Bored-ing
Source: Spoofshadow
Welp, just hanging out at the station tonight as I have most Fridays so far since football started. I’m running the board for the Great Bend High School game. It’s not too stimulating, it makes for some long days, but I suppose the extra money is worth it.
Andrea’s sister and family are heading up for the weekend to go trick or treating. I asked around at work here and have some good leads on the “sweetest” neighborhoods in town. Should be fun!
Sorry I’ve been slacking.
Hey der. Sorry the posting has fallen off lately. It’s not that am bored with the blog. I really wish I had some stuff to post. But either there’s just not much going on, or for some reason I can’t really fit the words together.
Been traveling a lot over the past few weekends or had company over, and we’ll be gone again this weekend as we’re heading to Wichita to visit Duane and Mom. Duane is in the hospital with pnumonia. He’s getting better all the time, but he still has a lot of recovery left.
Other than that things just keeping on keeping on. I’ll try to do better with the updates…. starting next week. Ever the procrastinator, eh!?
Weirdest dream
Man, I had a dream last night that had it all. It’s by far the oddest and most random dream I’ve had in years. I have to write it down while it’s still vivid.
Started off from what I remember, smoking a cigar with Biebs on the front porch. I’ve never even smoked a cigar, so I guess it’s what I imagine smoking a cigar would be like. Later I found out the front porch belonged to my Aunt and Uncle and Andrea and I were living there. Only found that out because Andrea was paying the bills online and said to my uncle, “All these bills have your name on them.”
To which he said, “I know, because it’s my house.”
THEN, I shit you not, Barack Obama shows up with a whole bunch of “feds”. Or at least some guys in suits. He says we have to get rid of anything that isn’t “efficient”. Next thing I know a bunch of guys are loading up all my stuff and taking it out of the house. TV, computer, even pictures and some of my old favorite shirts. I remember screaming, “WHY DO YOU NEED MY SHIRTS!?” And one of the guys said, they’re too old, these MUST be recycled. They all piled into an old Beaver Express box truck and drove off.
My aunt and uncle thought it was great and I was so fed up that Andrea and I left and went to a hotel. Only instead of ending up at the hotel we ended up at the State Capitol building and ended up following a school field trip around. We wanted to go clear to the top, but it was blocked off, so we figured if we formed a big enough group and all went up at the same time, then there was no way they could stop us! haha!
I don’t remember ever making it to the top…
Next thing I remember it was morning at the hotel and we were at the buffet. Only it was more like a cafeteria with long galley style tables. I went to go get some food but the whole buffet was empty, just a few empty buckets of what looked like used to be tapioca pudding. Right as I was starting to go find Andrea and just skip the meal, the hotel workers brought out three GIANT boxes of cereal and filled the whole buffet line with them. “That works.” I thought and grabbed a bowl and scooped some cereal in.
I headed back to one of the long tables and right before I sat down Barack Obama was BACK, and he was walking my mother over to seat her next to me. He said to me, “I know you have your feelings, but if you ever decide to, you can come sit with us.” So mom and I sat down where we were and ate our cereal and Obama left. Then as we were leaving the cafeteria I noticed Obama and those “feds” from earlier sitting a few tables down all eating cereal together.
And that’s about it. That’s the nuttiest dream I’ve had in a LONG time.
10.8.09I got new specs, too!
New Specs
I want to go back to rims, but thought I should gradually make my way back into them. So, I got ones with just the rim on the top of the lenses. Not too bad. Matt and my co-workers like them, and that’s more important than me liking them since they see them more! I just look through them.
It’s been a while since I’ve gone into the eye doctor’s, so I’m glad that I got upgraded! The doc says that my eyes are actually getting better. That’s a good thing I guess, since usually they gradually get worse as you get older. I must just be getting younger! Yay me!
10.8.09Defeating the SNOOZE button.
I don’t know about you, but I for one am NOT a morning person. It seems like no matter how much sleep I get 4, 6, 8 hours, it doesn’t matter. Come time to get up I just don’t want to roll out of bed. Every bone in my body beckons me to just lay back down, close my eyes and return to the peaceful slumber I had been enjoying just moments earlier.
