Another Productive Weekend

So this weekend was probably more productive than last weekend. It's crazy. Brian got into town last night and I wanted the house to be semi-presentable when he got here. He can be a little picky about stuff like that. I did laundry, a bunch of dishes, vacuumed two rooms, cleaned up a bunch of the bathroom, cut my hair, and turned my matress over (that was just for me, not because Brian was coming). That's a pretty good list of stuff for me.

On Friday night I went over to a Emily's house and played a game with a bunch of girls. There was one other guy there, but he was smart and just stayed out of the whole thing. It really wasn't bad! Well, there were actually two guys there for a while, but one of them got sick and started walking home. I don't know how far away he lived, but we all thought he just went outside for some air or a smoke. But he never came back.

Then on Saturday I went out to meet (what I thought) was going to be a few friends for a surprise Birthday party for Emily. I got there a little early and met Sean and we were going to wait until one of the organizers found us and told us what to do. Ricarda finally found us and let us in on the news and wouldn't you know it, the birthday girl was brought too early and the surprise was ruined!! I didn't even get to say surprise. It was a little maddening, but we still all had a great time and Emily was surprised nonetheless. There were maybe 25-30 people there, pretty crazy. The restaurant we went to, Santa Fe Red's, had a "sun room" that was separated from the rest of the restaurant. The whole gang was in there and completely filled the room up.

My most exciting part of the evening was trying to order before dinner. Okay, there were lots of people and I'm sure it is easy for the servers to get a little disoriented and maybe forget about a few people. Well, we had two servers and they decided to split the party in half to make it a little more managable. So the guy serving my half of the table (I was right at the border) came up to me and the girl sitting next to me, Katherine, who is Emily's new roommate, and asked us if we were a couple (they were putting all of the couples on separate checks). We both laughed (along with our friends) and said no. He said okay and asked for Katherine's order, she said she wasn't ready so he took off to come back later. Well, he did come back later and take Katherine's order, and then skipped me. I was not to happy. The dude ran off but I was able to track down the girl who served the other half of the table and get my order in. The night was saved.

Okay, that's all for now, I have to go to bed.

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Hockey...fun?

I actually had a great time at my game last night. We lost 2-1, but we played really well, so it didn't feel as bad as most of the games have this year. Plus, I hardly even felt my back during the game. Isn't it weird how that happens? Numerous times this year I've had sore muscles and aches just disappear while I'm playing and then come right back when I sit down in the car on the way home.

So you know how I've been thinking about going to LA? Well, I'm not so sure any more. My second choice was (and indeed it was my original plan before Brian suggested I go out to Cali) to head back home, Minneapolis. Well, Minneapolis has taken a huge step up towards being the place I live next. It just happened this weekend. All of a sudden the thought of moving to LA was pretty scary and nerve wracking and I started thinking that maybe I'd be happier closer to my family and all of my old friends in MN. So who knows at this point. I've got a lot of thinking to do.

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It's been a few days

Well, thanks for still stopping by, even if I haven't been.

I had a pretty good weekend a few days ago. It was pretty productive, for me. I brought all of the recycling to the recycling center, which had needed to be done for a long while. I did two loads of laundry. I did a bunch of dishes. I guess that's about it, but believe me, it would have been easy for me to do none of it.

This week though, yikes. I mentioned in my last post that a bunch of upgrades had been done to our systems at work. All the upgrades have done is make my job a bunch harder. The first upgrade, on Thursday, just didn't go smoothly, and then they rolled out the next upgrade right away on Friday morning before anything had been fixed from the day before. Not to mention the problems that we didn't even know about that hadn't been fixed.

I think I may have even got a little stressed out about the whole thing. That may not sound like a big thing, but ask anyone who knows me really well, I don't get stressed about anything. My back is just tight and killing me, which I think is from the last two days. I can't wait to play hockey tonight.

Speaking of hockey, we had a game this weekend. We lost. We got up 1-0 early but let it all slip by and we lost 4-1. You may have noticed that I haven't been keeping up on my stats. Well, it's been hard to care about my stats when they aren't very good and we lose every game. Oh well. Anyway, after the game, the team was sitting in the locker room, bummed that another one got away from us. But then one of our teammates, who owns a BBQ restaurant in town, brought out a tin of beef brisket strips and little cups of BBQ sauce. Let me tell you, that tasty snack took the edge off the loss.

That's about all that is going on in my life. Hopefully I'll get on the ball and keep writing here. Work is cooled off a little, so maybe I'll have more time, and be less stressed.

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Blah

So I didn't write anything yesterday because not one interesting thing happened. It was a pretty boring day. And I didn't write today because it was crazy at work and I didn't have any time. They just rolled out a bunch of new "features" on all of our workstations and many of them didn't work the way they thought they would. So I ran around putting out fires all day. Besides, the new "features" are slightly draconian in nature and I don't know if I'll be doing a whole lot of blogging from work any more. At least not for a while.

I hope everyone else out there is doing well.

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Dinner and a Movie

Last night I headed over to Matt's house for some grilled meat and to hang out. The weather was so pleasant he wanted to fire up the grill and be outside a little bit. Jesse and Scott also came over to partake in the tasty fare. We ended up throwing in a movie while we ate, and it happened to be Buying the Cow. I had never seen nor heard of it before, but it was alright. It happened to be perfect for the mood I was in. It was pretty funny most of the time, many times thanks to Ryan Renolds (who I really enjoyed in Van Wilder), even if he was naked way too much. The premise was that a dude wasn't ready to be married because he wasn't sure if the girl he was with was "the one". It went on to talk about how there just isn't a "the one" out there for everyone but many "just rights" and you just have to have your eyes open for those opportunities.

