Remember that one time 5 years ago when we were training for the Fox Cities Marathon and we were running down Cecil St. and I had to stop because of this incredible pain in my knee?? Remember? Before we went to Camp Onaway?
Remember how we started the marathon and we got to mile four and I told you I had to drop out?
Yeah? Well guess what...I just injured myself again like 6 hours ago....and I FREAKED out; Amber would agree with me on that. The exact same knee, the exact same injury.
Isn't it ironic how just a few hours prior to this post I said how I hurt and hope I feel better by Saturday? Nope, guess not.
Isn't it also ironic how last year I did two half-marathons without any kind of difficulty? And this year, I do the exact same training regime and I get hurt again.
So, needless to say, I'm about 90% sure I won't be running the half-marathon with you. But I will still be going down to PDC on Friday night to camp and getting up at the crack of dawn to meet you at the starting line. Heck, I'll warm up with you, get my goodie bag, cheer you on during the race. And if I feel crazy enough, I may even start the race with you and drop out at mile 2.
I don't know what to say man...this sucks! I wanted to cry a million tears after I got hurt. After 3 months of training I wouldn't have thought it would have happened now.
But I'll see you on Saturday, bright and early.
Man, good thing I didn't register for those other two half-marathons later this month!
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
The Lawn Mower is Alive!
After work last night, I bought some starting fluid for the lawn mower. I opened up the carburetor, sprayed it inside, gave the rope a tug and it started for like 30 seconds. I tried it again, and this time it started for about a minute. I tried it a third time and lo and behold it started for good! I was so excited, I started mowing the lawn in the light rain with my sandals on! We also bought a cordless weed whacker so we won't have to worry about extension cords or gas. I have declared war on our lawn and I am pretty confident I will win. Tonight I have to spread the weed killer and put down some more mulch.
Man, I'm kinda sore and I think it's from playing softball on Sunday. Hopefully I won't hurt for Saturday. I gotta do a few short runs this week and then it's game time. Let's roll!
Man, I'm kinda sore and I think it's from playing softball on Sunday. Hopefully I won't hurt for Saturday. I gotta do a few short runs this week and then it's game time. Let's roll!
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Note to Self:
Do not wear a band aide on your forehead if you are in the sun for two hours at softball practice...
It may not look that bad, but once that redness turns to a nice light brown, it will be very noticeable! Man, sometimes I don't think!
Anyway, I did the Crazy Legs 8k on Saturday. It was so windy and cold; gusts up to 35mph! I did well, though. I crossed in 35:13 which was faster than I anticipated. It was pretty cool how they started the race. People were assigned a wave. Each wave started about a minute behind the previous wave. At the front of each wave were members of the men's basketball and football team. They got us pumped up! When the horn blew everybody ran around them and gave them high 5's! I high-fived Stiemsma and Krabbenhoft. Then Ron Dayne spoke briefly at the finish. All-in-all I was pretty pleased with my performance!
On Saturday night, our book group got together for Rock Band night. It was so sweet! I was a master bassist by the end of the night, I was doing the medium and hard songs like it was no body's business. I also did quite a bit of guitar and vocals, and a bit of drums. There was 10 of us and we all changed up the line-up once in a while. We got pizza from Glass Nickel, had beer, wine and other snacks too. Just a fun night all-around. I'll put a few pictures up soon.
The Longshots had softball practice this afternoon, and it only confirmed that I am the weakest link! Although, I think I'm hitting better than last year already. For some reason, I'm better in the infield than outfield. I'll most likely play catcher, right field, possibly second base. Heck, I'll even pitch! I wasn't too bad. I can tell already our team will be better this year than last. Everybody was fielding and hitting pretty well. I passed out the jerseys too. Our next practice is at 7:30 on Thursday and it will be under the lights which will be cool!
This Saturday, I'm running the Prairie Du Chien Half Marathon with Shawn and I'm pumped! We did it last year. It's such a flat, fast course. I hope to improve my time by quite a bit this year, hopefully. I was supposed to do an 11-miler tonight, but I didn't want to risk any injury since I ran that race yesterday and I did a 10-miler last week. I feel I'm prepared. So I did like 7 instead.
