Thursday, January 31, 2008

BMI

Body Mass Index. I was talking to Tree and he brought up the topic of how our friends are slipping a little bit in the physical fitness category. Tree did not name names but I through a couple out there. I won't mention them here. But even if I did, I don't think that they would object that they were looking and feeling better, health wise, 3 years ago. I guess we all did. This topic quickly switched to BMI. I jumped on a website while I was talking to Tree to see what mine is. Here is a site that you can punch your stats in and get back your BMI. Tree had the great idea that I should have my readers plug in their stats and post their BMI. Personally I think the BMI is a sack of garbage. Why do you ask? Well I consider myself to be in pretty good health. Sure I would like to be in a little better shape, but as it is I work out probably a little too much. Then again, I really don't have a lot going on in my life. But I don't think that I really want to lose much more weight. Anyhow here are my current stats as of this morning. Height, 6'-4" Weight 195 lbs. Put those in the BMI calculator and it comes back with 23.7. That puts me at the top of the normal range. Nearly in the overwieght category. Then playing around with the BMI calculator I put in 155 lbs for my weight and I was still in the normal range. Come on. Could you imagine me at 155? Tree said he would post his BMI, I doubt no one else will.

Juno

Yesterday I finally got around to seeing a movie. I went and caught Juno. The movie that my readers wanted me to see. It was a good movie. It is about a teen age girl who gets pregnant and give the child up for adoption. And follows through the entire pregancy from conception to birth. Juno (Ellen Page) is a sharp tongued teenage. I think her character is a little over the top with her sarcasm, attitude and put downs. But then again aren't all teenagers. My two favorite characters are Juno's father (J.K. Simmons) and Vanessa (Jennifer Garner) the obsessive adoptive mom to be. Juno's father gets just enough face time and plays a witty hardnose, yet loving father. And Vanessa is so obsessive that it is nearly irratating. When a character bothers you while you watch them, that is a sign of good acting. Over all it is a good movie and I will give it a 7.

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

New Years Resolutions

I have been doing a rather poor job with my resolutions. Two years ago, I gave up fast food. I have done pretty well with that one. Last year, I gave up chips, french fries, candy and soda. In Utah I broke all four of those. It was the first time I had potato chips in a year. It was the third or fourth time I had french fries. The second time I had candy. Krum gave me a Snickers before we went skiing and I hadn't had lunch. And we went to two brew pubs, and I tried the home made root beer and cream sodas. This years resolutions are going alright. My juggling isn't going so well. Maybe three or four times I have practiced this year. But the swearing is getting better. I played cards last week and only swore once. All of this being said, I am starting over and recommitting myself to my resolutions. Here is a picture that Krum sent me from last Friday. This is me in the chicken suit at snowbird.
By the way, the wind chill here in Appleton today is -42 below zero. It is more tingly than cold.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Getting Krumed

Russ has come up with a new term. It is called getting Krumed. The meaning of the term is being inconvenienced due to decisions or factors around Krum. For instance having to drive out of your way to pick something up for Krum. The last two times that I have been skiing with Krum, Krum has actually Krumed himself. The last time was last winter. I was living in Minnesota and I had booked my flight to Denver. I then forwarded my itinerary to Krum. Krum, looking to save all of $10, got on a different flight with a different airline. My flight back to Minnesota left at 3 in the afternoon. Krum's didn't leave until 6. Krum's flight ended up getting delayed a number of times, including having the gate changed 3 or 4 times, so on top of being delayed he had to keep running from gate to gate. As it turned out I was back home and in my place and Krum was still in the Denver airport. As I recall he didn't get back to Minnesota until early the next morning. This past trip turned out to be much the same. Sunday night, Krum's flight was to leave at 5:00 in the evening. My flight was at 6:30. We got dropped off at the airport. I had to quickly repack to get my skis in my ski bag. I then went into the airport and I didn't even have a line to wait in to check my bags. As I was walking to security, I see Krum at the back of a long check in line for United Airlines. He told me that his flight got cancelled. He ended up staying with a friend in Salt Lake City Sunday night and his flight home through Chicago was to leave late Monday morning. Well as of last night 8:45 p.m. Krum was still in the Chicago airport. So it looks like Krum got Krumed again on this ski trip. He told me he was never going to ski again. This is a picture Krum sent me today. This was taken after 14 hours in airports. The President, CEO and Owner of Spyglass industries.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Utah Ski Trip

