Baby Blue

Don't Drink the Water

This is the opening of the show.

Little Willie

Fireworks From The Island

I forgot to post this video. It was Doug's fireworks display last weekend on the island. Mighty impressive. And I took plenty of notes so my display next 4th will be better.

Dave Matthews Show #3 of the Summer

I am not predicting a very exciting week, so I am going to stretch this posting out for a couple days. I didn't do much more than watch TV on Friday night. I had to be prepared for the concert on Saturday, plus I had to work Saturday morning. But only for a couple of hours. I went to the show with Liquid, Doug and Myra. The concert was in Tinley Park which is about a 2 hour drive from my place. We went to the hotel and checked in. We had heard that tailgating was not allowed at the Ampitheater. So we had a couple of drinks in the hotel room before heading to the show. We pulled into the parking lot, pulled out the coolers and started having some drinks. It wasn't more than a minute later, this big white pick-up truck goes by with some meathead in the back yelling through a megaphone that "NO TAILGATING IS ALLOWED!!!" This seemed so foreign to me. I had a hard time getting my head around the idea that you couldn't tailgate. It is so stupid. We procrastinated as long as possible before heading into the venue. As we were walking to the gate people kept walking back to their cars to put their cameras back in the car. Apparently security was pretty strict. That left we with a delema with what to do with my camera and my flask of booze. I hid the camera in my sock and the flask I put in the hood of Liquid's hoodie sweatshirt. This is a professional move that always works. The one good thing about being forced to go into the show, was that we were in early enough to see the opening band, Willie Nelson. I saw Willie quite a few years ago when he opened for Phil Lesh and Friends, and I thought Willie was great. Since not all Dave Matthews fans are also Willie Nelson fans. We were able to manuver our way down to the 10th row. Some of you got a text message bragging about such a thing. After Willie we headed out to use the facilities. Doug Liquid and Myra wanted to sit in our real seats. I just couldn't do that, so I headed back down to the 10th row. I managed to make myself a figure down there for the first 3 songs before I got the boot. I moved around quite a bit for the remainder of the show and it was a great show. I doubt that many of you care about the setlist but here it is:

Don't Drink the Water (I called this song before they played it)
So Damn Lucky (A great song live)

Squirm

Gravedigger (Willie Nelson came out and sang this song with Dave)

Shake Me Like a Monkey

Seven

One Sweet World

Funny The Way It Is

Lying In the Hands of God

Recently

The Song That Jane Likes

Why I Am

You and Me (One of my favorites from the new album)

Dancing Nancies

Spaceman

Jimi Thing

So Much To Say

Anyone Seen The Bridge

Too Much (tease) (I predicted that they would also do a Too Much tease)

Ants Marching

Encore:

Baby Blue (My other favorite from the new ablum)

The Maker

Grey Street (Another great song when seen live)

So here is some Willie Nelson. This is "On the Road Again". Yes I know, I couldn't keep the camera very still in most of these videos because I was dancing around. So it is sort of like the Blair Witch goes to Dave Matthews.

Money Money Money

I am not sure if people really know what I do at work or not. But let me give you a little look into what is my world at work. I am the project engineer overseeing all inspection and administration for the resurfacing project of USH 45 from Kewaskum to Eden. I inspect the work that the contractor performs and I make sure that what they do is done correctly and safely. I measure up the work that they do. I think you saw my post the other day where we (and again when I say we, I mean the contactor) had to place a culvert pipe on top of quick sand. It was up to me to decide how we were going to fix that problem. And now a couple days later I can tell you it turned out just fine. Another one of my tasks at the office is to produce estimates for the work done, which go to the contractor as payment for their work. And where does all of this money come from? Well it is tax payer money. Your money. I protect the interest of the public to make sure that what they pay for is what they get. The reason I am going into all of this detail to my job is because today I produced what I believe is the largest estimate I have ever put out. Basically what I am trying to say is that today I spent $578,510.04 of your money. Pretty scary.

Drama Queen

I rarely pass along email crap any more. There was a time when I would forward along anything that came to me. But now I rarely ever forward anything. This came into my mailbox today and I wanted to post it.
What are my feelings towards the NFL's biggest Drama Queen. As a Packer fan, I will forever be in his debt for the hope, entertainment and the one championship he brought to Wisconsin. However, in looking back, we really should have got more than one championship out of him. It was a few years ago that he really started to bother me. When every year he would be non-committed to playing the next year. I honestly think he has some serious mental disorder where he has to be in the spot light and the center of attention at all times. Now I dislike him even more, for the way he manipulated himself to become employed by the Vikings. Not to mention the fact that he screwed over the Jets by not only his play but by getting them fined a year later. I still believe that he will throw more interceptions that touchdowns this year. Next Sunday should be interesting.

