Update

I would like to have something interesting for you, but this week has been pretty boring. I am again working the graveyard shift as we continue to test my bridge. Testing occurs from 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. We have been making some pretty big progress.

To give you some background on my bridge here are the technical aspects. “The bridge is a rolling-style bascule structure. Curved segmental casting attached to the bottom flanges of the heel portions of the bascule girders roll on mating track castings embedded in the concrete of the bascule piers. The movement of the bascule superstructure consists of both rotation and horizontal translation. Mounted on and moving with each leaf is the operating machinery. Hydraulic power units provide power to low speed high torque hydraulic motors. These motors are attached to the input shaft of an open gear reduction train. An output shaft of that gear train passed through each of the bascule girders. Drive pinions attached to the ends of these output shafts engage stationary racks attached to frames mounted on the bascule piers. As the rotating pinions drive along the fixed racks, they horizontally push the bascule girders, causing the bridge to roll open and close.”
Yes I know that sounds like some boring stuff. But it is no more boring than listening to Nate talk about season ticket holders, or my brothers talk about cutting down a 100 foot tall Box Elder. In the past this bridge was controlled by paddles which would adjust the speed of each leaf and the direction, opening or closing. A skilled and trained operator was required to perform these bridge openings and moving to large pieces of steel and concrete that are 66 feet wide by 103 feet long that fit together in a tongue and groove fashion. But now we have a computer controlling the speeds and directions of the two leafs as they come apart to open and come together to close. It is literally a push of one button to open, one button to stop, and then another button to close. I am continually impressed with the speed at which this bridge moves. If goes from the closed position to fully open or 0 degrees to 70 degrees (which seems like nearly vertical when you are standing next to it) in 45 seconds. When we do some openings in the day I will make sure I shoot some video and post it.

So with my work schedule my days are pretty much screwed up. I work until 5 in the morning. I get home and sleep until around 3 in the afternoon. I normally field at least 3 or 4 phone calls both business and personal while I am trying to sleep during the day. I do a little bit of office work from my home. Then I get to the health club for an hour or two. After working out I am usually just headed back to the project. As I said nothing too exciting going on this week.

Today is Wednesday and by the time I get back home Thursday morning I will have had 2 hours of sleep in the last 36 hours. But that is why I get the big bucks.

New Years Resolution Updates

We are nearly a quarter of the way through the year and I thought that I would give you an update on my New Years Resolutions and let you know how they are coming along. First I am still keeping with one of my resolutions from last year. It has been 15 months and I am still free of fast food. The closest I have been to eating fast food, is no more than the handful of times that I have been to either Subway, Quiznos, and/or Culvers. I haven’t even had the urge to stop in at a McDonalds, Burger King or Taco Bell.
On to this years resolutions, I have four banned food substances. Candy, I accidentally have a peppermint candy after a lunch at work and spit it out right after I realized that it was candy in my mouth. Soda, I had a sip of someone’s soda when I was down in Mexico. Otherwise the only soda I have had is in mixed drinks. French Fries, I have been clean on the fries. And they are tempting because they are always on my plate when I go out to eat. But I have yet to have one this year. Doritos and potato chips, I had a handful of baked Doritos when I was skiing in Wausau. And I have made the clarification that nachos as well as chips and salsa do not fall into this category. I waver a little bit but not too bad. In fact I was at my first cook out of the year Saturday night, and there was a bowl of Doritos and I didn't have a single chip.
And now I have Red Bull and Vodka added to my banned substance list. All in all, I think I am doing pretty well on these resolutions, which results directly into eating better. And makes me a healthy person. At least physically healthier. My mental health is another topic all together.

Picture of the Day

Before the picture of the day, I would like to say what an absolutely beautiful day. At least here in Woodbury, Minnesota. It was 77 degrees, that is almost 80! I feel bad because I really didn't do much with the day either. I didn't get out of bed until 3 in the afternoon. But I did go out shopping. I was actually a bit disturbed when I saw people in the parking lot waiting for parking spaces closer to the stores. I actually parked far away from the stores so I could just walk outside and enjoy the weather. But like a hot girl in the bar who asks for you phone number or buys you a drink, I know that this weather is just one big tease. I am still expecting it to snow at least one more time before summer.

This picture was taken my senior year of high school (the fall of 1990). That is me with the ball in our second round regional playoff game. You can see Mike Braun in the background. And yes that is a mullet that I am sporting. As I recall it was maybe 40 or 45 degrees on this day. But we did win the game. Good times.

