Monday, December 29, 2008

BOB VEO

I got to drive MY car for the first time in months today and it was awesome! That's all for now...

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Last night's dinner

I had a bit of false confidence in my cooking abilities after making some bomb-ass pumpkin bread for BA's holiday potluck. Then, something as easy as pancakes cut me right back down to size...

Monday, December 15, 2008

Hello....NEWMAN!

My friend's cat, Newman, is in a "cutest holiday cat" contest on the Seattle PI's site. Go to this page and vote for the cat pictured below!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast...

It's December 10th at 6:26 p.m. and the current temperature outside is 68°. Just thought I'd share...

Sunday, December 7, 2008

The best idea I've ever had

I was eating Cap'n Crunch for dinner tonight when I had an epiphany. Why in the world don't they make Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch WITH CRUNCH BERRIES?!? I quickly called Cheryl to tell her idea. She has a history of inventing awesome foods—the next time you're eating chocolate cookies with vanilla frosting or vanilla cookies with chocolate frosting, keep in mind that Nabisco stole that idea from an adorable eight-year old with pigtails and dimples. They taste a little bitter after that. Cheryl prodded me to make this dream come true, so I went to the store and bought a box of each cereal.

When I got home, I dumped all the Cap'n Crunch with Crunch Berries into a big bowl and began to sort out the Crunch Berries from the golden, mouth-shredding pillows.



Then, I poured the Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch and the Crunch Berries into the empty Cap'n Crunch box, mixing them with my pouring.



So, $4 and 20 minutes later...VOILA!...peanut butter & jelly cereal, bitches! Honestly, it was better than I could have even imagined. This needs to be mass produced ASAP! Now, if I could only get Safeway to bring back their red licorice soda...

Bull Durham & soul food

First, I forgot to mention in yesterday's post that while I was driving around Durham, I came across the old baseball stadium where the Bulls used to play and where Bull Durham was filmed. Not much to look at now, as it's under construction. It's going to be used as an amateur baseball training complex and as the home field for the North Carolina Central University Eagles. That didn't stop me from taking a picture though...



Next, a buddy and I went to Mama Dip's for lunch today to cross off one of the restaurants on my list. He's new to the area as well, but has already been there multiple times. There was a 15 minute wait to get a table, but it was well worth it—the food was phenomenal! We started off with some sweet potato biscuits and then I ordered the chicken & dumplings, with sides of collard greens and yams. Of course I washed it all down with some sweet tea. I'll definitely be heading back there again before my time here is up.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

I cleaned my kitchen for nothing...

In an interesting turn of events, it looks like I might not be getting a new roommate after all. We'll see...

It was a fun day today. I did wake up at 7:30 to be awake when the potential new roommate got here to sign his lease and get his key (which didn't happen. He showed up, but didn't have money for first month's rent, which is obviously a problem). After that I went toodling around Durham. There was a particular store that I wanted to check out to possibly do a little Christmas shopping, but upon arriving, I learned that they don't open until 11. Slackers. So I headed back home to pick up shoes I had to return at Nordstrom. Remember those black and neon green Asics I got in October? Turned out they are, by far, the most uncomfortable shoes I've ever worn. They actually rubbed the skin off of my Achilles' tendon. On top of that, they're too narrow, so my jeans were constantly slipping underneath them as I walked and they were incredibly heavy little shoes. Good riddance! I was bummed, however, when I showed up at Nordstrom and the guy that took care of me last time was there again this time. He was a big douche and basically called me a liar when I told them I only wore them twice, but whatev...I walked out with new shoes that should be a lot better. I've been looking for new brown shoes for a long time and found these Clarks that I like a lot. While I still would like to get a dressier pair of brown shoes, these are nice in that they look good with jeans and can probably still be pulled off with a pair of slacks. They're light, comfortable and I would call them Seattle-style casual office shoes. See for yourself...



After that, I was driving around, killing time before 11. I saw some signs for a "multi-family indoor yard sale" that I decided to follow. They led me to a random warehouse and it turned out to be some sort of fundraiser for a local Christian Academy. I walked in and there were six little tables that were absolutely dwarfed in this gigantic warehouse. The first table was manned by a mid-20s thuggish guy that had a bunch of clothes, two DVDs and a paintball gun on display. As I approached his table, he said, "Hey, ever seen one of these?" as he pulled out this strange, cylindrical handheld contraption from his pocket. Before I could say no, he was unfolding blades and it was a four-bladed knife that's only purpose would be for a little no-nonsense stabbing. Playing dumb, I asked, "What is that for?" to which he replied, "It's for protection! I just carry it around to make sure nobody messes with me!" Needless to say, I passed on the protection device and also passed on stiletto flip flops, Jesus hats and cheetah-print, furry candle holders.



While searching for a picture of that, I came across this — which is just insane.

I finally headed back over to the store that opened at 11, but couldn't find what I was looking for. After that, I met up with a buddy from work to play some disc golf. I really suck at throwing frisbees and it was nearly as frustrating as real golf. But we had a great time and agreed to play again sometime. After that we had some Thai food at a place called Twisted Noodles and it was excellent. After that, I came home, took a nap and I've just been chillin' tonight. Good times!

Friday, December 5, 2008

This 'n That

Work Update
Work has been really awesome lately. I've been super busy the last two days, calling every MLB front office to pass along information about Baseball America's ninth-annual Awards Gala that will take place during the Winter Meetings next week. On top of that, I've been doing a lot of research for a college insert that will be in the next issue and I have two articles in the double issue coming out soon with Nick Adenhart on the cover. Here's a link to one of them about baseball trying to get back into the 2016 Olympics. I got to talk to Curtis Granderson for that one, which was sweet. I also played a great prank at work today that was talked about all day and I made plans to go disc golfing with a co-worker on Saturday and plans to hit up Mama Dip's with another co-worker on Sunday, so the weekend should be good too!

Goodbye
Goodbye walking around naked.
Goodbye leaving clothes in the dryer.
Goodbye neglecting the dishes until I'm eating cereal out of Tupperware.
Goodbye blasting music at 3 in the morning.
Goodbye crapping with the door open.
Goodbye always choosing what to watch on TV and having the best seat.
I'm getting a new roommate in five hours.

Clark Griswold would be ashamed...
My street is pretty festive. Of the 25 or so houses on my street, I would say that 10-12 have Christmas lights up and they look nice. There's one house, however, that really should have spent a little more time with their Christmas lights. This photo doesn't really do it justice, but I think an apt analogy would be, Conor : wrapping Christmas presents :: these people : putting up Christmas lights. See for yourself...



