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I finished the 2nd draft of my first book yesterday. Today I'll be revising and adding and getting some of the geography in order. Hopefully I'll be working on the rough draft of the 2nd book by January 1.
We got a heap of snow here in the Northland this weekend resulting in a late start at work this morning. Finals week means I don't work, I just ipdate my journal.
Christmas in Duluth this year. No traveling for me! Hooray!
-David and Erin were married on the 25th of October. It was a hoot, what with the corsica breaking, the playground photographing, the air guitaring, the Steve Plude (included so he can Google himself and find one more hit).
-Bat Boy the Musical wrapped up and I had a theraputic time with strike. I tore that set down like no other. I don't think I'll ever be in another musical ever again. I'm scarred.
-I finished up the rough draft of my first book. It's the first in a 9 book series called "Plum", in case I haven't mentioned it enough. Editing begins yesterday.
-I just got back from a conference in Orlando. What a blast! I even had time for a trip to Magic Kingdom. And because we were staying at a Disney Hotel we got to stay an extra 3 hours. That's right, the park was open til 2am! Unfortunately, I didn't make it that long. At half past midnight, I caught the bus back to Coronado Springs. The conference was enlightening too.
How's that for a straight to the point post? Oh, and I almost forgot my token subject: I'm still single.
I found a puppy without a collar on my way to work yesterday. It was a real nice looking something (I'm not good with identifying animals in their specifics). After trying to get a hold of some animal control folks I attempted to lure it back to my house. We got about halfway there before the morning rush of joggers and walkers kept distracting it. We ended up losing all the ground that we gained and we were back to square one. I biked back to my house, got my car, loaded up the bitch and then closed her up in my sunroom with some balls, Honey Bunches of Oats and water. Before I left for work I turned on "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" for the animals viewing (or hearing) pleasure. Over the lunch hour Kirby's mom, who was out and about, took the dog to the shelter. If she was a victim of abandonment (which is kind of my guess right now) she'll find a good home in no time. It looked like an expensive dog too. I had half a mind to keep it, but I'm just too busy right now to spend anytime with an animal or another person for that matter.
Yesterday was the 2nd NMTC race for me this season. I did ok, but I would have done a lot better had I been familiar with the course. It started at the top of Spirit Mountain, decended on this horrifyingly rocky trail, and ended with a 1.5 mile up hill. It was not a runner's race. Just aweful. I did have fun though and I finished 36/111. Last week I was 46/108 so I'm moving up. Last week's race was far more fun though. John P and I ran the first half real slow like and I pounded the competition in front of me on the last half through the high Indiana Jones woods of Fon Du Lac.
"Bat Boy" the musical is going just great. I actually feel like I can sing and I'm losing any inhibitions that were there on that first day.
Work is busy, busy, busy.
I'm not focusing on work at all when it's time to go home. In fact, it's been a super easy thing to forget about. When I get home I'm way to geared up for writing. The "Plum" - book 1- is coming along great. I'm about 7 chapters into a great first book and I'm only getting more and better ideas and I keep striding forward. The goals are to be down with the first draft by November, a second and third before Christmas (for my unofficial editor, Shannon Smith) and be talking to publishers (as well as waist deep in the rough cut of book 2) by March. It's a time table to which I'm sticking.
Rock!
- Mood:
busy
At work there is a new guy in ResLife. His name: Luke M. I don't like this too much, but in a kind of joking way. So, I decided to make him my enemy (again, jokingly). So I met the guy today and I try to play up the notorious villain. He was having none of it. I was clearly joking and he'd already been 'warned' by several mutual co-workers that I was going to be playing up a silly rivalry for my (and hopefully his) amusement. He seems laid back, so I don't think he'll mind the rediculousness that I have planned (such as the "evil" survey that I dropped off at his desk this morning), but I also don't think that he'll go out of his way to have fun. This is my problem with the grown-up world. No fun. People lose touch of the things that should be fun but they're too adult to give them half a thought. Adults core function is necessity. The second function is relaxation. Adults drive to work in a straight line, never excelerating unreasonably or burning a little rubber while pretending to be in the Batmobile. Adults arrive at home and crack open a Cherry Coke without shaking it up first and then putting a nail hole in it to consume the product as if it were coming from a Super Soaker. The problem isn't so much that people don't go out of there way to have child-like fun, it's that what passes for child-like fun is continually being refined and shaved down to nothing. Chiche as it might be, kids are growing up faster. Chliche as it may not be, adults suck and they get too caught up in a world that has told them too many times 'start acting your age' or 'grow up'.
