Zack's Football Game

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

Clown Code of Conduct

Annie,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Locked Out Again

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

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

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

The Weekend That Was

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

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

Halloween Costume

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

It Is Like A Sauna In Here

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

Weekend Update

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

I Need Your Help

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

Part of the Problem

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

I Have Had It With This Place

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

Rooster

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

First Snow

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

Zombieland

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

Nothing

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

We Have A Winner

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

Inglorious Basterds

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

Bucky over Goldy

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

Packer Prediction

I know I am late in this posting.

Here is what will happen tonight.

Peterson runs for 176 and 2 touchdowns.

Favre 12 for 15, 187 yards and 1 touchdown.

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

Vikings, sadly win 31 -24.

You Betcha, Minnesooootaaah

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

Ants Marching

Baby Blue

Don't Drink the Water

This is the opening of the show.

Little Willie

Fireworks From The Island

I forgot to post this video. It was Doug's fireworks display last weekend on the island. Mighty impressive. And I took plenty of notes so my display next 4th will be better.

Dave Matthews Show #3 of the Summer

I am not predicting a very exciting week, so I am going to stretch this posting out for a couple days. I didn't do much more than watch TV on Friday night. I had to be prepared for the concert on Saturday, plus I had to work Saturday morning. But only for a couple of hours. I went to the show with Liquid, Doug and Myra. The concert was in Tinley Park which is about a 2 hour drive from my place. We went to the hotel and checked in. We had heard that tailgating was not allowed at the Ampitheater. So we had a couple of drinks in the hotel room before heading to the show. We pulled into the parking lot, pulled out the coolers and started having some drinks. It wasn't more than a minute later, this big white pick-up truck goes by with some meathead in the back yelling through a megaphone that "NO TAILGATING IS ALLOWED!!!" This seemed so foreign to me. I had a hard time getting my head around the idea that you couldn't tailgate. It is so stupid. We procrastinated as long as possible before heading into the venue. As we were walking to the gate people kept walking back to their cars to put their cameras back in the car. Apparently security was pretty strict. That left we with a delema with what to do with my camera and my flask of booze. I hid the camera in my sock and the flask I put in the hood of Liquid's hoodie sweatshirt. This is a professional move that always works. The one good thing about being forced to go into the show, was that we were in early enough to see the opening band, Willie Nelson. I saw Willie quite a few years ago when he opened for Phil Lesh and Friends, and I thought Willie was great. Since not all Dave Matthews fans are also Willie Nelson fans. We were able to manuver our way down to the 10th row. Some of you got a text message bragging about such a thing. After Willie we headed out to use the facilities. Doug Liquid and Myra wanted to sit in our real seats. I just couldn't do that, so I headed back down to the 10th row. I managed to make myself a figure down there for the first 3 songs before I got the boot. I moved around quite a bit for the remainder of the show and it was a great show. I doubt that many of you care about the setlist but here it is:

Don't Drink the Water (I called this song before they played it)
So Damn Lucky (A great song live)

Squirm

Gravedigger (Willie Nelson came out and sang this song with Dave)

Shake Me Like a Monkey

Seven

One Sweet World

Funny The Way It Is

Lying In the Hands of God

Recently

The Song That Jane Likes

Why I Am

You and Me (One of my favorites from the new album)

Dancing Nancies

Spaceman

Jimi Thing

So Much To Say

Anyone Seen The Bridge

Too Much (tease) (I predicted that they would also do a Too Much tease)

Ants Marching

Encore:

Baby Blue (My other favorite from the new ablum)

The Maker

Grey Street (Another great song when seen live)

So here is some Willie Nelson. This is "On the Road Again". Yes I know, I couldn't keep the camera very still in most of these videos because I was dancing around. So it is sort of like the Blair Witch goes to Dave Matthews.

Money Money Money

I am not sure if people really know what I do at work or not. But let me give you a little look into what is my world at work. I am the project engineer overseeing all inspection and administration for the resurfacing project of USH 45 from Kewaskum to Eden. I inspect the work that the contractor performs and I make sure that what they do is done correctly and safely. I measure up the work that they do. I think you saw my post the other day where we (and again when I say we, I mean the contactor) had to place a culvert pipe on top of quick sand. It was up to me to decide how we were going to fix that problem. And now a couple days later I can tell you it turned out just fine. Another one of my tasks at the office is to produce estimates for the work done, which go to the contractor as payment for their work. And where does all of this money come from? Well it is tax payer money. Your money. I protect the interest of the public to make sure that what they pay for is what they get. The reason I am going into all of this detail to my job is because today I produced what I believe is the largest estimate I have ever put out. Basically what I am trying to say is that today I spent $578,510.04 of your money. Pretty scary.