Grass is getting long, time to get the lawn-mower going. Hopefully I won't have to go through the same debacle as last year with borrowing my uncle's mower every week for a month since my mower was broken. I'll try starting it tomorrow...
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Roots
My Junior year of college I woke up in the middle of the night and had this revelation that I should make a mix CD of all the songs that I grew up with, shaped my musical tastes or inspired me in some profound way. These songs are not necessarily my favorite by these artists by any means but they are the ones that "started it all". It's been years since I last listened to it and it blew me away when I popped it in the other night. It's definitely comfort music and it takes me to a time that was simpler and brings back great memories from growing up. I intend to make a Roots II CD very soon with more. Here is the track listing and a little commentary on each track:
1. "Free Fallin"- Tom Petty - 1989
The first real rock CD that I got into was Full Moon Fever by Tom Petty and this was track 1. My cousin Derrick's parents had this CD for years and he started listening to it; whenever I'd come over, he would play the CD and and I soon became hooked. So many good memories of hanging out in his garage with his sound system and playing this track. A true classic.
2. "Learning to Fly" - Pink Floyd - 1987
I thought Pink Floyd was a person's name before I heard this song. I remember some friends from Cross Country, Adam, for one, was obsessed with PULSE. They would watch it all the time and have the album playing all the time. It even had a blinking light on the box which was so cool. After practice one day, Adam drove me home and he had this song playing in his car. I asked what it was and he said it was from PULSE. The next day I went out and bought it and I was hooked! Ironically, on the drive home from Media Play, as I was on the on ramp for 41, this song started playing on WOZZ. Forever a Floyd fan!
3. "We Didn't Start the Fire" - Billy Joel - 1989
I have strong memories of listening to this song on the bus with Andy's Walkman in like 6th grade going down Bell St. It sounded so cool! It started my whole Billy Joel kick. Those drums, great chorus, just a rockin' tune!
4. "That Was a River" - Colin Ray - 1993
A song that was one of my favorites right before my dad died in December of '93. It's a country song that I heard in my Uncle Steve's car while going bow hunting with him up north that fall. I also remember going to see the movie The Three Musketeers at the cheap seats at Northland Mall with Adam Buckingham and his parents. After the show, we were talking about music or something and they asked what my favorite song was, I told them it was this song. They said they never heard it; I was not surprised :-)
5. "Streets of Philadelphia" - Bruce Springsteen - 1993
I remember waking up to this song on May 29th, 1997, my 16th birthday. My mom and I were going to go shopping that day to get some birthday gifts for me, I didn't have any idea what I wanted. I remembered this song I heard on the radio by Springsteen so I got his Greatest Hits. That day I became a Bruce Springsteen fan. I also bought Sting's Mercury Falling and Jon Secada's Secada that day(which I sold a few years afterwards) That was momentary lapse of reason!
6. "Another Day in Paradise" - Phil Collins - 1989
My first song that I was obsessed with, I would normally put obsessed in quotes, but that would mean that I really wasn't obsessed, which would be a lie. I must have listened to this track about 10,000 times my freshman year of high school. The song blew my mind away with the soft chord intro, lyrics, cut-off drums, melodic chorus. I have two strong memories of this song: 1. Laying on Andy's bedroom floor and him having a cassette single of this song and him popping it in and listening to it a few times and immediately liking it; 2. Sitting in my cousin Derrick's bedroom, seeing a Phil Collin's CD, looking on the back to see if this song was on it, which it was, putting it into the CD player above his bed and stood mesmerized, I was a Phil Collins fanatic after that moment. I also believe I took that CD home with me and never gave it back.
7. "Learn to Be Still" - The Eagles - 1994
My mom bought Hell Freezes Over in 1995 because she liked the track "Love Will Keep Us Alive" "Learn to Be Still" had this great feel to it, very relaxed, Don's voice just perfect plus the opening line is "Just another day in paradise" which was pretty cool since I was obsessed with the song mentioned above. I remember up at my Grandparent's cabin, sitting in the living room late on a cool summer evening with the lights off and popping this song in and looking out the window. Funny how you remember things like that.
