St. Paul

I took a few days off to go on vacation with the wife & kids. I am currently sitting in a hotel room in Janesville, WI trying not to pass out from the heat. The setiings on the temperature leave much to be desired.We decided about a month ago to visit my sister in St. Paul over Easter break. Carey and her boyfriend, The Jimmer, bougth a house last year and we thought it might be a good time to check it out. The bought a nice 3 bedroom house in a quiet neighborhood a few blocks off the Mississippi river. The house is old and has some really cool things like stained glass windows and oak floors that you just do not see in houses less than 75 years old. It also has squeaky floors and outdated electrical. I wish Carey and the Jimmer well. I remember how excited I was to buy my first house which was similar in age and condition to hers.I have pictures, but I will wait until I get home to upload them. I hope that we will get on the road by 9:00 or so tomorrow and be home by 4:00 or 5:00 at the latest.

Pixie's Baby

Just got done reading Pixie's baby blog. Apparently she went to the hospital yesterday to be induced. I wish her luck! Looking forward to seeing a post onher blog any minute now................Ok, maybe not quite yet.So let's see the hands of everyone who has their bracket shot to hell. Oh, that many? Should not have picked Wisconsin to go so far. Oh well.Baseball opening day next weekend. The Indians will be in first place for about 9 innings. After that, I am sure they will be only one game back!

Where the heck have I been?

Let me see, I have not posted on my Blog for about 3.5 months. Why? I guess I was too damn lazy. I have recently been inspired to get back into the whole "blogging" thing by a co-worker who is about to pop out her first child. Literally, she could be in labor as I write this. I hope not, I do not want to do the "Mac is Not a Typewriter" lecture tonight.I figured, if she has time to teach full time & create a new life, the I should be able to write two or three paragraphs a few times a week.Not much has changed since my last post. I am still at the Catholic College in "Treetown". I have settled in nicely and made some new friends. I found another co-worker that is connected to an old high school girlfriend, what the $#*%? I guess I dated more than I thought back then. The co-worker does still talk to me so I must not have been too much of an arse back then.I have a question I would like any readers to answer. Do you prefer the Starbucks' Caramel Machiatto or the Beaners' caramel Marvel? There is a school of thought out there that feels that Beaners flavored coffees are too sweet. Not sure I agree with that, but I do think the Caramel Marvel is sweeter than the Fourbucks version.

First day, old girlfriends, and filling out forms

My first day on the new job was today. It was a whirlwind of introductions and filling out forms. Little did I know I would need to produce addresses for every place I have lived in the last ten years. Some of those years I am not even sure I had a legal address.So my new boss, Greg says to me as we are walking into lunch today: “One of the ladies in admissions said you used to date her friend”. That was just frickin’ awesome! I was trying to figure out who the admissions friend is and who the girl is that I dated. I was thinking to myself that I hope her friend is not someone from my early twenties. So much of that time is a drunken blur, who knows who it could have been and how much of an a-hole I was to her. Luckily, it turned out to be someone I dated in high school. I was mostly a gentleman back then. So I guess I can talk to her without hiding my head in shame.Anyone have any good first day stories?

Interviews, euthinazation, and flying birds

Let's see, what has happened since my last blog? I worked my last day at the college and I started interviewing at other fine establishments. I had an interview at the Toledo Zoo this morning. One of the questions they asked was "How do you feel about euthinazation, I mean animals, not people?" How do you answer that question? I am all for it? Only if they have a living will?My other favorite question was "Do you have any phobias about bugs, snakes, or birds flying at you?"Well the bugs and snakes are cool, but birds flying at me bring back terrible childhood memories about being carried off by buzzards!Now if they are zombie birds, that is just cool!

Hot chocolate, fresh baguettes, & drug addictions

The end of my first full week at the new job is tomorrow. Woo hoo when does daddy get paid? I found out today that we have a free hot chocolate machine in our breakroom. What is better than that? We have a little cafe' about 45 feet from my office. Today I got a nice roast beef sandwich on a freshly baked baguette. Very tastey. Oh, and a very nice cup of chocolate pudding with whip cream. Did I mention that the freshly baked baguette was dusted in flour? Yeah, I did not realize that until I had finished eating threw my junk away and walked down the hallway to the bathroom. So apparently, I am now the crazy new guy with the coke problem. Do you have any idea how well flour sticks to and shows up on a beard?

Swollen tracheas, Purple Rain, and Pretty Pictures

So the wedding went off without a hitch. Oh, other than the groom nearly croaking three days before the ceremony while suffering from tracheonytis. Yeah, I have no idea what that is either. Apparently it makes you puke a lot. Luckily he recovered enough in time to make it through the ceremony. The DJ at the wedding played a lot of 80’s music and people were up and dancing shortly after dinner. The three hours of open bar time between the ceremony and dinner probably helped to loosen up the crowd. Shortly after the dancing started, my lovely wife and the aforementioned nephew decided to do an interpretive dance to Prince’s "Purple Rain". They were just goofing around but did not notice that all 130 other people had stopped dancing and were watching them. It is a good thing that her brother Jim was there with the video camera to catch the act. If I can get a copy I promise to put the clip up in a future post. Did I forget to mention that some of us decided to help out their act by being the purple rain? I know it sounds stupid but I am sure there were people who had to change their knickers once the song was done. Not just the old people either. Man, the microbrew beer is good in Colorado.This is a picture I took at 3:00 am the night before the wedding out the front door of the lodge. Man, I love Colorado. It is so beautiful there just about any time of the year.