Feeling Old

I was at work this morning and talking to a couple of my co-workers, both of whom are younger than me. Somehow we got to talking about where we were when we heard that the Space Shuttle blew up the first time. I was in 7th grade, one of my co-workers said he was in 2nd grade and the other one couldn’t remember where he was because he was only 3 years old. Wow that hurts. I feel a little old now. Good thing I am working a half day so I can go home and take a mid day nap.

Topher Stegall

Here I am with The General and Diane's child. His name is Topher Stone Stegall and he was 10 days old when this picture was taken. He is already begun to take after his father as he exhibits the following "Stegall" traits:
Sleeps all the time.
Definitely a puker.
Doesn't have a job.
Craps his pants on a regular basis.

Please feel free to add to this list.

Fourth of July

The 4th is always one of my favorite holidays, in fact I will go far as to say that it is my favorite. Every year my aunt and uncle throw a party and it is always the best party of the year. Check out the pictures.

Here is my uncle Dave, cutting up the waves.

Not a real big surprise. Here I am cleaning up playing sheepshead.

Here I am chasing down my nephew, Nicholas, during what turned out to be a 20 kids versus 1 Uncle Rickie water balloon fight. My favorite part of this was, my nephew, Ethan, had this big smile on his face as he was walking up to me with a water balloon. I put my arms out and said "Go ahead, take your best shot." He threw it at me, and I caught it and began chasing after him. His face when from being so happy to looking like Frankenstein was chasing him. Then when I caught him and broke it over his head, he just started crying. Then I continued to chase him to get a picture of him crying. Unfortunately that picture did turn out.
Here I am ripping Nicholas' shirt because he is a little punk. Just kidding.
Your chief pyrotechnic engineer on the job.

Rusted Root

My orginal plan was to take it easy last night. I had just finished off 4 great concerts, and to be honest, I did my fair share of drinking at each show. But when I woke up yesterday morning, I felt surprisingly well, in fact I had to work a half day yesterday and I was even in early. My sister in law, Julie, was going to with her husband, and they were going to meet some friends down there. I said that I would be more than happy to go along with them. I guess rather than a long story about the evening I will just show you the pictures.

Julie had mentioned to me that Marty is on the verge of popping the question. She told me about 2 minutes before this picture to ask Marty about it, but to wait until he had a couple more drinks in him. So right after she tells me this, Julie goes up and asks Marty about popping the question. Weird. Then when Jerri comes back from the bathroom, Marty says "Fine, I will ask her now." My only input was that I would like to require myself to be at the bachelor party.

Here are Mandy, Mark, Becky and Jon. I went to high school with Mandy and Jon. So Wachendorf, I hope you came and checked out the web site.

My friends, Rob and Melissa. Sticking with the engagement theme, they just got engaged Friday night at Crawdaddy's. My favorite place to eat. I have said a number of times that I would go there with Hilter and Stalin because I think the food is that good. Joe Magnusson, the bachelor party is in Cleveland. I can not wait.

I would like to show you the progression of my seating arrangements at the Rusted Root concert. By the end of the show, I was pretty close to the stage.

I have to admit, during the concert I took quite a few pictures, at one point I heard I guy a couple rows behind me yell "Don't you have enough pictures already?" Nope.

These are my new friends, Monica and Heather. Over the course of the evening, for some reason I was compelled to keep asking girls that I met how old they thought I was. The overwhelming answer was mid 20's. It is nice to know that apparently I can still pull off that age. Unfortunately most of the girls that I did talk to were also only in their very early 20's. So I guess you may have to take into account the sourse. Anyhow back to Monica and Heather, to very nice girls that I met. I love Summerfest.

