18 Days and Justus is a Deadbeat

Here are two quick thoughts I had today.


Number one, I was driving to my project this morning and listening to the radio. A song came on, and it was Sheryl Crow covering a Rod Stewart song "The First Cut is the Deepest". An absolutely great song. In fact I am listening to is as I type up this posting. Anyhow, in Sheryl's remake of the song, she does a little rearranging of the words. For instance from the original the verse goes "I would have given you all of my heart. But there is someone who has torn it apart. And she has taken just all that I had..." Now in Sheryl's remake that last line is "And he has taken just all that I had." No you can not do that. You can't change the gender of song because they are of the opposite gender. The house band for the Milwaukee Bucks used to do that because they had a female lead singer. By changing the gender you change the whole meaning of the song. And that is not what Rod was talking about.


Number two, and I am not sure if this will be more or less interesting. I was doing the dishes. My dishwasher in my townhouse sucks, so I am back to doing dished by hand. As I was going through the silverware, I realized that none of my silverware matches. I take that back, I do have a about 6 or 7 sets of knives, forks and spoons that do match. Those were given to me by my brother, Dan, when I first moved into my house almost 9 years ago. And those sets Dan actually stole from him college cafeteria. Some real high quality stuff, but the price was right. I think Dan pilfered that silverware somewhere around 1988, so they are getting close to being antiques. Since then with a number of roommates moving in and out I have accumulated quite the collection of silverware. In fact I counted, I have 12 different designs of spoons. Can anyone beat that? Here is a sampling.

In light of my wonderful array of eat utensils, which I am very proud of, I would like to say this. And I might be getting ahead of myself, but if I were ever to get married, (I know that is a big "if") there is no way I would allow my wife to register for silverware. These work fine. Sure there is a fork or two that has some bent prongs. But the set has character. I am guessing that every married guy who might read this is saying to himself, "Good luck with that one." I have some friends, Nate and Michel, and they registered and got some good china as a wedding present. And every time I eat over there, I ask if we can use the good china and Michel always says "No Rickie, that is for special occasions." And I always say "It isn't a special occasion when I come over?"

As I review this posting I realize that this was all just senseless babble. But for most of you, it postponed actual work for 2 or 3 minutes.

19 Days and Justus is a Deadbeat

Here is your picture of the day. I haven't had one in a while. This picture was taken December 18th 1993. At Kettle Moraine High School, Wales, Wisconsin. Two winters after my senior year at the high school. This was the high school alumni basketball tournament. As I recall we won it that year. Back row L to R: Ben Miller, Bill Schultz, Me (with a mullet), Jay Hauser, Matt Carlson. Front row L to R: that is Jason Placeway's arm, Scott Carlson, Doug Baker, John Paulsen, Bill Hjorth, and Shane Kitzan. I don't remember being a real powerhouse on the team, maybe 4 or 6 points a game. Kitzan and Paulsen pretty much carried the team. But you can't put a quantity on hustle.I have never claimed to be much of a car guy. In fact when it comes to fixing cars I know next to nothing. The other day I was pulling into my garage and I found this thing lying on the ground. I am not sure if it came off of my truck. But if anyone knows what it is, can you tell me if it may have fallen off my truck and if I should be worried. I have been driving for three days without any problems that I can notice.

What is it and what is it for?
	No idea, but you should be fine.
	Looks important, you should see a mechanic.
	It is called a "Flux Capacitor" and it is used for time travel moron.
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20 Days and Justus is a Deadbeat

For those that I didn't get an Evite out to, I am having a Super Bowl Party this weekend. So feel free to stop by anytime after 4:00 p.m. Pizza and left over beer from the ski trip will be served.


I feel I am making up for lost time since last week I was gone. I have had a number of things running through my head that I guess are blog worthy. Then again maybe not, but then I would have nothing else to talk about.


As mentioned yesterday, Justus is a deadbeat. For those that are unclear, here is the definition of deadbeat.


Roman you asked about the fitness center at the hotel I am staying at in Cancun in 20 days. I am not sure that I mentioned that I will be in Mexico in 20 days or not. But I will be. Here is a photo of the fitness center.

I of course will not be working out with my shirt off. I have to be honest, I don't even know how often I will make it in there to work out while down in Cancun. It is a high possibility that the only working out I will do will be 12 oz curls. I know, I am sure you have never heard that one before. Although I do plan on getting some morning runs in. At least that is the plan, we shall see how that works out.