Los Campesinos!
The other day I was watching TV and saw an ad for eMusic that offered 35 free, no-strings-attached downloads. So, I checked it out and, on a whim, took a chance on a band called Los Campesinos! Despite the Spanish name (which apparently translates into The Farmers or The Peasants), they're a seven-piece indie-pop band from Wales. The album is pure gold and I'm in love with it. I just got it late Wednesday night and I've already listened to it about seven times. I found out they'll be playing here in January and I'm pumped. Here's a YouTube clip (just audio), if you want to hear for yourself. Enjoy!

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Shelby & Twitch

I'm taking care of a co-worker's pets for the weekend. He and his girlfriend have a rabbit named Twitch and a little box turtle named Shelby. Twitch is easy. All I have to do is shake the poop of of his/her towel, fill up the food dish, put in a handful of hay and feed it a yogurt treat. It's really cute and really soft, but also really fast and Ali told me, "Don't let it out because you'll have a really hard time trying to catch it." While I know that would make for a great blog entry, I'm not risking it...



Shelby, on the other hand, is a little more difficult. I have to make sure its dirt is all even and then spray water all throughout the tank to maintain a damp atmosphere. Also, I think it's a baby turtle because it's really small and I have to...get this...hand feed it earthworms. Not even full earth worms, either. I have to chop an earthworm into thirds and hold the little pieces in front of Shelby's face until it feels like eating. You better like this picture because I think I got worm blood on my phone...

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

I like food

Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving was great. As I mentioned before, I headed out to Winston-Salem to spend the day with my buddy Dave and his wife's family. It was so nice of them to have me out and they welcomed me in like an old family friend. Dave said I couldn't bring any food, so I brought some flowers instead. The funny thing is that if we ate the flowers, they'd probably taste better than any food I could have made. I made great time on the way out there, arriving a little after 2. We just hung out for a bit, talking and watching some football before dinner was ready a little after three. All in all, there were 10 of us at the table—Dave and his wife Amy, her parents, her sister, her brother, his wife, two kids and me. The food was great. Pretty traditional Thanksgiving fare—turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, orange rolls, green bean casserole, cranberries, pistachio Jell-O salad and homemade apple sauce. However, there were two more southern things that were served: corn pudding and sweet potato casserole. Everything was delicious! For dessert, I had some pumpkin chocolate chip cake with ice cream and then we played some games. It was a great time.

Restaurant checklist
Last night I started flipping through the guide to Durham Cheryl and I picked up when we first got here. I hadn't really looked at it since that first week, but I decided I would try and find a few new restaurants to check out before I leave. Mostly, I found more barbecue places I want to try to see how they match up against The Q Shack & Arthur Bryant's. Here's my checklist...

• Bullock's
Dillard's
Hog Heaven
• The Barbecue Joint

Although I may be adding more to that list now that I found this Web site!

The Barbecue Joint wasn't in the book, because it's actually in Chapel Hill. I found out about that place on Google, because apparently Rachel Ray went there when she came to the Triangle for an episode of $40 A Day. Another place she went to was a traditional southern restaurant called Mama Dip's. I'm very excited about going there and I have a feeling that some chicken and dumplings might be in store for me this weekend. I might even try some chitlins too, we'll see...

Man Vs. Food
This is a new show on the Travel Channel that I found tonight and became an immediate fan. The host, Adam Richman, is funny without being annoying as he visits cities to pig out at their best greasy spoons. He visits a few different restaurants and ends the show by taking on an eating challenge. In Texas, for example, he ate a 72 oz. steak in a half hour and in Memphis he tried to eat an eight-pound burger. I wish I could get paid to eat!

Let's wrap this up with some awesome live footage of one of my favorite bands, The Descendents, and their song, "I Like Food." Enjoy!

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Another awesome Web site

Here's another great Web site, but instead of being a great reference site (like the one I listed below), this one is a game. The site is called Sporcle and it's filled with all kinds of quizzes. For example, I found out about it through a baseball blog that linked to a quiz where you try to name all 53 players that have ever had 30/30 seasons in MLB history (30 home runs and 30 stolen bases). Give it a whirl...

Good Web site


For my readers that are fans of board games (and I know many of you are), I stumbled upon a cool Web site today that I thought I would pass along: BoardGameGeek. Enjoy!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Cheryl's conjugal visit

This weekend was awesome because Cheryl got to visit. We had to sweat it out though—it almost didn't happen. One of the parents in Cheryl's class offered her a standby ticket and, being that it was the weekend before Thanksgiving, open seats on flights were hard to come by. She got shut out on Thursday night and then three times Friday morning before catching a mid-day flight that allowed her to get here just before midnight. Neither of us cared because we were both just so excited that she was able to make it out at all.

On Saturday morning we had grand plans to head to Raleigh for a Christmas parade featuring Josh Hamilton, but we woke up too late. So we just chilled out for a little bit and then went for an early lunch at the Q Shack. Cheryl liked it a lot more this time around, since she listened to my suggestion on the beef brisket and the hush puppies didn't taste like onion rings. I love that place.



After lunch, we drove around Durham. I gave her the Duke tour that I hadn't yet discovered when she was out here the first time and then we hit up Locopos for some dessert. J.P, the guy that always works on the weekends, cracked up when I walked in because I'm always brining new people there. Cheryl got cookies n' cream and I tried chocolate pumpkin.

After that, we headed back home to chill out for a bit. Someone was supposed to come see the house (a potential roommate), but they never showed. At about 5, we headed to the mall for dinner and a movie. We walked around the mall for a bit and then headed across the street to P.F. Chang's for dinner. Buuuuut it was like a two-hour wait, so we made reservations for Sunday night instead and headed back to the mall...where we waited (only) and hour and a half to eat at the Cheesecake Factory.

We killed some time by walking hanging out in Barnes and Noble, where we looked at books, magazine and had some holiday-themed drinks from Starbucks. Cheryl had peppermint hot chocolate and I had an egg nog latte. Two funny things happened while we were waiting to eat. One, we saw an interesting old guy. He was decked out in UNC gear, which isn't weird in and of itself, but he had pajama pants pulled up under his moobs and he was wearing Tarheel slippers and, oh yeah, did I mention he also had earrings, two purses and maybe lipstick? The picture doesn't do it justice, but take a look for yourself...



I thought about putting his picture on a Duke message board, but that's just too mean.

Cheryl and I also were flipping through one of those books that lists 1000 things to do before you die. I just opened it to a random page and was taken back. One of the things to do before you die is apparently...

*69 someone

...which led to this conversation:
Me: Cher, check this out!
Cheryl: Oh my gosh, that's crazy! What does the star mean?
Me: OOOOH! Hahahaha! STAR 69 someone!
Cheryl: Oh my gosh, that is so funny!