Part of my problem is that I don’t sleep well as it is. It’s a rare occasion (and a glorious one) when I fall asleep and stay asleep until the morning. And without a doubt some of the worst sleep of the whole night is the last 30 minutes to an hour in which I’m hitting the Snooze button. I know it sounds ridiculous, but there’s more mornings than I care to admit that I’m just so tired right when I wake up, that I literally hit Snooze for an hour.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that that last “hour” of sleep wasn’t doing me any good. And I got to wondering, what the point of the snooze button really is in the first place. You aren’t going to get any meaningful sleep in the 9 minutes between snoozes. So starting last night I made the decision to quit cold turkey. I don’t want to mess with Andrea’s sleep schedule, so used my cell phone as an alarm, and at 6 AM it went off. I trudged out of bed and over to the nightstand and grabbed the phone to silence it. I was groggy as usual, but the slight change in routine was enough to stay focused and head out to the kitchen, rather than just flop back into bed. And just as I suspected once I was up and at it, it didn’t take any longer to “wake up” and get the ol’ cognitive functions going than it did when I was “sleeping” an hour later.
The best part is I get to ease into the day again. I actually ate breakfast this morning. Sat down at the computer and enjoyed a cup of coffee while browsing my usual sites. And even wrote a blog post! Ahh! I think I can get used to this morning person thing! Just gotta stay focused!
New specs
Finally got my new glasses today. Went with something kinda geeky. Drives Andrea crazy but she’ll get used to ’em. I like them. And most of all, I like that I can see without a big blurry cloud over my right eye!
I got some daily use contacts too incase I’m ever doing something that would be nice to be able to ditch to glasses. I just remember how frustrating it was snorkeling at Hawaii and wishing I could see the stuff we’re looking at, but having to wear goggles meant no glasses. I don’t think I’ll be snorkeling again any time soon, but should a situation present itself, I’ll be prepared!
To da Nort der, doon cha no?
Ready to go!
Well this past weekend Andrea and I went to the Twin Cities, primarily to watch my team (the Vikings) play the (49ers). I was telling Andrea that I’m glad I have her around, because trips like this I would never convince myself to go on because it’s: too far, no time, expensive, or whatever until I talked myself out of it. Luckily she just orders tickets and says, “We’re going. Too late!” ha ha It really was a blast… and an adventure.
I don’t have any vacation time built up at work yet, so we had to take the trip in as few days as possible. I would loved to have been able to fly, but that wasn’t really in the budget and would just be a lot to spend on a football game considering the already healthy chunk of change for the tickets. So we decided to drive. When we went to Branson we rented a car because we didn’t really trust either of ours for super long hauls. But this time I figured, for the price of a rental car, we could get Andrea’s exhaust replaced and take her car, and rather than just throwing that money away on a one time use deal, we’d spend it on something that would actually last a few years. So the decision was made. We were taking her car.
Grandpa Wayne has been doing pretty bad with his emphysema and he probably doesn’t have much time left, so we detoured about an hour to go through Sabetha, KS to see Grandma and Grandpa for a short while. I like driving through that area of the country. Rolling hills and old barns make up the horizon, lots of old farm machinery parked here or there. Some of it still gets used, some of it has been just sitting for sale for years by the farmer who’s waiting for the right offer. There’s just something really rustic about the scenery and time’s erosion seems to work a little slower around those parts.
North towards Bellville on US 81.
Seneca, KS. Almost to Sabetha.
The Starlite Motel in Seneca. Taken this weekend with old timey black and white effect! Oooh. Vintage!
I was working late running the Great Bend HS football game until after midnight, so Andrea was sweet enough to drive the first leg to Sabetha. We hung out with Grandma and Grandpa for a while. Grandma has made so much progress since basically having a stroke over a year ago. Sadly Grandpa has gone the other direction. He was doing well enough to recognize us and recognize what we were talking about, but he kept drifting in and out. Like you’re talking to someone who’s half a sleep. It’s painful to watch someone who knows they are dying and it’s something I don’t have a lot of experience with. As I think over it, I hope to write more about it as I can make sense of my thoughts. For now, all I really know is that I for one hope my own death is swift.
From there we headed to St. Joesph, Missouri. I don’t think I’ve been to St. Joe since Mom lived there a few years back. It was very unique period of my life where EVERYTHING was changing. Mom and Dad were recently divorced and I was finishing high school getting ready to start the whole college thing. It was almost like a waterfall of experiences between what I was… and what I am. Just thinking about St. Joe brings back a flood of memories all at once that you have to stop and sort them out. The feelings were so jumbled at the time that the images pop in my head so randomly. I can remember so many seemingly insignificant things, but it’s hard to put it together in such linear was as I can so many other memories. I remember such insignificant things like using white bandage tape to hide the wires for Mom and Duane’s surround sound against their white walls, and I remember thinking that Duane’s 120MB SuperDisk drive was THE BOMB! It’s like I remember tons of little pieces, but they don’t really fit together to form a greater picture.
