Joey's Birthday

Friday night was my nephew, Joey's, 4th birthday party. I decided it was time for a big present. It has been a while since I have done one. And it is so much more fun when they are young. Here is Joey starting to work on unwrapping the present. 7:21 PM.I think of all the times I have done this, this was the first time any child has opened the present with out the assistance of a knife or scissors. Joey is making progress. 7:27 PM.He got it open and once he got the box open, Joey climbed right in. For those unaware, the box was filled with nothing more than 30 or so balloons with candy inside of the balloons. I know, big spender. It is loosely controlled mayhem watching a bunch of kids running around trying to pop as many balloons as possible as fast as possible to get to the candy. This is what I do. 7:35 PMAnd what do the adults think of this? Well just look at Sue's expression.She looks thrilled.

Here is Joey playing with one of his new toys. I missed the first two takes where he really got excited after watching the car go down the track. I think we all need a little more of the innocence and pure joy that Joey displays here. Oh to be young again.

Costume Contest

LOYAL BLOG READERS EVERYWHERE!!!! NO HEAR THIS!!! I am again going to have a costume contest. Send me a photo of your costume and I will put together a poll. If blog readers select your costume as the best, you will receive an Oakland Gyro, extra pita and a large root beer. In case anyone is wondering about my costume for this year, well I am going as the Karate Kid.

You can send your photos to my email address: mitch_kumstean@yahoo.com

Good luck.

Whatever

I don't have a good excuse as to why I haven't been up dating my blog, so I won't even try to make one up. I got nothing. It is Thursday night and I am going to my old roommate, Bob's, place to play some ping pong. That is my night. How about my day? Do you want to hear about it? Last night I didn't feel so hot and there wasn't anything on TV so I went to bed at 8:30pm. My alarm went off at 6:30 am to work out. I reset it for 7:00 am and skipped the workout. Work was work, do you really want me to bore you with the details? My boss was out today and when that happens on the day of our weekly meeting, he puts me in charge to run the meeting. I decided to have an ice breaker, so I had everyone in the room go around and say who was the most famous person they have met. Then instead of going down the agenda in order, we again went around the room and each person got to pick which ever agenda item they would like to talk about. That quickly morphed into an explanation of what everyone was working on. After the meeting I had some boring work to do and I contemplated what would happen if I never showed up to work again. I came to the conclusion that no one would miss me and work would go on without me and not skip a beat.

It has been a while since I have posted a juggling video. So here is some below average juggling. Enjoy.

Badger Party

I am happy to announce that the Badger Party Saturday was a complete success in every way with the exception of the outcome of the game. The weather was highly favorable. Arguably the weather was better for this party than this year's Freeman party, for sure it was better than last years. I would like to thank everyone who showed up. As well as thanking everyone who brought food/drinks. I would have to say the highlight of the evening was breaking in my shotski. The shotski was used after each touchdown. And then it morphed into after every blocked punt, incomplete pass and eventually everytime the ball got snapped. The only disappointment was that whom ever was taking pictures when we were using the shotski must have had my camera in the wrong mode, or they accidentally got deleted, because when I looked at my camera the next morning, there weren't any pictures of the shotski. But here are the pictures that I do have.

Lifesize Jenga got some use. Here is Bonesaw (Pickle) taking his turn after the 5 second rule expired for Auggie, cheering in the background.
With the exception of Mick, everyone came prepared with plenty of Bucky gear. Here is Leslie.Julie.
Here is Al, who is a loyal blog reader. It was a tie between Roman and Al for who displayed the most passion during the game. Neither said that they bet on the game, but they were cheering as if they did.Steph and Leslie.Here is the backyard set up. Two TVs because two is better than one right?And finally nothing puts the exclamation point on one of my parties like some fire juggling. This got me to thinking about the party. If you had a choice between two parties to go to, wouldn't you have to go with the one with the fire juggler. Is there any better way to dominate the conversation with your co-workers around the water cooler Monday morning than by saying, "Yeah that sounds like you had a fun weekend. But I went to this party Saturday night and the guy hosting the party just starts juggling fire. Can you believe it, he juggled fire? He isn't very good and he drops them alot, but it was something you normally don't see."

I am hoping next football season, the Badgers will again have a night game and I will plan on another backyard badger party. So mark your calendars.

