Another Dream...

This one was a short dream, and I don't remember all the details, but it was still creepy enough to remember the gist. I'm a kid (don't remember which gender, but I know there was character shift through the dream) in something akin to an orphanage. But it's more like a farm. You see, where I'm at they extract memories and convert them into some sort of fuel- likely mystical in nature, but it was glossed over. Children provide the most vibrant memories, and the more emotional (and in general, happier) the memory the more potent the extraction. Needless to say, we're trying to get out. There's another person chained up in the basement who is pretty much Sloth from The Goonies. We get him to act up, and he distracts the security while I gather some random trinkets that will help me escape.

That's about all I remember, except a really dismall scene where a bunch of haggard looking middle-age to old men are standing in a garden with gardening tools (hoes, shovels, rakes, etc) looking all but dead. It just really stuck out to me that whoever was doing this was harvesting all the good things out of the minds of children. Not exactly an upper of a dream.

Random Dream

The dream begins and I'm a half-elf ranger in grayish outfit rather similar to the dude on Assassin's Creed (which I've never played). I'm in a helluva spot- I'm currently on my back behind a small tuft of dirt and brush trying to hide from a colossal red dragon that knows damned well that I'm there. The thing is, I have an arrow at the ready, and this arrow can do serious damage to the dragon. It's a Mexican standoff, but either way I'll probably end up toasted. Finally, the dragon moves...

There's a river nearby with a couple large downed pines, and it's my only chance to make it out alive. I bolt for it, and try to shoot a link in one log jam to knock it loose. If it works, I can rush through before I'm immolated- but it doesn't work. Still running I dive behind the downed pines, hoping I've made it in time before flames rush over me. Luckily we both had the same idea- the fight's not worth it. When I'm not incinerated, I look up and see the dragon flying off.

I decide that I'm not gonna risk him having a change of heart, so I book it down river, vaulting over the charred corpse of one of his fallen dragon enemies (that looked suspiciously like the "villain" ice bear from The Golden Compass). After a short sprint, I turn the bend and run smack into a group of semi-corporeal wraiths. Luckily, my sword is particularly suited for battling undead, and they pose me little danger. I strike one with the flat of my blade, and it turns out it's not a wraith- it's a human in disguise.

The human is actually a member of the B.P.R.D (Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense, from the Hellboy comics), in this dimension on a mission. I pull out a token with Hellboy on it, and ask if they know him. I explain that we've teamed up a couple times, and they offer to bring me back over to their side if I want to meet up with him. I've finished what I needed to do, so as I'm getting ready to agreed...the alarm goes off.

That was Wednesday. Yesterday wasn't quite as good. It turns out that I'm a "special" from the Heroes t.v. series, and I'm being trained/auditioned by The Company. I have a weird smattering of abilities, including healing, strength, and muscle mimicry. Myself and three others are a sniper team (two spotters and two shooters- myself and one other). We need to snipe a military general from some South American country that has been committing war crimes. The tough part- when we get there he's taking off in a plane. It makes for a difficult shot to say the least, and the first guy misses. I take my shot, and it's a hit. However, because the shot was over a mile and through the side of a plane, it hits bone and isn't a kill. Bennet's there, and he informs us that we've failed out mission and didn't make the cut.

Wonder what I'll dream today?

Pics of the (other) Day

Here's the couple pics the mom&daughter sent me from the game I went to at Lambeau:

It's possible that I may have had better weekends in my life, but I don't remember them.

It started with deer hunting (or “Bambi Killing” to you PETA wanna-be hippies) on Friday. I blew out of the Cities right after work and was up at my dad's place in Two Harbors by noon. Shot the breeze, got ready, and was in the stand by about 1 pm. Being that I usually sleep from about 10 am until 3 pm, staying awake wasn't easy. Luckily the lack of a door/safety rope in the stand, combined with the rather sketchy spot I had to place the gun gave me plenty of incentive not to doze off. Shortly after 4- VENISON. Nuthin' huge, but 6-points o' tasty eatin'. Between me, my dad and his wife the whole shebang is dressed, cleaned and butchered by noon Saturday. Right now I'm marinatin' me some ribs...

Anyhow, Saturday morning at 7 am someone's calling me from Wisconsin. Wtf? It turns out that it's a guest I'd had at the Shed. She tells me it's the start of Wisconsin's deer hunting season and I should go to the game since there'll be a lot more availabe tickets. I'd already been luckless trying to get my Sunday shift covered in case I hadn't bagged a dear early, so I thought I was "s.o.l". Luckily, the other bartender said he could call in to his other job when he found out I was going to be able to go to the game. 10:30 Saturday night and I'm on the road to Lambeau!!!

I get to Green Bay a little before 3 am and grab a few hours of sleep in my car . I arrive early and apply my “warpaint,” which was far from optimal. Normally I use costume make-up, but since I didn't have green and gold/yellow on hand, and everywhere was closed, I substituted a Crayola kid's paint set (“washes easily from skin!”). Um, it sucked. The yellow barely showed up, and while the green was a wonderfully dark color, it dried and cracked and did the same to my skin.

I end up having to get a ticket from a scalper ($200!!! But hey, that's what I'd actually expected, so meh), cruise the tailgate scene, and head in. Pick up my cheese head, enter into the pre-game raffle, and hang out in the Atrium. At the raffle, there's a few hundred people but they only gave out (if memory serves) about 4 prizes. They preface the last one by saying that “they hope whoever wins this one has a big vehicle.” Um, I won. I have a small car. It's a huge ass commemorative mirror. More on this later.

The game itself is amazing. We whooped the Panthers 31-17, Favre had a good game (great for a mortal QB), and everyone there was into it. I even had people take their pictures with me, and I'm hoping they e-mail them to me so I can post 'em. My voice is almost gone by the half, but it was a simply gorgeous day for football- I couldn't have picked a better day for a first trip to Lambeau. Y'know that list everyone has of things they want to do in life? Watching Favre play (win) at Lambeau was in the top 5. Check.

After the game I wait until things clear out so I can drive right up to pick-up my mirror (it's light but awkward, so I didn't want to risk carrying it solo for the ¼-1/2 mile back to the car). I finally get it into my car, but only after I've taken it out of the box AND the plastic wrap. It's also sticking 6” past the head of my seat, so I spend the entire 5+ hour trip driving like a bad contortionist. I keep thinking about the joke the goes “Q. What's the last thing to go through a fly's mind when is hits a windshield? A. It's a##.” Only for me, it'd be a giant commemorative mirror. As seen below- the ebay listing I got this off was selling it for $319 :D

I'm on TV!

As if my ego needed any more inflating, here are some links to me being interviewed about the new smoking ban.
Here's the link to the story:

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=266331

And here's the link to the video showing my sexy self on tv:
http://www.kare11.com/video/player.aspx?aid=54716&bw=

Of all the things I've lost...

...the last 10lbs has been the best. That's right, two weeks in the gym and I've managed to get rid of 5lbs a week. This puts me a full 1/4 of the way to my "goal," which is giving me great hopes of exceeding it. Of course, this week's been a bit lax on the diet I've been trying to keep. I've been drinking more than usual, and while my eating out has been sushi and almost-all-veggies stir-fry, I need to watch it. While I don't actually expect to be able to lose 5lbs a week for 16 weeks (losing 90lbs would be a bit extreme), that's no reason to NOT try for it.

I've been a lot better at going to the gym than I expected. I took Monday off as a rest day, and Tuesday I missed because I did just about everything BUT rest on Monday and needed to get sleep somewhere. Because I wanted to at least keep up with my schedule I went twice on Wednesday, and between the two sessions burned nearly 2000 calories between some light weights and almost 2 1/2 hours on the elliptical machine. My calorie goal has been steadily climbing, but at this rate I'll burn a steady 5000+ calories a week. Now I just need to make sure that I'm not sitting around on my ass.

I've been playing some more disc golf lately as well. It started out pretty well, with my putting really seeming to have improved. Of course, that was short lived, and my last few rounds have been downright miserable. It doesn't help that I can go to the gym for an hour and half and be fine, but playing disc golf for an hour makes my knee hurt like hell. But on the upside, my drives have been improving.

Oh well, gonna be a busy one today, and I'm looking forward to watching the Twins rock the ChiSux. After all, it's been a while since I've put on my warpaint...

It has begun!

Well, today is the end of week 1 of my diet. Yep, that's right, I- defender of whole milk and champion of the calorie, am on a diet.

It's not that I've necessarily been all that more unsatisfied with my body than before. I'm about 40lbs overweight (possibly more, but that'll get rid of the belly), but it hasn't really impeded my life. However, when I found out that some of my coworkers at the Machine Shed were doing a "Biggest Loser," it was the excuse I needed to start getting rid of it. We all paid in $50, and four months from now whoever lost the most weight wins the pot (a few hundred bucks).