Now, you can say that dirty minds think alike, but in our defense, that's a pretty crappy thing to make the book. This wasn't some dusty book we found on the shelf, this was a book out on one of their display tables, giving me the impression that it's a newer book. Who uses star 69 anymore? What else should I make sure I do before I die? Send a telegram?

After we got bored at Barnes and Noble, we headed back over to the Cheesecake Factory and by the time we were finally seated, we were both starving. Thankfully, the food was quick, tasted great and Cheryl said she hadn't been there in like three years. Then we saw Role Models. This weekend was pretty similar to the one I had the weekend before with Megan. The movie was just as good the second time and Cheryl loved it too.

After the movie, we hit up the grocery store so that we could make root beer floats. Then we went home, enjoyed those and watched SNL.

On Sunday, we woke up and headed over to Chapel Hill where we walked around Franklin Street for lunch and...you guessed it...more Locopops! I got chocolate brownie and Cheryl got peanut butter chocolate chip. If you can't tell, I freaking love Locopops. I think I actually told Cheryl while we were at the Chapel Hill Locopops that it's my favorite place in the world.

I love it so much, in fact, that we went to the Durham location before dinner. Appetizers I guess. We had to go early because they close at 6 in the winter now, remember? And this was hilarious. We showed up at about 5:30 and as we walked up, we could see through the window that J.P. (the guy that works there) was sound asleep. We walked in quietly and were giggling watching him sleep. A woman and a kid walked in just after us and they told us to wake him up. So I started by quietly saying his name...which turned into almost yelling his name. That wasn't working. I wasn't worried because I could see him breathing, but I knew that just speaking loudly wasn't doing the trick, so I stepped behind the counter and walked over to him. I had to shake his knee for like 20 seconds before he woke up. Heavy sleeper! Even though we assured him that it wasn't a big deal, he was really embarrassed and gave us free popsicles.



Cheryl and I then went to our dinner at P.F. Chang's and it was the bomb...really hit the spot. Unfortunately, we somehow forgot to take our leftovers with us when we headed home to watch some movies. Cheryl brought our latest Netflix movies out with her and we watched an awesome Zach Galifianakis standup DVD and the movie Charlie Bartlett before hitting the sack.

It was a great weekend, filled with laughter and love. I'm so glad Cheryl was able to make it out here. She's absolutely my favorite person in the world and I can't wait to see her again in 23 days!

Monday, November 24, 2008

Great News


I'm too tired to do a weekend recap, but I wanted to pass along some awesome news from the weekend. On Saturday, I got an e-mail from my buddy out here in North Carolina inviting me over for Thanksgiving dinner with his wife's family on Thursday. It was such a nice surprise and made me feel great because the alternative was to just pretend the holiday wasn't even happening to dodge the disappointment. So, that should be fun. I'm not bringing any food because, let's get serious, I've become a better cook out here, but I'm not that good! I am bringing flowers though...

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Meg's Visit

My sister was able to come out and visit this weekend and it was awesome. She arrived Friday at about 5, so I took off from work a little bit early to go pick her up. Having skipped lunch that day, I was starving, so we headed straight to dinner. I really wanted to take her to my favorite little Mexican place here in town. Remember, it's the place that shares a location with the Jamaican restaurant that I found on accident? We got there and I was really bummed out to find that the Mexican part of the place had gone out of business. We tried the Jamaican and it was pretty good (awesome pineapple soda!), but it's too bad about that Mexican place...

After that we headed over to Locopops for some dessert, where more disappointment ensued. Don't worry...Locopops is still in business (with a lot of help from me), but they changed to their winter hours and close at 6 now. Boo! With that plan squashed, we headed over to the mall to get some ice cream and see a movie. We got there at about 7:30, which meant we had to decide between rushing into the 7:25 showing of Role Models, or waiting until 10. We decided to wait because that would allow us to get some ice cream, wander around the mall and not get stuck with horrible seats. The movie was hilarious—so good that I told Cheryl that I would see it again with her. We got home and kept the movies rolling by popping in Mallrats.

We slept in on Saturday, hit up Starbucks and then grabbed lunch at my favorite restaurant, The Q Shack. Megan loved it! After that we drove around Duke's campus while the food settled, before grabbing some dessert at Locopops. They must only have one employee on the weekends, because it was the same kid there that was there all three times Kelly, Matt and I visited. He laughed when I walked in and said, "You're always bringing in different people!" I had chocolate horchata and Megan chose the mighty mojito. Mmm! We then zipped over to Chapel Hill for a little campus comparison. We parked the car and walked around Franklin Street, which is nice. We found another Locopops and couldn't resist stopping. I had trail mix (banana, coconut and nuts) and Megan tried pomegranate tangerine. I saw a cool sign on the window of a pizza place, but we didn't eat there...

After that we came home and took a little nap before heading to a party at one of my coworker's place. He just bought a condo with his girlfriend and his birthday was the next day, so there were many reasons to celebrate. We only stayed about an hour and a half, but it was a lot of fun. Because we forgot to find a UNC store for Megan to find a sweatshirt that afternoon, we headed over to the mall again to get her a Tarheels hoodie. After that we grabbed some food in the food court and then headed home to watch Saturday Night Live, which was pretty good but we turned it off after Weekend Update to watch a movie we picked up that day, John Tucker Must Die. I told Megan to buy it because I remember it being really funny. I think I owe her $5...

We slept in again on Sunday and then headed to brunch at Elmo's. It was really busy and we had to wait about 20 minutes before ending up at the counter next to a semi-crazy woman and a couple that reminded us of Screech and Lisa Turtle. We both had the apple-stuffed cinnamon french toast, which was pretty good, but a little too soggy. Since Elmo's is so close to Locopops, we had to have a little post-brunch dessert, so we headed over there and continued choosing the same food, with my recommendation of Mexican chocolate. Delicious! After that we got a little silly and decided to go to Chucky Cheese's! Good times! As we pulled up, my heart sank.

That's right, Boston Market has closed. Cheryl said she'll still come visit though. Meg and I had a great time playing some skee-ball and video games before heading back home to chill. We took another nap and then headed out to a place called Tomato Jake's for some pizza. Kind of a weird place. It's in a strip mall near Target and the decor is funky neon, like an old Trapper Keeper, but the menu has a mafia theme. It doesn't really mesh, but the food was pretty good.

After that we came home and...watched more movies! I guess it was the weekend of popsicles, movies and out-of-business restaurants! We watched some classics: Superbad and Forgetting Sarah Marshall before heading to bed. In between the movies, Meg gave me a haircut and ended up with some furry socks...