I'd be ok with all of this if being alone was any part of being a kid.
I've never met another Luke M. that I liked.
- Mood:
aggravated - Music:Metric~ "Live It Out"
Thing 1- I got together with that girl Jillian and had a really good time. To be honest, talking to her was a real breathe of fresh air, but I don't know if she's (to quote Pink Floyd) "the kind of girl who fits in with my world". After talking a walk on the boardwalk we hit up Sir Ben's for a brew and laughed about past Conan O'Brien antics. It was good, but I fear that I've fallen for another mistress going by the name of 'Bachelorhood'. We're going to get together again this week.
Thing 2- I went to Canada this past week with Rachel VH and her family. Also along for the trip were Christine R. and Emily H. (a new person to me). Pipestone Lake is a biggun. It's also far away from everything. It's a 4 hour ride by car from Duluth just to get to the launching site, an hour northwest of Fort Francis, Ontario. Then it's a half hour boat ride to this mechanical rail portage system (which is like a set of train tracks that moves the boat across a 200 foot stretch of land bringing you to the other lake), then it's another half hour boat ride through the birch and pine covered wilderness until you reach a tucked away cabin at Trout Bay. Honestly, the last half hour of boating (at about 40mph) yielded maybe 3 cabin sightings. I'd say that this cabin was in the middle of nowhere, but that's far too specific. We were nowhere all right, but exactly what part of nowhere- that was difficult to tell. All the same, swimming and boating was good. I got a lot of reading done expecially when the girls went off and did their exclusive girl stuff (which seemed more often then not). I left on Wednesday and gave the border crossing guards at I'falls a hard time with my trunk. Only I can open it. That caused suspicion and my car was searched.
Thing 3- I was at a wedding this weekend, which was kind of a wash. Nice to see some cousins and get a good meal, but it was a lot of passing the new baby around and watching the Olympics with Grandpa (which was a hoot as every other comment had something to do with "those china-men"). The next day I hit up a BBQ at my brother Joe's current residence. He and Danielle (his gal) had invited both their families to attend. At this point, I'm thinking engagement annoucement. My mom and my sister were both on board with this idea as well. The BBQ came and went, passing as a good time with some good people, but no announcement. They did just get a dog together and are moving into an apartment in a month, so it's gold- engaged or not. Rochelle and Jon are pretty set in their intentions as well- getting a place together (if they had the money they'd be married already). Wade's got Rita. That leaves little old me, all by my lonesome. Serves me quite right for the moment. I've got too many things on my plate right now, I just don't need a woman in that regard.
Thing 4- In 1998, I was reading "In the Lake of the Woods" for English class. I was enjoying the book imensely, but for some reason I did not finish the last chapter. I told myself that I would finish it sometime. I year later I chose it as the subject of a very open book report for Mr. Powers' class. I didn't read it then either, though I did have the best intentions. Ten years passed. I found myself at the library last week and picked up a copy. It seems that not finishing this book has been a stopper in my psyche. There are so many things that I've started and not finished over the years: game designs, stories, drawings, books, musical endevers, etc. These are all things that I was enjoying, but for one reason or another, I stopped. I went back to the source and last night I finished reading "In the Lake of the Woods". It's strange to say it, but for ten years that has bothered me in some small way. Now it's done and I can move on to recording songs that have been collecting dust, writing novels that have been mulling about in my head, riding bike trails that I always said I would, finishing everything that I have at one time or another started.