8. "The Bluest Eyes in Texas" - Restless Heart - 1988
This is one of those songs that I remember listing to in the car when I was 7 years old and I knew there was something special about it. The 3 part harmonies, beautiful melody. I remember thinking that it sounded like a stormy night. Big Dreams in a Small Town was the second CD I ever got; I fell in love with the first 4 tracks and always skipped to track 8 which was this song. Great chorus lyrics:
"The bluest eyes in Texas are haunting me tonight; like the stars that fill the midnight sky, her memory fills my mind..."
9. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" - U2 - 1987
The song that started my U2 obsession. In 1989, my Uncle Steve gave me a cassette tape of The Joshua Tree from his collection. He just got the CD version so he didn't want the cassette anymore. He also gave me a Cinderella tape which I wanted very badly because I loved the Disney Movie...little did I know it was NOT the soundtrack :-) Anyway, I never listened to that tape until 1997 when Andy and I finished watching the movie Blown Away on a Saturday afternoon. This song and "With or Without You" were in the movie. I remember liking both songs and waited until the end credits to see who they were by. It was of course U2 and I remember a tape my uncle gave me by that name. I dug it out, brushed off the dust and the rest is history...
10. "Invisible Touch" - Genesis - 1986
I loved this song before I even knew who Phil Collins was. I remember watching TV in the living room at Andy's house and the music video for this song come on and I thought the song sounded so cool and I loved the lead singer's voice. This caused me to buy Invisible Touch and it turned out like 6 out of the 8 tracks on the album were huge singles that I've heard before. I was hooked.
1. "Free Fallin"- Tom Petty - 1989
The first real rock CD that I got into was Full Moon Fever by Tom Petty and this was track 1. My cousin Derrick's parents had this CD for years and he started listening to it; whenever I'd come over, he would play the CD and and I soon became hooked. So many good memories of hanging out in his garage with his sound system and playing this track. A true classic.
2. "Learning to Fly" - Pink Floyd - 1987
I thought Pink Floyd was a person's name before I heard this song. I remember some friends from Cross Country, Adam, for one, was obsessed with PULSE. They would watch it all the time and have the album playing all the time. It even had a blinking light on the box which was so cool. After practice one day, Adam drove me home and he had this song playing in his car. I asked what it was and he said it was from PULSE. The next day I went out and bought it and I was hooked! Ironically, on the drive home from Media Play, as I was on the on ramp for 41, this song started playing on WOZZ. Forever a Floyd fan!
3. "We Didn't Start the Fire" - Billy Joel - 1989
I have strong memories of listening to this song on the bus with Andy's Walkman in like 6th grade going down Bell St. It sounded so cool! It started my whole Billy Joel kick. Those drums, great chorus, just a rockin' tune!
4. "That Was a River" - Colin Ray - 1993
A song that was one of my favorites right before my dad died in December of '93. It's a country song that I heard in my Uncle Steve's car while going bow hunting with him up north that fall. I also remember going to see the movie The Three Musketeers at the cheap seats at Northland Mall with Adam Buckingham and his parents. After the show, we were talking about music or something and they asked what my favorite song was, I told them it was this song. They said they never heard it; I was not surprised :-)
5. "Streets of Philadelphia" - Bruce Springsteen - 1993
I remember waking up to this song on May 29th, 1997, my 16th birthday. My mom and I were going to go shopping that day to get some birthday gifts for me, I didn't have any idea what I wanted. I remembered this song I heard on the radio by Springsteen so I got his Greatest Hits. That day I became a Bruce Springsteen fan. I also bought Sting's Mercury Falling and Jon Secada's Secada that day(which I sold a few years afterwards) That was momentary lapse of reason!
6. "Another Day in Paradise" - Phil Collins - 1989
My first song that I was obsessed with, I would normally put obsessed in quotes, but that would mean that I really wasn't obsessed, which would be a lie. I must have listened to this track about 10,000 times my freshman year of high school. The song blew my mind away with the soft chord intro, lyrics, cut-off drums, melodic chorus. I have two strong memories of this song: 1. Laying on Andy's bedroom floor and him having a cassette single of this song and him popping it in and listening to it a few times and immediately liking it; 2. Sitting in my cousin Derrick's bedroom, seeing a Phil Collin's CD, looking on the back to see if this song was on it, which it was, putting it into the CD player above his bed and stood mesmerized, I was a Phil Collins fanatic after that moment. I also believe I took that CD home with me and never gave it back.