And while I am on the topic of working out with my shirt off, that brings me to my good friend Tree. Tree had a number of interesting things to say while we were in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago. The first of which is that he asked me to stop posting pictures of myself shirtless. I am assuming because this either gets him all hot and bothered or he is just jealous. Alright Tree, you asked for it. No more shirtless pictures of myself on the blog, unless their is vast outcry by my other loyal readers. And just to be clear here, I would prefer it be the female readers who call for more of those pictures. I do have to warn you that this request will most likely rule out a majority of my Mexico pictures. But maybe I can blur out my nippular area.

The second thing that came up involving Tree happened the second day we were in Las Vegas. Tree and I were walking the strip and it was freezing out. Literally. I think the temp got down to mid 30's while we were there. But as I kept reminding Tree is was a dry cold. Anyhow after we walked for a good block or two. I was fed up, shouted out to the heavens exclaiming how ridiculous it was that it was that cold out. To which Tree turned to me and said "Now I get to throw a drink in your face!!" I had to remind him, you can only throw a drink in my face if I complain about how hot it is, not how cold it is.

Lastly from the Tree files is this short story. Tree, The General and I were all sitting down at a Blackjack table and this somewhat shady character pulled up a chair to the table and threw down a $100 bill asking for chips. The dealer took a look at the bill and then called over his pit boss. The dealer suspected that this was a counterfeit $100 bill. From where I was sitting, the bill looked a little conspicuous as well, at least once the dealer pointed it out. And before the pit boss could make his way over to the table they guy reached over on the table and grabbed his fake money and took off. I said to the dealer "If you catch that guy, can I go to the back room with you guys and watch you put his head in a vice until his eye pops out?" The dealer looked at me like I was a moron, and then the waitress came around this my next drink.

21 Days and Justus is a Deadbeat

That is right. 21 days until I am in sunny Cancun. Which will be great since this weekend it is suppose to be in the single digits while I am skiing at Granite Peak.

And yes, Justus is a deadbeat. In short, he is in my fantasy football league and owes money, but hasn't gotten around to paying up. He is over a month delinquent. That being said, I will add that with my countdown to my posting titles. Bubs does that make you happy? No weekend updates, just your brother being a deadbeat. Be careful what you wish for.

Here are some random thoughts for you.

Flavored bottled water? Does anyone have an option on this? I have gotten hooked on it myself. I guess it is healthier than the rootbeer float phase I went through. But is flavored bottle water good for you. Here is one of the ingredients "Sodium Hexamtaphosphate". I think that is also an ingredient in "Agent Orange".

I would like to make a plea to my loyal readers. Now I realize that I will one day lose my hair. I am not too bad now, at least I don't think I am. I know that I am doing better than my brothers. But when the day comes where I need to just start shaving my head, can you tell me? I give myself 3 more good years and then it is all over.

I haven't told a story in a while. At least one that came from the archives. I was listening to Neil Diamond a couple days ago and that triggered one. I think this was my second year of college. I was up in Minnesota visiting Krum. We went out to a house party one night. And I recall that we met up with Nate, Russ, Marty, Myra and Borky might have even been there as well. After the party, some how I got split up from Krum and I ended up going to a party back at Myra's place with Nate, Marty and Russ. At this point I had only meet these guys maybe 2 or 3 times. Obviously I was not as close with these guys as I am now. Myra was throwing a Neil Diamond party. They had been playing "Cracklin' Rosie", "Sweet Caroline" and "Forever in Blue Jeans" all a number of times each. Well I ran up there and put in "Soolaimon", somewhat of an unknown Neil song. Well shortly after the song started up the boos began raining down on the new guy from Milwaukee. I was quickly pushed to the side and they played "Cracklin' Rosie" yet again. I was a bit put off, especially since I really didn't know anyone there all that well. I was sulking just me and my beer when Nate came up to me and said "Don't worry buddy, I still like you. That is a great song, but a little too deep for this crowd." Just another example of Nate being a good guy.

Here is a sure sign that the Apocalypse is upon us. I stopped in at a sporting good store this afternoon and found this jersey on a clearance rack. $5!!! When I was checking out I told the guy at the register "You guys are going to have a hard time giving these things away." There were at least another 20 or so on the rack. He laughed and said "I know, but for $5 you could use them to start a fire or maybe traction under your car tire if you get stuck." But for $5, marked down from $75, I just could not resist.