It was another awesome weekend!

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

2 Funny Photos & 2 Funny Stories

The other day I was eating some Cheetos and one fell on the floor. I picked it up and set it on a piece of paper that was on my coffee table. The next day, I came home from work, sat down and went "Eeeewwww!" Check out what happened to the piece of paper...

That's not a shadow, that's grease. I didn't need to see that.

Next up is a picture of the fridge at work. We may not always agree on baseball prospects, but we all agree that there is no need for a legitimate lunch bag when you have old grocery bags lying around your house...

Now, two quick funny stories (hopefully these aren't had-to-be-there stories)

1) A work buddy asked me today if I wanted to go to Starbucks after lunch, which was a no-brainer. He happens to be writing the Mariners chapter for the Prospect Handbook, so we started talking Mariners baseball on the way to his car. When we got in, he was listening to a Pearl Jam bootleg from 1994. So, here we are, talking about the Mariners, listening to Pearl Jam and driving to Starbucks. Too funny!

2) After work I headed to the grocery store to pick up a few necessities. One thing I needed was deodorant. Instead of going with my usual Old Spice (Fresh or Swagger), I decided to see what else was out there. It's not that I don't like Old Spice anymore, it's just that I was in the mood for something different. So, here I am, sniffing different deodorants when a grocery store employee turns the corner and says, "You know, you wouldn't want to buy those if everyone did that." I laughed before realizing she wasn't kidding. "What, am I not supposed to sniff them?" I asked. "Well, no, but whatever...you're already doing it. I'm just saying that you wouldn't want to buy those if everyone did that." She replied. "Yeah I would because I already know that everyone already does this." I said as she walked away. I laughed to myself because I felt like Larry David. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get into a good stare down...

As a house update, a guy came by tonight to check out the open room and he seemed really nice. I'll obviously keep you posted...

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Total Bummer


This morning I drove through Starbucks to get my morning coffee. After the employee handed me my drink he kind of looked at me funny and said, "You remind me of someone!" This is always kind of an exciting thing to hear, because you always expect the best. "Who is it?" he thought. "Um....um....OH YEAH! FRED DURST!" My heart sank.

Quick back story for those that weren't there/haven't heard about it: When a bunch of us went to go see Nikki Glaser and Doug Benson a while back, we were the first ones there and ended up sitting right in front. I had my hat on backward and was enjoying Doug's awesome set when all of a sudden he called me out. "Glad to see Fred Durst is in the audience tonight," he joked. I then made the mistake of looking behind me. He thought that was funny and kept referencing my presence the entire night. It sucked.

"Ah man!" I groaned.
"What, isn't that him?" the guy asked.
"You mean the guy from Limp Bizkit?"
"Yeah!"
"That sucks dude, that guy's a tool!"

He just laughed and I drove away. I'm sure he didn't mean it as an insult and he obviously didn't know my history of being likened to Fred Durst, but it was a crappy way to start the day. Not that I really care—at least it makes for a funny story. But, here's a tip for everyone out there: Don't tell people they look like assbag celebrities. Telling a woman they look like Heidi Klum? That's fine. Telling them they look like Janet Reno...not so much.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Redmond Reunion


Friday after work I grabbed some clothes, made a couple PB&Js, burned a CD with some Adam Carolla clips and headed off to Winston-Salem where I was going to spend the weekend with some dear family friends, the Harbaughs. As a bonus, another family friend would be there as well—Phil Brown!

I got in at about 9:30 Friday night. We just chit-chatted for a while and then I headed upstairs and went to bed. The next morning, We hit the town. First, Larry gave us a tour of his building at R.J. Reynolds. The first thing I noticed when we walked in was that is smelled like a smoking hotel room. Turns out, employees are still allowed to smoke while they work. It made me joke about people at Budweiser running around drunk all day. Aside from the smell, the building was actually really cool. It was actually used as an architectural model for the Empire State Building and had some beautiful marble, woodwork and art on display.

After that we headed over to Old Salem, then went and ate lunch at a place near Wake Forest's campus called the Village Tavern. It was a good spot and it was really crowded because Wake Forest was playing Virginia in their homecoming game that afternoon. After lunch we headed back home where we chilled out, watched some football, played some cribbage and then ate a great, home-cooked meal. My chicken fajita burrito the other night might have been the best thing I've ever prepared for myself, but it pales in comparison to a real cook. Marcia, Larry and Phil all called it a night pretty early and I went up and watched some TV. I was bummed that SNL was a rerun, so instead started channel surfing. TLC's show "17 Kids and Counting" has to be the most stressful program on television. The episode I saw had family friends visiting the family, and they had 16 kids of their own. That's insane and just watching it had me nearly hyperventilating.

This morning, I woke up and Marcia and Larry took me out for breakfast at a 50's-style joint called Billy Bob's Silver Diner and then I hit the road and headed back home. It was a great weekend. I am still feeling sick, so I stopped at Target to get some medicine and yogurt. I actually found a Target that's a lot closer to my house than the one I had been going to and I saw a guy from work there, which marks the first time I've seen someone I know while out and about, so that was kind of cool.

Before I headed home though, I wanted to go take a picture of this business I noticed the other day. To preface this, you must know that the cities of Durham, Raleigh and Chapel Hill form an area called Research Triangle...often simply referred to as The Triangle. I know that a lot of businesses like to put their location in the name of the business, but I think this one is giving off the wrong impression...

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Let's keep this streak alive...

With my success in getting Fernando to start a blog, I figured I'd try my luck again. That being said...

C'mon, Jen — get with the program! Scrapbooks are so 2003; 2009 is all about blogging! If Jon can start a Facebook page, you should definitely follow in the footsteps of the Pioneer Woman and start a blog already. I even took the first step for you — I checked and (thankfully) flickstickandlick.blogspot.com is still available!

You always have hilarious stories and plus...these girls are too cute to not be blogged about...

Keep Track o' Flaco!


Thanks to my suggestion, Fernando has started his own blog! Boo yeah! It's nice to see all five members of the old crew blogging from their respective parts of the globe. Keep up with Fernando's thoughts at keeptrackoflaco.blogspot.com. Hopefully he'll post lots of pictures and stories from Guyana, bust out some silly fiction and puts together a list of his top 25 favorite albums of all time!

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Cooking Update

Despite being somewhat under the weather, I came home from work today motivated. I did the dishes, but then something weird happened. Instead of having cereals or leftovers for dinner, I decided to go all out and try to cook make a chicken fajita burrito. With an assist from my mom, who assured me it was okay to grill vegetables and chicken in the same pan, I began my quest.