The crap's been cut from my diet, and one of the biggest shocks has been getting used to drinking my coffee black. I've been eating better, though I still need to get some variety in there (a whole lotta grapenuts in skim milk, bananas, and bagels). The biggest change, however, has been getting a gym membership. Because of the holiday weekend, I couldn't get one until Wednesday. I've been good about it so far though, and have noticed two things; 1.) My endurance is better than I'd expected, and 2.) I should've done a few push-ups.

My goal is to lose 40lbs (10lb/month), which even if I don't win will still leave me satisfied. After that weight is off, and the competition over, it'll be time to get some strength back. My membership is 18 months, so that a whole year after the competition. If I can keep my ass motivated, I could put on some good muscle. I'll never look like a Spartan warrior, but I'll be damned close to carousing viking!

Beer, Buffalo Wings, and a Total Lunar Eclipse...

... or at least that was how my night was supposed to go. When I got back from work last night, I went almost immediately to bed (about 11:30 pm). After dozing slightly for about an hour, my cats wake me up as they start beating the hell out of each other- with my hand in between them. Long story short, I'm not gonna be getting back to sleep. I start some half-assed cleaning, and decide that I'll head to work early, grab a beer, make some buffalo chicken breasts with my left-overs, and watch the lunar eclipse.

As soon as I walk out the door it starts to rain. I've NEVER had it work so perfectly. Anyhow, I go back inside and watch a bit of a TPT show on the European perception of America, and when the finish with Poland I decide that I'll head out anyway. I grab the hot sauce and blue cheese (the beer was already in the fridge), and head to work. I don't know where I put my bottle opener, so I had to open the bottle on the handicap parking sign. Nonetheless, drinking beer from a jagged mouthed bottle of beer and catching the ass end of a great lightning show is STILL one of the best starts to the work day I've ever had...

And now for the chicken.

Re-Con

GenCon has come and gone, and I'm back. It was a freakin' awesome trip, and it's time to give a recap. Here's a day-by-day:

Wednesday: Bug outta work, pick up Matt and Mikey, and head out. My trunk is broken right now, so it doesn't latch and leads to some slow residential driving and consternation. At highway speeds the wind keeps it down and semi-latched but it's something we deal with the whole trip. Mi amiga Tasha is on her way back from Charlotte at the same time on the same route, so after some minor backtracking and miscommunication, we meet up past Madison and say "hi." Matchik takes the wheel for a bit(I had less than an hour of sleep, so a 9 hour drive was NOT gonna happen), and we get into Indy without incident. Once in Indy we meet up with John and Brian, check out the hotel and eat at the Ram- sooooo good.

Thursday: Get up late >:(, and get into the Frost Giant. It's whole lotta make-up and braiding , with a ton of help from Matt. It turns out o.k, though, and we hit the 'Con. I get some pretty good response to my costume, and hit the vendor floor. I pick up a bunch of minis, get hit on (well, okay, mostly just hit) by the Conan girls and interviewed by Maxim.com (I still need to find the interview).

Shortly thereafter, while Matt and I are checking out the art gallery, I get stopped by security and they tell me that my axe looks "too realistic." Now, I understand they need to do their job, but the part that bugs me is that NO ONE else on security other than this guy was concerned, and even he said that within 20' he could tell it wasn't real. So basically, if he'd had the day off I would have had no problems.

We run TrueDungeon just before 5, and it's a good time despite half the party (3 of the 4 melee characters) being turned to stone halfway through the adventure. I go back and try to scour the paint off myself. We head across the street to Claddagh, an Irish pub, and we grub it up. On the way back to the room, John, Brian and I get in the elevator with five other people. No one is talking, and I've had too much to drink to stand there silently for four floors. So I start singing a parody of the Ooompa Loompa song. But here's the thing...

I wasn't really paying attention to the short chubby chick with the orangish hair. As soon as she gets off Brian and John burst out laughing, thinking I was a total asshole (which I was, just not intentionally or maliciously). Even worse, the laughter combined with some greasy bangers and mash put Brian in the can giving the toilet the good old "Irish hello."

Friday: Hit a lecture with Brian and Mikey about using created languages in writing (and to a much lesser extent gaming), buy more stuff, get accosted by hippie artists "trying to create a society that doesn't suck," and attend a game session with Matt and Mikey that gets cancelled. We paint some minis, then I meet John and Brian for some tasty sushi at Mikado. We go back to the room and play "Kill the Hippies." Late night run to Steak n' Shake, which I find out is basically the ugly bastard child of a McDonald's and a Perkins.

Saturday: The big day- costume contest! I get Matt to braid my hair again, but do the paint myself (a huge pain in the ass, but I manage). I spend most of the morning watching anime and trying not to sweat. I register for the contest (well aware I stand no chance of winning, but wanting to do it anyway), do the parade and the contest. I see some really great costumes, and end up in line between two black-robed Raistlins. Sit through the contest (which wasn't too bad), the "entertainment" by some dude named "Luke Ski" or some such who truly blew nuts, and realize that unless you've done a really competitive level costume that it's just a huge time sink to enter the contest. Head back to scrub off.

We eat at the Ram again, and I nearly kill myself (beer, calamari, a 1lb burger, and a towering piece of mud pie). I am truly in pain from eating so much, and when we get back Brian decides he's gonna skip the Midnight Zombie Show. Matt and I go anyway, because why the hell not? The MZS goes something like this- 80 people at eight tables, with one guy monitoring the action. Everyone grabs a character in the theme (this year was zombies attack Toon Town), and when the zombies attack your table tries to survive. I ended up being Speed Buggy, and Matt was Snively Whiplash (he did a damned good job too). It was too convoluted to recap, but at the end the person the moderator liked the most (i.e was the most entertaining) wins a copy of the game "Zombies!!!" And the winner is.... ME!!! Yay!

Sunday: My big thing Sunday was that I wanted to watch to movie "The Great Yokai War," which was a story involving monsters from Japanese folklore. It gets cancelled, which peeves me greatly, but we watch "12 Kingdoms" instead, a fuedal-era Japan type anime where nearly all the heroine does is bawl uncontrollably. We hang out a little more, I watch some dudes play a game of minis while Matt finished a mini, we play a game of werewolf, and hit the road.

We'd parked in the garage near our hotel, since it said "lost tickets $18" and we figure we'll just say we lost our tickets and get 5 days of parking for $18 bucks. Long story short, we get busted but the dude says in broken english that he understands and doesn't care. We get his name, and when we go back next year we are TOTALLY bringing him a souvenir.

The drive back begins, and after a couple hours the rain begins and takes us back to the cities. This time I don't need a nap, and we get back shortly after 1 am. All in all, a freakin' awesome trip.

Con Men

Nine days until ye old GenCon, and I'm gettin' pretty stoked. Granted, since I dragged my ass on it I don't have ANY events set up for myself. My plan is thus-

Day 1.) Bag some swag and hit the vendor floor like a mad bitch. I intend to get as much free shit as humanly possible. And maybe some shit that's only inhumanly possible. Also, True Freakin' Dungeon.

Days 2-4.) Seminars, pick-up games, anime, and maybe trying to finagle myself into a few rpgs.

The biggest thing for me as of yet is costuming. I've decided that I'm doing one main costume, with up to three others. There'd be a lot of cross-over between pieces, particularly boots, but here's where I'm at:

Main Costume- Frost Giant: Picture a viking raider. Then give them bluish hair and whitish skin. Progress thus far:

Clothes: I'll use my knee-high leather boots (yes, I'm a stripper), and do a simple tunic for the rest of it (with a plain black belt). I haven't found a fabric I like yet for the tunic, which is something I need to do soon. Then I need to find someone who knows what the hell they're doing so they can show me, and hopefully let me use their sowing machine.

Buckler: I currently have a leather covered buckler (made from a stool seat that was $2 at Axeman) with upholstery tacks for "studs." I just need to attach a handle, but it's looking good.

Axe: Using a mini canoe paddle, I took craft foam and made an oversized double-bit axe head. Wrapped the bottom of the head with leather boot laces, and the rest of the handle with an old brown leather belt. Painted the very bottom with black acrylic paint and the foam with silver rub 'n buff, and it's turned out okay. For some reason it's not really seeming as impressive as I'd hoped, but it works.

Helmet: This is by far the piece giving me the most trouble. I have the general structure set, with the round base, four strip with a center connection, and the eyeguards. The problem
is coming from the panels that go in between to fill the gaps. I can't seem to get them to bend properly. This really bugs me, because if I can't pull off the helmet I can't pull off the costume. Luckily my work on the axe showed me that the toughest part of making this stuff from foam is what I'm doing right now. As soon as I figure this out it should finish rather quickly.