7. "Learn to Be Still" - The Eagles - 1994
My mom bought Hell Freezes Over in 1995 because she liked the track "Love Will Keep Us Alive" "Learn to Be Still" had this great feel to it, very relaxed, Don's voice just perfect plus the opening line is "Just another day in paradise" which was pretty cool since I was obsessed with the song mentioned above. I remember up at my Grandparent's cabin, sitting in the living room late on a cool summer evening with the lights off and popping this song in and looking out the window. Funny how you remember things like that.
8. "The Bluest Eyes in Texas" - Restless Heart - 1988
This is one of those songs that I remember listing to in the car when I was 7 years old and I knew there was something special about it. The 3 part harmonies, beautiful melody. I remember thinking that it sounded like a stormy night. Big Dreams in a Small Town was the second CD I ever got; I fell in love with the first 4 tracks and always skipped to track 8 which was this song. Great chorus lyrics:
"The bluest eyes in Texas are haunting me tonight; like the stars that fill the midnight sky, her memory fills my mind..."
9. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" - U2 - 1987
The song that started my U2 obsession. In 1989, my Uncle Steve gave me a cassette tape of The Joshua Tree from his collection. He just got the CD version so he didn't want the cassette anymore. He also gave me a Cinderella tape which I wanted very badly because I loved the Disney Movie...little did I know it was NOT the soundtrack :-) Anyway, I never listened to that tape until 1997 when Andy and I finished watching the movie Blown Away on a Saturday afternoon. This song and "With or Without You" were in the movie. I remember liking both songs and waited until the end credits to see who they were by. It was of course U2 and I remember a tape my uncle gave me by that name. I dug it out, brushed off the dust and the rest is history...
10. "Invisible Touch" - Genesis - 1986
I loved this song before I even knew who Phil Collins was. I remember watching TV in the living room at Andy's house and the music video for this song come on and I thought the song sounded so cool and I loved the lead singer's voice. This caused me to buy Invisible Touch and it turned out like 6 out of the 8 tracks on the album were huge singles that I've heard before. I was hooked.
11. "Goodbye Says it All" - Blackhawk - 1994
The first country band that I was obsessed with, starting with this song. I remember getting this CD for Christmas and being sooo excited. I think the drive up to deer hunting for the '94, '95, '96, and '97 was spent listening to my two Blackhawk CDs over and over again. I'm sure my uncle was sick of it! Also, great memories of singing Blackhawk songs while mowing the lawn. A really great pop-country band!
12. "Still Crusin'" - Beach Boys - 1987
I remember lying in bed after we bought our first stereo system from American in 1990. My dad was up all night setting it up. At 1:00 in the morning heard the glorious harmonies of the Beach Boys come out of the speakers. This was the first track on that album. I remember getting up out of bed to check out what was going on. I played that CD a LOT in my youth.
13. "Fields of Gold" - Sting - 1993
The warm pad, Sting's yearning lyrics, delicate bass, tasteful guitar all came into a perfect balance with this song. I remember hearing this song on long drives coming back home from the cabin up north. Looking out into the open fields. We also had this BMG music service where you could get like 10 CDs for super cheap. Ten Summoner's Tales was one of them. Classic Adult Contemporary and 94.3 WROE stuff. Delilah eats this s*&% up.
14. " All for Love" - Sting, Rod Stewart, Brian Adams - 1993
The very first CD I ever got was the soundtrack to Disney's The Three Musketeers. I saw this movie many times in middle school and this song was the reason I bought it. I must have played this song so many times on our cheap Panasonic CD player. Great vocals, though. Check it out if you haven't heard this one in a while!
Funny how my brain remembers specifics like these. A fair amount of country on here since that's what I was raised on. Man, how my tastes have changed. But it feels great to pop this CD in and relax and have all those memories come flooding back...
