That turns out ok, so we take the cab to the airport, get on the plane, then arrive in London. "Not so fast ladies, we have a problem, we can't let you out of the plane since there is a fire in the arrival area of the airport." For crying out loud!!! Just let us in the airport so we can get to our Hostel, unpack, shower, then start to party. Well, after an hour of waiting in a hot and dull mooded plane, we finally were allowed to exit the plane. That pretty much ends the worst travel day in history. Sad face here.

London was great, after we finally got there. Lots of old buildings, castles, English speaking, weird accents, funny people. We took a couple tours of London, one of Old City London, and one of the Royal British. Our 2nd hostel was amazing, they had an awesome pub crawl, which we were to experience the night life of many pubs and drink many delicious beers. I actually enjoyed a few Guinness's, even though I can't stand drinking them in the U.S.

Well, there is more to the trip...but pictures will probably explain things in at least a thousand words or something like that.

Berlin Pics

London Pics

Peace out for now, Cheerio, Cheers, Guten Tag, Danke!

Berlin - part 3

2008-03-03T20:46:00.001-06:00

Today's adeventures brought us to a free tour of berlin, which was well worth it. Learned a lot of new interesting facts and saw some extremely memoriable historical markers. A museum was visited, and good times were had tonight. The details cannot be told at this time, but it was fun. ok, i think it's time for bed. adios and guten tag.

p.s. i love traveling!!!

Berlin part 2

2008-03-03T03:10:00.003-06:00

yesterdays adventures took me to Checkpoint Charlie and to one of three sections of the original wall that are stil standing. I was on my own for most of the day, as i slept until 230pm. I was sad to not be able to find any aspirin anywhere, and due to my crazy night the day before, my camera memory card was left in my other jean pockets, therefore, no picture taking took place.

Later on, i met up with the guys for dinner and a beer at the oldest beer hall in Berlin, however, we were hardly impressed, possibly due to the off season.

Europe - Berlin

2008-03-02T08:26:00.004-06:00

It's now the 3rd day of the Euro trip and I'm already speaking and acting German. We arrived in Berlin at around 11am on Friday, which was about 6am Minneapolis time...so we were all fairly tired on arrival. Our sleep schedules are still off, last night I was getting home as the sun was rising, so, i didnt wake until around 230pm. I need to get out and explore more of the city. Yesterday, I saw some of the old Berlin wall, which was a pretty memorable experience. My camera has received some nice usage, but my digital photo taking skills will need to improve as the trip progresses. My time is running out on the internet machine, so I shall go for now. Peace out.

Evolution of Dance

2008-02-26T19:56:00.004-06:00

Yeah...this video is old...but it's still cool. Would be neat to have this guy in "the circle" at a wedding reception dance.

Captain Fun

2008-02-23T16:03:00.002-06:00

Last night...Tonya and I enjoyed eating pizza and drinking captn cokes. Additional fun was created with the fog machine and strobe light. Jeneca's birthday party was the reason for the fun, so we met her at the Figlios bar, then on over to Williams. Dirty was with us, so we made sure to have extra fun. Our neighbor, Wiener, happened to be at Williams as well. We exchanged phone numbers, as we were expecting to party in our apartment building sometime soon.

Music enjoyed recently include: Poison, Bon Jovi, Beach Boys, Meat Loaf, Paris Hilton, Tupac, Warren G, Journey, Tenacious D, Pavarotti, and Andrea Bocelli

Foods consumed include: Digiorno pizza, White Castle, Potato Salad, Wendys, Three Cheese Ziti Marinara

Drinks consumed include: Captain Coke, Coors Light, Vodka RedBull, Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse, Paulaner, Goldschlager

Movies watched include: Cast Away, Super Bad, BeWitched

Con Te Partiro (Time to Say Goodbye)

2008-01-30T08:41:00.000-06:00

Quando sono solo
Sogno allorizzonte
E mancan le parole
Si lo so che non c? luce
In una stanza
Quando manca il sole
Se non ci sei tu con me, con me.
Su le finestre
Mostra a tutti il mio cuore
Che hai acceso
Chiudi dentro me
La luce che
Hai incontrato per strada

Time to say goodbye
Paesi che non ho mai
Veduto e vissuto con te
Adesso si li vivro.
Con te partiro
Su navi per mari
Che io lo so
No no non esistono piu
Its time to say goodbye.

Quando sei lontana
Sogno allorizzonte
E mancan le parole
E io si lo so
Che sei con me con me
Tu mia luna tu sei qui con me
Mio sole tu sei qui con me
Con me con me con me

Time to say goodbye
Paesi che non ho mai
Veduto e vissuto con te
Adesso si li vivro.
Con te partiro
Su navi per mari
Che io lo so
No no non esistono piu
Con te io li rivivro.
Con te partiro
Su navi per mari
Che io lo so
No no non esistono piu
Con te io li rivivro.
Con te partiro
Io con te.

Root Beer Skor

2008-01-28T18:28:00.000-06:00

So, my co-worker has got me hooked on energy drinks. The latest in energy is the new Diet Pepsi MAX. It provides a little Ginseng extract, which supposedly assists with energy producing requirements. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best soft drink ever, I give Diet Pepsi MAX a 5. I would prefer to drink a nice Diet Mt Dew, Diet Orange Sunkist or AW Root Beer. Oh boy...this reminds me. I bought a Skor bar yesterday for the first time in ages...it will be a glorious treat later tonight. I have to stop by the store and buy a root beer though, as the combination of the two is priceless.

Mood = Excited!

Hickey

2008-01-26T11:33:00.000-06:00

So...I was bored and thought to myself...if someone were to receive a hickey, how would one go about making it disappear?

Some Answers are Here.

Europe 2008

2008-01-19T10:59:00.000-06:00

It's official, I'm going to Europe for the 2nd year in a row!! The plan is to leave for Berlin on February 28, stay there for a few days, then head over to London for the second half of the trip (London Baby!), and eventually back to Minneapolis.

My goal is to buy a "pop-up" map in London, so I can place it on the sidewalk and stand in it...like Joey did on Friends. Also, I'll have to buy a tall british hat.

I'm so excited...that I'm going to use 3 exclamation points!!!

The Piano

2008-01-16T23:42:00.000-06:00

Funny People

2008-01-14T12:06:00.001-06:00

What a great weekend! Friday night included a nice drive down to Rochester where I was to meet up with T and J at a comedy show. The comedians were funny, but I didn't really like the headliner as much as the first guy. The headliner moved around too much and he picked on a few members of the audience too many times. "Hey man...You can be funny without making fun of everyone in the audience." He was also very impressed with his own flexibility and his need to pick on the Amish and females with big chests. The ladies at my table were laughing it up like crazy, which was funny. After the show, we spoke with the comedians and enticed them to go to Kathy's bar with us. At the bar, our table enjoyed funny stories and talking about the Packers and Brett Favre. Go Packers! Dancing occurred later in the night, which was fun. On Saturday, a road trip to a local sports bar was the plan...as the Packers were playing. There, we watched the game, played pool and darts, ate awesome food, and made conversation with beautiful people. Saturday night included a trip to downtown Rochester, where drinks were ordered and conversations were made with creapy randoms. The night ended with real spicy Mexican food.

New Year's Resolutions

2008-01-11T15:00:00.000-06:00

Avoid those who have a tendency to create drama...life is too short for that. Don’t worry...focus on what you can control. Have fun with whatever you do...it's what you make of it. Try not to take things so seriously...enjoy the game of life. Laugh for no reason...be glad you can. Don't complain...do something about it. Forgive...we all make mistakes. Be yourself...change because you want to. Appreciate other's differences...remember if they are different, so are you. Don't forget where you came from and those who helped you get to where you are today. Get outside...be physically active...walk more...drive less...say thanks...go hiking...explore a cave...sit under a waterfall...go on a picnic...fly a kite...swim in a lake...pick an apple...carve a pumpkin...water a Christmas tree...build a snowman...throw a snowball...climb a tree...paddle a canoe...these are just a few things we all should do.

Dr Dashboard

2008-01-07T22:17:00.001-06:00

Holy cow...this weekend was fun. Friday night was spent in Wisconsin, where I met up with a friend for drinks. We socialized with some randoms, and after a few rounds of Dr Shots we decided to go to another bar for dancing. There, the girls mostly danced, while old looking guys watched from the bar. I began to dance when "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" was played...I started up the old routine, you know...circle dancing, lawnmower, picking apples....ah good times! Saturday was spent lounging and playing cards with the family, and Saturday night consisted of driving through dense fog on the way to Rochester, where I was to meet up with some folks at the North Star bar. There, we listened to a cover band play a wide variety of songs. The girls mostly danced, while awkward looking dudes tried to grind...I watched with compassion for the ladies in the house. Sunday involved eating Subway and Burger King, shopping for new jeans and a new hoodie, and drinking Mt Dew at Buffalo Wild Wings…it is safe to say that this was a much needed and successful weekend of fun.

Happy New Year

2007-12-31T16:02:00.000-06:00

Happy New Years!

Auld Lang Syne - Lyrics
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne ?

CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup !
And surely I’ll buy mine !
And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have run about the slopes,
and picked the daisies fine ;
But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

We two have paddled in the stream,
from morning sun till dine† ;
But seas between us broad have roared
since auld lang syne.

CHORUS

And there’s a hand my trusty friend !
And give us a hand o’ thine !
And we’ll take a right good-will draught,
for auld lang syne.

CHORUS

Merry Christmas

2007-12-25T21:34:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve Snow

2007-12-24T13:44:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas Eve! The last of my Christmas shopping was completed this morning and now my focus will be on eating, playing cards, shoveling, sledding, and relaxing. Christmas will be celebrated for the next couple days with family events and etc. On Thursday, plans are to go downhill skiing during the day and a night out in Rochester is in the works for Thursday night. Other events (i.e. hockey with friends) will occur sometime soon.

The snow fell like cats and dogs yesterday, which produced a whopping 12 inches of snow in my hometown. This created a very nice sledding atmosphere, as well as creating beautiful scenery.

Alicia's Birthday - The Shout House

2007-12-20T22:23:00.000-06:00

Excellent times were had last night as we celebrated Alicia's birthday with 80's night at The Shout House.

Fun Tonight

2007-12-19T13:27:00.000-06:00

Looking forward to tonight!!!

My Cousin's Birthday

2007-12-16T21:30:00.000-06:00

My cousin's birthday celebration was excellent. Anna and I had a blast playing on the arcade shooting game, which I had remarked that someday I wanted to have one of these in my house. She didn't think that would go over well with my future wife. After a couple of beers and eating of peanuts and popcorn, darts were played. It was a very close game, and I had the lead for the entire game until Anna got lucky and threw a double bullseye to win the game. It was very sad. I informed my cousin that she was my favorite cousin, and she confirmed that I was her favorite cousin as well. We hugged and talked about how lucky we were to have each other. It was very special.

Rochester Fun

2007-12-15T19:58:00.000-06:00

Oh my golly! Last night was a fantastic time! I drove down to Rochester to hang out with Smallz. We met up with his friend Margo and went out to Kathy's Pub. Honey Weiss was the pitcher of choice and peanuts were consumed by the gross. Somehow, my body is not accepting that combination of fun. Tonight is my cousin's birthday, so I'm planning on meeting up with her at Williams. I think I've enticed a friend to come with, so extra fun will be had. Peace out for now.

