Blah, Blah, Blah

I have nothing. Absolutely nothing for you. The life of Rickie is Boring. Capital "B". Nothing going on. What was the most exciting thing I did yesterday, I cleaned my bathroom after work. Disgusting by the way. Thankfully I have a pretty exciting weekend coming up. Here is a quick run down.

Friday: My contractors don't work on Fridays. I stop in my field office and do some paper work / computer work, but that is usually done in a hour or two. Friday evening, I have my nephew / god son, Josh's, birthday party at Sussex Bowl. Afterwards I am headed to Dousman Derby Days.

Saturday: My friends Chris and Rebecca are having a Shrimp Boil and Horseshoe Tournament. last year I was put in charge of organizing the tournament. Saturday night I am headed to the Jimmy Buffet concert at Alpine Valley. I have grass seats, but I have since scanned my ticket, rearranged some of the letters, so now as far as security knows, I have tickets in the front section 5th row. Check it out. Think it will work? It is all attitude anyhow.

Sunday there are plans of going down to Germanfest. Tree really wants to go down there. Here is something that is a bit odd. I asked Tree, who is moving back to Wisconsin this weekend, if he wanted to go to Jimmy Buffet. Since Saturday is the day that he is literally driving into town, he told me that if he wanted to go to the concert, he had better get divorce papers ready. However, the day after the concert he is free to go to Germanfest. Does that seem at all weird to you?

Sunday night I have a soccer game back up in Appleton. It is the last one of the season. A win would put our team at 5-1-2 and in second place. After the game I am driving 2.5 hours to Eagle River.

I have been getting burned out lately. My aunt and uncle have rented out a cabin for a week and invited me to stop by. So I plan on staying with them Sunday night through Wednesday morning.

With all of that going on, I should have plenty of pictures for you when I get back. But don't expect anything up until that time. Bubs, I know you are a regular reader, I probably won't be around until Sunday afternoon, if there is a trip to Germanfest.

Picture of the Day

June 7th, 2003. Here I am with Browny, Dorene and Krum at Nate's funeral......I mean wedding.

Picture of the Day

It is going to be another slow week for me. Mainly because this past weekend really wore me out. Between the 4 hours of wiffleball, ghost in the graveyard at Festa and my soccer game Sunday night, my body is just killing me. Believe it or not, but swinging that wiffleball ball as hard as you can really effects your abs. My stomach hurts everytime I sneeze. Don't expect any exciting stories over then next couple of days, just old pictures. Like this one, taken May 22nd 2001. Nate, Jay and I removed this stump from my front yard and then did a bunch of earthwork in the backyard for my retaining walls. As I recall Jim Villa was in town the night before. In those days when Villa came to town you knew you were going to have fun and be out all night and then really pay the price the next day.

Weekend Update

Friday night was a fish fry at Andy's parent's house. Here is Andy with two of his favorite things, a Pabst and his son.Saturday morning Mike Braun had thrown together a wiffle ball game at his parents house. This was easily the highlight of the weekend. We had 12 guys playing, and I was actually the youngest of all participants. When the game first started there was a ball that was hit in my general direction and I thought about diving for it but decided against it. Then someone said to me that by the third game I would be diving for everything. They were right. I was talking to Mike during the game and telling him how much fun playing was. It honestly took me back to being a kid. Remember that feeling as a kid when you would run around outside all day, I was sweaty and itchy from the grass. It was just so much fun. Then again, my body really paid the price the next day. And Sunday night I had to play soccer. I play sweeper on the team, and I didn't cross mid field once.Saturday afternoon after the wiffle ball game, I went to the Brewers game against the Giants. Villa thanks for the tickets, they were great seats. I owe you dinner. I took my dad to the game. We were on the third baseline, 2 rows from the rail. The only problem was that we were right in the sun and it was raging. It sucked that the Brewers didn't score a run, let alone barely got a hit. But I had fun anyhow. Here is my dad with the Robin Yount Statue.Here is Barry Bonds in the outfield.Despite the bad game, you can see my dad still had a good time.

