Are You Scared?

Yes it is Friday and I am happy about it. It was a rough week, between just the simple fact I need to wake up every morning and go to work, and locking myself out of my garage on Tuesday, I need a couple days to relax. But I doubt the relaxing will take place. Tonight I really don't have much planned. Saturday I plan on watching the Badgers, then heading out to the Palmyra / Eagle area where I will be meeting up with Chris and Rebecca for a pub crawl. I have been building up my costume for 2 weeks now, but I think it will live up to expectations. Sunday is my nephew, Joey's 2nd birthday party. He is 2 already. I have strongly urged all who attend the party to dress up, but I have a feeling that I will be the only one. What is wrong with you people? What happened that you just decided to stop dressing up? Or what age was it?

Because my blog is rather boring, other than the times that I lock myself out of my closet or garage, I thought I would sweeten the pot a little for my readers. I am asking my readers to email me a picture of themselves dressed up for THIS Halloween. I will then post the pictures and put together a poll. Whomever gets voted to have the best costume will win a Oakland Gyro with an extra pita bread and large root beer. Please email all pictures to me at mitch_kumstean@yahoo.com.

Random TV Thoughts

Last night I was at home and watching TV. I was flipping through, trying to get my barrings on the new TV Guide menu. I landed on Music On Demand, and you could pick a music video to watch. I watched "Dancing in the Dark" the Springsteen video with Courtney Cox. I can't believe I thought that was actual concert footage when it first came out. The second video I watched was "Beat It". It is one of the first scenes in the video as gang members start coming out of the woodwork to form, a manhole cover slides off and two guys come climbing up out of the sewer.
"So where do you live?"
"Oh, I have a nice place on 6th Street."
"Which side of the street?"
"Under it."
"Nice."

I wasn't too into the World Series, so I was watching a bunch of Nitro Circus episodes I have on DVR. I did get back to the World Series for the last inning. The Phillies had one out to go and the cameras were panning around to each member of the team with a close up on their faces, it was like they were instructed to stay on each player until they spit. And every single player spit while on camera. You would think baseball players would get dehydrated from all of the spitting that they do. I wonder, do that spit that much when they are away from the ballpark?

Dead Meat

As I mentioned, I watched Dead Meat bowl Saturday night. That is my Uncle Dave, Aunt Marilyn, Brother-in-Law, Tim, and my sister, Deb. I guess they won, because the other team didn't show up.

Let's Get Nuts

I think I am starting to loose my mind a little bit. I just got my statement for the mortgage on my house. I just refinanced in August, I did so to pay off the remaining balance on my new truck. Now that I have a larger home loan, I have more to write off when Roman does my taxes. But the statement I got in the mail said that my next payment is due January 1st, 2010. That didn't make sense to me. Upon speaking with a representative with the bank over the phone, they went over my payment history, and for some reason I have been making payments on the 1st and 15th of every month. I have no idea why I have been doing that. And it is a nice problem to have, but I am trying to understand how I can make an error like that. Yesterday I locked myself out of my garage, today I am making double payments on my house. Oh and last night I found my spare garage door opener, it was in the basement on my workbench. Funny because I never store it there, it is usually in a drawer in the kitchen. Maybe it is all of those paint fumes I have been taking in while painting in the garage.

Basketball?

Last night I was taking a shower and flipping through the channels on my TV in the shower and I came across an NBA basketball game. I didn't even know that the season had started. Then I continued to flip the channels and watched an old episode of Seinfeld. It is a sad state that no one really cares about NBA basketball. Really what is the point of watching an entire game. The last 5 minutes of any game is all you really need to see. It is really too bad, because of all the athletes that play all different kinds of sports, I believe that the athletes that play basketball are the most athletic and in the best physical condition of any of them. So will I watch any basketball games this year? Probably not. I may stop on a game for a couple minutes, but will most likely go back to flipping the channels during the commercial in search of something better. Will I attempt to go to any games this year? Again probably not, I might try to scalp a ticket on a given night, but it really isn't much fun when it is cold out, to stand outside and scalp tickets. I would say that the majority of my NBA basketball information will come from highlight packages on Sportscenter.

