Corporate flunky

2010-02-20T20:23:00.003-06:00

What's up peoples? Been a while but wanted to check in. I'm already nearly at mid-term here in the spring and it has been hectic. I'm getting much closer to the end of this process and reality is really setting in. I'm starting to get ready for some significant next steps that I'll not detail here but more to come on that soon.

In the meantime, I'm busy working through a class with the same professor I had over the summer. Not a fan of the guy but I feel a little ahead of the game since I know what to expect from him. However, it is very frustrating when you feel like you are spinning wheels in class since everything changes every five minutes. Oh well, only about eight more weeks in the semester :-)

Work has been pretty busy since about Thanksgiving. I've taken on a new role at the job and it took me about 2 months or so to get rid of all my old responsibilities. That is mostly complete now though and I'm settling into a nice rhythm. The new role is strictly internal so absolutely no client interaction, which has it's pluses and minuses. One of the minuses is no more fun travel. I am taking my last trip out to beautiful San Francisco in a couple days, I'll sure miss those trips. Already planning a trip with the kids to drive out that way one of these summers, hopefully in the next 2-3 years or so. When I win the lottery, I'll definitely own a place on the North Coast (might have to win twice, land is a little pricy up there!) I'll be forever indebted to Babou and Richelle for getting married out there and introducing me to the place.

I also need to say congrats to virtually every friend I have as they have all had kids recently, it has been a real population boom. I think everyone is making sure they have enough kids to pay for their nursing homes when they get older with the way these folks are reproducing! As a matter of fact, the better half is off visiting my sister-in-law who just had her first, congrats B & B!

I'll try to stop back by before too long!

Song lyric of the day:

If I stay lucky then my tongue will stay tied /
and I won't betray the things that I hide

Seven Mary Three - Lucky

Until next time.

Ace

Tiger

2009-12-10T12:13:00.001-06:00

A couple funny one liners I saw today about the incomparable Tiger Woods:

I heard Mickelson called Tiger's wife and said:"So that's how you beat him!"

A spokesperson from the Wood's camp has asked that he no longer be referred to as Tiger. From now on his new nickname is Cheatah.

Song lyric of the day "It's the eye of the Tiger!" Survivor

Until next time.

Ace

Welcome back welcome back welcome back

2009-10-28T13:57:00.002-05:00

Hey peeps, I'm really still alive, just been caught up in the business of day to day life. I am mid-semester in my African American lit class, it's been ok so far. Unfortunately my classmates aren't as insightful as some of my previous grad classes and as such, I've gotten less from our roundtable discussions than I had hoped. But things are heating up with my term paper, a draft is due in a few weeks and I'm still torn on my topic. I expect great movement in short order!

I am absolutely crushed that I'm unable to disappear to Peoria tonight to check out Silversun Pickups. Unfortunately it is the closest they will be in many many months. On the bright side, got to check out Airborne Toxic Event (no, that's not a swine flu reference) over the weekend at Metro in Chicago. Love the venue, the show had ups and downs but glad we were there. It was great for the better half and I to hang with Q & Krissy, good times!

Work has been absolute madness, which is par for the season. I'm hoping calmness is on the horizon. And my first stint coaching kiddie basketball starts tomorrow night, coincidentally, the start of the Bulls season as well. Ah, serendipity.

I had an interesting discussion with one of my nieces last night, me giving her a sort of carpe diem speech about getting herself educated and stop procrastinating. I feel like I was convincing myself of the need as much as her. But I'm on my way folks, this train of mine is moving ahead at full speed. I'm excited and scared but hopeful.

Lastly, if you care about your money at all, check out mint.com. This site is really cool, let's you track all your accts (banks, loans, credit cards, 401ks, etc) and sends reminders when stuff is due. The budget features are really great. It only takes a very short while to set up and is very user friendly. And, bonus, I can play with it on my iPhone, which I am loving.

Finally, root for a tie so neither the Yanks or Phillies can win this year's world series. Glad to be back!

Song lyric of the day: "It's been such a long time, it's been such a long time" Boston

Until next time.

Ace

Back on the attack

2009-08-20T09:03:00.002-05:00

A lot has happened since my last post. I've been to Vegas, San Francisco and a concert. I've spent most of my short break between summer and fall semester cleaning up a number of small, nagging things. But what I wanted to write about today concerns a recent visit to Wrigley Field.

The fam and I had an opportunity to visit Wrigley Field earlier this week as part of a fan appreciation event. The concept was cool and had me very excited. Fans get to go out on the field and visit any of the seating areas in the stadium also, including playing catch on the field and taking batting practice. Very sweet.

So the fam and I schlepped down to the big city and headed in. First things first, we grabbed some grub and decided to eat right behind home plate. Sweet! It was really cool to be able to hang out all around the stadium. We checked out where my season tix are located, took some pictures out near the ivy in the outfield and let the kiddies run the bases. The grass in the outfield was perfect, like the best fairway on a golf course you can imagine. And I even managed to get a couple pics taken in the Bartman seats, recreating that awful moment from 2003. So, there was a lot of fun stuff. But I had some problems with this whole event.

First, I was surprised how many people there were - kinda sucked but not the biggest deal. Unfortunately, the line to take batting practice (which occurred under the bleachers in right field) was too long so we never got to do that. But the bigger problem were the fans. For example, home plate was a popular area for pictures, with a line of probably 40 or 50 people. One group of guys decided they needed to literally slide into home for several picture opportunities, taking 10 or 15 minutes. The same was happening around all the bases, people literally laying on the ground taking pictures sliding into the bases. Not really a big deal unless you're taking forever while there is a line of people waiting to take pictures.

Another problem were the people who decided their need to play catch required them to throw the ball all over the field whether people were walking past or not. Again, no problem if you want to play catch but do you really need to throw it over the head of dozens of people across 80 or 90 feet? Really pretty awful.

I guess what it all boils down to is that you should never underestimate the rudeness and cluelessness of Cubs fans. Lesson learned!

Otherwise, I'm getting ready to head back to class next week. Also working on some things around the house, hoping to finish a long outstanding project in the basement and preparing for a couple of concerts in the next few weeks. With that, I'm off.

Song lyric of the day "Driving south on Lake Shore Drive, heading into town" Aliotta, Haynes & Jeremiah

Until next time.

Ace

Bored to tears

2009-07-27T14:11:00.002-05:00

I realize that posts about running and my workouts are probably not all that interesting to anyone but me. So I promise this will be the last one that goes into detail. After my previous post about the Gov, I'd hate to leave everyone hanging about the big race last week.

First of all, it took me 2+ hours to drive from my class to Q's place. Weather sucked, traffic sucked, and I very nearly missed the race! But I made it to Q's, we jumped on the train and hurried over to the race. We got there literally 7 minutes before the race started.

I did not care much for the course. First off, the starting line was on a narrow strip of walkway that could handle approximately 10 people across. Not good for a race with 1600+ runners. So, after the quarter mile walk to the end of the line, we were finally ready. Well, kind of. You really couldn't hear anyone at the starting line, nor was there a starting gun we could hear. We just saw the mass of humanity in front of us start moving. So, we started moving too. Nearly 4 minutes later, we actually made it to the starting line.

As an aside, this is the first race I've done where the organizers utilized a timing chip that electronically monitors when you start and when you finish, taking all the guesswork out of it. It was pretty sweet and convenient. Anyhow, now we're running. I did this run with Wudchuk and Q, both of whom have been working out plenty lately. Wudchuk took off quite quickly right off the bat and Q dropped back as he was trying to stick to his marathon training pace, or at least somewhere near it. I took off at my own pace but had Wudchuk in my sights for pretty much the whole race, never being more than 25 yards behind.

There were a lot of people in this race and since we were starting near the end, a lot of the people in front of us needed to be passed. This caused the first couple of miles to be an exercise in dodging bodies while trying to maintain a good pace. In some ways, that helps keep your mind off getting tired or whatever but it's kind of a waste of time and energy and probably slows things down. Remembering that my run last month took 28:56, I was hoping to beat that time in this race.

One thing I worry about in each race is going out too fast and meeting the Governor or some other untimely demise. So I usually consciously try to hold back. But it's hard for me, I get pretty psyched up with all of the people and the race environment and the adrenaline gets going. As we approached the 1 mile marker, I was feeling good and crossed the marker at about 8:10. Whoa, that's quite a bit faster than usual. But I was still feeling ok so didn't worry too much about it.

The second mile was also not too bad, crossed the 2 mile marker at just over 16:00, not bad at all! No visit from the Governor so I'm beginning to think that I might not get to exchange pleasantries with him after all. I've still got Wudchuk in my sights and he seems to be slowing down a little bit. As such, I was able to finally close the last 10 meters on him at about 2.25 mile marker. With a clap on the shoulder I let him know I was there and helped him keep his pace up.

The things I didn't like about the course were a few. One, the width of the course we were running on. Get some streets blocked off or something, this is a big race! Two, the conditions of the path we were running on weren't the greatest. There were several areas where the pavement was thoroughly chunked up and kinda dangerous to run on. Three, there was no mile marker at the third mile (which we didn't know until the end!) and you didn't see the finish line until you had about 200 meters left in the race. Not good. So, I hope they change these things in the future, they were distracting and annoying.

I mention them because by the time we hit what was around the 3 mile mark, I was feeling it. At this point, Wudchuk helped me keep my pace up. When we turned the corner and spotted the finish line, we both dashed with whatever we had left and crossed that finish line side by side, gasping, panting, victorious! I knew it was a good run time but wasn't sure exactly how good. Well, the next morning, Wudchuk looked it up online and we both scored major personal records with a 26:06 finish! Whoa!!!!!!!!! I shaved almost 3 minutes off in a month. I would not have believed I had it in me. That is far and away the fastest I've run probably since junior high.

Very excited at the finish and now really looking forward to my next race (which hasn't been identified yet, sometime in August for sure). I would love to get down under 25 minutes by the end of the season. I believe this should be motivation for me to keep the training going. Thanks to Wudchuk for being a great running partner (and pacing beacon with that bright yellow shirt of his, very Tour de France of him).

Since then, I also managed to check out the Hangover for a second time (definitely funnier the 2nd time) and hit the local card room for a couple hour session Saturday night where I managed to crack Q's Aces and finished the session up nearly $150. Great warmup for my trip this weekend out to Vegas! I expect to be swamped between now and then finishing up my final project for class and hopefully getting in a couple of runs. As such, I probably won't be back for a bit to visit unless it is very brief.

Song lyric of the day "Running down a dream / working a mystery / going wherever it leads" Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

Until next time.

Ace

Uh-Oh (or How I Learned to Love The Governor)

2009-07-21T10:24:00.003-05:00

I recently posted about a race I did on Father's Day, where I achieved a recent personal record. By recent I mean my best since junior high / high school, which hardly even counts. So, anyhow, the good time has motivated me to keep running. And, seeing so many of my friends that have been dedicated to their workouts (including one who's lost over 100 pounds) has also been very motivating.

This motivation has manifested itself in me running pretty regularly. Not every day, because I don't really like running, I'm really just doing it to keep in shape. But, with the goal in mind of improving my times, I have been sticking to running more than just mixing it up with biking, elliptical, etc.

So, during my runs, the first mile usually sucks because I know I still have so far to go but eventually I just keep going and then I'm done. Some days are really tough - usually it feels tough to stick it out and finish the run. Others are just sort of mediocre. But every once in a while, you get one of those days where it just feels good. For me, these days are pretty irregular, I've really only ever had a few of them. One was maybe 3 or 4 weeks ago. Another was yesterday.

I'm preparing for a race on Thursday and so I wanted to do my final prep run yesterday, thinking I'd just do my normal loop, which equates to somewhere around a 5k. As an aside, I really have no idea why I haven't mapped out this loop to see how far it is, I've run it over 50 times and it would be nice to know how far I've gone and also track my times. Especially since I'm kind of a stat junkie, you'd think I would have done this by now. I digress.

For anyone that doesn't know running, you generally are supposed to take it pretty easy in the several days leading up to a race, I suppose it gives your body a chance to rest up and be in peak form on race day. So I went out last night just hoping to put my time in and be done with it until Thursday's race.

If you've run any distance before, then you're familiar with the ache or cramping feeling you get in your stomach, especially if you run too fast. Well, I found in my last really good run before last night that I got that ache very early in the run but it never got bad or made me feel like I needed to slow down. Same thing happened last night. Within the first half mile, I could feel it. But I could tell it was the good ache, where it wouldn't get worse and I was in complete control of it. I kept pushing myself and I could tell as I adjusted my effort the ache would change accordingly. So, it was acting sort of as a governor on my speed, similar to how the go karts at your local track are limited in their speed by a governor placed on the cart engine. It was weird and empowering, but it felt like I could control the ache very precisely. Like I had my hand wrapped around it and could throttle up or down just like a motorcycle.

Well, me and The Governor (since he's mine and personal he really should be capitalized) had a very nice run last night. So nice that I decided to push beyond my normal loop, even more than I have been in previous runs, maintaining a nice speed for nearly the entire way. My last few runs I didn't feel good but had extended about another half mile past the normal loop, primarily in an effort to improve my endurance. I decided last night I'd go about a mile past the normal loop. Things went pretty well for the most part although about halfway through the extension I started to get pretty wiped out. I believe maybe I did a Blago and impeached the Governor. Anyhow, I finished the run and cooled down, happy to have a nice run behind me. I hope me and the Gov hang out again soon.

The real problem here is that after my last really nice run, I had several in a row that were very difficult. And of course, rather than taking it a little more easy (as described earlier), I overextended myself. And, oh yeah, my next run is my race. I really am quite dumb - I hope I don't turn in an awful time Thursday, that would be disappointing.

In non-running news, I only have 3 weeks of class left! Got a B+ on my big assignment from last week, have revised it for re-submission today. Big final project is just starting up but I expect to make significant progress on it tonight after class, we'll be doing an in-class workshop on Thursday and then have another week to pretty it up for another workshop. I think it should be pretty good. Then the last thing is our in class final. So, the end is near!

Heading to Vegas in a few weeks too, definitely looking forward to that!

Song lyric of the day "Wait - there's something up ahead / I've seen its claws / I can see the mark it left / Well fed and eating with a thousand hands" Cassino - Governor (I confess to not having ever heard this song or of this group but this seemed pretty good!)

Until next time.

Ace

Tales of Domesticity

2009-07-19T17:24:00.003-05:00

Following is a real-life exchange between myself and the better half.

Better half: "I was watching TV and saw that having sex is supposed to improve your immune system. We should work on that."

Me: "That's funny, you already seem immune to sex with me."

Song lyric of the day: "I want your sex" George Michael

Until next time.

Ace

Keeping my head down

2009-07-14T09:46:00.003-05:00

Well dear reader, things are going just fine. Work has been extremely busy, with some organizational changes that have been confusing and time-consuming. But hopefully at the end of the day it will all be better than it is today. It definitely has that potential. I've been travelling to visit clients locally quite a bit lately, which has kept me busy. More of that in the future, as well as some travel to visit my client out in Cali and probably a trip back down to Houston. Plus I've got a fun trip to Vegas in a few weeks, sweet!

I'm down to 4 weeks remaining in class for the summer term. We got our first grade in our last class period. It was really weird, the professor gave us a group of lines to read from one of Shakespeare's plays and we just had to do our best to read it out loud appropriately. The purpose was to practice scansion and enjambment, which are basic skills of knowing how to read along with the meter of the work and when to pause, etc. Kinda weird as it was done really on the spot but I did fine with it. We have a major assignment due today, I have a feeling I did ok on it but not great. We'll find out quickly enough!

Otherwise, just keeping on. Kid #1 turned 7 last week, wow I'm old. We're having her bday party this weekend, that should be fun. We attended a big celebration this past weekend for our friends who married in Mexico over the winter - there were a lot of people there. It was a fun time for all, or at least for me. I have been doing a decent amount of running lately, trying to beat my time in my last 5k. My next race comes up late next week, I hope it doesn't get too hot!

Listening to some fun new stuff these days, including MGMT "Time to Pretend", Band of Skulls "I Know What I am", Innerpartysystem "Don't Stop" and The Rifles "Science in Violence". Good stuff!

Song lyric of the day "Truckin', up to Buffalo, been thinkin', you got to mellow slow" Grateful Dead

Until next time.

Ace

Tales of Domesticity

2009-07-08T13:57:00.002-05:00

This tale was relayed to me by the better half (and some of you may have already seen on Facebook):

Better half looks over and sees that kid #3 has put kid #2's bracelet in the ear.

BH: That doesn't go there, take it out!
Kid 3: (Takes bracelet out of the ear and inserts into the nose)
Kid 2: (Runs in front of better half, sticking booty out) I'm going to give myself a wedgie!

Good times!

Song lyric of the day"Insane in the membrane" Cypress Hill

Until next time.