Lackluster Postings

I am sure you have noticed from this week's postings that my blog sucks and my life is pretty boring. But it isn't all my fault. I sent out an invitation earlier in this week, which I am guessing most of my loyal blog readers received, for a Badger view party Saturday night. We are going to watch the game in the manner it was suppose to be watched, outside in the elements. I will roll out the big screen, I will have a bar set up in the kitchen and I will have at least one fire pit going. Oh and there might be a performance by everyone's favorite less than average juggler. Rumor has it that with the weather if might be an all fire show. Anyhow, at press time 8 people have replied that they will be in attendance. If you aren't part of the solution then you are part of the problem. You want some interesting blog material, show up at the party and make it happen. Tonight I am planning on going to my brother's and stealing some firewood for tomorrow's party. He is Florida so he won't miss a couple cords. (A cord is the amount of wood that, when "ranked and well stowed" (arranged so pieces are aligned, parallel, touching and compact), occupies a volume of 128 cubic feet). I just learned that.

Kids Games

Saturday I had a full line up of games. Nick's soccer game, Jared's football game and Ethan's soccer game. Before I go into my review of the games, I would like to go on the record as not having mind reading skills. That is one of many reasons as to why I am not married. I get told often that I should come to my nephew / niece's games. However, I am not going to drive around all of the sports fields in Waukesha County trying to guess where these kids play. It just makes me look like a child stalker, which I have already been accused of in my past. But I can no longer blame the parents. I would be willing to bet that many of these schedules are now distributed via the internet, and the kids are just as capable as the parents to forward the email of their schedules to me. If you want me to show up, get me a schedule, preferably at the beginning of the season so that I can plan accordingly. Am I done with my rant? I guess so.

The first game was Nick's (Bonesaw). They won, I think it was 5-4. Bonesaw was playing sweeper most of the game. Here is the one thing that Bonesaw needs to work on. You are sweeper, the last man. If you get beat, grab the jersey of the player who just went by you. It is the easiest way to catch up to them. Do it every time you get beat until you get called for it. And if they have a breakaway sweep both of their legs from behind as long as you are outside of the penalty box. Do that every time the other team has a break away until you get a yellow card. Bonesaw, you are almost 14, it is time to start playing a little dirty. It isn't illegal unless you get caught. I don't have any pictures from Bonesaw's game because I was too cold to get my camera out. I have realized that the older you get, the less you want to deal with the cold weather. I wonder if I can transfer to our Phoenix office in the winter time?

Next was Jared's football game. The Crusher. Here are some pictures from his game, it was much warmer there. He is number 68.

As you can tell from the pictures Crusher is one of the bigger kids on the field so he should dominate. I will say that I did see him knock two kids to the ground. But two kids in 2 plays out of 50 plays is not a very good ratio. Crusher's team got crunched 37-0. So they had a number of kick returns. Not only did I not see Crusher knock any kids to the ground on the kick returns, he didn't even touch another player on any of the kick returns. Maybe this is some new rule, but I doubt it. In an effort to get the Crusher more physical I am putting up an reward. If he gets an unnecessary roughness penalty next year, I will give him $50.

The last game was Ethan's game. Their regular goalie was hurt so Ethan filled in between the pipes. I will say that he made the game interesting. The 1st half had the wind in Ethan's team's faces and the play was on their end of the field the whole half. In the 2nd half I thought the play would again be on that side of the field, but it wasn't. Ethan's opponent controlled the ball nearly the entire game, and Ethan had to make nearly as many saves in the 2nd half as he did the 1st. Advice for Ethan...well he had a lot of drops. But I am no goalie, so if he wants some real goalie instruction he will have to ask The General.

Beatles Tribute Band

From one slacker to another, good evening. It is Wednesday early evening and I am finally getting to a post for this week. Here is the weekend that was last weekend. Friday night I had tickets to the 1964 Tribute, a Beatles tribute band. It was at the Pabst Theater. When I bought the tickets, I could have either been on the 1st floor 20 rows back or on the 2nd floor 2nd row. I went for the 2nd floor. The announcement / internet said that the doors opened at 7:00 and I figured they would start at 8:00. I had a tough time finding parking and didn't get into the theater until 10 after and I had missed the 1st 5 or 6 songs. Oh well. I thought the band was pretty good and sounded like the actual band. My only issue was that most of what they played was from the early years. I am more of a later years Beatles fan. I would say from Rubber Soul and later. Here is some video from the show.

