Daddy Daycare

As mentioned previously, I had told my nieces and nephews that on Saturday night they could all sleep over at my house. They are all pretty good kids and they usually listen to me because at my house there is no crying, yelling or whining. So dealing with these 7 kids wasn't a problem at all. It was just that it was never quiet and there was always something I had to be doing, showing them how to change out video games, or making them something to eat, or trying to find the remote control, or telling them not to sit so close to the TV, or pumping up the air mattress. But it was fun. Saturday night we had pizzas, with cookies and candy as appetizers. Sunday morning breakfast was eggs, waffles, cinnamon rolls, smoothies and oddly enough cookies and candy were again appetizers. Weird. I have no idea what time the kids all went to bed, but I went to sleep at 11:00. And when I did there was one movie playing the spare bedroom and another movie showing in the family room. Here are the pictures. Nick and Ethan were the first ones to show up. After Pickle made a rather lackadaisical effort to put together a race track, I improved upon the one he made.Pickle enjoy one of the appetizers.

Here is Auggie just being Auggie.I took this at 6 in the morning when I woke up to go to the bathroom. The only time the house was quiet. Before we left for bowling, we took some Hulk Hands Pictures. Erin.J.W.Crusher.Boomer.Princess.And the biggest kid of them all.J.W. bowling.Boomer.Princess. She won the first game. Crusher. Who probably has the best form of all the kids.Erin.The 5 kids that I took bowling.And we finished the day off at McDonalds.

I got all of the kids happy meals at McDonalds. Since I have boycotted McDonalds for a couple years now, I didn't eat anything. But it was really hard. I was sitting there watching them eat cheeseburgers and McNuggets. And not only did it look good, but it smelled great. But I managed to resist the temptation. After watching these kids for a day I have a new appreciation for what my parents dealt with. It wasn't that it was difficult to watch all of these kids. It is just that there is always something to be doing. And you never get a chance to just sit down and relax. I honestly do not know how my parents did it. Plus I know that as kids we got in much more trouble than these kids do. So mom and dad, it took me 35 years to realize, but thank you and you did a great job raising us kids.

MKA handily beat me in the MKA Challenge.

Merry Christmas

Yes it has been months since Christmas, but as you may recall from an earlier post, my mom's side of the family just had our Christmas party last weekend. So that being said and since at least in my mind we are still in the holiday season, I thought I would share with you one of the presents that I got this year. This was from my sister in law, Jody.

It is the Chug-a Jug. A double beer bong in the form of a pair of breasts.Here it is in action but with water. This is certain to be the hit of any tailgate party.

Is anyone else slightly aroused?

As for my weekend plans, they actually go back to last weekend. While a the Christmas party, my nephew, Ethan, cornered me and asked me when I was going to have a sleep over at my house with all of his cousins. I told him this weekend would work for me. At press time I am scheduled to have 7 kids over. Unfortunately my irresponcible brother, Jeff, and my equally irresponcible sister-in-law, Sue, have yet to return my email or phone call, so I have no idea if their kids are coming. I am far from surprised at their lack of responce.

MKA handily beat me in the MKA Challenge.

Blarney Run

Calling all runners and non runners. Saturday March 14th is the annual Blarney Run in Wawautosa. The run starts at 11:30 a.m. It is a 5K (3.1 mile) run. If I am in town, I always do this run. I am inviting any and all to come along and join me on this run. Just to sweeten the pot a little bit and encourage people to sign up, anyone who does run it with me, I will buy them green beer at Leff's after the race. That is assuming that Leff's is serving green beer. So far I have my sister in law, Jody, and my friend, Liz, coming along for the ride. Any other takers? I told Jody and Liz that I would run at their pace as long as they don't start walking. But I can't run at a much slower pace than 10 minute miles, otherwise I am walking. So let me hear your excuses as to why you can't do it. Because there is no real good excuse for not doing something healthy for you body.

Here is the registration form.

MKA handily beat me in the MKA Challenge.

The Numbers Are Down!!!

I need your help. I just checked my site meter and I was alarmed to see my numbers are down. The month of February had the lowest number of site visits for any month that I have ever had. How can this be? The only reason I can come up with is that February is the shortest month of the year. But I don't think that is it.

What do I need to do to get more readers? Or at least to get my readers that I do have to come back more often. I am open to any reasonable suggestions.

I realize that I haven't been doing my part lately. Obviously I need to liven up my life a little to make things a little more interesting. I am sure all of my readers are sick of hearing that I didn't do much this weekend and so on.

What do I need to do? More polls? More Gyro Contests? More pictures? More old stories? More videos? Bring back picture a day?

MKA handily beat me in the MKA Challenge.

MKA Challenge Revisited

I was accused this weekend by MKA's father, Sherman, that I did not give enough credit or blog space to the fact that MKA beat me in the MKA challenge. I told him that I really don't know what else to say about it. MKA called me out on my blog and clearly stated that he would handily beat me in a race on rollerblades. And you know what? He did. I posted the video which not only shows MKA handily beating me, but to add insult to injury shows me falling in the back stretch. If a picture is worth a 1000 words, I am sure that a video is worth even more. But I want to keep my readers happy. I always try to fill any request that I get on my blog. I did a little research for you Sherman. I found that I poked and prodded MKA 10 times to set a date for the MKA Challenge. So for the next 11 postings I will post a link to the video of MKA beating me. I would post the video but it takes way too much time to upload. I have always felt that a lesson in humility can never be learned often enough, especially in this age that we live in where everyone is a winner.