Here is the recap from this past weekend. Wednesday night I headed down to Milwaukee from Appleton. I stayed at Preston's place. And to my surprise, Preston was able to scramble together a game of cards on a Wednesday night. Excellent work Preston. We played cards until around 11. My flight to Utah was at 6:00 a.m. meaning I had to be up Thursday at 4:30 a.m. I made it out to Utah by the late morning and met up with Krum. We headed to Deer Valley right away and skied all afternoon. The skiing was OK. Visibility was pretty bad. Thursday night our group all met up at the condo we had rented. It was Russ, Goob, Jen, Krum and myself. We jumped in the hot tub and then went out for dinner. Friday we skied Snowbird. This was a big powder day. I am not a huge fan of skiing in powder because I don't get too many chances to ski in powder snow, nor powder snow that was that deep. So it was a bit of a challenge for me. Our group was made up off some pretty good skiers, me being the worst of the group. Most of the runs on Friday were black diamond or double black diamond runs. They say, if you aren't falling, you aren't skiing hard enough. No problems there, I hit the deck a number of times. The final score on Friday was, Mountain 1, Rickie 0. We skied about 6 hours on Friday. That night we hit the hot tub, and I was in bed by 9 that night. Too much fresh air. Saturday, Krum, Jen and Goob did some back country skiing. I.E. hiking up the mountain and skiing down. I didn't have the equipment nor the will to climb up any mountain, that is why I buy lift tickets. Russ and I opted to go and check out temple square where the Mormon Tabernacle is located and then head to Park City to catch some of the Sundance Film Festival. The Mormon stuff was a bit creepy. It was a short tour of the buildings, but more of a preaching of the Mormon religion. The film festival was pretty cool. The movie we caught was called "Reversions". I would like to give you are review of this movie, but I still don't know what it was about. Russ tried to explain it to me that the theme of the movie was that you can't change your future, even if you know what your future holds for you. I still didn't like it. Saturday night we had dinner at Tiffany and Steve's place. They are friends of Jen and Goob. Jen and Goob used to live in Utah. It was great having them there, to be tour guides of the area. We didn't get home Saturday night, until actually 2:30 Sunday morning. Sunday we headed back to Snowbird. It was around 5 hours of skiing. This was actually my best day of skiing. I had two days in, and a day of rest, so my legs were pretty fresh and my form had come back a bit. Traveling back home was brutal. I left Utah at 6:30 and didn't get into Milwaukee until midnight. Add another hour on to that waiting for my bags. And with an 1 1/2 hour drive to Appleton, that all adds up to me not climbing into bed until 3 in the morning. I will say one thing for the Salt Lake City ski resorts, they have absolutely beautiful house all around in the resort towns. Deer Valley was amazing because these million dollar homes are right on the mountain. It is also nice skiing out there because the resorts aren't more than 30 minutes from downtown Salt Lake City. I also want to thank Russ for setting up the trip. And Krum, Jen and Goob for making the trip the great time that it was. We all talked about making this an annual trip. Here are my photos, I wished I had taken more as we skied but my hands just go so cold. Hopefully Krum will send me some of the pictures that he took this weekend to post here. Here is no shock to anyone who has skied with my out west, I got altitude sickness again. I was taking supplements before hand but that didn't help too much. Here you can see what was left of my lunch Friday afternoon. Although I was fine by Friday night.Krum back at the condo. I will just let you leave your comments on Krum's hair.This is the Mormon Tabernacle.Inside one of the buildings in Temple Square. This is where the famed choir performs. The building was built in the 1800's. And that pipe organ is the largest in the world with 11,000 pipes.Some of the scenery of Salt Lake City. One of the best things about Salt Lake City is that it is surrounded by mountains, so anywhere you look, you always see the mountains. However, I learned that this is also a bad thing, in that it keeps all of the air pollution in the city and they have serious smog problems.The Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. It was a pretty cool scene. They had 9 theaters set up in Park City and then 4 more in Salt Lake City for the films. I just wish we had seen a better movie. But the fact that I do enjoy movies, it was a cool experience to be there.
Here is the roll call of our ski group. Krum.
Russ.
Jason, is one of Russ' buddies that lives in Utah and skied with us on Sunday.
Here is Goob, who is also regular blog reader from California.
Here is Jen, Goob's wife. Originally from the Salt Lake City area.And of course, here I am. The picture isn't the greatest because I dropped the camera in the snow. But as you can see, I had some issues with my ski poles. I fell on them one too many times.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Packer Game Reaction