22 Days

I know it has been a while since my last movie review. I was planning on getting in a movie while in Platteville, but the Platteville 5 movie complex didn't have a single movie that did anything for me. And I am not all that thrilled with the current selection of the Woodbury 10. Yesterday I made my way over to the Inver Grove Showplace 16. I went to see The Last King of Scotland. I thought it was a good movie. Based on the mild research I have done, it appears to be highly historically accurate on the brutality and ruthlessness of the dictatorship of Ugandan leader Idi Amin. While the plot of the movie involving Nicholas Garrigan, is fictitious, the depiction of this characters interaction with Amin, may very well have been true to life of anyone who could have had such proximity to Amin during his regime. Forrest Whitaker is up for an Oscar and has also received a Golden Globe for his performance. This acclaim is part of the reason I wanted to see this movie. In short, the movie is about a young, very naive Scottish doctor, Nicholas Garrigan, who in my opinion makes some extremely poor decisions. Garrigan goes to Uganda to serve as a doctor and after a chance meeting with the dictator is quickly persuaded by the charismatic dictator to become his personal physician. At first being an advisor to Amin was everything that young Garrigan could ask for, however events quickly unfold to change everything. Garrigan is introduced to the horror that is Idi Amin and must deal with the consequences of his poor judgment. Walking out of the movie, I felt a bit stupid for my lack of knowledge of Amin. A dictator whose savagery and murderous path rivals that of Hitler. While I wasn't too wild about the decisions that Garrigan made, yet I do understand them for the stories sake, I will still give this movie a 7.

23 Days

Yes that is right, 23 days until I head to Mexico. Here is the hotel that I will be staying at. While I was in training this past week. I was so bored that everyday I read the USA Today pretty much cover to cover. One day they had a very interesting article on Cock Fighting. For the most part it is illegal here in the United States, in fact it is only legal in Louisiana and Arkansas. Surprised? So my goal while in Mexico is to see a cock fight. I haven't done so well on my traveling goals as of late. I have been to Vegas twice and my only two goals were to come out ahead and get a picture with the Welcome to Las Vegas sign. I didn't do either. So we will see how that works out.

Here is another goal that I have set for myself. I figure it I put it in writing I will be more accountable for actually following through. This coming weekend I am headed to Granite Peak to get some skiing in. I have really only had one major goal for the entire time that I have been skiing and that is to land a 360 off of a jump. I was watching some of the X games last night and that inspired me. They were going double backflips in the half pipe. And a 360 was nothing they were doing 1260s. Crazy. So I will do my best to land a 360. I will have my camera, so I should get video of it. If I don't land one, I will have video of a great wipeout. And as you may have read or seen, I normally ski in a gorilla suit. Well I am going to change it up this time. I have recently acquired a chicken suit. A chicken doing a 360. Now that is something to see.

Weekend Recap, Bubs Don't Read This

I am sorry but I have been a bit out of touch. I am sure you are suffering from Rickie withdrawal. It happens to the best of us, mostly women. I obviously do not have internet access at my place in Milwaukee. And I also didn't have access this past week in Platteville either. I have decided to equate going to training in Platteville with going to jail. Training went from 8 in the morning until 4 at night. I know that is a 7 hour day with lunch. But then there is nothing to do after that. I booked a hotel which was actually in Belmont because the web site said that it had a fitness room. That turned out to be a treadmill which you adjusted the speed on it with a crank arm of some sort. It had to be 20 years old. And a real piece of crap elliptical machine. I was in bed and asleep by 8:30 or 9:00 every night. So I am rested up. The training was kind of a joke. It was all about testing asphalt, which I could have seen being beneficial to me years ago, but now that I am a project engineer and in charge of my projects, there isn't even a slim chance that I will be doing any testing. More like I will be ordering other people to do it. The class was 4 1/2 days. It easily could have been shortened to 3 days. Today we had an exam. It was an open book open notes exam. Yesterday before the training ended for the day we spent an hour reviewing for this exam. It made no sense to review out of the very book that we were going to use for the open book exam. So it is probably a good thing that I did have internet access otherwise you would have been reading daily about how much I hate Platteville.
Here are some pictures from last weekend. This is Nate's boy, Elery. If anyone knows Nate, then you know he has the ability to talk or at least tell stories. I don't know anyone with more stories than Nate. But I think he gets this gift of gap from his mom. As you can see in this picture the phone is there, Nate was talking to his mom. And then Nate put the phone to Elery so Nate's mom could talk to Elery. And Nate's mom went on talking to Elery for a good minute. Maybe you had to be there but I thought it was funny. "Hi Elery. This is your grandmother. How are you? Are your parents being good to you? What is wrong you don't want to talk to you grandma? I just went shopping......." And on and on it went.