Allow me to go off on a tangent here on the topic of humility. I was at a number of basketball games this past weekend. I learned that if the score got too one sided that they failed to keep score the remainder of the game. I am firmly against this. I can recall getting smoked in soccer games 13-0. This also reminds me of one of the first Freeman Parties when I held the musical chairs contest. My sister-in-law, Jody, asked me why I wasn't having the musical chairs for the kids. I told her because the kids will cry when they get kicked out of the contest. She told me that that wouldn't happen. But you know what? I was right and nearly every kid cried when they were kicked out of the game. But I was also wrong. By throwing them out of the game and making losers out of all but one of them, I taught all of those losers a lesson in humility. And now years later, when I hold the kids musical chairs, while they are disappointed when they get kicked out, they take losing much better. We live in a world where society is trying to tell us that everyone is a winner and everyone should be given a trophy, but that is not how the real world is. Trust me, there are tons of losers out there. I recall talking about this one time with my friend, Basketball Dave. He told me about the time when he was 8 years old and his baseball team was in the championship game. His team ended up losing and his team had to stand there and watch the other team get presented with trophies, while his team got nothing. And while it sucked that he lost and didn't get a trophy, it made him practice and play even harder the next year. And that next year, his team made it back to the championship game and this time they won. The moral of that story is that losing can be good for you.

So to get back to the MKA Challenge, yes MKA handily beat me. I, a 35 year old, fat, well past his prime, middle aged man, lost in a race to a National Champion All-American college athlete that is close to half my age. Here is the video.

Weekend Update and Random Thoughts

Here is the quick recap of my weekend. Friday night, I worked on the temple and that is about it. Saturday was a pretty big day for me. I slept in until 10 in the morning which felt great. Then I worked on the temple. In the afternoon, I caught 4 basketball games which my nieces and nephew were playing in. It was a little rough but I got through it. After the basketball games I had a family Christmas party. At least I think it was the Christmas party. As the story goes from what I can recall, it was a long time ago, and my grandmother on my mom's side of the family passed away around Christmas time. It was pretty rough and my mom's family got together at my parent's house. This soon became a family tradition and it used to always be on Christmas day that that side of the family would get together at my parent's house. Then after a while it began changing to different aunt's houses. However my mom is one of 11 kids, and as my aunts and uncles got married and had kids, and then their kids had kids, it got to be just too many people for one house. Now we have to rent a hall somewhere for the party. Also everyone seemed to get more and more busy and the date of the party would get pushed off later and later into the year. So that is the history of the Stocks (my mom's maiden name) Family Christmas. Anyhow, I attended the family Christmas party which ended up being the remainder of my Saturday. Sunday was filled with working on the temple in the morning and took care of my laundry in the rest of the day.
Here are some pictures from the weekend. This is Jared at his basketball game. My niece, Erin, likes to take pictures with my camera. The rest of these shots compliments of Erin. And I have to say she is getting better at taking pictures. Rather than just taking pictures of people's butts and nose, she is actually getting in some good shots in from time to time. Here are Jared and Julie.
Here I am at the ATM (a.k.a. playing Sheepshead). I call it going to the ATM because I always win.Pocahontas making at deposit at the ATM with Tom Brady's money.Abby.Josh crying at the party. Lindsey and Abby.Here are a few random thoughts from the weekend:

Smoking in public places. After being in Minnesota and Appleton where bars are smoke free, it is such a punch in the face to walk into a bar and get hit with all of that cigarette smoke. After the Christmas party, I stopped at the bar with my cousins for a while. The smoke was just horrible. It was so bad that I could smell it in my truck the next day. I can't wait for the day that all of Wisconsin is smoke free.

Caddyshack. Saturday night when I got home and after I took a shower to get the cigarette smoke off my body, I was laying in bed and flipping through the channels and came across Caddyshack. It has been a couple years since I have actually watched this movie. It is still a classic and I found myself laughing out loud at it yet again. The scene with Carl and Ty at Carl's place the night before the big match is priceless.

Girl Scout Cookies. Two of my nieces are in girl scouts and I always buy a couple boxes from them. Wow, are these things addictive. If I open a box they are gone in, not days, but hours. I bought 8 boxes and I am sure they will all be gone by the end of the week if not sooner.

I am always surprised when I hear that someone is reading my blog. I think my life is rather boring and that fact that people would take time out of their day to see what is going on in my life is always a shock. But when I do find out that I have a new reader I like to welcome them to the blog. So to my new reader, my cousin, Amanda, welcome to the blog.

Soccer

Last night I had a soccer game. We battled to stay close, but ended up losing big in the end. They either had the best goalie I have ever played against, or the luckiest. I think the two weeks off between games didn't help us much either. It seemed like it was the second half before we were able to string 4 passes together. It is hard to figure out what we are doing wrong, that we haven't done wrong in the past. I don't know. The game last night was at 11:00 p.m. Before the game I was at home laying on the couch watching TV. Then I started to fall asleep, so I shut things down and set my alarm for 10:30 p.m. When the alarm went off, I really felt like just going back to bed and missing the game. But I managed to get myself motivated to play. After the game, it was so hard to get myself calmed down enough to actually fall asleep. I am sure I was up until at least 2 in the morning. So today, I am not operating on too much sleep. All for the love of the game.

Back to Normal

As I said, Las Vegas was fun. It took me a couple of days to get back to normal, but I am now back. Since I now have the gambling itch, it is time to look forward to the next gambling endeavor. As any loyal reader knows, when you see this picture of me, you know that the NCAA Basketball Tournament is right around the corner. I sent out invites to my pool earlier today. If I missed you let me know and I will get you signed up. But as I mentioned in the invite, payment is required prior to the first game. No exceptions. I have let too many people slide in the past, and once their sheets are done, it is nearly impossible to get the money out of them. I can not wait to hear people complain when I delete their sheet. But consider yourselves warned.

Vegas Baby Vegas

All I really have to say about the weekend in Las Vegas, was that it was fun. However it took an incredible toll on me. That being said, I had decided to jump off the grid for a while. I will be back in communication in a couple of days.

