Recap

Here is what I can recall from the last couple of days. But before I start with that. Tonight I saw the first snow fall here in Minnesota. I couldn't be less excited for the winter to begin. Alright, Saturday night Borky had a party and then just about everyone at the party went to a bar downtown Minneapolis. I was in charge of organizing the costume contest at Borky's. Borky and Lisa won. The highlight of the evening was at the bar where I had a run in with Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters. I saw him walk into the bar and I over head these two guys say, "Did you see that guy's costume? He is dressed up like Dave Grohl?" Morons. I wasn't planning on going up and talking to him, because I am sure tops on his list of things to do that night was to talk to a mime. But Borky grabbed me and wanted me to get a picture of him with Dave. Borky and I went over by Dave and started talking to him. This is what I recall from my conversation with Dave, mind you I was dressed as a mime.
Me - "Hey Dave, How is it going?"
Dave - "Don't talk!"
Me - "But Dave..."
Dave - "No you can't talk!"
Me - "I just wanted to...."
Dave - "You are a mime, mimes don't speak!"
Me - "Well can I..."
Dave - "Shut up!!"
Eventually he let me get a couple of words in. And I got a picture with him as well. But the picture turned out real blurry. Dave seemed like a pretty nice guy, although he also seemed pretty drunk. So I guess you could say that I was partying with Rock Stars on Saturday night.
Sunday I drove home to Milwaukee. Pretty brutal since I was hung over. The reason I was down in Milwaukee was for a presentation that my company was putting on for the Wisconsin DOT. The presentation was all of 20 minutes. My part was only 5 minutes. But it might have been a good thing that I was there, because after the presentation one of the project supervisors who was sitting in on our presentation was asking specific questions about having me be the project manager on one of his projects. Then Halloween night I went trick or treating with my nieces and nephews. And I ended up pulling up short with both concerts on Halloween, I didn't go to either Mini Kiss or Gwar. As it was, I left Waukesha at around 8:30 and got back to Woodbury around 1 / 1:30 in the morning. And I was on my project just before 7 this morning. Here are photos from the last couple of days as promised.
Here is the mime costume.
Myra as Take Out Chinese.Here is Lisa who won best costume, her and Doug where Britney and Kevin Federline.Me and Borky. Borky was Tony Clifton. Borky also took second place at the costume contest at the bar.Here is Borky and Dave Grohl.Here I am just before trick or treating, with Nick, Lindsey, Jared, Ethan and Erin in front.

Weekend Plans and Picture of the Day

I am headed home this weekend. Here is my plan. I am going to the much anticipated Halloween party with Borky tomorrow night. He is going to give me $20 if I can go all night without talking. Should be interesting. I will be honest it is going to be tough. At the crack of the sun, Sunday morning I am hoping to be on the road and headed to Milwaukee. I would like to do some yard work, watch the Packer game, take my nephews shopping for their birthday, and play Nate in ping pong. Oh and if my parents need help cutting deer, I have made that offer. That is all on Sunday. Monday I am working in our Milwaukee office. My bosses have told me that I will be working late with them practicing our presentation that we are doing Tuesday. Tuesday, I am putting on this presentation with my two bosses. I am still a little confused why I am going, since of the four engineers in our office, I have the least seniority, however I am on the only one with my license. The presentation is at 8:45 in the morning and should only take 45 minutes and my portion of the presentation is 10 minutes. Then I am taking my cousin, Kim, out to lunch. I have always promised her, that if I was in Madison I would buy her lunch. Then Tuesday afternoon, I am driving back to Waukesha. That night I am going to go trick or treating with my nieces and nephews. I will be fashioning the gorilla suit. And if I can get any takers, I still want to go see either Mini Kiss or Gwar Halloween night. After which I will be headed back up to Minnesota and will be back to the normal grind of things. Thankfully tonight is Friday night and I am not doing anything. Not to sure how much blogging I will get in this weekend so here is a picture.This picture was taken February 21st, 2000 in the Miller Park East Parking lot. This is Andy, Nate and Myself launching the Mean Machine down at Miller Park. You can see the stadium wasn't done yet.

Girlfriend?