Zack's Football Game

Here is Zack blocking.
This was one of only a few passes, I don't think there were any completions. But Zack is playing defense here.Oh and here is Coach Davies. My brother calls this coaching. He is the one "coaching" from 20 feet behind the huddle with his hands in his pockets. Sorry Chucker, but pictures don't lie.

Clown Code of Conduct

Annie,

I found the code of conduct. Allow me to address each of these points.

1. I will keep my acts, performance and behavior in good taste while I am in costume and makeup. I will remember at all times that I have been accepted as a member of the clown club only to provide others, principally children, with clean clown comedy entertainment. I will remember that a good clown entertains others by making fun of himself or herself and not at the expense or embarrassment of others. I CAN MAKE NO PROMISES ABOUT GOOD TASTE WHILE NOT IN THE PRESENCE OF CHILDREN.

2. I will learn to apply my makeup in a professional manner. I will provide my own costume. I will carry out my appearance and assignment for the entertainment of others and not for personal gain or personal publicity when performing for either the International club or alley events. I will always try to remain anonymous while in makeup and costume as a clown, though there may be circumstances when it is not reasonably possible to do so. I AM ALREADY PLANNING ON HAVING SOMEONE ELSE APPLY MY MAKE-UP. AND IT IS TOO LATE TO REMAIN ANONYMOUS.

3. I will neither drink alcoholic beverages nor smoke while in makeup or clown costume. Also, I will not drink alcoholic beverages prior to any clown appearances. I will conduct myself as a gentleman/lady, never interfering with other acts, events, spectators, or individuals. I will not become involved in or tolerate sexual harassment or discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or any protected status. I SEE NOTHING IN THIS STATEMENT THAT I WILL BE ABLE TO FOLLOW. I PLAN ON DRINKING QUITE A BIT.

4. I will remove my makeup and change into my street clothes as soon as possible following my appearance, so that I cannot be associated with any incident that may be detrimental to the good name of clowning. I will conduct myself as a gentleman/lady at all times. ALL OF THIS IS HIGHLY UNLIKELY AS WELL.

5. While on appearance in makeup and costume, I will carry out the directives of the producer or his designated deputies. I will abide by all performance rules without complaint in public. I WILL CARRY MYSELF OUT AS I SEE FIT. THAT IS UNTIL SOMEONE STARTS PAYING ME.

6. I will do my very best to maintain the best clown standards of makeup, costuming, properties, and comedy. I DOUBT I WILL MAINTAIN MANY STANDARDS.

7. I will appear in as many clown shows as I possibly can. YOU WILL BE LUCKY TO GET TWO SHOWS OUT OF ME THIS WEEKEND. AND THEN THE COSTUME IS GOING AWAY FOR A WHILE.

8. I will be committed to providing an atmosphere free of discrimination and harassment for clowns of all ages to share ideas and learn about the art of clowning. NO COMMENT.

Locked Out Again

I think I am a pretty smart person. In fact I actually have a couple of pieces of paper on the wall that say I am smart. But in actuality, I am an idiot. Last night I was cleaning up my garage from my latest remodel job, so that I could park my truck inside. All was well until this morning. I walked to my garage and went to the keypad on the garage door. I punched in the code and nothing happened. I punched it in again, this time pushing harder on the buttons because that always makes it work. Despite how hard I pushed the buttons, nothing happened. My problem solving skills came to the conclusion that the battery in the keypad was dead. So what is the next step? I went back inside to look for my spare garage door opener. I couldn't find it anywhere, and there is a chance that it is somewhere in my truck. I still haven't found it. OK, no garage door opener, what next? Find the key to the side door of the garage. I installed this door a number of years ago, but I didn't put the key on my key ring because I never locked my garage, that was up until the time my neighbor had his garage broken into earlier this year. So I searched in every junk drawer I had in my house. I found a number of keys that I actually have no idea what they open, but I do know this, none of them open the side door to my garage. I still have keys from my old truck, keys not only to entry to the bridge house of my bridge in Appleton, but also the keys to run the bridge. I also have some keys to an old project trailer.Alright, what is the next step? I took the dead battery out of the keypad and walked down to the corner drug store to get a replacement battery. I find the battery section but they don't have any batteries that look like the one I pulled out of the keypad. Let's walk down to the grocery store to see if they have that battery. Well they had a battery that looked like the one I pulled out, but you know what, it wasn't the same battery. Even though it was a little bigger than the old battery I still jammed it in the battery spot. But that didn't work either.Great, now what do I do? I called up Preston, one of my most loyal blog readers. "Buddy can you give me a ride to find a battery for my garage?" "Sure buddy, no problem I will be over in 20 minutes." We took a drive to Batteries Plus, and finally got the correct battery which solved the problem and I was able to get along with my day. But the first order of business was to stop at Home Depot and purchase a new door handle for the garage door.