Packers Christmas Cookies

2007-12-11T14:05:00.000-06:00

It's been a marvelous year for Packers fans...I'm still astounded by the wonderfulness of the team's performance. I do recall, even last year, the majority of football fans chanting that Favre was too old and he should retire. As predicted by a few, they were incorrect in their observation and point of view, and they should think twice before suggesting a future Hall of Famer and best quarterback of all time from retiring early. Go Pack Go!

The gym was packed like sardines last night. There must have been a subliminal message sent out to everyone in Uptown that enticed everyone to go workout. "Hey...I haven't seen you in months! Why did you decide to finally get to the gym?" -- "I don't know...I was just eating pizza and watching tv when this YWCA commercial came on. Five minutes later I was in the car and on my way to the Y..."

I am starting to get the travel bug, as it's been many months since I've traveled anywhere far. Decisions will be made soon, as I have the chance to go to Europe again. Luckily, expenses will be minimal, as the plane ticket will be free (using the credit card miles i saved up for the past 2 years). In addition to a possible Europe trip, vacationing will occur at a Colorado ski resort in March, so either way, it looks like traveling and vacationing is in the works.

Amazing time last night...cut-out Christmas cookies were baked. Good times, and a lot harder than it looks. Pictures to be posted soon...

Tic Tac Toe Guesstures

2007-12-08T09:26:00.000-06:00

oh boy...last night was a good one! The work happy hour was amazing...which included tic-tac-toe, making new acquaintances, drinking with work buddies, and fake lap dances. My friend's last day at our Eagan office was yesterday, so a Happy Hour was to be had. Her sister brought her 6-year old daughter, and I was nominated to assist with baby-sitting duties. It was a fun time...we played "tic-tac-toe," "guess how many circles there are in this big circle," and "what is this word."

After the work happy hour, destination was Devo and Kati's for fun night indoors. We (Dirty, Dan, Alicia, Kati's sister and Kati's friend, and I) played tennis on the Nintendo Wii and participated in a game of Guesstures. It was amazingly fun, especially Dan's impression of "a plug." Others include: knead, pipe, bunny, sleeping bag, cow and jail. We also enjoyed viewing Family Feud outtakes on YouTube.

Snow Happy Reading

2007-12-07T16:47:00.000-06:00

The snow continues to fall, and it's only the first week of December! I cannot recall the last time we had such a fair amount of snow so early in the season. I am very grateful for this, and continue to hope for more snow to come. Hopefully, we'll have that White Christmas than many people sing about. It does look like I'll be sledding and/or skiing a lot more this year than last. I can't wait...I love building sweet jumps!

I have plans to attend happy hour tonight with work people. It should be a grand ole time. My plan is to not party too much.

I'm enjoying a good book right now, and hope to finish it by Christmas. It's called "Fidelis," from the BirthPangs series and it was written by my brother-in-law. I'd recommend reading it. After this, I shall continue finishing up reading the Harry Potter books.

Changes to this blog are in the works...stay tuned.

Mary Did You Know

2007-12-01T22:01:00.000-06:00

Snow! I am so happy you're here...hopefully you can last until Christmas, or at least come back again around Christmas. Last night, Tom was in town, so we gathered the troops and went bowling at Park Tavern. It was fun. After bowling I was ready for bed, but I was enticed by Dan, Jed and Alicia to stay up and participate in video taping ourselves singing to "Mary Did You Know," since we all enjoy the song very much.

I downloaded "Frosty the Snowman" and "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" today.

The Packers game was on the NFL Network channel this past Thursday, so I ordered it from Comcast on Wednesday, knowing I would just cancel the subscription right after the game. It's a pretty good deal, coming to about $0.17 per day. Who in their right minds would actually subscribe yearly to this channel? They only show games from Thanksgiving to January! Also, their commentating stinks!

I went to the doctor on Friday...it turns out I am a healthy 28 year old.

I drove out to Target today in the blizzard, it was fun. There were some good deals on green peas and baked beans, as well as their normal good deals on nutritious dinner meals.

Tonight

2007-11-30T13:19:00.001-06:00

Tonight shall be a grand ole time!

Prancer

2007-11-28T15:57:00.000-06:00

So...I watched the movie Prancer last night, well, at least the first hour. It was a little too boring for my tastes. I remember watching parts of it when I was a kid, and remember enjoying it a lot more. For those who don't know, Prancer is one of Santa's reindeers. This movie was about a girl who was in love with Christmas, Santa and his reindeers. One day, while walking through the woods, she comes in contact with a reindeer. She names it Prancer, because of an event that happened earlier in the movie. Well, the concept of this movie is this reindeer gets injured (probably by a hunter who shot it) and then she secretly takes care of it in one of her dad's barns. I stopped watching the movie about the time she begs a veterinarian to take a look at the injured animal.

On another topic, Chili Cheese Fritos are amazing.

Christmas Movies

2007-11-25T22:56:00.000-06:00

It's that time of year again! Due to an early Thanksgiving, this year's Christmas season will be the longest in years! Therefore, I will have more time to view some of my favorite Christmas movies. To start things off, I've prepared a list of my most favorite.

My Top 10 List of Christmas Movies (starting with most favorite)
A Christmas Story
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
Elf
It's A Wonderful Life
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000-Jim Carrey)
Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer
Home Alone
Scrooge (1951)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966-original)
A Charlie Brown Christmas

Happy Thanksgiving

2007-11-22T18:17:00.001-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving all. This year's Thanksgiving brought my family to my brother's place in Madison where we enjoyed watching the Packers win, watched the grandkids wear pilgrim and Indian costumes and entertain us with skits, and ate many delicious foods. I have much to be thankful for, most importantly my family and friends.

For the past 16 years, I've dressed up in blaze orange from head to toe, wore layers and layers of cotton and polyester assortments, stuffed my pockets full of candy bars and went off deer hunting with my Dad. I'm contemplating going this year. I'm just not too enthused to pay the $160 nonresident license fee so I can freeze to death, maybe see a deer, probably shoot at one, and most likely miss it and blame my bad right eye. I'd probably go, but I'm also coming down with the symptoms of some type of virus.

Last night, we (grandma, aunt, mom, dad, and my nephew) played the card game Golf. We had fun, however, as wild as my family is, we didn't even finish an entire game. Instead, we called it quits after the 6th green due to staying awake issues. I'm sure we'll play more tonight, which shall be fun.

That's it for now. Gobble gobble and happy Thanksgiving.

Big Fat Turkey

2007-11-21T19:10:00.001-06:00

My grandma started singing the "Fat Turkey" song again.

Here's the first verse:

He's a big fat turkey on Grandpa's farm
Who thinks he's very gay.
He spreads his tail into a great big fan
And struts around all day.

You should hear him gobble at the girls and boys,
He thinks he is singing when he makes that noise.
He'll sing his song a different way
Upon Thanksgiving Day.

Spring Break '05 (aka...Nov 17, 2007)

2007-11-18T13:38:00.000-06:00

This weekend included the following:

Friday night:
Alicia, Dan, Melinda, Casey, and I meet at Brodie and Rachel's in St Cloud to celebrate Spring Break '05. Here, we visit with Elliott, watching him smile, make noises and kick his feet. We decide that he needed some hair, so we placed a wig on him. He seemed to like the wig, so we took pictures. After that, the gang decided to play century club. I mostly drank diet 7-up, but consumed a couple beers too. After that fun, we managed to fit 6 people into Brodie and Rachel's new car, which was fun. Dan was too tall, so we opened the sunroof to allow more room for his head. I volunteered to be the sober cab, and on the way to the bar I had to deal with loud noises from the drunks...i.e. monkey noises, laughing, screaming, and wooing. It was a hilarious ride of 10 blocks, as well, we did have to drive 1 mph over any bumps, as we were to bottom out quite easily. Eventually, we make it to the bar, all in wigs and costumes, and we get hideous looks from all. I managed to get at least 10 "wow, that guy's hair is glorious" comments. The bar was fun for awhile, but then I decided to go home to get ready for bed. The rest of the crew partied, until they got to Perkins. I said I'd join them there so I could enjoy a ham and cheese omelet. At Perkins, we witness a brawl between two groups of hooligans. I was expecting to hear a gun shot or two, but luckily this didn't happen. The gangs eventually "took it outside" and the rest of us went back to eating our poorly prepared foods. The night ended shortly after that.

Saturday:
Jed, Casey, Brodie, Anna, and I attended the Gopher / Badger football game. On immediate arrival I tell Anna that I'm tired, and would really like to take a nap. She agreed, but we had no place to nap. So, we stuck it out for 4 hours to watch the entire game. Anna met up with her roommate, and came back with popcorn. Although, she had decided to add cheese to the popcorn, which made it "not as good." However, we still managed to eat a few kernels. After the game, Brodie left to meet up with the wife and kid, and Casey, Jed, Anna and I went back to my place so we could sit and relax. Casey decided to go meet up with Becka, so it was just the three of us. I turned the tv channel to the movie Titanic, and I received hideous looks from Jed and Anna. I explained that it's a good movie, and that you just have to give Jack and Rose a chance. During the show, Anna and I got hungry, so we decided to cook some chicken stir fry. She was brilliantly impressed with my ability to use the George Forman, and stir fry pan to prepare this meal. In the end, she did say it was "ok" considering the time and effort it took to prepare such a meal. I told her to drink some of our water, as it was the best water around. After that, lots of people showed up at my apartment. Pete, Susie, Dileepa, Tom, Robyn, and Alicia showed up, and we watched some people play guitar hero for a little while. Eventually, the gang went to the bar, but Susie, Anna and I decided to leave right away, as we were ready for bed.

House Shopping!!!

2007-11-08T16:11:00.000-06:00

I've been pre-approved for a mortgage...I shall begin house shopping ... today!

Quotes

2007-11-07T18:07:00.000-06:00

"Everything happens for a reason."

"Two little mice fell in a bucket of cream. The first mouse quickly gave up and drowned. The second mouse, wouldn't quit. He struggled so hard that eventually he churned that cream into butter and crawled out."

Family Feud Clip

2007-10-16T20:36:00.000-05:00

Chicago Hancock Fun

2007-10-08T21:20:00.000-05:00

It was a weekend of back aches, driving, rest stops, driving, icing backs, rest stops, driving, toll booths, traffic jams, taxi cabbing, L train riding, walking, sightseeing, walking, walking, and more walking.

The weekend trip to Chicago was sometimes glorious, and other times very painful. Due to a surprise from the back god's, my lower back went out on Thursday night...about 10 hours before the trip was to depart. Delivery of electric shocks of pain were delivered to my lower back area, which allowed my legs to go numb, and for my body to slowly delivery itself to the bedroom floor. Moaning, and screams were releasing from my mouth towards the opened window leading throughout Uptown. It was then that I knew my trip was only going to be a disappointment. I already had planned to be walking tons in the city of Chicago, sightseeing, and tripping over pigeons. But, now I had to do it with a gimpy back, a bad right eye, a numb left knee, a nerve damaged right hand, and small feet. Please, God, wake me up now from this horrible nightmare. However, nightmare it wasn't. My trip to Chicago was to happen, and I was going to enjoy it as much as possible.

Needless to say, I don't think I had the greatest time in Chicago, but I had a swell enough time to say that I would do it again, minus the need to intake pain medicine and minus the need to cover myself in ice packs.