Easter Eve Party

Last night Lisa talked me into having a party at my townhouse here in Minnesota. She has been pushing for this party for a long time. So I gave in. The Saturday of Easter weekend is the only day that really works for me. For those that are religious out there, we can call this an "Easter Eve", "Holy Saturday", "Easter Even" or the "Great Sabbath" celebration. And if there is time maybe we can go and find a big rock somewhere and push it around in the early morning.

I will be back living in Wisconsin by the end of April, so this is my last hurrah in Minnesota. I won't be cooking any food, so eat before you show up. But I will have plenty of drinks as usual. If I get enough people committed to showing up, I will get a half barrel. And who knows, if things get crazy enough, just maybe I will lost my security deposit.

So if you didn't get an evite, that means I don't have your email address. But if you are reading this you are more than welcome to attend. Just leave me a comment saying you will be there.

Dressing up in Easter costumes is encouraged.

Movie Review

Friday afternoon I went and saw "300". It was just O.K. Pretty much Braveheart but with Spartans instead of Scotsman. And the story line was worse. 300 Spartan warriors led by their king take on the entire Persian army whose numbers are in the thousands. I did like how the film was shot, everything was very clear and crisp. You would have to see it to understand what I am talking about. I am going to say that it has to do something with computers. Also, most of the action shots are slowed down so you can see every decapitation and amputation clearly which I liked. The blood splatters are computerized and if you ask me they could have made it more bloody but they didn't. Good for them. Although I find it hard to believe that all Spartans had six pack abs like portrayed in the movie. I swear the entire cast must have been doing ab crunches whenever they weren't shooting. It made me feel really fat as I sat and watched eating my Nutter Butters. I will give the movie a "5".

Happy Birthday Jared

First, let me complain about how tired I am. I was up around 10:30 in the morning Thursday. I tried to get a nap in that afternoon but that didn't work. I played soccer that night and then had to be at my bridge by 9:00 p.m. The one good thing is that the operator's house for the bridge does have a TV so I saw almost all of the Tennessee - Ohio State game. I know it doesn't sound like work but it is. I was out working at the bridge and didn't get home to sleep until 8 in the morning. Then it seemed I had a phone call every 30 minutes. So if I got 2 hours of sleep this morning I would be surprised. Although I am guessing I am not getting a lot of sympathy since I was watching TV while working.

This weekend is my nephew, Jared's, birthday party. I would like to apologize on not being able to attend. I have been away from Minnesota, 5 of the lat 6 weekends. That plus my new sleeping schedule has burnt me out. But I will be home the weekend of April 15th and I will make it a point to take Jared birthday shopping.

So today's picture of the day goes out to Jared. This picture was taken on Halloween in 2003. That is Jared on the left, then me and Lindsey before we head off to go trick or treating. Halloween is fast becoming one of my favorite holidays. It is so much fun to go trick or treating with my nieces and nephews. It is at night time, when I was a kid it was during the day. Usually my brother, Jon, and brother in law, Tim go with and have a 12 pack or case of beer. We don't get drunk and the cops don't have to be called in, so you can rest assured knowing that we are not responsible for any drunk driving deaths. Just a slice of midwest Americana.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Currently I am running in second place in my NCAA pool. But I am pretty sure I will drop down into mediocrity and out of the money by the end of the weekend.

Graveyard Shift

A lot of you out there think that I don't work very hard or very much. And maybe you are right. But thing have changed this week. My project is coming to a close. A good portion of the repair work on the bridge that I am working on is complete and we are in the testing phase of the project. Testing that can only be done at night. I need to be on site and oversee all testing. So my new hours are working from 9:00 p.m. until 5:00 a.m., the graveyard shift. It is a little tough switching around my sleep schedule But I am starting to get used to it. Although it should be interesting to see how I stick with this new sleeping schedule over the weekend. Anyone want to get together Sunday at 3:00 in the morning to watch a movie?

This testing does put a bit of stress on me. Last night we raised the bridge to fully open for the first time since September. It went OK. The only thing is that we aren't the most experienced at running the bridge and it is a bit difficult to get both of the leafs of the bridge to mate. At times there is a lot of loud banging and crashing of the two leafs into each other. Two nights ago I thought we had broke the bridge and I could literally feel my stomach drop about 3 inches watching. It was the most scared I had been in a long time. But we haven't broke anything real bad yet. My days here in Minnesota are number, I would guess I should be out of here in about a month. If anyone would like to help move, I am looking for helpers.