Pigment: Friday I'm going to head down to Twin Cities Costume and Magic and pick that stuff up. Not worried in the least.

Secondary Costume: The big gay guardsman. Leather boots, kittle, boots, and a halberd. The halberd's gonna follow much the same procedure as the frost giant's axe. I just need to get a pole to put it on and do the gluing and painting.

Tertiary Costume: Generic swashbuckler. My poet shirt, leather boots, and poofy pants. Don't have the poofy pants, but I could get those done while I do the tunic. Accessorize to taste.

Quaternary Costume: I may try to pull of Hellboy again. I'd need to re-do the Right Hand of Doom, which could be a helluvan endeavor. I'm redoing the horn stubs right now, and this time I just poured a thick coat of latex over it, instead of doing coat by coat. It's going to take a looooong time to dry, but I don't need to touch 'em for another week, so I'm good there. I'd also want to get the tail done, and get the gun. This one is the "if I finish the other junk first this would be soooooo cool to pull off at GenCon" costume. I probably won't have time to get it done, despite that fact that I'll be devoting nearly all my spare time between now and then to costuming. Of course, if I stay stumped on the whole helmet deal, that'll give me lots of time to work on HB.

I'm such a dumbass...

Okay, before I get to the rest of this post, I'd like you to know the situation. It's current five minutes before 4 am. I'm sitting on a Coleman cooler, typing this on my laptop in front of my appartment building. Why am I doing such a thing? Well, it's because I forgot my goddamned keys in my appartment, and no one is up at this god forsaken hour but me! Luckily I'm still within range of my wireless...

Why am I up? Well, aside from the usual having to work in just over half an hour, I've been up all night cleaning the appartment. This is something that it dreadfully needs, and will likely take multiple sessions to accomplish. However, I'm pleased with the progess so far, and will be moreso once I get my bedroom done.

Of course, there have been problems...

...Okay, this is the part where if you've just eaten, or are about to eat soon, or maybe ever again, that you want to stop reading. See, about a week and a half ago (a baaaaaad way to start a story like this), I made some broccoli cheese soup. Of course, I made more than I could eat in one sitting, so I put the rest back in the oven to cool down so I could portion it out. And promptly forgot about it.

Brian and I go camping last weekend, and I remember that it's still in there- yikes! But the hour it takes to get back to the cities is more than enough for me to forget about it again. Fast forward to last night. I'm preheating the oven for pizza, and yes the soup is still in there and no I don't remember this beforehand. Now imagine the smell of a small appartment with a half pot of broccoli cheese slime recently brought to 400 degrees Farenheit. Now, I'm not gonna pull punches on this description, so that's your warning, but it looked like someone's snot threw up. That's the only way I can think to describe both the consistency and the color. Indeed, as I poured it into the garbage, it was incredibly difficult not to gag.

If this gives you any indication as to how bad it was, I poured dirty kitty litter on top to make it smell better. The whisk and ladle were still in it, too. Being hard to clean as they are, I just threw the whisk away. I'm going to brave the ladle...

Now, being that the EPA was probably already getting reports about me, my primary concern was getting that shit out of the appartment. I had not doubt that it was going to get me if I didn't get it first. Of course, in my rush, I forgot the little details like MY KEYS!

So, once again, here I am, just after 4 am, waiting until 4:30 so I can call the office to try to get the phone number of one of the people who comes in at 5 so that I can get picked up. Afterall, I lost the phone numbers for them all and haven't put them back in my new phone. So as I stated before, I'm such a dumbass...

Just Bitching'

Okay, I've tried to keep this thing mainly rant free, but I'm warning anyone who actually reads this shit that it's 2:30 AM and this is going to be a rant.

Alright, where to fucking begin.

Drama. That's a good spot. I hate drama, yet despite my best efforts others have placed me in a situation where I exacerbate the situation regardless of what I do. This pisses me off. In fact, I'm moderately pissed off at a lot of things right now, and the aforementioned situation just kinda brought it all to a boiling point. Damnit, there's no way this is going to be coherent. Alright, since at best there's one person who reads this who's gonna know who I'm referring to, here's a no-name recap.

Two of my good friends recently broke-up. It wasn't too much of a surprise, but they're both well entrenched in one of my friends' circles. Orignially this looked like no biggie, since they were still able to hang out, but that didn't work and there's been tension. Fast forward.

The female half asks if I'm going to Duluth for the 4th, and if so if she can go along. Sounds fun, but (and I'll get to this) but also a warning sign. I say that it'd be great, and that we should get a bunch of people. She's fine with this, but is concerned about being around her ex. She knows damned well he's gonna be invited, and says that it wont' be a problem as long as there are enough other people going. I try my best, and it looks like it's gonna be a bit of a crew.

Skipping some extraneous drama, fast forward to her e-mailing me saying she won't be going. I ask why, prepped for the "I'm not going if he's going." What I'm not prepped for is the "I won't be able to deal with the crush I have on (me) and another friend of ours!" WTF!

Okay, a few things:

1.) No huge surprise. She'd out-ed her crush to the other guy before dating her ex, and the one one me had been all but spelled out a few times before (we both passed, basically under the "she's hot, but not hot enough to make up for that kinda crazy"). Keep in mind, I still think she's a good person, but a horrible person to be in a relationship with.

2.) She knew from the start the parties involved, so pulling this is bullshit.

3.) We all develop crushes on people we "shouldn't". However, as unromantic as this may be, you need to have a little look at reality. Doing stuff like this causes major drama. The level that you lose friends over if it goes wrong. I'd understand if you really thought that they were the one for you, but if you're not damned sure, or if it's not a helluva lot more than "a crush," then you need to just buck up and deal with it. Especially if it's not even just one crush, but multiple!

In summary, I'm pissed because I feel I'm being put in an unfair position because someone can't deal with their feelings like an adult. There's no way I'm going to be able to untangle my thoughts on this much further (at least at this hour), but this is one of those situations where you need to say to yourself "I'd love to, but it just ain't in the cards," sigh a couple times, and move one.

Meh. I suppose that it just goes to show that for some people, high school never ends.

My throat is bleeding...

...or at least that's what it feels like after 8 1/2 innings of screaming like a madman at the Twins game yesterday. It was a great game, with tons of great elements, though if you want a recap you'll have to find on yourself. What bothers me is that the AL Central is still getting no respect. People still consider us a soft division despite the fact that we have more teams over .500 than any other division. Yeah, we don't have the BoSox, but we don't have the Yank-me's either. Yeah, it helps that we've got the Royals to beat on, but it just never seems to work that way. Those punks just seem to be able to wreak havoc on the rest of their division, and then choad-smoke if they play anyone else. Meh. Just happy that my boys are back to .500.

Scrumpsh

Humph. Almost a month since I've posted. Know what that means? Nothin' new. I went through a period of playing HORRIBLE disc golf, but I took a few days off, stopped hurting, and came back and played much better. Still working a ton, getting very little sleep, and screwing off whenever I can. I do have to say, though, that it's weird having a hangover (no matter how mild) on a Thursday morning.

Well, here it is- Hellboy costume Stage 1. Since I've pretty much squandered all my time lately (though that bbq/disc golf all afternoon yesterday was totally worth it), it's nowhere near complete. For one, I didn't have a tail, cloven boots, belt pouches, a gun, or a B.P.R.D patch. I did have the stogie, though after chewing on it for two hours it looked like I was sucking on a greasy turd, and pretty much tasted like it too.

I'm posing here with Meagan (Wonder Woman) and Ashley (generic manga chick). Meagan was by far the most appreciated, and she was having her picture taken with damned near everyone. It was great, though, because she pulled hers off better than the "professional" super heroes they had there. Granted, she's no Linda Carter ("sigh"), but who is.

They day itself was a comedy of errors all around. Since I screwed off all of yesterday, I was up until 2 am applying latex and face paint to non-porous plastics. This also meant that I didn't have anywhere near enough red paint, and no spirit gum to attach the horns with, never mind the costume pieces that I just left out altogether.

Got up at 7 to gather my stuff and get the mainstays prepped, since the original plan was to meet at Ashleys. Meagan calls me a bit after 8, becuase her make-up artist cancelled on her 10 minutes before her appointment (apparently she was having "an argument with another girl"). This throws them behind schedule, but kinda works for me since I have to wait until 10 am for Party America to open up for paint. The open, I grab my paint and head to Ashley's. The girls are supposed to be there around 10:30, and I get there at 10:15 and start putting on the make-up. I'm rushing, becuase I need to leave the Con by 1, or as it turn out 2. I end up smearing make-up all over my car, dumping the mini-grill I'd forgotten to take out of my car, and getting sealer powder over everything, it seems, except my make-up.