Last weekend was Grandma's marathon. No Number 1 bib this year as it was held to honor a two time Grandma's champ who was killed in the uprising in Kenya. Rough stuff.
To cheer on the runners, I went down to my friend John's house on the scenic drive and played guitar, harmonica and also danced and sang a lot. I think people got a kick out of it.
Went swimming at the Deeps yesteday with Rochelle and her beau, John. We broke out the traditional game where one person makes up a good name for a dive, then the other person has to do a dive that might best represent the name. John did a very good "Phantom Spasm". My best could have been "Butterfly Picnic" but I couldn't hold the pose, which was a grab-your-ankle sailor's dive.
Still working on the Dark Tower Series. Anyone who liked the Amber Chronicles (I'm looking at you, John) should check it out.
Wow! Three different "John's" mentioned in one short post! Good for me.
Found out that I've been playing pick-up hockey with a former NHLer. Yup, Butch Williams is his name. He played for the St. Louis Blues and the Edmonton Oilers back in the 70's. He hasn't had too much to say the few times that I've tried talking to him.
I was truly excited to see KG give respect to his time on the Timberwolves after his new team won the NBA championship. "This is for everyone is 'Sota!" He was pretty excited as he started with 'Sota' and continued down the list of all the places he had called home until he was reduced to an emotional mess, staring at the camera and yelling for his mom. One of the best post game interviews ever.
I needed to get out of town for a while, so Brian G and I begrudgingly filled up the tank and headed to Bond Lake (my folks garage on the lake). It was different than I remember it when I saw it last. Things were overgrown. Bugs were more prevolent. The lake was low and nature was everywhere. Very few people had their docks out. We stayed the night (which consisted of a bond fire, brats and a game of Fireball Island) and then headed home the next day with a stop over at Pattison state park. We hiked for a few hours checking out the tallest waterfall in Wisconsin and then watched the silly children on the beach and a few silly, big, young men trying out WWE moves in the shallows of the Black River.
I just started book 4 of Stephen King's Dark Tower Series ("Wizard and Glass"). Thus far, I recommend.
For those who haven't chimmed in on my last post (especially Dan), please see below.
For those who are all caught up and know anything about my musical pursuits, it's time for a vote:
The Loox
or
The Lukes
With a live show coming up in a matter of months, it's time to solidify a name. I've been going with "The Loox" for a while now, but is it the right choice. So, your two options are above. I'd love to hear everyone sound off on this one- an with reason. I'm not tallying up a score here. I want convincing evidence. Why should it stay "The Loox"? Why should it change to "The Lukes"? The world must know, and so must I.
Life is good again.
This past fortnight has been memorable. Stockfest 4 was a sold-out success with Motion City Soundtrack delivering the good. Despite not being a huge fan at first, seeing them live has made me an appreciater.
I finished up with my first grad school class. For the final assignment I decided to do a group assessment on the Scooby-Doo gang. It turned out much better than any of my previous papers and I was (unlike the previous papers) proud when I handed it in.
This last weekend was great too. On Friday I took in a play about gay people. A big gay friend of mine was my "date" for the evening. It wasn't wierd like it probably sounds. After that I went over to Zach Bennett's for some pumpkin carving and roust-abouting with Ben Hadrich, Brian Gehling, Annette Merritt and husband (long time, no see) and others. I made a spectacle of myself most of the night, but that was ok because it was fun the whole time. Saturday I cheered my brains out at the cross country conference meet. CSS hoisted the individual champs as Julia Curry and Chris Rubesch both took first place. The women's team won there 7th title in a row while the men failed to repeat, finishing 2nd to Northwestern. Later in the afternoon I got to hang out with Kara Zachman and Tricia for a while. We went to Enger and then looked at some Africa pictures. It was great to see Kara again. That night I had my last go of spooky story telling on the Vista Cruise for the dinning patrons- it went well and I had fun. After the dinner cruise it was the party boat. They got a DJ and some booze on board and it was a party route about the bay with Shannon, Amber, Ben and I doing the Monster Mash all night. Ben's costume should have one scariest costume (he was a perv, and a convincing one at that), but it went to a electrical plug-in instead.... I don't get it either. Some "Futurama" brought the night home. Sunday was mass, some actual hanging out with Bridget while loitering about the Mount Royal grocery store, and then an afternoon around the house. I mowed the lawn, cleaned, carved a pumpkin while listening to Ween, live in Chicago. After that I made an apple pie. I have never done so before, but it turned out well enough. A theatre party at Amber's brought the evening into full swing and "Transformers" with Chad Schrandt and Amber brought it to a close. It was a great weekend.