I chopped up the vegetables (green bell peppers and an onion) and defrosted the chicken breasts. After that, I cut the chicken breasts in to strips. Is there anything more disgusting than raw chicken? I grilled the chicken and when it was all cooked, I added some water, the vegetables (including some corn) and the fajita powder. After the veggies cooked, I added the mix to a warm tortilla with some shredded cheese and sour cream and I have to say it's probably the best thing I've ever made for myself. Granted, it doesn't have a lot of competition...maybe a good steak? S'mores?

And, get this, after dinner I even cleaned up my mess and put my leftovers in the 'fridge. My husband rating is going way up!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Yet Another Awesome-Weekend Recap, Part 2

Cheryl and I woke up early on Saturday morning because I wanted to get down to Renton and vote before spending the day with my family. We drove down there and got into the parking lot at 8:45, but it was already packed. Apparently there was a mob of people waiting outside at 8 a.m., so they opened early and I headed to the back of an already-long line. Most people were just getting their absentee ballots, but there was also an option to vote early using the touch-screen electronic machines and that's what I chose to do. Why King County only had seven of them available is beyond me and I ended up waiting about an hour and a half before being able to cast my vote, but it was worth the wait.

After that, we headed back up to Redmond to hang with my fam for the day. Initially we had plans to go to the Pacific Science Center, but everyone was a little luke warm on that and we instead decided to head over to U-Village for a little shopping. I liked that idea better. Check out the hoodie I found at Fireworks, of all places...



Too perfect! Cheryl and I got a little early Christmas shopping done and then we all headed over to The Ave for some lunch. As I used to work on The Ave, I was excited to visit one of my favorite restaurants, a little Vietnamese place called Thanh Vi. I ate there very frequently when I worked at The Dawg Den because the food is great, it's cheap and the people there are as nice as they come. They would always greet me by name and, despite not visiting them for several years, when I walked in, they were like, "Oooh! It's been so long!" They freaking remembered me!!! Not only that, but they asked Cheryl if she was still teaching—and that's just based on the fact that I talked about her and she had been in one other time. Amazing! The food was even better than I remembered and it was so cool that they remembered me. I certainly won't let two years pass until my next visit!

We headed home after lunch and chilled out for a bit before Horia's big Halloween party. At about 6:30, Cheryl, Meg and I began getting ready. Cheryl and I were a cute gnome couple and Meg was a gypsy.



We went to the party and it was a blast! It was great to see everybody and there were some awesome costumes. Horia made an awesome Ninja Turtles costume so, fittingly, Caroline decided to dress up as April O'Neil. I didn't get a picture of Brent, who went all-out with his Ghostbusters costume, but Sonia dressed up as Amy Winehouse and, in my opinion, had the best costume of the whole party. The funny thing is that she said she had everything necessary in her closet!




Things got a pretty crazy right as we were leaving. As we left, our car was stopped at the entrance to Horia's apartment complex by Redmond Police Officers...armed with machine guns. Turns out they were looking for "a man with a gun." Well, it was someone at Horia's party. One of his friends was dressed in all camouflage with a machine gun of his own. A neighbor saw him, got worried and called the police. It could have been really scary, but it turns out that everything ended well. No one got in trouble or got hurt, so that was a relief.

After an awesome breakfast Sunday morning, I flew back to North Carolina. On the first leg of the flight, I was a little worried when the woman sitting next to me moved her barf bag to the front of the pocket and said, "I hope I don't get sick!" She then proceeded to take some dramamine, eat a Snickers bar and talk my ear off. I had a layover in Detroit and the next leg was shorter and quieter.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Yet Another Awesome-Weekend Recap, Part 1

I'd been looking forward to last weekend for months. Cheryl and I were able to find an affordable plane ticket, so I got to go home for the weekend. It was perfect because I got to spend Halloween at home and it split the time between when I got to see Cheryl in DC and when I'll get to head home for Christmas.

I took off work a bit early on Thursday and a buddy drove me to the airport. RDU is nice because it's a small airport. My flight left at 6 and I got to the airport at 5:15 and still had time to spare. Nice! My flight had a layover in Minneapolis and, although I don't hate flying as much as Cheryl does, it's still kind of annoying. It's just so cramped and I always come away with a cold, or so it seems. The first leg of the flight wasn't that great. There was a baby crying behind me the entire flight and I was on the aisle. A lot of people like the aisle, but I would rank my preference as window-middle-aisle. I'm not a fan of the aisle because you get bumped about 15 times an hour. I got to Minneapolis, chilled out for an hour and then it was on to Seattle. I got into SeaTac at about 11. Cheryl picked me up and it was so great to see her. She looked absolutely beautiful and we couldn't keep our hands or eyes off of each other the whole way home. We stopped by my house to say hi to the fam before heading over her house to call it a night.

She woke up early the next morning to go to work and I had a busy day planned as well. The twins slept over that night so that I could see them in the morning. They came in and woke me up at 9:30 and it was so great to see them—they're so stinkin' cute! I was able to play with them for about a half hour while they ate breakfast and then Liz and I took them to preschool. They were a little confused when they found out I was coming home because when I left, I told them I wouldn't see them again until they're five years old. They remembered that and when they found out I was coming home, they would ask, "Mom, am I five now?" Too cute! The funniest thing that happened while I hung out with them was when I was helping Pax get dressed for school. They were watching a movie while they ate breakfast and when I helped him take his pajama shirt off, I pulled it over his head. Right after it came off (and keep in mind it only crossed his face for about a second!) he asked, "Ali, what did I miss?" Adorable!


For Halloween, the twins dressed up as Optimus Prime & Island Princess Barbie (with some butterfly wings).

We took them to school and then Liz dropped me off at my house. My mom had the day off, so I borrowed her car to go down and have lunch with my dad and our buddy Ken. We went to my dad's favorite sushi spot, which was great because sushi basically doesn't exist in North Carolina. We had a good time with some good food and baseball talk. After that, I went to the King County election office to vote early—because the absentee ballot I requested never showed up. The place was absolutely packed and there was a two hour wait and I wasn't about to get in line. One of the volunteers told me the office was also open on Saturday from 9 to 3, so I decided I would try again the following day.

I headed home to meet Cheryl and we went back to her house to hang for a little bit before heading out with our friends. Although it was Halloween, our party was planned for Saturday night, so we met some friends and checked out the new Kevin Smith flick, Zack and Miri Make a Porno. I love Kevin Smith movies, but it was just okay. I would recommend it to my friends, but maybe just as a rental. As far as funny movies I've seen recently go, it certainly ranks behind Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Step Brothers, but probably ahead of Sexdrive, Pineapple Express and Tropic Thunder.