When The Saints Go Marching In...or Out

Trust me I wrestled with this decision all night. I barely got any sleep. I had myself convinced each way a number of times. When I came into work this morning I had a discussion about this project with my boss. Fortunately my boss and company made this decision much much easier for me. He informed me that my name has been linked to a number of proposals in the Midwest including Illinois and Indiana. I was also informed that we have a verbal commitment on a job in Fond du Lac that starts up in June or July that has been ear marked for me to run. Ultimately it was my decision to make, but I have made something of a commitment to my office here in Milwaukee. I just hope that this work in Wisconsin doesn't fall through. So for the time being it looks like Wisconsin is stuck with me for a while. But as I said in my last post, if this opportunity had come up two months ago, I would already be gone and in Louisiana right now.

By the way, by midnight Wisconsin time I will be on the Vegas Strip.

Crossroads

In life we all come to crossroads. And we need to make decisions. In fact we have a decision everyday when we wake up in the morning. We can choose to stay in bed or get up. Trust me that is debated in my head every single day. Some decisions in life are big, some small, some easy and some hard. This afternoon I was faced with a pretty big one that I have been debating over all evening. Some of you may know that I had an opportunity earlier this year to move to Florida for work that fell through. Well this afternoon my company's office in Florida called me about a project that they would like me to be in charge of. Although it isn't in Florida. It is in Louisiana, about an hour west of New Orleans. It is the replacement of a railroad swing bridge. It starts March 4th. Yes, that is 14 days away. And would last until October. The project schedule also includes working 14 days on, 7 days off for the length of the project.


Here in lies my debate. There is no question that this project would be a great career move. And would no doubt lead to bigger and better jobs. But I would be sacrificing my personal happiness for the sake of my career. I am just guessing but I don't think there is much to do in that part of the country. Then again, if I ended up staying in this area, I would be hurting my career, as the chance of expanding my knowledge and experience with movable bridges would be lost. Plus it is only for 8 months. I have always told my boss, whenever, wherever, just let me know. Obviously I need to decide what is most important to me. Strangely I don't know what is the most important to me. What is the most important to you? I also need to make this decision quickly, in fact I have to give an answer in the morning. Really how great have things been for me since I have returned to Milwaukee? If you have been reading my blog, it doesn't take too much research into the last couple months of postings to see that thing have been pretty bored. I mean did you see the Trebuchet I made?

I know my boss wants me to stick around to help our offices construction services department grow, but I know that he also does not want to hold me back in what is best for my career. So I don't think he is going to make this decision for me.

If I didn't have my house, I know that I jump at this opportunity right away. I just hate leaving my house empty.

Funny, life is all about timing. If it was two months ago, I am sure I would have jumped at this opportunity. Now I am not so sure.

Sorry, this is one of the deeper postings that I have had in a while, but I am just trying to think out loud.

Winter Part 2

That one day of 60 degrees really spoiled me. I was in full spring mode. But this morning, I walked out of the house and got punched in the face by winter once again. Thankfully for me, I am headed out of town tomorrow night. A weekend in Las Vegas is just what I need. The forecast for the weekend looks to be delightful, especially compared to Wisconsin. There is a chance it might even hit 70 this weekend in Las Vegas. Now if I can just hit on a couple bets in the sports book, I will be good to go.

I had been having some problems with my truck over the last week or so. It has really been struggling to start. So I assumed that the battery was going. I am not even going to try to fool you into thinking that I am some sort of motorhead. I know absolutely nothing about cars. I went to Interstate Battery and had them test my battery and they told me sure enough my battery was dying. I was a bit skeptical and figured they just said that to everyone. I ended up buying a battery anyhow. After a stop by my sister's for a while, I headed home and installed the new battery. This was the first time I used my garage to actually work on my truck since I bought my house. It was also the first time I did any work in my garage since I finished working on the garage itself. As I was working in the relatively warm enclosure of my garage, I was so happy to have a garage. And as it turns out my skepticism was unfounded, after I replaced the battery my truck started up just fine. I know all of that is far from exciting, but that is all that I have going on.

Trebuchet Update

Here is the finished product. Well almost. I finished it up last night. But I don't know that I am all that happy with the results. I have to do a little more fine tuning. I would also like to see what a heavier counterweight will do for the performance. As I said, I built this trebuchet to throw tennis balls or eggs. According to the research I have done, the ideal weight ratio of counterweight to ammunition for a trebuchet is 133:1. An egg and tennis ball have approximately the same mass, 60 grams which converts to 0.132 pounds, times 133 is 17.56 pounds. Right now I only have 10 pounds on the counterweight. We will see what another 10 pounds does tomorrow. This is my unloaded trebuchet.Here is is fully loaded. I am actually pretty happy with the release mechanism that I came up with. It is simple and works pretty well. The other fine tuning I have to do is with the harness for the ammunition. Right now the release point is at a more acute angle than I would like. Ideally you would like the projectile to leave the trebuchet at an angle somewhere between 40 and 45 degrees for maximum distance. I only made one launch last night outside in the street. But the tennis ball did go about 100 feet. It was too cold and dark last night to sit in the street and make adjustments.

But because my readers do love a good video. I did shoot a video of it going off in my house. I also found in my research that adding wheels improves performance. Why do you ask? Well as the counterweight falls, it wants to fall in a straight line down towards the earth. Without wheels this would not happen. But with the wheels as you can see in the video the trebuchet moves backwards slightly as the counterweight drops. This produces more torque i.e, the trebuchet's arm rotates at a fast rate allowing the projectile to leave the arm at a faster rate of speed. I know that is some pretty exciting stuff. But it does help show that I sort of paid attention in college.