It's my last day of work until the 7th as I am leaving for Denver tomorrow. It'll be nice to see the folks and Troy and Jenean.
One final thought: in working on the Vista Star over the last couple of weeks I've come to realize and understand through the experiences of others that Lake Superior has become an entity with a personality all it's own. It has done so in such a way that I realize I talk about it, not only with knowledge, but with a sense of comeradery. Much in the same way as I used to say about Steve Plude "You should have seen Plude last night, he was drunk and running around hugging people", I would say about the Lake "You should have been at the lake yesterday, it was so wavy I wish I would have had a boogie board with me". The point is, the Lake has become another part of my circle of friends here in Duluth. It's always an option to go hang out with/at the Lake. Heck, I've even started to capitolize it without including the word "Superior". Just a thought.
Well, it's been a busy week what with (1) getting back from Africa, (2) closing on a house in Duluth just 10 hours after touching down in Minneapolis, (3) getting ready for a half Ironman near Vancouver and (4) many people to talke to. Sorry if you've called and I haven't gotten back to you..
So, I'll spare everyone the details of Africa and tell you in person upon request, otherwise I'm not going to bother trying to express all the thoughts that I have about the last month. Instead, here's a few quick tales about my life.
-A House that 'Madness' Would Approve-
We're almost all settled into The Belmont and I love it. As much as I liked seeing it the day I bought it, filled with kids toys and not my stuff, I love it even more filled with musical instruments and my stuff. There's room to spare and it already feels like home. I've got a great view of the lake from my bed. That's right, not just my bedroom, but my bed. The dinning room is going to be 'the galley' and will be pirate themed. Another added bonus: there is a black bear that likes to make use of my sidewalk. I saw him moseying about yesterday. Cool house, free bear: rock.
-The Host with the Most-
A red lump started to form on my arm the day before we left Africa. It got worse on the plain ride and by Tuesday night it was hospital time. They numbed me, lobbed the top off the swell and tried to figure our what was going on with my mysterious "bug bite". Well, a follow up visit revealed very little, but I did get hooked up with some antibiotics. Long story short- I think a botfly laid an egg in me. Have I been raped?
-My First Try-athlon-
So I'm getting geared up for this half ironman in BC. Yeah right, I'm just joking. I'm not at all 'geared up' as I've been spending way too much time not training. Today I decided to bike, run and swim for the first time in over a month. I ended up swimming about 1/6 of a mile, running 9 or so and biking 15. Time wasn't allowing for too much more, nor was my energy considering I was running on a salad and a green apple. I'm encouraged though, as the swim was in a rough, cold Lake Superior, the run was through sand and the ride was on a new bike that I'm still adjusting to (not too mention taking it up some of the 500 ft ascents that Duluth has too offer. This quick crash course has me somewhat pumped for the race next Saturday.
I'm off tomorrow, so I'll try to get in touch with a lot of you while I'm on the road. That's my life.
I got a call from Rachel VH the other night. She and Christine were up to hijinx. They told me to be in the cities, dressed "nice", on April 15th in the early afternoon. The rest is apparantly a surprise. I have no clue as to what it might be, but I'm sure excited.