120MB!??? I can fit ALL my files on one disk! Holy crap!
Wow, this post has taken a bigger detour than I expected. Okay, back to Minnesota. The one thing we did do at St. Joe was switch drivers. I took over and we turned north towards Iowa. I did most of the driving through Iowa and was pretty white knuckled through Des Moines traffic. I couldn’t handle that kind of stuff every day.
I had just gone to the eye doctor and got a new perscription, still waiting for my glasses to come in, but I got some contacts for the first time in probably at least 10 years. Not going to wear them all the time, just for things it would be nice to ditch the glasses. But the doc gave me some free ones and said to wear them for a few days and see how they feel. They feel just like they used too. Dry and sticky and a PITA to put in and take out. I got a 30 pack that will probably last me a year once my specs come in.
Who needs glasses when you aren't looking at the road anyway?
North towards Iowa on I-35. It was cloudy and cool most of the way, but didn't see much rain.
We made great time at almost 100 MPH. Okay, Andrea's speedometer is just wiggin, it was more like 75 MPH. Still made good time!
Really? You're going to spend millions building a Casino, and you're going to call it... Terrible's?
Minneapolis, it is!
Almost there! But really.... there's nothing in the next 211 miles worth mentioning?
Nicest rest area I've seen.
After leaving at 7:00 AM, the sun sets on our first day of the vacation near the Minnesota State Line.
We ended up making pretty good time we rolled in just shortly after 9:00 PM. Our hotel was easy to find and right near the Mall of America. After a marathon drive like that it was nice to FINALLY reach our destination!
After sitting for 12 hours, there's nothing like finally sitting.
Interwebs!
We didn’t do a whole lot Saturday night. We went to the MOA breifly before they closed so I could get a Vikings shirt for the game, but for a store that sells ONLY Vikings stuff, I was really disappointed with the selection. None of the shirts tickled my fancy and most of them were around $30. I found a polo shirt I really liked, but it was $75 freakin’ dollars! I found a nice pair of pajama pants though, which I’ve been wanting for years! We ended up just going to Wal-Mart down the road, and I found a t-shirt I really liked for $12. I guess I’m just a cheap bastard.
Andrea wanted me to get a jersey, but I'm just not a jersey wearing guy.
After the shopping we headed back to the hotel. We were hungry and there was an Outback Steakhouse in the hotel, so we decided that will work. I ate WAY too much and probably drank WAY too much too. They were having a special on Sam Adam’s Oktoberfest beer. Two for one. I guess I thought that just meant half price, but nope, they brought me two mugs! Ha ha.
If only drinking two at a time made it twice as good. It's not. It's just messy.
So I fell asleep with a stomach ache thanks to the obnoxious quantity of food in my belly. And when we woke up, it was time to get rolling and ready for the game! Tail gating would have been fun, but there’s not a lot of parking around the Metrodome, and traffic wouldn’t be much fun either. We decided to take the “Light Rail” from the Mall of America up to the Metrodome. The whole trip was probably 30-45 minutes on a train packed with Vikings fans. I’d say it’s a lot like a subway ride, only not under ground… but I’ve never ridden the subway so I can’t say. It was a little uncomfortable with so many people packed in, but all in all it was probably be best way to go.
The train pulling into the Mall of America.
View of downtown from the rail.
Pulling into the Metrodome!
It was really cool walking up to the Metrodome. Here in Kansas you don’t see too many things that are THAT big. I love that gameday atmosphere, where everybody is pumped up for the game. Andrea was worried she’d be the only 49ers fan, but there were plenty of them around that she didn’t draw too much attention to herself. hehe
Our seats weren’t too bad. We were in the corner of the endzone in the upper deck. We weren’t close enough see the whites of their eyes, but we had a great view of the action.
We got to our seats early. About an hour before kickoff. Didn't really feel like we were waiting around a lot though. It was cool just to watch the players warm up and take in the atmosphere though.
Airing up inflateable boat for the players to run through.
Filled!
Here's a good picture of our view. After some fireworks and pregame festivities it was time for kickoff!
It's still weird to see Favre as a Viking. But after this game I'd be a believer.
The game itself was amazing. Both teams were undefeated coming into the game, and both teams really fought hard the whole game. It was just a great game to watch, and we couldn’t have picked a better one to go see in person. The San Fransico 49ers scored what looked like a game winning touch down with less than 2 minutes left in the game. A field goal wouldn’t be enough to tie, so the Vikings needed a touchdown in 90 seconds to win. Somehow Farve lead them down the field, and with TWO seconds to go, Farve through an amazing pass and Greg Lewis made an even MORE amazing catch. And after that it was over!