Dave Matthews

Sunday’s Dave Matthews show was great, and both Pearl Jam shows Thursday and Friday were incredible. But without a doubt the best show was the Dave Matthews show on Saturday night. We had a group of about 10 people and met at my house. Things got started with some drinking games in the basement before loading up and heading for Alpine Valley around 4 in the afternoon. We tailgated in the parking lot, the highlight there was a group of high schoolers that parked a couple cars away from us getting busted for underage drinking. They had a huge cooler and it was loaded with alcohol. Shortly after the “bust” security stopped the golf cart with the cooler on it and opened it up and let anyone from the surrounding tailgate parties to take what they wanted. I will give those high schoolers a ton of credit, because that cooler was loaded with everything, tons of beer, booze, and red bull. Of course I reached in and came out with 3 cans of red bull. That was an unexpected bonus that helped push me to the edge. Then about 20 minutes learned that Dave “The General” Stegall locked his keys in his car. You could see them just daggling there hanging from the ignition. Hilarious. This minor tragedy only raised the level of the concert, knowing that after the show, I would be part of the debacle that would be smashing in Stegall’s car window. We decided to head into the show. I grabbed a beer for the walk, and up to this point I was a little disappointed that I had been unable to find a beer bong in the parking lot. As this idea was settling into my brain, I saw someone walking with one. I quickly flagged them down and poured my beer in and polished it off in quite honestly less than 2 seconds. The “kids” whose beer bong it was looked at me in total amazement and how fast I was able to do a beer bong. The General and I got split up with the rest of our group on the walk to the entrance. Once in the show The General and I went straight down to the reserve seats. I had some old tickets from last year’s show that were from the third row. The General and I reused these tickets and found some seats in the first section about 30 rows back. Fantastic seats. Easily close enough to the stage to have the personal dilemma of being unable to decide if it was better view of the band by looking right at them or the big screen monitors. We moved down to the 5th row for the encore. Just an incredible show. This was easily the best Dave Matthews show I have ever been to. And one of my all time favorites of any concert I have ever seen. After the show we went back to the cars. It was determined by our brain trust that the best way to deal with The General’s keys locked in the car situation was to break out one of the back windows. Doug had a hammer in his jeep and when The General said that he didn’t want to smash the window in, I stepped up to the plate.
Sunday I went to the second show with Nate. Another great show, Nate and I were able to find some seats 20 some rows back. And it was a great set list.

I know I had a poll on which concert would result in the best story. But for my own personal ranking on the 4 shows from this weekend, I would have to rank that as the following:

#1a Saturday Dave Matthews with the General
#1b Friday Pearl Jam with Borky
#3 Sunday Dave Matthews with Nate
#4 Thursday Pearl Jam with Liz

But all 4 concerts rank extremely high on my all time concert list all easily in the top 10. I would be absolutely shocked and overjoyed if I ever have four concerts of this magnitude four days in a row. Unbelievable.
Here is the bust going down.
The General posing with the free for all going on behind him.

Here I am smashing in The General's window. Myra took this picture, and nice work on that, she caught it right at the moment of impact. You might not find it all that funny, but if you had been there, easily one of the funniest moments of the year so far.

This one is for Eric. A little photo I shot of him after the show talking to a hot little number. Eric and I left with Myra and Shane. It took us well over an hour and a half to get out of the parking lot. Borky and the other group I orginally came with were in a different lot. Borky was at home, in my house before I had even left the parking lot. Crazy.

Pearl Jam and Petty

Last night was Pearl Jam and Tom Petty. I went to Borky. One of the better shows I have been too. I really can't say anything more than it was just a great show. Check out the pictures.

This is Dave Mason. We caught him before Pearl Jam. His big song is "We Just Disagree". And he was in Traffic.

This is a band call Band X. They were playing at Jo Jo's Martini Lounge. Borky and I stopped in here after Dave Mason and before Pearl Jam. They started out good, playing old 80's rock, that is when I got this picture, while they were playing "Looks to Kill". But then they started play a bunch of rap garbage.

I like this picture, it was taken during "Even Flow" you can see Eddie off to the right, this is when he took a smoke break during the song and drank some wine.
Eddie out singing with Petty.