Monday, April 21, 2008
Dr. Rew to the Rescue!!!
Man, it was such a good day...almost too good. I was planning on doing some yard work when I got home today. I moved the rain spouts up and shoveled some mulch around the bushes in our backyard when all of a sudden I look up and the rain spout hits me hard right on the forehead! The aluminum gouging into my skull!! Ouch! I knew right away there was going to a be a lot of blood. I touched my hand to my forehead and sure enough, LOTS of blood. I checked out the wound and thought I might need stitches. I called Amber and told her that when she gets home she'll have to check me out to see if I need a doctor. There was a big flap of skin just hanging there. Anyway, Amber got home and she didn't think I needed a doctor because the wound wasn't deep enough. But we didn't have any first aid stuff in our house. She ran to Walgreens and came back with gauze, bandages and Linacain. She fixed me up real good! Check out the before and after photos:
Now, it's time to grill some hot dogs, enjoy the weather, go for a walk and watch the brewer game! Thanks Dr. Rew!
Now, it's time to grill some hot dogs, enjoy the weather, go for a walk and watch the brewer game! Thanks Dr. Rew!
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
We Have a Bat!
Last night, a few guys from the softball team got together and bought our team a brand new softball bat! We got the Nike Aero Launch. We got a great deal on it because it was $80 on sale for $50 and we also got a 10% AAA discount as well. What a steal. Man, we saw bats that were $450! Ridiculous! Check out some pics:
I'm hoping this will lead to more home runs (greater than 2) for our team this year. We have our first practice next Thursday...can't wait! Schedules should be coming out today and our jerseys should be delivered either this week or next week. Things are coming together.
I'm hoping this will lead to more home runs (greater than 2) for our team this year. We have our first practice next Thursday...can't wait! Schedules should be coming out today and our jerseys should be delivered either this week or next week. Things are coming together.
In other news, work is ridiculous. I'm in charge of this software upgrade this week and my have to work late tonight. I got in at 7 which is early for me. But I'm cool under pressure (unless I'm playing softball)
Piano is arriving today at 5:00! Amber and I rearranged the furniture in our living room last night to get the spot ready. We moved our couch back about 4 feet and it really opened up space, I don't know why we waited until now to do it.
I'm almost finished reading "Neuromancer" (not really) for book club on Thursday. I have about 125 pages to go. It might be a late night tomorrow.
Big series vs. St. Louis this week. Let's go Crew!
Friday, April 11, 2008
What I Do
So, I realize that many of you know that I am an Electrical Engineer and I work at MGE in the Substation Dept. But most of you probably don't know what I actually do. So let me satisfy your curiosity with one of the projects I'm working on at the moment...
Right now I'm working on a substation control and relay upgrade at our Blackhawk Sub. (Not affiliated with our church) which is located just north of University Ave. in Middleton about a block from Lake Mendota on Spring Harbor Dr.
There are three main pieces to this upgrade:
1. Upgrade the old RTU (Remote Telemetry Unit) in the control house with a new one.
2. Take out the old 14kV-4kV transformer (3MW) and set a new one with a higher capacity (7 MW)
3. Upgrade the controls in the new transformer and run fiber optics to the control house for communication.
The process starts by taking the existing schematic and wiring diagrams and editing them by taking out old components and adding new ones. I do this by marking prints with colored pencil (yellow for remove, red for add, blue for comments) Then I take the prints to drafting and the drafters draw them electronically. This process can take weeks or months and is usually never done until the project is complete since changes are constantly being made.
Next I have to create a Bill of Materials and order all the parts I need for the project such as new microprocessor relays, fiber optic cable, junction boxes, switches, fuses, etc. I also have custom aluminum panels made to mount the new components.
Once I have all the components, our wireman can start creating some of the communication panels I designed ahead of time. It takes about a week to build a large panel. This is the part that is going on right now. I have 5 panels that need to be built.
We also have to hire a crane company to come in a take out the old transformer off of it's pad and place the new transformer. This new transformer is coming from Blount Station (The plant with the 4 ugly smokestacks)
Once all the panels are installed and the transformer is set and the fiber is connected, the only step left is to commission it and verify everything works as it should. This is the most important step since if something goes wrong, people could get hurt, customers will be out of power and there could potentially be hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage to our system. We basically go through a checklist and verify the schematic does what it says it does. This process will probably take 3 days or so. Once that is complete we're done!