You just have to see it. To me it was all a blur, but the one thing I remember was the sound of the crowd. Listen to the roar when he makes the catch in the video below. It was an amazing moment to be a part of. I wanted to jump and hug Andrea…. but she’d have none of it. I’m sure in her mind they had already won the game and she was celebrating, only to have it abruptly ripped away. Couldn’t have been fun. Ha ha!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLyddRYxBhQ]
After that we were really beat. We road the train back to the MOA and did some shopping. By the time we got back to the room at about 8:00 I was content to just kick back on the bed and watch the Sunday Night football game on some fuzzy cable TV.
The next morning we slept in and decided to take a short detour on the way home. We’d been there once before but it was more just driving through. This time we decided to stop and check out Wabasha, Minnesota. A somewhat famous little town.
That's right... Home of Grumpy Old Men. The movie, that is.
Last time we were hear was years ago when we had just gotten together. We stopped by Slippery’s tavern but they were closed and we didn’t really have any extra money anyway. THIS time they were open and we just HAD to try it out. Now this isn’t exactly what you see in the movie. There is a bar named Slippery’s in Wabasha, and it was there BEFORE the movie, but what you see in the movie isn’t the real Slippery’s. Which shouldn’t be a suprise to the keen observer (or those who have just watched the movie way too many times), because the Slippery’s in the first movie doesn’t even look anything like Slippery’s in the second movie. So visually there’s not a whole lot in common. But it was still a cool place to check out.
The REAL Slippery's
Looking out the window from our table.
They're showing Grumpy Old Men on the TV! What are the odds? Oh see the small ice fishing pole below the TV that's the Green Hornet!
I ordered a glass of "Slippery's Red". I wasn't too impressed at first. Seemed like it lacked flavor, but for some reason when I drank it a long with some of the greasy fries, it tasted fantastic!
After that it was on with the long trek home. Which got even longer at around 11:00 at night. Andrea had run over something on the way to Kansas City. Neither one of us saw what it was so who knows what it could have been, but when we stopped for gas, Andrea noticed the right rear tire was really low. We tried to air it back up, but it was losing air too fast. So we dug her jack and spare out, and while jacking the car up, the jack stripped out and broke! So we had to limp to the nearest Wal-Mart and buy a new jack, then change the tire in the parking lot, and drive all the way home at 50 mph on an 18 year old spare tire! Come 4:30 AM we FINALLY pulled in the driveway. I got a couple hours of shut eye, then I headed back to work. Vacation over.
So despite the flat tire it was a really great trip, and I’m glad Andrea made the plans to go!
09.17.09The IGN Boards update…
I seriously have no one to share this with that I actually know… you know… in real life. But after being on the IGN boards for eight years… this is honestly one of the funniest things I’ve seen in MONTHS!
I know no one gets it. I wish I knew someone that did so we could laugh together. I seriously had to wipe the tears from my eyes.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwY8VFNc5hw]
09.17.09So cool it’s awful.
This strikes a very harsh chord for me. I love Cadillacs, I love El Caminos. But this is like taking all your favorite foods, putting them in a blender and baking the pulp into a cake. Odds are that even though you love everything it’s made from, it’s bound to be the most foul creation meant only for the deranged or stupid.
Other than the fact that an Eldorado and an El Camino go together as well Ralph Lauren blue blazer and neon swimming trunks…. I really do respect the craftsmanship that went into the car here. First off it’s not just the front of a Caddy hacked onto the back end of an El Camino. The bed and tail gate were substantially narrowed to fit inside the quarter panels of the Eldorado. So you get to keep the body lines, fender skirts, and of course the tail fins, everything that makes this definitely a Cadillac, and not just a Chevrolet.
Use of carpet in the bed is my favorite touch. No self respecting Cadillac man is going to be throwing muddy garden tools in the bed of this truck. No, you use a Chevy for that. This is more suited for delivering your custom made saddle to the stable of your prize stallion. The tail pipes are a little too “hot rod” but everything else is very in character of opulence over function.
It’s so unique I’d have to drive one!
09.14.09Ha ha! Funny posts.
I was reading a Daily Tech article. I love reading the bickering that takes place in the comments.
So we should exile ourselves to the moon and let Gaia heal herself away from our horrific influence!
How do you know we didn’t exile ourselves here away from the Moon? Look what happened to the Moon since we’ve left. What an awful place it turned into.