After the Brewers game, I headed down to Festa Italiana. I met up with Nate, Michel, Andy, Julie, etc. It was a lot of fun. I don't think it was the best night for fireworks. But still fun. Andy's brothers cam down with their families. And the night before, I had told Andy's nephews that I was going to play ghost in the graveyard with them, but I didn't get around to it. So when I saw the kids at Festa, I decided we would play at Festa. Here are Nate and Michel.
Here I am earlier with Nate and Michel's son, Elery. Look how happy he is to be around his Godfather. Take that Julie.
I really like Festa because it is at the Lake Front, but isn't even close to as busy as Summerfest. In fact Summerfest is just too much. At Festa, you can walk up while a concert is going on and get right to the front row. If you need a beer, you can run to the stand and there isn't a line. I find Germanfest to be much the same as well. At the end of the night, we watched a Bon Jovi cover band. The lead singer, shown here, gave me a high five.

Picture of the Day

This picture was taken May 1st, 1999. If there was a bar in Dallas called The Grassy Knoll, this is where it would be. That was for you Sugar Lips. This is me laying on the grassy knoll in Dallas, Texas.Two nights ago I had the most vivid dream I think I have ever had. It had something to do with this Book about Asian war tactics. And the book was yellow with red and blue streaks on it. None the less, I woke up after this dream and I said to myself "Wow that was pretty cool." It was like I had just been to the movies. And I thought "Those were great special effects." Then I went back to bed and in the morning I couldn't remember anything about the dream. When I was in college I used to keep a dream diary. In fact I would set my alarm clock for 3:30 in the morning in hopes that I would wake up in the middle of a dream, remember it and write it down. Some of them were a bit disturbing as I am sure you can imagine. Maybe I need to start doing that again, because I am getting close to running out of pictures of the day.

A couple of random thoughts. To Joe Magnuson, I found that there is a La Bambas here in Appleton. I am planning on making that a dinner stop one night. Don't worry I will get a picture with the sign. And hopefully they have some T-Shirts like Rob got that one time in Madison.

I have realized that at some point in a girls life they come to a point that when they are around water the decide that they don't want to get their hair wet. Why is that? And at what age does that start? I mean, obviously they don't want to mess up there hair. Then why go in the water? And an even more important question, why complain when you are in a pool and your hair gets wet? Can anyone help me with this?

Picture of the Day

This picture was taken on April 13th, 2000 in the middle Nowhere, Montana. I was out driving around the state of Montana doing some site seeing if that is possible. And I was cutting across from one interstate to a US highway. I think this was also a US highway or at least a county highway. It was gravel for miles. I stopped and took this picture. I was literally in the middle of nowhere. If you want to get rid of a body, here is the place to do it. My weekend is starting to shape up. It should be much more exciting than last weekend. Friday night, my old roommate, Andy will be in Green Bay with his wife and child visiting his parents. They are going to have a little cook out at his parents place. It should be fun to torment Julie all evening. Saturday morning and into the afternoon, Mike Braun, who was a close friend when I was in high school is going to be back in town at his parent's place. He has organized a little wiffle ball game. I have already called a home run in my first at bat. Then we are going to grill out. I should get my fill of brats this weekend. Saturday evening, I am planning on heading down to Festa Italiana with Nate, Michel, Andy and Julie. Then Sunday night I have a soccer game. Hopefully I will be in a picture taking mood and will get plenty of pictures.

My cousin, Mike, says he is a regular reader here on my blog. He asked me to post his football schedule for this upcoming year. He is on the Whitewater football team. For all interested there is a web link on my blog to his schedule. Mike has told me that if you come to the game and yell his name really loud that he will turn around and wave at you. He also told me that if you show up in a gorilla suit, he will purposely get a holding penalty call on himself.