Saturday morning I went to both my nephew, Jared's basketball game and my niece, Lindsey's basketball game. Here is Jared, a.k.a Crusher, in his game. I choose this picture because his entire game, he was either playing with his wristband or looking at the scoreboard. Here he is doing both. His father says that he is going to be a football player.Here is Lindsey, a.k.a. Boomer, in here game. I can say that Boomer's game was much more fun to watch. And Lindsey played pretty well. Saturday afternoon was my mom's side of the family Christmas party. That gave me the opportunity to drink some Pabst and clean up in Sheepshead. Here you can see me with my winnings. That has to be at least $10. I think I started with a quarter.Here is my uncle Tom, a.k.a. "unk". He is a very loyal blog reader. Not only a loyal reader but actually finds my blog entertaining. I told him he was going to be up on the blog, you can see how happy he is about it.I think these are good pictures, but I am sure neither of my sister in laws will like them, so that is why I am posting them. Here is my sister in law, Julie.And here is my sister in law, Jodi. I would like to thank a couple people. First, Nate and Michel for the present. Seen below.Also my aunt Marilyn and Uncle Dave for the kind letter and the shirt. My mom for the home made peanut butter cookies. Easily the best cookies in the world. And as of this evening their are only 3 left. Dan and Jodi for dinner on Sunday night. Chris and Rebecca for letting me crash at their place Saturday night as well as Jota, Shelly and Traci for letting me crash at their place in Madison Sunday night.

Oh as a side note. Hotels. Why can't they put fitted sheets on the beds? And how disgusting are those comforters?

And I would also like to address a comment from my good friend and former roommate Preston who wrote "I'm getting sick of reading about you weekend plans." Let me reread that. "you weekend plans" How is that Marquette Education working out for you? By the way I have a dislike for Marquette University. But back to the comment. If you are sick of reading about my weekends, what would you like me to write about. I would be more than happy to dive any topic you would like me to address.

I realize this is a bit long, but I am making up for lost time. I haven't had a poll in a while so I thought I would throw one in here.

Did you miss me (my blog) while I was gone?
	No. I just went to The General's blog.
	Yes. I vicariously live through you.
	You were gone?
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And a new feature here at "The Life of Rickie", you may or may not know that I am headed for a much needed week long vacation in Mexico in February. I need to recharge the battery. So I have decided to start a daiy count down until I leave. As of today 24 days until I am in Cancun. Which reminds me of an O.J. joke but I will tell you later, this post is long enough.

Weekend Plans

I originally was thinking of once again getting people together for drinks tomorrow night in Milwaukee. But I have decided against it. Their is a slight chance that I may end up down at Shepards later in the evening, but I wouldn't count on it.
Saturday, I will be attending my niece and nephew's basketball games in the morning. Then later in the afternoon is the family Christmas in January. It is my mom's side of the family. I can only imagine how excited all of my aunts, uncles and cousins will be to see me. Right Tom (a.k.a. Unk)?
Sunday, I am going to my brother, Dan's, to watch the games. He has the best TV so that is where I will be. Then after the games I am headed to Madison to see and crash at my buddy, Jay's (a.k.a. Jota) new place. Plus that makes my drive to Platteville in the morning that much shorter.
Yes it is an exciting time in the Life of Rickie. On a positive note, I went to the tanning beds yesterday and didn't get burnt. That is the norm for me to burn up like an ant under a magnifying glass. So I am feeling happy about that. Also I forgot to mention the reason why I choose yesterday's picture of the day. My goal next week after sitting through a boring 8 hour class on what asphalt is and how to test it, is to go and see the Rocky movie and give a review. It doesn't look like I am going to get a review in this week.
Is there anything else that I can bore you with? I am about to leave the office for the day and get in a couple hours of skiing, and then I am playing soccer tonight. That is boring. Alright that is enough for today.