Although many of the comments that people leave on my blog are anonymous, I really do appreciate them. My life is pretty dull, so any topic or comment that people can bring up helps me fill space on my blog. Just today someone made the comment that I need a girlfriend. I am not so sure that I need to do that. I think I do just fine all on my own. And my track record with the ladies hasn't been good at all. In fact, as shocking as this my sound, my longest relationship ever was 4 months, and I was in Europe for a month and a half of that. But I thought I would throw together another poll and see what my valued readers think.

Should I get a girlfriend?
	No way. You don't have enough money.
	Yes. Even if she doesn't have a pulse.
Free polls from Pollhost.com

On a totally unrelated topic. I find it odd, that when I do a spell check on my postings on this blog site, that the word "blog" is not in the blogs site's dictionary. Weird.

Vegas Baby, Vegas

I have used this space in the past to talk about my life. And is so often the case, my life has intersected with that of my good friend, The General. I know that I have given him his fair share of grief. The time I was responsible for him doing 1000 push ups in the army. Once at a Dave Matthews concert I pretended not to know him as he was getting thrown out of the reserve seats and met him afterwards. Another time I splashed water in his crotch at a crowded mall and made a spectacle out of him. One of my favorites, on a hot summer day, as we were driving around, I asked him if I could have a sip of his ice cold soda. I took a sip and then poured the rest out the window. For all of these things I have always felt a little bad. Well maybe except for the getting thrown out of the concert, I told him not to move up. Anyway, I have always felt a little bad up until today.
I would like to enter into record the sequence of events that has led up to my disgust with The General. This summer Tree, The General and I came up with the idea to plan a trip to Las Vegas. The 3 of us looked at our schedules and came up with the weekend up January 11-14th 2007. We sent out an email inviting a good share of our friends. (If you didn't get invited, I apologize, let me know if you want to go) But like most of my emails where I invite my friends to go somewhere with me, no one replies. I take that back it was either Nate or Joe replied back and said "No." In early September Tree, The General and I had a 3 way conference call. Tree and I were ready to throw down our credit cards and book the trip. But The General, he didn't want to for a couple of reasons.
#1) The General felt that the 2 weeks waiting to hear back from our friends wasn't long enough for our flaky friends to make the decision. (Bad argument)
#2) The General didn't have a job. (This is actually a good argument, but he did assure that he was 99% certain he would have a job by January, as I see it that is all the more reason to book the trip. Motovation.)
#3) And this is not made up, you can ask Tree. The General believed that their was a chance that one of us would get cancer and back out of the trip. (I can't think of a worse argument)

Last week, I talked to both Tree and The General again. I said let's get another 3 way call together and book our flights Sunday night. So Sunday night we all get on the phone. Tree has clearance from the wife, goes on line and finds a flight that will work for him and books it. I go on line and book a flight and a hotel room. The General is also in on this call and he is making his normal stupid jokes about how great his fantasy football team is. While he is doing this I am under the assumption that he is looking for flights to Las Vegas. Tree gives me his flight information, I give out my flight information and the hotel information. Then I ask The General, what flight he is on. He says "I am still looking." Are you kidding me? How long does it take to find a flight. My experience, it doesn't matter if you use Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, etc., they are all going to be within $10 -$20 of each other. Just pick one and book the flight. I went to two of these websites and found flights for The General. Being the experienced traveler that I am, I found the best, cheapest, non stop flights for him. I even gave him the flight numbers. Then I heard The General say "Maybe I will fly out of Madison." At that point I just hung up the phone. I was under the assumption that he had all the help that he needed and that he was booking his flight after I hung up. I got an email from Tree today, asking me if I knew that The General still had not booked his flight. As I understand it, the longer you wait on flights the more expensive the flights become.
The whole reason Tree and I decided to go to Las Vegas is because The General was coming along on the trip, otherwise we would just go out to Colorado to ski. I am open to any suggestions on how to retaliate on The General if he pulls up short on this trip. Off of the top of my head, as of tonight, I am planning on midnight and 2 a.m. phone calls to both The General's and his wife, Diane's cell phone every night until he books his flight. Do you think that will work? I mean there is no question if I will do it or not. I will and I can keep it up for weeks. But if you come up with something better please let me know.
Oh and if that doesn't work. I will give it about a week and then I am going to start calling The General's mom and asking her why her son hasn't booked his flight. Linda, I know you read my blog from time to time. Sorry, but your son brought it on himself.
To my blog readers, I apologize for venting. But I really have nothing else to talk about. Do you want to know how my day was? Well the most interesting part of my day was that on the way to work, there is 5 stop lights I have to go through. Today is the first day I got stopped at all 5. I know interesting stuff. Oh and I had rice and chicken nuggets for dinner. But it could be worse, I could be in Platteville.