Pearl Jam and Petty Take #1

Last night was Pearl Jam and Tom Petty the opening night of Summerfest. I went to the show with my friend, Liz. Things didn’t start off all that great. As I have been doing for years, when Liz met me at my place we walked down to State Fair Park to catch the shuttle. As long as I have been living in my house, I have known the Summerfest Shuttle to pick people up at the northeast corner of the Sate Fair Grounds. This always works out great because this is only a couple blocks from my house. Liz and I walked down to that bus stop and no one was there. I thought this is weird. Then I read the sign on the stop saying that they discontinued service from this location. What? They moved it to the corner of 84th Street and Greenfield. Liz and I had to walk back to my place and then drive over to Greenfield. We finally got down to the Summerfest Grounds and then picking up the concert tickets and getting into the Summerfest Grounds was a major hassle. But we managed. We got up to the concession stands and jumped in line for a beer. By this time it was a little after 8:00 pm. While we were in line for beer, I ran into my friend, Trisha Kuenzli. While waiting in line, Pearl Jam hit the stage. Liz and I grabbed a quick beer and then got to our Seats. Pearl Jam was great. Half way through their set, I had to go and grab another beer. On the way back I stopped over by my friend, Suzanne’s seats. She was there with her sister. I stayed by them for a couple songs and then made my way back over by Liz in our seats. When I got back by Liz, I quickly noticed that Liz had found 2 new friends. They were two very nice looking 25 year old girls from Chicago. At this point, I would like to say that I find it incredibly hard to believe that I have ever kissed a girl. It is amazing how often I screw up a sure thing. From the beginning Liz was working some pretty serious interference. She was cramping my style on hitting on these girls. Pearl Jam ended up finishing their set. Check out the set list below. During the intermission Liz and I headed out to get a beer and go to the bathroom. While I was at the bathroom, I ran into Suzanne and her sister again and they came back with me to my seats. So as I was waiting for Tom Petty to take the stage I was there with 5 girls, Liz, Suzanne, her sister and these 2 Chicago girls. I am looking like a man high in demand. As Petty hits the stage, I slide in next to one of the Chicago girls. According to Liz, this Chicago girl is digging me. That is of course according to Liz. Half way through the set, I ran out of beer and headed back out to the concession stand. Beers down there were $5 a piece, limit 4 per person. So I came back with 4 beers. When I got back, Liz was gone not to be seen again on this night, and none of the other 4 girls were drinking any more. I.E. I have to drink 4 beers. Not that that should be a problem. I guy in the row behind me noticed my dilemma and was more than happy to take one of the beers off of my hands. Next thing I know the Tom Petty is walking off the stage and the Chicago girls are gone. How did that happen? Then Suzanne and her sister bolted. I ended up watching the encore solo. Once the concert was over, I was dead set on going to Heaven City for some food. I always go there for some great food. But their stand is usually at the north end of the Summerfest grounds. I walked all the way down there to #1 find out that they don’t have a stand any more, and #2 there isn’t a food stand anywhere that is still open. Bummer. Dejected as I was, I headed for the shuttle bus. Upon arrival to State Fair, I trekked the 8 or 9 blocks back to my place. That was a brutal walk for the end of the night. So it was my typical concert, a good show, struck out with the ladies and came home by myself.


Here is the set list:
Wasted Reprise
Life Wasted
World Wide Suicide
Severed Hand
Corduroy
Animal
In Hiding
Even Flow
Gone
Better Man
Do the Evolution
Why Go
Jeremy
Inside Job
Comatose
Rearview Mirror