It was a pretty chill night, which was nice.

Today has been pretty slow at work. I don't know what I'm up to tonight, but probably not too much. Maybe I'll do some laundry since it is so warm out and the basement likely isn't freezing anymore.

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Turning the corner

I think I'm actually starting to feel better. I have only had to blow my nose once this morning and I don't think I've coughed involuntarily. It is quite a nice feeling. I think I even slept pretty well last night because of the lack of coughing.

That, added to the fact that Bozeman is in the middle of a heat wave, it was in the 50s yesterday and will get that hot today, makes it pretty nice around here. (of course, the heat isn't any good for skiing.)

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Misappropriated Funds

Deep in the IRS, circa Spring 2001, the year 2000 tax season.
Two agents are browsing through some returns

IRS Dude 1: Hmmm, this name, it seems familiar.
IRS Dude 2: Really, what is it?
D1: Richard Hatch.
D2: You're right, where do I know it from? ... Oh, I know, isn't that the name of the guy that won (the first)Survivor? The most popular show ever and start of the reality TV craze?
D1: Totally! How could I forget that crazy naked dude freaking out all of the other contestants.
D2: So, what does his return look like?
D1: Poor guy, it doesn't look like he had that good of a year. I guess CBS decided to not pay him the $1 million for winning that they said they would.
D2: That's too bad, but why do you say that?
D1: Well, it's not reported here on his return, so I can only assume that he never received it. I feel bad for him.
D2: Poor, poor guy. Hopefully he will benefit in other ways from his win. Maybe a radio talk show or something. We'll have to check his return next year to see if he made any more money.


Yes, poor Richard Hatch. The $1 million prize and over $300K earnings the next year must have slipped his mind while doing taxes. Or maybe living primitavely for so long made him forget how to do taxes correctly.

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Come on, tea...Work!

You know, maybe I don't get sick that often and I don't remember, or maybe it's the fact that I tend not to remember most of the bad things in my life, but this dang cold I have is about as annoying as any cold I can remember having. It just won't go away.

I have been drinking tea, which my lovely friends have been supplying me with. Emily even gave me some Vitamin C pills, which I have been taking. But nothing is happening. Over the weekend I just felt down and tired and had a sore throat and a runny nose. Now I have a bad cough, that keeps me up well past my bed time, and my nose is just stuffed up constantly.

Thank goodness my life is so wonderful or I might become ill-tempered!

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Tea Time

Now, I don't know if it is really tea time. I'm not from the UK and I just don't know these things. But I am having a cup of tea right now. I went over to my wonderful friend Emily's house last night to play the Would You Rather game and she me a few bags of tea because she knows I'm sick.

The funny thing about my drinking this tea right now isn't that I'm drinking the tea, or even the tea itself. No, it's the mug I'm drinking out of. There are a bunch of community mugs here at work and the one I chose is very interesting to me. It is a Burnsville High School Class of '91 mug! Black with gold lettering and a gold Brave's head. For those of you who don't know, that's where I went to high school in Minnesota. I was class of '95, but still! The mug must have come to the office before I got here, because no one else is from Minnesota. Anyway, it's quite a coincidence and I got a kick out of it.

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Too Much Food

Yesterday I broke my diet. But I'm giving myself a pass since I'm sick. When you're sick, you just don't care. You just do whatever it takes to feel a little better. And that whole pizza did make me feel a little better. Mmmmm.

Of course, overeating while sick is about the worst thing you can do if you're even thinking about calories. I mean, when you get tired moving between two rooms, and sitting in a chair for long periods of time is sapping all of your strength, you're probably not getting too good of a workout that day. My most difficult physical activity yesterday involved going up and down the stairs a few times while I did my laundry and while looking for a CD. Let me tell you, it was rough.

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Up on the Ridge

Today Sean and I went up to Bridger in the afternoon. We figured it would be time better spent than time spent at work.
If you would like to know where we skied and what we did you can refer to the Bridger Bowl trail map here.

We got up and got on the #6 lift, Powder Park at about 12:30. We skied to the right and over to the lift #2, Alpine. We headed to the left and went down the little bowl right under the chair at #44. Then we headed through the forest crossing #41 and #40. Of course right before we get to the open I hit a stump that is hidden under barely any snow and I crash pretty quickly. No harm done. Back on the skis and over to life #1, the Bridger Lift.

I know what you're thinking. There's nothing but black diamonds and double black diamonds! Where would you go down! So we didn't go down. We went up. One of the special and unique features of Bridger Bowl is the Ridge. You can ski off of nearly the entire ridge line of the mountains above Bridger Bowl ski resort. The only problem is that it is not lift accessible, you have to hike it. You are only allowed up to the ridge if you have a Avalanche Transceiver and you have at least one other person that you're skiing with.

From the top of the Bridger Chair Lift you basically hike straight up the mountain. This is picture I took a few winters ago looking up the hike, from about halfway up the hike. The lift line you see is a pommel life and is for ski patrol only. They need to be able to get up to the Ridge quickly incase anyone is in need of help. Having the hike itself is a deterrent to skiers who are not advanced enough to handle the terrain and the danger.