The girls finally show up at almost 11:30. I've been taking sessions with my car running with the AC full bore because if I sweat too much not only does the make-up run but the latex I've used to adhere my horns with will fall off too. The coup de gras was when I bent over to grab my supply box for last minute fixes and smash my forehead into my car, knocking one horn off. Luckily Ashley had some Krazy Glue. Better than nothing.

We finally get to the 'Con (after going where it was last year and finding out that particular location was now the gold jewelry expo), and it was good times. I wasn't buying a ton of stuff, partially because I couldn't touch a whole lot, but it was still pretty fun. I had to leave around two when my right horn fell off and I'd lost a knuckle from the Right Hand of Doom. Got back just after two, and proceeded to scrub paint from my body in a sud-filled frenzy. Now, it's off to work.

Lately...

Aside from my trip to KC (of which there's more to come, that's for damned sure), I haven't been up to much lately. Picked up two new restaurant jobs, so that's been good. I'm training in to bartend over at the Machine Shed in Lake Elmo, and it looks like that's gonna be an easy one that makes me good money. Things seem to run pretty similar to Joe's with more leeway on doing our own jobs and not relying on the management as much. In addition, the money looks like it'll be pretty good too. I'm also bartending at this place called The Happy Gnome, which is the sweetest name of any place I've ever worked. It's a place for beer connoisseurs, so I've had to beef up my beer knowledge by doing a lot of field research. They happy to assist in that, providing a free drink at the end of each shift. If their food wasn't so damned expensive I'd think it was just about perfect (though, from a bartending standpoint the expensive food is fine by me).

Disc golf has been good lately. I played a round Monday and three yesterday. My knee felt pretty rough, but between the four rounds I ended up three over par (+1, par, par, and +2). The pars were at Hansen, which was fine by me, since I birdied hole two both times, and the rest were hit and miss. The above-pars were at Acorn when I was playing with Patrick. I edged him by one stroke both times, which kept it nice and competitive and forced us to really try. Both games also came down to who did better on the 18th hole. He almost got me today, but my approach shot arrowed in and (according to the guys playing 17) missed birdie by inches. Needless to say, I was happy, though if I work on my putting I'm definitely going to be consistently under par soon.

Finally, since blogs without photos are generally boring as hell (not that I have a "readership" anyhow), here are some recent pics...

Mike and I in our war paint at the Minnesota Wild's sole playoff victory...

Kauffman Stadium on the most gorgeous day for baseball in the the history of the game. Such a fan of that ballpark now.

The one and only Boof Bonser getting his picture taken with the kids. I still can't decide whether he or Neshek is my favorite pitcher, but I am glad to see him on the starting rotation.

Kansas City Kicks Ass

This weekend is rocking my fuckin' world. Mike and I headed down to KC to catch the last two games of the Twins/Royals series. We left this morning at 4 AM, and got down here a little after 11, checked into the Marriott, painted my face and headed to the stadium.

I'm am now wholly in favor of a new stadium. Kauffman Stadium is an amazing, and I now see why the Royals still have fans. We had to pick up tickets there, since there aren't ANY scalpers you could haggle with. Our seats ended up being 30 rows up from the freakin' Twin's dugout, and we had an incredible view of the game. Not only that, but we were surrounded by more Twins fans than Royals, so there was a ton of good cameraderie. Better yet, it was a great game, well fought, and we ended up pulling off the game in the 7th.

Afterwards some Royals fans were gracious, some were pissy. Some were downright childish and one dumb sunnuvabitch who threw was trying to start a scuffle with some Twins fans. On the good side, though, we ended up passing on our two extra tickets to a father and son we'd been chatting with.

Afterwards, on to BBQ. We went to this place called Alfred Bryant's, apparently one of the most well know places in KC for the stuff. And that was the end of it. I hurt so bad from the quantities of bbq pork ribs, sauce and fries, that I just may die. They serve you the stuff on a few pieces of wonderbread, throw the ribs on, some sauce, a handful of pickle slices, and roll ya out. It's dang good stuff. I hurt. Tomorrow's game's gonna be even better. Damn this is a good trip.

Road to Hell(boy)

The costume progresses. I'd put it on hiatus when we weren't able to go to the cosplay deal, but now there's MicroCon (the local comic book convention). First, I stopped by the source to get some pics of the HB statue they have, since I'd be able to get better shots than from the comics (ironic, huh?). Then I went down to Twin Cities Costume and Magic to see what they had for me. Picked up a bottle of liquid latex to work on my horn nubs. Got some stuff there, then headed over the Axman Surplus to see what goodies they might have. I was really kinda disappointed, since I only found one thing for the entire costume. However, since that was for the tail, it wasn't a total bust.

For the most part, I'm still where I was before. The progress I've made is pretty much horns and tail. With a good coat of latex the spice caps I'm using for the nubs should take a good coat of paint. Then I should be able to fill the caps with heavy foam and spirit gum them to my head. As for the tail, I've decided to use a foam tube similar to a funnoodle. It was cheap, workable (man, a fillet knife cuts that thing up nice), and should be durable enough to last the day. Of course, the texture was completely wrong, but I picked up some tree wrapping that should cover it and give a nice knobbly texture that will take face or spray paint pretty well.

I'm gonna swing by Menard's after I do my hiring paperwork over at Machine Shed. I'll probably pick up some pvp pipe for the gun, and hopefully a handle. Now that I have the latex, I'm also thinking that I'll use a foot or so of that for the lengthy part of the Right Hand of Doom. I'm also toying with the idea of coating the glove with the latex, to see if that doesn't seal it well enough to take a better paint job. As is, I've got two weeks to finish this off, and I'm pretty sure that's plenty of time.

On a totally separate note, Monday night I saw an incredibly brigth meteor. I just happened to look over while driving home and caught it streaking across the washed out sky. The fact that it stuck out that much over the light pollution of the Twin Cities was quite impressive, and I'm pretty sure that it was a very low altitude burn out. Who knows, maybe some farm in Wisconsin now has a brand new alien baby...

Happy Belated Chocolate Jesus Egg Day!

Been a while since I've posted, not that a whole lot has gone on. I was gonna post some pics from the Twins home opener, but that didn't work out so well. You see, I need to get a camera case, because whenever I put my camera in my pocket it seems to turn on and drain the battery. I had an almost full batter Sunday, but when I went to take a picture of my full face paint it was dead. That's okay, I suppose- I'd gotten some paint in my eye, and it looked like I was crying blood for the first couple innings.

Otherwise, had a great weekend in Duluth. Caught concert that was downright hillarious- this old hippie dude was the roadie, and he was pissing the bands off so much my screwing with stuff during sets that it was almost a comedy act. I'm gonna have to try to catch 'em tonight just so I can see what an actual set looks like.

Finally got another job, and hopefully a 3rd in the works. I'll be serving with a fast-track to the bar at the Machine Shed over in Woodbury. My friend Dar from Joe's said that she's pretty sure that she got me a bartending job at the Happy Gnome in St. Paul too, and from the looks of it I'd much rather work there (pricier, classier, closer, and it's the HAPPY FREAKIN' GNOME!!). Soo, it looks like things worked out okay, and I didn't have to turn tricks on the street corner.

My cats are still adorable (I woke up last night with PK's front legs hugging my arm, and Guapo's just a clutz), and my appartment's still a mess. Saw "Tokyo Godfathers" over the weekend, and it was a nice "feel good" anime. Really looking forward to how much I owe in taxes this year (I'm 300 in to the feds, and haven't gotten around to my state stuff yet), and still don't know how I'm going to get the right color for my Hellboy costume's Right Hand of Doom. And yeah, that's about it. Sorry 'bout not having any pictures to post.

Progress in Hell

The Hellboy costume isn't coming along too quickly, but I do have some promising results on the Right Hand of Doom. I'd been stumped as to how the heck I was going to get a red color to stay on the fabric of the old hockey/lacrosse glove I'm using. Well, for shits and giggles I decided just to try the face paint that I'm going to use to get my skin color. Damned if it doesn't work. It's thick enough to fill the pores of the fabric with the first coat, and a second coat give a solid look that's definitely red but with a nice rough texture. It coats both the blue and white fabric equally well. It's gonna take a ton of it to get the job done, and I'll probably still have to figure out some way to seal it on there (I'm really tempted to try that spray on glue, but that could go terribly awry). Still, it makes me happy, since that was the biggest obstacle I was facing. For other parts of it, it looks like I'm going to have to print an iron on patch for the BPRD emblem, and I'm thinking of cannibalizing the clown shoes I used for my Sideshow Bob costume. That may come down to how well they take a coat of black spray paint.