Last night, on a whim, a gave a call to a girl that I had met once about two years ago. Strangly, her brother left her number at my place some days previous and I figured I might as well make some sort of proactive march toward not being alone forever and ever. It was a good conversation (about 30 minutes in length) and we had some laughs. I think she thought I was a little wierd when posed her with a cereal box character bout senario. Her fault really. She was talking about work and she herself said that it was a boring topic. That seemed to be a good a prompt as any.
Earlier today I jumped into Lake Superior for the 24th month in a row. For you bozos out there, that's 2 years. After getting out of the water I shouted to my comrades "On this, the two year anniversary of me jumping in the lake every month, once isn't going to cut it". So, I jumped in again to appropriately celebrate the end of the 2nd year.
This evening I got some help from Jim Skoog in purchasing a laptop. Nothing fancy at all. I'm just going to be using it for the Word documents and some photos. It's real nice for the $500 I paid for it though. My one wavering thought about it is that it's an Acer which isn't your mainstreem brand, but all of the stats were comparable (and in some cases better) and the price was right.
This weekend I need to ward a sex offender away from the Spanish Club dance..... long story
- Mood:
amused - Music:EELS- "Blinking Lights"
Alright that being said, it was getting late in the month and I hadn't jumped in the lake yet. I'd been jumping into Lake Superior every month for 22 months in a row. It being February 28th, I was down to my last day. February came in harsh, so I kept putting off my monthly plunge. Between work and other situations, I lost focus for awhile. Before I knew it, February was dwindling away. The streak needed to keep going, but I didn't know how. The lake was frozen over and there was no open water in sight. This afternoon, with 99% of the month behind me, Jeremy Vidmar and I ditched work and ventured forth to keep the dream alive.....it was 'operation open water'. The tale is perhaps less epic than the title. After getting the birds eye view from the cathedral we went to the mouth of the Lester River to find mountain-like crags of ice that had shifted in the night, thus leaving thinner areas of ice and slush. After some searching, Jeremy churned up a small area amidst the ice shelves, just big enough for me to step into. I did so, found some footing on a rock below, curled up into a ball and got under. My back was still showing a bit, but I gave it a good splash and checked off February as best I could. I'll sleep a lot better tonight knowing that streak continues: 23 and counting.
- Music:Metric and Eisley
My premonition came true. I did not get the Alumni Relations job. That's alright by me too, because they had some nice things to say to me in a ceremonial-telephone-consolation talk. Plus I might be creating a new job in my department and thereby (in a sense) promoting myself. Long story. All is well.
CSS hockey won a huge series this weekend against UWS- a team they hadn't beaten at all since 1991. Opening weekend for the play was a hoot too. The review was very positive. People laughed a lot and that always seems to make acting in a comedy a whole lot easier, don't ya think? Antics with cast parties at Tammy and Tony's, a Hike in Hartley, and a girl singing a song about a spider to me pretty much capstoned a memorable, but not at all restful weekend.
This evening I had some venison brats with Jeremy, hit up the Mayfest meeting (I think we're going with a villain theme- rock!), ran to Electric Fetus for a disc and then to Barnes and Noble for a dream interpretation book. I've been having some screwy- yet prophetic- dreams as of late. Honestly speaking, they're changing my life.
Tomorrow I am ditching work and heading for the Apostle Islands to explore some ice caves with Jim Skoog and Dave Seglum. Should be another Hardy Boys adventure if all goes according to plan......though it'd probably be a better adventure if it didn't.
On another note, I haven't heard back about the Alumni job yet. I was supposed to hear back late last week. I don't know that that's necessarily a bad thing, but it's certainly not flat-out good. We'll see. Even if that doesn't pan out this job that I'm in right now might be developing pretty quickly here. More news on that as it happens.
This weekend was a hoot up in International Falls. The most memorable highlight was heading out on the fabled "Ice Road" of Rainy Lake and visiting a mysterious island with an abandoned gold mine. It was like something out of the Hardy Boys (I bet you thought I was going to say Scooby-Doo, didn't you?). Talks of going on a Summer excursion are currently in the works.