Idle Hands

Yes, that is what they say. Idle hands are the devils workshop. When Nate used to live with me, we were watching Junkyards Wars on TV one night. The mission was to build machine that would launch pumpkins a certain distance. One of the teams built a trebuchet. Since that day, I have always wanted to build one. Yesterday I was quite bored at work and I did a little research on the internet. I spent a little time putting a plan together and right after work I headed to Home Depot to pick up most of the proper materials. And it didn't really take too long and I had it all but built. I have some fine tuning to do yet. I would like to replace the swinging rod. Plus I have yet to get my hands on a counterweight. Those are items that I will most likely take care of this evening. So if all goes well, I should have it operational by the end of the week.

This is only really a prototype. I have designed this trebuchet to launch a tennis ball or an egg. I may eventually build a larger trebuchet that will have the capability of launching water balloons. A new trebuchet will be highly dependant upon the results of this current contraption.

Things Are Looking Up

Here is a quick recap of my weekend. Friday, I finished work. Worked on the Temple, went home and laid on the couch and watched Goodfellas 2 (Casino). Saturday, I woke up, worked on the Temple, and cleaned my house and watched TV all night. Sunday, again I worked on the Temple, went to the ATM and then headed to Crawdaddys for dinner with my sister in law and her family. Congratulations to Diane (Jody's mom) and Glen as they announced their engagement and bought dinner.

But for you my loyal readers, things should be looking up as far as you having something interesting to read here on my blog. Friday I leave for Las Vegas for Eric's bachelor party. That should be interesting. And this weekend I booked my flight for Colorado. The weekend after St. Patrick's Day I going to get in my spring skiing for the year. Russ, has told me that we are going Apsen and Wolf Creek. I am pretty excited about that.

Weekend Plans

This is just a broken record. Not much new here. And I don't have anything really planned for this weekend. Sorry but it is true.

Here is a topic that I haven't touched on. After winning the league last session in soccer, my team has fallen off a bit. They merged two leagues and we are now playing with some better teams. I think our record is 2-2. Our team chemistry is a bit off right now. As the competition has improved some of our team deficiencies have become more evident and exposed. Last night in our 7-3 loss, this problem was as apparent as ever. I will be honest, my play has been less than spectacular. In fact I have yet to register a goal or an assist in any of these four games. I just need to get through the remainder of this session and then take some time off from the game. I think my body also needs to recover and get back to 100%.

Sadly that is all that I have for right now.

A Weird Dream

Yesterday I was a bit out of sorts. Work was well, work. But a co-worker asked me if I would help out with his indoor soccer team and sub on his team last night. However the game was at midnight. When I got home from work, I grabbed something to eat and then jumped in bed to try and get a nap in before the game. I didn't get too much sleep, a lot of tossing and turning. And when I was finally able to fall asleep, my alarm went off for me to get up for the game. I didn't play horrible, but didn't play great. I did have an assist in the 9-6 loss. Being the new guy, I wasn't getting a lot of love from my new teammates in the way of getting the ball passed to me a whole lot. After the game, at 1 in the morning the rest of the team was going out to a bar for a couple beers. I just laughed, not a chance. Even though I skipped the bar, by the time I got home, showered and jumped into bed it was still almost 2 in the morning. And of course being all wired up from running around on a soccer field for an hour, I could not sleep. As is so often the case, it seemed like I feel asleep just before my alarm went off at 6:30 this morning. However, I do recall the dream I was having just as I awoke. It wasn't too long of a dream, but I was at a county fair and I was entered into an eating contest. I was up on the stage but instead of competeting against another person, I was in a contest with a donkey. And it was a carrot eating contest. Both contestants had a bucket full of carrots infront of them and to make things fair I couldn't use my hands. I woke up just after I stuck my head in the bucket and pulled out the first carrot out in my teeth. So I have no idea if I won, but I am pretty sure I lost.

Randall Pink Floyd

Most of the excitement of my weekend revolved around Friday night. I met up with M.K.A. and Katie at Oakland Gyros for dinner. I was so excited for a Gyro. And as always it was just fantastic. Here is a photo I took on the way to Gyros. After dinner I headed down to the Riverside Theater. I was going to see the Pink Floyd Laser Spectacular. It was actually pretty cool. I was worried that it wouldn't live up to my expectations, but it actually did. I showed up a little late and by the time I got my ticket the show had already started. I just slipped into the back and remainder there without moving up much at all. The first half of the show was the entire "Dark Side of the Moon" Album, beginning to end. This is the very end of the first half. They had three screens at the front of the room which either showed images from videos or laser images. Bubs, I thought of you a number of times, because often the laser images where just interpretive figures of the songs lyrics, much like your Dave Matthews interpretive dance that you break out on only special occasions. This was the end of the first half.

The second half had some greatest hits and some of "The Wall". Now for an extra $2 you could get the "special" glasses. I would say that they were worth it. As you can probably tell in this video clip which was shot through the glasses.

Here is sort of a funny story about the night that makes me seem like the big idiot that I am. As I mentioned I went to Oakland Gyros before the show. And earlier in the evening I bought some gum to take care of the gyro breath. While I did enjoy the show, it was ridiculously loud. And since there is a history within my family with hearing loss, I knew I had to do something about this. I have the brilliant idea to chew up a couple pieces of gum and toss them in my ears. Yes, a dumb idea, but it did work. Then again I was walking around with gum in my ears. After the show I was walking back to my car and started pulling the gum out of my ears. As you may have guessed, the gum stuck to my ears and I the more I pulled on the gum, the more of a mess I made between my hands and my ears. I am sure you can imagine the stringy gum everywhere. That was pretty much the case.
This was the last song, I am not even sure what song it is, but the light show is again pretty cool.

Was it worth it? Sure, I am not a huge Pink Floyd fan. But it was fun to see and I would definitely go see it again. I will say if you are a Pink Floyd fan, that yes it is an absolute must see. It is $25 bucks at the box office the day of the show, and it has the feel of a real concert. Basically it is like going to a concert with everything but the band on stage, and the studio recordings pumped out at maximum volume.