Picture of the Day

I found this picture to be fitting based on the events of this past weekend and the criticism I have taken on my blog the last couple of days. This picture was taken on November 5th 1996 at the Village of Shorewood Police Department. It is the mug shot that was taken at the police station when I was arrested for child stalking. I was later acquitted of all charges. Despite the fact that I had a bag full of Butterfingers in the backseat of my car. Here I am in my cell that same day.

Rebuttal

This will be a little different from my normal funny and amusing postings. The main reason for my blog is to help me keep in touch with my family and friends. I knew when I created my blog that my opinions, ideas and actions would be out in the arena of public opinion to be judged. I have always welcomed and encouraged comments from anyone, even if critical.
I have an anonymous reader has come to be critical of my actions this past weekend. And I would just like to address some of the issues and comments that were made. In case you missed it, here is the comment:"Your idiot behavior only affects you?: what if the bouncer has a heart attack wrestling with you? What if the cop doesn't stop a drunk driver because she was dealing with you? What if the drunk driver kills someone because the cop didn't stop him? No good can come from idiot behavior and you may not just be hurting yourself."
According to my research, only 1.4 in 100,000 people between the ages of 25 and 34 die from Myocardial Infarction (heart attacks). So the chances of him having a heart attack are very slim. People in that category just don't have heart attacks. They would be more likely to have a tree fall on top of them.
As far as your linking me to the cause of a drunk driver killing someone, well I think that is quite the leap of logic. By your line of thinking, I could make the claim that if a little girl asks a police officer for help to get her cat down out of a tree, this little girl is taking away the police officer's valuable time. Time that could be spent investigating and detaining a child molester. Therefore this little girl is responsible for child molesters being on the street.
Does my drinking also affect Global Warming? I suppose I was the second shooter on the grassy knoll with a drinking my hand? I am not arguing with you that my actions were uncalled for and idiotic. They absolutely were. But your current arguments on my actions affects on other people, lack basis, logic and were not well thought out.
Maybe I have a "problem". And if you happened to read my last posting, I have started to take steps to fix this "problem". Let he who is without guilt cast the first stone.

Drinking Problem

Since my latest episode with imbibing Red Bull and Vodka (or Power Converters as I like to call them) I have made a decision. I am done with drinking them. This was the second time I have been carried out of an establishment because I was drinking Power Converters. That is really two times too many. I mean honestly, I am 33 years old. Should I be acting this way? I have given them up cold turkey.

This brings me to another issue. And that has to do with my drinking. Despite this latest incident, I really don't think I have a problem. Sure I get a little out of hand at times with I drink, and sometimes I make poor decisions. But those poor decisions for the most part only effect me. Maybe I am wrong here, but I think people who are around me when I drink find me entertaining and fun to be around. Here is a poll to see if I am right or not.

Do I have a drinking problem?
	No, you are life of the party, we need you man.
	Yes, I am embarassed to be around you when you drink.
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Red Bull and Vodka

