Third Week in October 2010

You may have noticed (by reading here or just looking at it) that I haven't cut the lawn in a while. Troy had the lawn aerated about a month ago, then (I thought) overseeded. Monday I came home and rushed through cutting the lawn while there was light. I bagged everything up. It turns out that the lawn care company screwed up and had just recently overseeded, I wasn't aware, so I probably bagged up most of the new seed. I felt really bad about it.

Work has been an adventure lately, so Tuesday when I got home from work, Merinda asked if I would like a drink, I said yes. Well, she gets out the shaker, a bottle of rum, and ice, shakes it and serves me a 2/3 full martini glass of straight rum. Eek! I sipped it through making dinner. Then we had our last 'Thriller' practice. I felt a little, um, unsure of my steps.

When I was in the military I was not late for my shift even once in three and a half years. Wednesday I overslept for work for the second time in three months. I had forgotten to set my alarm. I fixed my alarm so I couldn't forget. No lunch hour for me.

Thursday night I tried out Theology on Tap, oddly enough, for the first time even though I have meant to get there for several years. The subject was balancing life and God, I heard one of the smartest things I've ever heard about this "The question is how do I balance my life and my relationship with God? The answer is: I don't." The talk part took about an hour, after it was over we talked for a while. Eventually, Joe, Kat, and I ended up at ice cream.

Friday I had Kimee time. Several months back I took Kamber shopping, and this time I took Kimee. It turned out that Kimee's friend Maggie came with us. Out of respect for Kimee, and NO other reason we went to Runza to eat. We then proceeded over to Old Navy, and found exactly nothing to buy for clothes. Still, the company was fun. Eventually I headed downtown to the dance. It was Jenny's birthday jam, and I couldn't miss that. After the dance we headed over to the Donut Stop for donutty goodness in celebration of Lisa's birthday there was more than a little goofy laughing.

Saturday was the annual Jenny organized trip to Vala's pumpkin patch. We had a pretty good group, this year, but not as big as some years. The weather looks great in the pictures, but it was windy, and therefore dusty.

First stop was the four person cycling course. Not to gossip, but Jenny didn't pedal as hard as I did, Sarah and Heather were passengers. Photo credit: Matt


Next up was one of the two one person cycling courses. Photo credit: Matt


My bouncing has style!



There were a lot of different bouncing styles...


...but this one was the best.


All that bouncing makes you hungry.


Pig races were next. I think this is cute, but some people go crazy for it.


She thinks my tractor's sexy. I had to recurve my hat before this was taken. Photo credit: Julia


We all slid down the red tube. Well Sarah didn't, she doesn't like to do the ride things.



We tackled the corn maze, and we didn't finish as a group. Upper right photo credit: Matt


Who knew so many of my friends lived in the shoe with the old woman?


How many people does it take to fill up a rocking chair?


We rode the train, then did the other cycle course, then bounced some more.


I'm pretty sure I am innocent, I don't know about the other three.


Anne, Jenny and I were the last ones there, we had some fun with a camel, some goats, and some wandering hats.

We also did a haunted house, danced to a bluegrass band, and got some ice cream. Obviously from the number of pictures I included, it's one of my favorite things to do every year. I took a load of pictures, they can be found here, Matt also took a bunch of pictures, they can be found here. I'm pretty sure there are pictures all over Facebook from Anne, Jenny, Julia, and Sarah.

I went home, and then it was time for Lisa's ??? birthday party. The venue was the Bancroft Street Market, I was not aware of it before, but it is a very nice place suitable for art shows or events. Anyway, the place was great and the party also.

Lisa surrounded by 19 men ... (you finish this one yourself).


There was plenty of good music by Stephen Monroe, and Insignificant Other (featuring Lisa Barrett). Both photos credit: Matt


As advertised.



Because this was a party involving a certain group of people, there was plenty of things that fell into the inexplicable category. Bottom photos credit: Matt

It was a wonderful party, I was sad to see it wrap up early. Here are my pictures of the event, here are Matt's, and Lisa had a professional photographer take pictures too, they can be seen on Facebook here.

Sunday morning was the definitely the most uncomfortable Mass Chaos to date, we went to a liturgically conservative church. The homily and Mass itself led to some diversity of opinion. The quality of my friends shown through however, we shared our opinions respectfully and discussed our thoughts about it. If that was the worst we'll get at Mass Chaos, I'll take it. We ate lunch at the 11Worth Cafe ... I guess I eat there once a decade whether I want to or not.