Ace

Musically inclined

2009-07-01T10:29:00.002-05:00

Hello loyal readers. I wanted to stop in and give a quick report. Only 5 weeks of my summer class left! Unreal, it is going so fast but I'm really enjoying the course so far. There has been extremely little lecture and lots of reading and interpretation of Master Shakespeare. Very enjoyable, especially compared to the boring courses I've taken in the last few semesters. It will be a race to finish but luckily I've got some long flights coming up that will let me stay caught up.

Speaking of which, just booked a flight to Vegas for the end of the month - woooohoooo! It's going to be a little weird as I'm going solo, for a pseudo-kinda-conference thingy but I'm certain I will get exhaustive amounts of poker played. It is going to be scorching hot there, not looking forward to that part of it. Also heading to San Fran in a couple of weeks. The scheduling kind of sucks as I fly out right after class Thursday night and don't get in until late, then heading back late afternoon Friday. Maybe I'll stay up super late on Thursday to at least get some fun time in while out there.

I really wanted to just post about music though. I cannot tell you how addicted I am to the new Silversun Pickups CD, called Swoon. I haven't been this hooked on a disc in years, probably since Final Straw from Snow Patrol. If you're looking for individual tracks, Panic Switch, Sort Of (my fav) and The Royal We are strong, but really the entire disc is really good. I'm looking forward to checking out some of their other stuff. The better half and I are also digging Airborne Toxic Event and their tune Sometime Around Midnight. Several concerts/shows coming up in the next six weeks so I'm sure I'll be blogging more about music coming up.

Song lyric of the day "Does it make you nervous/when you hear my bones/animate my body/without my soul?" Silversun Pickups, Sort Of

Until next time.

Ace

Into the thick of it

2009-06-23T11:27:00.002-05:00

Wow, class is going to be intense! Two sessions in and the reading assignments are quite extensive. The topic of the class is Shakespeare for Teachers, which is a very useful topic. The professor is less of a jackass than my first impression of him might have given but it's still early. The idea is to give us useful ways to teach the Bard in our own classrooms. Most of my classmates are already teachers so we'll see if that serves as any sort of disadvantage as we proceed. Anyhow, reading is eating up almost all of my time, especially on the days between the Tuesday and Thursday afternoon class. On the upside, this is looking like one of the classes that will prove most valuable when I begin teaching as many of the things we'll do will be directly portable to my class. And I'm getting to read a few plays I've not read before, I am enjoying that so far. Death to the boring linguistics classes, bring on the literature!

Also this weekend, I decided I wasn't hot enough in this scorching weather so I decided to run in a 5k in my town's summer festival. It was not as early as I would have liked, starting at 8:30 am. It was flipping humid so I fully expected it to be a tough go. I was planning to try and beat the 10 minute mile mark, which is essentially what I ran in my race earlier this spring. Instead of fighting 18,000+ runners, this one was only 448 people strong.

I set off and did my first mile way too fast, clocking at about 9:23. I decided I needed to slow it down a little so I didn't find myself dying in the last half of the race. I was able to find some people to keep pace with, which was very helpful. That stretch from 1.5 to 2 miles seemed to take forever! I get to the mile marker where the dude calling out the times yelled something around 17 minutes and 50 seconds or so. What???? I thought I slowed down, not dramatically sped up? This was not going to be good.

I started to feel it and definitely slowed down significantly in the last mile. The last 1.2 miles took about another 11 minutes, so I did slow down, but not too bad from my pace I was hoping to keep. Final time came in at 28:57, or 9 min 20 second miles. I think that's a personal record so I'm happy about that. I've set a nice high bar for me to try and surpass in my future races, awesome! Hopefully I can get under 9 minute miles by the end of the summer, we'll see. I'll need to be much more diligent about running between races if I want to do that. My next race is in late July in the early evening, hopefully it won't be outrageously hot. It has a Grateful Dead theme and while I'm not a big Deadhead, the tie dye shirts with the dancing skeleton are just too cool to pass up. More to report on this in the future!

Song lyric of the day "And I ran / I ran so far away" A Flock Of Seagulls

Until next time.

Ace

Back home

2009-06-09T15:22:00.002-05:00

The big trip to Rocky Top was a success, albeit a very tiring one. Didn't get in until very late Friday night, annoyingly keeping our gracious hosts up half the night. Big thanks again to B & D for hosting and letting our children run amok and teach their little guy the fine arts of crazy kidness.

Saturday found us heading to the big family reunion. I could literally see kid #2 trying to translate the thick Southern accents mentally. Hadn't really heard anything like that before. It was really great to catch up with the aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, cuncles and other assorted relations. And the weather couldn't have been better. The scenery was also beautiful, the reunion was held at a local church tucked back in the hills and there were trees everywhere. Oh, and according to my unofficial poll, I believe Tennessee has the highest church per resident ratio in the world. I'm pretty sure there are 3 or 4 churches for each resident.

Anyhow, we cruised back home Sunday, arriving right around 11:30 or so. We got in about 23 hours of driving or so in a 60 hour span, really quite sweet. But all in all, the kids did great. I'm beginning to think they're pretty good at this road trip thing after this trip and our great New York expedition last year.

Not much else to report on at the moment, class starts a week from today. Tick tock, eight weeks of madness about to ensue...

Song lyric of the day "Time keeps on slippin, slippin, slippin'/into the future" Fly Like an Eagle, Steve Miller Band

Until next time.

Ace

Road Trip!

2009-06-04T09:08:00.002-05:00

Packing up the fam and heading to the beautiful Smoky Mountains this weekend. 10 hour drive is the best case estimate I've heard, we'll see how it goes. #1 has the last day of school on Friday, early dismissal and straight into the car for the trip. We're going to visit family on my side as well as a friend who recently moved to the area. It should be fun, although it's going to be quite short.

I've been trying to keep myself in shape for my next run coming up in a couple of weeks. They're fairly short (5k) so I don't really need to train per se, but would like to improve on my times as I make it through the summer. Hopefully dealing with a run in the size of about 200 runners will go more smoothly than dealing with 18,000+ in my last run. Last time I did this race it was quite hot so I hope that can also be avoided!

I'm enjoying my last few days of break. Class starts up in about a week and a half, it promises to be a race since it's only 10 weeks long. It's been a pretty nice break.

Song lyric of the day "Good old rocky top / Rocky top Tennessee"

Until next time.

Ace

Cont'd

2009-05-29T20:35:00.002-05:00

Where was I?

Oh yeah, staying out too late on a school night. The next day took us to preschool graduation for #2. Hard to believe it's that time already, the time really does fly. It seems like just yesterday we were rushing to the hospital to try and get there before the little one joined us. Yikes, that was a tough time. But it has been extremely rewarding, despite any day to day stuff that goes on. We think frequently about how fortunate we are to have a healthy, happy family.

After an early evening Friday to catch up on some sleep, took the opportunity to get up early on Saturday and head down to the city and help J & Em move into their new condo. Congrats on entering the land of homeownership, next time we'd appreciate something a little higher up, maybe eighth or ninth floor? Just kidding, hope you are settling in nicely!

Sunday was quite a day. We started by heading to Chinatown, leaving #3 at home with everyone's favorite aunt. We decided to try a new place called Triple Crown on the recommendation of a neighbor. Place was really good! A really interesting calamari served as part of dim sum, had never seen that before. The food was good but it was missing a couple of favorite dishes from a few of the other places we frequent. That said, I'm sure we'll pay another visit.

From there, we headed down the street to US Cellular Field, to watch the White Sox take on the Pirates. The seats were exceptional, first row in the 3rd section past 1st base. Absolutely primo! The weather was beautiful, the kids were fairly well-behaved, and the game was quick. They have a really cool attraction out in the left field area where kids can go and do various activities, like race against a cardboard cutout of one of the Sox players on a track. Another area had a batting cage and another had the kids throw a few balls at targets. It was really cool and a great way to break up the game a little bit since the kids wouldn't be content to sit still for 3 hours.

After the game we headed home and went to a home poker game where at least I got to drink a few beers. That was about all it was worth as I played like garbage. It was actually a really fun time as it was with a new group of guys I didn't know very well.

After that, I finished the weekend off by putting in the new stuff for this year's garden in the rain on Monday. Not much fun as it was kinda chilly. But it's done and hopefully we'll have enough tomotoes and raspberries to save some for the winter.

Sheesh, now that I look back on it, maybe it wasn't all that exciting. But it sure as heck was busy. And I can hear the bell of school tolling once more for me, with classes set to start up again in a couple of weeks. Apparently I signed myself up for some Shakespeare course. I enjoyed the last Shakespeare class I had, so hopefully this one will be the same. One bad sign, I e-mailed the prof for a list of books so I could buy them online and rather than just telling me the list of books, he informed me how he had, sniff sniff, submitted the list weeks ago and I could obtain the list from the bookstore. How absolutely ridiculous of me to ask the professor! Good times ahead...

Song lyric of the day "We're movin' on up / to the east side / to a deee-luxe apt in the skyyyyy" The Jeffersons theme song

Until next time.

Ace

Flying!

2009-05-27T21:11:00.002-05:00

Wow, this late spring is absolutely flying by. To close one piece of old business, I did ridiculously manage an A in my 2nd class this semester, despite logic dictating otherwise. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, pretty sure you have to tell the teacher to take a flying leap to score otherwise.

The last couple of weeks have been quite eventful. I'll start with last week, where Thursday I started my day heading to visit a new client of mine, one that promises to make life very difficult over the next 6 months or so. But we had a good meeting so it was a nice start to the day.

I headed from the meeting to my boy Q's place, where I would work the afternoon before the evening's frivolity would ensue. But before that, he and I went to one of his favorite little Thai joints for lunch and ate more broccoli than was previously thought possible by mere mortals.

After this tasty treat and an afternoon of work, I made my way to downtown Chicago to participate in the Corporate Challenge, a 3.5 mile run through the downtown lakefront area with 18,000 of my closest friends. This is part of the commitment I made to myself to run in at least one race per month during the spring/summer/fall, while the weather will bear it. While I've been working out some, it hasn't been as consistent as it should be, it has been enough. I wound up with a time that was right in line with what I was hoping, which was nice, given my nearly 16 minute first mile that consisted of a 5 minute walk to the starting line before beginning a light jog and eventually turning into a mini-jog where I was picking and choosing my steps to avoid running over / being run over. All in all, it was a fun time although I found it a little strange that most of the food my company's tent had consisted of cookies, potato chips, etc. This is a run, you think they'd have some healthy choices!

After the run, back to Q's where I got a quick shower and a tasty bite to eat courtesy of his far better half, and we met up with Duch for a rousing good concert, checking out Local H at a Chicago venue called Double Door, which is hosting a series of shows by different artists to celebrate their 15th anniversary. It was pretty warm in Chicago that day, low to mid-80s and it wasn't much cooler at night. Given that DD was sold out, the place was absolutely smoking inside. And this is not an easy listening show folks. I'll just say that after being abused for about 2 hours by that crowd, I thought I was going to pass out more than once. But man was it worth it. Hadn't seen the H in quite some time and they delivered, playing a ton of great rocking songs and the crowd was way into it. It was a great night even though I didn't get home until past 2 on a school night and my ears didn't stop ringing for several days.

I've got a ton of other stuff to update on but it's getting close to bedtime kiddies. I'll try to post back soon.

Song lyric of the day "Hey, I made a promise to love myself" Local H

Until next time.

Ace

Summer of baseball!

2009-05-12T14:08:00.003-05:00

It's the semester that wouldn't end! My instructor from my 2nd class e-mailed me last night to let me know that she hadn't received my final so I was receiving an Incomplete as a grade. What???? I 2 day mailed it to her last Tuesday so no reason she shouldn't have had it. That's what happens when the instructor refuses to accept e-mail attachments. Anyhow, she found the grace in her soul to let me e-mail it to her, sounds like we're all set. But she sure got my heart racing there for a stretch.

I hope all the mothers out there had a great Mother's Day. Ours consisted of some travel and a nice cookout, which was good. We also had a party for my nephew Josh who just got his bachelor's degree. I was beginning to wonder if the line of family members completing college had come to an early end but thankfully not. Also celebrated 13 years of wedded bliss with the better half, bringing to mind joyful memories of our nuptials in the courthouse in our youth. Good times!

Greatly looking forward to another fun summer tradition, heading to the ballpark(s) to check out some major league baseball. I've currently got a couple trips to beautiful US Cellular field on the schedule, as well as the annual trip to check out the Mets at Wrigley Field. Also trying to sneak in a visit to Cincinnati to check out the new ballpark there on the back half of a road trip. We'll see about that one. I'm sure I'll try to sneak one or two more games in over the course of the year also, especially if I manage to do any more travelling for work. It's a great way to waste time when you're on the road by yourself!

Enough for now, back to it!

Song lyric of the day "Meet the Mets, greet the Mets!" New York Mets fight song

Until next time.

Ace

Bwahahahahahaha!

2009-05-07T14:44:00.003-05:00

Wow, I am really laughing today, because the patron saint of gift grades (I believe his name is Cannabis) is smiling down on the professor of one of my classes, who, despite his very specific grading scale, decided to give me an A-on my term paper and A for the class. Absolutely sick! I am not one to look a gift horse in the mouth so I'll take it. But I am doing so with the full knowledge that this one is absolutely grand larceny. Guess I shouldn't have given a half-effort on the final in my other class - I only did so because I assumed this class was a B as a forgone conclusion. Woohoo! We'll be cracking open a cold one tonight peeps.

Up next, tackling my very long to do list during the class break. Here's hoping I get a lot done, only a couple weeks of soccer left, that will definitely help. Wow, #1's team is really quite awful. 2 boys that are good, #1 is decent and the rest are just not very good at all. They have been getting annihilated every week, really not much fun for them. But, so be it. They have been improving a bit each week, hopefully it'll be better by the end of the year...

Song lyric of the day "Insane in the membrane, insane in the brain!" Cypress Hill

Until next time.

Ace

Sweet relief!

2009-05-05T15:40:00.002-05:00

Hallelujah, the final has been completed and I am officially done (at least for six weeks until summer semester starts up). I'm not all that optimistic to be honest. I've got a major streak of A's going that I fear may be broken. Guess it's not really a big deal but I'd rather have an A than not.

To waste time before I finished my final, I've been working on many dalliances, including a trip last Wed to see Flight of The Conchords with the better half. The show was quite good. After seeing them last year and again last week, it is evident the fellas have been touring profusely. Their show was much more entertaining, I could tell they were more experienced. I'm told the second season of their HBO show just wrapped up so I'm eagerly awaiting its release on DVD. Haven't seen any of it yet :-(

I've also seen quite a few movies in the last few weeks. On my trip to California, I got to see Seven Pounds with Will Smith during the flight. This was a decent movie, meant to be suspenseful although it was pretty predictable. Smith is good, the premise is just a little silly. But, it was much better than what they usually show on flights so I was glad for that. On the way home, the movie showing was Yes Man with Jim Carrey. This was kind of similar to Liar Liar except instead of being unable to lie, he was unable to say No. This leads to all sorts of nonsense and tomfoolery (highly underutilized word). All in all, this was a very funny movie. I also thoroughly enjoyed the role played by Rhys Darby, who is Jim Carrey's manager at his job and I originally came to know as Murray, the band manager on Flight of the Conchords. Good stuff!

I also saw I am Legend a couple nights ago, another Will Smith joint. This was a cool movie, a zombie movie that didn't focus on schtick or attempting to be too scary. Instead, it was a sort of smart thriller about a cure for cancer gone bad, wiping out most of the population of earth. Smith is an army general/doctor who is a survivor, trying to find a cure for the virus causing zombification. Some very cool scenes of a deserted NYC where Smith lives. Cool movie.

And the other way I've been wasting time is by watching way too much Bulls basketball. Guess I don't have to worry about that anymore but it was a fun ride. As I described to a few friends, this was a fun team to watch but frustrating. Kinda like your kids - they do dumb stuff but at the end of the day you still love 'em and are proud of what they accomplished. I look forward to what's in store for this squad.

Song lyric of the day "Zombie, zombie, zombay-ay-ay-ay" The Cranberries.

Until next time.

Ace

Let the summer of music begin!

2009-04-24T16:37:00.003-05:00

I promised a post on the happenings of last weekend. What better time than now to blog it out!

So, it all started up with Friday's trip to lovely Aragon Ballroom in Chicago to check out Death Cab for Cutie. This would be the first time the better half and I could see them for a full show. We did see them last year at a short set private event that was outstanding, as chronicled here. The place was sold out but we were able to get a spot with a decent view and saw a nice show. The lead singer was very energetic and they sounded great, although they only played about 90 minutes or so. Highlights included a bass-thumping extended version of I Will Possess Your Heart and a moving I Will Follow You Into the Dark. Lowlights included "that guy" and his special lady friend who spent the entire show cool-kidding it with their iPhones. Really? You had to go to a concert for that? Money well-spent my friend!

The next day was opening day of the soccer season, with a game bright and early at 9 am. The weather could not have been better, probably in the 60s at that early hour. Definitely better than last year's freeze fest in the galing winds. And the 5 year olds are a little further along that the 4 year olds from last year, although we still had a few tears and kids clinging to mom or dad. Must have been the hockey mask I was wearing. Tomorrow promises even better weather, what a good workout.