My plan for this evening is to label and locate each key with it's respective lock, and then make sure it is impossible to be locked out of anything in my house. I used to have a key strapped to the bottom of my truck in case I ever locked myself out. But I haven't done that with my new truck.

"If we do not learn from out mistakes, we are destined to repeat them."

The Weekend That Was

Well let me tell you about all that was the exciting weekend of Rickie Davies. Friday, I worked on my garage again. I think most blog readers have either been in or at least seen pictures of my garage. Yes it is a bit over the top. But I got bored this last week and I ended up ordering more disco lights and the such for it. This forced me to do some rewiring which I actually enjoyed. But to do so I had to take the cabinets and the boards off the wall. And while I had the cabinets down, I decided to paint them with florescent paint so that they would show up a little more under the black lights. I also decided to paint the garage door with fluorescent paint. Yes I know, this is way more than any "normal" person would do in their garage, but it has been stated more than once, that I am not normal. I am expecting the new lights to come in this week. I would venture a guess that by the end of the week I will have everything done and back in place, at which time I am planning on shooting some video and posting it here. Trust me, you will be both impressed yet unsurprised. So I worked on that a little bit on Friday night, then I had a facebook / high school reunion to attend. It is a little weird because these reunions are organized about once every two or three months, but the person organizing it was a senior when I was a freshman. I have tried to invite people from my class, but they don't show, probably because I am the one inviting them. Anyhow I show up and only vaguely know a couple of people. I spent the majority of the time at the bar talking to this guy, Dave, who used to play hockey for Michigan State and then played in Europe for a couple years. He did have some pretty good stories.
Saturday I should have been up early to do some yard work, but that didn't happen. I procrastinated most of the morning away and then headed off to see my nephew, Zack, play football. It was a pretty good game, but at his age there isn't alot of passing. Sitting there watching them play, I thought about being their age again and how we seemed to play alot of pick up football games. I really missed it. Although I have noticed that today not too many kids seem to just play pick up games of any sport. They are always at a practice or a game, and they rarely just play in the yard with their friends. I think that is really too bad. Even going back about 5-10 years ago, my friends and I used to play pick basketball once a week. We even played the day of 9-11. I remember that because one guy had to leave early because his girlfriend was upset. But as people slowing started getting married those games came to an end. I remember one night we were playing and my friend, Basketball Dave, had to leave early because his fiance wanted to pick out a chair. One of the worst excuses I have ever heard. In the fall we would play football on Saturday mornings. Pick up football in the fall, not much better than that. Play for an hour or two then go to a bar and watch the Badgers. Oh well, nothing to do but lament over those days.
So after Zack's game, I went to watch Dead Meat bowl, that is the bowling team made up of my aunt and uncle, and my sister and brother in law.
Sunday morning I finally got around to the yard work and raked all of the leaves, but I know that I will have to do that again next week because not all of the leaves are down. For the Packer game I was at Club Paragon where we played some Sheepshead. I didn't fair so well, I suppose picking on the end with just a Jack of Clubs as my only trump wasn't a very good idea, but I almost won.
I ended the night at my brother, Dan's, as it was his wife, Jody's, birthday party. I was told dinner was at 4:30, but when I walked in the door at 4:45 everyone was done eating. Apparently the time got changed, always the last to know. But it wasn't a big deal. I ended the night with a couple of games of pool against Dan, who historically speaking had a record of 235-1 against me, and the one was because I called that we had to bank the 8 ball. But on this night I lowered his record to 240-2!!!! Straight up I beat him. And all but one of the games were close. I told him he needs to get back in the bars. So that was the weekend. I will have to tease you with pictures to come in the following days.