Alright, so, Jen, Alicia and I depart for Chicago around 8:30. We drive to a Walmart to purchase a back brace, ice packs and pain medicine. We also buy other items to chew on. We eventually make it to Illinois, which brings us to a point of no return. Thanks to the government of Illinois, the interstate toll way system raised it's tolls drastically since the last time I drove on them. When I was a kid, back in the great depression, toll roads weren't $100 a mile, instead they were much cheaper, like $0.40 cents. It is at no surprise after this, that the budget was in danger. Sadness and anger drove me to a point of craziness, but we eventually made it to the hotel. Here, we change, and take the cab to Wrigleyville. There, we meet up with Alicia's friends from back in the day. We had many funs that night, including playing beer pong in the 90 degree apartment, and walking to a bar where we drank Forty's, and danced. I decided to sit in the booth instead of dance, but I had many fun times lighting stuff on fire and pretending to smoke a cigarette.

On Saturday, Jen's friend Mindy joined us at the hotel, which started our adventures, included taking the L to downtown and walking to Millennium park and looking at a shiny metal object nicknamed "The Bean." After that, we walked 15 miles to the nearest Lake Michigan, to the Navy Pier, and eventually to the Hancock building. Within the Hancock building, the girls took amateur pictures of themselves in weird positions, while I watched in admiration.

Saturday night included watching fire trucks leave a firehouse every 15 minutes, while we drank inside a bar waiting for Sideburns to join us. After about 3 hours of waiting, it appeared that Sideburns was never going to show. I only hope that he ran into a hot chick on the way to the bar, who made him turn off his cell phone while she made out with him; instead of just falling asleep on the couch while watching an Oxy Clean commercial.

How do you decide who to marry?

2007-07-12T23:35:00.000-05:00

HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHO TO MARRY? (written by kids)

(1) You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming.
- Alan, age 10

(2) No person really decides before they grow up who they're going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you're stuck with!
- Kristen, age 10

WHAT IS THE RIGHT AGE TO GET MARRIED?

(1) Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by then.
- Camille, age 10

(2) No age is good to get married at. You got to be a fool to get married.
- Freddie, age 6 (very wise for his age)

HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF TWO PEOPLE ARE MARRIED?

(1) You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids.
- Derrick, age 8

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR MOM AND DAD HAVE IN COMMON?

(1) Both don't want any more kids .
- Lori, age 8

WHAT DO MOST PEOPLE DO ON A DATE?

(1) Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough.
- Lynnette, age 8 (isn't she a treasure)

(2) On the first date, they just tell each other lies and that Usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date.
- Martin, age 10 (Who said boys do not have brains)

WHAT WOULD YOU DO ON A FIRST DATE THAT WAS TURNING SOUR?

(1) I'd run home and play dead. The next day I would call all the newspapers and make sure they wrote about me in all the dead columns.
-Craig, age 9

WHEN IS IT OKAY TO KISS SOMEONE?

(1) When they're rich.
- Pam, age 7 (I could not have said it better myself)

(2) The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn't want to mess with that.
- Curt, age 7 (Good Point)

(3 ) The rule goes like this: If you kiss someone, then you should marry them and have kids with them. It's the right thing to do.
- Howard, age 8 (Who made the rule)

IS IT BETTER TO BE SINGLE OR MARRIED?

(1 ) I don't know which is better, but I'll tell you one thing. I'm never going to have sex with my wife. I don't want to be all grossed out.
- Theodore, age 8 (Too much detail for his age)

(2 ) It's better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them.
- Anita, age 9 (bless you child)

And the #1 Favourite is..

HOW WOULD YOU MAKE A MARRIAGE WORK?

(1 ) Tell your wife that she looks pretty, even if she looks like a truck.
- Ricky, age 10 ( The boy already understands)

Good Grief

2007-06-20T23:01:00.000-05:00

Soo....it's about time to blog. Tonight's softball game's ended in a defeat and a tie. Although, it would seem that the first game would provide more disgust than the tie, this would not be the case. Thanks to the largest number of bad calls I've seen in at least 26 years, our 2nd game caused tension and disgust throughout the entire team. Hey ump! Tom did NOT drop that ball in left-center field! It was an awesome catch! Hey ump, the runner was OUT at 2nd, not safe, as you shall say. Hey ump, that ball was 15 feet high, not 10, as you shall say. There were many words said tonight, and many not said. There aren't many times that I feel extreme anger towards anything, especially in a C-league softball game, but tonight was an exception to say the least. That being said, I do solemnly swear that I will do everything in my power not to swear at an ump during game play. I will use words such as "good grief" or "for crying out loud" or "Jiminy Crickets!"

German Fun

2007-04-07T11:46:00.000-05:00

Hi Folks, it's been awhile since i've posted anything, but i thought a summary was in order.

March 15: leave for Germany

March 16: arrive in Frankfurt and eventually Mannheim where my former foreign exchange student sister, Daniela, lives. We partied it up with her mom at 9:30am, got drunk, went to bed at Noon. Wake up at 5:30pm, eat a delicious meal, then head for downtown Mannheim. Here, we visit a bar that sells liquor and beer in a stock market environment. Basically, the price of the particular drink will go up as more people buy it, and it will go down if noone has bought it in awhile. It was a pretty fun place, except since Espresso shots were so cheap I decided to order 5 of them. Bad decision. I was so wired from those that I couldn't fall asleep until 7am.

March 17: arrive in Munich. Here, we check-in to our awesome Hostel, where we decide to start drinking in the bar downstairs. Within 2 hours, we meet these awesome Americans who are currently studying abroad in Italy. We all have the common interest of drinking and having fun. That night, we ended up at a bar where I found myself ordering Corona beers by the gross. I got strange looks from friends as they wonder why i'm buying Mexican beer in Germany. After the bar I passed out on the street. Tom wakes me up at some point and says we have to go look for Justin since he walked off on his own and he is completely trashed. As we're looking for him, we get hungry, stop at McDonalds and order cheeseburgers and beer. Eventually we make it back to the hostel and see Justin dreaming in his bed.

March 18: I think we went to the Deutches Museum. It was fun.

March 19: Visit BMW museum and the Munich Olmypic Park and Tower

March 20: Visit Neuschwanstein Castle (aka the "real" Disney Castle)

March 21: Visit Dachau Concentration Camp, travel to Vienna

March 22: Vienna

March 23: Have an awesome time in Heidelberg

March 24: Spend the night relaxing in Mannheim

March 25: Leave for the states

Post-Germany: I spent the first week trying to catch up on sleep. Since arriving back from Germany, Jen and I have spent many fun hours together. It's been swell. I accepted a new job offer this week. I will be starting my new job as an Applications Systems Engineer on April 16.

Munich

2007-03-18T04:24:00.000-05:00

crazy times in munich last night. About 2 gallons of beer were dranken last night in my first night in Munich. The atmosphere was amazing to same the least! After drinking and eating bratwurst at the beer hall, we managed to make our way over to a night club. The club was unsure if they would let us in, but since we did have a few ladies with us, they allowed us to participate in the fun. Alcohol was intaked, dancing like a robot was popular (according to me), and german bartenders were eager to serve (if you ordered lots). After the club, Tom and i went looking for our friend. The friend was wasted beyond belief and we believe he was lost in the city. Due to walking around lots, tom and i decided to reenergize at a mcdonalds. We ordered cheeseburgers and beer. Somehow we made it back to our hostel and got to sleep. ok, time is up on the internet cafe machine. bye

Century Club Tour - 1st Stop...St Cloud

2007-03-11T23:35:00.000-05:00

Wednesday....
I interviewed for another job within the same vicinity of my current job, although this one was for a systems engineer position which would be primarily responsible for creating reports utilizing SQL based queries, Business Objects and Oracle with some use of VB.net programming.

Thursday....
Due to re-runs of The Office and Grey's Anatomy, and the cancellation of The O.C., I was only able to watch Scrubs.

Friday....
Went on a date. It was a swell time...some details cannot be told at this time. After the date, Alicia came over because I told her Casey and I were going out to party. However, Casey ended up going up to St Cloud instead because he didn't know the directions to my place and when he tried to call and get the directions, I didn't hear the call because my phone ringer was too low. Alicia and I decided to play Century Club by ourselves, while she designed my Spring Break '05 t-shirt. During that time, we also planned out the record that we are going to produce...which will include some piano music, fireworks sound effects and opera singing. After this, we decided to meet up with Jen and Mindie whom were at The Country Bar. After walking 6-blocks on icy sidewalks in a not-so-nice neighborhood at night, we arrived with little harm done. At the bar, we spent many quarters on a video game that featured naked girls.

Saturday....
A trip to St Cloud was planned -- our 1st stop on the Century Club tour. Tom and I almost got into a fist fight, but it was resolved when we both realized that we were both too "good looking" to beat each other up. We arrive in St Cloud, cook some pizza, admire the Spring Break decorations that Brodie and Casey put up across the house, and started to drink beer from the keg. About 7 of us participated in the game, which was very fun. Web-camming was prototyped, but we ended up cutting it short due to technical difficulties. After Century Club, we made our way down to Downtown St Cloud. The Press was our bar of choice, as they had a live band and $2.50 miller lite taps. Dancing occurred, wigs were worn, and Spring Break '05 t-shirts were proudly displayed.

Sunday....
Due to retardness at work, I was required to be at work by 10am for an hour long testing session. I was mad about this all weekend, to say the least, but I knew there was no way out of it. Tom and I almost got into a fist fight, but due to the previous day's drinking and the extreme workout from playing the WEE Nintendo boxing game, we decided to just call it a draw. During the day, I spent many monies at Target where I bought multiple travel sized items in preparation for my trip to Germany. Embarrassment occurred when I emptied my basket of items on the conveyor belt and realized that I had well over 10 items in the "10 items or less" Express lane. I felt terrible, but the cashier told me it was no problem...Thank goodness. On Sunday night, I watched the movie Borat for the first time. I saw portions of it awhile ago, but the video quality was terrible due to it being a camcordered broadcast at a movie theater. I was quite shocked with all of the raunchy nudity, which will probably prevent me from ever seeing the movie again. The movie is definitely not my favorite, to say the least. Although, I do like Borat's accent, so I will try to say things like "Very nice" and "I like sex."