After soccer, we had a brief respite at home before embarking on another soccer adventure for kid #1. These were the first graders and they got annihilated. But it was a lot of running and more good exercise for me chasing them around. After the game, we headed over to C's 1st bday party, arriving a fashionable hour plus late. Happy bday bro, keep throwing that frosting on mom and dad. Directly after that, I packed up the monkeys and headed for home while the better half headed back to Chicago to House of Blues to check out Rocco DeLuca and the Burden. Apparently the crowd wasn't that great but the music was. Rocco is an artist on Jack Bauer's, pardon me, Kiefer Sutherland's record label and according to JTB the boy can shred the six string.

While that was going on, it was decided that hosting a sleepover with a few of the kids and a poker extravaganza with several of the fellas was a good idea. So we played until about 3 in the morning or so while the kids passed out from too much booze by 11 or so. Unfortunately, I got the unenviable task of getting up with all the rascals at 6:30 (the kids, not the poker players). After a long morning of fighting over Wii controllers, we packed up and headed to #2's 5th bday party at the neighborhood civic center. It was a lot of fun and included lots of gymnastics, rope climbing and riding down a hill in a padded barrel, and I'm not even making any of that up. We wrapped up by jacking the kids full of sugar with cake and fruit punch and a spirited game of duck duck goose.

Afterwards I grabbed a snooze and finished up my paper that I turned in on Monday night. Then dinner for #2's bday and followed that up with my trip out to Cali, complete with a lovely 4 hour delay on the return trip, sweet! And with that, here I sit, ready to start it all over again with soccer tomorrow and more homework. Greatly looking forward to next week's trip to see Flight of The Conchords and other upcoming shows I'll be sure to chronicle at some future date.

Other music notes - songs the better half and I are glued on right now include Pale Bride from Von Bondies (just missed their show a couple weeks back because of class!), Wolf Like Me by TV On the Radio although the whole fam agrees Scott Lucas' cover is better, the new Silversun Pickups CD, and Carolina Liar's I'm Not Over. And, oh yeah, I'm so freaking sick of U2, can you say overexposed? Sheesh.

Song lyric of the day "Wasn't all that great/back in the summer of boats" Local H

Until next time.

Ace

Valhalla

2009-04-22T23:05:00.003-05:00

Look peeps, I usually am a good Ace and try to live right. But ever since my fascination with the Dude in Big Lebowski began, I cannot help but treat myself to the goodness that is the In N Out burger anytime I find myself in the western part of the great old US of A. I've even tried to justify how it's healthier than other fast food garbage. That, my friends, is classic denial. But I'm not going to lie. As I sit here in my lonely hotel room in a rather seedy area of beautiful San Francisco, I just finished polishing off a delicious cheeseburger, fries and strawberry shake from the old In N Out. And I wasn't even hungry. But when would I get another chance? Gotta strike while the iron is hot kid!

School update - paper has been submitted, except for the final page which I conveniently left on the printer. Oops. No biggie, the prof will get it via e-mail tomorrow. Not too encouraged with my coming grade though after my presentation Monday when the prof asked a question about something I didn't cover in the 20 page monolith. Oh well, what's done is done. As previously mentioned, I'm pretty sure a bad grade will equal a B at worst. Just a couple more things due in my other class and then I'm done until summer semester. Looks like 1 class this summer and 1 this fall, both being Lit classes which I've found I enjoy immensely more than awful stuff like Linguistics or Rhetoric.

Tons of stuff happened this weekend, I'll try to post about it before another weekend comes and goes!

Song lyric of the day "A Big Mac, a BLT / Quarter pounder with some cheese" Skee-Lo, the Burger Song. I'm not going to pretend I knew that one, had to google something for that topic...

Until next time.

Ace

Yeeeha!

2009-04-15T14:07:00.002-05:00

Hey all, the semester is nearly over and I am nearly done with my term paper. I will return to our regularly scheduled posting soon, including a huge music weekend coming up in a couple days! Hurray!

Song lyric of the day "Welcome back my friend to the show that never ends" Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Until next time.

Ace

Steer clear!

2009-03-25T09:04:00.002-05:00

A belated congrats to R & N on successfully completing the arduous process of adopting a little girl from Russia, which happened around Christmas time. I can't wait to meet her!

The Great Fever of '09 has hit our house in full effect. It started with #1, who missed a whole week of school. 3 days later #2 & #3 got it, along with the better half. Thankfully this week is spring break for the kids from school so we've been ok on that front. Hopefully I won't manage to catch it, so far I've steered clear. I think my bout with something similar about a month ago immunized me!

Things are heating up class-wise. Fortunately, one of my instructors decided to ditch one of our assignments, leaving me with really just one short paper to write in the next couple weeks until the end of the semester, when there are a couple of things due. But that frees up time and space for me to work on my term paper, which I expect is going to be quite an effort. That's due in 3 1/2 weeks. I've written some but really need to dig in and get my research done. Where will I find the time?

One fun thing coming up this weekend, taking #1 & #2 to see the Chicago Bulls. We watch a lot of the games and they especially love the animated opener the Bulls do. It should be fun although I'm not expecting that we'll stay all that long. We'll see how it goes, I'm getting the cheapest possible tickets since I know we won't be watching the game much.

Song lyric of the day "Get down with the sickness" Disturbed

Until next time.

Ace

Cinema

2009-03-17T14:50:00.003-05:00

I'm sad to say that spring break has come to an all-too-hasty close, capped off with a very fun St. Patrick's Day party this weekend. Time flies when everyone gets together and heckles a drummer who can't drum on Rock Band. Also managed a trip to Wrigleyville during the weekend where it was teeming with partyers all decked out in ridiculous green regalia. Good times!

One of the ways I wasted a lot of time during spring break was to watch some movies. The better half and I managed to head to the local multiplex and check out the buzz-y Slumdog Millionaire. With a movie that won so many Oscars, I expected it would be quite good. And I wasn't disappointed, this movie delivered. It may have gotten a little too triumphant in the end but it was a feel good movie, well-acted and it was extremely well-written, particularly the way that the story was told via flashback. Very cool.

Another excellent film I've wanted to see was Eagle Eye. This one was quite good also, extreme amounts of action and pretty smart. Billy Bob Thornton was really good in it (kinda reminded me of Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive remake) and Spielberg managed to avoid spoiling it in the end with an unnecessary love story, although he got very close. I think this was the first time I've seen Shia LeBouef or however you spell his name, he was okay. But I love how the trailer did not spoil this movie - too many do these days. This kept everything quite suspenseful for a good portion of the movie. I would highly recommend it if you're looking for action and suspense.

Finally, I got around to checking out Appaloosa, a western written and starred in by Ed Harris. Other actors in it were Viggo Mortenson, Jeremy Irons and the ever annoying Renee Zellweger. This one was okay although it was pretty predictable. There were definitely some cool moments in the movie, particularly a couple of shoot out scenes, but there was a little too much nonsense in it for my likings. Another cool thing was a song during the credits performed by Mr. Harris himself. The lyrics get a little silly at the end but actually a pretty cool song and he's got a nice singing voice. Who knew? This flic is probably best reserved for big western fans as it's really only kinda meh.

OK, enough of my Ebert routine.

Song lyric of the day "You can't pick the apple til the seed becomes the tree" You'll Never Leave My Heart, Ed Harris

Until next time.

Ace

Got jokes?

2009-03-12T10:01:00.002-05:00

Here's an exchange that took place yesterday in House of Ace.

Kid #2: Mommy, want to hear a joke?

Mom: Sure.

Kid #2: Knock knock

Mom: Who's there?

Kid #2: Banana

Mom: Banana who

Kid #2: I played baseball with a strawberry.

The end.

Song lyric of the day "Everybody know / Strawberry strawberry is the neighborhood ho" NWA Dope Man

Until next time.

Ace

Book time!

2009-03-10T14:13:00.003-05:00

“Let me introduce myself,” the figure spoke. His voice was soft, almost effeminate, but carried such an edge to it that it left no mistake as to who was in charge and what was about to happen. “I am your doom.”

The above is a brief excerpt from the new novel Dying Moon by Shawn Oetzel, who describes the book as "a crime drama/fantasy tale I like to describe as Terry Brooks meets CSI". Check it out peeps, this is good stuff. You can order your copy here.

In the meantime, I've been busying myself with a re-reading of the Hobbit, good material while I'm hitting the treadmill. I really think this will be an excellent movie. Unfortunately, it looks like it won't be out until 2012. I guess I'll have to wait but if Peter Jackson gives it the same treatment as the Lord of The Rings trilogy, we should be in for a spectacle.

Song lyric of the day "So I'm packing my bags for the Misty Mountains" Led Zeppelin

Until next time.

Ace

Spring Break!

2009-03-03T10:34:00.002-06:00

Well, at around 8:40 tonight I will embark on spring break. I thought about celebrating by heading to a tropical locale and filming a Girls Gone Wild extravaganza (Snoop Dog still isn't taking my calls to host it!). Then I thought I might do what I did last year, head to glitzy Las Vegas to donate to the ailing Nevada economy. Finally, I thought, maybe I'll just drown myself in the bottom of a bottle somewhere (this one might actually still happen). But then I decided to go full rock-star and just hang out at home, working, chilling with the kids, taking the better half out to see some movie about a canine that lives in the slums and wins a bunch of money or something, and maybe just work on a couple of projects I've lined up for myself. Yep folks, that's how I roll.

Actually, I will likely spend a good amount of time working on my term paper. It's due in April and I got my prospectus back last night. Sickening how little thought I put into it, and to prove my point from my last post, I still got an A on it. No one in the class got below a B. Sigh, keep that bar high educators!

I may try to sneak off and actually see a rock show this week, we'll see. It's been way too long since I've done so and I'm anxious to hear some live music.

Song lyric of the day "Mom and Dad went to the show / dropped me off with Grampa Joe" Nirvana, Sliver

Until next time.

Ace

Boom goes the dynamite

2009-03-02T14:06:00.002-06:00

As a former sportscaster, I feel this dude's pain. Most of you have probably seen this before but this is so uncomfortable it is freaking hilarious. I love his response at the very end when the anchor guy thanks him!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gitT-GN2Y2I

Song lyric of the day: "Da bedde dabis deyes" Alfalfa, Saturday Night Live

Until next time.

Ace

2009-02-23T20:14:00.002-06:00

I'm pleased to report that as of 9:30 pm last night, I am at least 1/3 of the way done with class for the semester! I finished two papers, including a prospectus for my term paper in my Rhetorical Criticism class. I'm sure that one was garbage so I'm looking forward to getting lots of feedback from the instructor. I don't know why but in a lot of my classes I really feel like the people around me know about 140% more than me. Somehow I still manage to do ok, must be pity on the part of the instructors.

I have to say, I have never really found a lot of the classes I take to be terribly challenging. I always have felt like the amount of effort I've had to expend to get an A was embarrassingly low. And it's not because I think I'm any kind of super-genius or anything. Despite my acting the contrary, I feel as if I'm really average intellectually (On the other hand, I think of myself as VERY high on the craftiness scale!). All of which leads me to believe that education is simply not setting a very high bar. Many of you are probably thinking, duh, not exactly a revelation. But I'm talking about college & grad school, not an inner city middle school with no funding. Uh, not really sure how we got here, back to a different topic.

Off to California later this week to visit a client. I'm excited to hit some warm weather. And the friendly neighborhood weatherman says we are supposed to get a dose of spring in our 'hood next week. And I hit spring break after next week's classes. All good signs of the sweet, sweet days of spring and summer ahead. Which means....

We're only about a month away from the greatest holiday in history, Opening Day of the baseball season! Wooohoooo!

Enough for now, I'll check back soon.

Song lyric of the day "Going to California with an achin' in my heart" Led Zeppelin

Until next time.

Ace

Back from the dead

2009-02-11T10:28:00.004-06:00

This road weary traveler is back in action. It seems like so long since we visited.

I've posted a couple of pics from the Mexico trip where Q & Krissy had their ceremony.

The place was called Azul Sensatori or something like that and is in Playa Del Carmen. Place has only been open a couple of months and wow it was nice. The top picture is the view from our room, quite spectacular. The weather was a little coolish while we were there, at least for some of the time, which was a little bit of a bummer. We really couldn't do anything in the ocean like snorkel or kayak or any of that stuff. But the beach itself was nice, the resort was cool too. I don't think I'll ever be able to watch the Super Bowl the same again after watching it on the beach literally 10 feet from the waves.

The day after we arrived, we went on a trip to some local Mayan ruins, which was extremely cool. This pic is one of the buildings, it was very interesting to see how advanced the building techniques were from so long ago. And this place had the most beautiful beach and clear blue water, unbelievable. Oh yeah, and LOTS of lizards, everywhere!

After the ruins, we hit a place that was a natural aquarium, which was gigantic and had lots of great snorkeling. I got a pic of me swimming just above this fish that was probably 5 feet long and 3 feet tall, a pretty big one. Haven't gotten the film developed yet, I hope it turned out well.

Otherwise, the trip was great. Unfortunately, all of the huge temperature variation took its toll on me and I am just recovering from the back and forth. I was sick as can be for about four days, finally starting to feel better last night and today. Ugh! Anywho, I suspect you'll all be waiting with baited breath my next update on my super boring classes, yawn...

Song lyric of the day "And now I'm back / from outer space" Roberta Flack, I Will Survive

Until next time.

Ace

Lazy Day Limerick

2009-01-26T13:46:00.002-06:00

Been a while, time for a limerick!

A sailor who slept in the sun
Woke to find his fly-buttons undone.
He remarked with a smile
'By Jove, a sundial -
And now it's a quarter past one!'

Song lyric of the day "Time keeps on slippin' slippin' slippin' into the future" Steve Miller Band

Until next time.

Ace

Misnomer

2009-01-23T14:01:00.002-06:00

Perhaps the title of my last post was a bit too ambitious. While I've been intent on "revving up", I've hit a bit of a stumbling block: My textbooks have not yet arrived! For each of my classes I ordered the books online the day after my first class. And that was nearly two weeks ago. In one case, I even selected expedited shipping. I hope they arrive today because I have a boatload of reading to catch up on!

I actually ducked out of class at the break earlier this week. For one, the class was boring as all get out. For another, having not read the materials, I was feeling a little naked. So, I quietly snuck out as everyone headed out for a break. I'm sure the person I was working with in small group work was happy since I was completely unprepared to provide any assistance whatsoever. Anyhow, that one looks like it's going to be a real snoozer.

I am hopeful that these classes turn out to be useful but I'm not very hopeful of that at the moment.

I also forgot to mention that I got the latest Guns N Roses CD for Christmas. Now Axl and me, we go way back, just like old pals, or at least pals that he didn't kick out of his band. (Seriously, I don't think being friends with this guy is a very good place to be). GNR is one of the first bands I really liked as a young tike. Armed with this information, you now know enough to never read this blog again. But anyhow, I just wanted to say that the CD is pretty good. Axl's voice still sounds good, the music has a rich, layered sound to it and there is some excellent guitar work. Of course, when you have 3 guitarists and 13 years put into an album, you'd kind of expect a lot to be going on in the music. There were a few songs that didn't do much for me but overall I thought it was a very solid effort. So there. And if you happen to be irrationally offended at the amount of time it took Axl to release this thing, just be glad it's hear and give it a spin. Not that I'm talking to anyone specific here. No Duch, no one specific at all. Carry on.

Song lyric of the day "You could be miyiyiyine / but you're waaaaay out of liyine" GNR

Until next time.

Ace

Song lyric of the day "

Revving up

2009-01-20T08:41:00.002-06:00

As I bask in the tropical warmth of 20 degree weather, I am finding it necessary to get things rolling on another semester of school. Dr. King's holiday spared me from class last night but we're back at it tonight. Unfortunately, I haven't received any of my textbooks yet that I ordered early last week. Nothing like starting out a week or two behind!

I'm very excited as a couple of close friends are getting ready to tie the knot in a couple weeks in Mexico. That decision (the Mexico part) is looking smarter every day. The other part of the decision was looking good from the get go! As near as I can tell, it is the last imminent nuptial among my close friends. While there are certainly some other possibilities, they don't look to be very immediate. It's sort of strange, there used to be a half dozen weddings every year to attend. Guess I'm getting old....

With every wedding comes the bachelor / bachelorette party. I partook in the bachelor half this past weekend. And while it's generally taboo to discuss what occurs in these uber-secret shows of ridiculousity, I'll just say that there were a LOT of legs.

Song lyric of the day "She's got legs / and she knows how to use them" ZZ Top

Until next time.

Ace

'Nuff said

2009-01-15T08:25:00.002-06:00

Song lyric of the day: "Driving around town with a soda between my legs / I've got numb nuts" Untitled Reptile House

Until next time.

Ace

Mother flippin freezin!