Oh and I almost forgot, the Halloween costume is coming along wonderfully. I ordered pretty much everything on line last week. And things have been slowing arriving in the mail. The clown shoes I ordered a great. Wait until you see them. I have a number of props, in fact I broke a couple out with the boys while we were playing cards. Sorry, Roman, but you are an easy mark. I have some magic tricks. I even impressed my group of friend's resident magician, The General.

Halloween Costume

I want to thank everyone for the great suggestions on what to be for Halloween. But the decision has been made. I am going to be a clown. I know, it is going to be a pretty big stretch for me, but I am sure I will be able to handle it. I am pretty excited about it, plus I bought a bunch of props to use throughout the evening, and some magic tricks. If you are wondering what I am doing for Halloween, well, Chris and Rebecca have procured a short bus and will be be doing a pub crawl all night. First stop will be Diamond D's on Lake Beulah. Last year when we went there on November 1st, which was a Saturday, no one else was dressed up. We are thinking that this year even on the 31st again no one will be dressed up. The following day is my nephew, Joey's, birthday party. I am pushing to make it a costume party. But I have a odd feeling that I will be the only one, at least adult, dressed up.

It Is Like A Sauna In Here

As you may recall from a previous posting, I had been living in "The Igloo". I think that maybe the pilot light went out on the furnace. I don't even know where the furnace is in the place. And I am too lazy to get a hold of the landlord to come and fix what is wrong. So I went to my trusty old reliable space heater from my college days. It always got the attic nice and toasty in the winter time. That was 15 years ago. Here is "Old Reliable".Last night I finished up work. I went to Fond du Lac to ride on the bike trail along the 151 Bypass. Afterwards I went shopping for some additions to my Halloween costume. By the way, I am all in on being a clown. I have come up with quite the list of props that I plan to bring along with me. I hope that it will be funny. After all of that, I came back to "The Igloo", I fired up both the Playstation 2 and "Old Reliable". By the time I laid my precious head down to rest at midnight after 4 hours of playing video games, the room was an extremely comfortable if not mildly sweltering temperature of 75 degrees. I shut off "Old Reliable", because the fan does make some noise and when I woke up this morning, as you can see below, it was still 68 degrees. I am an engineer and what I do is solve problems. Kind of like Winston Wolfe.

Weekend Update

I wish there was more excitement, but there isn't. I am OK with it. I had some options this past weekend. I entertained the idea of going to the Badger game. But I decided to get a hair cut. And I had some friends that were going to the Packer game. I was going to meet up with them and try to scalp a ticket. But again I decided against it. So what did I do? Friday night, the General stopped by after work for a hour or two. I ran to Crawdaddys for some take out. Really good. Saturday I decided to take care of two projects around the house. I got some new signs for the garage. I will have to get photos up one day. My other project was my mail box. It had been falling off of the side of the house. So I put a new one up. What do you think?I used Eric's post hole digger. Buddy, if you are reading this, I will return it this coming weekend. Eric also warned me to use gloves. I said I would but I didn't and here is the result.Sunday I cleaned around my house quite a bit. Then I went to my brother's to change the oil in my truck and rotate the tires. I made stops at my parent's and my sister's then some grocery shopping and home to make food for the week in Fond du Lac. Nothing exciting but I did accomplish quite a bit. I haven't received a lot of input on my Halloween costume, so I think I am going to be a clown.

I Need Your Help

My Halloween plans have finally solidified. I am going on a pub crawl. So I need a costume. Can you people give me some suggestions? I was thinking of going as the clown from Zomieland.Or maybe just a regular clown. It was a while ago but I dressed up as a clown for my nephew, Zack's birthday.
I will take any suggestions, constructive or not.