After a hard fought loss for the Staff Infection basketball team, I'm heading for the shower, then to slay one more Colussus, then read, then bed.
- Mood:
loved
waiting on a job offer. Yup, I had another interview for the Executive Director of Alumni Relations position that opened up here at CSS. And the interview went great. I had a one-on-one with the VP of institutional advancement, the president of the college, human resources, and then two 45 panel interviews. All in all, it was a 3.5 hour interview that I was walking away from happily. I'll find out by the end of this week if I got it. I'm thinking 'no', mostly because other people have more/better qualifications and I'm a little too young to be an "Executive Director" of anything.....at least that's what I think it'll boil down to.
My hands are cold and typing hurts.
- Mood: amused
I can't stand it anymore. I need to sleep regularly. The bright side of everything is that it was a really good weekend. My sister was in on Friday night so we hit up the CSS hockey game where CSS beat #3 ranked St. Norbert's. Great game. Saturday brought some climbing at Vertical Endevours with the sis, Chad and Chadley. In the evening I called up Jim Skoog and we went barn dancing at the YWCA. Contrary to what you might be thinking, it was a ton of fun. It was an old-timey kind of night, what with the promenading of purdy girls and such. Sunday was church, some lone exploring at Enger Park, play rehearsal, and the AFC Championship game at Josh and Jen's.
All in all, all's well, but the usual stuff is still churning in the basement. I just need some sleep and I'll be fine. Now if I could just schedule it in.
- Mood:
sleepy - Music:Lupin III - "The Castle of Cagliostro"
On Saturday I had nothing to do. I got up at 12:25pm.
On Sunday I was planning on going to church. I got up at 12:25pm.
On Monday I set the alarm for 7:45am. I got up at that time, went to work for an hour, returned to my apartment and slept until 2pm.
I've got a problem. I don't even know what morning is anymore. That's why last night after exhausting my Tim Burton collection (Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow, NMBC) and talking to my sister and Rachel R. I found myself in bed unable to sleep. At 2am I got out of bed, put on a dress shirt, dress pants, nice tie, nice shoes (+fancy socks) and headed to the office. While I was getting ready I starting wondering if I was suffering from some strange psych disorder. It doesn't seem like something most people do. I've been in the office for about four hours. I've got the place clean and ready for all the students to return. Now I'm getting some paper work done and some bills paid, phone calls made (yup, even at 5 in the morning). I'll probably stay here til sometime after lunch- maybe til the end of the day. We'll see how I hold up.
Now that I'm half way through I think this veg thing won't be too bad, though I am sick and tired. I really want some General Tso's chicken right now.
I got a bunch of Freezepop discs on line recently and am thoroughly enjoying them. That's keeping me up in the office.
Getting back to the sleep, I think the reason I've been sleeping so much is the new curtains they've installed at my place. These things don't let any light in, so it's always dark. I like that, but there's no way to wake up naturally unless I leave the curtains open, and I ain't doin' that.
Ok, back to work for the next 10 or so hours. Yeah right.
Well, condition or no, what I'm doing now is better than what I was doing last week when I couldn't sleep- laughing at nothing and putting on temporary tattoos.
- Mood: sleepy
- Music:Freezepop- "Forever"
Yes, Happy Birthday to Pat Benetar! She's X years old today!
Last night I darn near finished reading "Murder on the Orient Express". I read 131 pages yesterday which, I believe, is some sort of personal record. Twenty pages to go this afternoon and Hercule Peroit and I will have discovered the case. Well, other than that, I spoke with my sister last night, my temporary tattoo is starting to rub off and I fell asleep in the tub due to the combo of the soothing smell of the peaches and cream bubble bath and the sounds of Freezepop.