2009-01-14T14:13:00.002-06:00

Folks, I've finally thawed my numbed extremities and I'm done making out with my snow shovel. Is it spring yet? Sheesh, less than a month til pitchers and catchers report at least. I'm pleased to report that I have 3 trips in the next six weeks to warmer locales, Mexico, California and Texas. Maybe I can string them all together and not come back until April. I heard on the news yesterday that my area has already received the amount of snow it usually gets in an entire season. And that weather models show we've only received 40% of what we're going to get this season. Ugh! And tomorrow the temperature is not supposed to creep above 0. Unreal.

I haven't had much that's newsworthy to report on. But I did begin my new semester this week, with two classes fired up. One of them is similar to my class last semester in that a major portion of my grade is tied up in a research paper, this one required to be 18-20 pages. Man, I really don't like writing these things! The other one looks like a piece of cake, take home mid-term and final, and 6 reading responses. Sweet! So, not a ton of busy work in either. Both are pretty technical classes though, so I hope they become interesting. The first session of each was not promising!

And it looks like I will make my glorious return to soccer coaching this spring, doubling up once again for two teams. Sweetness! This time, I'm planning on incorporating corporal punishment into my coaching regimen, while teaching the kids how to chew tobacco and swear. Going to be great.

Big poker tourney coming up this Friday. Winner will payout north of $1k and it looks like a pretty small turnout is expected. Wish me luck!

Song lyric of the day "Back in school / we are the leaders of it all" Deftones

Until next time.

Ace

2008 in review

2009-01-02T11:37:00.003-06:00

I'm sure as we all flip the calendar to 2009, we'll look back at this past year with an awareness of the many challenges we've faced personally and, if you are reading this in the US, nationally. God knows they've been chronicled endlessly, even here to some degree. But when I look back on 2008, I'm going to think back to the many blessings that came the way of me and loved ones. Much of this has been documented here previously but I want to take inventory.

Of course, the best thing is the fact that most of my family stayed in relatively good health. Not perfect, but definitely not too bad. And when you're dealing with 3 young monkeys, it's always good to go a calendar year without dramatic incident!

Our family also went back to a double income household, despite tremendous trepidation on our part. It has been a significant lifestyle change, and there has been a lot of sacrifice involved. But we're making the best of it. While I don't expect it to remain this way forever, we've gotten ourselves used to this way of life and I hope we can improve it in steps. The better half has been an absolute rock as this change came to be and I cannot be thankful enough for that. Beyond that, simply being employed qualifies as an accomplishment in this economic environment, and I remain glad for that.

On the school front, I have blasted my way through six classes. It hasn't been easy, but that hasn't stopped me from performing well and enjoying it to a degree. I've also traversed the treacherous trail of graduate application and gained admittance to the graduate program I wanted. Additionally, I've solidified my schedule as I remain focused on the ultimate goal of moving into a teacher role.

I have also strengthened some great friendships this year and made several new friends that I look forward to getting to know better. Not to mention the roughly 26,000 births that have occurred among my many friends, nearly all without a hitch, and no hitch too significant regardless.

And on a few trivial notes, I've been able to enjoy some great new music, both recorded and live from many of my favorite bands and have enjoyed making some new favorites. I can also add a silly fantasy baseball championship to my resume, woooohoooo!

All in all, 2008 was pretty good to me and my crew, and for that, I'll remember it as a good year. I hope you all can say the same. But if not, there's always another chance here in 2009.

Song lyric of the day "I'm scared of the future but I'm bored with the past" Local H, Halcyon Days

Until next time.

Ace

Postmortem

2008-12-30T17:52:00.005-06:00

So guess what we got for Christmas? Yep, the old Wii has finally invaded our household. After the kids played it a few times at friends' houses, we thought it would be a good gift. And it definitely has been a hit - not literally, like the pictures to your left, none of which actually portray my family. But looks pretty dangerous, huh? Cool! And that blasted Santa couldn't get Dance Dance Revolution onto his sleigh so he had to mail it to us afterwards. That's kids code for the jag I bought it from on Ebay couldn't go out of his way to put it in the Express Mail packaging instead of the Priority Mail packaging. Negative feedback on the way!

I'm pleased to report that I've knocked off a bunch of stuff from my to do list on this extended break from work. I still have the rest of this week and the weekend to do some more. I"m looking forward to it, especially the work on my basement room I"ve been finishing for the last two years. Ridiculous! And I'm managing a trip to the local gambling establishment for what I hope will be a succesful session.

I hope you all had a great holiday, be safe on New Years!

Song lyric of the day "Doot doot, doot-do doot-do-doot" Theme song to Super Mario Brothers

Until next time.

Ace

Christmas limerick

2008-12-24T23:23:00.002-06:00

It's been a while since we've done a limerick! Happy holidays all.

An elf said to Santa: "Oh Dear,
we've not enough presents this year"
that made St. Nick think:
Now he'd given up drink
he could give all the children some beer!

Song lyric of the day "One bourbon, one scotch, and one beer" George Thorogood

Until next time.

Ace

Holiday greetings

2008-12-22T11:04:00.002-06:00

Happy holidays my friends. I hope this message finds everyone in earnest preparation for time spent with loved ones. I know we will only have a brief amount of time with the family but I'm sure it will be great. The kids are hard at work making their lists of desired gifts from the fat dude in the red suit (Santa, not me).

In the meantime, I already received my grade for this semester and I'm pleased to report I backed my way into an A. Not bad! Now I get to take a deep breath and get ready for a semester with two classes, I'm sure I'll be running ragged! They're also not the most exciting of topics but they need to be done.

I have not been quite as productive as I would have hoped thus far with my break. But, that is largely due to about 8 million hours of shoveling snow. That should change shortly since tomorrow is my last day of work this year, thanks to expiring vacation that must be used. Good stuff, hoping to get some lingering projects knocked out.

And finally, I must lament the end of fantasy football season. I got smoked in my one championship game that I made so I finished in the money in only 1 of 3 leagues this year. And, my favorite NFL team got beat yesterday when they were tackled about 6 inches from the end zone as time expired, essentially ending their season. Ugh! Is it baseball season yet?

Song lyric of the day "Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rocks"

Until next time.

Ace

Team names that weren't

2008-12-18T15:43:00.003-06:00

Stolen from this article, I thought this was a fun but long story. Enjoy!

If you’re a sports fan , you know the nicknames and mascots of every team in the leagues you follow. If you’re a die-hard fan, you probably even know what the teams used to be called. (“Washington Wizards? Please. They’ll always be the Bullets to me.”) But do you know what your favorite teams were almost called?
When an expansion team enters a league or an existing team relocates, it picks a new moniker, ideally one that will look good on a t-shirt. The process of selecting a new name can be a protracted one, though, and the winning nickname often only gets the nod at the expense of several other less-inspired finalists. Let’s have a look at some team names that fans almost got to cheer for:

1. The Toronto Tarantulas
Few team names seem quite as dated as the Toronto Raptors’. The team started play in 1995 with a mascot that was obviously a nod to Jurassic Park, which had destroyed box-office records a couple of years earlier. However, looking at the list of names the Toronto franchise could have chosen, the Raptors seems like a terrific choice. The other nine finalists were the Tarantulas, Beavers, Bobcats, Dragons, Grizzlies, Hogs, Scorpions, T-Rex, and Terriers. “The Hogs” makes sense since Toronto’s historic nickname is Hogtown, but it lacks a certain menace and would have been catastrophic when the team picked Oliver Miller in the expansion draft. The rest of the finalists, however, look largely like they were culled from a list of things 13-year-old boys think are awesome, so kudos on picking the Raptors name. (This decision might mark the last time a franchise under Isiah Thomas’ direction made a wise choice.)

2. The Vancouver Mounties
When Vancouver got an NBA team for the 1995 season, the franchise wanted to call itself the Vancouver Mounties. The name seemed like a fitting tribute to the bravery of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The plan hit a snag, though, when the Mounties, no doubt skeptical of any cultural crossovers after Dudley Do-Right, made it clear that they didn’t want their name slapped on the expansion franchise. The team quickly regrouped and picked the name the Grizzlies as a tribute to the bravery of Canada’s many bears. You have to commend the Mounties on their foresight for avoiding this train wreck; the team fled to Memphis in 2001 and had an abysmal .329 winning percentage entering this season.

3. The Baltimore Marauders
When the Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore for the 1996 NFL season, they couldn’t bring their name with them. According to the settlement the team reached with the city of Cleveland for swiping the beloved franchise, the Browns’ nickname, color scheme, and history stayed put when the team bolted for Baltimore. The now-nameless squad had a series of phone polls and fan surveys to whittle its list of 17 possible names down to three: the Americans, the Marauders, and the Ravens. Over 30,000 fans then voted for the name they liked best, and “the Ravens” won thanks to the city’s connection to Edgar Allen Poe. It’s probably good that the fans wisely passed on “The Americans,” which would have made Kyle Boller’s tumultuous stint as starter a national shame rather than a regional problem.

4. The New York Borros
The New York Jets began their life as the New York Titans in the American Football League. When Hollywood honcho Sonny Werblin and oil tycoon Leon Hess bought the team in 1963, though, they decided the team needed a new name. According to a contemporary New York Times story, they considered the Dodgers, but nixed the idea after Major League Baseball didn’t like it. “The Gothams” also got some consideration, but the team didn’t like the idea of having it shortened to the Goths because “you know they weren’t such nice people.” (Yeah, but couldn’t you just see Vinny Testaverde winning a playoff game, then sacking Byzantium?)
The last finalist to fall was “the New York Borros,” a pun on the city’s boroughs; the team worried that opposing fans would make the Borros-burros connection and derisively call the squad the jackasses. (Little did the Jets’ forefathers know that their home fans would provide all of the booing and heckling a franchise could ever need.) Eventually the team became the Jets since it was going to play in Shea Stadium, which is close to LaGuardia Airport.

5. The Washington Sea Dogs
In 1995 Washington Bullets owner Abe Pollin decided that he didn’t want to keep fielding a team with such a violent name and decided to rechristen his franchise. A fan contest came up with five finalists: the Express, the Wizards, the Stallions, the Dragons, and the Sea Dogs. The Wizards wasn’t a perfect choice since some fans thought it tied in to Ku Klux Klan mythology, but it was obviously a better choice than the Sea Dogs. One can only assume that this seafaring name got the ax when someone in the team’s office realized that the District of Columbia doesn’t actually sit next to a sea. Then again, they drafted Kwame Brown first overall, so maybe I’m giving the team too much credit here.

6. The San Antonio Gunslingers
When the ABA’s Texas Chaparrals moved to San Antonio in 1973, the team was renamed the San Antonio Gunslingers. The team dropped this name before ever playing a game, presumably because the image was violent even by firearm-related mascot standards. Instead, the owners picked a tamer name that still tapped into the region’s cowboy past: the San Antonio Spurs.

7. The Florida FlamingosFlorida Marlins owner Wayne Huizenga told the New York Times in 1993 that he had considered naming the team the Florida Flamingos.

8. The Orlando JuiceBefore the NBA’s Orlando Magic had a name, the other finalists were “the Heat,” “the Juice,” and “the Tropics.”

9. The Charlotte SpiritThe Charlotte Hornets originally had this name before switching to their insect moniker as a tribute to the city’s angry resistance of British forces during the Revolutionary War.

10. The Minnesota Blue OxThe NHL’s Minnesota Wild were almost the Blue Ox, the Freeze, the Voyageurs, the Northern Lights, or the White Bears.

11. The New York SkylinersBefore the New York Mets started play in 1962, they considered a list of names that included the Skyliners, the Skyscrapers, the Bees, the Burros, the Continentals, and the Jets.

Song lyric of the day "Meet the Mets!" New York Mets team son

Until next time.

Ace

Get you ready for the breakdown

2008-12-17T09:35:00.002-06:00

Final = fini! Glad to have that sucker in my rearview mirror. And somehow I squeezed an A out of both my research paper and presentation. Awesome! As long as I didn't bomb out on the final I might have pulled an A out in the class. Miraculous, I was in way over my head on this one. I originally thought it wouldn't be terribly difficult to get my PHD. That might still be true but it was clear to me that several of my classmates are operating at an elevated level. We'll see if I go down that road, it may be something I attempt after I've already begun teaching.

Mixed results on the poker front this weekend. I got annihilated at the local casino on Friday but then managed to win most of my money back in my poker league by climbing up to finish the season in 2nd place. Our grand finale tourney is coming in mid-January, with a very large prize pool, looks like the winner will score somewhere near a cool 1k.

A big congrats goes out to my boy Q, who completed his first ever marathon on Sunday. I'll post a link to his blog here. Never seen someone blog and run at the same time, well done sir! I have received e-mail from him so I know the kid's alive but that's as much as I can say in vouching for him.

Otherwise, just mourning the loss of my trusty boots who had been with me for the past 10 years. Maybe it's silly, but I loved those damn things. I was walking across campus last week as I crammed for my final and the sole literally came completely detached except for at the toe, where I had liquid-glued it last year when they first started to disintegrate. I walked a quarter-mile with the sole flopping all over the place. I sounded like a Clydesdale clomping my way through the library - nice! And now the process of breaking in my new boots has messed my foot up, has me limping around like a 90 year old. Ugh!

Song lyric of the day: "These boots are made for walking" Nancy Sinatra

Until next time.

Ace

Premature jocularity

2008-12-08T21:08:00.003-06:00

I suppose the combination of this post title and the image could be contstrued as a bit of entendre. But would I do that to you, dear reader? That's a rhetorical question.

I'm celebrating too early, as my final paper has been submitted, my horrible presentation given, and I've apparently forgotten that I still have an essay final to complete on Thursday. Oh well, I'm just looking forward to the break from school!

And there is additional reason to celebrate. I'm very pleased to report that I received my acceptance letter to the graduate program in the mail late last week. I'm super-excited to finally have that knocked and to officially becoming over-educated!

Beyond this, I'm taking a bunch of time off work in the next few weeks to burn up vacation time before year end. I have plenty to keep me busy and it starts this week, where I begin filling my time before I'm even done with my final. The office holiday get-together goes off Wed night, followed by my final and a club show with my favorite fellas from Seven Mary Three on Thursday night, the final tourney of my poker league regular season on Friday night and a holiday brunch on Sunday. Wow!

With that, I bid you adieu!

Song lyric of the day "Tap the bottle and twist the cap!" by Young Black Teenagers

Until next time.

Ace

Up From the Deep

2008-12-01T11:04:00.004-06:00

I hope you all had a great turkey day. I'm making my ascent from a lengthy sounding in the belly of the whale, but I'm happy to report I've made great progress on the term paper and presentation due Thursday. Some revisions to the paper and putting together the powerpoint are all that remain. Back below I go but I'll leave you with a very short story from the weekend.

We were eating lunch and the football game was on television - the Indianapolis Colts were taking on the Cleveland Browns. The camera showed a shot of the Browns head coach Romeo Crennel and kid #2 became very excited, eager to tell us all that the name of the team playing in the game was the Tootsie Rolls! Classic, I guess those colors do lend themselves to that interpretation!

Song lyric of the day: "I don't know what you've been told / It ain't the butterfly it's the tootsie roll" 69 Boyz - yes, I had to look that one up.

Until next time.

Ace

Whoa!

2008-11-20T08:51:00.002-06:00

I know I posted a long rant about gas prices recently here, but I just wanted to stop by and say that I filled my gas tank last night for $16.50. Unbelievable! I have nothing more than that people, just wanted to share.

Song lyric of the day "Baby why don't you stay " Glenn Hughes

Until next time.

Ace

Schoolin'

2008-11-18T10:51:00.003-06:00

School is moving to the forefront for the next couple weeks as I wrap up the semester. In two and a half weeks I will give my presentation, which will be pretty informal, and submit my research paper, both on the topic of Moby Dick. Research is fairly well underway, I'd like to start outlining the paper this week and then getting down to the business of writing it this weekend. It needs to be 15 - 20 pages, which I don't think is going to be very difficult. I guess we'll see though!

I also registered for classes for next semester yesterday. I have a meeting this week to confirm that I'm good to go with the classes and will write more on that topic once it's all been laid out.

I'm also busy planning what to do with the few weeks I have off between fall and spring semester. I've got some ideas and may post some pics if these ideas of mine come to fruition.

Since this is a short post, I'll finish with a quick fantasy football update. Climbed back into a tie for first in one league, with just two weeks left until the playoffs start. A good finish will get me a bye into the money round. In another league I just won my fifth straight game and moved up to 3rd place. Again, a good finish could get me to a bye or at the very least a berth in the playoffs. I'm the highest scoring team so I definitely have a legit shot if I can just get in. In my 3rd league, I've lost 4 in a row but still should make the playoffs. I'm the 2nd highest scoring team in that one. So, hopefully I can get to the playoffs in all 3 and my teams can keep scoring a ton of points. We'll see.

Song lyric of the day "She's a hobo humpin slobo babe" by Whale

Until next time.