It has been a couple days since the Packer game. I have been able to settle down and accept my disappointment. And now I am ready to give you my in depth reaction to the game.

It sucked.


Let me reply to some comments left after my last posting.

From Julie: "I am more upset that I was in the same category as the General. When's the last time he updated his blog? Granted my son is not doing much better but then again he is 10."

Julie, the criteria for being my favorite reader was purely based on the number of comments, it has nothing to do with how often one (The General) updates his blog. You and The General have left the same number of comments so you are in the same category. I feel your pain, being grouped with The General is a position no one wants to be in.

Also from Julie: "Maybe you can start critiquing some of the reality TV that is taking it's place."

I just don't watch a lot of network TV. Mainly because I am lazy, my cable TV is hooked up so I get network through the cable, and cable TV through the box. Often I am too lazy to switch the inputs to see what is on network TV. I spent more time surfing the cable channels. I have been watching alot of Ghost Hunters.

Tree, You can go back and look but you did leave you name more often than you think. There were also a number of comments that you told me that you left that I was able to figure out and I gave you credit for those. I don't know who it is that wants to know about my F.O.C. but I am going to address that issue in a bit. Lastly, I am too lazy to try and write a TV show. I do have idea for a TV show. It would basically be centered around my bar in the basement and getting my idiot friends together to either play cards or drinking games and tape it. Maybe it would work and be funny, maybe it wouldn't.

Now I would like to address my anonymous reader who feels she should be my "favorite reader". She would like me to write about my unwillingness to commit to a relationship or my fear of commitment to a relationship. Well sister, here is your wish, let's talk about it. My unwillingness / fear of commit stem from two factors. One, I am lazy. Talk to any married couple and they say marriage is hard work. Even if it is "one of the best things on the planet".

Two, I just haven't met the right person. Do you want me to spend the rest of my life with someone who I am not compatible with or attracted to?

But you are right, I need to get over my fear of commitment. You opened this can of worms, so you can help me eat them. I am game, let's get started. How do you propose that I get over my fear of commitment? And do not be vague. Give me some solid concrete ideas. Don't reply back with "Start dating someone."

I would like to add one last item to this posting. Yesterday was a typical day for me. I woke up, went to work, headed home for lunch and then on my trip back to work, my day took a turn for the worse. I suddenly blew a tire. Not really a big deal. I have had a flat tire before and I am very capable of changing a tire...normally. I was a little perturbed because it was only 10 degrees out. But I knew I could deal with it. I got out the jack, got out the spare tire, I loosened the lug nuts and then jacked up the truck. Here is where I strongly deviated from my New Years Resolution not to swear. The tire was frozen to the truck and I couldn't get it off. I kicked at the tire for 10 minutes, then went in my truck to warm up, went back and kicked at the tire for 10 moreminutes. I even tried lowering the truck down on the tire with the lug nuts just barely screwed on. Then I did the same and drove a couple of feet with the lug nuts barely on. Nothing loosened up the tire. Pissed? Quite. Then I had this old guy walk by me and said "What is the problem? It is only flat on the bottom." Move along old man before I break your hip. I finally had to bite the bullet and call for a tow. I ended up getting all four tires replaced. This is something that I should have taken care a while back, as the last time I had a new set of tires on my truck was 100,000 miles ago. Ooppps. And it is always quick in, quick out when you have work done on your vehicle. I didn't get back to my job until 6:30 at night. Good times. This was an especially long posting for you because I am going to be on vacation the next couple of days skiing in Utah. Don't bother coming back for any new postings until Monday. But I am anxiously looking forward to Ms. check that, Mrs. Anonymous' comments.