Encore
Crazy Mary
Leash
Porch

Neil Young

I have been making a pretty serious effort at trying to remember my stories that I tell when I am out and about. Unfortunately, I am normally having a beer or two when I am telling these stories and by the next morning I forget what story I was telling. Last night I went to see Pearl Jam at Summerfest with my friend, Liz, and as we were walking down to the south gate I was telling her this story and I made note in my brain to tell this story to you on my blog. This story goes back to 2000 or 2001 I am guessing. It was after Summerfest, probably in August. I went down to the Marcus Amphitheater with my buddy Joe Magnusson to see Neil Young. Joe and I have a history of scalping tickets for shows. Bruce Springsteen, Neil Diamond, the Rolling Stones. And normally Joe and I work out a great deal with the scalpers for the show, our rule is to pay more for beer than we do for the show tickets. One this particular night there weren’t too many scalpers out and about and the pickings for tickets were slim. Joe and I were brain storming on figuring out a way to get into the show. As I said the concert was at the Marcus Amphitheater but the rest of the Summerfest grounds were closed. As we were looking for scalpers unsuccessfully, we were also scoping out the fence along the Summerfest grounds looking for a possible spot to jump the fence to get in. Obviously we didn’t look all that inconspicuous while we were doing this because after a couple minutes this guy comes along in a golf cart asking us what we are doing. We told him nothing, and then started asking him about the show and a little small talk. Then Joe says to the guy “Hey, how about you let us into the show? We will give you $5 a piece.” To which he replied, “I can’t do that, I am a supervisor.” Joe retorted, “Well if you are a supervisor then you can do it, because you have no one to answer to.” Nonetheless, the “supervisor” stuck to his guns and told us to watch ourselves then went about his business. Another 5 or 10 minutes pass, and Joe and I are beginning to think that we might not get into the show as available tickets continue to be hard to come by. Then the “supervisor” comes back with his golf cart. He pulls up next to Joe and me and says “$10 a piece and I will get you in.” Joe and I jump at this offer, at this point Joe and I were near the middle Summerfest entrance. The “supervisor” tells us to get on the back of the golf cart and then radios ahead to someone. We get to one of the gates along the fence and it opens up for us. Then we are cruising through the Summerfest grounds right up to the turnstiles of the Ampitheater. The “supervisor” radios ahead and they open up a gate right next to the turnstiles. We pull in just on the other side of fence and the golf cart stops. Joe and I jump off and pony up $10 each and give it to the “supervisor” right in front of everyone else walking into the show and then head on our way. If you know me and my concert going, you know that I have an old Lynard Skynard ticket that I continue to reuse and gets me down into the first 10 rows. Joe and I used that and I think as the show ended we were in the 20th row or so. It was an OK show, but the story of getting in was better than the actual show.

Picture of the Day

Here I am visiting Krum up in Minnesota sophomore year in college.

Summerfest 1995 Again

7-11-95

Here is another recap of the Summerfest. I again wrote this back in my college days. Thursday Paul Krumrich came down with a friend from Minnesota, Mark, and we went down to Summerfest and saw the Guess Who. Again drinking like a fish. Friday night the three of us went out down to Summerfest again along with another guy, Nate. We drank at my house for a while and then we tried to catch one of the fore mentioned shuttles and missed it by ten minutes. We leave the bar and these two girls pull up in this little Nissan something or another. We ask if they are going to Summerfest, they say yes and the four of us pack into the back seat. They also had a free parking spot lined up. Then we get out of the car and they offer us a couple of beers, so we drink with them for a while. One girl tells me that she has a hand stamp and I spit on my hand and it rubbed off on me and I got in to the grounds for free. Due to our superficial state in of my college years, we promptly ditched these girls the moment we go on to the Summerfest grounds. That night we saw Fleetwood Mac at the Miller Oasis, it was packed. I started talking to a girl who was on one of the picnic tables. Slowly as the concert wore on, I worked my way on to the table. And then I managed to get Paul, Mark and Nate also up on this table. Then as is always par for the course for Nate, he fell off the picnic table. That night the four of us guys are walking out and me all made a bet that the first person to kiss a girl wins a buck from the other three, I lost by 3 seconds. The following day was Saturday, we woke up and headed down to see the Grateful Dead, I had tickets to both Sat. and Sun. There were the four guys from the night before and then another guy, Doug. Nate and Doug had tickets for only Sunday night and Paul and Mark didn't have any tickets. Saturday night we went down to the parking lot and I sold my ticket to the first person I saw for fifty dollars. I later found out that I could have sold it for 100 dollars. Bummer. We went to Mark's girlfriend’s house in Chicago and hung out till about 10:00 pm and that is when we decided that we were going to the bars. I was really tired and would have been happy with just sleeping, but since I am rarely in Chicago I had to give it the old college try. The year before I was down in Chicago and spent a ton of money at the bars, and I decided that this wasn’t going to happen again, so I came up with the bright idea to drink a beer every ten minutes. An hour and ten minutes later I was ready to go for the night. We hit the Chicago bars without much incident and got in at around 2:30. We got up at 8:00 a.m. to get a good parking stop in the parking lot. I recovered the rest of the day. At 2:00 p.m. we went down to the beach and went for a swim in Lake Michigan, the only “shower of the weekend”. I recall the water was really cold. We were back at the Dead at around 4:00. We just sat around in the parking lot with the other 30,000 people walking around in the parking lot. At 5:30 p.m. I started drinking again. We decided to go in at around 7:00. We one thing lead to another and I was doing beer bongs on top of our truck. I went in to the show and I had bought these tickets from Ben Miller so I was sitting next to him. Our seats were great. On the floor sitting off to one side on the 40 yards line while the stage was on the other 10 yard line. It was a great concert.