Duluth Road Trip and Skiing

2007-03-07T20:34:00.000-06:00

Stupid super-human tires!!! This was one of a few quality comments expressed on our way to Duluth last Friday. Due to a blizzard, the roads were terrible. However, our eagerness to party was too overbearing for thoughts of unsafety. The purple cavalier was the ride of choice, as the Jeep is not the easiest to drive on ice during high wind conditions. Josh, Alicia and I left for Duluth from Little Canada at around 7:30pm. A call to Brodie was placed to confirm that we had left and that we are planning to meet him at the Walmart in Pine City. Twenty minutes into the ride, I was feeling okay about the roads...i think I was driving around 60 at the time. Another twenty minutes go by and I notice my knuckles were turning white...mostly due to the freakin ice highway, which was no friend to my non-quality Walmart tires. Josh and Alicia were afraid for their lives, but they were troopers and didn't try to show it. I appreciate that. Another 40 minutes go by and we finally make it to Pine City. Here we seek for a food place, as Alicia and I were starving from lack of eating. As this is not a big town, we only see 2 options...Subway or KFC. Alicia was yearning for KFC, so we agreed on that choice. Delicious chicken sandwiches were ordered, not knowing it was 2 minutes from closing time, we were given unforgiving looks from the kitchen cook person while she yelped "Are you serious???" We were so confused, as we were not experts of the quality restaurant's hours of operation. After eating and leaving, we arrived at Walmart while awaiting Brodie's arrival. Here, we made a dash towards the bakery, where we admired the Yeast Rolls (aka - donuts), and purchased cheese rolls, Easter Peeps, Peanut Butter Cup Eggs, Orange Juice, Doritos, Granola Bars, Energy Drinks and Vitamin Water. While shopping, Alicia received a call from the future, which confused everyone. We never did figure out how this phone call was initiated, but we all insist it was the future. Brodie had still not arrived, and it had been 30 minutes since his expected arrival, therefore, we become concerned. Eventually, we find out he got lost and that we should meet him at the casino in Hinckley instead. We concur, and leave quickly towards Hinckley, of course, after we stop at the liquor store to pick up some booze. Eventually, we make it to the Hinckley exit, and I am overly happy for this anticipated moment so I no longer have to drive on the ice highway. However, Alicia and Josh said that the casino was not at that exit, as we would be able to see the casino from the highway. I said, "ok." So, we kept driving, and driving, and driving...but no casino. "Where is this casino?" I said worried and confused. Why is the casino called Hinckley Casino, when it's not located in Hinckley. However, I am a good friend, so I just accept their explanation.

skip ahead 30 minutes

Well, it turns out we should have taken the Hinckley exit since the casino was there, and so was Brodie. So, we ended up meeting at a bar in Sturgeon Lake, which is about 30 miles from Hinckley. We all get in Brodie's car, while we left the Purple Cavalier in the local bar parking lot. Brodie's tires were super-human, so we were able to drive around the speed limit. I was very impressed, and I enjoyed laughing at the slow cars (those with non-super human tires).

skip ahead 60-80 minutes

We finally make it to the hotel, check in, arrive at our room, start to drink heavily. A few minutes go by and we decide to hit up Grandmas bar. We arrive at Grandmas and realize the place is nothing like what I remember. It turns out we are at the "wrong" grandmas. We eventually make it to the correct Grandmas, which contained about 2 girls and 10 guys. One of the guys is a fellow friend of a friend, whom we once met in st cloud. He threatened to beat me up for bragging about seeing his cousin's boobs. I explained that she showed the entire bar her boobs, so he shouldn't beat me up...he eventually agreed.

skip ahead 2 hours

Since we had received 2 noise complaints, we decide to go outside and play in the snow. Therefore, we made fun in the snow banks at 4am. It was an amazing time, and I'll never forget this moment.

The next day...

We go skiing at Giants Ridge in Northern Minnesota. It was a great ski hill, the scenery was amazing. I had many fun times going in and out of the woods, which had very nice trails full of soft snow. Alicia seemed very happy to remember how to ski and she liked the soft snow as well. Brodie and Josh snowboarded. I only fell once, and it was after coming down from a 10 foot drop when my ski fell off...so not too bad.

A Monster Deuce

2007-02-26T19:47:00.000-06:00

"A retarded tourist" - is one of many fine definitions provided while playing Balderdash this past Saturday. Other definitions include "A monster deuce left in an airplane bathroom," and "Liar." Due to the terrible (I mean Awesome) weather [I LOVE Snow!!!], we decided to stay in and play board games on Saturday. I was in terrible shape from a late night on Friday (dang work happy hours), and I was very tired from eating Burritos and walking around Kmart for hours while trying to find a Brita filter and a sled; so keeping it easy was not a problem for me. Alicia wanted to get hammered so she tried to entice me to play Century Club, but my body refused to accept the shots of beer, therefore, I was done by shot number 8. On Sunday, I participated in my first cross-country skiing experience. Thanks to God hating me, I didn't make it more than 30 seconds before I fell. To make things even more annoying, I was incapable of standing up due to me not understanding the logic of gravity and 6 feet of fiberglass stuck to my feet. So, after 5 minutes of getting laughed at by LiveWireJen and other non-helpers, I was able to remove the fiberglass skis from my boots and stand up with little hesitation. After that, it was all down hill...well, not really, as the snow was sticky and most of the trail was flat and the speed gained from skiing downhill was as fast as an old turtle walking across the Sahara desert. But, all-in-all, it was a great time, and would definitely do it again...just not anytime soon. Sunday's activities continued as Jed, Alicia and I decided to go buy a boom light to assist with future webcaming, a Brita filter for my water intake habit, and shovels to assist with clearing the ice from the ice skating rink. Well, that sounded like a dear-old plan... until after failing to find shovels at any of the stores we visited due to them being sold out, we felt frustration and depression begin to kick in. It was at this time when Alicia and her psychic abilities gave her the incite to say "hey, let's try Walgreens!" Being that we were in their parking lot, we said, ok, might as well try. So, Jed and I stayed in the Jeep with little hope, while Alicia ran inside to check. What you know...they actually had shovels, and 3 left, i might add. So, I immediately said "I'll buy two!" To sums things up, we made it to the skating rink, we shoveled some snow, we skated little (due to the crappy ice), I took pictures of Jed burying Alicia in the snow, and Jed "hockey checking" Alicia over the hockey rink railing while they were playing shovel hockey. I do believe next weekend will be fun as well, due to a planned skiing trip to Canada (aka Duluth ).

I Wish

2007-02-06T20:24:00.001-06:00

I wish I was little bit taller
I wish I was a baller
I wish I had a girl who looked good
I would call her

I wish I had a rabbit in a hat with a bat
And a '64 Impala

I wish I was like six-foot-nine
So I could get with Leoshi
'Cause she don't know me but yo she's really fine

You know I see her all the time
Everywhere I go, and even in my dreams
I can scheme of ways to make her mine

'Cause I know she's livin' phat
Her boyfriend's tall and he plays ball
So how am I gonna compete with that?

'Cause when it comes to playing basketball
I'm always last to be picked
And in some cases never picked at all

So I just lean upon the wall
Or sit up in the bleachers with the rest of the girls
Who came to watch their men ball

Dag, y'all, I never understood
Why the jocks get the fly girls
And me I get the hood rats

I tell 'em scat, skittle, skibobble
Got hit with a bottle
And put in the hospital for talkin' that mess

I confess it's a shame
When you livin' in a city
That's the size of a box and nobody knows yo' name

Glad I came to my senses
Like quick-quick got sick-sick to my stomach
Overcome with my thoughts of me and her together, right?
So when I asked her out she said I wasn't her type

I wish I had a brand-new car
So far, I got this hatchback
And everywhere I go, yo, I gets laughed at

And when I'm in my car I'm laid back
I got an 8-track and a spare tire in the backseat
But that's flat

And do you really wanna know what's really wack?
See I can't even get a date
So what do you think of that?

I heard that prom night is the bomb night
With a hood rat you can hold tight
But really tho' on figuero
When I'm in my car I can't even get a hello

Well, so many people wanna cruise Crenshaw on Sunday
Well, then I'm gonna have to get in my car and go
You know I take the 110 to the 105
Get off on Crenshaw tell my homies look alive

'Cause it's hard to survive
Livin' in a concrete jungle and
These girls just keep passin' me by

She looks fly, she looks fly
Makes me say my, my, my

Hey, I wish I had my way
'Cause everyday would be a Friday
You could even speed on the highway

I would play ghetto games
Name my kids ghetto names
Little Mookie, big Al, Lorraine

Yo, you know that's on the real
So if you're down on your luck
Then you should know just how I feel

'Cause if you don't want me around
See I go simple, I go easy, I go Greyhound

Hey, you, what's that sound?
Everybody look what's going down
Ah yes, ain't that fresh?
Everybody wants to get down like that

I wish I was little bit taller
I wish I was a baller
I wish I had a girl who looked good
I would call her

I wish I had a rabbit in a hat with a bat
And a '64 Impala

- Lyrics by Skee-Lo

Webcam

2007-01-08T19:56:00.000-06:00

In the near future, I will be installing a web camera that will (at times) show live feeds from my apartment. This will only create more fun for me and it will add more fun to the creeps out there that will decide to watch my live feed.

With or Without You (lyrics)

2007-01-07T17:58:00.000-06:00

See the stone set in your eyes
See the thorn twist in your side
I wait for you

Sleight of hand and twist of fate
On a bed of nails she makes me wait
And I wait without you

Through the storm we reach the shore
You give it all but I want more
And Im waiting for you

My hands are tied
My body bruised, shes got me with
Nothing to win and
Nothing left to lose

- U2

Lyrics - U2

2007-01-06T16:10:00.001-06:00

I have climbed highest mountain
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you

I have run
I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

I have kissed honey lips
Felt the healing in her fingertips
It burned like fire
This burning desire

I have spoke with the tongue of angels
I have held the hand of a devil
It was warm in the night
I was cold as a stone

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

I believe in the kingdom come
Then all the colors will bleed into one
Bleed into one
Well yes I'm still running

You broke the bonds and you
Loosed the chains
Carried the cross
Of my shame
Of my shame
You know I believed it

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for...

New Year's Resolutions

2007-01-05T01:03:00.000-06:00

I've determined to join in the fun of creating resolutions for the new year; one, because it's January and there is nothing to do; two, because there are no major holidays anytime soon and therefore, no need to worry about non-normalness; three, because I love setting and achieving goals.

My Resolutions...
1. Read a novel for at least 30 minutes, two times a week.
2. By February, run 2 miles at least 3 times a week.
3. Buy a new queen size bed.
4. Learn 20 phrases in German.
5. Eat at least one piece of fresh fruit a day.

Make up your mind

2007-01-01T19:40:00.000-06:00

Good grief! What the crap is wrong with this girl from The Notebook? She says she loves him one second and then a minute later she is telling him she hates him and tells him to leave, then 1 second later says "Wait, we're not really breaking up are we?...Noah, don't leave!" Why do they do that crap? Whatever.

New Years Eve

2007-01-01T13:06:00.001-06:00

Wow (double explanation point) Last night was fun!! I think the all-inclusive Pat McCurdy show was an ok deal, but I don't think I would do it again. Next New Years I would prefer to do a lot of the drinking at home and then go to the bars around midnight for some public fun. Starting out the night at the bar at 8:15 is too early, all inclusive for $80 is too much for not enough food, and drinking $80 worth of liquor is hardly an ability of mine. However, it was a fun time, so not too disappointed.