Check out some photos:
Right now I'm working on a substation control and relay upgrade at our Blackhawk Sub. (Not affiliated with our church) which is located just north of University Ave. in Middleton about a block from Lake Mendota on Spring Harbor Dr.
There are three main pieces to this upgrade:
1. Upgrade the old RTU (Remote Telemetry Unit) in the control house with a new one.
2. Take out the old 14kV-4kV transformer (3MW) and set a new one with a higher capacity (7 MW)
3. Upgrade the controls in the new transformer and run fiber optics to the control house for communication.
The process starts by taking the existing schematic and wiring diagrams and editing them by taking out old components and adding new ones. I do this by marking prints with colored pencil (yellow for remove, red for add, blue for comments) Then I take the prints to drafting and the drafters draw them electronically. This process can take weeks or months and is usually never done until the project is complete since changes are constantly being made.
Next I have to create a Bill of Materials and order all the parts I need for the project such as new microprocessor relays, fiber optic cable, junction boxes, switches, fuses, etc. I also have custom aluminum panels made to mount the new components.
Once I have all the components, our wireman can start creating some of the communication panels I designed ahead of time. It takes about a week to build a large panel. This is the part that is going on right now. I have 5 panels that need to be built.
We also have to hire a crane company to come in a take out the old transformer off of it's pad and place the new transformer. This new transformer is coming from Blount Station (The plant with the 4 ugly smokestacks)
Once all the panels are installed and the transformer is set and the fiber is connected, the only step left is to commission it and verify everything works as it should. This is the most important step since if something goes wrong, people could get hurt, customers will be out of power and there could potentially be hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage to our system. We basically go through a checklist and verify the schematic does what it says it does. This process will probably take 3 days or so. Once that is complete we're done!
Check out some photos:
New components that will be installed
Part of the new panel and components that will be installed in new transformer
(Orange cable up top is the fiber optic)
Old Transformer that will be removed from Blackhawk.
Transformer that will be brought to Blackhawk and upgraded.
Old Panel that I will be upgrading
Other than that, I saw Glen Phillips alst night and he was amazing, just him and a guitar, he played 3 Toad the Wet Sprocket songs but that didn't matter since they were all so good. Amber and I are going out to dinner with a few couples tonight and then the rest of the weekend is open! Let's hope the crew can pull off a few wins!
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
New Glove + Misc.
I got my brand new softball glove today! First one since 7th grade! Gearing up for our first game on May 8th. I figure that will give me enough time to break it in. Check it out:
It's the Wilson A710 Softball Glove. Let's hope it allows me to catch more balls this season!
Just got done with Book Group for the night. It's going very well; this week we had a great discussion about the grace of God and God the judge. We'll meet 4 more times until we take a break for the summer. One of the couples in the group has Rock Band so we are going to get a rock band night together soon and totally rock out. We may even dress up! They just downloaded a bunch of Boston songs for it so I'm totally gonna rock out on "More Than a Feeling"
Gonna see Mr. Glen Phillips of Toad the Wet Sprocket fame on Thursday night at the High Noon Saloon. I don't know any of his solo stuff so let's see how much Toad stuff he plays...
Random Thoughts:
-Gagne is scaring me!
-I want to get a bunch of yard work done this weekend but it looks like it's going to be bad weather.
-Work is crazy busy lately. Huge project coming up in mid-May. I'm sure I'll have a post about it.
-The Modern Antiques will be huge.
-New Coldplay album out on 6/17. It'll be a big deal.
It's the Wilson A710 Softball Glove. Let's hope it allows me to catch more balls this season!
Just got done with Book Group for the night. It's going very well; this week we had a great discussion about the grace of God and God the judge. We'll meet 4 more times until we take a break for the summer. One of the couples in the group has Rock Band so we are going to get a rock band night together soon and totally rock out. We may even dress up! They just downloaded a bunch of Boston songs for it so I'm totally gonna rock out on "More Than a Feeling"
Gonna see Mr. Glen Phillips of Toad the Wet Sprocket fame on Thursday night at the High Noon Saloon. I don't know any of his solo stuff so let's see how much Toad stuff he plays...