Monday, January 21, 2008

My Favorite Readers

I did some research yesterday and tabulated who has left the most comments since the beginning of last year. As you very well may know, my favorite readers are those that leave comments. Why do I love it when people leave comments? One, because then I know people are reading, and two, because often it gives me more material to be writing about. The more critical and contray to my own beliefs the better. All of this being said, I can say the running for favorite reader wasn't even close. Here is the list:

#1. Bubs (47 comments)
#2. Sugar Lips (21)
#3. Tree and Annie (20)
#5. Borky (19)
#6. M.K.A. (14)
#7. K-Mart (10)
#8. Julie, The General and Doggie (9)
#11. Pickle (7)
#12. Pocahontas, Melon, Krum, and Joe (3)
#16. Shauntelle, Rodge, Liquid, Coonen (2)


I would like to note that there were a large number of comments that people did not sign their name to. So if you want to move up the list, not only make more comments, but also leave your name. Maybe I could come up with a trophy or something for my favorite reader. That or a Oakland Gyro. I am listening to any ideas.

Here is my favorite reader. Not only does he leave the most comments but it appears he can also pull the wool.

New Reader

I have a number of very loyal readers on my blog. Here are some of the top ones that I know of, in no particular order: Borky, K-Mart, Bubs, Liquid, Julie, Sugar Lips, Annie, Sherman, Chucker, Unk, Tree, Shauntelle, Joe/Ed, Rodge, Rebecca, Coonens, Pickle, M.K.A., Pocahontus, K.O., Dano, Bones. If I didn't list your name, it isn't that I don't appreciate you, you just don't leave a comment or haven't spoken to me about my blog in a while. I will be honest with you, my favorite readers are those that leave comments. Maybe if I get bored I will go through and calculate who my favorite reader is, who has left the most comments. Anyhow I have heard through the grapevine that I have a new loyal blog reader, my father. So dad, welcome aboard.

Weekend Recap

Here is my weekend recap. I didn't have much of anything going on Friday night, so I stayed up in Appleton. Not an real exciting evening, I worked out, jumped in the hot tub, did some laundry and then went to bed. Saturday was a much more exciting day. I was up around 7 , then drove down to Brookfield to have Rebecca cut my hair. Afterwards, I went to my niece, Lindsey's, basketball game, followed by my nephew, Jared's, basketball game. I am glad that they are getting older, as their games are also getting more eventful. I had lunch with them after the games. I made a stop by Roman's to either pick up the money he owed me for winning his College Football Bowl Pick'em Pool, or to break his legs. Luckily for Roman, he had my money so I saved him the trouble of not being able to walk. I stopped by Nate and Michel. I haven't seen their son, Elery, in some time. In fact the last time I saw Elery he wasn't walking. In the evening, I went to Crawdaddy's. I invited a number of people including everyone who reads this blog. Rebecca, Vanessa and Angela were the only ones interested in meeting me. Preston was going to go, but he pulled up short because he was doing laundry. Seems like a pretty weak excuse, but I suppose he could have told me that he was washing his hair, which would have been even more weak. Dinner was great. I just love eating at that place. I had the seared walleye with scallops, lobster mashed potatoes and carrots. After dinner we went to a bar down the street where Jay and Eric made an appearance. I haven't seen Jay in months. Jay is now sporting a mo hawk. But he did it for a school fundraiser, so it was for a good cause. After the girls left, I went to a party at Jay's brother's house.
Sunday was my fantasy football party at my brother, Dan's, house. We basically watched football all day. I am still pretty disheartened by that Packer game. I don't know if I even want to talk about. After the game, I drove back up to Appleton and that completed my weekend. Here are the pictures.
Here is Lindsey in the process of making one of her two baskets in the game. Lindsey also had 4 rebounds.