Once you reach the top you are at the top of the Bridger Mountian range. I always felt that they should have a welcoming committee with huge banners that say "Welcome to the Ridge" and serving hot cocoa. But that's probably just me, since I'm not super hardcore like some of the people who do it and I feel like it's a huge accomplishment when I make it.

Here is a picture (from a few winters ago, again) looking out across the Ridge. The little dots along the crest are people, and the first one happens to be my brother Brian. Sean and I hiked halfway up the slope to that hightest point and then traversed along the face past (if you refer to the Bridger Ski map) Bridger Gully and the Apron. We didn't actually go too far past the Apron, but pretty much right to the Northern Boundry. This area is called the Northwest Passage.



There is a fairly large chute that you ski out of first and then you get to a wide open and huge field of powder. After that you ski through some nicely spaced out trees and after that you are above the Alpine ski lift again and you just ski into the normal ski area.

Here are a few pictures that Sean took of me coming down. The powder was probably shin to knee deep and pretty light and fluffy. One bad thing was that my goggles were pretty fogged up for most of this, so I couldn't see all that well. Luckily the ski down is pretty easy, the traverse was the hard part, and I had my goggles up for that.







The first two are shots coming out of the large chute, and then the third is a shot of me coming down the big powder field. I really have to thank Sean for bringing the camera and whipping it out to take a few shots. The snow was really coming down hard, which is why everything is so white.

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Sick Day

Blah. I think spending a couple of hours in the frigid air twice yesterday did me in. I've been in bed most of the morning so far.

I will post about my wonderful (yet cold) day of skiing later today.

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Snow Day

It is puking outside. It has been snowing since I woke up and it has snowed harder and harder. They already have over 5" of fresh pow up at Bridger this morning and I'm sure it's only going to keep accumulating. So, I'm taking the afternoon off and heading up with my buddy Sean. It will be a fun time. Much more fun than staying warm in my boring office.

Have a great day!

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$2.5 Billion?

Wow, I knew Don King was crazy but not crazy times 2.5 Billion. Maybe he just aimed high in order to be able to settle for a slightly less garish amount, like $1 Billion. How can telling facts about a person, even if they are bad, be defamation? Our legal system, sometimes you just have to laugh.

And I never knew that he has actually killed two men. That's crazy.

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After Christmas

The night of Christmas Day we hung out at Brian's apartment and opened presents. I was very embarrassed because none of my presents were wrapped for anyone, and I didn't even have my dad's present in the state (of California). Luckily, my family loves me and none of that really mattered. We ate a snacky dinner of nuts, cheese, and crackers and hung out for a while before Brian took our parents back to the hotel.

The day after Christmas was much like the rest of the days. Didn't do a whole lot. I had mentioned that we watched and I eventually bought Napolean Dynamite. We all watched that and then my parents went home. When he got back, Brian and I watched I, Robot. After first seeing the previews and having read Isaac Asimov's book I was appalled at the way they had butchered the story (though now I am appalled to see that they are selling the book with Will Smith's picture on it). Then I read somewhere that the writer had written this screenplay with no connection to Asimov and only later they put in references to a few of Asimov's characters and the Three Laws. So that made me feel a little better and my interest grew back to normal levels.

Thankfully it did not grow too much as I didn't need to be appalled at the gall to have Asimov's name associated with it, it just wasn't a very good movie. Brian and I had many laughs at plot holes, coincidences, and the like. It's fun to watch bad movies with Brian. With his film school training and my cynicism, we can keep ripping the movie apart for nearly the whole time, it makes bad movies way more entertaining. (Like Jackie Chan flicks, right Steve?) Anyway, it had a little bit of good action, some of the effects were neat, and they had a couple of clever ideas about the future, but it was all in all what I expected, not very good.

The next day Brian and I took our parents to the airport and they left for Chicago. That day wasn't spent doing too much. The next day was just as lazy. Later in the evening we went to see House of Flying Daggers. The cineplex we saw it at was huge, I think it had over 20 screens and the "director's" theaters included leather seats and ginormous screens. We saw it in a normal theater, but still had to pay $11 a ticket. I ended up really enjoying the movie, Brian, not so much. I think he might have had his hopes too high, though I was pretty excited about it myself. I can't say it is as good as Crouching Tiger or Hero, but I still liked it a lot. There were so many of the same elements in the story from the other two, that made some things a little repetitive. One thing that I really enjoyed was the sound design. One of the characters was blind and thus was able to do all of her crazy moves just by detecting sounds around her. The feel and mood of those scenes was brought across excellently, I thought.

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Ouch

Back in this post I mentioned that a friend's husband died in an avalanche. It was on January 1st. I went to his funeral this last weekend in Billings. I didn't know him very well, but I was there to support his wife. It was a very nice ceremony, with hundreds of people there.

Another person that was caught in the avalanche was a coworker of mine who broke his leg. Since the rescue took so long he lost a lot of blood and his leg wasn't able to get the treatment it needed. Because of this there was lots of tissue damage and they had to remove a lot of muscle from his lower leg. They have been monitoring him in the hospital seeing how his leg and foot would do after a couple of surgeries. Unfortunately they are going to have to amputate.

The funny part is that he's actually bummed that they're not taking off enough of his leg to make him eligible for the Handicap Olympics. He was hoping to win a gold medal in skiing. He is in high spirits even with a long road of recovery and therapy in front of him. Mainly he can't wait to get out of bed and move around.

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Dang pictures

It seems that the online image hosting service I have been using is down right now. Hopefully it will come back up soon, or my blog will be decidedly less nice looking.