Picture of the Day

This picture was taken February 19th, 1992 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This is the end of what became to be known as the Minnesconsin Tour. It was the first time I went up to Minnesota to visit Krum. I went with Matt, Justus and Me. We are all highly hungover and not looking forward to the ride home from Minneapolis. Check out the mullet.

Flying

I was watching TV the other day and their was a commercial on for the Outdoor Games. They were showing the event with the dogs where they run down a pier and jump as far into the water as possible. If I lived on a lake, and had a long pier this event would probably over shadow the musical chair contest at the Freeman Party. It also triggered a memory. When I was in college during the summer we would go over to Justus’ grandmother’s house. She lived on Nagawicka in Delafield and she had a long pier. I can clearly picture it today. We would all run down the pier and jump as far as we could. But Justus did it in a way that no one else could. He would get this look on his face, which I would classify as a combination of anger, determination, concentration and pain while he sprinted down the pier as fast as he could. Then as Justus left the pier and sailed through the air his facial expression changed to extreme happiness and joy. He and I were just talking about this the other day. I have a family reunion every year on the third Sunday of July with a similar set up, a long pier. Unfortunately I am a moron and forgot that this Sunday (yesterday) was the third Sunday of July. I thought this reunion was next weekend. So I missed it. Here is a photo from last year.

Note: No animals or children where hurt in the photgraphing of this picture.

Weekend Plans

I am staying up in Appleton this weekend. My sister and her family are coming up to visit their in laws. I told my nieces and nephew that they could sleep at my place. I have a soccer game Sunday night. I haven't played in 3 weeks. That should be interesting. I was suppose to come home and go to Stu's annual "Stu on Stu" basketball tournament. But that would just be a bad idea, since with my history of shoulder problems, I shouldn't be playing basketball and just being around a court would make me want to play. I know that if I showed up I would start dribbling a ball, then shooting, then next thing would be dunking (They are only 9 foot hoops). Finally I would end up getting in a game and hurting myself. It is best I just stay away. Plus I can just fall back on the fact that I am a past champion of the tournament and bask in the glow of my past accomplishments. My contractor on my project at work is working 4 - 10 hour days. On Fridays I come in and work a half day. Just catching up on paper work and so forth. One of my company's engineers down in Chicago asked me for some pictures of some I-Beam supports. So while I was out getting those pictures, and since my contractor wasn't on site, I thought I would take some of myself with my bridge. Here they are. Tree, I kept my shirt on for you.


In case you might be wondering, yes I was out on the project without my steel toe boots on. I hate wearing them. I do put them on when the contractor is on site and if I go out on the bridge when they are there. The other thing is that yes, I am not wearing my hard hat. I absolutely hate wearing my hard hat. But you might find this funny that while I was walking around the bridge taking pictures, I wasn't looking and walked right into an I-beam. It nearly knocked me out. Then I cursed at myself for not wearing my hard hat. Yes I am a moron. Anyhow, everyone have a good weekend.

Bob and Brian

I listen to Bob and Brian nearly every morning on the Internet. I think they have been on the radio since I was in grade school. They were on vacation this week so the station is playing their best of. They have a segment called "The One Question Line". If you are a normal listener I am sure you have heard of it, listeners can call in and ask the two show hosts any question, but just one. It is rare that I laugh out loud at something that I hear on the radio but this one got me.

A woman called in and asked: "How do I get my 3 year old to listen to me?"

To which Brian replied: "Talk louder."

The woman's reply in a louder voice: "HOW DO I GET MY 3 YEAR OLD TO LISTEN TO ME?"

Obviously the women thought Brian was asking her to speak up rather than him actually giving her advice. Her husband must be so proud.

Picture of The Day

As usual, nothing too exciting in my life going on. Sorry. But don't blame me. Your lives aren't much better. I put out an invitation to any one who had anything better going on, and who wanted to be on my blog. All last week, I didn't get a single call from anyone. So let me live in the past. This picture was taken Novemeber 17th, 2001 at Miller Park, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Nate and I launching rockets at Miller Park. Later that day Joe and I went to the Badger Game.