Ace

Friday funny

2008-11-14T12:18:00.002-06:00

Here's a joke I stole from some random website...

A Husband takes his wife to play her first game of golf

The wife promptly whacked her first shot right through the window of the biggest house adjacent to the course. The husband cringed, 'I warned you to be careful! Now we'll have to go up there, find the owner, apologize and see how much your lousy drive is going to cost us.' So the couple walked up to the house and knocked on the door. A warm voice said, 'Come on in.'

When they opened the door they saw the damage that was done: glass was all over the place, and a broken antique bottle was lying on its side near the broken window. A man reclining on the couch asked, 'Are you the people that broke my window?' 'Uh...yeah, sir. We're sure sorry about that,' the husband replied. 'Oh, no apology is necessary. Actually I want to thank you... You see, I'm a genie , and I've been trapped in that bottle for a thousand years. Now that you've released me, I'm allowed to grant three wishes. I'll give you each one wish, but if you don't mind, I'll keep the last one for myself.'

'Wow, that's great!' the husband said. He pondered a moment and blurted out, 'I'd like a million dollars a year for the rest of my life.' 'No problem,' said the genie. 'You've got it, it's the least I can do. And I'll guarantee you a long, healthy life!' '

And now you, young lady, what do you want?' the genie asked. 'I'd like to own a gorgeous home complete with servants in every country in the world,' she said. 'Consider it done,' the genie said. 'And your homes will always be safe from fire, burglary and natural disasters!' '

And now,' the couple asked in unison, what's your wish, genie?' 'Well, since I've been trapped in that bottle and haven't been with a woman in more than a thousand years, my wish is to have sex with your wife.'

The husband looked at his wife and said, 'Gee, honey, you know we both now have a fortune, and all those houses. What do you think?'

She mulled it over for a few moments and said, 'You know, you're right. Considering our good fortune, I guess I wouldn't mind, but what about you, honey?' 'You know I love you sweetheart,' said the husband. I'd do the same for you!'

So the genie and the woman went upstairs where they spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying each other in every way. After about three hours of non-stop sex, the genie rolled over and looked directly into her eyes and asked, How old are you and your husband?' '

Why, we're both 35,' she responded breathlessly.

' NO KIDDING .' He said, 'Thirty-five years old and both of you still believe in genies?'

Song lyric of the day "I'm a genie in a bottle / You gotta rub me the right way" Christina Aguilera

Until next time.

Ace

Hitting the felt

2008-11-13T08:51:00.004-06:00

After that last post of mine, let's put aside the inconsequential matters of national politics and personal achievement and focus instead on something more important that I have not blogged about in a while - poker!

I recently was playing online and decided to try my hand at something called a freeroll, basically, it's a tournament that the online site allows you to enter for free. These freerolls usually attract thousands of players (because they're free, duh!) and the prizes vary. But for this particular freeroll, I was playing to try and qualify for another tournament that had some potential for big money. So, this was basically a qualifying tournament. And while I say it is free, this particular one actually required using 10 frequent player points to enter, with the option to re-buy if you get knocked out. The players usually are pretty crazy in these tournaments because they've spent little to nothing to enter. So people push all their chips in with nothing and just hope to get lucky. I generally try to wait for an excellent hand and pick these people off.

So, very early in the tournament, I pick up pocket Aces, woohoo! I push all my chips in and two people call me, excellent! Unfortunately, one of them lucked out and beat me with I don't even remember what. So now, I have to decide whether or not to rebuy. I decided to and the very next hand picked up pocket Kings. Wow! Again I push all in and get 2 callers, this time my hand holds up and I'm sitting on a huge stack. To be honest, I don't remember any other hands in the tourney but I know that I lasted long enough to win my way into the next tournament.

The next tournament was a biggie. 12,000 people, no rebuying allowed. If you get knocked out, you're done. The top 4,000 made the money, with the top 100 winning a .01% share of one of the players at the final table of the World Series of Poker, which at minimum would be worth an extra $900 but could be as much as $9,000, depending on how the dude did at WSOP. In addition, the winner of the freeroll got $10,000 with the prizes descending to the people in places 2000 - 4000 making $9. Not bad for a free tournament!

Each player started with $1500 in chips. Very early, I picked up a hand where I made 2 pair and wound up essentially doubling up to $3000, making me the chip leader at my table. From there, I absolutely took off. On one hand, I made a straight on the river and knocked out a guy, picking up another $2k in chips. A couple other hands I got lucky and knocked out some guys with smaller stacks. And I had a few other big hands thrown in. Within an hour, I was up to $10k in chips and as high as 30th overall in chip stack. Great start!

I then got moved to a tougher table with some bigger stacks. As the tourney progresses, blinds and antes got higher and the pots got bigger. I was able to hold my own and increase my stack to around $16k. I easily cruised into the first and second money level, guaranteeing myself at least a $15 payout. I was about middle of the pack in chip stacks. At this point in the tourney, people usually only play excellent hands except for people who are close to out of chips, who are forced to push all-in with any decent holdings. So I basically hunkered down and waited for good hands. I picked up pocket 10s and tried to pick off an all in but the person I was playing against managed to hit a good card on the river. This put me towards the bottom in chips.

As I was running out of chips, I decided to push all in with the worst hand in poker 2-7 offsuit. One guy with a huge stack called me and I caught a 7 to double up and stay alive. Shortly after, I picked up pocket queens on the button and pushed in, getting 5 people to fold and picking up a very nice pot. At this point, we're down to 500 people or so and I've guaranteed myself a $31 payout. But I'm about 200th out of 400 and eyeing a much bigger prize, sitting on about 32k in chips.

Unfortunately, I stupidly wasted 6k in chips on hand with pocket 4s. With blinds and antes, I got down to about 24k, which was around 250th of 400. I woke up with an AK offsuit on the button, an extremely strong hand. Waiting for my turn to act, One guy in early position raises to 3 big blinds, or 12k. A shorter stack goes allin for a total of 15k. This is my chance to really make a big win and I'm likely to be a favorite or at worst 50/50. I think it's a risk worth taking and push allin for 24k. The original raiser calls and we are looking at a 57k pot. The first guy turns over pocket 9s, the second guy pocket 7s. If I can hit an Ace or King, I should win and I'm a 38% chance to win, with the guy with 9s a 45% chance and the favorite. Unfortunately, I came up empty and the nines were a winner. I finished 402 out of about 12,500, good for a $31 payout. Obviously I was happy to do so well but couldn't help but be disappointed about what might have been, especially with so much $$ on the line. As it turns out, the piece of the guy we were playing for was worth $4,000. Bummer.

Amazingly, the next day I played in another 12,000 person online freeroll and finished 44th. This tourney was for Limit 7 card stud, Hi/Lo. It was really fun and cool to play a different game.. The prize for this one was to win a spot in another tourney that has a nice prize pool. I'll post results after I play in it.

On the live poker front, I have a tourney tomorrow night for my poker league where I currently stand 2nd out of around 30 or so guys. I'm pretty far behind the guy in first but it's not impossible for me to catch him. The top 6 places get paid out at season's end, which includes tomorrow's tourney and one more beyond. It should be fun! At the end of the season, there is a big tourney where there is no entry fee for those who have played in most of the events, with a nice sized prize pool as well. I'm looking forward to it.

On the school front, I am deep in research on Moby Dick in preparation for writing my term paper. I'm hoping to discuss my ideas for the paper tonight with my professor. It will be a lot of work but I feel like I've got a pretty good start and some good ideas. And, thankfully, I've got the whole Thanksgiving holiday to work on it!

This past weekend the better half and I watched the summer blockbuster Ironman. I have to be honest, I really thought the movie was decent but didn't match up to the considerable hype. Robert Downey Jr was good but the whole love interest thing was completely unnecessary and detracted from the story. The effects were great and I definitely loved The Dude as a bad guy. I was waiting for him to show up in a robe with a White Russian in hand though. On the docket this weekend, a trip to the local multiplex for Madagascar 2. It's going to be bedlam.

Song lyric of the day "If I had a gun for every ace I have drawn / I could arm a town the size of Abilene " Cracker covering the Grateful Dead - Loser

Until next time.

Ace

Change

2008-11-05T21:45:00.005-06:00

It has been a remarkable 24 hours here in the US of A. I have had a lot of difficulty trying to come to grips with just how I feel about everything. As most of you know, I'm not a terribly political person. But several of my recent posts have certainly captured just how intrigued I have become in this particular presidential campaign, similar to much of the rest of the world if cable TV is any indication. This is a long one, so settle in.

Regardless of where you stand on the candidates, the political process, or Barack Obama, it is clear that a large portion of America, and the world, is ready for a change. Two wars, one of which is extremely unpopular, a cratered economy and distrust of the president at an all time high mobilized the American voting public like this generation has never seen. The absolute fervor among American's youth, voters 35 and under, absolutely made the difference in this battle, voting nearly 2 to 1 for Obama, in record numbers. And again, many incumbents lost their seats in the House and Senate, with voters saying they are tired of the way things have come to be done in our federal government.

There are a number of things about the election that have been striking to me. First, the international reaction to Obama has been amazing. Video after video on the news has been shown of celebrations in nations all around the world. The message of hope that Obama has been preaching has struck a chord, and not just domestically. It seems as if America has a second chance to rehabilitate its image in the international community. Celebrations rang out from Kenya, to Indonesia, all across Europe - this is an opportunity to become not just a force of good, but a force that is seen by others as good, with the latter perhaps being more important than the former. The way in which the new administration reaches out to the world is going to be absolutely critical to Obama's hopes of returning America to prosperity. Follow the logic - if America can successfully navigate out of Iraq and reach some sense of accord in Afghanistan/Pakistan, billions in savings will be realized immediately, affording opportunities for middle and lower class tax cuts, improve the economy, etc, etc. That's a lot of ifs but it is a path.

Of course, the issue of race cannot be overlooked. The fact that a half African American man won the state of Virginia, the same Virginia formerly known as the capital of the Confederacy, is absolutely astonishing. 45 years after the ugliest time in America 200 years previous, (since the despicable act of robbing its natives of their homeland), it defies imagination to believe what occurred last night. This is another sign of hope in this nation, that a significant portion of those who choose our leaders have determined that the color of a candidate's skin (or the candidate's gender, for that matter) is not the most important factor to determine fitness for fulfilling the role. It sounds so silly to even have to write the words but this is a sign of tremendous progress.

At heart, I am an optimist. I have always believed in my own manifest destiny - that my tomorrow is forever brighter than my today. My natural abilities and the opportunities that are available to me will lead me to a better place and a better life than where I am today. In that way, I think Obama's message has particularly resonated with me. I am not going to lie, during Obama's speech last night in Grant Park, I was moved to tears. Not because he won or someone else lost. Not because of a disagreement over policies or positions or political wrangling. Not because I would no longer have to sit through the awful local campaign commercials! And not because of Obama himself. No, I found myself faced with something much greater than all of that, greater than a president, greater than myself. It was because of hope.

A hope that things can change. A hope that dreams, my dreams, can be realized. A hope that a nation can overcome 300 years of bigotry and racism. A hope that America can become a model of international leadership and diplomancy instead of a pariah and target for hatred. A hope that our economy, which secures our great way of life, can move to stable ground and begin to restore that way of life to the many who have been sideswiped in the last few years. A hope that the promise of a life full of optimism can begin to be realized. And a hope that the optimism is shared and passed on.

I certainly believe that the sacrifice Obama spoke of in the campaign and in last night's acceptance speech is a great way for everyone to become involved - through service or religious affiliations in our own communities or on a grander scale. I certainly intend to own this commitment and ask each of you to consider what you can do to make your community and this great nation a better place to live and be. Take a small step that may just lead to a larger one. But take it now, and begin to fulfill your own vision of hope.

Lyric of the day:

"This is your victory.
And I know you didn't do this just to win an election. And I know you didn't do it for me.
You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime -- two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.
Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us.
There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after the children fall asleep and wonder how they'll make the mortgage or pay their doctors' bills or save enough for their child's college education.
There's new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair.
The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there."

Obama's victory speech - full text and video here

Until next time.

Ace

Trick or Treat!

2008-11-03T10:39:00.003-06:00

The kids had a blast trick or treating on Friday. The weather was spectacular, around 70 or so and we had record turnout in the 'hood. The streets were teeming with ghosts, monsters and about 10,000 Indiana Jones' (unofficially my vote for most popular costume this year). #1 & #2 were medieval princesses, just like Mom. # 3 was Darth Vader, after being Yoda last year.

We also had a big bash on Saturday night at the homefront, a combo bday party for #3 and a costume party for the kids and adults. It was quite nuts, probably a dozen kids under the age of 8, all going various stages of insane from a combination of sugar shock and mob mentality. Good times. I will attempt to e-mail some pics out from the affair....

Kind of blew off school work this weekend, which is generally pretty dumb. I've got a boatload to do but am scheming as to ways to get it done. I have to say, I come away from class every Thursday feeling less and less like I get it. There is some serious analysis of the most minute literature being done in this class. Guess I'll never be a lit professor. I suppose I'll survive this tragedy. I have to say though, that the professor for this class is unbelievable in terms of his knowledge. I swear he's memorized everything he ever read and knows so much of the history to place the lit in context. Very impressive. I've really run across some excellent instructors at my university (and a couple not so excellent ones).

I'm sorry to report that fantasy football has not been going well of late. Went 1-2 this week, although the league that I won is the one where I needed it the most. I'm a shoo in to the playoffs in 2 of 3 leagues and right on the edge in the 3rd. As I learned last year, just making it in is all you need and then hope your team gets hot. I'm sure no one cares about this but whatever.

Song lyric of the day "I'm a-talkin' to myself" Billy Idol

Until next time.

Ace

Fightin!

2008-10-30T11:04:00.002-05:00

Interesting article below that the better half sent me. It looks like the Republican ticket is cracking a bit under the pressure. Or maybe it's just overblown. But definitely not the type of attention you're wanting at this point in the campaign. It's definitely a very slanted article so take it with a grain of salt...

From Yahoo News:

John McCain's campaign is looking for a scapegoat. It is looking for someone to blame if McCain loses on Tuesday.

And it has decided on Sarah Palin.

In recent days, a McCain “adviser” told Dana Bash of CNN: “She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone.”
Imagine not taking advice from the geniuses at the McCain campaign. What could Palin be thinking?

Also, a “top McCain adviser” told Mike Allen of Politico that Palin is “a whack job.”

Maybe she is. But who chose to put this “whack job” on the ticket? Wasn’t it John McCain? And wasn’t it his first presidential-level decision?

And if you are a 72-year-old presidential candidate, wouldn’t you expect that your running mate’s fitness for high office would come under a little extra scrutiny? And, therefore, wouldn’t you make your selection with care? (To say nothing about caring about the future of the nation?)

McCain didn’t seem to care that much. McCain admitted recently on national TV that he “didn’t know her well at all” before he chose Palin.

But why not? Why didn’t he get to know her better before he made his choice?
It’s not like he was rushed. McCain wrapped up the Republican nomination in early March. He didn’t announce his choice for a running mate until late August.

Wasn’t that enough time for McCain to get to know Palin? Wasn’t that enough time for his crackerjack “vetters” to investigate Palin’s strengths and weaknesses, check through records and published accounts, talk to a few people, and learn that she was not only a diva but a whack job diva?

But McCain picked her anyway. He wanted to close the “enthusiasm gap” between himself and Barack Obama. He wanted to inject a little adrenaline into the Republican National Convention. He wanted to goose up the Republican base.

And so he chose Palin. Is she really a diva and a whack job? Could be. There are quite a few in politics. (And a few in journalism, too, though in journalism they are called “columnists.”)

As proof that she is, McCain aides now say Palin is “going rogue” and straying from their script. Wow. What a condemnation. McCain sticks to the script. How well is he doing?

In truth, Palin’s real problem is not her personality or whether she takes orders well. Her real problem is that neither she nor McCain can make a credible case that Palin is ready to assume the presidency should she need to.

And that undercuts McCain’s entire campaign.

This was the deal McCain made with the devil. In exchange for energizing his base by picking Palin, he surrendered his chief selling point: that he was better prepared to run the nation in time of crisis, whether it be economic, an attack by terrorists or, as he has been talking about in recent days, fending off a nuclear war.
“The next president won’t have time to get used to the office,” McCain told a crowd in Miami on Wednesday. “I’ve been tested, my friends, I’ve been tested.”

But has Sarah Palin?

I don’t believe running mates win or lose elections, though some believe they can be a drag on the ticket. Lee Atwater, who was George H.W. Bush’s campaign manager in 1988, told me that Dan Quayle cost the ticket 2 to 3 percentage points. But Bush won the election by 7.8 percentage points.

So, in Atwater’s opinion, Bush survived his bad choice by winning the election on his own.

McCain could do the same thing. But his campaign’s bad decisions have not stopped with Sarah Palin. It has made a series of questionable calls, including making Joe the Plumber the embodiment of the campaign.