Picture of the Day

This picture was taken June 10th, 2000 in Cleveland, Ohio. This was back when I worked for Merge Technologies. The guy on my right is Don Kusink, I worked with him. The guy on my left is Jerry Whitehead. Don and I were working out in Cleveland and for whatever reason we had to stay in Cleveland for the weekend. This was the Friday night of this weekend. Don and I went bar hopping in Cleveland. We actually ended up going to an Eric Burdon concert at a place called the Ogden. That was pretty cool. After the concert we were making our way back to our hotel and we ran into Jerry Whitehead. We actually ran into him as we were taking a short cut through an alley. I recall making a remark on how the alley smelled and Jerry laughed and then I introduced myself to him. I told him I would buy him a drink, so this is the picture the bartender took at the bar. Jerry's plane got redirected to Cleveland, he was on his way to Chicago, so he was just out having a couple drinks.

Rothlisberger

I know this is a bit crued, but I find it pretty funny. You are a professional athlete worth quite possibly over $100 million dollars, endorsements included, and you decided to jeopardize all of this to ride a motorcycle. Moron. Not to mention you go on the record saying that the law says that you can ride a motorcycle without a helmet. Actually, you can ride your motorcycle without a helmet if you have a motorcycle license. I never want to wish ill will toward anyone, but when these pampered professional athletes pull something like this, I have to laugh.

Picture of the Day

This picture was taken in Ottowa, Canada in the summer of 2001. Just days after my high school reunion. I flew up there to visit Paul Krumrich and go to the Dave Matthews Concert up there. We ended up see the concert from one of the private boxes. Pretty nice actually.

Picture of the Day

Alright, I am going to make an effort here to plow through the rest of my pictures of the day. This picture was taken on 9-21-00, in Virginia. This was after I got my $780 reckless driving ticket goin 120 in a 55 mph zone. Good times.