Peep Show

Okay, the biggest thing in recent memory happened to me on Saturday. I was playing disc golf with my friend Molly...AND I GOT ANOTHER ACE!!!!!!!! Hole #5 at Acorn- I hucked a forehand that looked like it was going high, and it curved right over the basket ( :< ). But then- miracle. It hits a tree just past the basket and bounces back into it!! I then proceeded to go a little nuts, but according to Molly it was kinda fun being picked up and spun around like that.Otherwise, in an effort to keep in touch with people from Joe's I lamed out and got a myspace page, so if you're really bored (which you must be if you're reading this), check it out at

http://www.myspace.com/fatsamson

Finally, one of the bonuses of my radio job- lighting peeps on fire with a blow torch.

Salvation(?)

Well, Hellboy is now on hold. Went up to Megan and Nick's last night (where we had this sweet and easy to make taco salad- totally stealing that idea) and Meg told me that the cosplay convention was sold out. Finding out that the tickets alone were $50, I don't feel too terrible about that. In addition to saving money, it'll give me a lot more time to get the costume quirks worked out (matching dyes to skin, how to affix things, feet or hooves).

The duster irks me, though. I ordered online from this place in Texas, where the duster would still be cheaper with expedited shipping than anywhere else I'd found. Now, it turns out that the extra $10 I paid wasn't necessary. Oh, but it gets better. I'm paying $17 for 2 day air shipping- from Eagan. I could've driven to their damned distribution center in half an hour, saved the money, and had the damned coat the same day.

Anyhow, this'll give me a chance to document my progress and update it in here. The bonus of doing it that way is that any of you who are bored enough to actually read this can give me some damned feedback on how it's going. But yeah, more on that later.

Gone to Hell(boy)

This weekend I'm going to my first cosplay convention with one of the old Shackers, Megan. I'd orginally planned to go as Thor (from Marvel comics), but I was really concerned that I wouldn't be able to do a decent job on the helmet. So instead, I decided to go for something that has more work to it, but it should be easier work- Hellboy.

Now, since traffic won't pick up at all for at least another hour, here's an in depth look at where I am.

Costume Pieces:

-Duster: HB's trademark piece of clothing, I had to order a cheap duster online. I'll need to make a coaster-sized B.P.R.D patch for the right arm, but other than that it's a pretty easy piece. It should be here by Friday. If it's not, the whole damned costume is sunk. It'd better be here...

-Shirt/Pants/Belt: Plain black tee (actually, an old Joe's tee turned inside out), my black cargo shorts, and a worn out old black belt.

-Belt Pouches: HB has a bunch of these, and I'm planning to just salvage the pockets off some old cargo pants. My concern here is that they might be too light colored, but I should be able to figure out some way to dye them darker if need be. I'll also need to throw a big red circle on one of them...

-Gun: The gun should be a ridiculously large barreled pistol with an old-country look to it. I should be able to make the barrel from a cardboard tube (about the right size). I have to figure out how to smooth the outside, as well as how to paint it (probably just spray paint). The handle is going to be difficult, but I've become pretty good at carving with a hatchet, so if it comes down to it it's gonna be ten minutes of chopping followed by an hour of sanding.

-Boots: Here I face a moral dilemma. Technically, HB has cloven feet. I can try to make some sort of cloven boot, or cloven covers for my own footwear. Otherwise I can use some heavy duty hiking boots and hope all is forgiven. I wouldn't even contemplate the latter, but I'm sure making my own boots is gonna be a pain in the ass.

Body Mods:

Hellboy has a number of distinct body features: Red skin, dark goatee and hair, tail, horn stubs, and The Right Hand of Doom. If I sell these, I sell the costume. If I don't, I feel like an idiot at a cosplay convention!

Skin: Simple, red body paint which I bought in abundance.

Goatee and Hair: Another quandry- do I shave my moustache and go with a genuine goatee, or do I cherish my hard won facial hair and just cover the stache with the red skin paint and use the dark black on the rest of it. I may have to use some up on a test run and see how it looks.

Tail: This one has me stymied. I'm not sure how I'll get something sturdy enough to survive beign stepped on, the right texture to take a paint job, and "real" looking enough to get by.

Stubs: Making them is going to be easy- some spice bottle caps covered in colored ace bandage, painted to match my skin. They're the right size proportionally, but I'm having a hard time figuring out how I'm going to attach them.

The Right Hand of Doom: This is going to be my favorite piece. For the base, I went to a used sporting good store and picked up an old (either hockey or lacrosse, I'm not too sure) glove. It's articulated much the same way, and the right size. For the conspicuous round knuckles I'm going to wrap some car fasteners and stick 'em in (they actually stay in the creases without any other adhesion).

The biggest problem (and it's a doozy) is turning it from a bright blue glove to a bright red glove. First I tried to bleach it out, but that seems to be the most color fast fabric in the world (didn't even fade). I spot tested fabric dye, but as I feared it just turned it purple. Then I was hoping that I could just spray paint it and cover it over. Unfortunately, it's really absorbent, and the paint doesn't stay on the fabric and instead soaks into the padding. Once I get the color worked out, I'll have to add some "cracked" lines along it to complete.

Now, this (in my opinion) is going to sink me or swim me. Color and minor aesthetic issues aside, I'm really excited about this piece. It looks like I should be able to pull it off really well, and if so I'm gonna be pumped. But, I suppose, only time will tell...

Home Team Pride(?)

Being that yesterday was the venerable celebration of potent potables, ye ole St. Patrick's Day, I wore green. While I had many items to choose from, it ended up coming down to a choice between my Minnesota Wild jersey and my Brett Favre jersey. Both had equal proportions of green, but I decided on the Favre jersey for the simple fact that hockey jerseys get hot in a hurry.

The early part of my day (300 at the IMAX, some disc golf, and some hangin' with some people I hadn't seen in a while) went without comment. Come night, however, I met up with some people to check out the live music at the Dubliner. Most everyone is wearing green, but a Packer jersey in Minnesota still stands out. Surrounded by completely schnockered people, I'd really expected that my "traitorous" behavior would have elicited some commentary.

Nothing. Well, at least nothing negative. It seemed every five minutes someone was stopping me and giving me a high 5 or some other form of drunken approval (one guy was so gone all he could do was nod, smile, and point to the Brewers hoodie he was wearing). Granted, one of the chicks I was there with gave me guff (doesn't count when you bring the dissent) and some guys scowled at me as they went by, but that was it. Granted, I obviosly prefer the Packers, but it's almost dissappointing when you don't get chided when wearing enemy colors and instead find support.

This just continues a trend that I've noticed lately. We are the home of the Vikings, and yet you see very little Viking paraphanalia around (especially on vehicles). You do, however, find Packer gear everywhere! Now, don't misunderstand me- I'm glad to see so many people acknowledging the quality of the Packer culture and the epic status of Brett Favre. But it's still somewhat sad when the home team finds less support than their border rival.

Tag-alongs

Went out and hit Acorn yesterday, and it was busier than I'd expected. I had to wait for a couple of crews to move along, and it turns out that the "crew" behind me was a couple of kids. They're throwing from the short tee on hole 1 (the only sane thing for them to do), and as I play by they ask if they can play along with me. Since it's not like I'm going to be playing fast anyway (the guys in front of me were slugs, and so were the guys in front of them, and the one's in front of them, and so on), so I'm cool with it. These guys (Zach and Jordan, if you could get any more named-in-the-90's) seem pretty enthusiastic about the game, and I was glad to see that. They were easy to impress, too, which never hurts when you're as mediocre as I am. They played with me for the first 13 holes (Zach stopped playing at hole 5 because his hands go too cold), but they weren't dressed for the weather turning cold and snowy like it did so they headed out. I felt bad, 'cause I'd have offloaded a bunch of the discs I don't use anymore if they'd hung around. Not like I'm using 'em, and it's not like you need a top line disc when you're 10. Anyhow, it was nice to see kids getting into it, especially neighborhood kids. Makes me think they'll take care of the place better. Also, they were into wrestling, and much to my surprise (and joy) it turns out that the one and only Hacksaw Jim Duggan is still wrestling!!! That's freakin' awesome, 'cause he was one of my favorites back when I watched wrestling (mid-80's)...Good to see it, Hacksaw. Carry that 2x4 with pride!

Can't...get...the ice cream...under...my chin...

Since none of my Duluth pics turned out all that impressively, here's one of Guapo lookin' really suave...

Imagine if...