Drama Queen

I rarely pass along email crap any more. There was a time when I would forward along anything that came to me. But now I rarely ever forward anything. This came into my mailbox today and I wanted to post it.
What are my feelings towards the NFL's biggest Drama Queen. As a Packer fan, I will forever be in his debt for the hope, entertainment and the one championship he brought to Wisconsin. However, in looking back, we really should have got more than one championship out of him. It was a few years ago that he really started to bother me. When every year he would be non-committed to playing the next year. I honestly think he has some serious mental disorder where he has to be in the spot light and the center of attention at all times. Now I dislike him even more, for the way he manipulated himself to become employed by the Vikings. Not to mention the fact that he screwed over the Jets by not only his play but by getting them fined a year later. I still believe that he will throw more interceptions that touchdowns this year. Next Sunday should be interesting.

The Weekend Ahead

Sadly I have to work tomorrow. But I wouldn't be on site much past noon. Tomorrow is possibly my last concert of the year. Although I do have my mind set on scalping tickets for Springsteen when he comes to town. And Rusted Root will be at the Rave in December. But tomorrow is Dave Matthews in Chicago. An added bonus is that Willie Nelson is the opening band. I am excited for a great show. They played Wednesday night, and even though their set lists change every show, here is what they played.
Proudest Monkey
Satellite
Don't Drink the Water
Funny The Way It Is
Seven
Stay Or Leave
Why I Am
Squirm
Dancing Nancies
Granny
Spaceman
Corn Bread
Crash Into Me
Raven
Rhyme And Reason
You and Me
Shake Me Like a Monkey
Jimi Thing

Encore:
Baby Blue
All Along The Watchtower

Next weekend I am looking forward to a trip up to Minnesota for the Badger - Gopher football game. But as of press time I still do not have a ticket. Chances are I will be watching the game for a bar.
And while it has been a busy summer/early fall. The following weekend I have nothing planned and I can't wait to have a weekend at home, spending most of my time on the couch watching football on TV.

Work Work Work

Before I continue on with this post I would like to make an announcement of a milestone that my blog has reached. My blog started a little over 4 years ago, on Sunday August 21, 2005. Last week I made my 1,000 post. That seems pretty crazy. To me it is even more crazy that people still visit my blog on a fairly regular basis. Just this past weekend, I learned that my friend, Schoen is another loyal reader.

Alright now on to today's blog. It is about the job I am working on. It is a 16 mile resurfacing job, with a bridge overlay, beam guard replacements and upgrades, new signing and cross culvert pipes. Yesterday we (and when I say "we", I mean the contractor) replaced a culvert pipe. These culvert pipes are getting replaced due to the fact that they are either sagging in the middle or just rusting through. Up until this point no real major problems had been encountered. But on this pipe, which was the last one to be replaced, we ran into some substandard soils to place the pipe on.
I am sure you are wondering, well what do you do when you run into something like this. I am glad you asked. In this case, breaker run is placed beneath the pipe. And what is breaker run, it is defined as "Stone or concrete processed through a primary crusher set to produce a material predominantly 6 inches or less in at least one dimension from a department approved source." In this picture you can see the breaker run underneath the pipe as they install them.

So maybe you actually learned something today. But I doubt it.

The Informant

It has been a long long time since I did a movie review. I am not that busy, but I just haven't had time to get to one. Yesterday, after I finished work, I headed out to the movies. My bike has a flat tire that I haven't gotten around to fixing, so I didn't have much else to do up here in Eden. I went up to Fond du Lac to see "The Informant". This is a movie based on the life of Mark Whitacre who became an informant for the FBI about a price fixing scheme that the company he worked for, ADM, was involved in.

It is a dark comedy that turns out to be not as good as all of the promos indicate. But it could be that the plot is a little too smart for me. It is hard to know if Mark Whitacre (played by Matt Damon) is really an idiot, or just acting as an idiot. What makes it more difficult to understand if he is acting dumb or playing dumb is the fact that he has a PhD in BioChemistry from Cornell. It is a hard plot to follow, at least I thought so. The most interesting / comical parts of the movie are when you hear Mark Whitacre's inner monologue. They reminded me a lot of Jack Handy's Deep Thoughts on Saturday Night Live. Matt Damon character reminds me of the skit on Saturday Night Live when Eddie Murphy dressed up as a white man. But again, I wasn't impressed by this movie. I will give it only a 4 out of 10.