We then immediately went to DJ's Dugout to watch the Bears play. I've been sad when the Bears have been bad because we didn't have talent, and I've been upset when we didn't play hard. This years version plays so hard, yet is just stupid, and by that I mean the coaching staff. A great example is a sequence of plays in the third quarter. Cutler hits a long pass that almost makes it into the endzone, the Bears coach, Lovie Smith challenges the play, it was close, but it wasn't THAT close. Two plays later on a QB sneak that replay shows is a touchdown, but on the field is ruled a fumble that the Bears lose, he does nothing.

I'm not predicting what would have happened if it would have been ruled a touchdown, but the Bears lost by 3 points. That's frustration. Sure, Cutler is not the second coming of Otto Graham, but you've had him for a year and a half, if you're the coaching staff, you ought to know what you've got and how to get the most out of it. The defensive side of the ball sure does, so does the special teams. With a record of 4-3, and a great defense, some intelligence applied to the offense could go a long way.

Second Week in October 2010

Monday I felt like crap, so I stayed home and played video games. Tuesday I also stayed home, but I already had a doctor's appointment. The appointment was for a yearly checkup, so I can tell you my prostate is in good health (sorry, no pictures), but that wasn't the only think that happened, it was a busy appointment. I had a mole frozen off, I hate that. My foot got x-rayed, I hurt it in Chicago and it has been painful since. I got a 'steroid' shot for my allergies too. I thought I'd put on weight, but it was 173.

So back to my foot. I think I stepped on a dog toy or a dog bone on Tuesday night in Chicago, then walked all those miles downtown the next day. I don't know which was the cause. Doctor Laurie wanted me to stay off my feet as best I can ... so I sat in the room on Tuesday night during blues dance practice and watched and tried to learn. Wednesday night was more of the same, I watched 'Thriller' practice, it was the best that I'd seen it performed.

Thursday was the latest installment of our Pathfinder game. We definitely are getting smarter, I mean I had actually had a shovel when we needed to dig something.

Friday I went to the dance, but I worked the front desk until Merinda's birthday jam. I jumped in, and although I hurt my foot, I decided it wasn't so bad that I couldn't dance the rest of the night, so I did!

Saturday during the day I worked to finish my costume before Jenny's Birthday Costume Bash. If you haven't see my costume already, I am not going to include it in these pictures so you can be surprised if you see me Halloween week Friday or Saturday. I did about three hours of sewing and configuring to get it right. I won second place!

Rick won for the the second year in a row, he beat me by one. Jenny said she was a 'candy' monster.


Several of us did the 'Thrill the World' dance in the driveway.



There were many good costumes.


I thought the lighting for this was going to be horrible, but it turned it great.


Stupid o'clock generated some pretty amazingly funny conversation ... 'cause it was stupid o'clock, not because it was actually funny. Photo credit: Matt

Yes, you can cheat and see what I wore by clicking here on all my photos from the party, Matt's are here. Lots of people put pictures up on Facebook.

Sunday was the latest installment of Mass Chaos. Afterwards we went to DJ's Dugout to watch the Bears play, yeah. I firmly believe my team is the hardest playing defense, the most fun special teams, and the most stupendously annoying offense. Two out of three ain't bad, but it won't get you to the playoffs. Sunday wrapped up with another installment of Pathfinder game. We managed to complete our first big challenge, time to level up, queue the training montage.

First Week in October 2010

October! The end of the busy season that starts at my birthday and runs seeminly nonstop through Merinda's Halloween party. The weather changes, the air smells different, and I gotta start thinking about figuring out how to work Troy's snow blower.

Monday after work I went over to Shannon's house and had dinner and hung out for a bit.

As some of you may know, I meditate or nap in my car during my lunch hour at work, well I did so on Tuesday and I had the most disturbing dream about shoveling VK's driveway last winter ... ugh. After work we had another installment of dance practice for "Thrill the World", i.e. the simplified MJ's Thriller dance. This is my second year of doing it, I'm hoping I am getting better.

Wednesday I had to get on the phone with the medical insurance company, and I was all ready for a fight that I didn't get. The person on the phone was helpful and got everything working. A far cry from my last interaction with them, or my mother's recent experiences. After work I paid a very short visit to Shannon's before they scurried off to church.

Thursday was a Husker football party at Stacy's. The Huskers won and the company was a lot of fun.

Friday I went shopping at Penney's at lunch. I ended up waiting in line three times as long as it took me to pick out what I wanted, and then I was through line in about :45 seconds. I'd like to see a company with *cough cough* to get people through line at a reasonable rate. Penney's isn't in the business of chatting, they are in the retail business. Later in the evening I went to the dance, but it was pretty dead.

Saturday I went thrifting with Merinda to get items for my Halloween costume. In the afternoon I went to Becky and Kevin's wedding.