Just to let you know, that's what's up with the header and the rest of the pictures (except, as you can see, the About Me pictures)

Edit: (9:30pm) It looks as though the image hosting servers are back up. Phew!

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Golden Gopher

You may think that this post is about some University of Minnesota athetic team. But it's not. Brian pointed me to a new bar that opened up in downtown LA. The Golden Gopher. I thought that was pretty funny. I may have to check it out just because when I go down there.

I'm guessing they don't have any connection to the U, but they do have golden, gopher-shaped lamps, and that's got to count for something.

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Collect Them All!

Thanks to Steve's genius (or at least his javascript coding abilities) and my uncanny ability to waste lots of time on projects that aren't important; I bring you a new addition to the Just Plain Chips blog: random profile pictures.

Before, there was only one picture of me that showed up. Then I changed it so there was one picture for the main page and a different one if you ever clicked on "Read the whole post" or on the comments link of a post. But now, for any page that you visit or reload on the blog a new picture will be randomly selected from ONE HUNDRED head shots.

Did I mention that I enjoy wasting time on worthless things?

Anyway, there are lots of little pictures of me, including a head shot of the elusive Halloween broom costume. You'll just have to keep coming back multiple times a day and reload lots to see them all. Or, if you're not that patient and have some strange desire to see too much of me, you can click on the picture in the "About Me" box and it will bring you to a collage that I created from all of the head shots. It has all 100 pictures in order--though they are not necessarily in chronological order.

Anyway, enjoy. And just in case you forgot...this is all about me. ME ME ME.

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Christmas Day

When last we left the story of my trip to LA, my family had just driven back from Ventura after candlelight services.

I went to bed with visions of sugar plums dancing in my head. The next morning I woke up to a quiet apartment. Brian likes to sleep in most of the time and this day was no exception. I sat down in front of the TV and tried to find something interesting to watch while eating a bowl of Life cereal.

After a while my brother woke up and we got in touch with our parents. We headed to their hotel, picked them up, and headed down to Santa Monica. We parked near the beach and headed for the boardwalk. We mainly just wandered around that day, enjoying the 70 degree weather and the crash of ocean waves. We walked to the Santa Monica pier, which has an amusement park and all sorts of shops and little kiosks on it. You can see the silouette of the ferris wheel in the sunset picture in this post.

While walking along the pier there were a number of street performers, and artists, and people hawking all manner of wares. Here are pictures from a couple of performers.

After the beach we headed to the Third Street Promenade, where I found the shoes I was going to buy. We just walked around people watching and came across another street performer. He was an escape artist. My family had seen him before I got into town, and I was only able to see the end of his act, but I guess he was pretty good. I don't have any pictures ready to post of him, but I might put some up later. We stopped for lunch after a while, which was where we saw the funny dog in this post.

After dinner we headed back down to the beach and walked along the boardwalk toward our car. Ooo, on the way there we saw a Lotus Elise. It was a pretty hot looking car. I don't have any pictures up yet, but I will. Near the end of our walk, on Muscle Beach, there was this aparatus that looked like a giant piece of equipment from a elementary school playground. Basically it was a long row of rings. The goal being to swing from ring to ring all the way to the end and back. There was a group of friends hanging out doing the rings and cheering each other on. It was pretty cool. A few of them were really good, and a few others were just learning the tricks of the trade. A few pictures of this are here.

Before too long we had almost made it too the car and the sun started to go down.

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Sunset at Santa Monica

Here are a couple of sunset pictures from Christmas day at Santa Monica beach. Nothing too special, I just thought it was a beautiful night. They seem to be a little darker on my screen here than they were earlier, but oh well. Hopefully they look alright.

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On the rings

Here are some pictures of the crazy (strong) people who were playing on the rings while we walked by.

This is a view looking down the coarse.



This is the group that was hanging out at the rings getting their photo taken. They were having a wonderful Christmas day.

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Balancing Act

Here are some pictures of the balancing acts on the Santa Monica Pier.

This guy was funny in that he was pretty good, but he thought he was really good. He even made us all donate before doing his final act, which is pictured here. Sorry dude, that isn't the way street performers are supposed to act. Here he is, balancing a glass of water on a sheet of glass on 4 glasses of water on a sheet of glass on a stick on his chin. Whew!



So we left the first guy thinking he was alright when we happened across another balancing act. This one was much better. A better showman, he had better tricks, and he didn't demand money before his tricks. (that didn't stop him from asking for it, but that's to be expected). This guy's finally involved balancing an old, heavy road bike on his head while juggling. Good stuff.

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A New Boss in Town

For those of you who don't know, my dad has been in the process of buying a cabinet making business called "Anderson Millwork" in Eden Prairie (a suburb of Minneapolis). He has been in the due dilligence period for a little while and finally closed on the business on Friday. In the culmination of a lifelong dream, he is the owner of his own business.

While they don't have a web presense yet, so I can't give you a site, that is something he's working on getting done fairly soon. The cabinets that they specialize in are called framed-inset (I'm pretty sure that's correct), which are very custom and require a high degree of craftsmanship and are not the kind that you'd see rows and rows of at a Lowe's or Home Depot, which are called frameless or European.

I couldn't be prouder of him (though maybe I will be when he is the kingpin of the cabinet market throughout the United States) and am very happy for him. I can't wait to get back to Minneapolis some time in the near future to check the place out.