Random Thoughts:
-Gagne is scaring me!
-I want to get a bunch of yard work done this weekend but it looks like it's going to be bad weather.
-Work is crazy busy lately. Huge project coming up in mid-May. I'm sure I'll have a post about it.
-The Modern Antiques will be huge.
-New Coldplay album out on 6/17. It'll be a big deal.
Monday, April 7, 2008
"World Series or Bust"
This is my slogan for the 2008 Brewers. If you think about, it will come true, because either they will go to the World Series or they will bust. In fact, this slogan has ran true every year! Big day for the Crew yesterday with Sheets pitching a complete game, he still has a 0.00 ERA. Wow!
I was at home opener on Friday and man, what a game it was! We had awesome seats right behind left field in the bleachers. As I was walking to my seat I saw Bill Hall hit a ball right at me and man, was it truckin'! A big home run for the first play of the game that I saw! You can even see my blue shirt on the replay footage on ESPN that night! The tailgate party beforehand was a blast because they had free beer and the band was The Love Monkeys. They opened with Springsteen's "I'm On Fire" and then into REM's "The One I Love" what a way to start a show! After the game we stopped at DQ for a blizzard and then to Little Ceasar's to pick up some pizzas. Then after a two-hour nap we stopped out to this bar and had a few drinks. Sunday morning we got up and went out for Breakfast and then went back to Madison.
On Saturday afternoon, Amber and I went to Wisconsin Dells to hang with her friends at the Kalahari Indoor Water Park. Man, that facility is enormous!! We got there and went to the water park for a few hours, the Master Blaster is my favorite ride because it's super fast and the slide even goes up-hill! Taht night we went out to dinner to Pedro's and stuffed ourselves. I had the fajitas and there was no way I could finish those. Then we split this dessert which was a king-sized snickers bar, covered in batter, deep fried, then covered in vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, carmel and fudge. It was absurd and easily 4000 calories. I had a bite or two and that was it. When we got back to our hotel room we watched "The Bucket List" which was OK, but I wouldn't mind if I never saw it again. On Sunday we got back around 3, went to church, then got some stuff done around the house. It was nice sleeping in our bed again!
We are finally getting the piano delivered to our house next Wednesday! The lady called me back today. Man, that will be an amazing Wednesday!
...Our neighbors may never sleep again.
I was at home opener on Friday and man, what a game it was! We had awesome seats right behind left field in the bleachers. As I was walking to my seat I saw Bill Hall hit a ball right at me and man, was it truckin'! A big home run for the first play of the game that I saw! You can even see my blue shirt on the replay footage on ESPN that night! The tailgate party beforehand was a blast because they had free beer and the band was The Love Monkeys. They opened with Springsteen's "I'm On Fire" and then into REM's "The One I Love" what a way to start a show! After the game we stopped at DQ for a blizzard and then to Little Ceasar's to pick up some pizzas. Then after a two-hour nap we stopped out to this bar and had a few drinks. Sunday morning we got up and went out for Breakfast and then went back to Madison.
On Saturday afternoon, Amber and I went to Wisconsin Dells to hang with her friends at the Kalahari Indoor Water Park. Man, that facility is enormous!! We got there and went to the water park for a few hours, the Master Blaster is my favorite ride because it's super fast and the slide even goes up-hill! Taht night we went out to dinner to Pedro's and stuffed ourselves. I had the fajitas and there was no way I could finish those. Then we split this dessert which was a king-sized snickers bar, covered in batter, deep fried, then covered in vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, carmel and fudge. It was absurd and easily 4000 calories. I had a bite or two and that was it. When we got back to our hotel room we watched "The Bucket List" which was OK, but I wouldn't mind if I never saw it again. On Sunday we got back around 3, went to church, then got some stuff done around the house. It was nice sleeping in our bed again!
We are finally getting the piano delivered to our house next Wednesday! The lady called me back today. Man, that will be an amazing Wednesday!