The current couple and the next couple.


Stacy and Holly were dressed in their impressionistic best.


Jenny and I doing the Cha-Cha slide, this got 80 views on my Flickr account, someone liked it.

You can see the rest of my wedding pictures here. After Becky's wedding, it was Kaleb's big event, his annual murder mystery party, with a Blade Runner theme. It was on top of the Old Market Lofts downtown which made for a picturesque backdrop. I thought I was doing well to figure out what was going on, but all my hard work and analysis did not payoff with victory, Merinda did well, so that made it better. There are a bunch of funny stories, but they probably only are funny in the context of ... well, you had to be there. The setting made for some easy, good shots.

Lisa and I before the actual mystery began.


Um, yeah.


The host explains the set up.



Like I said, good shots were easy to find.

You can see all of my Murder Mystery party pictures here, and Matt took a couple pictures which can be found here. After the thing was over, Ben and I stood on the 10th Street Overpass outside the Durham Museum and talked for about an hour and a half.

Sunday was the latest episode of Mass Chaos. We went to a 1000 Mass on 10/10/10. Well, we thought we were clever. Afterwards we went to the usual, DJ's Dugout to watch football, i.e. the Bears. They won! The only other exciting news was that Frank and Lindsay got engaged, congratulations!

Fourth Week in September 2010

Monday was soda cut down day. It's obvious that I like soda a little more than is good for me. The plan is this, cut down to a soda in the morning (for caffeine) and one at lunch. I was a cranky pants that first day, okay first four days. I'll try cutting down more (smaller portions) on November 1. My new best friend is Sobe Lifewater Blackberry Grape.

Work went well, except for my cranky pants. A long vacation was just what I needed to improve my work attitude. After work I went to Vivian's birthday party. I knew that I would be late, but no one there had ordered by the time I got there. It was at an Italian place called Malaras on 23rd and Pierce. I had Angel Hair in a white sauce. The white sauce was amazing, but the salad was obviously of 'the open a bag and over pour Wishbone Italian dressing on it' variety. It seemed to me that the salad must be customer driven because the white sauce was so well made. Eventually we went back to Matt and Viv's and had some martinis.

The birthday girl's shirt says "I'm Vivian, and you're lucky to have me." Yes we are!


We had a little fun with Vivian's leftovers. Photo credit: Matt


Which one of us is me and which one is Jenny?

I just want to point out how much I respect Vivian, I went to her party rather than watch the Bears on Monday night Football. You can see the rest of my pictures here, and all of Matt's here.

Tuesday night was another installment of blues dance practice, it's quite the challenge for me because the dance is not structured. Wednesday I played catch up with chores. Thursday night was the latest installment of our Pathfinder saga, we're starting to be less stupid. Friday I went to JNO and did some dancing.

Saturday evening we took a trip out to Fort Calhoun and Saint John the Baptist and Mass Chaos. After Mass we went to the Surfside Club for some artery clogging goodness.

The river was pretty high.


Considering this little guy was hanging out in front of the Surfside begging for food, he was awfully skinny.


It's so loud in there you can hardly spell.

You can see the rest of my Surfside pictures here. After the Surfside I went up to the Dundee Dell and met some friends to celebrate Courtney's birthday. I had fish and chips, so yes, I ate badly.

Sunday several of us gathered in the basement of our house to watch Blade Runner in preparation for Kaleb's Murder Mystery Party. I hadn't see the movie in years, so I had forgotten what a masterful performance it was by Rutger Hauer in that movie. Later in the evening, we had our second Pathfinder session of the week. I know that funny role playing stories do not translate into real life, so I'll spare you the stories. I think I'll manage to get caught up with the blog backlog fairly quickly this week.

Third Week in September 2010

The Monday after Cowtown ... ugh. I had hoped to get on the road to Chicago by 1000, and make it in to mom's house by 1800. I was in no particular hurry. Omaha was cloudy, but as I hit the road, the further east I went the sunnier it became, no it's not a metaphor. I had lunch in Des Moines, got gas in Walcott, and was making good time, when, as I approached the Quad Cities, there was a sign that said "I-80 traffic, take detour". I was a little confused, but I got on I-280 and drove right through the middle of the Quads. The I-280 bridge over the Mississippi is quite impressive. Finally I get around to meet back up where I would have crossed the Mississippi on I-80, and there was traffic coming over the bridge. What exactly was a detoured for?

The drive is about an hour too long to begin with, and the extra 30 minutes did not help any. I finally got sick of the highway, and got off at Illinois 72, drove through Genoa, got on Illinois 23, and then took very familiar roads to mom's house getting there at about 1900. There was a beautiful sunset as I turned north on Illinois 23. I spent an uneventful evening at the house.