Short summary:
Pete, Goose, Alicia, Jed, Anna and I left for the bar around 7:45 with 3 people taking the taxi and the others in my jeep. Anna was impressed with my driving skills, especially after she suggested shifting into 4 wheel drive (good thinking since it did snow for the first time in a year last night). We all met up at the Fine Line around 8:15 hoping to arrive early enough to obtain a table, but we were disappointed when all tables ended up being occupied. Therefore, we made our circle at the end of the buffet table so we had easy access to semi-filling food and fairly easy access to the bar. Our first drinks were vodka red bulls, and much too my surprise, I do believe they were spiked with strong vodka (not that cheap crap that Cub Foods Liquor sells), therefore, we were accidentally PWI (partying while intoxicated) within 30 minutes of arriving. John and Matt arrived at the bar a few minutes before 9, we gave them a tour of the buffet table (which took 2 seconds) and then we directed them to the bartender who likes to spike people's drinks. The pre-Pat band started playing around 9:30, which was good entertainment for about 1 hour. Pat came on around 11, he played some tunes, I jumped around for about 2 minutes,...I don't really know what we did after that. I ended up on stage for one of the songs, bumped into Pat while he was trying to sing, felt bad that I bumped into Pat, eventually made it back off the stage, joined the rest of the gang, yada yada yada, we left the bar around 2:00. After walking around for an hour looking for cabs, we decided that one of us was sober enough to drive; therefore, we decided to pack all 8 of us into my jeep and drive to my place. We got to my place, exited from the jeep, and little did we know the neighbors were watching us the entire time. They gave us a standing ovation and congratulated us for exceeding the legal passenger limit by 4 people. We gave ourselves a pat on our backs and then went inside for lounging and laughing.

Can Married and Single People Be Friends?

2006-12-27T11:48:00.000-06:00

Pete forwarded this to me recently...I found it very interesting.

From the following website:
http://www.datesurvival.com/MarriedFriends.html

------------------------------------------------------------------

The one thing I noticed about being single and over thirty is that not only has my love life reached a slump, my social life overall appears to be in need of an overhaul. It seems that as every week goes by I'm growing further apart from my friends. Is it because I've become completely socially incompetent? At times--I do wonder. However, lately I'm beginning to wonder more if it's just because every one I know is married.

No one ever wants to be the last single friend. By the time you're thirty it gives you nightmarish visions of being invited over to dinner parties to be fixed up with the "divorced guy from work." My friends' "married phase" began when I was in my late twenties. It recently concluded with an engagement just after Christmas. I never wanted to believe that this should change my friendship with anyone. I do have to admit that it was difficult to find myself heading down the cliché road of "always a bridesmaid, never a bride."

When I started to complain about their changing lives I'll never forget what one person said to me as comfort.

"You think that's bad…wait until they get to the baby phase."

Well, several years later--the baby phase has arrived! It doesn't bother me that they can't go out anymore. Frankly, what would we do anyway? I'm really tired of the bar scene and I get to see enough movies when I go on dates. I'm actually pretty content going over to their homes and playing with their children. I only have one niece in my family and the opportunity to be "Auntie Barbara" to my friend's children is somewhat thrilling. For the last few years like a trooper I've heard about mucus plugs, breast feeding and developmental disorders. These are all subjects that I can't identify with --AT ALL--but I immerse myself with tremendous interest in all these conversations.

It all seemed nice in theory. Even though our lives were different, our friendship didn't have to change. However, as more and more time went by I realized that something was missing with all the "married people" in my life. Sure, I could live in their world and talk about things that were now of interest to them. Yet, somehow they couldn't identify with my world anymore. You would think in theory that someone happily married would want their single friend to find true love too. Do they even ask? If it isn't something that would appear in a current issue of "Today's Baby" or merit a trip to Home Depot, they apparently weren't interested at all.

Now does this make any sense? I've never been married…never had children…yet I find a way to take an interest and mix in their world. They on the other hand used to be single. You would think it would be easier for them to keep up with me! I'm beginning to believe that once you find your perfect mate, you refuse to remember the single part of your life.

To make matters worse, all of my married friends seem to predetermine that I can't be happy spending time with them. Even the ones who don't have children like to apologize for "being too boring." I don't really understand what they think I'm looking for at this point in my life. Somehow, watching a DVD in their living room isn't good enough for me! Don't they understand that I'm just happy being with my friends? At the same time it makes me feel as though they aren't happy spending time with me.

When you're single and the weekend arrives, your natural inclination is to want to spend time with your friends. However, if all your friends are married it seems that you're always going to be the one doing the inviting. I guess I can't blame my married friends for being this way. When your home comes with a built-in companion you don't exactly sit around on a Saturday night saying, "Hey honey, why don't we invite Barbara over."

This is why I've been forced into the position of inviting myself over. When it looks like a solid weekend of sitting home alone, I spin the married friend wheel and decide who I'm going to go visit. This can turn into a really interesting adventure since many of my friends live out of state.

I truly do want to see my friends. They've always been a priority in my life. I'd much rather spend time with them then even go on dates. However dating lately has become a necessary substitute for a lack of friend time.

It's difficult inviting yourself over to someone's house. They all say, "You know you have an open invitation to come over" but it would still be nicer to be asked. Especially when nine out of the ten times that I do ask they say, "well we're not doing much--if that's ok with you." Gee, could the invitation be any warmer or fuzzier?

There's no grand conclusion to the problem of having too many married friends. On the upside it has forced me to be more comfortable spending time alone. I've also gained the confidence to do more things on my own like going to a movie (matinee's only!) or sitting at a bar to have a drink. If there was a match.com site for making single friends I would most certainly join in a heartbeat! However, the older you get--the harder it is to find single friends. I make friends easily but all my new ones are also married!

I do sometimes fantasize about how my married friends would feel if they were in my shoes. The people I work with like to joke,

"Our spouses could step off the sidewalk, get hit by a car...and BAM! We'd be in Barbara's shoes."

It's a morbid thought that I wouldn't wish on anyone. Yet, there is some truth to it.

Another person also said to me,

"Don't worry. It's still early. Wait until they hit the divorce phase."

I'm very lucky that all of my friends are really in good marriages. I certainly want them to last. However, if you do look at the statistics, the odds are very high that at least one of them will eventually split with their spouse.

If I was a vengeful type person I might be comforted by thoughts of them returning to me when they were suddenly thrust back into the single world. Only, at this point I'm the one who's happily married. I could see the conversation now.

"Oh yeah? Where were you when I was single?"

I'm happy to say I'm not that kind of person. The truth is that I've made a promise to myself after watching my married friends start to drift. That promise is to never forget my single friends. I will always keep my life open for the people I care about…no matter what their current social status may be. I'm the kind of person that wants the people in my life to be happy--no matter what.

They say you should live every day as if it were your last. That means you should really value everyone and everything that's in your life. After all, it could all change in a heartbeat. Married people might look at this story and think that they've drifted from friends just because, "they have nothing in common anymore." However, I see it as more of a "married laziness." It's just easier to surround yourself with couples. In the process, you're probably negating one of the most loyal people you've ever known.

If I could sit with my friends and talk about redecorating the living room and hear incessant complaints about how their husband is a slob, they can most certainly find some level to relate to me on. Not for anything else…we all have jobs. How about asking me about my job? Hell, I'd be happy if they'd ask me what I had for dinner! They do eat too, right? I still have a family too. I may not have a husband or kids, but I have a niece, a mother, a father, a sister…plenty to talk about.

I may be single…but there's a hell of a lot more to my life beyond my marital status. Even if my married friends don't seem to realize it at times…at least I do and I'm a better person for it.

Bad News

2006-12-21T01:22:00.000-06:00

Recently, I was given the news that my soon-to-be niece may have a severe permanent birth defect. This news has been difficult for my family, as one might imagine, and although there isn't a definitive diagnosis, there may be a strong possibility that the worst case scenario may exist. I'm asking for your prayers, to pray for my family and soon-to-be niece in this very difficult time. Although we have a very strong family, it is always nice to have that extra support from our friends.

Thanks.

Banana Thieves (repost)

2006-12-18T20:12:00.000-06:00

Continuing on in syndication...

Originally posted on November 20, 2004:

Location: Blarneys
Event: Drinking, since it's Thursday

Devo, Pete and I were in da house, where Long Islands were cheap as crap, and lady friends were in drunken attendance. I found myself somewhat bored at one moment, where I thought, hmm, maybe I should pour my beer on Pete. He's like "What the crap, Pendergraph!!!" So, I did it again. He was much confused by this, as I was having a blast. He tried to retaliate by dumping ice water on my head. Ahh yea. We ran into some ladies, whom we walked home with. At their house, Pete and I stole and ate a banana in the kitchen, while lady friend was in the other room. We each took a half, chowing down as fast as possible, while trying not to laugh. It was hilarious!!! I never thought a banana would be such a great snack while drunk. 5 seconds later the lady friend comes out, we're like, "hey, what's up?" She looked confused by our most obvious guilty faces, but she probably dismissed it as drunk symptoms. Pete told her friend to make out with me, so I ran outside and walked home. I guess she was beautiful, I can't remember.

Pete's Party (repost)

2006-12-18T01:26:00.000-06:00

Continuing on in syndication...

Originally posted on June 14, 2004:

Pete's party made out to be one crazy and long night. I haven't stayed up this long partying since I was 21. I was in bed by 7:40 AM, and could not sleep past Noon. I haven't talked to anyone today, which is probably a good thing since my voice is a little sore from the various late-night activities.

Dan is one scary driver, I mean, crazy!!! I have partial memories of Dan driving the car backwards down a One Way street going probably around 60 mph, and doing some crazy ass turns which made me think I was going to die. All I can say is "awesome." I hope Dirty didn't get too mad at him for that, if he remembers.

I found an old house lamp in the garbage and stored it in Dirty's car until we got to the next house. It was going to be used as my coat rack, that was, until Pete (I think) took care of the lamp (my date) and threw it on the ground, breaking it around the pelvis region. It was too flimsy to stand up, so Dan threw it over some fence.

I walked into the neighbor's house, of the house we were at, and they were having a little get-together with loud music. They thought I was coming to complain about the noise, but I told them I was just their to party, and they said "come on in." It was pretty fun, they had an old piano, which didn't work at all. I tried to play Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, but only 7 out of the 88 keys worked. Hence, I had to settle for Crouton's Overture, which only uses 6 1/2 keys.

We ended up at Perkins somehow at around 5:00 AM, and I ordered some blueberry pancake thing, which Dirty had ordered. He got pissed that I wanted the same thing he wanted, so he changed his order and got the strawberry pancakes instead.

Someone told Amy that I thought she was cute, and so everyone had fun with that. I never got her number, maybe she'll IM me or something. She seemed pretty nice.

Vegas Baby!!!! (repost)

2006-12-15T20:44:00.000-06:00

Since I have nothing to blog about, I thought I would start to post in syndication.

Originally posted on January 3, 2006:

Incredible times were had this New Years Eve weekend in Vegas.

Summary of Events:

Friday:
Tom, Pete, and A-Dilla meet at my place. Tom and Pete arrive partially drunk, and they continue to drink while they wait for me to gather my luggage. We arrive at the airport with plenty of time to spare, so we decide to make a pitstop at Sbarro's for food and continue on to the airport lounge for a few beers and other liquor before our flight. On the flight, I was amazed at the views from the sky, which kept me occupied for 95% of the flight. Pete, Tom and A-Dilla utilized the portable DVD player to watch some episodes of this funny tv show which I don't know the name of. Pete and Tom ordered beers during the flight. I had 7-Up. We arrive in Vegas, take a limo to our hotel, met up with Kelly (who happened to be wasted), check into the hotel, set off to the Bellagio Casino for a buffet. Filip and I decided to try something other than a $40 buffet, so we walked around and finally found this awesome sub sandwich place inside a convenience store. The store itself was very ghetto, but they have one kick-ass Santa Fe Melt sandwich, which Filip and I were very satisfied with. Filip and I meet up with the rest of the gang at Bellagio, and we started to play slots for many more minutes than we expected since we never decided on a plan for the night. I was fortunate to hit the Jackpot on a $0.25 cent video poker machine, which made me $2,100 richer. Yeppie!! From this money, I created a virtual "Fun Fund" which was utilized throughout the next couple of days for random funness, including Room Service, Beer, Liquor, taxi rides, and other entertainment destinations. Because I was lucky enough to win this money on the first night in Vegas, I spent the whole weekend gambling very excessively, and unsuccessfully, which, if not for the $2100 win, I would have been $500 in the hole.