So, back to the weekend. Before I get too far into it, it's also worth mentioning that I got a commercial offer this past week. Some goofs from the Carlson Agency called me up and left a message. Now, by the time I got back to them they had found someone else, which leads me to believe I wasn't exactly their go-to guy, but I did speak with them for a while and they said they'd like to meet me and all that. Looks like I might be doing some local commercials sometime in the near future here.
Anyhoo, the wedding rehearsal was fun. I pretty much couldn't stop smiling and I was rather hyperactive all weekend long. Steve and I worked out our switcheroo right before I took off to the drum set and I figured out a nice little way to include the drums into "Lean On Me". Some trouble with the amps left me hesitant about our capstone to the service (rocked out 'Canon in D'), but that worry proved vain. I got dooped at Sammy's Pizza for the Groom's Dinner as I was waiting on cheese pizza, but my timing was off. You see, I went and gave up meat for the month of January. Why? I don't know, but I did it. Jenean and Troy presented folks with some keen shirts and then it was off to the hotel for some cards and then to my place for some GH2 and the 3rd Harry Potter movie.
Saturday was altogether phenomenal. I wasn't huge on having to stand the whole time during the service as one of the groomsmen, but it turned out to not be that bad, plus the service was very enjoyable, thus making it a lot easier to bear. Jenean and Troy both looked great and happy. The rock out session at the end went great. We (Chad-electric violin, Josh-electric guitar, me-electric drums) prolonged Canon in D a lot longer than we had ever practiced and then jumped into "Sweet Child of Mine". Josh and Chad finished out with "Fools Rush In". The reception seemed to fly by. Troy and Jenean made up a nice little video that was shown just after dinner and toasts and then the dancing began. I was going a little bit crazy there for a while and never really tamed myself, though I did take a little break in the middle which, sadly, caused me to miss the garder/bouquet toss. Oh well. Later in the evening Steve and I were found on the dance floor as a slow song kicked in. It was then that Troy pointed out Dana (a gal Troy works with) and her friend sitting all alone. We approached them- I did the talking- and I got in my usual quota of one dance with a cute girl per wedding. Note: I do not always reach this quota, in fact, more often than not I miss it (recalling the infamous Black and Red debacle of the Kmetz wedding). I then recieved a barage of "get her number, man". The dancing finished out, Troy was hoisted by Steve and Chad, Jenean by Mike and I. That recieved a thunderous applause. One last hug to each of the happy couple and then a bunch of us went to (ugh!) Grandma's for a while. The place was packed, oddly, so we stayed for about half an hour. Some pictures were taken with folks I hadn't seen in a long time and I saw Josh Zenner on the way out the door. Back to my place for GH2 and the second installment of the Harry Potter movies. I was asleep by 4:30.
The next morning came quickly. Made our way to the gift opening and that just about wrapped things up. Jenean and Troy are back in Denver safe and sound. And it finally snowed a little up here in Duluth.
- Mood: tired
2007 is in.
Here we go.
After a nice Christmas with the fam I headed for Cambridge for New Year's Eve. The Struss Bros and I whipped through the first level of 29 different old school arcade games before midnight, including "Gladiator" (inwhich we deemed the end of the first level was the battle where you essentially battle and disrobe a female adversary), "Intercontinental Circus" (it was a racing game, so we assumed that 'circus' was meant to be 'circuit' and that it was just tranlated poorly) and several different versions of "Space Invaders" ("Do it for Phillip J. Fry!!!" ~ Bryan Struss).
New Year's Day was nothing too special, the next day I was back to work. After work I finished up "North of North". As promised (mostly to myself) the album is a full length, 44 minute, 13 song hodgepodge. I say that because there's no real underlying theme as the style of music goes. It's really all over the place. What's more is that I used some tracks of older tunes that I never really meant to put on any disc. It's decent enough and I certainly do feel accomplished. The mistakes in regard to production will be forgotten soon enough and the hilights are mere sparkles of what's to come. As always, you can hear the music by going through www.looxmusic.com though I'm having trouble burning CDs on my computer right now. Yes, the album is done. No, you can't hear it (but only because of technical difficulties).