Yes I was back in Colorado this past weekend. And I did get into a little bit of trouble. I stayed with Russ, but Russ was sick the entire weekend. Friday night I went out in Breckenridge with one of Russ' co-workers, Eric. I had just met Eric that day, but he wanted to go out for a drink or two and so did I. We went to a bar called Cecila's. It wasn't long until we were both drinking Red Bull and Vodka (Power Converters). We also mixed in a couple Irish Car Bomb shots to begin the St. Patricks Day celebration. As the bar began to fill up we made our way down to the dance floor. At one end of the dance floor was something of a stage, but it only stood maybe a foot higher than the rest of the dance floor. There were some girls that were dancing up on the stage. I thought it would be fun to jump up there as well. Immediately a bouncer came over and told me to get down and that only girls were allowed up there. I got down. Once he walked back to where he was sitting I jumped up there again. He came back again and told me not to do it again. As he was walking back, I jumped up on stage for the third time. Before I finish the rest of the story, I would like to state that I deserved what I got and I was absolutely antagonizing this bouncer. He turned around, ran at me, and tackled me off of the stage. I really wasn't expecting this type of reaction. Together we fell back onto the dance floor easily clearing out 9 or 10 people. I landed on my back with most of my weight and the weight of the bouncer falling on my elbows first. It was at this point that we wrestled around on the floor for a good minute or so, before another two bouncers came running and jumped on top of me. The three of them finally got me pinned to the floor chest down. It was at the point that they picked me up, one guy on each arm and another guy on my legs. In the process of being carried out of the bar, I managed to knock over at least 3 or 4 bar tables. It was somewhere in this time period that Eric, who again I had just met that night, spotted me getting carried out of the bar. He met me outside shortly after I had been dropped to the ground. The bouncers said if either of us tried to get back into the bar, that they would call the cops. Eric needed to get his jacket and close out his credit card tab. They wouldn't let Eric back in, so I told them to call the cops. After all I had just got assaulted by a bunch of over reacting bouncers. A single cop showed up and demanded to get my ID and ran a background check on me. When she came back from her squad car she told me that she got a call and that I was described as throwing punches and picking fights, which I was not. I immediately interrupted her to explain that I am a lover not a fighter. She did not care for my interjection and told me not to interrupt her. So I let her talk and say what she had to say, the entire time I was just staring right through her. After a good minute or two of her rambling she finally stopped talking. At which point I said to her, "Are you finished? Is it my turn to talk or what there something else you wanted to add?" Officer Lynn did not find me at all amusing, but she did then allow Eric to go back inside and get his jacket and close his tab. I continued to make an argument with Officer Lynn to get my $5 cover charge back. But despite my efforts I didn't get my money back. Eric and I eventually went on to another bar. Saturday was a pretty rough day for me. Both of elbows were just killing me and I was really hung over. Russ was still sick on Saturday so I went skiing with Marty. We got in a good 5 or 6 runs and then I just couldn't handle it any more. I felt like I was getting motion sickness from the skiing. I told Marty to take a couple runs by himself and I skiing over to the side of one of the runs and just laid down. Marty ended up doing three runs while I was there lying on the hill sleeping. Although I was pretty content just laying there. The weather was great, 45 degrees and sunny.

Here I am doing a shot ski at Copper Mountain with a group of Russ' co-workers. That is my wing man Eric on the left. As you can see, I have a T-shirt over my shoulder. There was something of a band playing at the bar and the bartenders were throwing out T-shirts during the show. But then this one bartender, who had a thing for me, because he had already bought me a couple beers and shots, told me to follow him to the bar, and he gave me a T-shirt.
Here I am with two of the three bouncers that carried me out of the bar. They stood outside with me while we were waiting for the police to show up. I tried to get them to pose with me, but they weren't real receptive to that idea, so this was the best that I could do. Jeff, the guy in the cowboy hat was a rather large guy. I am a little disappointed that it only took 3 guys to carry me out. The last time I was forceably removed from an establishment, it took 6 guys. I am losing my touch.
Here is Eric in discussion with Officer Lynn. I am currently working on getting a copy of the police report if indeed one exists.
This is back at the condo. You can see how took quite a bit of beating on my elbows. I lost some skin on my right elbows and you can see the blood staining through on my left elbow. They are still both really sore. In hindsight this is another example of poor decision making.
This was Saturday after skiing / sleeping. That is Russ on the left, Marty in the middle and me in the gorilla suit. This is in the village of Copper Mountain. The Samples were playing outdoors as part of the St. Patty's celebration. Sunday we came back down the mountain and because Russ still wasn't feeling too great, I hung out with Marty all day. We stopped by Marty's place. Here is his daughter, Chloe. She is a really cute kid and you can just tell that Marty and Melissa are going to have their hands full with this little girl.
Sunday night, Russ and I stayed at Mana's place. While Russ was resting, I went out with Mana, Mana's cousin and his girlfriend. I am sorry but I forgot their names. But here we are at dinner. Mana is the one sitting across from me.

Quick Post

I am not sure many of you know this, but I am back in Colorado this weekend. Probably my last chance to get out here and ski. I will be back Monday afternoon. But I wanted to drop off a little update. Last night I was out at the bars in Breckenridge. One thing led to another and I ended up getting thrown out of the bar by three bouncers. Literally carried out. So sad.