Part of the Problem

I have spoke of my apartment in Eden. It was an earlier post. When I signed the lease, the landlord told me that because I was only going to be there for a couple months, that it wasn't really worth it to change the names over on the electric and gas bills. He said he would take care of it. I thought great. But I have found that maybe the gas isn't turned on. I just turned the heat on using the thermostat the other day. Since I am not using either bedroom, I shut the vents in those rooms. Unless I am an idiot, which could be the case, the only vents I could find are in the ceiling. I had the thermostat set to 68 degrees a couple nights ago, but when I woke up in the morning, it said 58 degrees. Last night I set the thermostat to 90 degrees, and you can see by looking at the picture below, that my apartment is a nice and toasting 57 degrees.
I checked the breaker box to see if the breaker for the furnace was tripped. It wasn't. I am only here for another two weeks, so it really isn't that big of a deal.

I Have Had It With This Place

It is so sad, we are only half way through October and I am already complaining about the cold weather. This winter might be the winter that pushes me over the top. According to the Farmer's Almanac, it is suppose to be a long cold winter. Take a look at the map.Bitterly Cold and Dry. Bitterly!!!!! I believe in this case, bitterly is being used as an adverb, meaning: extremely, very or exceedingly cold. I don't like that sound of that. If asked I would have to say that bitterly cold is worse than very cold. And it isn't like being in Arizona which has a dry heat. This is going to be a dry cold. Which means it is still going to suck. I think it might be time for me to start getting serious about making a move to a warmer climate. I may have to follow up again with the possibility of a job relocation to Florida. I am sure Truz would love that. Plus I believe that the taxes are way easier on the pocket. Or maybe a move to Austin, Texas.
That could be me watching that sun set. I can put the murder house up for sale and pack up the toyota. What do you think?

Rooster

I hear this song on the radio a couple days ago and it triggered a memory. When I was in college, my roommate, Kevin, was in jazz band. Kevin plays the trumpet. Often to let off some steam after a bad exam, Kevin would come home, go to his room, turn on his stereo as loud as it would go and play Rooster by Alice And Chains. But Kevin wouldn't just listen to the song, he would play along with it on his trumpet. It was something to hear. I would classify Kevin as being smarter than myself, but for a while there he was playing that song a lot. And I had grown accustom to hearing Kevin on his trumpet and didn't think much of it. On one particular evening, Justus and Kaker were with me as we came into the place. As we walked in the front door, Kevin could easily be hear. Kaker turned to me and said "What the hell is that?" I said "Oh that is just Kevin." Kaker replied while laughing "Is that 'Rooster'?" "Yep"

First Snow

I was going to have a gyro contest for this, but it already happened. The first snow of the year, Saturday. This is a quick picture I took looking out my field office door facing the Eden Fire Department.Looks like I will have to come up with another contest of some sorts. Any ideas?

Zombieland

Last week I went and saw Zombieland. I would call this movie a cross between National Lampoons Vacation, The Breakfast Club, Fight Club and Night of the Living Dead. I actually liked this movie. I don't know if it is a dark comedy, or a light horror flick. One thing that makes this movie is the cameo that takes place. If you intend on seeing this movie, don't read up on it or watch any more previews, because if you know who makes a cameo, it won't take you by surprise when they come on screen. It is a pretty short movie. The one thing that drove me crazy through the whole movie was that I couldn't figure out where I had seen the leading actress, Emma Stone. For those wondering, she was in "Superbad". I give this movie 7 out of 10. The one weird thing about this movie and another reason to see it in the theater, is when you walk out of the movie, because basically everyone in the movie was a zombie, you expect to see zombies everywhere when you walk out. You are a little quicker to your car, and you unlock the car door a little quicker than you normally would. And there is something of a sense of relief once you are finally on the road and driving.

Nothing

It is Friday and I am looking forward to the weekend. I have nothing planned. No concerts, no games, no trips. And I am pretty excited about it. Although I do have to work on Saturday. I plan on making Saturday a short day. Maybe only working until 2 or 3. The remainder of the weekend will alot of time on the couch and watching a lot of football.

We Have A Winner

The Brewers Season is over and the team finished with a record of 80 - 82. The closest person to guessing the correct record was Sherman. Here is Sherman with Pocahontas.Congratulations. Not only do I owe you $73.50 from a fantasy football bet, but now a Gyro. Please let me know when you would like to collect. According to my records, I am on the hook for providing an Oakland Gyro to Sarah, Annie and Tony as well. If I am missing anyone please let me know.