Controversial Issues

From time to time, I like to make my own commentary on the hard hitting issues. Sure I usually don't talk about health care issues, military down sizing or campaign reform. But I do like to talk about the issues that effect me on a daily basis. This is a topic that interests me and I would like to know what my readers think. Please vote. The thing I miss the second most about living in Milwaukee is my two headed shower. I am sure you are wondering what I am miss the most. Well that one is easy, it is beating Nate in ping pong. Lately I have been sitting down in the tub of my shower while I take a shower. Is this unusual? The first time I recall doing it, was in college when I was extremely hungover. But now I find myself doing it all of the time.

Do you sit down in the shower?
	No
	Yes
	Wow, are you lazy.
Free polls from Pollhost.com

And just because I know there are so many female readers out there who just can't get enough skin, and probably a couple guy readers (Tree and Justus), here is a photo of me sitting down in my shower.

So I know that I have at least on critic out there who doesn't like my odd ramblings. For that person I have to ask you, is this any better?

How sad is my life? I am taking pictures of myself naked in the shower. Kind of funny, but still sad.

Picture of the Day

Before I get to my picture of the day, I would like to vent a little bit. I was at my club working out today. Believe it or not, I actually show up there from time to time. I was in the free weight section doing some curls, you know feeding the pythons. Anyhow, what is the deal with the meatheads that work out there that can not put the dumb bells back in their proper spot. If you pick up a 30lb dumb bell put it back in the spot on the rack that says 30 lbs. I don't understand why that is so hard to do. I might file a complaint with the health club.
Alright secondly, someone posted a comment asking me where my costume was. I am a little confused. Yes, I do wear my gorilla suit way more than any person should. However, I really don't feel like dressing up like a mime everyday. I would probably end up getting my ass kicked if I did. Am I wrong or isn't this up coming weekend pretty much the time when most of the Halloween costume parties are. I think whoever made that comment is probably the same person who doesn't put the free weights back in the proper spot. But since they asked where my costume is. It is here laying on the floor in my office. No the beer bong isn't part of the costume. I just don't have a storage spot for it, and the floor is the best I can do. But don't worry I will have pictures from this weekend up. In fact I am in charge of organizing the best costume contest at the Borky Household. That might be a bit of a challenge to do without talking.

Now for your real picture of the day. This picture was taken Octover 17th 1999, on Mount Hood in Oregon. I was out there on business and stayed with my buddy Browny. For you movie buffs out there, you might recognize the resort behind me. The outside shots of the resort from the movie "The Shining" were taken here. As you can see I am holding an imaginary axe. Here's Rickie!!! Also for the record there isn't and never was a hedge maze at this resort. Those shots were taken from a different locale.

Picture of the Day

This was taken on May 8th 2001, at the now closed Mykonos, in West Allis, Wisconsin. This was the night of Phil's bachelor party. Obviously we ended up at Mykonos. This is me with Grandpa Mykono. I don't look so bad for 3 in the morning.

Weekend Update

This weekend was alright. Friday night I went over by Krum who was having an open house at his condo. I actually knew more people than I thought I was going to. But after reaching a certain number of drinks, I knew it was time to either leave or end up staying the duration. It looked like it was going to be a really long night so I headed out. Saturday night I went to the Terror Trail with Doug, Lisa and Lynn. It was OK. Just way too cold. I am not ready for winter at all. I was just freezing. However, being at the Terror Trail thing, it made me think of a story. This one goes back to when I was in high school. As you might know, I am a highly accomplished butcher, at least of deer and other wild game. My official job title is "Head Boner". One night my father and I were cutting up a deer in the garage, and it was a warm night because the garage door was open. As we were working I heard a loud crash. I walked outside to investigate and sure enough there had been a car accident down on the corner. One car has T-boned (no pun intended) another. Being the good Samaritan that I am I walked down to see if everyone was alright. What I didn't realize at the time was my appearance and that I forgot to leave the knife and hook that I was using cutting up the deer on the table. Here is pretty much the scene that these people see as they are emerging from their car wreck. A 6' 3" blonde kid wearing a bloody apron, bloody hands and carrying knife and a hook walking out of the darkness towards them. I asked everyone if they were alright. They said "Yes, we are fine, please just leave and go back to what you were doing."
Here I am at the Terror Trail.
The "Head Boner" in action.