Wedgie Fever

This is a story that I have tried to block out of my memory for years, and I forgot what trigger this memory but I thought I would share it with my readers. It was the fall of 1987, I was a skinny freshman in high school and I was on the freshman soccer team. I doubt I was much over 5' - 5" and 130 lbs. I know this because at the time Steve Nevermann seemed like a giant to me. My brother, Jon, was a senior and captain and eventual MVP of the varsity soccer team. The three soccer teams all practiced on two soccer fields all next to each other. Early into the season all of the teams had practice after school and we were all milling about on the practice fields before practice began. By this time in the season the entire varsity soccer team knew who I was because of my brother. The freshman team was on one side of a field and the varsity on the other. I am going to say that this idea was the brain child of my brother good friends, Steve Nevermann and Kris Darragh. I was just getting ready for practice and suddenly the entire varsity came charging across the field screaming "Davies is getting a wedgie!!!" It took a second or two to comprehend this, and then I just took off running. Due to the discrepancy in size, it didn't take long for the whole varsity team to catch up to me. At which point they tackled me to the ground and pulled the band of my underwear up and over my head. Traumatic.

Picture of the Day

This picture goes out to one of my most loyal readers, Sugar Lips. Here I am at The General's wedding. Let me see if I got the date right on this one. I want to say July 17th 2004. General am I right? This is me, Sugar Lips and Schmidty.

How Often Do You Read?

My friend, Sugar Lips, left a comment the other day, saying how much she enjoys my blog. She even went so far as to say that she is a daily reader. That got me to thinking how often my readers check in on the blog.

How often do you visit my blog?
	Once a day
	Once a week
	Once a month
	Get over yourself, I read it once and it sucked
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Picture of the Day

Here is your picture of the day. Taken this year, February 18th out on Lake Waterville. I guess you could say I was ice fishing but I was really just watching and having a beer or two. I am so happy to see that the weather is getting warmer. Although it is too bad that just as the weather is starting to get nice and I will be shortly leaving Minnesota. And I know that summer in Minnesota is great. Here is some exciting news. This afternoon Nate called me up and asked me to be a god parent to his son, Elery. I was honored to be asked and happily accepted. The modern definition of godparent is an individual chosen by the parents to take a vested interest in raising a more complete human being. And traditionally is responsible for caring for the child should he/she be orphaned. I have done some research on this topic. Here are some interesting facts that I have learned according to the source linked above:
A god parent must be at least 16 years old, be baptised themselves, and not labour under a canonical penalty. They should also enjoy stability in life, have high moral character, enjoy patience, can relate to a child and would be an exemplary model role. A person should be disqualified from consideration of being a god parent for any of the following: Has not been at Mass for 2, 5 or 10 years. The person employs birth control methods. Is a member of a condemned society. The person is a public sinner.
So that is a lot to think about.

Weekend Update

It was a pretty rough weekend for me. I got into town Friday evening and watched the first half of the Badger Game at my brother, Dan's, place. Then I had dinner with Chris, Rebecca, Angela and Vanessa. We watched the DVD with all of the pictures from Mexico on it. Around midnight or so, I met Nate out in downtown Milwaukee. I ended up staying out with Nate until the bars closed. Knowing that I had the Blarney 5K run in the morning, I didn't want to be hung over. Which means I went shopping for some food to cook up. By the time I finished eating a pizza it was just after 4 in the morning, then I went to bed. Staying up nearly all night probably isn't the best preparation for a race. In fact I am going to unofficially claim that I was up later than anyone who ran the race. I had set the goal of 25 minutes for the run, but came up a bit short finishing in 25 minutes and 55 seconds. I am guessing more than 4 hours of sleep would have improved my time, but I don't think it would have cut a whole minute off. After the race I went with Pretzel, who did the race with me, and her sister and some of their friends down to Leff's Luckytown. The plan was to stay for a glass or two of green beer and some cheese curds. Then the Badger game came on. The next thing I know the pitchers are coming to the table two at a time and we are doing shots off of a down hill ski (A shot ski). I was back home by 5:30 or 6 and I started ripping up the carpeting in my basement. Not even as close to as much fun as it sounds. I met my family out in Delafield for some drinks. That continued on over to a bar in Okachee until I finally got kicked out of the bar at 2:30 in the morning. Sunday morning I had breakfast with the Stegall family, and then enjoyed the remainder of the fabulous day in my truck driving back up to Minnesota.