Now, keep in mind, this is a completely hypothetical situation. Imagine that someone is both hungry and in need of a shower. Said person showers first, and cooks dinner second. The urgings of their stomach have compelled them to skip any intervening steps between drying off and cooking. The first course is a seasoned pinto bean/onion side that cooks up quite nicely, and quickly. While the garlic basil brook trout is browning in the pan, said person goes to sit on their couch and watch the Simpsons while eating the beans 'n onion. Said person does not realize that the last time he or she left the aforementioned reclining couch that it had not locked upright. Therefore, when he or she goes to sit on said couch is slides from underneath them, tossing scalding hot beans and onion (with pleasant chili seasoning, no less) in the air. Gravity would soon reassert its influence, guiding the meal-to-be directly onto said persons undefended lap. This would be of great concern to said person. Why they would post such an incident on their blog, one can only wonder. Good thing something like this could never happen.

Lax Duties

Well, it's been a while since I've actually posted a picture on here, so here's a couple more from William O'Brien. Expect some Duluth pics soon...

End of An Era

Well, it finally happened- they pulled the rug out from under us at Joe's. As I'd said repeatedly, I figured we'd show up one day and the lock would be changed. I hoped to be wrong, but that was pretty much how it happened. So, damn. There goes about 60% plus of my income. I can pay bills, but here comes the Ramen. Well, and the pounds and pounds of frozen meet I have in the freezer.

So, to reminisce about the longest lasting job I've had (a whopping 3 years), here's the pro's and con's of the closing.

Con: As previously stated, there goes about 2/3 of my income.

Upper: Shitloads of free time.

Con: I had enough free time before.

Upper: Now I have some forced motivation to really evaluate whether or not to move back up to Duluth.

Downer: It was easy money, and since I haven't gotten around to padding my resume it's gonna be tough finding a job I'm technically qualified for ('cause there are a lot I know damned well I be great at that I don't officially have the qualies for) that I want.

Downer: With a few exceptions, I worked with some awesome people, and I'm gonna miss 'em.

Upper: I have to kiss ass for money- for now.

Downer: No more BBQ dungeness crab.

Downer: I had not planned ahead financially. I've got the money I need for now, but there go the plans to pick up a few new toys.

Upper: Weekends off!!! Two days to sleep in/recover from hangovers!

Upper: When I stopped over Monday to verify, I was in a highly agitated state. While I know he was just the messenger, the guy from corporate was when I focused my attention. I never yelled at him, nor threatened him- I was just pissed. Despite this, I later learned that he, and everyone else, thought I was going to end him. And making people scared is fun.

Downer: I hate job hunting.

Upper: I did find an add for "18+ chubby male underwear models." I may have found my calling...

Well, there's more on both sides, but suffice it to say I'd prefer it hadn't happened yet. I hated the job itself, but I loved the money and the people more. Meh, time to motivate...

Fun on the Job

It's great when you get scam solicited at work. We have an IM system at Metro that is supposedly intra-company correspondence only. Soooo, when someone who is obviosly not part of the club joins in, you have to screw with 'em just a little. So here's the transcript. I figured I'd post this now, because my next one's gonna have a little more hellfire and brimstone.



[8:18:24 AM] Jesús Martín Frade (DubLi) says: Do you want know details of it ?

[8:18:31 AM] Metro Networks Minneap... says: No thanks, I'm good.

[8:19:02 AM] Jesús Martín Frade (DubLi) says: Ok, buts very great. You win about 100000 usd first year

[8:20:49 AM] Metro Networks Minneap... says: That's okay. I became incredibly wealthy when Prince Gambuja of Nigeria was assasinated and his widow used my bank account to access her money. I know just work here to kill time. And I own Argentina.

[8:22:00 AM] Jesús Martín Frade (DubLi) says: Thats the best oportunity !!!!!!!

[8:22:37 AM] Metro Networks Minneap... says: You're tellling me. I'm thinking of buying Paraguay next, but I might just save up for Japan.

[8:24:11 AM] Jesús Martín Frade (DubLi) says: If you want you can see the presentation at http://www... and after we talk about it

[8:25:47 AM] Metro Networks Minneap... says: I'd love to, but I have a phobia of websites with more than one ocurrance of any given consonant.

[8:26:08 AM] Jesús Martín Frade (DubLi) says: You decide ................

[8:28:29 AM] Metro Networks Minneap... says: purple

WIMPS!!!

Okay, it's snowing. It's MINNESOTA for God's sake! We're supposed to get feet of snow at a time! But no, everyone's gotta close up shop and surrender. Seriously, y'all can close when it means that I get a shift off work. As it is, I can't do most any of the crap I'd wanted to get done today. So buck up Sally Scouts, and learn how to drive so you can still function when it's not 65 and sunny. Oh well, at least it makes driving fun...

William O'Brien

Since I have Mondays open after 9 am (when I'm done at the radio) and before 8 pm (Heroes), I headed out today to walk around William O'Brien State Park. It's pretty close to the cities, and I'd never been there before so I figured, "why not?" Unfortunately, most of the trail have been dedicated as ski-only, which left me only one short hike option. It was easy difficulty, too, which is always a downer. Trails in Minnesota state parks are so damned short that you usually don't get enough out of 'em unless they're "very difficult," and that's usually a very generous rating. Anyhoo, here's some pics.

This first one, while an otherwise unimpressive picture, is notable because this thieving little twig tried to steal my camera. As I walked by it snagged onto the wrist loop of my camera an lifted it out of my pocket. I didn't realize until about 30' later when I saw something else I wanted to take a picture of. It was funny because it was just hanging there like someone had put it there on purpose. Stupid twig.

This one is shortly after the twigging...

And I think we can all sympathize with this squirrel I saw, desperately trying to find his nuts...

Gyar!

On weekdays that I work at Joe's I typically take myself and my laptop over to the nearby Dunn Bros, grab some coffee, a comfy chair, check some e-mails, blogs, and web comics, and watch some Dungeons & Dragons animated series (from back the 80's, and one of the formative shows in my childhood). It's a five disc series, and I'd finished disc four on a fun episode that paid a lot of homage to Margaret Weiss, and author I don't believe capable of writing fantasy that isn't amazing. Anyhow, they have little fact snippets at the end of every episode, and one of them for that particular episode was that the series was not discontinued because of the controversy it raised (a popular misconception), but because of low ratings and diminishing funds. I didn't realize that it was the last episode!!!!

So here I am with nothing to do but bitch on my blog to kill time. Yeah, catching up on some Stargate SG-1, followed by Firefly, is next. But I don't have any of that here, and it really sucks. Oh well, at least the Wild beat the Stars, and that traitorous bastard Modano.

Fun 'n the Sun

My original plan had been to take a few good sunset shots in the plane yesterday. Alas, between a dirtr window and extremely hazy conditions, none of them really turned out...



...So instead, here's a picture of my friend Tasha well into her cups the other night. Enjoy!

Painstation2

Last night as I'm getting ready to go to bed I make the foolish mistake of walking around after shutting the lights off in the living room. I step on the cord to my PS2, at the perfect point where it pulls the machine off the entertainment onto my foot. Luckily, the angle it dropped at kept the machine from being significantly harmed, though there is now a dent in my foot. No bruise, and I don't think it's broken, but it actually dented the skin. There'a about a one inch canal right down the top and center of my foot. And it hurts like hell. On a separate note, woot, flying.

P.K is my proof that a cat does not need two eyes to look at you like you're an idiot.

Air Head

Looks like I'll be up in the plane again soon, which will be a nice break- even though I'm really not makin' any money doing to. It's still nice just to be on air for a station with that many listeners. If anyone's bored next Tuesday, tune into to 830 am. They do traffic on the 8's, and I'll be doing reports from 4:08 until 6:38 (roughly) in the evening. Of course, if the weather's bad I won't actually be flying and I'll be driving around in my car instead. And I might not be wearing pants...

I've got a quarter bottle of Cuervo in me and these babies. You in?

Impressions of Home

So, watching "Supernatural" on tv tonight. The show takes a trip up to Duluth of all places, and it's always interesting to see what the "Hollywood" take on your hometown is. For the most part it's non-committal (inside restaurants, half shots of signs, etc.) I do get a kick out of it when they have a scene down by the "docks." While they don't actually show any decisive Duluth shots, they do show the classic pier shot (which doesn't look anything like the Duluth shipyards), but just for good measure they do have a loon calling in the background. Just get a kick out of how they fell the need to have that little "Minnesota" touch.

Tribute to a Fallen Hero

The world lost a hero yesterday. Reports released today list the official cause of death as suicide, ruling out "foul play" given the condition of the body. While parts of the victim were strewn about, it was clear that the victim had jumped to it's death, and was not pushed or thrown. Those close to the victim commented that "We never got any pictures together, so all I'm left with are memories." Time of death was listed as 10:25 am.