After the movie, Cheryl, Megan, Horia, Caroline and I walked to 7-Eleven for some Slurpees—another one of my dietary staples that don't exist in North Carolina. Then we headed home and got some sleep...a lot was planned for Saturday!

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

P.B. Slices



I have to try these because I love PB&Js ... and I'm lazy.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Attention Gregy...

Game on! Seriously, we need to do try this the next time we see each other. Deal?


Hilariously Weird Tug of War - Watch more free videos

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Another awesome weekend

On Friday afternoon, I got done with the final project hanging over my head at work and it felt really good. It was a big relief because I knew I had another fun-filled weekend coming up.

Another intern and I took off from work a little early on Friday and headed out to Chapel Hill for "Late Night With Roy," which is the University of North Carolina's annual pep rally for the impending basketball season. We first went to South Point Mall to get some food. My friend is a big fan of Panera, so that's where we went. I had been to a Panera when it first opened in Redmond, but didn't think much of it. This, however, was pretty dang good...much better than I remembered! We then headed out to campus, getting there at about 7. We parked in a centrally-located parking garage and walked over to the "Dean Dome," where they play basketball. It was a little bit of a walk, but it was nice to see the campus. I was very impressed with Duke's campus last weekend, but I think I like UNC's better. Lots of brick...big, beautiful trees...the quintessential college feel.

We got into the Dean Dome (which is really called the Dean E. Smith Center) at about 7:15, thinking the event started at 7:30. But when we got in, the women's basketball skits were already underway and we determined that the event must have started at 7. Missing part of the women's portion was actually good though, considering I'd rather watch paint dry than women's basketball (note: unless Madi's playing).

The arena is huuuuuuuge! With a capacity of 21,750, it's much bigger than the Key Arena, which holds 17,098. So, needless to say, I've never seen so much baby blue in my entire life! We had to sit in the very top row, which gave my legs a workout! Despite not knowing a lot about UNC's basketball team, it was a lot of fun. The men's team is ranked first in the country in preseason polls, which isn't surprising considering they have all five starters from last year returning—including three probable first-round draft picks in Ty Lawson, Tyler Hansbrough & Wayne Ellington. The place was absolutely electric, I got some goosebumps and it was a good time.



After that was over, we walked through campus again and headed up to Franklin Street—the happening street near the school with lots of bars, clubs, places to eat and little shops. It's sort of like The Ave in Seattle, only a lot nicer. My buddy wanted to take me to a frozen yogurt place called The Yogurt Pump (or the YoPo, as it's often called). I knew it would be good when there was a line out the door. We waited in the line for about 10 minutes before finally getting inside and seeing a sign that said "Cash Only." Neither of us had cash, so we got out of line and headed up the street to Ben & Jerry's. C'mon YoPo...get with the now! After some ice cream, we headed back to the car and headed home. It was a great time

Because I didn't get to bed until about 5, I did some serious sleeping in on Saturday. I woke up at about 2, but them came out to my recliner in the living room and slept for another couple hours. I'm such a lazy bum. At about 4:30, I got up and made some coffee and oatmeal while I got directions up to Toad's Place in Richmond, Virginia, where I was heading to see an awesome concert.

When I got the tickets, I didn't realize how far away Richmond was. Despite driving through on my way up to DC, I didn't realize it was two and a half hours from Durham. Oh well, the lineup was worth it. The bill included NOFX, Dillinger Four, Teenage Bottlerocket and The Flatliners...all awesome bands and certainly worth the drive.

I headed out at about 5:30 and got into Richmond at about 8. The club was very easy to find and Richmond seemed to be pretty nice. Granted, I didn't see a lot of it, but I liked the cobblestone streets and there was a little canal that ran right by the club.

I got in just as a band called Fake Problems were finishing up. The Flatliners took the stage after them and it was the second time I've seen them. They're from Toronto and I saw them open for A Wilhelm Scream a while back at Studio Seven. I thought they were pretty good that time, but I thought they were awesome this time around. They play really fast in-your-face punk with a little bit of ska (sans horns) mixed in for good measure. If you like the Suicide Machines, you should check out The Flatliners. They're on Fat Wreck Chords and I need to check out their albums because I've certainly enjoyed their live show.

Up next was Teenage Bottlerocket from Laramie, Wyoming. They play really bouncy, bubblegum pop punk, similar to The Ramones and Screeching Weasel. It's catchy, it's fun and they played a good set. I was just reminded by checking them out on Interpunk.com that I need to check out a band called The Lillingtons.

After Teenage Bottlerocket, Dillinger Four took the stage. It was the last show on the tour (called the Paddy vs. Fatty tour, as Paddy is the singer for D4 and Fatty = Fat Mike from NOFX). Paddy from D4 was trashed. Not only did the guys come out already really drunk, I don't think I've seen a band drink more on stage. Beers after every song...some whiskey...the guitar player was drinking a bottle of wine...it was pretty crazy. They're also the only band I've ever seen that sets up lawn chairs on the stage so they can sit down when they get tired. As a fat guy who gets tired easily, I can appreciate that! They ripped through an awesome set and, although I've like them for a long time, I realized I really need to get their newer albums and listen to them more often. They're a really great band and Paddy lived up to expectations by taking off most of his clothes during the set. They had a big crew on the side of the stage that was also rocking out and getting naked.

After that was the band everyone came for...NOFX. Last night marked (I think) the seventh time I've seen them live (four Warped Tours—Kingdome parking lot, San Diego and twice at the Gorge) and three clubs (DV8, Showbox SoDo & Toad's Place). They always put on a great set and last night was no exception. I quickly found out that my trek from Durham was weak compared so some other people. In line, I heard some girl say that she drove out from Colorado Springs and I talked to a couple before D4 played that said they drove 12 hours from Montreal for the show. Awesome! I was in the crowd for the other four bands and had made my way up to about the third row by the time they took the stage. They said they hadn't played Richmond in about 10 years, so that was pretty cool. They also made fun of Richmond and Virginia the entire time, which was funny. The pit got a little too wild, so after a couple songs I headed up to the balcony and found a place where I could see. The thing about Toad's Place is that they serve alcohol there, but they don't restrict people drinking to a certain area. So, there were people trying to mosh with full beers, which just doesn't work too well. My shirt was soaked with beer and sweat by the end of the night.

Here's the most-accurate setlist I could put together. Some of the songs might be out of order and they may have played one or two that I forgot, but here it is...