Picture of the Day

This picture of the day goes out to my brother, Jon. I stopped at the liquor store down the street from my place yesterday on the way to Krums party. As I was going down the isle, I noticed the price on a big bottle of Captain Morgan's, or as my friends in Minnesota call it, the "Homewrecker". $18.89. I can't recall the last time I saw a "Homewrecker" $20 in Wisconsin.

Weekend Preview

Well kids, the weekend is here. Can you tell I am excited? Probably not. So what is on the schedule? Krum is having a house warming party at his new condo tonight. I will be done with work early today, so I voluteered to be on the party preparation committee. I also need to run around sometime today and final the final piece in my Halloween costume. I need white gloves. My sister in law said I could find some in the ladies section at Wal-Mart. Can't you find everything at Wal-Mart? Saturday, I am pretty pumped about watching the Badgers on TV. They don't get much air time up here in Minnesota, and the two games I have been to, Bowling Green and Minnesota, I was rather distracted by alcohol the entire game. So this is really the first game I get to watch. Saturday night, I am going on this haunter terror trail ride thing with a group of friends. Expect to hear stories of my breaking out the scream mask. Only good things came become of this. Sunday, I am headed over to Kaker's. Krum is giving him a hand at fixing his home theater, and I am in charge of wall gromets and mounting the speakers. Here are some pictures to tide you over until I can complete the weekend.
This was taken November 5th, 1999, Orsta Volda, Norway. I was over there on business with Merge. I had the cab driver stop here to take a picture of my on my way to the airport. I had worked nearly the entire night before. So in the picture I am on maybe 2 or 3 hours of sleep. Look I was actually thin at one time in my life. I must be under 200 lbs in this picture.

This picture was taken October 5th 2002 in Clearwater, Florida. Me and the lead singer of the band at Andy and Julie's the wedding. The band was starting to get sick of us. They were the house band at the bar we went to every night. When we walked in, they said "The Wisconsin People are here." And the wedding was the third night in a row that we saw them.

Me and My Bridge

Well my loyal readers know that I am living up in Minnesota and working in Prescott, Wisconsin on a bridge that crosses the St. Croix River. My company has an interview with the State on Halloween. This is an opportunity for private consultants to basically make sales pitches to the State so that they will hire us for work in the future. I have also been asked to come along and speak on this interview. My boss asked me for some publicity shots of me with my project that he can add to the literature we will be handing out. So I spent an hour or so this morning running around taking pictures of myself with my bridge. Yes it was a rough day at the office. So I thought I would post a couple of the picture of me with the bridge and maybe let you decide which picture my company should use.
This one is taken from Minnesota on the north west corner of the bridge. Same location but with the Price Is Right Showcase Showdown hand gesture.This is taken from the North East corner of the bridge back in the friendly state of Wisconsin.This is looking directly west on the bridge.This is taken inside of the bridge. When the bridge is fully open the floor would be tilted at a 70 degree angle.This one I actually can't use because I am not wearing my safety vest. But the picture wouldn't work if I had the vest on because you would only see the reflective material. Anyhow this where the counterweight of the bridge swings down. If I were to stand there with the bridge fully open I would be crushed into what would look like a pile of bloody mash potatoes.This one was taken from the south east corner of the bridge.

Which is the best picture?
	The one inside the bridge.
	The one with you with your hands in your pockets and no expression with the bridge in the background.
	Can you do one inside the bridge while the bridge is open?
	What you couldn't get a picture from the south west corner?
	Is it possible to photoshop yourself out of any of the pictures.
	I don't care, but suddenly I am hungry for mashed potatoes.
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Picture of the Day

This picture was taken this weekend in Madison. Just kidding actually it was taken November 5th, 1996, in the Village of Shorewood Police Department, Shorewood, Wisconsin. This was during my college internship with the Village of Shorewood. And I forget the actual reason why I was over at the Police Department. I think I was wasting film and I had one of the detectives give me a tour. The cop who took the picture couldn't believe I was laying down on the cot after the scumb bag that they had in there the night before. They told me they were frisking the guy and a roach came out of his shirt. So I guess you could say I was in jail and did some hard time.