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Moving back into the modern world

I don't have a cell phone, or a mobile, if that's what you call them. I had one when I lived in Minneapolis, but I felt that I didn't need one when I moved to the mountains. It has been nice to be without that leash, even though there have been times when I could have used one. The rest of my family owns cell phones and they had started to become more perturbed by the fact that I didn't have one.

When Brian and my dad came to pick me up at Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) when I went home for Thanksgiving, Brian thought the world was going to end since I didn't have a cell phone. They had told me they were going to pick me up out at the curb--just driving through instead of parking. But, because the line was so long to get into the drive around, and because of the call of nature, they decided to park. Well, there was no way for them to communicate with me. So after a while they finally walked to the curb outside the Delta area and couldn't find me. The problem was that I had decided to walk down the curb a bit to find a more open spot. I figured, since they are driving by, it doesn't matter where I'm standing. After a while they figured that might be the case and Brian found me a little ways down the curb. As Brian put it, "There are 250 million people in this country and 249,999,999 of them have cell phones. Why don't you?"

So, with me missing a cool gadget to carry around, the ability to call people in other states without a calling card, the family pressure, and the possibility of moving into the city again, I decided I should start looking at phones.

One hinderance was that I didn't know what carrier to look for, as I wanted maybe be on a family plan with my parents and/or brothers and certainly be on the same provider as them so we could all talk to each other for free. That decision was finally made yesterday when my dad and brother Matt went out and signed up for a family plan with Sprint.

Now the search for the right phone begins in earnest. I'm thinking I'll have them buy a phone for me in Minneapolis and put it on their plan some time in the near future so we can all start talking. Though I have to find out what kind of service Sprint has in Montana. I know it doesn't provide "home base" service here, but I would think that you can at least use a phone along the I90 corridor. We'll have to see.

Anyway, I'm a little excited about having a new phone soon. It should be pretty cool.

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Mmmm, dinner(s)

I've mentioned that I have a pretty good life right?
Two nights ago Emily and Ricarda had a big dinner party at their house. It was the typical Emily party. Lots of people and lots of food. She had spaghetti, garlic bread, pizza bread, burnt brownies (no one ate those), boxed wine, and Sean and Heidi brought cupcakes. A good time was had by all, mainly because there was lots of good food and lots of people to talk to.

Then yesterday at about 12:10pm an old coworker who left and formed his own surveying company walked into my office and said "Let's go to lunch." He owed me lunch for helping him set up his computer at his home office. So we headed to Bar 3 Barbeque. It is a local restaurant owned by a guy on my hockey team. The double meat pulled pork sandwich slathered in the Bar 3 BBQ Sauce might possibly be my favorite sandwich in the world. That was a tasty surprise in the middle of the day.

And finally, last night Sean and Heidi broke out the grill and had a few people over. A lot of people were invited, but inexplicably, almost no one showed up. Oh well, more room at the table for me. I brought over my steak and Sean had this marinade, Stubbs Beef Marinade. Mmmm, man that was good. It was a little tangy and it really brought the beef flavor out in the steak instead of covering it up, it was the best steak I've had in a long time. I had also brought over a nearly perfect loaf of French bread which we doused with butter and a garlic and parmesan cheese seasoning. Yowza, that was tasty as well. Plus, a grilled green pepper, some tasty salad, and then ice cream for desert.

The only problem with all of these great food happenings is my new diet.

Yes, you read that correctly, my new diet.

I'm not doing Atkins, or any crazy strict diet. I am dubbing my diet the "Eat Slightly Less than Brenden-sized Portions Diet".

I have a fairly large group of friends that gets together to eat all of the time. And I'm the guy that is known to eat a lot. I'm just not sure that is a good distinction. Luckily I am not known as the obese guy who eats a lot, but still, I could stand to eat a little less.

So instead of two helpings of spaghetti and tons of bread two nights ago and then two or three cupcakes, I only had one non-overflowing plate of spaghetti, a couple pieces of bread, and one cupcake. Then for lunch yesterday I still splurged with the double meat sandwich, but I didn't have any pop (I almost never drink it anymore) or any side dishes. Then for dinner I had a modest 12oz steak (including the bone) instead of a monster 20oz steak (or two 12oz steaks) or also having a piece of chicken like I normally would have done, and I also held off on bread again and had a very small amount of ice cream.

If you know me and have hung out with me you know how much I love food and love to eat. This is a little tough for me. The bread and ice cream last night were especially hard to hold off on. But, I figure that a week or two of dealing with the small hunger pangs and my body will start to get used to the new amounts of food and I'll be doing better.

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The Note

Remember when I told you about a note I found on my desk that I thought seemed a little odd? I promised a scan, so here it is:



The yellow of the paper got bled out in the scan, but you get the point. I really just don't know who it could be from.

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Christmas Eve

I suppose I should get through my vacation before it becomes February.
As you may remember, my first day in Los Angeles was pretty nice. It was in the 60s and 70s and we spent much of our time in Malibu and on a beach.

The next day, Christmas Eve day, was just as nice. Brian and I went to pick our parents up at their hotel and we went out for breakfast at a restaurant Brian frequents. The Overland Cafe. We all had a little breakfast, that was quite tasty, and that was the morning. I actually can't really remember what we did for the greater part of the day. I know we ran around to a couple of grocery stores to try and find stuff to bring to some friends' house for dinner that night. Maybe if a family member reads this and remembers they can comment below.