• Intro
• It's My Job To Keep Punk Rock Elite
• (half of) 180 Degrees—during this song, the crowd surged forward, pushing the barrier that separated the crowd from the stage, thus squishing the security guards. NOFX had to stop playing to get everyone to scoot back to unsquish the guys. They tried to pick up where they left off, but that didn't work, so they just moved on...
• Seeing Double At The Triple Rock
• Reeko (after this song, Fat Mike said, "That was the worst song you'll hear all night. Sometimes we play all good songs, but we usually only do that in good cities...so you're getting a lot of duds.")
• F*ck The Kids
• Perfect Government
• Eat The Meek—Mike introduced this song by saying, "This song is for those two guys (pointing to two black security guards). This is black people music, played by white people, for white people."
• Dying Degree
• Drugs Are Good
• Soul Doubt
• Murder The Government—I love how Mike always changes the first verse of this song. The album version goes: "I wanna see the Constitution burn...wanna watch the White House overturn...wanna witness some blue blood bleed red." On their second live CD, he say "I wanna see Dick Cheney have a heart attack...wanna see Jenna and Barbara go to Iraq...wanna see our president do time." When I saw them at the Showbox in May, he said something like, "I wanna see Dick Cheney have a heart attack...wanna see pretty much everyone home from Iraq...wanna see George Bush take a nine iron to the head." Last night, he said, "I wanna see Dick Cheney have a heart attack...I wanna see the White House full of black (again pointing to the two security guards)...I wanna see George Bush deepthroat Obama!" Awesome...
• Louise
• Radio (Rancid cover)
• Quart In Session
• Bob
• She's Nubs
• Linoleum
• The Brews
• Bottles To The Ground
• Whoops I OD'd

Encore:
• Kill All The White Man
• Theme From A NOFX Album—then Melvin stayed on stage playing accordion for about 20 minutes. Good times!

They said they have about 20 new songs and were going to play one of them, but when they said that, some kid booed and Fat Mike was like, "Fine, we're not playing a new song because of that guy." That kid's an idiot and I hope he got punched in the face. So I went and found a YouTube video of the new song, called "The Quitter." Enjoy...




It was an awesome show and, after the set, I found NOFX's tour manager, Kent, at the sound booth and asked him if their show, "Backstage Passport" will be coming out on DVD. He said that it will be released next year on Fat...so, that's awesome!

The drive home went well. I got to my car and heard the last two innings of the game (damn Phillies!), got home, made some food and cleaned up my kitchen with the anticipation that I may be getting a new roommate (with two cats) today. Hasn't happened yet, though, so I'm not sure what's going on...

Last weekend was awesome, this weekend was great and next weekend's going to be even better!

As a side note, all this talk about music reminded me that Matt put up his list of his top 25 favorite albums of all time. Now I want to see what Mike and Kelly's lists would look like. Also, Fernando...you need to start a blog already! C'mon...everybody's doing it! I even took some time to think of some blog names for you. Just pick one...

dudeguys.blogspot.com (whoops, already taken)
chileanlikeavillian.blogspot.com
keeptrackoflaco.blogspot.com
thebronzefonz.blogspot.com

Monday, October 20, 2008

Catching Up After An Awesome Weekend

The reason I didn't blog at all this weekend is because two of my best friends, Matt and Kelly, came out to visit me. I've been friends with Matt since sixth grade and with Kelly since high school. People are always amazed that we all still keep in touch and hang out so often and I know I am very lucky to have such a great group of friends. My dream would be for all of us to live in a cul-de-sac together. Maybe if one of us wins the lottery...

Anyway, Kelly got in late Thursday night. I didn't have to work on Friday (taking a late Columbus Day off), so that was awesome. I picked up Kelly at the airport and we came back to the house. We got back at about midnight and just chilled for a little bit. At about 2 o'clock, Kelly suggested we hit up the grocery store. I wasn't tired, so I thought it was a good idea and we headed down the road to a place called Harris Teeter. It's open 24 hours and it's a nice grocery store, kind of like Top Foods. Kelly found a huge container of cheese balls and we both went some cereal. He went with a couple of my favorites—Golden Grahams and Cap'n Crunch and I tried a new kind, Keebler Cookie Crunch. I went all out, dumping the whole box into a big mixing bowl, which made Kelly laugh so hard, milk almost came out of his nose. I couldn't finish it all though, and the bowl ended up sitting in the sink for the rest of the weekend, getting really soggy and nasty.



We watched "Superbad" and didn't go to bed until 6 in the morning. That made me sleep in until 2:30 on Friday and I felt really bad, because Kelly said he woke up at 12:30. He said he didn't care, though, because he knew we'd make up for it that night. Did we ever...

I found a cool place online that I wanted to take Kelly for lunch. We headed out and found it, but it wasn't open. The reason I wanted to take him there, however, was not for the food, so it didn't really matter. The reason I wanted to take him there was for something the place has in the parking lot...an ass-kicking machine!

Kelly had some fun kicking his own ass...


Then he got ballsy and decided to turn around...


I had some fun too...


That was just the start to a kick-ass weekend! (rimshot!) The restaurant was out in Raleigh, near the airport, so we headed back into Durham and drove around for a bit, ending up at Elmo's Diner, where we had "breakfast." After that, we made our first Locopops stop. I had sweet corn and Mexican chocolate. Sweet corn was pretty good, but Mexican chocolate was the bomb—probably my favorite so far!

We came home and just chilled for a bit, watching some funny videos on the Internet, while we waited for Matt's plane to get in. Matt got in at about 8, so we headed out to the airport and picked him up. He was hungry, so we went to this place down the street from my house called Golden Corral. It's a buffet, but it's a lot better than Old Country. We all stuffed ourselves (I think it was the theme for the weekend). After that, we came home and watched "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," a movie neither of them had seen. After that, we headed back down to Harris Teeter to get some more snacks and so the fellas could get their drink on. We came back and played poker for a while and, once 3 o'clock rolled around, I knew I couldn't go to bed. See, I had agreed to drive one of my co-workers to the airport and he needed to be picked up at 6:45. If I went to bed at 3, I knew I wouldn't wake up and the last thing I wanted to do was flake out on being his ride to the airport. When I called my co-worker at 6:45 to tell him I was on my way over, he was like, "What in the world is going on over there?" I told him my buddies were in town and that we hadn't even gone to bed yet. He laughed and they ended up coming with me to the airport, bantering incessantly in the back seat the entire way there, which had him cracking up.