Vanessa and Angela Friday night,

Here I am ripping up my carpeting Saturday evening. It had been about 3 weeks since the pipe burst and the carpeting was still soaking wet. Saturday night, my brother in law, Tim, wouldn't do a shot of Tequila with us, so I bought him a kiddie cocktail with extra cherries.Sunday morning breakfast with the Stegalls. Here is Diane with Topher.

Chris and Rebecca

I would like to tell you about my favorite engagement story. I am sure their are quite a few out there that might be better than this one, but this is the only one that I am somewhat involved in. Not only is this my favorite engagement story, but is from one of my favorite couples to hang out with, Chris and Rebecca. This goes back to the spring of 1997. It was a couple months after I graduated from college and I was back home and doing construction installing boat piers on Lake Geneva. Chris and Rebecca were living together in the Wales area and I was living with my parents also in Wales. Chris and I had a good 35 - 40 minute drive to the shop in East Troy every morning, so we were car pooling to work every day. I am going to guess that this was some time in May because I know we were working 7 days a week. And they were long days at least 10 hours a day, actually it was probably closer to 12 hours a day. One night after work I came up with the brilliant idea to stop at every bar on the left hand side of the road for just one beer. I am thinking this was either a Tuesday or Wednesday night. So their was really no special occasion for the idea. I just came up with in and since we had to work the next day no matter what day of the week it was, Chris was all for it. We must have stopped at 4 or 5 bars, but as I said we only had one at each of those. But the last bar we stopped at in North Prairie, which I think was the last one the rest of the way home, we had a couple more. After a pitcher Chris and I were feeling pretty good. I guess that is what comes with a 12 hour day of hard labor and fresh air. Chris and I were sitting at the bar, and I asked him how long him and Rebecca had been dating. Chris said it was something like 6 or 7 years. Then I asked Chris if he was planning on pulling the trigger anytime soon and proposing. Chris really didn't say too much and I left it at that. The next morning, I was feeling pretty crapping and a little hung over. Chris pulled into my parents driveway. I jumped in and we started on our drive to work. I think our conversation went something like this:
Nothing but the radio for the first 5 minutes. Then,
Chris: "Hey I have to tell you something?"
Me: "Oh yeah. What is that?"
Chris: "Last night after I dropped you off, I got engaged."
Me: "YOU DID WHAT?!?!?!?"
Chris: "I got engaged."
Me: "You know when I was asking you that last night, I didn't mean that you had to do it right away."
Chris:"Yeah, I know."
Me: "Well, congratulations."
I have brought this story up a number of times in front of Rebecca. And the way she tells it, it was a little less than romantic. Especially since Chris sort of passed out before they left for Lampham Peak where Chris proposed. Again that is kind of my fault. But to this day, still my favorite engagement story. Come this September it will 10 years for those kids and as you can tell from that picture taken earlier this month that flame still burns hot. Get a room.

Picture of the Day

This picture was taken in the summer 1994 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Spider, Paul, myself, and Kaker reinacting the Beatles Abbey Road album cover in front of Krum's place.

Here is the orginal album cover. Note how Paul is Paul, even to the point where neither are wearing shoes. Kaker, the consumate professional, has his hands in his pockets just like John. Me, well I am out of step just like Ringo always was.We are closing in on arguably the biggest gambling event of the entire year. The NCAA tournament pool. And with the pool comes my yearly posting of me dunking a basketball. Man I love that picture. For those interested gamblers out there, I have already set up a league on Yahoo sports. If you have not received an email invitation to the league, that means that your credit with me is no good. I am trying to get away from gambling with known deadbeats. But if you would like to be in the league, leave me a comment stating why you would like to be in the league and I will consider allowing you in. Justus you are not welcome.

Random Thoughts

This came to me this morning on my drive into work. If you ever get the opportunity to see Preston Klink do interpretive dance to any Dave Matthews song, don't pass it up. Normally it is best if Preston has a couple drinks in him, but he did it last year at the Freeman Party and as anyone who was there will tell you it was hilarious.

Newt Gingrich wanted to know my political views. The absolute truth, I couldn't care less about politics. The fact is, I rarely ever vote. I know, people have died protecting my right to vote, but they also died for my right to make the decision not to vote. In the big picture of things, I really don't believe that my vote counts. That being said, I have never gripped about politics. I realize by failing to vote, I lose my right to complain about what happens in the political arena and that is fine with me. I would rather discuss feminine hygiene products and ballet than politics. So much for my political views.