Here is Jared bringing the ball up court.Jared had 4 rebounds and 2 assists.
But his favorite thing to do during the game is to play with his wristband.
I was by Nate and Michel. Here is Nate making Elery cry. And look at Michel, she is laughing.
This was before Nate made Elery cry.
While I was by Nate we got a little ping pong in as well. It wasn't even close. But I needed the tune up for my trip this coming weekend where we are suppose to have to a little ping pong tournament.
Rebecca, Angela, Vanessa and myself in the bar before we ate at Crawdaddy's. As you can see, we even saved a seat for where Preston would have been sitting if he had finished his laundry in time to go to dinner. As good as the food was, the best part about the evening was that we came to the conclusion that we are going to head back to Mexico this year. So the plan is to go sometime in February.
Me and Jota. Check out the mo hawk.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Questions

I am happy someone left a comment and asked me some questions on my blog, it gave me something to write about. I had another weird dream last night, but writing all of those down could get old fast. Here are the questions:

"What about recapping your past dating life on your blog?"
Here is the recap of my past dating life. I might be missing one or two in here but I don't think so. If I am, please remind me. And let me cut off my idiot friends right now from leaving a comment like: "What about that guy you dated that week you were in San Francisco for work?"
The first real girlfriend was Karlyn when I was in college. I think that lasted 2 months, maybe 3.

The next one was Dolly after college. Her and I were on and off a number of times over the course of 2 or 3 years, but we were never on for more than 2 or 3 months at a time.

The next girl was Shelly, the Mustang chick. This one was my longest relationship. We were together for 4 months, however, 1.5 months of that relationship, I was in Europe for work.

After here is was Amanda which lasted about a month.

And finally there was also Nicki which also lasted about a month.

The other questions was "Was the National Anthem well done at the Packer game? Because they knew the guy who sang it."
I was pretty excited about being at the game, so I don't really recall it. I did take a picture, that was posted on my game recap. I would have to say it was just OK, because it doesn't stick out in my mind as being really bad or really great.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Sweet Dreams

I have always been a bit fascinated by dreams. I have no idea what the meanings of dreams are. When I was in college, I used to set my alarm clock for 3 in the morning in hopes that I would wake up in the middle of my dream and then write it down. Over the last couple of nights I have been having some crazy dreams. Tuesday night I had a dream that I said to myself while I was dreaming "this should be a movie". But then when I woke up in the middle of the night I recalled the dream and thought, that was boring. The thing about that dream was that it was so vivid and it was like I was right there. In the morning, however, I could not remember what that dream was about. I do however remember that I thought it was pretty boring. Last night I had a couple of dreams that were pretty crazy. And when I woke up in the middle of the night, I wrote it down.
The first dream was me at my parents house. Kaker and Justus were sitting at my parent's kitchen table and my mom was making BLTs for them. My mom asked me to help make the bacon. For whatever reason, I thought it would be a great idea to try to cook the bacon wrapped inside an electric blanket. This did not work. I then walked into my parents family room were my dad and brother Dan were sitting watching TV. My dad said, "We had better get going down to Beansnappers (This is a strip bar in the Appleton area) for the Roy Jones Jr vs. Felix Trinidad fight." Suddenly we are inside the bar and they have a buffet set up inside the bar. My dad, Dan and myself get up to go to the buffet, and we walk by a table that has a number of my brother, Jon's, friends at, Namely the Dillaber brothers. As we walked by their table, I shook hands with each person at the table. As I was shaking Eric's hand, he wouldn't let go of my hand and we eventually started arm wrestling. The arm wrestling quickly turned into a full all out wrestling match with both of us dumping beer on each other. That is it for that dream.
The other dream I had last night, was just me running through an airport and I am late for my plane. Unfortunately I woke up just before I got to my gate and I don't know if I made the flight.
For the record, I have been to Beansnappers before, but that was in college. I haven't been there since I moved to Appleton.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Movie Review

I am at a mental block right now about what to write about. If it wasn't for the Packers, there wouldn't be much going on in my life. Last night I watched the replay of the game on the NFL Network. It was nice to see the game again, but it was much better in person. With the lack of things to write about, I thought it would be a good time to do a movie review. But what movie to go and see? So here is a poll to see which movie, you my loyal readers, would like me to review.