Shopping Carts

I was at Target working on securing everything I need for my Halloween costume. I saw that they have the motorized remote controlled shopping cart return thingys now. I don't like them at all. Sure they are safer and all that crap. But when I was just a wee lad in high school I was a stockboy at a grocery store. I don't think I need to get carried away here, but it goes without saying that I held the store record for most shopping carts pushed in at once. I want to say it was easily over 20 carts. And those were the metal ones, not the plastic ones they have now. And at least 1/4 of those carts had bad wheels. I did also hold the record for hauling out the most empty milk crates on a dolly. I am sure with my teaser you are all on the edge of your computer chair with anticipation of what my Halloween costume is going to be. Well when I go trick or treating with my nieces and nephews, I will once again be just in the gorilla suit. But I am going out the Saturday before Halloween here in Minnesota with Borky and company. I have decided to be quite possibly the most annoying costume there is. I am going to be a mime. I have everything but suspenders. So if anyone knows where I could procure a pair of black suspenders, please let me know. They don't have them at Target, Marshalls or Kohls.

Picture of the Day

This picture was taken in 2003 in East Troy, Wisconsin. This is Ness and I on a night out on the town with Chris, Rebecca, Trinity, Adam and Angela.

Madison

I would like to offically go on the record as calling myself a total idiot. I mean really what am I doing with myself. Borky and I stayed with Joe this weekend and Friday night we just stopped at a bar near Joe's place to grab something to eat and called it a night knowing Saturday would be a long day for us. Saturday 8:30 in the morning Borky starts making Captain and Cokes. We get down to Campus and I made quite possibly the weakest effort I have ever made in scalping tickets. The one and only scalper I talked to told me to stay off the drugs when I offered him $30 for 2 tickets. 11:30 in the morning and I am ordering Red Bull and Vodaks. What is wrong with me? For those that know my past history with Red Bull and Vodak, you should be able to tell where this is going. For the vast majority of the afternoon I lost Joe and Borky. I had my camera with me. I don't really remember taking any of the pictures on my camera. Some how in the late afternoon I fond Borky and we went to State Street Brats. I called my cousin, Kim, and told her to come and meet us. Kim came in for a couple of minutes but then she had to leave because her roommate who is not yet 21 was waiting for her outside. Here is where I might have had the stupidest idea since getting into a shoving match with 6 Alpine Valley Security Guards. I told Kim to have her roommate use my ID to get into the bar. Right, this will work. A 20 year old girl using a 33 year old guy's ID to get into a bar on State Street on a college football Saturday. As amazed as I am that I came up with such a dumb idea, I am even more amazed that it actually worked. After some drinks, Kim and her roommate left. Then I lost Borky again for the 3rd or 4th time of the day. I finished the night with ordering a pizza, then going to a bar calling a cab. And it must have taken well over an hour to get a cab. Here are some photos for the day.
This is the group that I started with, Joe, Dawn, Stevie, Matt and Borky. I got quickly separated by my own doings.
Me, Borky and two strangers. I think this is just shortly after the first Red Bull.Thankfully this was our only run in with the Police.Me and some girl, I couldn't tell you her name if my life depended on it. I do not recall this picture being taken. Borky trying to mount a bull. If I had a nickle for each picture I have that has that same caption.Me riding the bull.Me and my cousin, Kim.Borky in the middle of State Street. Somehow, probably within 5 minutes of this picture, Borky and I lost each other, not to meet up again until we both took separate taxis back to Joe's place. We both arrived within 5 minutes of each other back at Joe's.