Summerfest is coming

Well as you know I alwasy get really excited for Summerfest and it is only a couple days away. I am only planning on 4 trips down to the festival. But I thought I would break out an old story or two to get everyone in the mood. Here goes.
7-1-95
As you can see this is an old story, but it takes me back to my college days. These were the days when I would go to Summerfest nearly every night. This was the summer that I worked doing concrete inspection for STS Consultants. And I wrote this back then. I finished work and I was just planning on coming home and eating and going to sleep because I had to work the next day. Next thing I know my roommate, Bob, comes walking in the door with one of our mutual friends, Ben Miller. I went to high school and played soccer with Ben. He informs me that I am going with them to Summerfest. I tried to put up a bit of a fight but it didn’t’ work. I would say the conversation went something like this.
Ben: “Hey Rick, How are you doing? You are going to go down to Summerfest with us right?”
Me: “Well actually, I have to work in the morning. You guys go ahead and have a good time.”
Ben: “Are you kidding me? I come into town and you can’t go down to Summerfest with me.”
Me: “Ohhh alllright.”
As you can see that took a lot of convincing. We prepartied a little bit and then we walked down to Judge’s because they have a free shuttle from there to Summerfest. We are the last ones on the bus which was packed and we end up standing in the aisle, the people next to me bought two big glasses of beer from Judges and they were older, like 30’s. (For the record, I wrote this back when I was in college. Back then I called people in their 30’s, older. Look who is talking now.) These old people weren’t really pounding the beer and were actually spilling more than drinking, so next thing I know I am drinking pretty much all of their beer. We get down to the grounds and it is $9 to get in. (What is it now $15?) We went to the Miller Oasis for a Reggae fest thing first. I really wasn’t down there to see any band in particular more just to hang out with my friends. Even though this was my main goal to be with my friends, within the first half our my group of 8 had narrowed down to 3. And an hour an a half later I lost those two and I was by myself, I lost everyone. But I still ended up getting really drunk. Then at closing I ran into Jim Burrosse and Mark Meisenhiemer and they were giving me a ride home only I didn’t know that we were stopping at a bar first. Well that only lasted for a half hour, and then I left with another friend and I was just going to walk with him on the way home. So his house was first so I said see you later and kept walking home, I was a block and a half away from home when I ran into another friend, next thing I know I am closing Axel’s. I walk past Oakland Gyros, there is half of the group that originally went with down to Summerfest. I went in and talked to them for a while and stole a couple of French fries from them. I finally get home and Bob is passed out on the couch and Ben is hanging out by himself in the attic. So he and I talked until like 3 in the morning and I finally got to sleep only to get 3 and a half hours of sleep before I have to go to work. So I wake up all hung over and I have to watch these guys construct a retaining wall at the Circuit City by Southridge Mall. I ended up just laying in my truck all morning hating life. That put me at 50.5 hours this week, I had 64 the week before and 58 before that. I really miss those college days.

The Results Are In

Lately I have been going home for lunch. It is nice because I live not even 5 minutes from work, and I get an hour for lunch. As I was leaving my house today, I got a letter informing me that I passed my Principles and Practice of Engineering Exam. It took them 2 months to grade, but apparently it was worth it. I am now a Professional Engineer. And I will probably also be hung over tomorrow morning.

For those of you who know me, I think you will find this very amusing, but here is the definition of what a Professional Engineer is:

A professional engineer is a person who by reason of his or her knowledge of mathematics, the physical sciences and the principles of engineering, acquired by professional education and practical experience, is qualified to engage in the practice of professional engineering.
The practice of professional engineering includes any professional service requiring the application of engineering principles and data, in which the public welfare or the safeguarding of life, health or property is concerned and involved, such as consultation investigation, evaluation, planning, design, or responsible supervision of construction, alteration, or operation, in connection with any public or private utilities, structures, projects, bridges, plants and buildings, machines, equipment, processes and works.
A person offers to practice professional engineering if the person by verbal claim, sign, advertisement, letterhead, card or in any other way represents himself or herself to be a professional engineer; or who holds himself or herself out as able to practice professional engineering.
No person may practice professional engineering in Wisconsin unless the person has been duly registered as a professional engineer. In order to qualify as a professional engineer in Wisconsin, applicants must have the education and experience, and pass the examination or examinations, as indicated below. Further details regarding these criteria can be found in Chapter 443 of the Wisconsin Statutes and A-E 4 of the Wisconsin Administrative Code.