The General wanted some more information on how Lupe came to be. I honestly wish I had more to give you. But I really don't remember much of that evening. One minute the four of us are sitting around the bar having drinks and maybe just a shot or two of tequila. The next, I am pushing Chris to ground and jumping into the tattoo chair and telling myself that pain is just weakness leaving the body.

Here is something that really impresses me about Minnesota. They do not screw around when it comes to snow removal. They bring in the big guns. Shopping center parking lots are cleared with front end loaders, I even saw a grader out on the streets this past week. My own town house complex uses skid loaders to remove the snow.

This weekend I will be home in Milwaukee. I am hoping to get a sheepshead game together for Saturday afternoon around 2:00 p.m. Anyone interested should get a hold of me.

Also this weekend, actually Saturday morning I am doing the Blarney 5K run. The Pretzel is the only person who has replied to my invitation of doing the run with me. The last 5K run that I did was the Bastille Days run. My time was 27:57. This weekend I am looking to break the 25 minute mark. Here is a poll.

What will my time be this weekend?
	24 minutes
	25 minutes
	26 minutes
	27 minutes and 57 seconds
	Over sleep and not make the race
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Oh and Saturday night, Saturday is looking to be a busy day for me, I am getting together with my cousins for a night out drinking. That should be interesting. Look for some quality pictures from this coming weekend. As normally is the case when the cousins get together and drink, the girls usually end up kissing each other. Weird.

Picture of the Day

Here is your picture of the day. I haven't had one in a while. This was taken May 1st 2001 in Waukesha, Wisconsin. This is me with my niece, Sarah. The day after she was born. I would have liked to have done the Heisman pose but I think my sister in law would have been too nervous thinking I would have dropped Sarah. It is just crazy to think that she is going to be 6. Can that be right? It seems like we just took this picture yesterday. Time flies. Previously some one asked for a close up on my tattoo, Lupe. Here is a close up of Lupe from one of my pictures. Her legs and tail ride up a little bit on my finely sculpted tricep. I wish I had got her to be a little more busty. But I don't know the spanish word for busty.

I thought I would throw open the blog to all of my readers. Since it doesn't look like I will be singing for cake again anytime soon, I am looking for any topic to write about. If any of my readers have a topic that you would like me to discuss, please throw it out there and I will be happy to share my point of view on that topic, as long as the topic is in good taste. That is all for now.

Weekend Update

Here is my weekend update for this last weekend. Up here in Minnesota we have been getting dumped on with the snow as of late. To give you some idea, here is my townhouse in September.And here it is yesterday. Now I know that much of that snow is piled up from the snow plowing but it is still a lot of snow. More than I have seen in a while. In case you are wondering, no I did not do any of the snow shoveling. My complex takes care of that. I didn't do much this weekend. Friday night I literally did nothing. I did watch Hooisers, which I haven't seen in a while. If you have never seen it, Dennis Hopper is incredible in it. Although I am not sure how much of what he did was acting.

Saturday I meet a group of friends in Minneapolis at a bar called Bullwinkels. There was a "Tippy Cup" Tournament going on that Borky was in. For those of you who don't know what it is here is a link to explain. So I went and watched. Believe it or not, I am still trying to dry out from Mexico. I was in a bar for 4 hours and didn't have a single drink. And get this beer was free for those in the tournament. Borky was offering me free beer and I was turning it down. I know it sounds insane. Anyhow here is Borky in action.
This is Kmart helping Myra drink her beer.
Sunday I went skiing with Amy and Lisa at Trollhaugen. I decided to go back to sporting the gorilla suit. Especially after Russ and Krum gave me such grief for not bringing it with me the last time I was in Colorado. Anyhow back to Sunday, after a couple of runs the three of us went in to get something to eat. After we were done eating, I got up to go to the bathroom and walked past the group pictured below. It was the birthday of the girl dressed in black. Someone in the group asked me if I was going to sing "Happy Birthday". My first reaction was no. But then I saw that they had some left over birthday cake. I told them I would sing if they gave me a piece of cake. They said sure. So I sang and got some cake. As always when I seem to pose in a group picture with people I don't know, the group is always so happy to be in the picture with me. I think I just need to start hanging out with strangers more often. Normally my friends and family don't look this happy when they are in pictures with me. Look at those smiles, and they are genuine as well.
Here I am with the cake. And I have to say that it was some of the best cake I have ever had, as good if not better than the yellow and green jello cake that my mom makes. It was fantastic.
I later finally went to the bathroom and came back to find that that group had given the rest of the cake to Amy and Lisa while I was gone. Amy and Lisa didn't have to sing for the cake, whcih doesn't seem fair. But I had another 2 pieces so I probably shouldn't complain. After we had our fill of cake Amy, Lisa and I headed back out to the slopes. Here we are at the top of the hill with the "Lucky Pierre" pose.
That pretty much does it for my weekend. I will try to come up with some good stuff for this week. I will be back home to Milwaukee this coming weekend.