Are voters really expected to warmly embrace an (unlicensed) plumber who owes back taxes and complains about the possibility of making a quarter million dollars a year?

And did McCain’s aides really believe so little in John McCain’s own likability that they thought Joe the Plumber would be more likable?

Apparently so. Which is sad.

We in the press make too much of running mates and staff and talking points and all the rest of the hubbub that accompanies a campaign.

In the end, it comes down to two candidates slugging it out.
Either McCain pulls off a victory in the last round or he doesn’t.
And if he doesn’t, he has nobody to blame but himself.

Song lyric of the day "Girls who are boys / Who like boys to be girls / Who do boys like they're girls / Who do girls like they're boys / Always should be someone you really love " Blur, Boys & Girls

Until next time.

Ace

Spooky

2008-10-28T15:08:00.003-05:00

What is everyone going to be for Halloween? I haven't fully made up my mind yet, one great suggestion was to be that super creepy Burger King dude. I love his commercials and apparently there is a full costume with mask and all available. Tempting.

I'm also tossing around a few other costume ideas. Our house will be filled with princesses and a Darth Vader. We're hosting a costume party with some kids and some adults so it should be fun to see what everyone comes dressed as.

Work is finally calming down a little and class is really heating up. I've got to get moving on my final paper and presentation, both due in early December. I'm hoping to spend some considerable time on both this weekend.

That's all for now peeps!

Song lyric of the day "I had a dog and his name was King" Neil Young, Old King

Until next time.

Ace

Freebies and a smile

2008-10-23T12:54:00.003-05:00

Two freebies pointed out to me by various friends today:

1. Taco Bell is giving away a crunchy taco to anyone who wants one on Tuesday of next week since there was a stolen base in last night's World Series game. Good marketing move! Details here.

2. Dr. Pepper is giving away a free 20 oz soda to those who bother to register for one. Why? Because it appears as if Gun N Roses is actually releasing their long rumored (17 years?) Chinese Democracy album. Wow! Details here. If you fail to read the link, Dr. Pepper has said that GNR guitarists (at various times) Slash and Buckethead are ineligible for the promotion - hilarious!

And a joke from Comedy Central

A dying man smells his favorite oatmeal raisin cookies cooking downstairs. It takes all the strength he has left but he gets up from the bed and crawls down the stairs. He sees the cookies cooling on the counter and staggers over to them. As he reaches for one, his wife's wrinkled hand reaches out, smacks his and she yells:
"No, you can't have those! They're for the funeral!"

Song lyric of the day: "I've got a tongue like a razor / A sweet switchblade knife" Guns N Roses, Rocket Queen

Until next time.

Ace

Odds and ends

2008-10-21T15:46:00.002-05:00

Great news, I got my GRE scores and my suspicions were confirmed, my writing score was good enough to surpass program requirements. At this point, the only thing standing between me and entry into the grad program is the review and acceptance of my application, recommendation letters, etc. I'm guessing this won't be a problem. After all, if there's one thing I've learned about higher education, it's that the higher the institution can escalate its tuition income, the better!

In the meantime, reading assignments have been somewhat long, taking up all available time. I can already foresee myself cramming down to the wire on my research paper and presentation that are due in early Dec. Ugh, I hope I can avoid it.

Big happy bdays to half the world, who seem to be celebrating this week, including D, W, N and #3, who turned 2 this past weekend. I believe a small gathering is in the offing to celebrate the affair, a little later than the actual day due to some other stuff on the calendar.

I'm afraid that's all I've got time to bore everyone with today - work is nutso right now!

Song lyric of the day: "Taking what they're giving cause I'm working for a living" Huey Lewis

Until next time.

Ace

Crises and bailouts, oh my!

2008-10-14T10:15:00.004-05:00

Have you heard? We're in the midst of a financial crisis, requiring massive government bailouts and other really scary sounding, alarmist actions dealing with esoteric financial derivatives and instruments that have been extensively discussed everywhere you look. However, one thing that's really got my attention but I have not heard being discussed is what has happened with gas prices in the last six weeks or so.

In our area, gas prices have dropped somewhere in the neighborhood of 25% or more, around $1.10 per gallon in the last six week alone. Why? Well, good question. The price of a barrel of oil has certainly come down, which helps to some degree. But I've got to be honest, gas prices have been much higher than this at the current price of oil. So what was keeping oil prices elevated? Some would tell you it is oil speculators, people who simply trade contracts for future delivery of oil. You'll probably hear some chatter about hurricanes shutting down refineries. And I'm sure a talking head somewhere will tell you of geopolitical issues, maybe a discussion of warring tribes in some undeveloped nation.

I'm here to say it's all a bunch of BS. All of the above are probably contributing factors but I think corporate greed is the driving force behind the price of a gallon of petro folks. It seems awfully fishy to me that as the economy takes a deep nosedive south, the price of gas suddenly does the same. It's almost as if someone has decided that at long last, the economy has had more than it can take and that price relief needs to be instituted. And so, the price plummets. Maybe it's all a big free-market coincidence but I find that very hard to believe.

The galling thing about all of this is that up until said price relief was instituted, the prices were artificially inflated. Shocker! I think we all at least suspected this. I find this entire situation to be infuriating. It's as if the wizard behind the curtain has finally decided that he can stop taking from our collective wallets. A prime example of big business sticking it to the population.

I'm sure this sounds very conspiratorial and I'm not normally of that mindset. But I just can't believe that these things aren't related. With that, I'll end this rant. I certainly don't want this blog to become political so we'll return to some different fare.

Song lyric of the day: "All American, an evil game of extortion" Anthrax, I'm the Man

Until next time.

Ace

Brew and brawl

2008-10-09T09:33:00.002-05:00

Earlier this week, I'm sure most of you know that the second presidential debate took place. The format was a townhall style meeting, with around 80 local Tennessee residents sitting around the candidates and Tom Brokaw moderating the affair. I decided this would be a good time for me to watch the fireworks, with all the talking heads predicting that McCain was going to really get after Obama since he was beginning to sag in the polls a bit.

Well, my friends, I have to say, this was a good time! The expected fireworks never really materialized but alas, something better did. It became clear in the first few minutes of the debate that McCain's phrase that pays for the event was going to be "my friends", as in, "My friends, America can do this" or "That, my friends, is what I will do as President", etc, etc, etc.

I could not let this golden opportunity go by without taking strong and decisive action. No sirree, I made a beeline for the fridge and grabbed a cold one. From that point forward, every time Johnny McC dropped a "my friend", I took a pull from my frosty beverage. I'm not going to lie to you, faithful reader, I may have been a bit tipsy by the end of the affair. I'll also postulate that this was definitely the most fun I've had with such an event. Good times! On a more serious note, the debate helped me crystallize which way I'm going to vote. So, from that perspective, it was also time well-spent.

Song lyric of the day: "My friends I'm so depressed" Red Hot Chili Peppers

Until next time.

Ace

Psychos and Kid Shows

2008-10-06T08:33:00.004-05:00

What a weekend!

Started things off with a poker tourney on Friday night, 18 man league game I've been playing in for a couple of months now. On the first hand I lost about 1/3 of my chips, not a good start! But, about 3 hands later I more than doubled up when my pocket Jacks flopped a set. That literally was enough chips to last me for quite a while, getting me to the final table. A few hands here and there kept me afloat but there was one giant stack at the table who had literally 10 times more than anyone else. It was just a matter of getting a great hand, pushing against him and hoping you held up. Fortunately I had enough chips that I could be patient to find my hand to push with and outlasted several shorter stacks, cruising into the money and lasting all the way until second. By the time we got heads up, dude literally had 10-1 chip lead on me. I doubled through him once to bring my stack up to about 42k (out of 270k on the table). Then I got my chips in with QJ suited against a random hand like 36o but dude flopped a six and that was the end of that! Had my hand held up there, I would have been only down 2 to 1 chip wise and liked my chances. Still, it was a pretty solid performance overall that should put me in a good position in the standings, probably in the top 4 or so out of around 30. Nice!

Saturday was a trip to Chicago Theatre to see the Backyardigans. We had sweet seats, 4th row. Any closer and I think it might have been a little too close. Kid #2 was hilarious, very apprehensive when the show started. The Backyardigans is a kids show that is animated. But the live show was actually people dressed up like the characters. #2 was not buying it. But eventually, everyone came around and wound up having a good time. It was a good, fun family day. We wound things up with a trip to the local Red Robin, where all the high school kids had descended for their pre-Homecoming meals. There were some seriously shiny dresses and bad ties. I cringed remembering my own ridiculousness at this period in my life.

Last night I decided I needed to mix things up a little and decided to finally watch No Country for Old Men. This was an excellent movie, in line with other offerings from the Coen brothers. Josh Brolin was really good and Javier Bardem definitely earned the Oscar that he won. His role was one of the great characters in recent memory. A very suspenseful movie, very violent and lots of fun. Tommy Lee Jones was good but not Oscar worthy. I'm not sure I loved the ending but I don't have a problem with it.

Song lyric of the day: "We're knights, that's right!" The Backyardigans

Until next time.

Ace

Black Sunday - Raining on my parade

2008-09-30T07:56:00.002-05:00

I took the GRE on Saturday. Like many of these standardized tests, the ability to computerize them has made the process different than it has been in the past. For example, there is not a large group of people all taking the test at the same time. When I showed up, I signed in, got frisked, a mug shot taken, and was on my way. It was pretty wild. You literally cannot have anything in your pockets while taking this test. I guess my plan for domination by osmosis from the cheat sheet in my pocket was foiled!

The test area is basically a bunch of cubicles in rows. Each cubicle is videotaped and you are given a set of headphones that I believe were taken from the baggage workers at the United terminal, perhaps the most ludicrous looking things I've ever laid eyes upon.

Another difference now that the test is electronic is that the exam adapts to your skill level. In other words, as you answer questions, the exam determines on the spot if it was right or wrong and offers the next question based on the accuracy of your response. Get it right and the next question gets more difficult. Get it wrong and the next question is eaiser than the last.

That said, I'm taking the exam and I felt like the questions were quite hard. I guess on the one hand that is good in that it means that maybe I'm getting them right? But I felt like I was doing quite a lot of guessing. And then occasionally an easy one would pop up and I was sure that I was tanking! Overall, the test seemed much more difficult than the practice tests and practice questions I had taken. Since my math score didn't count for admission into my grad program, I spent very little time trying to work out the problems.

At the end of the exam, I was given the option to dismiss my results without sending them to my school for consideration. Basically, if I felt like I bombed, I could just not count the test and try again later. Unfortunately, you're required to do this BEFORE you get to see your score. Since I already paid for it and thought I might have been OK, I didn't consider dismissing the results. I clicked the Accept button and up popped a glorious score that was more than 100 points higher than the minimum needed for entry into my grad program. Woooo-freaking-----hooooooooo! I still have to wait for the writing score to come back because that piece is still human graded. However, I'm not too worried about that. I'm considering this piece of the process complete.

Sunday was the most important day of the baseball season for me and my favorite team, the Mets. The team had stumbled down the stretch and found themselves tied with the Brewers headed into Sunday, the last day of the baseball season. Both teams were trying to snag the final playoff spot available in the National League. Both games happened to be televised locally and were going on at the same time. The games were nip and tuck the whole way, both tied in the late innings. And, just like a microcosm of the Mets season, they coughed it up late, while the Brewers rallied late for the win, clinching the final playoff spot. That makes two years in a row that the Mets have been on the verge of the playoffs and given it up right at the very end of the season. Given the media circus that is New York, it's going to be a long, long winter in Queens. Add to this the Eagles ignominious defeat at the hands of the Bears Sunday night, and it was a sports day I'd care not to remember.

In the interest of ending on an up note, I'll close by saying I managed to win one of my fantasy baseball leagues for a nice payout and went 3-0 in fantasy football this week. So, all is not lost, I'm definitely off to a great start football wise!

Song lyric of the day (with apologies for trivializing the intent of this song) "Sunday, bloody Sunday" - U2

Until next time.

Ace

Coolest website in history?

2008-09-25T14:11:00.002-05:00

Just a very quick post here, with props out to my boy Jacob. Click here for what may be the coolest website in history. Don't worry, nothing tawdry or virus infested. And no, I am not rick rolling you people. But you should have the sound on or the point is nearly completely lost.

Song lyric of the day "Been caught stealin' / once, when I was five" Jane's Addiction

Until next time.

Ace

It's On!

2008-09-24T14:19:00.002-05:00

Oh yeah, that's right. It is full on this Saturday, excitement the likes of which hasn't been seen in ages. Yep, you got it, GRE in its full glory. I will spend one of the likely last beautiful autumn days cooped up in some high school cafeteria or gymnasium in front of a keyboard. Sweet!!!!

Actually, besides the setting, not too different from last weekend, where I spent most of it in front of the keyboard in my basement practicing for the exam and finishing a practice exam. With some practice (and probably some lucky guessing), I managed to get my score all the way up to the 91st percentile and safely within the acceptance zone for my school's grad program. And while there is no way to get your practice essays graded, there are examples provided of other essays and the scores that they received. I feel like I should be fine there as well. So, I will do the deed on Saturday and hopefully be done with it. I hope I pass because it's a hundred and forty freakin bucks to take this thing. Ugh!

That is all for now.

Song lyric of the day: "I'd take off my shades / And be blinded by the sun" Gym Class Heroes

Until next time.

Ace

Fear the Reptile!

2008-09-19T08:41:00.003-05:00

As many of my readers know, I'm not the most religious person you'll ever run across. So, last night's discussion in class centered on a story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne called Rappacini's Daughter. We spent

damn near three hours talking about this story and two others and their relation to specific scriptures in the Old and New Testament, including the Garden of Eden passage in Genesis. It was quite a mental work out, to be sure. Throw in some analysis from literary critics and you've got a recipe for mass confusion, overly dramatic interpretation and general academia-induced nausea.

The good news is that neither of my big assignments for the course are due until December. This is good as I'll be able to get through the busiest time at work before I have to put in heavy duty time towards my assignments. That means I can focus on other things as well, such as the GRE. I'm planning some study time this weekend (yuk!) and hopefully another practice test that shows some improvement over my last score. Assuming that goes well, I'll schedule the test for sometime in the next couple weeks. When I entered college you had to schedule way in advance but now, since everything is done online, it can be done by simply walking into a testing center. Nice! So that's the latest and greatest schoolwise.

I also would be remiss if I failed to point out my sheer dominance in 2 of my 3 fantasy football leagues so far. Big game this weekend against the other top team in one of the leagues. We won't talk about my third league, where I'm 0-2 and already on the brink of elimination. Eeek.

Song lyric of the day "There's no one's gonna believe this / But we're lost in the garden of Eden /This fire is burnin' and it's out of control /It's not a problem you can stop/ It's rock n' roll /Suck on that" Guns N Roses (hi Axl!)

Until next time.

Ace

Whoa!

2008-09-17T09:24:00.003-05:00

Check this sweet picture out....

Two words for you: Gators.

Song lyric of the day: "We were hopping and bopping to the Crocodile Rock" Elton John

Until next time.

Ace

Hungry hungry hippo

2008-09-16T10:09:00.003-05:00

Anyone remember King Hippo? I had occasion the other day to think about this strange character, originally from Mike Tyson's Punch Out, a Nintendo game that came out in the late '80s I suppose. His heft was great, leading to his easily knocking out Mac (you, the player) if you were inexperienced or didn't bother to deal with his assaults. But alas, he was a pretty easy foe to vanquish once you figured out how to attack his weak underbelly region. Good times.

Times are very busy, spent a nice weekend celebrating the better half's bday. It was fun to hang out with some friends and do some fun stuff. There was a surreal moment where we realized that all the guys in our party were dressed nearly identically, jeans and a blue polo. Thankfully, the establishment was dark enough that I doubt anyone noticed the fashion faux pas.

Otherwise, class really hasn't been too busy, a lot of reading and writing short responses but nothing too overwhelming. I felt a little less lost in the second night of class than the first. Hopefully the trend continues. The professor is pretty cool. This week I got to read a bunch of Nathaniel Hawthorne, including a few short stories that are overwhelmingly depressing. Should be a great deal of fun to discuss in class. I'm looking at taking the GRE by the end of this month, which, if all goes well, will be the last step in my admission to the graduate program. I'll be glad to complete that part of the process.

Enough for now!

Song lyric of the day "Hittin' where it hurts / You're doing dirty work" Webb Wilder

Until next time.

Ace

2008-09-11T15:15:00.002-05:00

Off to class tonight. This will be my second class of the semester and wow! For the record, the class is titled American Lit 1830-1865, so you know it's going to attract the diehards. Well, no doubt, for this is like a sitcom version of a graduate level lit class. You've got the long-haired, crazy theoried, Lone Gunmen high school English teacher guy, the little gnome looking dude with his rock concert t-shirt, the overthoughtful baby boomer snob dude, several hippie mamas and the instructor who appears to know more about what was going on in 1830 than is healthy. I'm in way over my head in this one. I think I'm going to have to rely on what I believe is official school policy that no grad student who gives at least half an effort is allowed to receive a grade lower than a B. Hopefully it will get better.