What movie should I see?
The Great Debaters
Charlie Wilson's War
I Am Legend
Juno
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Back to My Boring Life

The Packer Game is over, so now I am back to my boring life. I have nothing going on the rest of the week. With my life being boring as it is, I thought I would once again extend an open invitation to anyone to come up to Appleton for a visit. Not too many people have taken me up on my offer that I made when I first moved to Appleton back in May. I have found out from my company that as of right now, I am headed back to Milwaukee come June. So my days here in Appleton are numbered. But let's start with baby steps here. I am going to be back home this coming weekend. I am hoping to hit my favorite restaurant, Crawdaddy's, Saturday night. Anyone interested in going?

Monday, January 14, 2008

Greatest Packer Game Ever

I know that their have been better Packer games. But not a better one that I attended in person. I went to the game with JFK, who is Krum's dad. We parked near the Stadium View Bar around 10:30 in the morning. We quickly headed to a bar for a drink or two. Then around 1:00 we headed back to the car and tailgated a little bit. I fired up the grill and broke out the beer bong. The beer bong was a pretty big hit with those that were tailgating around us. I had one older gentlemen give it a try, he nearly finished bonging a beer when it went down the wrong tube and he then spit the rest of the beer out. It must have shot out ten feet up in the air. I always enjoy when someone comes up to give it a shot and they say how fast the can bong a beer. I normally go right after them and say, "Don't blink or you will miss it." Around 2:30 or so, JFK and I headed for the stadium. I thought it was a little early to get the stadium. But then we spent a good share of time mingling with the "professional" tailgaters parked in the stadium parking lot. I had my gorilla suit on, and I got stopped a number of times for pictures. And then people would offer me beer or food. It was just great. We got to our seats. Not that their is a bad seat at Lambeau, but ours were great. We were perched out 26 rows up on the 30 yard line. The atmosphere in the stadium was near electric. Even as Seattle went in for their second touchdown with only 4 minutes gone in the game, the crowd was so loud. In fact I think that was the loudest that the crowd was all day. I thoroughly enjoyed the game. The second half of the game, with the outcome no longer in doubt was just a great time to relax and soak in the victory. Madison's band was at the game and they did the 5th quarter. The band was just running around the field, throwing snowballs or making snow angels. I would have been acting the same way if I had been on the field. After the game, JFK and I mingled around the tailgaters by the stadium again. We stopped by this one group, that had a TV with the Patriots game on in the back of the their truck. After a couple of minutes of small talk with this big guy named Steve, Steve pulled out a bottle of Jim Beam Rye and said "Let's quit screwing around and celebrate." He quickly took a long pull off the bottle and handed it to me. At first, the liquor tasted good because it was so cold, but it quickly burned my entire inside at which point I told JFK it was time to move on. We stopped in at a bar and had a burger and then headed back down to Appleton. Once in Appleton, JFK and I headed down to College Ave to meet up with my friend, Ryan. Surprisingly, we were out until around 1:30 in the morning, still celebrating the victory. As I said the best game I have ever been to. Chris and Rebecca, the Charger game comes in second. The fact that it was a playoff game and the added element of the snow just vaulted it easily to the top of the list. Here are the pictures from the day.
This is JFK giving one of our fellow tailgaters, Juice, a hand with the beer bong. Juice was a real piece of work. He didn't have a ticket to the game, but was there to party anyhow. We ran into Juice after the game, apparently he got a $900 disorderly conduct ticket while the game was going on. We then crossed paths with Juice one last time as we were leaving for Appleton. Juice could barely stand at that point, I mentioned to JFK that we might be better off not conversing with Juice. JFK agreed.Here is the National Anthem.That Packers coming to the line of scrimmage. What a cool picture, with the field dusted with snow and Brett coming up behind center. This is one of the Ryan Grant touchdowns. If you look close, you can see I managed to snap this picture right as Grant is crossing the goal line. Me and JFK.
Another Packer touchdown. Note Brett in the lower right hand corner, arms raised on celebration.42 - 20. Could anyone have predicted this? JFK and I after the game.I really wish I had taken more pictures during the day. This is one of the only pictures I got in the bars after the game. We were up front by the band, and I met these two girls. I managed to talk them into kissing each other. It really was that hard to get them to do it either.

