Rest of the Update

Here is the remainder of my weekend. I had a family reunion Sunday for my mom's side of the family. It used to be a reunion that would bring in over 100 relatives. This year we were under 25. It is unfortunate. I always enjoy going because it is on a nice small lake with a great beach. Here are some photos.

It was my god son, Josh's birthday. Here he is before blowing out the candles.
And here he is crying because I smeared frosting from his cake all over him. I thought it was funny. But there were many in attendance who did not. Come on, look at the kid, he is covered in frosting. It is funny.
And because I have been getting so many requests for me to post more pictures with my shirt off, here goes. Down at the lake I had a couple poses jumping into the lake.
Then I had the great idea to jump over my nephews. Here I am going over Ethan. No children were injuried in the photographing of these images. Even though my sister in law, Julie was worried.
And in this one Nick aborted at the last second, but as you can see by the altitude I attained that I would have easily cleared him. I must be 6 feet up in the air.
Today I had lunch with Roman, Nate, Julie, Andy and Brady. Here is the Heisman picture I have been promising. I am headed up to Minnesota this weekend, I am plan on stopping by Stegall, so look for another Heisman picture with Topher.

Baby News

I can't believe I forgot to post this in my mid weekend update. Yesterday at my parent's house my brother, Jeff, and his wife, Sue, announced that they are pregnant with their 3rd child. I didn't see this coming. As of March 2007 I will be an uncle for the 10th time. With 5 boys and 4 girls in the family already, this could balance out the power in the family. I know that Jeff and Sue peak in on my blog every once in a while, so congratulations. Christmas is going to continue to be an expensive event.

Mid Weekend Update

It has been a busy fun fun weekend for me so far. Friday night, my old roommate, Andy was back in town, well back in the state. Andy, his wife Julie, and their new baby boy, the Devil Child, Brady, were back in Wisconsin. Andy's parents through a party up in Green Bay. I went up their with Michel. Nate would have gone, but he just had knee surgery so, Nate was couch bound. Andy's family is alot of fun to be around. Saturday, my great Aunt Harriet was back in town and my parent through a little picnic. So the family got together for that. It was incredibly hot, so I am still perplexed why my brother, Dan, was so upset when he went after me after I popped a water balloon on him. I am still trying to understand why it is that when I bring water balloons to a party and I give the balloons to the kids, they only throw them at me. But again that was the case. After my parent's house we all went over to my sister-in-law, Julie's, house. They have a nice pool, so the family was all over there for the remainder of the day/evening enjoying the pool. A rather relaxing day. Today I have a family reunion for my mom's side of the family. And then later this evening, Andy is going to be down in Milwaukee. We are going to meet up over by Nate and I am going to give Andy a lesson in ping pong. The wagger is loser buys Oakland Gyros. I am pretty excited. I think I will also be ordering a breaded mushrooms. Oh and I almost forgot. The Bastille days run went pretty well for me. I finished in 27:57. My goal was 29 minutes so I am happy about that. But I think I could have done better. It is just that the last 1/2 mile I felt like I was dragging a dead body behind me. Next year I will shave a minute off of that time. I would like to that the 10 people who voted in my pole, even the person who didn't think I finish. Here are some pictures for the weekend so far.

Nate on the couch. Never seen that before.

The proud father, Andy, and Brady.

Here was my favorite part of the night, Andy retelling the story of him getting so drunk that his dad had to carry him out of the cab and into the house. Mind you Andy was 32 years old when this story took place. An absolute classic story. If you ever run into Andy make him tell you the story.

Michel with Brady. Putt with Brady. Can you believe they let Putt hold Brady but not me? That is alright, I am getting my Heisman picture with Brady today.
Mom and Brady.
Tami, Michel and Julie.
Me and Julie. Sign of the Devil. As you may have read from previous blog entries, Brady was born 12:01 on 6-6-06. Keep a close eye on this kid. Villa, I hope you like the shirt, it is yours.
And because this hasn't been enough pictures, here are more from Saturday. Abbigail on the tire swing.
Sarah on the tire swing. At one point in the day, the kids were lined up 5 deep waiting for tire swing rides. I got a full workout of under duckys, atomic drops, twisters, and super brakes.
Here are the kids screaming in the sprinkler.
The Nirvana Nevermind cover or Ethan?
Haus with a flip.
Zack catching some air.
Ethan doing a flip. He gets some nice tight rotation.
And because my female readers just can seem to get enough of me. Here I am showing a preview of what your tickets to the gun show will get you.