Vanessa

I have fielded quite a few phone calls and emails referring to Vanessa. I thought I would address the “Vanessa” issue here. Plus it is a juicy topic and will attract readers. No, Vanessa is not my girlfriend. She is actually currently dating someone else. Would I date her if the opportunity arose? Most likely, I am pretty superficial and Vanessa is very good looking. But I doubt that that opportunity will ever arise. You see there are things called “signs” or “signals” that go on between members of the opposite sexes. I am far from a master when it comes to understanding these “signs”, but from what I have gathered in my years is that there are four types of “signs”.
The first is the “obvious good”. Examples of this would be a girl coming up and kissing you, or just saying to you “Hey, I like you, lets go out for dinner this weekend.” For me these “signs” are few and far between, but they have happened before and I was able to pick up on them right away.
The second is the “subtle good”. I don’t have much of an idea what these are. I am guessing these are a look of some sort, or a gentle touch. I am horrible at understanding if a girl is giving me one of these signs. In the past girls have told me that they have liked me for a while and I never picked up on any of the signs. That is because I am an idiot.
The third is the “obvious bad”. If a girl slaps you, or says “Would you please stop talking to me?”, that is an “obvious bad” sign. While I have never been slapped, I have been told to stop talking to a girl before.
And lastly is the “subtle bad” sign. This one I know pretty well. It sounds something like “Let’s just be friends.” Or the one that I really hate and have been told a number of times, including by Vanessa in Mexico. “You would really like my boyfriend. He is just like you. You two would have so much in common.” This statement loosely translated means, “I would date you but there is something about you that I don’t like.” For instance you are old, fat and/or ugly.” Future reference to all girls out there, I know you think that this is a complement but in fact it is a major put down. So while Vanessa and I may look good together in pictures and we are a pretty good dance team, I don’t think you will see us together as a couple.

Picture of the Day

I hope you all enjoyed the pictures from Mexico. I forgot to mention it, but I would like to extend a big thank you to Chris and Rebecca for inviting me along on the trip. I sincerely hope that we can do it again. I have finished the DVD from the trip and it is pretty stinking good if I do say so myself. A great soundtrack, you guys are going to love it. But that really means nothing to my other readers. I am a bit depressed about the trip being over, because now I really have nothing to look forward to. The only thing I have on the horizon is my move to Appleton once my project here is completed. I know that will be a sad day for Ms. Anonymous. Are you still reading regularly Ms. Anonymous?

I did just get some pictures today from Jen who was on the trip from the Karyoke contest that I got screwed in. Here they are:

You probably can't tell from the pictures, but I was singing Suspicious Minds by Elvis.Some other highlights, well maybe this is a low light, the weekend before my trip I came home. On that Friday night, I stopped at my Milwaukee home and the plan was to stop in quick, program the thermostat at a comfortable temperature and then go and meet Nate. As I walked into my cold house and was reprogramming my thermostat, I listened to hear that my house was dead silent except for the steady trickle of water coming from the basement. I walked to the basement steps, flipped the light switch and looked down to see a steady river of water washing across the carpeting and curling around the door into the utility room. Not good. I quickly ran downstairs and shut off the water. Realizing there was nothing more I could do, I went and met Nate and then went to the bar. I was confused about this water problem and eventually left the bar, mildly intoxicated, came home and started swinging a hammer into the wall to find the source of this water problem. After a couple of holes it was soon discovered that the water lines that go to my basement bar sink had froze and burst. I calculated that the water could have been running like that for up to 5 or 6 days. Any guessing on how much my next water bill will be? So this summer I will be doing some drywall repair.Today Minnesota got something like 8 inches of snow. Or so I was told. The roads were pretty bad. On my drive home, this struck me as somewhat odd. Maybe you can help me out with this one, but isn't this a weird place to park your vehicle?