It Is About Time

I was forwarded this link about the Preakness. The Preakness was one of the worst displays of human behavior that I have ever encountered. And for this next year and years to follow they have decided to ban allowing race goers to carry in alcohol. If you check my posting from it, you can click on the video I took. In the background you can hear Gibby claim that this will be the last year that they allow carry ins. This is a no brainer. You can count about 100 beer cans being thrown in a 26 second video. Our group was incredibly surprised, and this comes from a group that in my opinion can party as hard as any group I have been around.

Weekend Plans

I am actually in a pretty good mood this morning. As I walked into the office, I was just happy thinking that the work week was almost over and the weather should be getting better. Friday night, I have decided to head to Oakland Gyros before heading to the Pink Floyd Laser Spectacular. I hope I don't have my expectations too high for a 3D laser light show. I guess time will tell. Saturday I am planning on getting a massage in the early afternoon. It has been a while since I have had one. I used to get them every other week when I was in Appleton. I think I am going to thaw out some venison tenderloin and grill those up on Saturday afternoon. Then to finish off my Saturday night, I am thinking about going to see "Taken". It has been way too long since I have done a movie review. Sunday is going to be a great day to take care of that pile of laundry.

Folding Clothes

I have to admit, I really haven't had to much to discuss as of late. Unfortunately for you, I don't see things changing much over the rest of the month. Well, at least until I head to Las Vegas on the 20th. Just to follow up on a couple things. I mentioned earlier about the clothes that I need to fold, here is a shot I took last night. This is about 4 loads of laundry. Nearly all of which is clean. I am just a bit lazy when it comes to folding the clothes. Sadly, the dresser is right at the foot of the bed. I am sure most of you headed outside today. And I am calling it. Today is going to be the coldest day for the rest of the year. Temps in the 40s are just a couple days away. I might fire up the grill on that day.

Laser Spectacular

I have brought up this topic before, but I will revisit it. I am no longer waiting on people. I am just going to throw my plans out there, and if people want to come along for the ride, there is plenty of room. This coming Friday at 8:00 p.m. is the Laser Spectacular featuring the Music of Pink Floyd at the Riverside Theater. I have already bought my ticket. If you want to go. Let me know.

Weekend Update

Friday night, there wasn't much to my evening. I finished work. Worked out. I ordered some take out from Crawdaddy's. Watched a movie and went to bed. Nothing too exciting, but that is what I was looking forward to doing. So all is well. Saturday, I again worked out, then spent the majority of the day cleaning my house. It still doesn't look that clean and I have a ton of laundry to fold. There is a mound of clean clothes on my spare bed. However, Saturday night my weekend really picked up. Krum was in town for the weekend, and I headed over to the Krumrich estate to get in some serious ping pong. It was the first time that I can recall that I ever beat Krum in ping pong. And I also took JFK behind the woodshed a couple times as well. I woke up Sunday morning in the mood to play some more ping pong. I will have to stop by JFK a little more often for some pong. Sunday I again worked out in the morning. It is good that I am getting back into the workout routine. I think the key is that I am not over doing it, and I am rarely working out for more than an hour. I have found that once you begin to absolutely dread working out, you are doing too much. Everything in moderation. By noon I was at Stu's for the Super Bowl. Over the next 11.5 hours we played cards and watched the Super Bowl.

It has been a long week

Anyone else feel that same way?
Just to tie up a quick loose end. The General did finally pay up his outstanding debts. However he does still owe me two dinners. Therefore he still is, and probably always will be, in my book, a Deadbeat and a Welcher.
I guess I really don't have much more to add. I hope all have a good weekend.

Weekend Plans

I have been having some problems with my sciatic nerve in my left leg. It started about 3 weeks ago, and I was hoping it would get better but it really hasn't. At times it feels like I have someone sticking a knife in the back of my leg. Last night after my soccer game, which I know I probably shouldn't be playing in, I was driving home and was in unbearable pain. It was deduced this past weekend, that this problems comes from the fact that I was born somewhat pigeon toed. This most likely lead to my problem with my IT band. This lead to me favoring my left leg when I run, which probably shifted my hips and now that is causing a problem with my sciatic nerve. I am hoping to get into a doctor sometime next week. What does this do for my weekend plans? It keeps me on the shelf for a while. Friday I am staying home. Saturday I think I am going to go and catch a movie. I can't recall the last movie I went to, other than the one I saw a the Sundance Film Festival. I also want to get in somewhere for a massage. I haven't had one since I left Appleton. Sunday is the Super Bowl. Stu always has his fantasy football party on the Super Bowl. I plan on making an appearance and getting in some cards and watching the game.

Anyone Else Sick of Winter?

Not too much going on here. It is hump day. Just trying to get through the week. I have a soccer game tonight at 11:00, I love to play the game, but games that late can really screw up your sleep for a couple of days. Utah was great, and I was happy to just be in some weather that was more reasonable. Lets just get our temperatures up into the 30's. However, we are now past the low point in our average temperatures for our winter. And as you can see here in the chart, we are on are way up to warmer average temperatures.

Super Bowl, Can I Say That?

I am just recovering from the weekend of skiing. I am not hurt too bad, just sore in a couple of places. But as I was listening to the radio this morning, there was a little chatter about the big game this weekend. I will be crashing Stu's fantasy football party on Sunday. Pittsburgh is favored by 7 points. But I think that Cardinals will not only cover, but will win the game. What do you think?