Transformers

I went and saw this movie Sunday afternoon. It was OK. I give the writers credit for actually coming up with a script that works. But there was quite a bit of stuff they could have left out. Such as the importance of the hot high school student who was an expert that the US brought in to determine who the computer hack was. That was a stretch, but then again she was very good looking. So I understand why they put her in the movie. That is one thing they did rather well, and that is casting all of the female characters. Some very good looking women in the movie. Especially Megan Fox. The special effects as you can imagine where excellent. But they tried a little too hard a being funny with the movie. And not only funny, but funny with all audiences, young and old. Whenever the robots would speak it, everything that came out of their mouths was pretty cheesy. Definitely entertaining, but not great. I guess it is worth seeing in the theater for all of the special effects. Unless you have a blue ray player and a big HDTV, then wait for it to come out on blue ray.

The Fourth of July

The Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays. Check that it is my favorite. My grandfather was born on the fourth of July, and no my grandfather is not Tom Cruise. As long as I can remember my mom's side of the family would celebrate the fourth and my grandfather's birthday out on Lake Waterville. I don't believe I have ever missed it. Since my grandfather passed away, the celebration has moved next door to my aunt and uncle's place. The weather is almost always great, I get to play some cards, the lake is there to swim in, the food is great, I am in charge of the fireworks. And the party always goes into the next morning. Here are the pictures.

Here is my niece, Erin, with the cat that she tortured and kept in this bin all day. She named this cat "Orangie".Here is my aunt, Sandy. I thought the glasses made here look like Maxine.My uncle, Dave, and cousin, Kim.Here is my cousin, Andrea, doing a Tequila popper. Tribal Armband!!! Tribal Armband!!! Hot Sauce!!! Hot Sauce!!!Justin and Katie. I promised Katie that I wouldn't post any pictures of her passed out. I don't think she is passed out her. Katie, can party, she just comes out of the gate a little too hard at times.Kim before she straps on the skis.Kim skiing.Justin skiing.Here I am playing a little bean bag toss.And as always, at midnight we play Ina Gadda Da Vida. Here is my uncle Dave, doing the drum solo.

The Great Race

Here is the link to the 41 yard dash.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TngkC-sxj4

Of course I am the one who one the race. I still don't know who came in 2nd, Tony or Jon.

Sorry Tree, but I did have my shirt off at the time of the race.