Storm the Bastille

Tonight is the annual Storm the Bastille 5K run. I think tonight will be at least 5th year in a row. This is by far the best 5K run I have ever done. Start time is 9:00 p.m. So if anyone is going down there and would like to meet me, I should be crossing the finish line around 9:19 p.m. Actually I am looking to finish in under 29 minutes but we will see. The start gets real congested, so I think my time will suffer a little. What do you think my time will be?

What will my time be tonight?
	30 min (10 minute mile)
	27 min (9 minute mile)
	24 min (8 minute mile)
	Easy Roger Bannister, you probably won't finish
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Random Notes

I have a confession to make. If I rewind a little over 6 months, I made two New Years Resolutions. Well I broke one of them last week, when I needed to get a hold of The General. I had a resolution not to call him on his cell phone. But going into the second Dave Matthews concert he was still up in the air. I didn't want to get stiffed on the ticket so I had to call him. Not surprisingly he ended up being a no show for the concert and when I called, he didn’t answer, and actually never did return my call until 2 days later. I can’t say that I was shocked. But I think that is still pretty good to have any resolution for 6 months. However, my other resolution, I am still holding true to. I have been fast food clean for 6 months and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Just the thought of eating at McDonalds makes me feel sick. The closest I have been to eating fast food has been Quiznos or Oakland Gyros. And there is no way I could ever give up Oakland Gyros.

Here is a random note that I am bit tentative to bring up. If you have been a reader of my blog for a while, you may have remembered my two favorite readers: Fort Wayne, Indiana and Columbia, Missouri. For those who might not know, I have a site meter on my blog. It can be found on the bottom of the blog. If you click on it, it sends you to another web page where it will give you all of the data on the number of hits my blog gets and where they are coming from, or at least what city. For a good two or three month stretch I had two faithful readers from Fort Wayne, Indiana and Columbia, Missouri, who checked in just about everyday. I do not know anyone who lives in either of those cities, so I am guessing that they are just two random people who came across my blog. Then one day they both suddenly stopped coming to my web site. Maybe they felt sorry for Nura and Sue, who knows. But recently I have another person from a far off place, that I have no clue who they are. And yet they are checking out the blog on a regular basis. All that I can guess is that it is a hot bikini super model who is attracted to my stunning good looks and is amused by my rapist wit.(Dumb and Dumber reference) So I would like to welcome aboard to the “Life of Rickie” readership, Herndon, Virgina.

Email Addresses

To my brother, Dan, and my brother in law, Tim. I think you both check out my blog. Post your email addresses on the blog so I have them.

Weekend Update

This past weekend I went to a bachelor party for my friend, Todd Planting. I met Todd through Borky. We went rafting down the Apple River. All I really want to comment on the bachelor party with, is that it was a lot of fun and I saw some really cool stuff. Apple River is about 5 hours away. And a half an hour north of Hudson. I knew I didn't want to spend all day Sunday driving. I ended up waking up early 5:00 a.m. Sunday morning and started driving home. This worked out great since I was finally back home by 10 in the morning. I had the whole day ahead of me. My brother had a World Cup party. So it was nice to get together with all of my brothers, my sister and their respective families. Pictures to follow.
Ethan underwater

Nick in mid air.

Like father like son, Haus in mid air. Look at that tight tuck on the cannonball.
Jared with a cannonball.
Check out the stud with the sunglass, the patching sun burn on the shoulder juggling in the water.
Josh in a one piece. He has his father's spare tire around the middle.
9 punks ready to go swimming.
Lindsey airborne.
Zack airborne.

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.