Global Warming

I was working out last night, and as I jumped on the stationary bike, I picked up a nearby “Time” magazine. The cover story was about Global Warming. Do you have any opinion on Global Warming? Is it for real? I think it is. The article went on to discuss that we as the world are on an environmental slippery slope. The Polar Ice Caps are disappearing at an alarming rate. There are speculations that as the ice caps in Greenland disappear and melt into the ocean, the ocean level will continue to rise. That makes sense. Calculations indicate that once Greenland’s ice caps are totally gone, the ocean could rise in level as much as 23 feet. If the ocean level were to rise that much, it would result in a vast majority of Florida would be under water. I don’t have the numbers, but from what I recall, the parts per million of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere is continuing to increase. More Carbon Dioxide in the air means that more heat from the sun that gets trapped within our atmosphere. I.E. Global Warming. If you want to get depressed about Carbon Dioxide, go to a freeway overpass during morning or evening rush hour and just look at all of the cars. Imagine all of the exhaust going up into our atmosphere. Not good. 19 of the hottest 20 years on record have happened since 1980. I absolutely believe in Global Warming. I can recall when I was a kid, we would get several feet of snow, now there is never more than a foot of snow on the ground. My prediction, based on what I have just read, 20 years from now, temperatures in Wisconsin during the winter won’t get much below freezing at all. And Arizona will be hitting 150 in the summer. The earth is a living thing, and right now it has a fever, the virus is the human race. The earth will heal itself, but possibly at the expense of the human race. Be afraid, be very afraid. I don’t want to end this on a down note, so to cheer us all up, the good thing about Global Warming is that in the coming winters, the chances of my shower pipes freezing become more remote.

Poll

Where will my next great story come from?
	Thursday, Pearl Jam with Liz
	Friday, Pearl Jam with Borky
	Saturday, Dave Matthews with the General
	Sunday, Dave Matthews with the General
	Still waiting for the first great story
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Nothing

Well it looks like the US had their chance to advance to the knockout round in the World Cup and they blew it. From what I heard, they played a decent game, but got some bad breaks. It will be another 4 long years until the next World Cup. But I honestly don't think they deserved to move on, after all they did only score one goal in three games.

My postings have been a little none existent as of late. Mainly because I don't have a lot going on right now. I have recently turned back into "Mr. Fitness", so I have been trying to get myself back into shape. It has been pretty much a daily routine of working, grabbing something to eat, catch some TV, then work out, come home and sleep. I have never really known too many really healthy people to lead very exciting lives. The price you pay. In fact my life has been so boring lately, then whenever Freeway calls me, I actually sit and talk to him until he decides he wants to hang up. I actually listened to him talk about NBA trades for nearly 15 minutes. For instance, he informed me that their is a 3 team, 9 player deal in the works involving Guard Kobe Bryant, Guard/Forward LeBron James and Forward/Center Kevin Garrnet. For those of you who don't know who Freeway is, he is pictured here. Back when Nate lived with me, we were out at the bars and stopped at Oakland Gyros and ran into Freeway there. We ended up giving him a ride home and Nate gave him his business card which had our home phone number on the back of it, and Freeway has been calling ever since. It is widely believed that Freeway is in love with Nate.

But I am expecting my life to pick up a little bit with Summerfest around the corner. I am going the first two nights to both Pearl Jam shows. And then the next two nights (Saturday and Sunday) I am going to both Dave Matthews shows. 4 concerts in 4 nights. There has got to be at least one story in there somewhere. Time will tell. Anyhow, my friend Lisa has informed me that she has some extra tickets, 1 for Saturday's show and 2 for Sunday's show. So if you are interested, leave me a posting and I will forward it along to Lisa.

This weekend I am helping Nate put in a patio door. Hopefully things go well. I am getting a new digital camera today after work. So I should have some pictures of me standing around making smart ass remarks as everyone else is working.

The World Cup

I am not sure how many of you have been getting caught up in World Cup fever. I have been watching pretty much every game that I can. My buddy, Krum was just over there in Germany and caught the first two US games. The US still has a shot to advance, but it is somewhat bleak. They need to beat Ghana, and then have Italy beat the Czech Republic. By the transitive property of equality, if the Czech Republic beat the US and the US tied Italy, then the Czech Republic would also beat Italy. I have been tracking the games while at work and here is a link that I found. It has been a while since I have posted a poll so here goes.

What will the US do in their final pool game in the World Cup?
	Win and advance.
	Win but not advance.
	Tie.
	Lose.
	Real football is played with shoulder pads by guys named Farve and Nitschke.
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In case you were wondering, these photos were from my high school glory days.