This weekend is the better half's bday so kind wishes would be appreciated. I've got some fun stuff planned that many of you know about but they are a surprise so don't spill the beans. I just hope I'm able to get enough sleep to pull it all off, it's looking like a long weekend. We'll see.

I will report back if I survive.

Song lyric of the day: "Go state the overstated / Keep it complicated / The over educated /That hope you'll never make it/ Can you take the final blow and know they won't be shutting up" Local H

Until next time.

Ace

For the love of God, hide the women and children! It's Sally!

2008-09-09T08:55:00.003-05:00

As alluded to here, I recently attended a wedding. I would like to say for those of you who read this and have never seen me, I am not included in any of the following photos, thank God! This might make more sense if I provided some context but I'm not going to. Long live Sally!

Song lyric of the day: "Dude looks like a lady" Aerosmith

Until next time.

Ace.

Hi-larious

2008-09-06T21:30:00.002-05:00

Real life exchange this evening between the better half and me:

Me (just returning from lengthy run and doing some stretches): "My groin feels tight"

Better half (disinterestedly): "Uh-huh"

Me (inspired with a great idea): "Wanna feel it?"

Pause

Me (amused): "That was a good one"

Better half (not nearly as amused, in fact a bit snarky): "Why don't you put that in your blog?"

Me: "Good idea!"

Song lyric of the day: "She liked the look of my johnson" Red Hot Chili Peppers

Until next time.

Ace

At the movies

2008-09-03T12:44:00.002-05:00

I hope everyone had a great, long weekend. Nothing extravagant to report here but it was nice to have some time off before work and school really kick in. It was quite hot in our area but otherwise uneventful.

One thing I have been able to do a bit of during the break was catch up on movies that we've had on the list to watch. So, I thought I'd talk about them here.

First up was a movie called Lucky You, starring Eric Bana and Drew Barrymore. The story is about a deadbeat poker player (Bana) living in Vegas who meets and falls for a starry eyed innocent girl (Barrymore) from California. Bana also has serious dad issues and is a complete gambling addict. At times, the movie seems sincere and keeps from getting too cliche. But, Barrymore plays the same character she's played in a million other romance movies, which is annoying. But the poker action is good and Robert Duvall is excellent in his role as Bana's father, a world class poker player. The final scenes at the World Series of Poker are a little silly and at the end of the movie, I was pretty disappointed. But, it wasn't the worst movie in the world, unlike some reviews of it I had read.

I also went to the theater to check out the new Ben Stiller movie Tropic Thunder, thanks to a free ticket I was able to land (thx!). This movie was everything I expected it to be, absolutely ridiculous but a whole heckuva lot of fun. Robert Downey Jr was great, Nick Nolte and Tom Cruise were brilliant in small roles and the fake previews at the beginning of the movie were low brow hilarity at it's best (worst?). I'm glad I saw this one and really could not beat the price!

Finally, this weekend I was able to catch up on Superbad, a movie I had heard a lot of great things about. I'm sure most readers have seen this movie - it was great! The story is of a couple of loser high school seniors and their escapades leading up to a party a few weeks before graduation. The cop roles played by Bill Hader (from SNL) and Seth Rogen (40 Yr Old Virgin, Knocked Up) were fantastic and McLovin is one of the best movie characters since Napoleon Dynamite. Highly recommended.

That's all for now!

Song lyric of the day "Yes/I love technology/but not as much as you" Kip from Napoleon Dynamite

Until next time.

Ace

Wedded bliss and a giant albino

2008-08-27T09:12:00.005-05:00

A big congrats goes out to J & J on their recently committed nuptials. The wedding was quite spectacular, taking place in Chicago at a place called the Ivy Room. It was beautiful and very well put together. I don't know if the couple used a wedding planner but all of the details were well-attended to and everything was really quite nice. The happy couple is off to Fiji next week, enjoy!

Many very close friends from the area where I grew up were in attendance. I don't get to spend nearly as much time with those folks as I used to, so it was fun to get some quality time in. Much ridiculous activity ensued, including typical silly dancing (Q, the drop the keys move was a BIG hit with this crowd) and for many, far too much alcohol consumption. As usual, many plans were made for trips together that will likely never happen (although that Vegas junket sure sounds sweet!) and hopefully a reunion of sorts at Thanksgiving. That, of course, assumes that certain among us have recovered from this weekend's festivities by then, and you know who you are! In addition, I suspect that I will be posting at least one picture from the event shortly.

I mentioned that I'm reading Moby Dick for my class this fall. I wanted to post a very short excerpt demonstrating Melville's ability. This comes at the beginning of Chapter 37, p.182.

"Yonder, by the ever-brimming goblet's rim, the warm waves blush like wine. The gold brow plumbs the blue. The diver sun - slow dived from noon, - goes down; my soul mounts up! she wearies her endless hill."

Stunning descriptions, this really struck me for some reason.

Song lyric of the day "And the shadow of the day / will embrace the world in gray" Linkin Park

Until next time.

Ace

Back to reality

2008-08-26T11:06:00.003-05:00

Well, the second break of the summer from class has come and gone. It's amazing how quickly time has gone. #1 heads back to school starting tomorrow, #2 fires up next week and I start up this week as well. The nice rhythm the family has gotten into will now be thrown into chaos for the next couple weeks until we get into the new routine. We will be going in a lot of different directions though. Fortunately, #1 is entering first grade and will be in school all day, lessening the running around a little bit.

As far as my progression, my application to grad school is still in progress. I've got all of the transcripts requested, my letters of recommendation have been submitted and the only thing left for me to do is take and achieve an acceptable score on the GRE. I took a practice test and scored right at the minimum qualifying score. So, I need to spend a little time studying/practicing to make sure I've got a little breathing room on the exam. I'm glad to be so close to done with that piece, I think I should be able to finish the GRE in the next month or so.

Assuming my acceptance into the grad program, it's looking like I'll need to take five additional classes to complete the degree. Ugh! So, unfortunately, it looks like I'll be pushing back student teaching yet again. In some ways, this is frustrating because in reality, I could be student teaching right now if I stayed on my original schedule. But, in other ways, it's a bit of a blessing as it allows the family to save some extra money, pay off some items like the cars, and better prepare us for the period where we are on a single income until I'm able to get going with my teaching gig.

It's a lot to digest but I'm at peace with where I am now. I am looking forward to the time when it is all completed though. And I start up class this week, taking a single course in American Lit from the early 1800s. I've already started reading Moby Dick in preparation for the class. Melville is quite a writer!

Enough for now.

Song lyric of the day: "On the way to school / I'm glad it wasn't you" Drivin N Cryin

Until next time.

Ace

Trip report: Horseshoe Casino, Hammond, IN 8-9-08

2008-08-19T15:28:00.006-05:00

After the big trip to New York, I wasted in no time in setting off for another trip. Up next, a trip to Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana. The casino underwent a gigantic renovation recently, costing half a billion to complete, and the grand re-opening was scheduled for August 8. As it turned out, the Smashing Pumpkins were brought in to play at the new theatre called The Venue, which is conveniently located only up a staircase and down the hall from the casino. As a Pumpkins fan and gambler, this was a fortuitous combination I could not pass up. So, I hooked up with my boy Q and we were off.

I got to the casino and easily found my way to the poker room. Wow! This is the closest thing I've seen to a Vegas type poker room outside Sin City. 34 tables in all, a very nice front desk/brush area, and a two tiered room (with the upper tier reserved for nosebleed stakes), this place was very nice. Of course, everything was brand new, including the tables, a commemorative set of chips for the grand re-opening, the electronic waitlist, and (unfortunately) the dealers.

The wait list process was a little cumbersome. I didn't call ahead to get on the list and by the time I got to the room there was a wait of about 2o people on the 1/2 No Limit game. Most of these were call-ins though so I was able to get a seat in about 30 minutes or so. Not bad, but they could have easily opened another table or two while I was waiting and there would have been no wait at all. I'm sure that is something that will be worked out with a little more experience.

The dealers weren't so good. Many of them had a very difficult time keeping the action moving, making decisions when a card was inadvertently exposed, etc. One cool thing was that the room has chip runners, meaning the dealers were not selling chips, which kept the action moving. Once the dealers get some more experience, the play should be pretty quick at Horseshoe. There is a lot of space in the room, as opposed to most of the other rooms I've frequented. This is a very good thing!

I sat down about 1:45 pm or so and started playing. I didn't have much in the way of hands for most of the session. In fact, the entire 6+ hours I played, I only wound up showing my cards on two hands. I'll dissect a few hands here for your reading pleasure.

Hand #1. Guy 2 seats to my right has been splashing around quite a bit, raising with a lot of garbage. He likes to talk a lot and is generally your typical table captain. He pops it up to 12 preflop. I look down at pocket sevens in the small blind. I might consider folding here since only one other person had limped into the hand and I'm out of position. But, given the aggressive nature of the captain, I decided to call. Other guy calls. Flop comes down 678 rainbow. Not a perfect hand for a set but beggars can't be choosers. I check, the limper checks and captain bets 25 into our $36 pot. I've got the captain covered and think he's likely on an overpair or just pushing around. But I'm not taking any chances. I push all in for another 100 or so. The limper folds and the captain goes deep into the tank. After a minute or so, he decides to call me and turns over pocket nines. He has an overpair and open ended straight draw. Rag on the turn and the river is an eight to fill me up. Nice pot and suddenly I'm up about $200 or a buy-in.

Hand #2. I'm on the button and about 5 people limp in to me. I look down at A8 off suit. I don't usually play this kind of hand but since I'm on the button decide to see a flop. Small Blind completes and BB checks. Flop comes down A88, bingo! SB leads out for $15 into the $14 pot. I'm disappointed as it folds around to me. I smooth call, wanting to extract as much as possible out of senor SB. The turn is a rag and he bets out another $20. Again I smooth call. River is yet another rag and SB bets out $30. This time I think about it for a while and raise another $90, figuring with $158 in the pot any eight and any big ace are likely to call me here. He goes into the tank forever and finally (argh!) mucks his hand. He shows an Ace as he folds. Dang it, I guess I raised a little too much. But, I've added to my growing stack.

Hand #3. Shortly before dinner, I finally look down at a premium pair in late position, spying AA. I'm in late position and there are four limpers in ahead of me. I raise up to $12 and get 3 callers (yikes!). Flop comes down T73, 2 diamonds. Checked to me and I bet out $20 into the $52 pot. Guy in 3rd position raises it up to $60 and it folds around to me. Did he hit a set? Maybe but I'm putting him on something more like pocket Queens or Jacks. This guy isn't a very good player and the only set I saw him play all night he slow played all the way to the river. I re-popped up to $120. Guy has about $300 behind, a nice sized stack. He fairly quickly calls me. Turn is a beautiful, wondrous, glorious Ace, I'm now sitting on the nuts. Dude checks to me and I bet out another $75 into this $300 pot. He fairly quickly calls. River is another seven, pairing the board and giving me a full boat. The only hand that beats me here is pocket 7s, which I thought was a possibility but I tell myself that's monster-under-the-bed type thinking. He checks to me and I fire out another $75. He's got about $150 left behind and the pot is already around $450. I think I've bet little enough for him to call, especially with such a big pot. He thinks for literally 3-4 minutes before finally folding. ARGGGGH! He was either on his Kings, Queens or Jacks, or maybe a flush draw. Later he tries to tell me he had pocket 2s, meaning he folded twos full of sevens. I don't believe that for a second. I lose a little on a couple speculative hands and finish the night up $430, up over two buy-ins. I like this poker room!

As an aside, the place also features 2 Poker Tek tables, which basically is an automated poker table, meaning no dealers, no chips, etc. It's basically playing computerized poker but you're playing against other people that are sitting at the table. The advantages of this are quicker games, no tipping the dealer required and lower rake taken from the hands. The disadvantage is primarily that there are no real cards, chips, etc. I'll try it out next time I'm there.

Q and I also checked out dinner. The line to the buffet was unbelievably long so we headed for a little Asian noodle shop. It was ok, they had a few dim sum dishes that I am especially fond of. So I snagged some of that and scarfed down dinner. This place could use more smaller restaurants besides the buffet and definitely could use more seating. Next up, The Venue, for Pumpkin-time!

The room was interesting, it was a gigantic theater. I'm sure that the set-up varies from show to show. The night before the Pumpkins played, Bette Midler opened the room. I'm pretty sure the general admittance area didn't exist for her show, hard to see all the boomers moshing it up to Wind Beneath My Wings. I digress.

For the Pumpkins, the entire downstairs was standing room, GA. It probably could have held somewhere in the neighborhood of five thousand people in the downstairs alone. Pumpkins didn't come close to filling it though. In the upstairs, there was a balcony area with what looked like fairly limited seating, although to be honest I didn't really take a good look. The balcony was quite a long ways back from the stage, those seats would not have been good for this show. Interestingly, the floor itself was concrete but during the show when everyone was jumping around you could feel the floor bouncing, almost like it was made of rubber. I kept envisioning the pulsing mass of people collapsing through the floor and landing one story down in the middle of a roulette game or something!

Pumpkins put on an interesting show. They were on stage for 2 1/2 hours and played a few of the hits. They also played a couple of really long songs that literally lasted about 50 minutes or so between the 2 of them. Here is a review of a similar show done the night before that seems like it had a very similar setlist. Highlights of the show for me included classic Mayonnaise, the previously mentioned long rock out to America, and from way back Rhinoceros. Unfortunately, there were some lowlights. First, the sound really sucked. I don't know if it was the room or the band, but at many points you couldn't hear Corgan's guitar and often couldn't hear his vocals. Huh? Second, I wasn't very into the lengthy Floyd cover they did. The acoustic set in the middle of the show was fairly average and the final encore, when the entire band stood front stage and played kazoos was sublime and a little too much for me. Overall, I'm glad I saw the band but it left a bit to be desired.

On the other hand, Q has been a big Pumpkins fan for a long time. He's been a little grouchy the band hasn't played Chicago once since their reunion last year. I don't think this show really helped the cause. I really don't want to be to blame for his dissocation with his favorite band but I think it may be too late for that. Bummer!

Song lyric of the day: "The world is a vampire / set to drain" Smashing Pumpkins

Until next time.

Ace

For the married amongst us

2008-08-18T14:35:00.002-05:00

Joke of the day from ComedyCentral.com

Q: What's the difference between an in-law and an outlaw?

A: Outlaws are wanted.

Song lyric of the day: "Ghost riders in the sky" Johnny Cash

Until next time.

Ace

Only missing the sex

2008-08-15T09:57:00.003-05:00

One thing I've done a good job of during this portion of summer break is doing a LOT of reading. That includes the epic biography of Neil Young called Shakey. This sucker was 738 pages of rock and roll history all surrounding the strange and always changing world of Neil Young.

Now I'm not a huge Neil Young fan or anything but I thought this would be a good book to read. He's a very intriguing character and mesmerizing enough to help me through the long read. By the end, I wondered how the book might have continued. The story essentially wraps up in 1998, presumably because that's when the book was published. But Young has continued to write and record in the ensuing decade. Not sure I'm asking for a sequel but it would be interesting to read. The thing is filled with all the drugs and rock and roll you could imagine, only leaving out one leg of the stool in the cliched world of music.

The author is a guy named Jimmy McDonough, who apparently has a reputation for these long biographies. I'll tell you another thing the guy has, that's a long lensed view of rock and roll. He is constantly displaying this knowledge as he discusses influences on Young and other artists. But, at times, he comes off sounding like an old fogey, lamenting the end of rock and roll - while he doesn't give an exact date, I would guess he thinks rock essentially ended around 1978 or so. That's a little distracting.

But Young's life is a crazy one. He's a lot more than Heart of Gold and Rockin' in the Free World. His story is one of being in the right place at the right time in a lot of ways. His love for music blossomed right as the world opened up to rock and roll and his experiences led him right into the heart of hippiedom. From there, Young would make many interesting, bizarre and sometimes career-threatening transformations into different types of music and different types of characters. One aside you would never guess is that Young has become the sole owner of Lionel, the toy train manufacturer. How unusual!

The book does a good job of avoiding the hero-worship that often comes with these types of tomes and really gives a great insight into Young's mind through interviews with the artist himself and exhaustive research on those around him. It's well written and sparked in me a keen interest in tracking down some of Young's music. If you're a music lover, you'll find the book interesting, even if you aren't a huge Neil Young fan.

Next up on the reading list is Moby Dick for the lit class I'm taking this fall. Talk about a change of pace!

Song lyric of the day: "Old King sure meant a lot to me / But that hound dog is history" Neil Young

Until next time.

Ace

Trip Report: Pomme grande

2008-08-13T13:49:00.004-05:00

The big trip is over! Here's my recollection of the affair.