So yeah, yesterday on my way into Joe's, my coffee cup and it's handle parted ways in my hand. The little s.o.b just popped off, sending the cup to it's doom. This really sucks, because now not only are my caffeine portions significantly smaller (meaning more trips to the coffee pot), but now I have to go back up to Duluth for a replacement (it was a Duluth Pack mug). Harumph.

On the upside, my Brett Favre jersey showed up today, and I'm wearing it now. It's green (my favorite color), has #4 (my favorite number), is a Favre jersey (my favorite athlete), and is a packer jersey (my favorite football team). All in all, it's my perfect jersey. So I now officially have jerseys for the only two teams I really give much of damn about (Twins and Packers). I'll have to get a Wild jersey too, but I don't follow them as closely- yet. Besides, I don't yet have a favorite Wild player (especially since the Boogie man got hospitalized in a fight- his freakin' specialty!).

Game Over

So, the big game's over, Colts won (big whoop), Rex Grossman didn't win a Superbowl he didn't deserve to be in and Peyton Manning won an MVP award he didn't deserve. Game highlight? Well, for me it was the venison chili, but that doesn't really count as "the Game." Was it Prince dressed as Lucy Arnez at half-time? Was it surprisingly mundane performance by Cirque du Soleil in the pregame show? The fact that one of the major parts of the Colts game plan was to get possession of the ball to the opposing quarterback? In the end, I'm forced to go with the sheer quantity of turnovers keeping things up in the air (though having the opening kick-off returned for a touchdown was a really close second).

My big beef, however, was the crappy commercials. There were less than a handful that were funny, more than a few that were repeats (some many years old), and nothing that stuck out. Even the beer commercials were lame, which is almost unheard of at the Super Bowl. My personal favorite was probably the Blockbuster "pet shop" that aired before the game started. From what I've been able to catch over the past few years, the commercials seem to have been getting weaker. Will the trend reverse, or are the days of memorable commercial franchises (Jordan vs. Bird's "Nothin' but net" or the various Budweiser Clydesdale runs) over? Career Builder and Doritos to a lesser extent gave it an admirable try, but they still came up short. Only time will tell if the serial commercial days are done for.

In football related news, last night I dreamt of Lambeau. It was quite the dream, one of those where you don't skip around like in some dreams but actually carry through in your dream in a realistic progression from place to place and action to action. It started with me bar tending at Lambeau Field (something that would definitely keep me in the serving industry) and meeting Brett Favre on opening day. Some fans behind me in line gave him a Lowry's Seasoning Salt gift pack because they were happy he was giving them "one more season," which is just proof that even in my sleep I'm not funny.

Strangely enough, I end up being at the game with Rach, and I never get to the game in the dream (damned alarm clock, we would've won) because every spot she picks is somewhere we can't even see the field from. We go back to a spot we'd been at earlier, but "Cirque" cast from the Super Bowl pregame show have filled that section by then (they're eating popcorn and cooing like pigeons, the one obligatory "weird" of the dream). There's no rush, though, because the hockey players haven't gotten off the ice/field yet. And yes, I know, Green Bay (or even Wisconsin in general) doesn't have a hockey team, and even if they did the wouldn't play at Lambeau, but it was a freakin' dream, so leave me alone.

Anyhow, I'm gonna recap my chili, 'cause I really liked it. First, I cubed a venison rump roast and gave it a quick marinade in Worcestershire sauce and Dave's Insanity Sauce. Browned the venison in olive oil with garlic pieces, and pour off the juice. Add some cayenne, chili powder, and beef bouillon, and let that mix. Pour it back onto the venison and let it marinate over night. Then brown some diced onion and green pepper in chili oil and a little Marechal Foch red wine. While that's going on I heat two cans of beef stock, two small cans of tomato paste, one can each of drained and rinsed black and kidney beans, a can of diced tomatoes, and more cayenne, chili powder, a healthy dose of cumin, and some brown sugar. Pour the venison and marinade into the onions and green peppers, heat it back up, and dump it all in the the pot. Simmer for six hours. Seemed to go over pretty well (even got the nod from Mercedes once she gave in and tried it). I've gotta say, I think I'll have to make more next year. 'Course, I may have to go get my own deer in that case...

4 The Love of the Game

It's official, and I'm ecstatic- FAVRE'S COMING BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'd tried to put the issue out of my mind, because it was worse than waiting for Christmas (not that any holiday's really that big to me). Just not knowing if the only player I root for as a player in and of himself (and I happened to luck out that he joined my fav team early on) was coming back was nerve wracking. But, he's back, and now he's gonna break damned near EVERY QB record there is (so what if that includes interceptions). And best of all- I have a second chance.

You see, I've never been to Lambeau. I've never had a way to get tickets, and I've never had someone to go with. Well, my little sejour to the coast has taught me that I may prefer to travel with someone else, I'd never go anywhere if I waited for that to happen. So, I hereby declare that this is my Year of Lambeau. I don't know which game it's going to be, but I'm going to one. I'd like to see them whoop the Vikes in Green Bay, but I'm also hoping that they'll have a Saturday game the 22nd of December (my birthday). Should the stars align and all of the above combines, I may explode.

I figure that between scalped tickets, gas, motel (if I travel with company) and extras it's gonna cost me a couple hundred bucks, but I'll be damned if it won't be worth it. Who knows, maybe I can bring Wendy's dad to the 50 yard line...(if you don't get that last part, don't feel bad- if you do, don't let Wendy hurt me).

On the other hand...

Okay, so I've got why solo is good. Now here's my yays and nays about with someone else.

Pros:
-Extra Input. There is a slim possibility that I could overlook something, or not think of something that might be cool to do.
-Extra driver (hopefully). This would make the trip out and back a whole lot quicker, leaving pretty much two extra days to do stuff.
-Keeping me in check. As briefly mentioned earlier, having someone else along makes me factor safety issues in to a much greater degree.
-Cheaper (?). Splitting gas on this trip would have saved me albout $200. Note- this only saves me money if my travel companion(s) won't need to sleep in a hotel. Or, if there's a few, as long as we don't spend many nights in hotels.
-The biggest pro by far is having someone to share the experience and the memories with. It's great to be able to think back on all the sweet stuff I did/got into, but it's even better when you can do it with someone else who was there.

Cons:
-It ain't easy for people to put up with me, and vice versa.
-Junk in the trunk. As it was, space was limited in my car. Granted, I could have packed significantly more efficiently, but it's nice being able to chuck whatever you think you might want in the trunk and go. In addition, if you sleep in the car it's a lot harder to do with other people.
-Music selection could be a point of contention.
-Planning. If there are gonna be other people, I might actually have to plan the trip, unlike this last one. This also means waiting for everyone else to get their crap together and figure out when they could go.

Final verdict? It depends. If I go on a easy trip (like this last one), other people would be awesome. If I'm going to do a hardcore trip (15 mile hiking days, multiple consecutive nights, etc.), I'll go solo- supposing I don't suddenly come across someone who's into real camping.

Thoughts: A.K.A Brain Hassles

As one might expect, when you drive 5300 miles in a week and a half, you end up having a lot of time to yourself to think. Now, the sad part was that on the way out I was so out of practice at introspection that I really didn't do much of it. I tried to distract myself with the radio instead. Luckily, on the way back I was much more mentally active.

One of the big topics of mental digestion was the issue of "solo trip" versus "group trip." Now, on this trip I wasn't given a choice- the flakes, I mean friends, who were gonna go with me backed out. My choices were to fly solo or to take the week and a half off of work and throw myself into some sort of solo bachannalia, the likes of which would forever stain my soul. Redwoods sounded better.

But really, which would I prefer? Let's break down the pros and cons of each:

Solo Pros:
-I decide everything. If I want to do something, I do it, and don't have to worry about compromising on anything.
-I go at my own pace. If I'm getting killed on trail, I can rest as much (or little) as I want. Also, if I feel like driving for fourteen hours, I can. I can go 400 miles without having to pee, and that makes the drive faster.
-I only need be concerned with my own safety. This means I can driving "exciting" and not worry about going deaf from screaming passengers, or having to clean a seat where someone wet themselves.
-I get time to be introspective without seeming anti-social.
-I can really, for lack of a better term, commune with the land as I'm hiking.
-I don't have to be "courteous." Now, I'm not gonna go into details, but if you know me you can probably figure out that my car needed a good airing out at the end of the trip.
-I can pack whatever the heck I want. Considering how I ended up packing , this wouldn't have left much room for anyone else.