Who will win Sunday?
	Pittsburgh
	Arizona
	Football Season is still going on?
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Utah Skiing

This past weekend was my trip to Utah for some skiing. Here is a real quick recap. Thursday we got into Utah. I flew in with Liquid and Flo. We headed straight to Deer Valley and skied the afternoon there. After skiing, we met up with Amanda and Russ in downtown Park City. After grabbing something to eat, we headed back to the condo. Friday in the morning we headed to the Sundance resort. We got on the waiting list for one of the Sundance films that was showing there, but just missed getting in. We checked out the resort for a while and then headed back to Park City. We grabbed dinner then scalped tickets to one of the Sundance films showing in Park City that evening. The movie was called Moon, it was a science fiction movie about human clones that worked on the moon. It was pretty good, but I doubt it will ever be out in theaters. Saturday came and we skied at Solitude. It was a full day of skiing and the snow was great, although the visibility was rather poor. Sunday we skied The Canyons. It was another great day of skiing, but again the visibility was poor. On Saturday and Sunday I skied with Russ. Russ is a pretty good snowboarder, and I have to thank him, because he talks me into taking more challenging runs. And in the end that helps to make me a better skier. Thursday when I skied with Liquid and Flo, I don't think I fell at all. Sunday while skiing with Russ, I took one run called "Devil's Friend" I easily fell 20 times. Basically just rolling down the run. Anyhow, here are some of the pictures that I took. This is the view from the top of one of the summits at Deer Valley.One of the cool things about Deer Valley is how these million dollar houses are mixed throughout the resort. Although it sort of makes you sick looking at these homes at the same time.This is the Sundance Resort.Here is one of the theaters that was showing movies for the Sundance Film Festival. Most of the theaters are shown in the Park City area, but there are also some films that are shown out at the Sundance resort or even in Salt Lake City.A view looking up the main street in Park City.This video was shot at The Canyons. There is a natural half pipe which has to be at least 1/4 to 1/2 mile long. Russ and I stumbled upon it and I just had to go down it a second time. It is pretty cool, but there just isn't alot of places to stop or even check your speed. And shortly after I shot this video I feel again and popped my shoulder out. This video is maybe just the first 1/3 of the halfpipe.

Soccer Night in America

A number of people have told me that they are going to make it to one of my games. Well if you plan on attending any games this session, you will have to be one diehard fan.
Here is a list of my games:
Wednesday January 28th at 11:00 p.m.
Wednesday February 11th at 10:00 p.m.
Wednesday February 25th at 11:00 p.m.
Wednesday March 4th at 11:00 p.m.
Monday March 9th at 11:00 p.m.
And as long as we finish in the top 6 of the 12 teams, the playoffs will be
Monday march 16th at 9:00 p.m.

But last week we got off to a rough start, we got smoked 13 - 7. The slaughter rule came into effect and we were down by so many goals that they allowed us to have an extra player on the field. The team we played had a number of guys that I recognized and played on the UWM college team.

Last I checked there is no wager with The General this session, basically because he is both a deadbeat and a welcher.

The General is a Deadbeat and a Welcher

This has been a fairly effect form of persuasion to get my money out of people, so I thought I would give it another shot. I know that The General tends to read my blog from time to time. That is at least when he isn't too busy with updating his own blog, One Sweet World or Pinko Commy Rag as I like to refer to it. Anyhow, The General is in the hole to me for $168 and two dinners at Crawdaddy's. Please allow me to detail these debts. It must be all of 5 years ago that The General and his lovely wife, Diane, moved from Waukesha to Sun Prairie. As they were preparing for the move, The General gave me a phone call. I said, sure I will give you a hand. I figured, it wouldn't be too bad of a move especially with so many of The General's friends in the area to also lend a hand. When I showed up the day of the move I found that I was the only person The General asked to help out. He later told me that he didn't feel comfortable asking anyone else for their help. But he assured me that he would make it up to me by buying me dinner at Crawdaddy's. As I said that was at least 5 years ago. Since that time, The General has fallen into debt with me a number of times, but usually paid up. Up until this past fall the slate was clean, but then fantasy football started. All participants in my league were required to bring their entry fee to the draft in September. The General showed up to the draft with everything but the entry fee of $50. Immediately a $10 late fee was assessed. Since that time, we had a card game at our friend, Mick's place. The General showed up with only $40. Because of his horrible card play, he quickly lost that and then another $40 that he just took from my growing pile of money. This brings me to soccer. Most readers are aware that The General and I had a small wager on whom would have a higher offensive output this past session. The contest was never even close. It probably would have helped The General to show up to all of the games, but the more I think about it, even if he had played two sessions he still couldn't have outscored me. That wager was yet another dinner at Crawdaddys. That also remains unpaid. After the last game of the session, our team decided to play another session. As everyone was paying our portion of the entry fee, The General, again had no money, so I paid his portion. In the event that the Deadbeat Welcher does read this, please get me $168 and my two Crawdaddy dinners as soon as possible.

"Utah, Get Me Two!!!"

If you haven't heard, this weekend I am headed out to Utah for some skiing and the Sundance Film Festival with my friends, Liquid, Flo, Russ and Russ' girlfriend, Amanda. I head out early Thursday morning with a 6:30 a.m. flight. I get into Salt Lake City by 11:00 a.m. and I will be on the slopes at Deer Valley by noon. Friday the plan is for more skiing. We haven't decided on the resort to ski at. Saturday we plan on heading to Sundance. Last year Russ and I checked that out. Sunday we will be skiing again and then head back home that evening.

Happy Anniversary

I wanted to send out a late Happy Anniversary to one of my loyal blog readers. Annie Brantzeg and her husband, Gordy. Congratulations on 45 years of marriage. Wow that is a really long time. Here is a picture of the happy couple that was taken last Christmas. Recently I asked Gordy what was the secret to 45 years of marriage. He replied with three words "Korbel and Coke." As you can see from the picture, he is taking his own advice.