Fastest Davies on the Earth

I will get to the title in a minute. Let me start with the beginning of the weekend. Friday, I picked up Tree, who was in town for a interview. Then Tree and I went down to Summerfest. We met up with Borky and his group. And we spent most of the night by the Miller Oasis listening to O.A.R. It was really busy. Not much room at all. The highlight of the evening was a fight that broke out right by us. We saw this guy who was wearing a Chicago White Sox hat. Our friend, Todd, had noticed that he had been giving some people dirty looks and shoving a couple of people. Todd predicted that that guy would be in a fight by the end of the night. Well Todd was right. Fisticuffs broke out. It didn't involve anyone from our group but I was close enough to get some pictures. Just a little tip for anyone who might be headed down to Summerfest, if you don't like people or crowds, don't go. Tree and I actually left Summerfest before it closed. I think that is the first time that has ever happened to me. We then stopped in at the bar that Preston works at, then grabbed some pizzas at the store and headed back to Preston's place. Saturday we had a card game all lined up. Tree was back in town and a sheepshead game was scheduled to begin at 1:00. I don't think the first hand was dealt until 1:55 but that is exactly what I expected. Around 7:30 Preston and I headed down to Summerfest again. For reasons beyond my understanding, Tree, The General, and Roman all decided that it would be more fun to stay at Preston's and drink the remaining 6 beers and eat the 2 pizzas that I bought the night before, rather than going down to Summerfest. We get down to Summerfest and I lost Preston within the first 10 minutes. Maybe 5 minutes. No big deal, the main reason I went down there was to meet up with my brother, Jon, and all of his in-laws. I found them pretty quickly and spent the rest of the night with them. Apparently I started running my mouth and I made the claim that I could beat Jon in any foot race that was longer than 40 yards. That sounds like something I would do. The race was set for 2:00 Sunday afternoon. After Summerfest closed I ended up taking the shuttle back to State Fair Park. Tammy, who is renting my place out, was having people over. I stopped by there for a while. Then at around 2:30 when it looked like things were dying there, I decided to go back to Preston's. I ended up running to Preston's. It was a little further than I thought. About 2.5 miles. As I was running, I passed this guy who was walking into his house and he just said to me "You have got to be kidding me." When I walked in the door at Preston's he had people over, so I played some drinking games with them and ended up going to bed around 4 in the morning. Then next morning I realized that my truck was still down at State Fair Park. I ran 1.5 miles back to pick up my truck. Once back at Preston's, I clean myself up and then headed to Jon's place. They were hosting the Brantzeg family reunion. We marked out a 41 yard course and Jon, his brother in law, Tony, and myself lined up for the race. If any of you talk to any of the participants, they are all going to make certain claims and excuses as to why then didn't win. But I will tell you right now, officially I won the race fair and square and no one in the race nor anyone watching will contest that, despite any comments that may be posted here in the future. Once I get the video, I will also post a link to it. I was fairly confident that I would win the race. After all, I was the youngest competitor, I also don't think it is much of a stretch to say that of the three of us, I am in the best physical shape. With that being said I was highly disappointed to hear that the majority of the people in attendance did not predict me to be the winner of the race. So with my brother Jon out of the way, and knowing that my other brothers, Jeff and Dan wouldn't stand a chance against me, I make the claim that I am the fastest Davies on the Earth. I realize that I will probably only hold this title for another 4 or 5 years, until my nephews are in their mid teens, then they should be able to beat me. That is unless of course I am missing someone, but I don't think I am. In fact I think the only relation that could beat me, might be my cousin, Kim's, fiancee, Jake. But he isn't family...yet.

After the race Tony and I were able to kick the soccer ball around quite a bit. Jon has a full size goal in the back yard. Tony and I used to play club soccer together in high school. That was one of my highlights for the day. The other was that Jon put a volleyball net across his pool and we got in some quality pool volleyball. It was a lot of fun. But other than actually playing the game, I enjoyed quoting "Meet the Parents" with lines such as "I bet you would Panama Red" "Spike that Focker" If Florance Nightengale could put down a spike" and my favorite anytime we lost a point "Come On!!!". I also managed to pop one of the kids playground balls playing bongo ball. For those that don't know what bongo ball is, it is a pretty stupid game. You take a ball and kick it up in the air as high as you can. Then the ball can only bounce once before you kick back up in the air. It is great for the hamstrings.

Monday we headed up to the Wisconsin Dells. Yes I am a big bully, while on the go-kart track I spun out my 10 year old nephew, Nicholas, spun him out right into the wall, which caused him to bump his head and start crying. That is right I made a 10 year old cry. Tomorrow is the 4th, and I will be around my family once again, I am sure I can make another kid cry. And if all goes well maybe burn one with some fireworks.

Here is Tree.

This is the donnybrook that broke out Friday night, I think the guy with the White Sox hat is on the losing end of this punch.Saturday night down at Summerfest. This is Brian and Nancy, they met at Summerfest a long time ago, 16 or 17 years ago. If I am ever down at Summerfest, I make them go to "The Spot" where they first met. Here they are at "The Spot".Rob and Kim.Here I am with Tony. We used to be the same height.Jon and Julie.The entire Brantzeg family.Tony on the go karts, rubbing is racing, I didn't spin him out, but we both lost some paint.Here is the view from the last car on the rollercoaster at the bottom of the big drop.And here is the view at the end of the water slide.