viva the midwest

More specifically, Granite City.

Scene: Walking into a gas station

dude: "Go Nazis!"
me:
dude: "White power, man"
me: .. "nah, man."

I've been sporting the bald look for like 2+ years now, and this is the first time someone's tried to identify with me as a white supremacist of some sort. Knowing the type of person I was dealing with, I decided against engaging the dude any further, since I'd probably get my ass kicked or really confuse the guy.

recovery

From vacation, that is.

Friday: Played some Rockband, met up with Eric, hit Esperanza for the mexi-love, then the Friday's/Johnny's routine, with a smattering of "new" bar, 5th Quarter. Neat. Plowedness ensued. Jed bought pizza for the bar.

Saturday: Slept in stupid-late. Ellen made French toast. Went to Carlyle Lake. Came back, took shower, met up with Rob and Eric @ Hooters, then did some mosquito-infested night golf at the Par3 course. Wound up switching over to best ball by the 4th hole, and plowed through 18 with the quickness. Home and in bed by 11:30.

Sunday: Slept in kinda stupid-late. After much debate and lolly-gagging (hello from the 40s), we decided to start on the basement redeux in earnest. Home Depot, etc. LOTS of concrete patching, general cleaning and purging from the hellhole took place. Painting will be eventually. Not sure if the project is worthwile, but it needs to be done, and it'll only happen once, so whatever. Long-overdue BW3, and then back to the house to watch 21.

I still hate Coldplay.

Denver Trip

I hate coming home from vacation. Went to Denver for a week with Ellen/Chris/Cari. Went with intent of catching the Foo show at Red Rocks Tuesday (which was cancelled), but still had a frickin' blast.

Tuesday: Arrived, set up shop in a completely bitchin condo downtown, with a full HD DirecTV setup, balcony, and awesome views. Rooftop pool, etc. Hit Benny's Cantina for some bomb-ass Mexican, and strong drink. Attempted to find a Starbucks that was open after 9pm, failed horribly.

Wednesday: Hit 16th Street Mall (tourist trap) for food and pool accoutrements, chilled at the rooftop pool for a while, ate, and hit the road. Hit Castle Rock so the girls could rape the outlet mall. Kept going south, went to Garden of the Gods outside of Colo Spgs. Climbed on a bunch of shit, had a little wine/cheese picnic. Awesome.

Thursday: Went back down south again to Cañon City, did some whitewater rafting under the Royal Gorge Bridge. Never done that before, and my buddy convinced us to do a 3/4 run. Freaking AWESOME. Loved it. Our guide was incredible, and the views were amazing. Drove back, got cleaned up, did a fondue dinner, then hit Lodo for some boozing. Met up with Eric, who we hadn't seen since high school. Drank till about 3 or 4. I passed out on a dresser.

Friday: Slept in, more chilling poolside. Had Beau Jo's for lunch. Awesome. Took a drive up to Lookout Mountain and Buffalo Bill's Grave. Cool drive, awesome views as always, plus decently close to the city. Our rental Ford Edge, while really damn good looking in Orange with grey 18"s, didn't fare well at altitude with the small engine in it. Spent a lot of time floored and not going very fast. Went back, got ready, took a cab over to one of my favorite bars/clubs ever, The Church. Wives didn't really appreciate it, especially since neither were big electronic fans. They've upgraded a lot in there since the last time I was there, the sound system was perfect, the vibe was incredible, and it was just freaking cool. Drank overpriced drinks until about 2, split, drank more at the house.

Saturday: Got up, hit Cherry Creek lake for some jetskiing. Hit the Rockies/Pirates game at 6, awesome game, Rockies clobbered. Hit McCormick's for horrible service but awesome seafood afterwards. Went to Wynkoop Brewery for some pool after that, more wandering and drinking. Wound up taking the women to La Boheme, that was semi-entertaining.