Saturday:
Wake up to the sounds of the Bellagio water fountain display. We order room service, Tom orders a $15 movie, Filip and I drive to the grocery store for booze and experience crappy traffic, we arrive back at the hotel 2 hours later. Fun continues as we start drinking various liquors including vodka, jagermeister, and random cheep beer. It takes almost 4 hours to get ready for New Years Eve night out. Pete is determined to wear his gay green shirt, while everyone else is in suits. I don't have a suit or a gay green shirt, so I wear a black shirt with a black hat and call myself "Money." We head off to the cheap casino across the street where we enjoy many hours of playing craps and blackjack. As midnight nears, we all head off towards the main intersection which is blocked from traffic, and we congregate with various people who are mostly entertaining. Somehow, everyone in our group gets separated, and by midnight, almost everyone is by themselves, except I was with Kelly at the stroke of midnight, (we didn't kiss). I end up at the hotel room where Pete is hanging out, and we decide it would cool to order a lady entertainer. But, we got scared and called it off.

Sunday:
Wake up to the sounds of the Bellagio water fountain display (AGAIN). I decided to go play some Roulette on my own, where I blew $100 in about 15 minutes. I get back to the room to see Tom crying like a baby because his stomach hurts. Tom eventually pukes, and continues to play dead. He plays dead in his bed for about 8 hours, and finally he gets up. Later that night, a few of us end up at Caesars Palace and get lost after entering a hallway that says "employees only." We finally make it out of the "employees only" hallway as we exit out through a random door. Pete, DJ, Alicia and I end up at this cheap-ass bar with cheap-ass slot machines on the bar. We accept lots of free drinks from the bartender whose name is "Pete." After that, we meet up with the rest of the gang in this very old school casino. I spot this girl in a green shirt who is cute, and I spend many hours looking for her throughout the night. I think she had a boyfriend, but he was not cute, and too fat for her. Some day I will meet her again and propose to her. Yada Yada Yada, we get back at the hotel at about 7:00 AM and call it a night.

blah

2006-12-15T19:24:00.001-06:00

I have had nothing to blog about in months. Need...something...exciting...in...my...life.

Christmas Vacation

2006-12-11T18:54:00.000-06:00

I do believe New Years Eve is going to kick ass, as well as my 11 day Christmas vacation that is starting next week.

MASH

2006-11-08T19:25:00.001-06:00

So, I've been told I need to blog again...

Yesterday was a good day...not because the Democrats took over the house, and possibly the Senate (even though I am quite pleased with that, even though I'm not a liberal, I did know I was not in agreement with 95% of Bush's or the conservative Republican's policies), but because Natasha at work decided she had to teach me the game MASH. She did not believe that I had never played that game, or maybe I just can't remember, so she needed to play it with me. So, here are the results of this silly fortune telling game.

When I grow up (ha!)...
I will marry a girl named Krysta.
We will have 11 kids.
We will live in a shack in Chicago.
I will drive a Porsche.
I will be a Banker.

Match Dot Com

2006-11-02T23:31:00.000-06:00

Recently, I decided to become a Match.com Member. Initial results = good.

Stay tuned...

In other news, I met up with Deidre tonight. Good times were had at Mayslacks, where drinks were ordered, chili dogs were consumed, and tator tots were enjoyed. Due to unforeseen consequences of drinking redbull vodkas, my intoxication level went above the legal limit to drive, therefore Deidre volunteered to give me a ride home even though I was fervent in purchasing a cab ride home.

This weekend should provide much fun and excitement, with Gopher football tailgating on Saturday morning, football game during the afternoon, napping in the late afternoon, and random (not sure what's going to happen) fun to be followed.

Dream Girl

2006-09-27T22:29:00.000-05:00

I saw dream girl at the gym tonight. This is definately going to assist in motivation.

"Hi, You're pretty cute. Wanna lift weights together?"

9/11

2006-09-11T10:15:00.000-05:00

9/11/2001 - we will never forget

We will always remember where we were when we first heard these words on September 11, 2001 - "...a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center." As most people probably thought, I was picturing a small plane accidentally flying into the building probably due to poor weather conditions. As we all know, this best case scenario was far from the fact. We will always remember our initial feelings when we watched the 2nd plane crash into the World Trade Center building LIVE on TV, a feeling of shock, disbelief, sorrow. Today, MSNBC and other networks re-broadcasted the LIVE TV coverage from that morning. Even five years later, watching the events of this day play out is still surreal. It is times like this, that we start to think about our families and friends, and we begin to realize how precious life is. May this day never be forgotten, as it is a day that allowed us to all realize how much we have to be grateful for.

9/11/2001 - I will always remember

Cheese Whiz

2006-08-14T22:44:00.000-05:00

Scene from last Wednesday at the bar at 1:50 AM...

Me: Gee Whiz
Girl: Did you just say Gee Whiz?
Me: Yes, it's like...
Girl: Cheese Whiz?
Me: Yep, I'm from Wisconsin
Girl: Oh Ok, that explains everything
Me: Where are you from?
Girl: North Dakota
Me: Ha, isn't that where nothing exists
Girl: Yeah, but at least we don't say Gee Whiz at the bar
Me: Jerk!
Girl: Who are you?
Me: I'm Dustin, I used to be from Wisconsin, now I live in Uptown
Girl: You are funny.
Me: Good Grief.

Legal Resident

2006-07-31T21:12:00.000-05:00

Its official...after 6 years of living in Minnesota, I finally obtained my Minnesota drivers license. It is a mildly somber occasion, as I am no longer able to show my Wisconsin ID at bars, or prove to hot chicks that I was once a Justin Timberlake look-a-like. Next thing on my list...buying a house on a farm with a pond, 2 horses, 1 cow, 1 goat and 6 chickens.

Birthday and Girl

2006-07-20T23:09:00.000-05:00

Good grief!!! It's been awhile.
Summary of the past couple weeks...

I had a birthday...it was fun.

I met the girl of my dreams last night. She held my hand. It was amazing! Oh, and I forgot to get her number because I was focusing on not getting beat up by the guy who wanted to fight Tom and I in a "Drink Uptown Patio Extravaganza."

Ok, that's it for now.

4th of July

2006-07-05T00:12:00.000-05:00

This 4 day weekend, which ended with the 4th of July, was just what I needed to take a break from the norm. Good times started on Friday with the Brewers / Twins game, which was attended by Kati, Joe, Josh, Vanessa and Anna. After the baseball fun, most of us went to the Corner Bar and enjoyed several delicious beers, and attended their new Comedy Corner thing located in their scary basement. The stand-ups were decent, considering the free admission, but one of them was awful times 600. He scared everyone in the place with his drunk pacing and non-politically correct awful humor, which turned out to be the scariest 5 - 7 minutes of most of the audience members' lives. On Saturday night, Alicia, Tom and I participated in alcohol consumption at Sgt Preston's, where fishbowls and other alcoholic beverages were enjoyed to the fullest. I still had a cold, so my body told me to stop drinking soon into the night, therefore, I was only partially buzzed. Tom and I enjoyed Alicia's non-politically correct funny humor, and I think the people next to us thought she was mentally unstable, as she kept talking about pubic hairs. On Sunday, traveling to the parent's house in Wisconsin took place, where my 3 siblings and their spouses, 5 nephews, niece, aunt, mom and dad enjoyed "family time" for lunch and supper. I participated in fishing with the nephews, which was fun. My 5-year old nephew caught a 6 to 9 inch fish, and I caught a 3 incher. On Monday, many friends went up to Brodie and Rachel's in St. Cloud for fun. We played games, ate taco dip and drank delicious drinks around a campfire. For the 4th, the annual festivities at Dan's took place. Swimming, softball, baggo, grilling out and fireworks were enjoyed by everyone. "Yee Ha!" for America.

Cowboy Fun

2006-06-25T17:44:00.000-05:00

I'm contemplating becoming a cowboy, or hick. I don't know, it just seems like so much fun. You get to blow stuff up, drive big trucks, wear cowboy boots and hats, drink beer on Sundays, and have hot girls sing "Cowboy Take Me Away" to you whilst riding a horse through the desert.

Roll That Beautiful Bean Footage

2006-06-24T01:40:00.000-05:00

Hi. I have been relatively busy lately. The career is going fine, but the waking-up thing on Monday through Thursday mornings is starting to annoy me. Realizing that this is only year number 3 out of 42 years of working before today's current retirement age is really starting to piss me off.

I had the pleasure to spend the evening at a girl's house in St. Louis Park tonight. I was absolutely satisfied with the filtered St Louis Park water, I think I might go back there again soon.

A family reunion will be attended by me tomorrow in a small town in Wisconsin. I shall know about 20 people out of maybe 70 who will be in attendance. My mouth and stomach are looking forward to eating multiple half servings of brats, potato salad, baked beans, cole slaw, hot dishes, cold dishes and desserts.

New Growth Spurt?

2006-06-13T12:10:00.001-05:00

(11:48:38) scooby9898: i wonder why im so sleepy
(11:49:06) scooby9898: i slept another 9.5 hours
(11:50:30) crazyangel959: i think it's because you got TOO much sleep
(11:51:08) scooby9898: maybe i'm hitting another growth spurt
(11:51:13) crazyangel959: lol
(11:51:16) crazyangel959: that's probably it
(11:51:23) scooby9898: yee ha
(11:51:31) scooby9898: i'll be 6'9" by October
(11:51:36) crazyangel959: haha
(11:51:44) crazyangel959: watch out dan

Nintendo Is Fun

2006-06-09T10:22:00.000-05:00

Extreme! That sums up our night last night. I downloaded some Nintendo games onto the laptop and then utilized the S-Video cord to display the game onto the 42" plasma. Tom and I played Contra before leaving for the bars, and shots of boxed wine were taken frequently. This may or may not have caused us to die 120 times, if it weren't for the "30 guys" cheat, we would have never finished the game. On the way to the bar, we ran into 2 girls sitting in the middle of the parking lot, so we stopped to chat. One of them was crying because she is losing her job and her dating life is not working out well, the other one was happy as could be and may have enjoyed my presence because I looked like her best friend's husband. After 2 minutes of chatting, we headed towards Williams where expensive drinks were ordered and ladies with nice outfits were stared at. Tom hit on 14 girls and was rejected at least 15 times. It was funny. After that fun, we stumbled over to the Drink and had fun chatting with random people. One of my favorite topics was the "sticky" floor.

Conversations went like this:

Me: Wow, this floor is sticky! (while lifting my shoe up and down)
Them: Yes, it is sticky! (seemed to be interested in the random topic)
Me: Well, see ya later!

After the Drink, a stop at the Gyro place was made and I once again asked to speak to the manager and request that they create a Website so I can order my food online. They smiled, but no response. Some hot girl who thinks she is the bomb was walking by at the time and only heard me say "Can I speak to the manager?" and she freaked out because she is a server in a restaurant and she hates people that want to speak to the manager and complain. Ha! She was laughed at by everyone in the bar, including the manager.