New Years Resolution Test

This past weekend I pasted the first test in keeping with my New Years Resolution. My resolution is to cut back on my drinking. My plan to was abstain from drinking until my trip to Las Vegas in March. Well I now have to modify that, Eric's bachelor party has finally been planned and is set for the end of February in Las Vegas. So that is going to be the first time I drink this year. This past Friday was my company Christmas Party. It was at a bar / restaurant, and everyone was given two free drink tickets. When I showed up, I didn't even think about going up to the bar. I was talking to a co-worker and I was quickly asked why I wasn't drinking. I said that it was my new year resolution. Then he asked me if he could have my drink tickets, and I gave them to him without a problem at all.

The Results Are In

Saturday afternoon was the MKA Challenge. MKA said that he could easily beat me, and you know what he did. He got a great jump right from the start and I was never able to make up any ground on him. No complaints, no excuses. MKA flat out beat me. Case closed. Here is the video.

MKA Challenge

MKA, I am not sure if you are reading this or not, I will send you an email. Anyhow, I called Skateland, and asked him the very stupid question of when the races are on Saturday. Only because the first session is from 12:30 to 6:00. 5.5 hours of skating seems like a lot. They didn't exactly know what time they did the races. He guessed around 2:00, and said they might do it twice. If not, I will grease one of the kids running the place with $20 to make sure the race takes place. I am pretty sure that the turnout for this event will be MKA, Katie and myself but that is OK. The latest poll has me trailing MKA. Unless, MKA voted 8 times, I am shocked at the current state of the poll. I am not a vindictive person, but I can not wait to prove you all wrong. I mean seriously, look at this guy:

Do you honestly think I am going to lose to him?

I am going to refrain from any more posts until the Challenge is over. I prefer to use my spare time to concentrate and prepare for the upcoming race. But be sure to check back on Monday when I should have the video up.

The MKA Challenge

It is official. Football is over and he has run out of excuses. MKA has been listening to the music for months and now it is time to pay the fiddler.

What: MKA made the statement that he could beat me in the races at Skateland at anytime.
Who: Me vs. MKA.
Where: Skateland in Waukesha
When: Saturday afternoon. According to their website the first session is 12:30 to 6:00. I will call to confirm times.
Why: Because no one throws down a challenge to me on my blog and then backs down.

I encourage all to attend. Someone is going to walk away from this afternoon in total humiliation. Who will it be? The young all american national champion college athlete, or the old decrepit past his prime couch potato.

Who will win the MKA Challenge?
	MKA. It won't even be close.
	Rickie. He isn't as old as he thinks. Not to mention incredibly good looking.
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Snow Blowing Justus In

A story has been swirling around that happened a couple weeks ago. On a Saturday evening, shortly after one of our many snow falls, I had this great idea to go over to Justus' house and blow the snow off his lawn and back onto his driveway. I will be honest, I didn't do as complete of a job as I would have liked. My goal was for it to be easier for Justus to drive through his ditch than out the mouth of his driveway. Unfortunately I just got too cold and the wind was not cooperating and more of less blowing the snow everywhere. But the point was made. I didn't grab any pictures, but I do have this picture from a number of years ago. This was taken when Preston was living across the street from me. I was out shoveling my sidewalk and saw his car on the street. I then proceeded to shovel an area approximately 40 feet by 100 feet of the street right up to the driver's side door of his car.

Oakland Gyros

I probably shouldn't publicize this but last night I headed out to Oakland Gyros. I went with my old college roommates, Kevin and Bob. As always, it was fantastic. After eating we stopped into Axel's next door. Bob wanted to play some fussball. Bob schooled both of us. And for the record, while we were in Axel's, and to both Kevin and Bob's surprise, I didn't have a single drink.

This morning, I may have figured out why I got a check back from WE Energies, sometime over the course of the evening, my power went out, so I woke up an hour later than I normally do. Then as I was getting ready for work, my power went out again. This caused me to come into work a half an hour late. Thankfully it is Friday. This evening I am headed to Alpine Valley to get some skiing in with my nephews, Nick and Ethan. This will be my final tune up before my trip out to Utah on the 22nd of this month.

Tomorrow is my fantasy fooball party. I haven't touched on fantasy football much this year. Just because this is such a boring topic for anyone who doesn't care about fantasy football. I am in two leagues. One with three people, me, Borky and Myra. In the last week of the season, I came back to win by only 4 points. Borky now owes me dinner. In the other league, which is 10 people, I won the regular season and came in 2nd place in the playoffs. Stay tuned for pictures with the trophy coming soon. So that party is tomorrow, if you want to get some sheepshead in, stop on by, anytime after noon.

A Good Day, Is That Possible?

Yesterday was actually a pretty decent day at the office. I mean I would have rather been at home eating Bon Bons. But as far as work goes it was a good day. In the morning, I was reviewing some plans and specifications for a project. This was my task due to my many years of experience. I was looking for errors and needed to envision problems that may arise. I know all of this sounds like a bunch of B.S. but is 100% true. This particular project is an upgrade of a series of movable bridges in the Oshkosh area which will be controlled by a PLC. (Programmable Logic Controller) and eventually the plan is to have all four of these bridges controlled from just one bridge. Which would save the county and state thousands of dollars in that you would only need one bridge operator and not four. It will also cause a number of jobs, but still save tax payer dollars. Anyhow, we had a conference call where a co-worker mentioned to one of my bosses that "Rickie makes a good point." It is so rare that it happens, both that I make a good point and that someone acknowledges such a thing. Afterwards my other boss called me into his office to give me my salary review. This will also come as a shock to many of you, but he gave me a number of complements on my performance over the past year and then informed me that I would be rewarded for such excellent work with a raise in pay. Can you believe that? In the afternoon, I was making out a schedule for this same project and I determined that it was unfeasible to completed the required work in the time frame given and I gave a couple of alternatives, in which the project could be completed. To which my boss emailed me back and gave me the following compliments on my work "Good work. I believe you are very correct." Isn't it amazing that I can have so many people fooled at the same time?