Picture of the Day

This picture was taken on May 18th 1999 at Philadelphia Library steps in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. You might remember this from the "Rocky" movies. When I was there, I actually waited well over 20 minutes for some maintenance truck to move so that I could get this picture. A little known fact, there are actually footprints on the top step. They are Chuck Taylor in prints. Kind of cool. I have fallen back a little in my postings. Maybe some of Stegall's laziness rubbed off on my in Las Vegas. Actually, I will say now that my recovering is complete. But I just haven't done anything the last couple days. Here is a quick recap of my day to show just how boring my life is. I drove to my bridge this morning. I checked in with my one contractor that is working, which is just one electrician. And he has been working on the same stuff for a little over a month and a half now. So there was nothing new there. My prime contractor showed up on the job. I discussed some paper work with him, and then he bought me lunch. I then finished up some paper work in my field office. I know this is exciting stuff. From there, I went to Afton Alps to do some skiing. They finally got some much needed snow. I got in a few runs, hit the terrain park and pulled off a number of jumps, including a "daffy" which didn't look too bad based on my shadow. But I was just too cold, so I left after skiing only an hour. I then went to my health club, I got in a bunch of sit ups, the exercise bike and then the treadmill. I then signed myself up for some tanning sessions. I need to get a base going for my trip to Mexico which is 33 days away. And now I am working on the blog. But as the title of this blog clearly states. That is "The Life of Rickie" at least that was my life today. Yes, pretty boring.
I will be back home to Milwaukee this weekend, and then I get to spend an entire week in the most boring place in the world, Platteville, Wisconsin. I most likely will not have any internet access, so you will have to deal with a week with out me.

Las Vegas

Well kids, my Vegas weekend is complete. I had a great time. I will try to recap it as best as I can. I would like to state for the record, as hard as it is to believe, that I came out even on the trip. Weird. The weather really sucked. It was mid to upper 30's all weekend. Yes that is what I said, 30 degrees in a town that is pretty much located in the middle of the desert. This was Thursday night, me on the horses outside the Excalibur. That is where we stayed. This is the end of Thursday night. Apparently Tree was up and Stegall was down, but I don't believe Tree.
Friday morning, Tree and I went down the strip to Ceasar's Palace. I had been there before, maybe I wasn't paying too close of attention, but after walking through it and discussing it with Tree, I came to the conclusion that this is my favorite casino on the strip. Here is another thing that entered my head while walking through the casino. How ungodly rich some people are. I walked by a Blackjack table where the minimum bet was $500, and the table was full. To me that is just crazy. I could be wrong here, but just to sit and play at that table you would need to have on you at least $5,000 but more realistically $10,000. That is just crazy to me. If I was walking around with $10,000 in my pocket, I would be so scared that I would lose it. This is Tree with the statue of David, I see the resemblance.
Here I am at Ceasar's giving Joe Lewis a low blow.
Ceasar, you moron, the town is that way. If you have ever been to Vegas and walked the strip, you have probably run across the annoying people who hand out flyers for strippers as you walk. Well this time rather than ignore them, Stegall, Tree and I took every flyer we could get our hands on. I have a stack, no lie 1 1/2 inches high. What was even more funny was the happy look on their faces when you took them.
Friday night we went to the Tournament of Knights Dinner at the Excalibur. I am assuming it is very much like Medieval Times. I liked it and we all had a good time. Pictures weren't allowed so this is one that I took with my flash off.
This is Friday night / Saturday morning as we are going back up to our room. I thought it would be funny to push the button for every floor. Stegall not real crazy about that move.
When we got back to the room it was about 6 Saturday morning, we all had been awake since 8 that morning, or 22 hours straight. It was at this time both Stegall and Tree bet me $50 a piece that I couldn't stay up until the next morning. I told them, that they were on and I headed back down to the casino fitness center to work out real quick. Here is a joke, they charge you $20 to use their fitness center. $20! What a sack of garbage. I should be the one getting paid for actually working out. This is me back in the room about 6:00 p.m. Saturday night. Tree had decided it would be a good time to throw the water left in the ice bucket on my crotch.
Here is a picture of Tree with the Fantasy Football trophy that I brought down for him.
I am sure you are all wondering, yes I did win the bet. I was awake from 8:00 a.m. Friday until 6:00 a.m. Sunday morning. 46 hours. Enough time to get really drunk twice. I was also told by the pit bosses at two separate tables at two separate casinos to quite down or they would throw me out. I was also warned 3 times by wait staff to relax or they would stop serving me, but they didn't. I was easily the loudest one at my table every time I sat down, and usually managed to get my table to be the loudest in the area. However, I wouldn't recommend going that long without sleep especially while gambling. My thought processes weren't as sharp as they have been in the past. Their was one point early Sunday morning while playing Blackjack when my hand consisted of a "6", another "6", two "2s" and an ace. I was unable to mentally add that up. The guy next to me asked me what I did for a living. Here nearly fell off of his chair when I told him I was an engineer. Nonetheless I had a lot of fun down there. For the loser friends of mine that decided it was in their best interest not to go, you made a big mistake. Smarten up and start saving for next year, I am pretty sure it will be an annual trip, at least it should be. I wasn't able to get much sleep on the flight. I got home around 8:00 p.m. Sunday night. I was up Monday at 8:00 a.m. That was easily the most tired I have been after getting 12 hours of sleep.