The Weekend Ahead

Sadly I have to work tomorrow. But I wouldn't be on site much past noon. Tomorrow is possibly my last concert of the year. Although I do have my mind set on scalping tickets for Springsteen when he comes to town. And Rusted Root will be at the Rave in December. But tomorrow is Dave Matthews in Chicago. An added bonus is that Willie Nelson is the opening band. I am excited for a great show. They played Wednesday night, and even though their set lists change every show, here is what they played.
Proudest Monkey
Satellite
Don't Drink the Water
Funny The Way It Is
Seven
Stay Or Leave
Why I Am
Squirm
Dancing Nancies
Granny
Spaceman
Corn Bread
Crash Into Me
Raven
Rhyme And Reason
You and Me
Shake Me Like a Monkey
Jimi Thing

Encore:
Baby Blue
All Along The Watchtower

Next weekend I am looking forward to a trip up to Minnesota for the Badger - Gopher football game. But as of press time I still do not have a ticket. Chances are I will be watching the game for a bar.
And while it has been a busy summer/early fall. The following weekend I have nothing planned and I can't wait to have a weekend at home, spending most of my time on the couch watching football on TV.

Work Work Work

Before I continue on with this post I would like to make an announcement of a milestone that my blog has reached. My blog started a little over 4 years ago, on Sunday August 21, 2005. Last week I made my 1,000 post. That seems pretty crazy. To me it is even more crazy that people still visit my blog on a fairly regular basis. Just this past weekend, I learned that my friend, Schoen is another loyal reader.

Alright now on to today's blog. It is about the job I am working on. It is a 16 mile resurfacing job, with a bridge overlay, beam guard replacements and upgrades, new signing and cross culvert pipes. Yesterday we (and when I say "we", I mean the contractor) replaced a culvert pipe. These culvert pipes are getting replaced due to the fact that they are either sagging in the middle or just rusting through. Up until this point no real major problems had been encountered. But on this pipe, which was the last one to be replaced, we ran into some substandard soils to place the pipe on.
I am sure you are wondering, well what do you do when you run into something like this. I am glad you asked. In this case, breaker run is placed beneath the pipe. And what is breaker run, it is defined as "Stone or concrete processed through a primary crusher set to produce a material predominantly 6 inches or less in at least one dimension from a department approved source." In this picture you can see the breaker run underneath the pipe as they install them.

So maybe you actually learned something today. But I doubt it.

The Informant

It has been a long long time since I did a movie review. I am not that busy, but I just haven't had time to get to one. Yesterday, after I finished work, I headed out to the movies. My bike has a flat tire that I haven't gotten around to fixing, so I didn't have much else to do up here in Eden. I went up to Fond du Lac to see "The Informant". This is a movie based on the life of Mark Whitacre who became an informant for the FBI about a price fixing scheme that the company he worked for, ADM, was involved in.

It is a dark comedy that turns out to be not as good as all of the promos indicate. But it could be that the plot is a little too smart for me. It is hard to know if Mark Whitacre (played by Matt Damon) is really an idiot, or just acting as an idiot. What makes it more difficult to understand if he is acting dumb or playing dumb is the fact that he has a PhD in BioChemistry from Cornell. It is a hard plot to follow, at least I thought so. The most interesting / comical parts of the movie are when you hear Mark Whitacre's inner monologue. They reminded me a lot of Jack Handy's Deep Thoughts on Saturday Night Live. Matt Damon character reminds me of the skit on Saturday Night Live when Eddie Murphy dressed up as a white man. But again, I wasn't impressed by this movie. I will give it only a 4 out of 10.