We Energies

I am not sure if I missed something or not. I was going through my mail and saw what I thought was a bill from WE Energies. But when I opened it up and as I was dreading the moment of looking to see how much I owed, I realized it was a check from WE Energies. Did anyone else get this same check? Why did I get this check? And it is a good chuck of change.

Not A Hunter

It is pretty well known that I am the "Head Boner". That has been my job title since I was in high school. I have been helping my dad butcher deer since I was in the 3rd grade. It is actually quite odd that I could get so involved in being a butcher but still not have any urge to go out and hunt. I never have, and I probably never will. At the time that my brothers all started hunting, I just couldn't validate sitting out in the woods for hours and no seeing anything. I guess I still can't, plus I am lazy. But while I am not a hunter, I have become quite the trapper. It is something that has become something of a necessity for me. I think much of it stems from when my renter was living in my house. She was far from being a neat freak, this I found out when I moved back in. Recently I have been hearing the pitter patter of little feet in the storage space behind the wall in my bedroom at night. And once or twice I saw a little rascal running around on the kitchen floor. I had some older traps that I have been setting but without luck. Every morning the bait was gone. Sunday morning I stopped and picked up some new traps. Real top of the line stuff. The other night, I bagged two trophies, check them out.
Literally scared the crap out of this guy. I am pretty sure that when I go, the same thing will happen to me.Just posing with my harvest.Actually they kind of taste like chicken.
MKA WHEN IS THE DAY?

Cake Concert

New Years Eve I went to see Cake at the Riverside. I desided not to take my camera along as the tickets said no cameras or recording devices. Normally I never listen to such a warning, but I just didn't want to deal with it, if they were checking. This turned out to be a poor decision. Everyone and their brother had a camera inside. I even saw people who work at the Riverside with cameras. It was a good concert. I am not the biggest Cake fan in the world. I went with my college roommate, Mark, and his wife, Suzanne. My seat was in Row V right on the center aisle. They were back in the corner. They quickly moved down by me. Eventually we all moved way up to around row 5 and were just standing in the aisle. And for the last half hour of the show we were in the front row. I was actually placing my beer down on the stage. As I said, I wish I had brought my camera long with. But I did have my cell phone camera. This is the only real good picture that I got.


MKA WHEN IS THE DAY?

New Years Resolutions

Here are my past resolutions.

2005. It actually was in February, but I swore of Buffalo Wings. That lasted a couple years, and then I caved one time when I was in Colorado because Russ ordered too many and they smelled great. I have once again had some problems with Buffalo Wings, so I am back off the wagon again. No wings.

2006. I boycotted fast food. Especially McDonalds, Burger King and Taco Bell. And I have yet to cave on this one at all. I did have a milk shake one time at McDonalds. But I really wouldn't count that. I plan to keep this one for a while. Also in 2006 I boycotted cell phones. I have since given up my land line and only have a cell phone. So that one is out the window.

2007. I gave up candy, chips, soda and french fries. I have found that I have been keeping these pretty well. Only giving in once in a great while. I also said that I was going to do a better job of introducing myself to people that I do not know. Still not very good at that.

2008. This was the year that I was going to stop swearing. I slip from time to time, but I still do not swear as much as I have in the past. My other big resolution was to work on my juggling skills. I have done an extremely poor job of working on my juggling.

For this year, I would like to reinforce a number of my previous resolutions and make a new commitment to myself to keeping them. And here they are:

No fast food, especially McDonalds, Burger King and Taco Bell. (Should be very easy)
No buffalo wings.
No candy.
No chips.
No soda. (except in mixed drinks)
No french fries.
No swearing.
Introduce myself better to people I don't know.

Since I have been back in Milwaukee I have slipped quite a bit in working out, but I know that will change. I need to just get through the holidays and settle down. Plus I know that once the weather starts to warm up in May or June I will be biking and running 5 to 6 times a week in preparation for triathlons. Plus cutting out the food above will help me in becoming more healthy. So I need something to new to add to this years list. This year's resolution was influenced by a report I saw on TV a couple weeks ago. They mentioned in this report that as people get older their tolerance for alcohol drops. And that the average adult between the age of 30 and 40 shouldn't have more than 5 drinks on any given evening. I don't want to say that it would be impossible for me to quit drinking. But I really don't want to quit drinking altogether. I am sure many people would agree that I am a little more fun when I have a couple of srinks in me. However, I would like to start to monitor my drinking. So my resolution for this year, if you want to believe it or not is to only drink one day a week, and on that day have no more than 5 drinks. I don't think that should be too hard to do. Although I could see a Brewer game where I do a 5 beer, beer bong and my drinking for the day is over in 30 seconds. And I am going to try to make it without drinking at all this new year until I head to Las Vegas in March.

I would like my loyal blog readers to call me on any and all of these resolutions if you see me breaking them.

MKA WHEN IS THE DAY?

Gyro Contest

You people just aren't very hungry. For the second year in a row, my loyal blog readers were unable to predict the Packers end of season record. I have to admit, I missed the mark as well. I had them finishing at 9-7. The last Monday night loss against the Bears sealed the fate for my hungry blog readers as no one was right. And after a win against the Lions, the Packers finished 6-10.To refresh your memory here were the picks:

M.K.A. 12 - 4

Eric 12 -4

Pocahontas 11 - 5

Tom Brady 11 - 5

Coonen 11 - 5

Tree 10 - 6

Joe 10 - 6

Bubs 9 - 7

Liquid 8 - 8

Kmart 8 - 8

The General 7 - 9

Jody 7 - 9
Borky 0 -16

MKA WHEN IS THE DAY?