...Our neighbors may never sleep again.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
(Frisbee + Grilling Out)/(Guster* Don Henley^Baseball)/Pickles = SUMMER
Since weather is finally getting nicer, lets take a look at some of my favorite classic summer albums...
TOP TEN ALBUMS FOR SUMMER (In no particular order):
1. Guster - Lost and Gone Forever
2. Counting Crows - Hard Candy
3. Eagles - Hotel California
4. Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town
5. Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever
6. U2 - The Joshua Tree
7. Dave Matthews Band - Under the Table and Dreaming
8. Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American
9. REM - Automatic For the People
10. Paul Simon - Graceland
READY!...discuss
TOP TEN ALBUMS FOR SUMMER (In no particular order):
1. Guster - Lost and Gone Forever
2. Counting Crows - Hard Candy
3. Eagles - Hotel California
4. Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town
5. Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever
6. U2 - The Joshua Tree
7. Dave Matthews Band - Under the Table and Dreaming
8. Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American
9. REM - Automatic For the People
10. Paul Simon - Graceland
READY!...discuss
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Welcome to April
...and what a great way to celebrate it with a Brewers win to open the season! Man, the pitching was pretty good except for Gagne, Sheets did incredible. Gwynn was a superstar! We'll have to keep him as a starter for a while.
This weekend Amber and I attended a Chili and Cheesecake par-tay with some good friends. We took 2nd place in the chili competition with our White Chicken Chili and took 4th for our Rocky Road Cheesecake. There were 7 entries for the chili and 6 for the cheesecake. It was intense competition and my belly was full at the end of the night...my body was crying, actually.
On Saturday we saw "21" with some friends, excellent movie, by the way. Then I went to the batting cages with a few guys from the softball team and hit three rounds of slowpitch. I hit everything on the first 2 rounds, but on the third round, I had 5 swing-and-misses in a row, embarrassing, but typical from my play last year. I think I was just getting tired hopefully. Then I played Risk and got dominated by my friend, Ed. And then watched some basketball. We won't mention the Badger's performance from Friday...
The Brewers home opener is coming up quick! The Shaft is picking me up on Thursday after work and we're going to head down to Milwaukee to meet some other friends. Friday we have the tailgate party and the game. We'll come home on Saturday morning. On Saturday afternoon Amber and I are going to meet some of her friends at Kalahari Indoor Water Park in Wisconsin Dells. We'll stay overnight there and probably go to the park again on Sunday before heading back to Madison. I may try the indoor surfing this time!
Mini Golf and Ice Cream for Lifegroup tonight!
I realized that my blog has become more of a weekend update thing. I'll try to mix it up a bit more....
Ok, time for a meeting in 2 min... gotta go!
This weekend Amber and I attended a Chili and Cheesecake par-tay with some good friends. We took 2nd place in the chili competition with our White Chicken Chili and took 4th for our Rocky Road Cheesecake. There were 7 entries for the chili and 6 for the cheesecake. It was intense competition and my belly was full at the end of the night...my body was crying, actually.
On Saturday we saw "21" with some friends, excellent movie, by the way. Then I went to the batting cages with a few guys from the softball team and hit three rounds of slowpitch. I hit everything on the first 2 rounds, but on the third round, I had 5 swing-and-misses in a row, embarrassing, but typical from my play last year. I think I was just getting tired hopefully. Then I played Risk and got dominated by my friend, Ed. And then watched some basketball. We won't mention the Badger's performance from Friday...
The Brewers home opener is coming up quick! The Shaft is picking me up on Thursday after work and we're going to head down to Milwaukee to meet some other friends. Friday we have the tailgate party and the game. We'll come home on Saturday morning. On Saturday afternoon Amber and I are going to meet some of her friends at Kalahari Indoor Water Park in Wisconsin Dells. We'll stay overnight there and probably go to the park again on Sunday before heading back to Madison. I may try the indoor surfing this time!
Mini Golf and Ice Cream for Lifegroup tonight!
I realized that my blog has become more of a weekend update thing. I'll try to mix it up a bit more....
Ok, time for a meeting in 2 min... gotta go!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)