New Ankles

This was fun. I was talking with Borky to the bar on Friday afternoon. I was messing around with my phone and not watching where I was going. I stepped in a pot hole and sprained my ankle. Then again last night I was walking my bike across my yard and rolled my ankle again. The good thing is that I have done this to my ankle so many times that it doesn't even hurt any more. In fact I was running on my ankle Saturday afternoon. Can you tell which ankle is the bad one?

Man Cave?

Here was my set up Sunday afternoon to watch football and baseball. I was too lazy to get a bigger TV in for the football game. But it worked.Also I am in full boycott of the ESPN ticker. I am a simple person and I have a simple mind. And I get too distracted by the ticker. I end up spending all of my time reading the ticker and not watching the plays on TV. And it really aggravates me when I keep reading the same information on the ticker over and over. So I put a piece of painters tape over the bottom 2 inches of my TV. And I am a much happier individual because of it.Other than that, Borky was down this weekend. Highlights included going to my now new favorite breakfast spot. The Comet Cafe on the eastside. Get the Meat and Eggs, which is actually bacon wrapped meatloaf and eggs with sausage gravy. Trust me, you will not be disappointed. Saturday night we were going to the Eagles Ballroom to see Bush, but we audibled out of that and just pulled the big screen out into the backyard and watched football.

Fire Juggling

While tailgating at the Brewer Game, I decided to show off my juggling skills. I was juggling fire when I heard someone behind me yell, "Hey juggling guy turn around." I turn around and it was a cop. I thought he was going to tell me to stop juggling. Nope, he just wanted me to turn so he could get a better picture.

Internet Joke

Here is an email joke I got sent to me a couple days ago. I usually don't post this stuff because most everyone has seen them. But this one was new to me.

*** Adult Truths ***

1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear

your computer history if you die.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you

realize you're wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on # 5. I'm pretty

sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the

person died.

9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

10. Bad decisions make good stories.

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at

work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything

productive for the rest of the day.

12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I

don't want to have to restart my collection...again.

13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks

me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that

I swear I did not make any changes to.

14. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not

to answer when they call.

15. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or

Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller than Kay.

16. I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

17. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

18. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just

nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they

said?

19. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team

up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong,

brothers and sisters!

20. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still

not know what time it is.

Brewers

On Sunday I went to the Brewer Game. My college roommate, Mark, had an extra ticket. Great seats as you can tell from the pictures below. Robin Yount threw out the first pitch. That was pretty cool. After the pitch he game the crowd the "Beast Mode" (which is probably annoying every team in baseball other than the Brewers) then as he was walking off the field chucked the ball up into the third deck. I tried video taping the last pitch by Axford but after 7 straight pitches after he didn't get the strike out, I gave up. But this will give you some idea of how low the crowd was.

I think during this game was the loudest I have ever heard it inside Miller Park.

It was a great way to complete the greatest sports weekend in the history of the state of Wisconsin. A perfect 4-0. It is hard to believe that I didn't watch the Brewer game until Tuesday night.

Badger Game

This past Saturday I was in Madison for the Badger vs Nebraska game. I didn't go into the game, but just went to be in the atmosphere. I stayed with Joe and Dawn. Thank you Joe and Dawn for letting me crash at your place. An even bigger thank you to Dawn for picking me up when I couldn't find a cab at 2 in the morning. Friday night we went to Big Ten Pub for a fish fry and then met up with Jay at the new student Union on campus for a couple drinks.We made our home for the Brewer and Badger games the Regent Street Retreat. Here is a sign we caught on our way to the bar.Doing shots with some Nebraska fans. They were at least smart enough to cheer for the Brewers before the Badger game.Here is some of our damage during the Brewer game. The Pabsts are mine.Joe and Dawn left before the Badger game started. I ran into my buddy, Pat, seen here in the foreground. I haven't seen Pat since college so I had to hang with him for a while and ended up watching all of the game with him.

Here is the Badger Band Drum Corps in the bar. I had to take a timeout in the middle of the performance to do a shot.