This past week was a blast. From Thursday at 3pm all the way through Sunday at 6pm I wasn't alone. It all started with Troy's bachelor Party. Troy, Chad, Chadley, Jim and I went down to the beach to get things started right. We jumped in the Lake and then tooled around on the beach for a while with my rugby ball. After warming up a bit back at my place with some Guitar Hero 2 we met up with Steve and went sledding at Ridgeview Golf Course. This was where I broke my back and I had not been back since that fateful day. It was a safe evening of fun runs down long hills. After a healthy enough dose of sledding we added Josh and Burgess to the posse and went for Applebee's where Steve got the short end of the salt/sugar game (everyone gets passed a sugar packet at random, but one of them is not sugar- it's salt. Everyon downs there packet and then everyone tries to figure out who had the salt). Then it was off to the lanes. Troy divided the group into two teams of four and the competition was on. The early lead went to the team consisting of Josh, Chad, Jim and I, but the opponents came back with a vengence. It came down to the last two bowlers and Steve proved the steel nerves with a spare to win it. After bowling we got a call from Mark Miller (our crew now numbering 9). We then headed for the Red Star- this oddball martini bar that also serves as a psuedo gay bar in the minds of our circle. It was a blast there as we had silly dance-offs and limbo contests. The night was still young for some of us as Troy left his party, so it was back to my place for some GH2 and then the 4th installment of the Harry Potter movies.
And that leads us to Friday. I had some lunch with Mark Miller before he caught his flight to LA. Later that day was the rehearsal, but I've typed enough for now. Stay tuned for my take on the rest of the weekend and one unforgettable wedding.
- Mood: accomplished
The Vikings are out of the playoffs and that makes me feel like all of my not watching them this season was justified. I'm still a Minnesota sports fan and I follow how teams are doing, but I just can't stand watching sports on TV anymore. I feel my life slipping away a little bit everytime there's a timeout, a free-throw missed, a foul pop, a blowout, a shutout, a touchdown, a first down, a player down. It's just gotten boring. So hooray for the Vikings being out of the playoffs. I'm not missing anything. And hooray for the wheelbarrow.
I always love finals week, whether as a student or staff. Sure, there were tests to study for and papers to write, but you had all the time in the world to do it. No classes, just test times. This week was no different except that I had minimal work to do and certainly no tests to take or papers to write. Troy was in town for a good 28 hour stint. Much fun was had roaming around campus, hitting up Pizza Luce, kidnapping Phil, Guitar Hero II, sledding down Chester Creek and often falling through. Chad J. was also in town for the wedding band rehearsal with Josh McG and I, so he partook in much of the shenanigans as well.
The week finished out quiet and happy. On my last day of work before Christmas I wore a suit. I had a divisional meeting that day, so I got a lot of questions about it. I told everyone the truth: I ran out of clean clothes. Friday I took of for St. Paul, went for a walk with my mom and hung out with the old CSS crew. Chad and I got the all you can eat Fish Special at the St. Clair Broiler and stuffed ourselves beyond silly. I topped it off with a chocolate shake- Chad with a side of coleslaw. On the return to Stewart Ave. the "Hawkeyes" (Sarah, Abby and I) proved triumphant in a foosball tourney, Josh was a surprise when handed the axe for Guitar Hero, and Katie mistook 'the Pledge of Allegiance" as a pop music piece during Taboo. The men dominated Taboo. Christine and Bryan both showed up with gifts for me. Bryan got me two gift certificates for Red Lobster and Olive Garden (to be used on dates: specific instructions) and Christine got me some tea and a tea kettle- the kind that whistles. Both awesome presents. The only other person who was there, but not yet mention was Rachel. Her stats on the night: her team "No Ghost" finished last in foosball, she was on the losing team in Taboo, she didn't try Guitar Hero, and at dinner she didn't even finish her burger.
Tonight it'll be some card and potluck with the guys, that is if John gets that Ham in the oven right now!