New Years Resolution

10 days and I have already broke a resolution. And it was totally by accident. First let me tell you this, I had a meeting today in Appleton, WI. Afterwards, a couple of us went out to lunch, my boss paid. I ordered a sandwich that came with french fries. And I just let them sit on my plate. In fact my boss and another engineer asked me why I wasn't eating them and I told them that it was a New Years Resolution. They said that is great and the proceeded to help themselves to all of the fries on my plate. And it didn't bother me at all. But then as we were leaving, I think more out of habit and that fact I didn't want my breath to smell I grabbed a candy mint from the hostess desk. I left the restaurant and was driving when I realized that I was eating candy and I immediately spit it out. So we are going to try that one again. I would also like you to know that I did have two cans of Sprite in my fridge when I made my resolutions. And just the other day, I poured them down the drain.

I know, some real exciting stuff, but I spent 9 hours today driving back and forth to Appleton, so what could possibly happen to me.

Look for more excitement this weekend. Tomorrow I am headed down to Las Vegas for the weekend with Tree and The General. I hope to have some good stories to tell and pictures to show, but if they are too good, then I won't be able to tell them at all.

Knockers?

I don't think these are Angelina Jolie's knockers, but at least these are even. I hope this makes you happy. And I didn't use photoshop. (To understand this posting you have to read the comments from the previous posting)

The Good Shepard

I went to see The Good Shepard this evening. I had heard mixed reviews. I wasn't all that impressed. I found the movie a bit hard to follow. I think I need a little more background education on the events that occured in US history that were touched upon in the movie. My knowledge of the Bay of Pigs isn't too extensive. I will give credit to the make up department in this movie, because they either made Angelina Jolie absolutely stunning in the beginning of the movie or did one number on her to make her so hagared looking at the end of the movie. I will give this movie a 5 (1-10), not really worth the price of full admission.

I realize everyone thinks I have a rather easy job right now. And maybe you are right, but I have a meeting tomorrow morning at 10 in the morning in Appleton. So I should be leaving my place by 5 in the morning to get there in time. And then just turn around and come back. I am not looking forward to it at all. So it is a good thing I have a vacation in Vegas planned for this weekend to recover.

Picture of the Day

This picture was taken in 1998, at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. This was early on in my Merge Technologies days. I forget this guys name, but I convinced his friend to take a picture of me and then I convinced him to get into the photo.