Another Drinking Game

As I was driving down to Madison Friday night I thought of another old story. This one once again involves The General. Maybe I pick on The General a little too much, but too bad. This must go back at least 4 or 5 years. The General's college roommate, Schriber, was getting married and The General was the best man and throwing a bachelor party. They were having dinner in downtown Milwuakee at The Rock Bottom Brewery. I made it down there just as they were finishing up dinner. I am guessing it was a group of 10 - 12 guys. As we were sitting around having a couple drinks, our friend, Schmidty says to me "Hey do you have any good drinking games that we can play?" I thought about it for a minute and then explained the rules. It was actually pretty simple. The first person who talks to The General has to buy a round of shots for everyone. Everyone but The General agreed to this. We had to have been at the Rock Bottom before leaving for another hour or so. And no one talked to The General. It was pretty funny since normally at a bachelor party, the best man is the second most popular person there. Not to mention, I think The General even paid for dinner. I recall at one point watching The General going up to talk to someone any saying "Hey, where do you think we should go next?" and that person just turned and walked away from The General without saying a word. What are friends for.

Picture of the Day

Before I get to my picture of the day. I have come up with a new drinking game. I have an incredible talent for turning just about any situation into a drinking game. My favorite made up drinking game was actually invented by Krum and I, and that was the Brett Favre game. Although in my current health I can no longer play. I would also like to mention my favorite drinking game that I didn't invent is still speed quarters. But on to the new game. I was watching some playoff baseball. Every time someone on camera spits you have to drink. This would also work for football games, but I don't think you would be drinking quite as much as during baseball.
Another random thought I had, Why do girls always seem to wear their hair shorter after they get married and have kids?
Alright here is the picture of the day. This was taken Feb, 9th 3003 in Vail , Colorado. Me and Marty Moose in our condo at Vail. Russ got the place on the internet. There was a misprint and it was posted at $50 a night and it was suppose to be $500 a night. Not surprisingly we got kicked out a day early. I will only take part of the blame, while I did walk around the lobby in a gorilla suit, I don't think I was the sole blame. I also honestly believe that they had it in for us from right when we moved in. This reminds me of another sort of drinking game. Our condo was right on the hill and you could ski right up to the garage. So the last run of the day, it was my idea that the last one back to the condo buys the first round. The night before we were drinking fish bowls at $8 a pop. And I think we had 6 or 7 guys in that condo. Quite possibly the fastest I have ever gone on skis.

Car Fire

I forgot, I wanted to post some pictures of the most exciting thing that has happened on my job, and it didn't even happen on my job. I was leaving work today and I saw a bunch of smoke rising from behind a gas station. I parked and when to check things out. It appears someone lit their Cadillac Escalade on fire.
Where is Spider when you need him?
Hey moron how about getting a little closer.Prescott's finest on the job. The girl who owned the car behind the one on fire was pretty mad. Apparently it took the fire department well over 15 minutes to get there. I know that at least two of her tires popped and the back window shattered. And who says nothing ever happens in Prescott.

Odd Ramblings

I find it pretty incredible that horse can take a dump while walking. I think that would be hard to do, don't you? Unless of course you really had to go bad. But horse seem to do it without breaking stride. I think I would at least break stride. Maybe not.

I told you that Indy was a lock. 18 point spread and they win by one point.

As you can tell from my opening, I didn't do a whole lot this weekend. I ended up meeting up with Krum and Brown at Brown's place for the Packer game. Here are a couple photos of that.
Browny in his sitting room by the fireplace.
Browny with is Derrick Turnbow autographed baseball compliments of Nate.

Here is a picture from last week. I got together with Krum and Kaker for the Packer Monday night game. I meet up with Kaker at his house before going to Krum's. Here is Matt with his son Charlie.

Because I wasn't in any of these pictures, here is one of me. This was taken earlier this summer in the Dells with the Brantzeg family. Hard to imagine but here I am playing a video game.

What about Britney?

I like Britney Spears. I liked her a little better before she started popping out kids. In fact if someone mentioned to me that they wanted to go scalp tickets to one of her concerts, I would go. But then again, I would pretty much go and try scalping tickets to just about any concert. It is a little known fact, but when Tree and I used to go skiing together, while we were putting on all of our ski gear in the parking lot, we would crank Britney Spears on the radio. I will be honest, it was quite the site, two large grown men, one wearing a gorilla suit, dancing and singing to Britney in the parking lot. I think I will put "You Drive Me Crazy" as my favorite Britney song.