So after getting dressed and finding a couple bottles of wine we headed up to Ventura. We could have taken the PCH, but that would have taken forever. So we took the 405 to the 101 up to Ventura.

Did you notice what I said right there?
I said "the" 405 and "the" 101. They are pronounced "the four oh five" and "the one oh one". That is how freeways are referred to in California. Every one is the number preceeded by "the". It is easy and it works. It's better than Chicago where every interstate has an actual name "Take the such and such to the Eisenhower". But even if it works out there it just doesn't sound right applied anywhere else. I mean if I told anyone here in Bozeman that I was going to take Main Street to the 90 to the 94 to Minneapolis. They'd laugh in my face. And if I was in my old home town and told someone that they needed to take the 13 to the 77 to the 494 to get to the airport, they'd look at me funny. Or (just to get really convoluted) if I said "take the 13 to the 77 to the 494 to the 35W (I think that and 35E are the ones that really screw it up) to the 62 to the 101 to get near my old place of work", well, I wouldn't blame them if they decided that they never wanted to talk to me again. Anyway, it was a fun observation my parents and I made while we were down there.

So, there we were, travelling up the 101. We made it to the Hall's house an hour or so before dinner. Debbie, the mom, was a very good friend of my mom's in high school. So they've been friends forever. I don't remember if Dave, the dad, had grown up with them or if he entered the picture later. They had three kids, Matt, Siri, and Ben. Matt was a little younger than I was and the other two were younger than Brian. At first, just Debbie and Siri were there, oh, and Ben's dog.

Hmmm, I can't remember the dog's name right now. Anyway, he was the most muscular dog I had ever seen. He was a pitbull mix and whatever he was mixed with was a beefcake. Just a solid brickhouse of rippling muscle. And he loved to play. In the back yard he just ran back and forth trying to get people to chase him. If you were sitting down on a couch or chair or the floor, he would be right over and trying to climb up on you and lick your face. A really friendly and fun dog.

After a while Matt and Ben and Dave came home. And we did a lot of visiting. My mom and Dad remembered the family a lot better than Brian and I did. We had seen Debbie and Dave a little bit at my brother Matt's wedding, but we hadn't seen the kids since we were very young and our two families took a trip together to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.

After a very tasty dinner of ham and potatoes and a number of other yummy things (we were all so thankful that we didn't have to go out to eat for Christmas Eve dinner) we played some cards and talked some more. After that we went to church, where Dave is the pastor. I was racking my brain to try and remember if I had ever known a pastor in a social setting, let alone having dinner with one right before he led Christmas Eve candlelight services, and I don't think I have. It was a nice service and neat to see Dave up there talking to everyone.

After that we headed back down to LA to go to sleep before Christmas.

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What, Me Worry?

I know I can complain about things.
Like a little rain on an awesome vacation. Or that my girlfriend is leaving. Or that my stupid web site is broken. Or that I'm sore from playing hockey. Or that it's too cold outside. Or that my football teams aren't doing well. Or even my fantasy football team isn't doing well. Or that I suffered through a bad movie. Or that I couldn't see everything in Glacier.

But that's all crap. My life is grand. I have cool new shoes and everything is smelling like roses. Stuff has been going on lately. Bad stuff. And it's all happening to everyone else.

I have a friend that just got divorced after a little over a year of marriage. Oh, and I have another young (around my age) friend that got divorced. And a friend who broke off an engangement. And I have a friend whose parents just separated. And I have a coworker whose grandfather just died (albeit peacefully at 92 years old after a wonderful life). And I have a friend whose long time family friend keeled over and died in the middle of running a race. And I have a friend, who is 8 months pregnant, whose husband just died in an avalanche while backcountry skiing. And a coworker who broke his leg in that same avalanche.

And that doesn't even touch upon any global trajedies occuring right now. These are just people I know. My thoughts and prayers go out to all of the people involved, and I'm just so thankful that I lead such a charmed life.

I live in Bozeman, Montana and have a job that pays the bills and isn't stressful. I have way too much stuff that can entertain me in a myriad of ways. I just visited my brother, who works in the exciting world of TV, in sunny Los Angeles. My parents just bought a new business in Minneapolis and are excited for what the future holds in that regard and are excited about moving back to Minnesota. I have another brother who is a Marine and a Vet and is married to one of the most wonderful girls I know. They have the cutest, funniest kid I've ever met, and another will be arriving this Summer.

I play hockey and volleyball for fun, and I'm pretty good at both. My Gophers won their bowl game and the Vikes have a chance to knock off the Pack in the playoffs. I have a huge group of friends that get together pretty often and always have a great time. Some days the only thing I have to worry about is whether to save my burger or my corn dog to eat last in order to maximize my enjoyment of dinner. (that actually took place in the Arctic Circle restaurant in Havre, MT) I got a bunch of sweet stuff for Christmas, and everyone else enjoyed the presents I gave them. I might be moving to sunny LA sometime in the next few months to open another new chapter in my life.

And that's not even a full list.
So you see? I really have nothing to complain about.

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'Bama

Many of you may know that I attended and barely graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in Computer Engineering. In my junior year I was lucky enough to be paired with a roommate who was on the swim team and was also a huge college football fan. From then on I have followed the Golden Gopher football team as closely as I can.

This season has been one of ups and downs. Well, actually, one of up and down. The team was riding high at the beginning of the season, cruising through an easy pre-conference schedule, and then completely tanked at the end of the year, with the low points including a 51-17 pasting by Michigan State and a 30-21 debacle against lowly Indiana.