Rental Cars

Today was just a repeat of yesterday. Nothing too exciting. I taped the second NFL game to watch later tonight. I figured if I went to the health club while the game was going on, it wouldn't be very busy. Wrong. I don't know what it is about Sundays but they always get me depressed. I think it is the fact that a full work week is looming around the corner. And spare me your comments about how hard I work. Any of you could have chosen the same career path as I did but didn't, so deal with it. Anyhow, I just didn't feel like working out at all. But I managed to push myself through most of my usual work out routine. And the plan is to now reward myself with some Famous Dave BBQ ribs and watch the taped second playoff game. Back to the point of this posting, when I got home from the health club, I had a message on my phone from my buddy, Russ, who lives out in Colorado. The message was broken up so I could make out all of it, but from what I gathered he is somewhere in a rental car and beating the crap out of it. I would like to go on the record and state that I feel it is wrong to make any illegal moving violations in a rental car or any car for that matter. However, I do have a checker past of beating the hell out of rental cars. And Russ' message triggered a couple of memories for me and I thought I would share the pictures with you.
Now this picture was taken somewhere in the middle of Iowa. I was driving a Ford Taurus. As you can see from the blown up image here. I am going around 105 miles per hour.
I don't know what kind of car this was, but this was on Interstate 5 in Oregon.As you can see I was going 105 in this car as well. Trust me that was as fast as both of these cars went. I am guessing the second one was a Taurus as well. But here is my pride and joy of my rental car beatings, at least the ones that I have photographic proof of. This was a reverse drop I did in the parking lot of my hotel. I actually did it the night before and took this picture the next day. I did this in Omaha, Nebraska. Now kids let me explain to you what exactly a reverse drop is and how to properly perform it. It is easiest with automatic transmissions. You put the car in reverse, hit the gas and get going at a decent rate of speed and then quickly throw the car into drive and really lay on the gas. Yes this is not real good for the transmission of the vehicle but it is fun to do. Recent technology in the automotive industry has made this more difficult to do, so now it requires an intermediate step of putting the car into neutral for a second or two before going to drive. I didn't measure but I would estimate this one at around 100 feet.

Picture of the Day

This picture was taken in 2003, at Deb and Tim's house, Waukesha, Wisconsin. Me and my nephew Jared. Well let me give you a recap and the plans for the rest of the weekend. Yesterday, as you saw in the review, I went and saw "We Are Marshall". A great movie. Then I came home and did pretty much nothing. I ordered up another movie, "The Deer Hunter" free on my cable providers On Demand Menu. They actually have some decent movies on there. So I watch the Deer Hunter, in honor of my brothers and my father all of whom are deer hunters. I have to be honest, it was nothing like the hunting stories they have spewed out in the past. It was a long weird movie that jumped around alot. Today is Saturday. I worked out this morning. I have to say that I really hate the beginning of the year. Everyone decides that it is time to get in shape and the health club is just jam packed. I also think that health clubs should have wardrobe police. It you are wearing something you shouldn't be wearing, I.E. bare midriff or guys with muscle shirts and flabby arms, they should make you put on a shirt. For the record, I always wear shorts and a long sleeve shirt. So the rest of the day will be filled with watching football and doing laundry. And tomorrow should be a repeat. As usual nothing too exciting here.

We Are Marshall

Absolutely a great movie. A tough movie to watch but still a great movie. A tear jerker right up to the last scene. Not so much a movie about football, as it is a movie about overcoming adversity, summoning the power to deal with tragedy and the strength required to begin the healing process. On top of all of that, a fantastic sound track. Name me another movie with both Gordon Lightfoot and Black Sabbath in it. Matthew McConaughey's best character since playing Wooderson in "Dazed and Confused". He plays coach Jack Lengyel with a quirky and exuberant style that works. Although I wasn't too keen on the way he talked out of the side of his mouth the entire movie. Matthew Fox and David Strathairn give powerful and sincere performances. We Are Marshall is easily #1 on my best football movies of all time, moving way ahead of "Rudy" and the original "Longest Yard" (I didn't even bother watching the remake). I hope most of the events that are depicked are true, if so a great story throughout. Without saying I give this movie a 10. I know, hard to believe.

Picture of the Day

This picture was taken October 3rd 2002, in Clearwater, Florida. This is me, Jay and Nate, hanging out poolside at Julie's parent's place. We were down there for Andy and Julie's wedding. That really seems like a long time ago. I am sure it seems like even longer for Andy and Julie, now with child, Brady. It was a wild four nights in Clearwater. Up every night until 3 or 4 in the morning and swimming in the Gulf. I recall being out until bar time the night before the wedding. The rental car company made a mistake with our car, and Nate and I ended up with a Jaguar. We nicknamed it call sign "Jag 1". On the ride home from the bar in "Jag 1" we must have packed 8 or 9 people into that car, including Andy, the groom, in the trunk of the car, for the ride back to the hotel. As I recall we hit around 85 mph on the bridge that spans the intercoatal waters. That bridge is seen here. Talk about your all time bad ideas. I am happy to say that I have grown up and matured since then.