Inglorious Basterds

Last week I went and saw Inglourious Basterds. How can I go into a review of this movie without blowing the plot? I don't think I can, so if you want to see it don't read anymore. The movie is really two plots that get intertwined. The first story is about a Jewish girl who narrowly escape death as a patrol of the nazi army came to the house her family was hiding out at. Years later she again comes face to face with the leader of that patrol that killed the remainder of her family. She then plans out her revenge. The other story is one that you are aware of from previews. A patrol of Nazi killers (the Inglorious Basterds, led by Brad Pitt) roam Europe eradicating any Nazi they come across. In the end, the final plan of Brad Pitt's attack on the Nazis intertwines with the young Jewish girl's plan of revenge. I thought the film did a great job of relating these stories to each other. Sort of like an episode of Seinfeld. I would have liked to see more of the Inglorious Basterds attacks on the Nazis leading up to the end of the movie. I will admit some scenes are pretty graphic and not for the without a strong stomach, but I liked this movie. I give it a 7 out of 10. Next on the schedule is Zombieland.

Bucky over Goldy

Here is the quick recap with a bunch of photos from the weekend. I got in Friday night and we were pretty low key, a couple drinks, some ping pong in the Borky garage and then a little Pulp Fiction. I say a little because I fell asleep right away. The alarm rings at 6:30 in the morning and it is to get ready for the game. While in the shower, Borky gives me a beer. I can't remember the last time I had a beer in the shower, let alone at 7 in the morning. We cabbed it down to campus and got a good spot to sit for the game at Sallys. I mildly entertained the idea of scalping for the game, but with face value at $60, I didn't see myself getting any deals, and half of our group didn't have tickets anyhow. As it turned out, I was at the bar with my friends from 8:00 a.m. and I think we finally left at 8:30 p.m. Here is a sign that you have been in a bar too long, our waitress came to our table to get a drink order, I said to her "What happened to Emily?" Our new waitress said "She left a couple hours ago." So we drank through an entire shift. But it was fun. Here are the pictures from the day.
Borky first thing in the morning while waiting for a cab.
Borky and K-MartBorky, Marty Moose, and Liz.Liquid, Myra and Liz.Me, Horn and BorkyBorky and the Moose.Liquid, K.O., Myra and Flo.Trooper, myself and Krum.The Moose and Krum.Me, K.O. and Trooper.Krum entertaining the ladies. Let's see, are they really interested in what he is saying. One is looking at her nails, another is drinking a beer, and the other is looking the other way. He must have been talking about his high school tennis accomplishments.Krum and Melissa.Me, Melissa, Krum and Marty.Melissa, Marty and Krum. And it looks like Krum is trying to get to second base.Melissa, Marty and Krum.Me and Krum.It was a great weekend. I want to thank all of my friends for coming out to the bar to meet me. Although I am sure I wasn't the only reason they all came out. Also a big thanks to Borky, Liz, K.O. and Trooper for allowing me to crash at their places not only this weekend but anytime I come into town. It is nice to know I always have a place to stay, especially places with extremely comfortable guest beds.

Packer Prediction

I know I am late in this posting.

Here is what will happen tonight.

Peterson runs for 176 and 2 touchdowns.

Favre 12 for 15, 187 yards and 1 touchdown.

Rodgers 24 for 32, 324 yards 2 touchdowns, 1 interception.

Vikings, sadly win 31 -24.

You Betcha, Minnesooootaaah

Real quick. Happy Friday to all. Last night I went and saw "Inglorious Basterds". I will get a review in next week. I had one more Dave Matthews Video to post, but apparently it is a little too long to upload. So you won't get to see it. Tonight I am headed up to Minnesota for the Badger / Gopher game. Currently I do not have a ticket for the game. But I should be meeting with a group a friends at one of the friendly waterholes in the area. Although last night I got a call from Borky. He said "I have good news and really bad news. The good news is that I got 2 tickets to the game. The bad news, you can't go." Apparently Borky could only have the tickets if he didn't bring a Badger Fan with him. I will remember that the next time I sneak Borky into the student section in Madison. You hear me Hillbilly boy? I am going to get Medieval on you!!! Everyone have a good weekend.

Ants Marching