Tuesday mom and I went out to lunch at Chipotle. She hadn't been there before and ordered a burrito. I warned her that the thing would be as big as her head, but she insisted. The Chipotle is in a section of McHenry that was not developed when I was a kid, so it's kind of strange to see it developed halfway to Richmond. I suppose anyone driving out West Maple Road in Omaha thinks the same thing. Later in the afternoon it was repair time around the house. In the evening mom told me about ... well, this. The story is about people in the McCollum Lake area dying of a rare form of cancer that is being tied to a manufacturer in the area. If you read the story and click on the 'She's Still Here' link, you can see the story of one of my high school friend's mom, Julianna Mass, who has since died. If you look at the map, it's #15, and at least two of my fondest high school memories took place at that house. It's a sad tale.

Wednesday was the trip into Chicago day. I overslept, and then drove myself over to the train station to get on a later train. I took a book on the train, and read most of the way. The train ride hasn't changed much in thirty years. Once I got downtown, I did a little sightseeing.

This is the high rise I lived in when I moved to Chicago, my apartment was on the level of the "My..." on the sign and the fifth window from the right. This building is 49 stories high.


I walked from there down to the Art Institute...


...then over to Buckingham Fountain...


...then to Millennium Park, I'm in this picture, somewhere...


...I meandered my way north towards the Water Tower...


...where I met Shannon. We got ice cream at Ghirardelli, and then walked to...


...Oak Street Beach. I tragically dropped my ice cream cone on the way.

Shannon suggested I check out the Cathedral, which was nearby. I did, but Mass was starting soon, and I had a tough time getting good pictures in the light of the Cathedral. I left there about 1700 and went and met Jen. We went to the subway and rode north. I guess I've completely forgotten my subway etiquette, she had to tell me to take my backpack off, oops. We rode up to Belmont, and then walked back to my see my old stomping grounds.

My apartment was the first door to the right, the first floor apartment on the left side.

Jen and I then walked over to Binney's, then to Ann Sather's, which was sadly closed. So we got some food at the mediterranean place next door, because really, you can never have enough hummus or shwarmas. We then walked up Halsted to her place, and sat and ate upstairs on the roof of her place with Adam, her boyfriend.

The view from the top of her building was amazing.

Finally I got my butt back to the train station and back home.

The theme of Thursday was food. I had lunch with Michele at a local Mexican food establishment. In the evening, my mother taught me to make Chicken Pauperkash, a traditional meal that was my favorite growing up. I have already made it ... with about 1/3 of the butter she used, but even then, it's pretty darn good.

Friday I went to church for a noon Mass, I kind of wished that I could get my mother to join me, but she wasn't interested. The church, Holy Apostles, was not there when I was growing up, so it's fairly new. In the afternoon, mom and I had leftovers and (finally after four days home) played some dice. Friday evening I met up with a few of my classmates from high school! We went to the bar in downtown McHenry that my mom used to hang out in, so I knew right where to go.

Harry Carey didn't actually go to school with us.

You can see the all of my Chicago trip pictures here.

Saturday I started driving home, and turned on some sports radio, and figured out that Iowa had a home football game in the early afternoon, and would probably be letting out right about the time that I passed through Iowa City. This coupled with my plan of meeting Rae and Larry in Des Moines for dinner in the after noon caused me to pull into a rest stop in eastern Iowa, and take about an hour nap. Eventually I made my way into Des Moines, met up with Rae and Larry at a TGIFriday's and had a nice dinner with them and their grandchildren.

I pulled into town, worn out, sick of driving, and ready to stay in ... what? What's that you say? Karaoke? I'll be right there. I cleaned up and joined Jenny and Sarah at Mic's. Takashi was there. He did an awesome version of Smoke on the Water, and by that I mean with an inflatable guitar and a standing on tables solo.

A piece of advice ladies, if you go karaokeing, and you sing an angry girl song, don't expect to meet a man that night.

Sunday was a slow moving day. First up was the last Lindy in the Park or the year.

I took some pictures that I am super happy with...


...and this one too.

You can see all of my last 2010 Lindy in the Park pictures here. Matt also took pictures, they start here (go right).

Later in the afternoon I headed over to Saint Margaret Mary for their festival and Mass Chaos. I had a long talk with Brianne on the curb by the tower, I may end up considering it a big corner turner conversation for me. I have enough separation from VK to tell how messed up I became during the five years (on and off) I chased her, but not so much separation that I don't still adore her. Relearning to trust people is a process, it was a big step.