Solo Cons:
-Slightly to greatly more expensive, depending on what my other traveler(s) wanted. Splitting gas would have saved me about $150-$200. Granted, I saved a lot of that not ever sleeping in a hotel. Considering that would get split up anyway, it's still cheaper with another person or two.
-The drive from Iowa to the Rocky Mountains is extremely boring. Someone to chat with/bug the hell out of.
-I take short cuts and follow a somewhat impetuos nature. This, long story short, means that I'm not as safe I would be if another person's safety was at issue. I made it out okay, but ya never know.

I'll have to get to the other half tomorrow...

Homeward Bound

Leaving Moab, I figure that after having hiked from sun-up to sun-down I should at least try to make it into Colorado before stopping for the night. After all, it's still a two day drive from Utah to Minnesota, and I wanted to be able to get a decent night's sleep before being to work at 4:30 am on Monday.

The drive is pretty uneventful through the rest of Utah and the first part of Colorado. The most intersting part is how military the town names sound (Rifle, Parachute, Battlesomethingorother, etc.). I'm part way through the mountains when I see the first clouds coming over the moon. I'd heard on the radio that more snow was expected, and I really hoped that I could make it through the Rockies before it hit. I don't.

The first snow starts just past Glenwood Springs. By the time I reach Vail Pass commercial vehicles are lined up for miles along the shoulder putting on snow chains. I'm already further than I'd planned to go (thought I'd be bushed around Grand Junction), but I do not want to get stuck up here in a snow storm. I'm driving close to the speed limit. As the storm gets worse, this means that I'm going progressively faster and faster than everyone else. By the time I get to the next pass (Loderman Pass or some such), there's a couple of inches on the ground, and driving is getting interesting- though nowhere near as bad as Nebraska/Wyoming had been. Coming down the mountains into Denver I'm dodging out of the teeth of the storm, and I'm into the clear. I hear about the avalanche the next day. While it was twelve hours after I'd passed, and not on the interstate but on a state highway, I did drive right past the area. Interesting...

I gas up outside Denver. Now that I'm already through the mountains, and the latter part of the driving got the adrenaline flowing, I figure that I might as well keep going. The rest of the drive is pretty uneventful, except for the part where I hit a blown out tire at 85 mph. Again, adrenaline, and more driving. I'm almost to Kearny, Nebraska, before I'm tired enough to pull off. I rearrange the junk in my car before going to bed, and pull out the cooler. I realize that I'd forgotten about the second package of venison burger in there. I'm not going into details, but I've decided to throw the cooler away...

I wake up in the morning, and keep going. I'm somewhat chagrined that I could've stayed out another day- I'll be back Saturday night instead of Sunday. I coudn't have expected to be up for hiking for ten hours and then driving for ten more, though, and it will just give me a day to relax. The rest of the trip is uneventful, though listening to some talk radio show I do hear about a book that I decide to pick-up and read. It's about reconciling science with God, which happened to be one of the many topics I mulled over while driving. Impeccable timing, though the book is proving less aligned to my thoughts than the author had made it sound in the interview.

I'm back in Minnesota by sunset, and back to the cities a little before seven o' clock. I grab some of my stuff, head up, and begin The Task. You see, having flown solo the whole time, I hadn't really seen the need to shower. After all, there's no one else to be bothered by my funk, my nose doesn't hardly work in the best of circumstances, and just finding a place to shower would've cost money and been a huge pain in the rear. So guess what? My hair is one giant mess of tangles. It takes me an hour in the shower to get them all out, and I end up pulling out no small amount of hair. If I ever go that long again, my hair's going into a pony tail day one and not coming back out.

And that's the trip. Of course, there's gonna be at least one post of reminisces and ruminations, but for what I actually did, and for the pictures that actually turned out, that's it. Oh, and here's one last picture of me from that last night of driving. 2 AM in Nebraska (I think I'm driving past a turkey factory at the time, or at least that's what it smelled like). I swear, there should be a law against being this sexy....

The Final Arch

When I get off the trail I’m starving. I mean, c’mon, beef jerky isn’t the most filling of breakfasts. That, combined with the hike not having been the easiest, has my stomach roaring for food. I was thinking that I’d do up some soup, but the thought of how long that’s gonna take me- combined with the likelihood that I’d run out of fuel before it boils- has me opt for plan B. I swing over to the "Fiery Furnace" overlook for lunch, open up the vacuum pack of tuna fish, squirt in some mayo packets, and get the spoon out.

Oh, you think that’s bad? I swing down to the Delicate Arch parking lot and wash it down with a few swigs of 12 year old Jameson. In retrospect, it was a bad combination. Hell, at the time it was a bad combination. But, I figured that I’d made enough foolish decisions so far that one more seemed appropriate. My stomach stopped liking me.

Delicate Arch is the one that you always see in pictures of the park. It’s a mile and half hike, all uphill one way and downhill the other. The bottom of the trail has this old homestead and a few petroglyphs. The farmstead is some old Civil War vet who moved out to get to a climate better for his aches- until one of his daughters comes and bitches about the conditions and makes him return to Ohio. The glyphs had my hopes up, but it turns out that they’re only from the early 1800's. Yeah, that’s a lot older than me, but the one’s I’d seen in Death Valley were considerably older, more interesting, and rewarding. After all, it was an eight mile hike to get to those ones...

I start hiking up. The first part is pretty easy dirt trail. Then you get to this big ol’ sandstone dome that you have to walk up, the only trail being denote by small stone cairns. On the way down I could see where a trail was slowly being worn in the stone, but on the way up there was too much glare. I pass some people going down, and a few going up. I pass this couple of gorgeous asian chicks who I’d seen on the Devil’s Garden trail. The reason I mention this is because while they were gorgeous, all I could think about was how frickin’ stupid they had to be to wear high heeled boots hiking. It just ruins it to see such a pretty picture and then be forced to factor in that they’re really dumb. Sigh...

Towards the end I start coming upon these giant half-bowl shaped areas that the wind has carved out of the stone. It was almost like the wind was trying to make a skate park. After those, I get to the thin ledge that winds around the top of the stone. With the wind and the snow, I feel like I’m making my pilgrimage to see the wise man on the mountain up in Shangri-La. I get to the post, hop the small ridge that separates the trail, and I’m there.

This place is hard to comprehend for me. It’s another of the wind half-bowls, but huge- football field sized, and probably at least 50 feet from bottom to the lip. It’s also kinda steep, but with my boots I make it alright. Delicate Arch is off to the southeast part, right on the edge of a drop off. It’s really steep and wet on either side of the arch, so it’s a while before I work up the guts to try it.

Another part of the hard to comprehend part is the vibe- with the half dozen other people up there just chillin’, it was like some weird picnic. There were some people getting into the arch when I showed up, including this one chick who was freaking out so bad that she started that maniacal giggle you see right before people start crying and screaming. She made it, though, so I give her credit. I check out some of the edges of the bowl, and give myself some serious jitters (remember, vertigo and acrophobia). There’s some steep canyon around that place. Either way, it was good vibe, and I hang out there for about an hour. I’d have taken more pictures of the arch, but the dinks who were there when I got there didn’t leave the entire time.

I head back down, and the sun is getting low, so I figure that I have just enough time to hit the one mile trail around the Window Arches and snap some sweet sunset photos. These are some really big arches, but they’re just not as impressive to me as the other ones were. I don’t know if it was that I was desensitized after the other arches, if the proportions somehow made them seem lesser, or I was just suffering from having tuna fish and whiskey for lunch. Either way, I finish up the hike and get in the car to find a good pull of to catch the sun set.

Well, it figures, by the time I find any pull out the sun has set. This kinda sucks, because I think it would have made for some sweet photos. I do look east, though, and I see a mountain range away off. The sun is still setting on them, and they’re turning this pale shade of purple. With the snow on them, they’re beautiful- but foreboding. You see, I can almost feel the wind on them from where I am. The snow on the most northerly mountain is being blown almost straight across to the next one south. It’s eerie know that those winds must be incredibly strong, and thinking that I’m looking real-time at an incredibly inhospitable environment.

I watch the mountains until the sun has completely set, and head into Moab for a post-trail dinner. Though I hadn’t really hit the hiking all that hard, at best making 30 miles the whole trip, I figure that I’m hungry and it’s tradition to gorge when the trips done. I was thinking asian (fried rice sounded so damned good), but can’t find anything that doesn’t look fancy and settle for Pizza Hut. Whatever I didn’t finish would just go in a box and be grub for the way back, keeping me from needing to stop for food. Appetite satisfied, I gas up and head back to the interstate. End of Friday, January 7th.

Next time, The Drive Home and The Last Day.