Sunday: Got up, hit the pool again, got ready and went over to Commerce City for the Mile High Music Festival. An amazing organizational clusterfuck. Got in to catch the end of Flogging Molly's set. Caught Flobots, The Roots, Black Crowes, and then finally Dave Matthews. Awesome shows all around. Split a bit early to beat the crowds.

Monday: Hit Angelo's Pizzeria for some awesome pie, and then fought traffic to the airport. Flew back into a wall of humidity. Blarg. Fvck the midwest. Slept late, slept on the flight in, so I slept 0 last night.

Going out just solidified my need to get bloody hell out of the Midwest by any means necessary, and ASAP. Forgot how much I missed the people on the whole, the entire vibe of the city is just incredible, not to mention the weather most of the year, and all the things to do.

Some pics/vids here. Waiting for the waterproof cam to be developed, and C&C have a ton of pics as well.

thinger

Friday - Drove over to Lake Mattoon after work. Got caught in a monsoon from hell. Had to pull off the highway, which is the first time I've ever had to do that. Rain let up by the time I got there, drank a few beers, did the campfire thing. Bed early since everyone was dead from being on the water all day.

Saturday - Woke up, ate some awesome biscuits/gravy, waited out the rain till about 10 or so. Took the sailboat out for a bit, got back, swam, put Boris in the water, it was entertaining. Left, drove back to Collinsville, took shower, played xbox, went to comedy club with Heric and another couple, freaking hilarious. Went to Johnny's afterwards, drank a bit, wound up geting a Rumba lesson on the sidewalk. Strange. Home by 130a.

Sunday - Woke up hungover, made eggs. Watched TV, detailed Mustang, fixed AC on the truck, did other mechanical putzing. Drove around a bit since it was beautiful out. Mowed yard, re-graveled the patio around the jacuzzi, played Tiger Woods 08, lounged.

the weigh-ay-eight is the hardest part

See what I did there?

210. Again, massive lack of trying, especially with an upcoming vacation. I must conquer these last 10. Maybe. :)

see title of blog

Long weekend. W00t.

Thursday (First Friday?): Had surprise party at the office which started at 3:30. Was dreading this, due to my mindset of the traditional office party, but was relieved to see the maintenance garage had a nice spread of booze and multiple beer coolers. Hung out with office people till about 5:30, and went home. Made Ellen drive into the city, due to beer. Went to Hacienda with the Davies, then to Lleywln's in WG for after-dinner drinks. Then back to Cville, for Fridays I think. Home by 123oa or so.

Friday (Second Friday?): Woke up kinda early, ate, laid around for a bit, worked on deck, made replacement table top for patio set. Neighbors had a BBQ, awesome chicken, Davies came over, neighbors put on insane fireworks display, complete with mortars and all sorts of illegal shit. Neighbor's dad had a police scanner, if that's any indication of the hardcore-ness. Had small bonfire and more beer afterwards.

Saturday (only Saturday): Woke up at some point, Ellen made some awesome pancakes and whatnot. I detailed the cars, she did laundry and shit. Went over to Davies for margaritas and food courtesy of Eric's parents. Went to Johnny's afterwards. Helen became the drunkest person of all time. Very hilarious. Got slapped. By Helen. Oddly, hilarious. She said i could slap her back since I was wearing a brown shit "It's OK, it's brown; I counted." Some huge/scary/awesome/deathmetal dude kept buying me shots of Soco & Lime. It was nuts. There was moonwalking. Some talk about Charlemane or something. Closed the bar, went home. Sleep by 4.

Sunday: Woke up entirely too early (10ish). Got ready, met Davies, went to O'fallon for BBQ goodness with Lowns/Lammles. Came home, hit Walamart, Blockbuster, took nap, watched Jumper. Kinda dissappointing they didn't do more with the story, but wasn't god-awful. Back to sleep at like 10 or something.

dogturtle

Here's a pic of the turtle Boris had, btw.