Friday, January 11, 2008

A Coonen Christmas

I am a little behind on my updates. But that is fine. The further behind that I am in my updates, the more material I have for postings. This is actually from last weekend. Friday night was all of nothing but cleaning my condo. But on Saturday I went to Waupaca where I was invited to meet up with my sister's family. They were having my brother in law's side of the family Christmas at a hotel. So I stopped in to jump in the pool, eat some free food, and watch the football games. Not really much more than that to add to the weekend that was. Sunday was watching football. Here are pictures. Here is Lindsey at the top of one of the water sides, I raced all of the kids.
Erin at the top of the water slide.I tried a number of times to get a picture of Erin, Lindsey and Jared all underwater. But I was either too close to them, or one of them would come up for air too soon. This is the best of pictures I did take.I did get a better picture of them all above water.Here is Jared underwater by himself.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

We Want The Ball and I am Going to The Game

On the Saturday before New Years as I mentioned earlier, I was skiing in Michigan with Nate and Andy. That evening on the drive home I received a voicemail. It was none other than Krum's father, JFK. He was inviting me to the Packer playoff game. I told him "Absolutely, I will go. I will send you a check in the morning if you would like." The next day I was up in Minnesota and was watching the Packers last regular season game at Krum's place with both Krum and his brother , Diceman. As we were sitting there watching the game I mentioned to them that their father had called me the day before. To which Krum replied, "Oh yeah, what did he want?" I said "He invited me to the Packer Playoff game." Diceman said "He asked me too but I am not making the drive." Krum entered in with "He didn't call me!!"

So Saturday when you are watching the game, keep your eyes on the screen, and look for me in the stands. I just got off the phone with JFK minutes ago. We are all set, I am in charge of the tailgating supplies. Do you think I can get JFK to do a beer bong?

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

You Stupid Banana Head

Last Thursday I learned that my Uncle Walt had died. Over the past two days I attended his wake and funeral. My cousin, Tony, did give a wonderful eulogy. Uncle Walt had been having some health problems for a while. I thought I would take this time to share some of my more favorite memories of my Uncle Walt. Uncle Walt was always an intimidating figure. Growing up I was always a little afraid of him. As I got older, I learned that behind his rough exterior he was no more than just a big teddy bear. I can still recall seeing him cry at my cousin, his son, Tony’s wedding. It was in that moment that I saw the true Uncle Walt. Thinking back to when I was a kid and I would be at family gatherings, I would run past him yelling and screaming as kids do, and he would bark at me, “What the hell do you kids think you are doing?”

In my high school and college years at family functions, I often found myself at the same card table as Uncle Walt. There were times where I made questionable plays and he would say “Why the hell did you do that, you stupid banana head?”

Uncle Walt also used some fairly colorful language. I can recall a time when were again at the card table, and my sister in law, Jody, was also at the table. Uncle Walt was going on about some story and I don’t even recall what it was about, but at some point the story went on like “….and I told the F’ing son of a b*tch, if I ever see you around here again, I am going to sew your ass to your face.” I said to Uncle Walt,”You really said that to him?” He replied, “Well not in those exact words, I cleaned it up a little bit because there is a lady present.” Even though his story was incredibly laced with profanity as he told it with Jody around.

Another time we were playing cards and my brother, Jeff, was talking about one of his friend’s wife’s. He said, “She is generally alright to be around, but she can be kind of anal.” To which Uncle Walt replied without skipping a beat, “That is the kind of girl that I would like to meet.”

The loss of my Uncle Walt was hard to take. He was one of my favorite uncles. It will never be the same sitting around the card table during family functions. I will truely missing being called a "Banana Head".
Here is my Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Walt at a wedding this past fall.
This is at another wedding two years ago. Uncle Walt with Ginger, Kim, Megan, Andrea and Erika.One final note, I was at the service Monday night and not once, but twice during the service someone in attendance, their cell phone went off. So disrespectful. If you can't remember to turn off the ringer before walking into church for any service let alone a wake, you are an absolute moron. You are an even bigger moron if you don't remember to turn off your ringer once someone else's phone goes off. And if you think that you are that important that you have to field calls while at a wake, then maybe you are just too important to be there to begin with.