Go Fun!

Yada

2006-06-06T22:48:00.000-05:00

Yada Yada Yada. We won in softball again, go team! My friend, Pete, visited Hell today, lucky! There is a slim chance I will be climbing a mountain (Mt Rainier in Washington) in September. If so, I will need to stop drinking, start eating only healthy foods, and working out hardcore daily...ugh, not sure if this is going to happen.

Happy Hour - Times 6

2006-06-04T22:55:00.000-05:00

Good times were had this Friday, as happy hour with Alisha, Kate, Michelle and Tom was participated in. Due to forgetting to eat lunch or dinner, my drunkness tolerance was extremely low. After my 2nd beer, I was legally drunk and was already in a slurring mode. I'm not sure what Kate thought about my weirdness, but maybe she expected just as much due to our numerous Instant Messaging conversations since this fall. After 6 hours at Don Pablos, and after retrieving one random number from a girl with beautiful eyes at the bar, we decided to leave. Kate decided not to drink much, so she was nice enough to give me a ride home. After getting home, random phone calls were made to various girls, and Elizabeth made a surprise visit at 2AM; she saw that I was just in the process of being passed out, so she left.

Less fun topics...
After 2.5 hours of struggling to read and understand directions for installing a soft top on a Jeep, Brodie and I successfully completed the job. It looks pretty neat, but I'm not confident that the top fits right. I'll have to wait and see how things work out. It'll be nice to be able to take the top off some day and drive around with hot chicks during sunset.

Deidre is over and we're watching The Fifth Element. The girl in this movie is a striking resemblance to the girl I want to marry, so I better get going. Word.

Relationships

2006-05-31T00:00:00.000-05:00

It's official. 99% of everyone I know is in a relationship, and many of my ex's and crushes are either engaged, married, pregnant or they've turned lesbian. Maybe it's time to try Match.

I Hate Perch

2006-05-30T01:39:00.000-05:00

Dirty bought a 42" plasma HDTV television from Best Buy for only $200 as it was a returned item, and it wasn't working at the time of the negotiation. But, after a few tweaks with fuses and cords, the thing works like new. It is now hanging on our living room wall, and it is amazing! Indeed a chick magnet, we will enjoy plenty of hours, either staring at the tv in awe, or watching tv, movies and playing X-Box. Many friends were over on Friday as we celebrated the first night of the 3-day weekend, and to enjoy the tv of fun. The neighbors were invited over for the fun, and to play Call Of Duty on X-Box. Elizabeth (one of our neighbors) was not good at all, and she was swearing every 5 seconds, which was funny. I strategically sat next to Kristine (short blonde neighbor girl) - the one i made out with a couple months back, giggity, and we chatted about the internet and Wisconsin. It is all unfortunate that she became pregnant a few weeks ago by her long time boyfriend, otherwise we would probably be dating right now. (side note - they were on a break at the time of our make out session).

On Saturday, I drove to Wisconsin for family fun. On Sunday, the family spent some time at the parent's campsite, and we took the boat out for a nice family boating experience on the Mississippi. After that, fishing with the nephew started. My first cast didn't fare too well, as my fishing lure went flying about 100 feet into the river, but the string didn't move at all. Oops, I guess I didn't tie the knot well enough. Well, after about 10 minutes of fooling around with my fishing pole, I decided to give my nephew's Scooby Doo fishing pole a try. After a couple minutes, a fish was nibbling at the hook, and bam! Gotya! A nice 6 inch Perch. If I didn't hate Perch, I would have been happy and maybe I would have taken a picture of it. Instead, I quickly released the fish back into the water, washed my hands, and called it a day. Twenty minutes of fishing was good enough for me.

MySpace Prank

2006-05-26T01:36:00.000-05:00

Unbelievable! Someone logged into my MySpace account and changed my orientation to "bi." What the crap??? Who did this? You may have ruined my chances with a beautiful lady.

I am so angry [shaking fists]!

Milwaukee Roadtrip

2006-05-22T18:56:00.000-05:00

Friday:
Twinkie facing, dart playing, beer spilling, popcorn eating, and stumbling occurred at a bar within walking distance from Paul's (Mr. B) house. Before arriving at Paul's house, excitement was enjoyed by all during a 7 hour ride to Milwaukee. Wendy's was deliciously consumed, Tom had an outbreak of turrets syndrome for most of the ride down, car swapping occurred in La Crosse, Candy eating was enjoyed by Becca and Jon, driving fast was initiated by Tom. Loudness occurred after arriving back from the bar, and Twinkie cream was on many faces and clothes. Wedding Crashers and Super Troopers were the movies that played, while sleeping was not a priority.

Saturday:
At 9:00 AM, we wake up to a loud doorbell and very angry and un-cool property manager. Apparently, the old people neighbors thought we were too loud the night before, so they called the property manager at 3:00 AM to complain. Crazy enough as it is, we didn't know we were too loud, and no one told us to be quite, so I am most definitely upset with this PM, and think he should fall down or something. After this craziness, donuts were consumed before we headed off for the park to shoot some hoops and throw some football. Pete, Becca and I were on a team, and we were NOT good. We lost by lots as Jon, Paul and Tom decided to be good at Basketball and make passes and baskets. Football was ok, but we were very old and didn't like running, so that didn't last long. After football, a journey to obtain food from Buffalo Wild Wings, liquor and cash took 1 hour long instead of the normal 20 minutes. Tom continued his swearing and he and Pete played the "Place Wendy's Burgers Under The Car Tires" game. After eating food and stuff, we made it to the Brewers tailgating lot, where I was initially mad at myself for forgetting the Francia at the apartment. Good grief! No Francia bag punching today :-( Well, I got over that sadness when I started to drink many cold beers. The Brewers and Twins mascots made an unexpected visit, so that was neat. Tom, Pete, and Jon participated in Beer Bonging while I watched in aww.

Saturday Brewers Game:
Amazing! Beautiful stadium, with great seats. Beer was cheap as can be, $7 for a whole 20 ounces! Of course, many of those were consumed as this was the longest game in history. After the 4th inning, which was 2 hours later, I decided to get up and walk around. About 1.25 hours was wasted wandering around the concourse trying to get a free Brewers hat. The Milwaukee Journal had a deal where if I signed up I could get a free hat, but since I didn't live in their delivery area, I was unable to do that. So, I decided to sign up for a credit card at another kiosk. This took about 15 minutes, as it was difficult creating a fake social security number and make-believe place of employment. I was mad at the stupid people who created the credit card form, as they did a not-so-good job with their editing. It was ok though, as 2 cute girls were filling the form out as well, and I made funny remarks to get some laughs. I was about to score, but then I reminded myself I was Not Looking for a relationship. Well, at about 10 o'clock (4 hours later) we decided to leave the game, which was only in the 8th inning, and Final Countdown was sung on the way back to the car.

Saturday night:
Going-out clothes were changed into, as we were hitting the bars of Milwaukee. The first bar was amazing. They had really loud music, with girls everywhere! I flirted with 4 of them and performed some air guitar and really drunk singing. Again, I reminded myself I was not looking for a relationship, so I decided not to give them my number, or make out with them. Many shots of liquor were consumed, which was not good for me as it created sadness. The next bar was fun. Becca and Kristin decided it would be great to get up on the bar and dance. I thought it was a good idea too, as they are both very hot and nice. I played the role of backup bouncer and pretended to get mad if people tried to touch the girls.

Sunday:
Wake up early, get lost going to the airport as Pete decided to print out directions to the city of Milwaukee instead of the Milwaukee Airport. We didn't we realize that an airport couldn't be in the middle of downtown, so after being grumpy for about 5 minutes, we decided to look to the sky for any airplanes. We spotted one, so we followed it and finally ended up at the airport and dropped off Pete. 6 hours later we were back in Minneapolis.

Yarrr. We're Not Attractive.

2006-05-16T20:35:00.000-05:00

Our softball team website...
http://yarrr.robotballs.com

Fish Bowl Twins

2006-05-08T16:30:00.000-05:00

"My liver hates me!" This was Dirty's first comment of the day on Saturday, at about Noon. Later that afternoon, festival ness continued as we attended the Twins game, drank lots of $6 beers, ate a couple dome dogs and made multiple trips to the bathroom. The Twins won in the 9th, which was awesome and then we headed over to Sgt Prestons for Fish Bowl madness. At least 6 gallons of fish bowl liquor was consumed at our table. Standing ovations were given to anyone who came back from the bathroom, and chips and salsa were ordered at least 2 times. Girls with nice outfits were everywhere, even in the men's bathroom. I talked to zero of them. Although, Alicia did come to visit us for a couple hours, which was very fun. She was entertaining and guys were amazed by her good looks. Not sure where about 4 hours went, but I eventually made it to bed around 4:30. On Sunday morning, I awoke to a girl banging on my window and telling me to get up. My neighbor, Dirty, Tom and I walked over to Bar Abilene to participate in Brunch. Everyone else had drinks from the Bloody Mary bar, while I drank a glass of Margarita. After about 2 hours of drinking and eating, we decided to leave. Got back to my apartment and Tom decided to continue drinking, so I tried to do the same. 2 or 4 hours went by and then Tom and I left for The Drink to meet up with some of Tom's friends. There, we ordered multiple martinis which were amazingly good. By about this time, my liver was extremely disappointed in me, so I decided to take it easy the rest of the night.

Cinco de Mayo

2006-05-06T04:14:00.000-05:00

Only good times were had tonight. Cinco de mayo was the festival and holiday which occured today, which only meant one thing to me...Get Drunk!!! Of course, I succeeded at that at all angles. Unfortunately, I forgot to have lunch and dinner today before drinking, so I was intoxicated before 2 drinks. Fun was had at Sgt Prestons before we headed over to 1st Avenue to watch a band called Skywind. During the concert, a few of us snuck out and went over to Odonovens to have a beer at the Irish drinking establishment. I had a cider, Dirty had a Guiness. It was good. Dizyness only occured throughout the night, and by the time i was home, I was extremely hungry for food. Therefore, a trip to the Gyro place was expected. I ran and skipped over to the Gyro place at bar closing time and found myself in line with drunks. I didn't know what to say to them, as they were all very drunk and wanting pizza, which is not my style. So, I ignored the other drunks and went about my business, ordering 5 Gyro sandwhiches for me and my friends. On the way back to my apartment after obtaining my order, I saw a nice girl sitting on the sidewalk. As I went by her I noticed a fight breaking out at Bar Abilene, and at the same time a cop car was driving by. The cop stopped his car, backed up with his lights on, and well, I just kept walking. I did say to the girl, "Oh boy, they're getting in trouble!" She giggled, and I said "Hey girl, How you doing?" YOu know, like Joey from Friends. It was the best and only pick-up line I knew. I think I could have scored, but I decided to just bring the Gyros back to my place as my friends were probably very hungry by now. So, after eating one of the Gyros, I went and visited the neighbors. Only one of the neighbors was home, and she was playing Scrabble with some of her friends from high school. They seemed nice, but I could sense tiredness. We chatted for awhile until I got too tired to socialize, so I left. I hope to see my neighbor again soon. Word.