The limped into bowl contention with a 6-5 record and were selected to play Alabama in the Music City Bowl in Nashville, TN. The Gophers and the Crimson Tide had never played each other in their long histories, so many people were quite excited about it. Plus each team's strength would be pitted against the other's. The vaunted Minnesota running game versus the great Alabama defense. Minnesota came in with the 13th best offense in the country, with the 6th best ground game. Alabama had the 2nd ranked defense and hadn't allowed a 100 yard rusher all year.

The game was on New Year's Eve day at 9am PST. I didn't get to watch the game as Brian doesn't have ESPN and I didn't feel like trying to find a sports bar at 9am. So I went into work with Brian and watched updates of the game on ESPN Gamecast. Let me tell you, it was pretty exciting.

When it was all said and done, the Gophers emerged victorious, 20-16. Even though they tried to give the game away by committing 3 turnovers on their first 3 possessions and missing a chip shot field goal late in the game that could have sealed the deal. And how did the key matchup end up? Marion Barber III was voted MVP of the game with 187 yards rushing and partner Laurence Maroney added 105 yards. They were the only two players to rush for 100 yards and they did it together in the same game.

Needless to say, I was very happy with the outcome. It put a happy ending on a disappointing season. It also marked the first time in Gopher history that they won 3 consecutive bowl games and it moved their overall bowl record to 5-5.

Most of the newspaper articles I read pretty much read the same way. The Minnesota offensive line pushed the Alabama defense around and opened up huge whole for the running backs. All the while controlling the ball and with it the clock. (MN held the advantage in time of possession 38-22 minutes). And the poor Minnesota defense played just well enough to hold the poor Alabama offense in check when needed. Of course, some of the Alabama players were likedly to be bitter and upset about the loss. This was my favorite quote by Alabama safety Roman Harper:

We understood that what they like to do is get out there and get on you. They have great technique. A lot of people call it holding, but if you don’t get called for it, it’s called technique.

Good fun. Now all that's left to cheer for is the even more pathetic Vikings in their improbable playoff game (they did everything they possibly could to not get in to the playoffs). They play this Sunday against the hated Packers in the confines of the Frozen Tundra of Lambeau Field.

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Shoes

I need your help. You see, I recently realized something about me that doesn't seem all that manly.

I know it is sexist to say that women love shoes, but I've seen it in practice too many times for it to be denied. I know that not all women love shoes, but a great deal of them do.

Anyway, the slightly feminine thing I realized the other day was that there is a certain pair of shoes in my past that I specifically remember as being my favorites. (and no, it isn't the Air Jordans that I somehow got my parents to buy me in Junior High). No, my favorite pair of shoes happens to be my Adidas Samba Classics. At first I think I may have been influenced by the fact that I played a lot of intramural soccer at school. Then I think I was influenced by the fact that my girlfriend at the time was a big fan of Adidas, and that kind of rubbed off on me.

I wore them for a number of years in the middle of my college career. I wore them everywhere and I wore them way too long. I wore them until I had holes in the soles and then I wore them after I plugged the holes with duct tape. I even kept them after I stopped wearing them thinking I could use them as a type of slipper or something, but I finally threw them away last year.

How does this all enter into the story of the present? After eating lunch and watching the first half of the Rose Bowl in a restaurant on the Promenade in Santa Monica with Brian and Erin, we walked up and down going into a few shops. We hit the Gap, a toy store, the Levi's store, and then on our way out I guided us into the Adidas store just on a whim. I still like the stuff, but I didn't expect to get anything, even if they were having a big sale. Brian and Erin wouldn't have even thought of the place but they said "sure" and even ended up buying a pair of shoes each. I also went back to the shoes department and had a look around. There were some cool shoes but nothing that really fit me.

Until...there they were...my next pair of shoes. The Samba Milleniums. I had been into a few Adidas stores and a few Adidas outlets in the past number of years and I never saw a pair of Sambas. I just thought that they had been discontinued or something, so I never really gave it another thought. But there they were in front of me. I tried them on and they looked and felt great. But, being the popular model they are, they were not on sale. I decided to forego buying the shoes then with thoughts that I could find them online for cheaper than $65.

As a side note, on my way out of the store, I spotted a micro fleece jacket that looked kind of cool. It was on a 50% off rack, but I wasn't really sure, since it didn't say anything on the tag, like a number of other clearance items did. I had a guy check the price and sure enough, it was on sale. I snatched up the last medium and I left a happy man. It is very soft and comfortable with two pockets and a chest pocket that perfectly holds the mp3 player I got for Christmas. It has slightly long arms with holes for your thumbs to go through and then a piece of fleece to flip over your hands if you are outside in the cold with no gloves.

Anyway, when we got back to Brian's apartment I started the search for the shoes. I found a place that had them for $10 less than the store, with free shipping. So I ordered them then and there.

They should be waiting at my house when I get home from work. I can't wait. I'm still a man, right?

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Hockey update

Well, well. We won last night! It felt pretty good. Except that it was bitter cold out. Just about 0 degrees with a wind whipping through the bench. Our team played just okay over all, but well enough to beat an inferior team. I am overall happy with my performance, though, as always, I could have done better.

I had a number of scoring chances that I couldn't convert on. On one I was leading the break and got over the blue line and I dropped it to a teammate. He got a shot off that wasn't really strong but the rebound bounced straight to me right in front of the net. I shot it twice into the goalie's chest before he covered it up. Darn.