I finally got to bed at about 8:30 and slept until about 1. We woke up and headed out to show Matt around beautiful downtown Durham. We first headed to the Q Shack and it was awesome, as usual. Then we went downtown and hit up Locopops again. This time, I had chocolate rosemary (mmm!) and Moroccan curry, which was interesting. It was a coconut popsicle with curry powder mixed in. Not something I would think of, but I've never had anything bad at that place. I love it! Then we drove around Duke's campus. Cheryl—remember when we drove around there a bit? Well, inside that stone block that we saw, there's a road that heads out of there and the campus is HUUUUUUUUUUUGE! That little area we saw, is probably just about 5% of the campus. We drove around there and saw the Duke Chapel and all of the people heading to the Duke vs. Miami football game. After that, we headed to the mall and walked around for a bit. The guys did a little shopping and then we decided to see a movie. We saw "Sexdrive" (I guess it was the weekend of comedies). It was a little cheesy, but it was also a lot funnier than I expected. Overall, I would recommend it if you're a fan of "Superbad." Then we headed back down to Harris Teeter and picked up some pizza at a place called Randy's Pizza. It was awesome. We headed back to my place, watched the rest of the baseball game and then some SNL. It was a lot more low key. We just chilled out—Matt and I played some Fantastic Contraption on our laptops and Kelly beat Portal on my 360. We went to bed at 5.

Sunday we woke up and headed back out to Elmo's. I haven't been a lot of places around here, but I think I'd be hard pressed to find a better breakfast spot. We all pigged out on omelets and pancakes and then headed back to the house where we watched some football. We didn't really think about dinner (probably because we had breakfast/lunch so late), so by the time we got around to that, pretty much everything was closed. A fast-food chicken place called Bojangles was open, so we went there. Matt and I got some chicken biscuits and Kelly ate the leftover pizza. We came back to the house and played some poker while we watched the Rays beat the Red Sox to go to the World Series! What a great game! At about 12:30, I had to go to bed. The guys had to go to the airport at 4:45. They were going to just stay up and sleep on their respective planes, but I had to get some sleep because I had to work today.

My roommate got back late Sunday night and, as I was heading to bed, he told me it would be his last night in the house. He decided to quit his masters program and move back home and become a teacher again. Kind of a bummer and it sounds like I'll probably be getting another rommate, maybe two. We'll see...

So I went to bed, but woke myself up with hiccups at 3 in the morning. That has never happened to me before and it was very painful, because I also had some bad heartburn. My stomach felt like a garbage truck full of acidic pig slop driving down a freeway with speed bumps. Not fun. Just as I woke up, Kelly snuck into my room to get an iPod chord and I said hey. He said they were playing cards still, but had switched from poker to gin rummy. So I said, "what the hell" and headed back out there. We played some gin rummy until they had to head to the airport and then I got to sleep for a couple more hours when I got back. Better than nothing, I suppose, but I was still really wiped at work today. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I've been that tired. Needless to say, I came home after work and crashed in my recliner and now I'm about to head to bed after I click "Publish Post."

I came home for lunch and Josh was just packing up his car. We talked for a bit as I ate and then I did the dishes, because I didn't want his last memory of me to be the nastiest sink in the world. But then I had to go to the bathroom and he said goodbye by knocking on the door...so much for a good last impression!

This writeup probably makes it sound more boring than it actually was, but we really had a great time and I was so glad they could make it out here. I'm so lucky to have the best friends in the world!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

I need some recipes

Ok loyal readers—I need your help!

While I'm very proud of the fact that I'm able to churn out delicious meals like this one...



...my skills are very limited. Pretty much every night I have to ask myself, "What's for dinner tonight: spaghetti or mac 'n' cheese?" Kind of pathetic...

So, help a brotha' out! Help me diversify my easy dinner portfolio! In the comments, post your favorite EASY (and I mean easy) dinner recipe. Break it down for me, because if you leave any loopholes, I'll surely find a way to screw it up...

Monday, October 13, 2008

October 13, 2008

It was a great day at work today. Why? Well, it was actually an optional day. Apparently we get Columbus Day off—that's how awesome BA is! I actually decided to work today and am instead taking Friday off, because my friends will be in town. So it was a nice, quiet day at the office and I got a lot done. After work, I came home, made dinner and then went to the grocery store with Josh. Came back, watched the rest of the game and got inspired...

Remember what my room looked like a couple days ago? Well, I got inspired and decided to clean it tonight. After all ... Matt and Kelly will be here this weekend! Here's some proof...

My room...



Ok, so I have a little bit of laundry to do. But I even cleaned off/organized my desk...



And, just so Kelly doesn't accuse me of cheating, here's a picture of my closet...



Up next ... cleaning out my car!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

October 12, 2008

Lazy weekend

It was a real lazy weekend for me—but I knew it was going to be and I'm okay with it. On Friday after work, I went to the grocery store to stock up on some snacks because I knew I'd just be chillin' at the house all weekend. After that, I just watched some baseball, played Fantastic Contraption, played some Madden and goofed around on the Internet until 4 in the morning. That caused me to sleep in until about 3 on Saturday. When I finally got up, I headed to the mall to return some shoes. I got the shoes this summer at Nordstrom in Bellevue. I really liked them (although they were annoyingly squeaky) but they had already started to fall apart. As I expected, the Nordstrom out here didn't have them, but returning them was easy (of course!) and I found a sweet pair of Asics...



I also did some more digital shopping. Here's what I found this time around...

For Megan: some computer speakers that look like giant ear buds!



For my dad: The Dude action figure!



For Matt (or anyone else interested...): A daily calendar that has 365 different sexual positions!



I actually got a digital gift for Greg, but Cheryl said it was such a good find that it might turn into an actual gift...

After the mall yesterday, I was just hanging out when a buddy from work called and asked if I wanted to catch the rest of the game at a sports bar right by the office. I said sure and he came over a little later and picked me up. We headed up there, but only stayed 5 minutes because the place was an absolute joke. They call themselves a sports bar, but they only had four TVs and two were playing NASCAR and the other two were playing college football. Lame! we ended up coming back here to watch the rest of the game. Woo Rays!

Today I woke up at a more-reasonable 12:30, ate some cereal (Cookie Crisp) and watched a little football before heading back out to the mall. My new shoes are really skinny, so my jeans always slip underneath, which I absolutely HATE! So I went to find a new pair of jeans that isn't as loose as my current rotation. I found a great pair at Eddie Bauer. When I got home, I put them on and they still do it a little bit, but they look good and I don't think they'll do it as much. Still kind of frustrating though.

When I got back from the mall, I noticed that the house smelled a little funny. So I did the dishes tonight and nearly puked. It literally smelled like someone sat in the sink and took a dump. Husband training won't be complete until I begin to put my dirty dishes directly into the dishwasher, instead of letting them pile up in the sink...