More Camping Photos

Here are some pictures from the weekend that I got from Schoen. I guess you could call these mugshots.
Bob / Red BoneJoe / EdEricNate / Tubbs / Buddy / PhobosThis is Eric's Brother in Law, Troy, but we called him Chaka (from the Land of the Lost).WallyDougTimI didn't have any pictures of me hitting the beer bong, but Schoen got one.Dinner. I am getting hungry again just by looking at it. Even though I rarely ever eat steak, I always do on this trip.Now you understand why we called him ChakaPotato guns.Borky being BorkyUnloading wood for the campfire. Schoen would take pictures while we worked to document the event.Wow, I am really losing my hair. And the hair that I do have is starting to turn gray. I was told this a number of times. Not good.Wait, that last picture wasn't Borky being Borky, this is Borky being Borky.It was a fantastic weekend, I want to thank all of the guys who showed up. It really is a great group of guys. I can only one argument in the four years that I have been going on the trip, and that was when Red Bone and U2 Bob got into a debate over their political views. But after Borky put a can of Beef-a-rino in the campfire without venting it, and the can exploded and some Beef-a-rino landed on U2 Bob's head. And not only did U2 Bob end up with a burn on his head, but when it landed on his head, U2 Bob went running like a mad man, hit a chair with his big toe and split the end of it wide open. Now U2 Bob doesn't come any more.
But back to the point that I was trying to make. It is so laid back and relaxing, when necessary everyone pitches in to help out. A big thanks to Bob and Nate for shuttling everyone back and forth from the launch.
Also thank you to Doug for the great fireworks. When I got dropped off at the launch Sunday afternoon, one guy said to us, "You must have been the guys making all of that noise. It sounded like the 4th of July over again."
To Nate, Tim and Eric, who cooked up the dinner each night. Nate made some amazing pulled pork. He strained off the grease and marinade juices into a cup. Of course we had to give it a taste, and while it sounds a big gross as well as being extremely bad for you, it tasted great. I know, I know, but it was delicious.
Tim the steaks, well it is an understatement to say that they were great, but they were.
Schoen thanks for a second set of pictures to post.
If I am missing something I apologize. I am already looking forward to next years trip.

Camping

I made it through the weekend, barely. It was my camping trip on the Mississippi River. It is such a great time. This year I decided to make it out to the island on Thursday night. In years past it was only 2 or 3 guys out there on Thursday, but this year it was 7. It is looking like that number will continue to grow in the years to follow. The weekend is really all about cooking up some great food, drinking some beer, shooting off some fireworks, relaxing and some incredible conversation around the campfire that on average stretches well into the next morning. I think the last person to leave the fire each night was somewhere around 5:00 in the morning. Not surprisingly, I think Nate was the last one standing every night. Let me get to the pictures.
Last year there was a picnic table on our island, but it was missing when we got there this year. But on a trip back to the launch, Tim and Bob spotted a picnic table on one of the other islands and snagged it.Nate and Eric bring there potato guns. I think we went through about 20 pounds of potatoes. We also learned that if you load the gun with a potato and then put a golf ball on top of that, that the golf ball goes much further. I believe we hit a barge once.But we also bring a driver and golf balls and try hitting the barges the old fashioned way with a golf club. Doug was the only one I saw hit a barge. This swing is one that sent a golf ball crashing into the barge.They never really do anything when we hit the barge, other than come out with a pair of binoculars to look at us.How quickly a Favre hater can change his mind.Borky is all on board with his new quarterback. I am pretty sure he is going to screw them over just like he did to the Jets.Nate always has something going on. Here his beer holder that he came up with last year.But it does work.Tim and Doug shotgunning a beer after losing in Hillbilly Horseshoes.A great sunset on Friday night.Nate with a beer bong, and would anyone like to tell me what Borky is doing in the background.Favre's favorite fan doing a beer bong.Schoen's beer bong.Bob's beer bong.Saturday night dinner. Steaks over the campfire. Delicious as always.Team photo, Schoen, Doug, Eric, Tim, Borky, Wally, Joe, Nate, Chaka, Bob, Molly and myself.The Hults boys, Bob and Tim. I believe that they are the ones who started this camping trip 8 years ago.Me in another awesome sunset.Borky didn't have any luck fishing in the morning, afternoon or evening.Steaks on the grill.Tim getting the fire going after dinner.I didn't get as good of a picture this year of the ring of fire. Maybe next year I will get up in the tree for the picture.Nate recovering Sunday morning.But the Island trip couldn't be completed without a game of "Foot In the Cooler". I believe we set an unofficial record. The game started with 4 participants, Joe, Borky, Schoen and myself. Joe made it 37 seconds before he pulled out. Borky had enough at the 5 minute mark. Schoen and I cruised past the 15 minute mark, as well as the 30 minute mark. The game finished with all ice melted at 46 minutes. Schoen wanted to call it a tie, I said no, he pushed me over but I kept my foot in the cooler. I then managed to pull his foot out before mine. I think I will call that a victory. Yes the unofficial world record for "Foot in the Cooler" is 46 minutes and 48 seconds.