One other time I was on a two on one break with one of our weaker players. I laid a nice pass across to him where he was alone with an open shot. But instead of taking a shot he whipped a pass back at me a little too hard and a bit off the mark and the puck went into the corner.

Another time I pinched at the blue line, picked the puck up, and carried it around the net. When I came out from behind on the other side I had a man wide open just back off of the scrum going on in front of the net. I got it to him right on the stick and he took a shot, but the goalie stopped it and covered up.

Here are the overall stats for the year so far:

Date	Res	Opp	Score	+/-	G	A	P	Shots	PIM
TOTALS	5-10-2		39-56	-5	1	1	2	24	3

A couple of notes. The total goals don't include 4 games that I didn't play in, I don't know the scores to those. The penalty minutes may look strange at 3, instead of 2. But in our league minor penalties are 3 mintues because the clock is always running.

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Some more pictures

Here are a few more pictures from LA

On Christmas day we walked around Santa Monica. Including the beach, the Pier, and the Promenade.

Here's a picture of the beach, taken from the Pier




Here was a dude sleeping on the beach, albeit in a strange position.




Here is the sun setting over the ocean looking out past the Pier.

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Hockey...hockey...hockey

I got into Bozeman on Sunday afternoon and got home about 5pm. I then unpacked, ate, unpacked the rest, and then took a nap for a couple hours before getting up to go play hockey. I was tired, but them's the breaks. So off to the rink I went to play against the hated Black Angus. We ended up losing 3-1. I had a few nice shots, but nothing went in. I was only a -1 for the night and even that wasn't my fault. A dude on the other team launched a weak bouncing shot from the blue line and the goalie just didn't put his body in front of it and it bounced past him and in. That was a little frustrating.

After hockey I went home and tried to fall asleep, without much success. Tossing and turning, turning and tossing until probably around 2am. At work yesterday my vision started to shake and blur from exhaustion near the end of the day. Oh, and I had a hockey game last night as well. And that game was not looking to be much fun as we were playing a power league team. Ouch.

We didn't actually play that poorly. But the score registered our lack of skill and experience in relation to the other team: 9-2. I felt I played a pretty good game and one stat backs this up, I was +2 for the night. I was on the ice for both of our goals and none of the opposing goals. I was pretty proud of that fact after the game. We only had two sets of defense, so I was out there a lot, but they never poked one in. But of course, we still lost badly.

I'm not too tired at work yet today, but the afternoon lull hasn't hit yet. Oh, and I have another hockey game tonight. That's right, three nights, three games, all at 9:30pm. Yawn. You know what's nice though? I did nearly nothing but eat and sit around while down in LA (I did bike 10 miles one day though) so this is good to get right back into some activity to burn off some of the excess I'm sure I accumulated.

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A Secret Admirer?

I don't know if it is a joke, but yesterday I found a note on my desk. It was afixed to the back of a note I had made earlier (they are both post-it notes).
On it, the note says, in slightly shaky red pen, "gess who?" with a red heart following. And then inside a green heart it says, in slightly less shaky red pen, "Marry Christmas".

Now that I think on it a little bit more I think that the note was near where some Christmas candy had been deposited on my desk. Everyone in the office got some candy, so I wasn't special in that regard. But why was the note stuck to the back of another note and then turned face down? And why would one draw hearts on a candy delivery note?

It should be a simple process of elimination to discover who the note writer is. The office is overwhelmingly male, I am certain I can safely eliminate every one of them. There are 6 women at the office. Three are younger (30s) and married. One is older (50s or 60s) and married. And two are younger and not married. I don't know if they are in relationships, but neither one of them seems to me to be the cryptic note writing type. But, what do I know? My track record of the last decade clearly indicates that I have no understanding of women.

So maybe it was a joke. Or maybe I have a secret admirer. I don't know which and I doubt I ever will. Maybe I'll scan the note sometime and post it, just so you can see what I'm dealing with.

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Back in Boz Angeles

Howdy all! (that's Montanan for "Hello everyone!")
I made it back from the big city. I had a great time and I still have lots to post about, but I was actually busy at work today and I've been very tired.

New Years Eve was a late one and travelling never refreshes anyone. Plus, after I got back yesterday I had a hockey game at 9:30. Oh, and I have another hockey game tonight, and another tomorrow night.

To tide you over, here are a couple of pictures.

The first is a dog that was outside a restaurant we ate at and lots of people stopped to pet it. It looks like a pug mix to me, and as Steph could tell you, I think pugs are hilarious.




I'm just guessing, but I think you can check out of this next place any time you like. But you can never leave.




Right next to the Hotel California was a Segway store. I actually saw a dude going along the boardwalk on one at Venice Beach.

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Still alive in 2005

Happy New Year everyone. I hope this next year is as kind to you as the last one was to me.

I just got back from Giant Village downtown LA. It was awesome. Unfortunately we didn't stay as long as I would have liked, but them's the breaks. From what I was able to see, here are my rankings of the acts:

1. The Crystal Method (only got to see them for 13-14 minutes)
2. John Digweed (sweet and lighter crowds than Oakey)
3. Paul Oakenfold (very fun, packed, and went crazy with piercing treble notes again)
4. The Killers (a live rock band, their current single is "Somebody Told Me")
5. Mark Farina (just okay, actually played the same song twice in the 30 minues we watched him)

Well, I suppose I should go to bed. It's 3am PST.

Happy New Year.

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