Josh and Vanessa's Wedding

2006-04-30T15:48:00.000-05:00

Multiple instances of fun were enjoyed last night by many as we celebrated Josh and Vanessa's wedding in Minneapolis. After the wedding, the drinking started at Deidre's place, which continued when we arrived at Social Hour. I tried to be social during this hour, and I believe I was social enough. Casey showed up with the Vance's Bachelor Party MVP trophy, which he utilized as a drinking device. After social hour, we were welcomed to sit in the dining hall, where my self-appointed duty was to successfully complete the role as "Seat Filler." The Seat Filler's job is to sit in someone's seat when they leave their table for any number of reasons, either A: to get more liquor, B: bathroom break, or C: wandering around to other tables striking meaningful conversations. Wilson presented the longest, but most comedic best man's speech, ever. I am not exactly sure, but I'm fairly certain it lasted over 10 minutes. After the stand up comedy routine by Wilson, the dancing started. There was a mixture of Laotian traditional music, and regular American music, both which I danced to. I was absolutely ecstatic to see that ALL of Vanessa's female relatives were all much shorter than me, and very good looking. Due to the affects of the alcohol, I was very active at creating circles in the middle of the dance floor. Much fun was experienced within the circle, including some fishing, break dancing, crawling, and stumbling. I got in good with one of the DJ's, so he gave me props in the microphone with multiple "Give It Up For Crouton!" and "Give it up for Dustin!"chants. Naturally, I borrowed the mic to chant "What up Detroit!" After the reception, some of us made it back to Brodie and Rachel's place, where there was pizza eating and cigar smoking. Yada Yada Yada, I am very tired today.

In The Vault

2006-04-27T00:45:00.000-05:00

My biceps hurt. Today was a difficult day to walk around. My body was aching, from what I believe was due to running around the bases during Tuesday's softball game. I am extremely disappointed in the way things are working out for my body as I get older. It's times like these where I kinda wish I was a farmer, working in the fields all day long, staying in shape by picking up cow poop and lifting hay bails. Then I wouldn't have days like today, where my non-physically fit body is not used to non-office lifestyle. The days at the gym have not helped me as much as I would like. Good grief! New topic, now. I've become addicted to this new drink called Vault, the drink that drinks like a soda, kicks like an energy drink. I found that the Vault Zero, which is calorie free, tastes just fine and dandy. It's one of the best diet drinks out there, fairly close to Sunkist Orange Diet.

PBR Bombardment

2006-04-23T12:29:00.000-05:00

Good times were had last night. After softball practice yesterday, which Tom and Nelly became injured, Dan, Josh, and I started to play some War on X-Box while drinking some beers. After a couple games, we headed for the grocery store to pickup items for grilling out. We received some perplexed looks as it is not everyday you see 2 very large guys and 1 not large guy browsing the aisles of Rainbow. Of course, I'm sure people were most intrigued by how we all somehow were able to cram into the jeep for the trip to and from Rainbow and the liquor joint. Anyways, after all the shopping, we start to grill and reminisce about the football that Dan accidentally kicked onto the hardware store just 7 days ago. The neighbor girls said "hi" as they were off to a very exciting night of movie watching by themselves. Anyways, after 5 hours of drinking we made the trip to Psycho Susies and met up with Tom and Kell as it was Kell's birthday night. Cheese curds were ordered, shots of disgusting tequila shots were taken, and multiple glasses of PBR were consumed. Amy made an unexpected visit, as she was partying with Dileepa and Carrie, and we spoke about things for a couple minutes. Deidre found herself being the sober cab for Tom and Kell, and Vanessa happily drove Dirty, Josh and I back to my place for more drinking and XBox. Bombardment was played in the apartment using 5 orange dodge balls, which lasted about 2 minutes. My pinky was smashed in the door as I came back in from people watching at 2:00 AM. This left me disabled on the floor for about 5 minutes. I finally found myself in bed around 4:00 where I fell asleep watching the National Geographic Channel. It looks like today will be filled with relaxation, rollerblading and weight lifting. Yee ha!

White Fang

2006-04-17T22:06:00.000-05:00

White Fang is a good movie. I would have loved to be in Ethan Hawk's character's place in Alaska during the 1800's. It'd still be cool now, searching for gold, living in Alaska, hanging out in the wilderness, making friends with a wolf-dog. But...I'm almost positive that this won't happen. Maybe I can go visit, hike around Alaska some day, but maybe with a professional hiking guide.

Another good movie I saw yesterday, while relaxing at my parent's house, is Old Yeller. I wouldn't say it was better than White Fang, or Swiss Family Robinson, but it had it's unique qualities. Poor dog, stupid rabies, grrr!!!

Brewers

2006-04-11T22:29:00.000-05:00

I am planning on visiting Miller Park on May 20 to watch the Brewers try to defeat the Twins. I shall enjoy every minute of the game, as I love the Brewers, brats, beer and 21 to 25 year-old drunk girls who wear baseball jerseys.

I'm not usually this lazy

2006-04-11T00:27:00.000-05:00

Tonight's fun:

4 hours of contemplating going to the gym
2 hours of Apprentice
1 hour of Friends
1/2 hour of Seinfeld
1/2 hour of browsing Myspace and Facebook
5 minutes of Giencke.net
5 minutes of Startribune.com
5 minutes of eating Honey Nut Cheerios
3 minutes writing this blog
1 minute of retrieving lyrics to "I wish I was A Little Bit Taller"
1 minute of eating peanut butter
1 minute of pushups

Relaxi Taxi

2006-04-09T22:18:00.000-05:00

Last night was Michelle's birthday party and housewarming thing. The cab ride there was fun. The driver was impressed by our storytelling, and he was definitely sad when he dropped us off. Michelle's place is neat. They had multiple chips and dips, along with roasted peanuts, and some vegetables. The keg contained good beer, and A-Dilla was wearing the same shirt as me. Tom and I had interesting conversations with Michelle's friend, I think her name is Alicia. The cab ride back to Uptown was a little unusual. It was the first time I ever had a female cabbie. She was nice, but not nice enough for me, so I decided not to pursue any relationship. Back at the apartment we left the door open, as to invite strange neighbors to come on in. It worked, as Elizabeth was very happy to come in and talk. We had conversations about her roommate, whom just got back together with her boyfriend. Elizabeth is beginning to be less crazy in my mind, and actually, she probably thinks I'm the crazy one now. On a side note, Tom's 20" pizza from Friday night was finally finished off this afternoon by Dirty and I.

Stuff Is Fun

2006-04-08T11:07:00.000-05:00

Last night was fun. Tom, Dirty, Smallz and I headed to Blarneys hoping to run into Michelle, which we did. It was a good time. The band was pretty entertaining, the drinks were not bad, and the place was amazingly not busy. The taxi brought us back to 2825 Fremont, which allowed us to connect with our neighbors again for some random fun. Second floor neighbor girl and I played piano while Dirty watched and listened in astonishment. Tom ordered a 20” pizza and quesadillas from Toppers before he left with a random, so it meant lots of food for neighbor girl, Dirty and I. I think today will consist of drinking lots of fluids, working out, maybe bike riding or rollerblading and watching stuff on tv.

Frogger

2006-04-05T00:39:00.000-05:00

Life is like a game of Frogger. We are all trying to get to better and bigger places. On the way, we encounter obstacles, either it's a hungry alligator or a semi-trailer, or a big bully at the bar, there are times when we will encounter obstacles that will require us to step back and try a different route. Frogger only had 3 lives, not sure what the significance of this is, but I thought I'd throw it out there. In Frogger, you could add another quarter and play another round, life is kinda like this, except for to restart another round, you don't need quarters, you need a kick in the ass. Frogger could move forward by jumping onto floating logs, or riding the back of an alligator, as long as it didn't get too close to the chomping mouth. In life, we wouldn't get very far by jumping onto floating logs or alligators backs, we move forward by taking risks, getting up after falling down, and pushing harder when it hurts the most. Ribbit!

Josh's Bachelor Party

2006-04-02T17:36:00.000-05:00

Bachelor parties in Madison kick ass!!! This weekend we entertained ourselves at Josh's bachelor party in Madison. Events include an everlasting road adventure on the way to Madison. Thanks to the wonderful Wisconsin highway construction plan, the 4 lane highway was reduced to 2 lanes for some road work. Unfortunately, this led to a 1 hour trip for traveling 6 miles. A van in front of us had a bunch of small bladder passengers, as pee was seen exiting the vehicle at least 3 times within this 6 mile crawl. It is not certain, but it is almost accurate that they were drinking beers in the van. After this fun, and other miscellaneous stops, we finally arrived in Madison 7 hours after leaving Minneapolis. Beer was needed soon, so we drank many beers, accidentally got drunk, and then headed to the bars. Large purple drinks were consumed, girls were hit on, and friends CB'd each other. It was amazing! On Saturday, basketball and dodge ball was participated in by 14 guys for 3.5 hours in a Madison high school practice gym. Saturday night was golf pub night, which meant dressing up in hideous golf attire and hitting the bars with the intention of drinking more than allowed by most livers. Of course, this meant that girls were going to be hit on, friends were going to CB each other, and random drunk girls would flash guys in return for pirate stickers. Making out occurred, fights were encountered, Casey-D (the sheriff) would get punched by a drunk jerk, random phone numbers were obtained, crushes were had, and stumbling was inevitable. Go fun!

Laundry Room Nap

2006-03-25T15:29:00.000-06:00

"I passed out in the laundry room last night" were one of the first words I heard from Tom today. Apparently, Tom felt that the perfect spot to pass out was in my apartment building's laundry room. I would have thought the neighbor's bed would have been more comfortable. Well, last night was fun, to say the least. I had conversations with neighbor girl #2 (aka non-crazy neighbor girl), while Tom hit on neighbor girl #1. Neighbor girl #2 just broke up with her boyfriend, and he was over last night stalking her. He got pissed when she kicked him out, so he broke the fire extinguisher case glass. Brodie and Dirty decided to order Toppers pizza with my credit card, while Tom and I visited the neighbors on the 2nd floor. One of the girls wanted to try on my hat, so I let her. She said "i like your hat" and i said "thanks!" Tonight is Devo's birthday celebration night of fun...We are going bowling. Good stuff.

Sevendust Is Good

2006-03-23T01:08:00.000-06:00

My ears are still ringing. Attendance at the rock concert Sevendust was included in tonight's activities. Various people of different ages were also in attendance, including 18 year old girls with ugly boyfriends, and some older guys with beards, and so on. It was a good time. I am noticing my oldness though, as my feet were tired about 1 hour into the whole deal. Sevendust had a 1 hour long encore, which didn't help things. I was hoping to be home, or at least in a bed by midnight, but that didn't happen. Good stuff is happening otherwise. Next weekend should be a great time, as we celebrate my friend Josh's bachelor party in Madison. I shall have an excellent time, and if things go like the last bachelor party in Madison, I will get lost and I will be looking for a guy in a cow suit. Ah, great stuff! ok, that's it for now. Go me!

New Facebook Message

2006-03-07T20:59:00.001-06:00

Yeah, I was bored one Saturday morning and thought it'd be neat if I received a text message on my phone whenever I received a new facebook message. Therefore, I programmed something, of which the final version is below. The code is designed to run with Microsoft Excel.

The Excel file is here.

The VBA code is here.

It's very amateur, but do realize I taught myself VBA programming through the use of Google and Excel Help.