One Sweet World...No More

I received a call this morning at 7:16 a.m. It was The General (a.k.a. the author of "One Sweet World" blog"). He was trying to call and wake me at an hour that he thought I was sleeping. But as I explained to him, I do not go to sleep, I simply reboot and I am ready to go. I really don't recall what the purpose of the call was, but I did ascertain this little tid bit of information from The General. He explained to me that he just doesn't have the time to devote to his blog anymore. He mentioned to me that in order to make a posting he must think of an idea or topic and then actually sit down and type those thoughts out. And sometimes those ideas and topics are hard to come up with. No shit. I had no idea. I did fail to mention to him that maybe he could constructively use that time (1 hour) he spends in his car driving back and forth from Sun Prairie to Milwaukee to come up with ideas. I guess that seemed to obvious to me. So in the past a number of people, including Brett Favre, have inquired on my blog about the status of The General's blog. Since there hasn't been a posting on the "Pinko Commy Rag" in 4 months, I think it is safe to say that you won't be seeing many if any new postings on his blog until Topher (The General's 6 month old son) is somewhere in his middle years of college.

Packer Christmas Present

Here is a little late Christmas present that the Packers got. The Detroit Lions have elected not to terminate the contract of their General Manger, Matt Millen. Under Millen's leadership, which began in 2001, as CEO/general manager the Detroit Lions are 24-72 (.250) following the 2006 season the worst winning percentage of all 32 NFL teams during that time, and the worst of any franchise in league history over a comparable period of time. The team has had double-digit losses in every season under Millen's leadership and has never finished better than 6-10, a feat they have accomplished once during his tenure. And what is better he still has four years left on the contract extension he signed last year. In the last 5 drafts, he has selected 3 wide receivers with their number one pick. Keep up the good work. All of Packer Country would just like to say to Matt, we are glad to have you back.

Picture of the Day

This picture was taken September 23, 1999 and Jon and Julie's, Waukesha, Wisconsin. This is me with my new born nephew, Ethan. Of course the Heisman pose, there is no other baby pose for me. I am not sure if I mentioned this in any other Heisman pose I have with kids, but as far as I know, I invented that pose, at least, the pose with the kid as the football. This was the day after I got back to the United States after spending a month and a half in Europe. The combination of me doing a triathlon just before I left for Europe, and the fact that I really didn't care for much of the food in Europe, had me returning the thinnest I have been since high school. I am about 185 in the picture.

Pursuit of Happyness

Today I went to see The Pursuit of Happyness. It was OK. Nothing too spectacular. If you have seen any trailer for the movie you get the gist of the plot of the movie. There are no real twists or turns in the plot. Then again it is based on a true story, so how many twists and turns can there be. Most of the movie is pretty depressing, but as you may guess, there is a feel good ending. The entire movie you feel sorry for Will Smith's character. But then I got to thinking, he was pretty much responsible for his own situation. Your life is what you make of it. In the end you walk out of the theater thinking you should do more with your life. But that feeling wears away by the time you get home. I would give this movie a 5 (based on 1-10). I don't think it is worth the full price.

New Years Eve

Well New Years Eve was exactly as I expected it. Nothing too exciting. It was overall just O.K. I went out with Krum and a group of his friends. We ate at Trooper and Shelly's place. That was great. The food was awesome, drinks were cheap / free and I had a great seat to see what may very well have been Brett Favre's last game. Then we went to a party at the Kitty Kat Club in Dinkytown by the University. It was sort of a lounge bar. $20 to get in, but you did get two drink tickets. So not too bad. I got in the bar, hung up my jacket and then waited about ten minutes in line for my first drink. It was at this point where I was kicking myself for going out on New Years. But it really wasn't that bad. I think I just went in the evening with a negative mindset. I was actually going to the bathroom right at midnight. Probably not the best timing. So I kicked off the New Year by standing over a urnal. I guess that is better than throwing up into one. The highlight of the night for me was having a girl swear at me for taking a picture of her friend throwing up.

I really wasn't in much of a picture taking mood. And I really didn't take too many. Here is Shelly, Trooper, Krum and Michelle.
A group photo with me in the middle.And my personal favorite of a girl throwing up. Look at what good friends she has, as they hold her hair back and she is tossing into a cup.