We started out on Friday night, headed from the midwest to the Big Apple. The plan was to drive out overnight to minimize the "are we there yet" factor. So, we got in the car and off we went. 7 minutes into the trip, we made our first stop, a turnaround to head home and retrieve our forgotten camera. Not bad! So, eight minutes later, we were seriously on the road, right around 8 pm.

The kiddies were entertained with a movie for a while, which helped, finally dozing off as we crossed into Indiana. The great part about this trip was that we primarily only had to take one interstate virtually the entire way, the toll-infested I-80. We got about 2 1/2 hours in before our first pit stop. From there, we were in business, getting a long ways and deep into early morning hours before our next stop. The driving overnight plan was a good one but had a few drawbacks. One, I should have gotten more sleep the night before - I was up quite late due to some work stuff. Two, it really threw our sleep patterns off on the day of our arrival. I made it through most of Ohio before needing some relief at the wheel, turning it over to the better half.

We ran into a Noah laughing his butt off in the Ark rainstorm in Eastern PA as what eventually turned into dawn approached. It was hair-raising, going up and down the mountains (the very beautiful Poconos) in this stuff. I took over at the wheel shortly into the deluge. We cruised into New Jersey and were on our way to our hotel, getting into the area by about 9:30 in the morning. Crazily, this was nearly to the minute the amount of time MapQuest told us it would take.

Our hotel was quite nice, it seemed like it was pretty new and the room we got was very big, with plenty of room for all of us and a separate room area for our youngest to sleep without worry of being bothered by us. Unfortunately, my head nearly exploded trying to find the place. It was securely nestled on the backhalf of a frontage road on a non-existent highway that you had to know a secret password to enter. Ugh! So, instead of finding the hotel, we headed over instead to check out the Statue of Liberty.

I've seen Lady Liberty while crossing a bridge or two in NY and was suprised at how small she looked from that vantage point. So when we took the ferry over to Liberty Island, I was dutifully impressed by the size of the statue. It was a very cool, but brief, experience. Unfortunately, it started pouring so it was a little soggy making our way back to the ferry. But once on board, we were fine inside the boat.

We finally did find our way to the hotel and were happy to have a resting place. We took the kids swimming in the "heated" indoor pool, which felt like it was not heated at all. This would be the case through the remainder of the trip but the kids didn't seem to mind much, except the littlest, who shrieked a little when entering but quickly numbed to the pain. Thankfully, there was a sufficiently heated spa to make up for the trouble. So, Saturday was essentially spent at the Statue of Liberty and hanging out at the hotel, having dinner delivered in.

Sunday was game #1 on our doubleheader trip, a trip to Yankee Stadium to see the Bronx Bombers battle the Angels. The plan was to leave super early and get to the stadium in time to visit Monument Park, an area beyond centerfield where there are tributes to many of the great Yankees to play at the stadium (think Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, giants in baseball history). Unfortunately, horrid traffic, children's appetites and a food court lunatic conspired to delay us beyond the time limits that would allow us to visit this portion of the ballpark. I was disappointed but it wasn't the end of the world. BTW, the Bronx was really not a very nice place.

Now for Yankee Stadium The place is very old but felt really comfortable. Our seats were in the right-centerfield bleacher area, a non-alcholic seating section. And even though we were in one of the furthest rows back, we felt very close to the field and action. There was history dripping from the place, it was really awe-inspiring to think of how many bombs the Mick hit into our area back in the day. It was also fun that in our section, the fans chanted for each player in the top of the 1st innning, earning an appreciative wave or nod of the hat from each player while the game was in progress - cool little tradition. Alas, the #2 & #3 were getting feisty and wound up bumping heads and leading to a bloody nose for one and an early departure for the rest of us. Oh well, at least we got to see the park. We finished the day with some more swimming and a trip to the drugstore to get some ointment for a heat rash #3 had picked up.

Monday was a hole in our schedule so we decided to go check out Central Park. Now I generally am not too concerned about driving in lots of traffic, even if I am not familiar with the area I'm in. But I have to say, driving around NYC was pretty damn stressful and there is not a lot of parking in the whole Central Park area, at least not easily found for us. But we did manage to find a garage and spent a few hours checking out CP. It was okay but I wasn't overly impressed. One of the highlights of the trip was dinner Monday night, where we checked out a neighborhood Portugese restaurant we happened across during our stay. Very authentic, very good, and fun to try something new and different.

Tuesday was check out day and the second half of our doubleheader, although the game wasn't until 7:05. So we slept in a little, packed up and headed to the ballpark area, figuring we'd find something to do near there. We managed to find a movie theater and took the monkeys to see Wall-E, an interesting Pixar/Disney flic. It was a pretty depressing vision of the future but well-written, very imaginative and the kids seemed to like it. Afterwards, we headed over to the stadium early and got there right about the time the park opened.

Shea Stadium was about what I expected. The place has a reputation for being a dump. I don't know if I'd call it a dump but it doesn't really stand out. Built in 1962, it is in the same concept as many of the cookie cutter flying saucer designs that many stadiums of that era were. But since we were there so early, we got to hang out down near the field for a while and walk around a little bit. We spent a little time up in our seats, which were in the upper deck, which made Mount Kilimanjaro look like an anthill. Crikey! The better half couldn't even move once we got up there. We hung out for a bit and decided to head for the road. I would listen to the game on the way back home that night.

The ride home was pretty uneventful, save for some more torrential downpour for the better half to navigate as we came back. I gratefully slept through much of the deep night hours - I would have never made it without dozing off. We got home around 8:30 am on Wednesday morning, where we all proceeded to pass out for several hours (or at least I did, not sure about everyone else).

All in all, I was glad to see both stadiums, being much more impressed with Yankee Stadium, primarily due to the history. I was not impressed in the least with NYC, finding the areas we were in to be mostly rundown and dirty, unremarkable otherwise. We probably just weren't in the right areas but I doubt I'll make much of an effort to get back anytime soon. And the kids seemed to enjoy themselves, as usual marking swimming as the highlight of the affair!

Song lyric of the day: "I'm in a New York state of mind" Billy Joel

Until next time.

Ace

CYA

2008-07-31T20:20:00.002-05:00

Last post for a week or maybe slightly more as tomorrow the vacation begins.

It's been pretty quiet as work is consuming most of my time at the moment. With that, I will leave you hopefully with a smile....

A bear walks into a bar and says, "I want a bourbon and............... coke"

The bartender asks "what's with the huge pause?"

The bear says, "I've had them all my life."

Now that's my kind of joke!

Song lyric of the day: "I'm so lame" Seven Mary Three

Until next time.

Ace

Celebrate good times c'mon!

2008-07-29T14:05:00.003-05:00

So many reasons to celebrate today!

First off, I finally got into a class for this fall. It's a graduate level lit class, American Lit between 1830 and 1865. Looks like lots of Melville, Hawthorne, Thoreau, etc. I'm pretty excited about this because I'm pretty bad with lit since most of my undergrad English work was around writing. Starting off reading Moby Dick. The other sweet thing is I got all my textbooks online for a grand total of $20, including shipping. Much better than most classes, textbooks are a total ripoff.

Also, just a few days away from the big trip to New York. Probably stupidly, we are driving. It's nice to see the price of gas diving just before the trip, hopefully it will continue to fall. It's looking like somewhere around a 14 hour drive or so. I'm hoping that by driving overnight we'll minimize the pain for the kids and avoid traffic at the same time.

We're leaving Friday night and should be back late next week. We're going to check out a couple baseball games (one at Yankee Stadium and one at Shea) and I'm sure we'll do some other touristy stuff like Central Park and the Statue of Liberty. And I'm sure we'll spend plenty of time at the hotel pool, a favorite activity for the kiddies.

It will also be nice to recharge the batteries before work heads into the busy season, which is right around the corner. Sooner or later I will no longer have to dread the fall season - which will be nice, because it really is probably the best time of year in the midwest. Of course, that's a matter of opinion!

Anyhow, I'm sure there are many other reasons to be overjoyed but these are a few of the biggies.

Song lyric of the day: "It's party time / Let's have a ball / Do what you like!" Big Audio Dynamite

Until next time.

Ace

Men in makeup & coffeehouse styling

2008-07-28T15:15:00.002-05:00

Well, I tried to embed the video but I clearly have no idea how to do it. So, instead click here for a partial version of Scott Lucas solo acoustic Friday night at a little place called Flatlanders in Lincolnshire. It's the song Halcyon Days, features pretty brutal camera work (think Cloverfield, puke!) and someone in the crowd singing along quite horribly. But what the heck, it's recorded documentation of a really cool show. It was less than an hour but well worth it. Highlights were recent releases Simple Pleas, the first half of The One with Kid, and What Would You Have Me Do, and sweet covers of Bad Moon Rising, Concrete Blonde's Joey and TV on the Radio's Wolf Like Me, which I'd never heard before but was a great finish to the show. Lots of fun, this guy does not disappoint. And the better half enjoyed it as well!

This came after a hectic drive up from our area where we had checked out the new Batman flic, Dark Knight. I've heard a lot of glowing praise about this movie, especially the now departed Heath Ledger's role as the Joker and was a little wary about it. I have to say that for the most part, this movie totally delivered. The only people who I thought weren't that great were Batman and the love interest. Everyone else was really top notch, especially Ledger and the dude who played Two Face. Really outstanding and fun, you could not tell it was a 2 1/2 hour + epic. And it was really cool checking out all the Chicago scenery in the film. We kept ID'ing places we have frequented at various points in our lives. Overall a great evening.

Good news on the school front also, I finally got into a Lit class for this fall so I'm good to go. Still contemplating adding one more class, it really depends on my grad school status. I need to figure that out pretty quickly, probably this week. Still no word on grades for the summer but I'm pretty sure I nailed an A.

Song lyric of the day: "Searching for the Dark Knight / Lurking in the shadows of the city" Method Man

Until next time.

Ace

Meet the Mets!

2008-07-25T14:52:00.002-05:00

Is there a cooler mascot than Mr. Met? That's a rhetorical question, for it is common knowledge that Mr. Met rocks it like no other.

I am pleased to report my favorite baseball squad has somehow managed to survive the firing of their manager, several heartbreaking defeats in the late innings (including a real crusher earlier this week against the then-first place Phillies), and a plethora of injuries to find themselves in first place heading into the weekend. It's been a tough rollercoaster of a ride this season but I'm very happy to see how resilient they've been. I sure hope they keep it up, especially when we're out there in a couple of weeks.

As an aside, I've managed to take over one of my fantasy leagues and I'm absolutely dominating. There's still a lot of season left but I'm optimistic about winning the whole thing. And I haven't had to trade away much of my team to accomplish it. In the meantime, after deciding to give up for this year in another league, I made a trade that was quite controversial. We'll see how it turns out, it definitely brought a lot of criticism from fellow owners. Fantasy football is also gearing up and it looks like I'll be in 3 or 4 leagues this year. Last year was a good one, with 1 win and another cash out of 3 leagues. Good times!

A little geeky sports heavy today but wanted to celebrate the Mets climbing back up top!

Song lyric of the day: "Meet the Mets, meet the Mets / Step right up and greet the Mets" Mets fight song, full lyrics here (quite hilarious actually).

Until next time.

Ace.

Groaner

2008-07-24T14:32:00.001-05:00

Every night, Frank would go down to the liquor store, get a six pack, bring it home, and drink it while he watched TV. One night, as he finished his last beer, the doorbell rang. He stumbled to the door and found a six-foot cockroach standing there. The bug grabbed him by the collar and threw him across the room, then left.

The next night, after he finished his 4th beer, the doorbell rang. He walked slowly to the door and found the same six-foot cockroach standing there. The big bug punched him in the stomach, then left.

The next night, after he finished his 1st beer, the doorbell rang again. The same six-foot cockroach was standing there. This time he was kneed in the groin and hit behind the ear as he doubled over in pain. Then the big bug left.

The fourth night Frank didn't drink at all. The doorbell rang. The cockroach was standing there. The bug beat the snot out of Frank and left him in a heap on the living room floor.

The following day, Frank went to see his doctor. He explained events of the preceding four nights. "What can I do?" he pleaded.

"Not much" the doctor replied. "There's just a nasty bug going around."

Song lyric of the day: "I got bugs / I got bugs in my room" Pearl Jam

Until next time.

Ace

Numbnuts

2008-07-23T14:40:00.002-05:00

I really cannot wait until I'm teaching. At least then the people I work with every day will have at least a sixth grade intellect. I never cease to be astonished by the lack of brainpower and proliferation of ineptitude I get to witness on a daily basis.

Enough about that nonsense. Let's get to some good stuff. First off, a big congrats to W & J for the birth of their little dude Evan, who despite some hospital staff ineptitude, is doing great. And a big happy bday to a couple of my boys - JTB, sorry I missed the boat, literally and figuratively, and Baboo, sorry I haven't talked to you in a million years. But you're both one year closer to retirement!

I'm also excited to report that for our little guy's 2nd bday in October, the whole family is taking a trip for an up close performance by the Backyardigans, a popular kids show on Playhouse Disney. I got excellent seats that I think the kiddies will enjoy. And since that is an insane time at work usually, it will be a nice diversion. Oh, and I tricked the better half into going to see Scott Lucas of Local H acoustic with me Friday night - yippeee!

Summer break part deux is going well. Our trip to New York City begins a week from Saturday and I'm greatly looking forward to it. We've got nice seats at Shea Stadium for our Mets game and I had to break the piggie banks just to afford cheapies at Yankees Stadium. Scalpers are scumbags, huh? Anyhow, we got the hotel for free using some club member points and are driving out, so hopefully the trip will be cost effective. And the kids are happy since the hotel has a pool. On the off day, we'll probably try to do a few things like see Ellis Island or something like that. Anyone have any tips on cool stuff that's family friendly?

I also got my application for grad school in. Still not registered for any fall classes, I really need to square that away. But also getting some stuff done around the house that's been awaiting completion. And really starting to get geared up for fantasy football, looks like I'm moving up from 3 to 4 leagues this year. Since I finished ahead last year financially, I am experiencing delusions of grandeur. Maybe I'll put a poll up to help me pick a sweet team name, I kinda like that idea. Pop some suggestions for consideration in the comments section peeps.

Song lyric of the day "Drivin around town with a soda between my legs, I got numb nuts, numb nuts" Reptile House

Until next time.

Ace

High Rolling

2008-07-17T10:38:00.005-05:00

So much to write about!

First, class is officially over for the summer. I get a few weeks off until fall starts up, although, at the moment I'm not signed up for any classes. I'm quite sure that even with my 2 week absence I'm going to get an A in this class. Teacher liked my work and as always I was very talkative in class. Just can't keep my trap shut. I'm planning to post soon on some more of what we learned, which I think many here will find interesting and some may even find useful. More to come, what a tease!

Second, trip to San Francisco is complete. Out the door at 5:30 am Tuesday and back by 2 pm Wednesday. Now that is a quick trip! Too bad, because the weather was absolutely perfect in NorCal, sunny, about 70 degrees and a slight breeze. Some day, when I win the lottery, I will figure out a way to live there. The purpose of the trip was to meet with a longtime client of mine in preparation for a big project this fall. The meeting was fine, as usual. Afterwards, we went to this very high-fallutin' (sp?) Italian joint called Prima in Walnut Creek, CA, a town that was very Napervillian in nature. While the place was nice and it had all sorts of esoteric food on the menu, I found the food to be pretty below average. I had quail for dinner and, wait for it, it tasted like chicken. Should have gone for the squid pasta, oh well. I have to confess that it was not the ideal way to spend All-Star Tuesday (with MLB's all star game going on), at dinner with 9 women. Sheesh! I didn't even get to swing by the In N Out Burger during the trip!

After dinner, my colleague and I head to our hotel, Le Meridien (is everything in SF so snooty?). My colleague, quite into nice hotels and such, picked the joint. I don't really care where I sleep as long as there aren't any bugs. Anyhow, we get there, and she checks in. I step up next and apparently all the regular rooms are gone, she got the last one. Turns out they have to stick me in a hospitality suite. As you can tell from the pictures above, the hospitality suite is absolutely sick! I could have hosted a small Central American country in that thing. 3 rooms, gigantic screen TVs, an enormous, fully stocked bar. It was insane! And, party machine that I am, I managed to stay awake in this palacial room for all of about 30 minutes. The next morning, as I'm checking out, the dude working the counter told me the nightly rate for that room is actually $1200 per. Holy smokes!

One thing about travelling from the midwest to Cali is that the flights are LONG. Since I didn't have any schoolwork to do, I thought it would be a great time to catch up on some pleasure reading. I actually managed to finish two entire books between the two flights.

First up was a book called Freakonomics, written by a guy at University of Chicago named Steven Leavitt, and a NY Times writer named Stephen Dubner (BT, I just googled the dude and found he is an App St grad!). This book is basically about Leavitt's brilliance. And I really mean it. The guy is incredibly smart and creative. Basically, he takes data and uses it to answer all sorts of bizarre questions (and others that aren't quite so bizarre). For example, an entire chapter (probably the worst part of the book by the way) is spent looking at first names for children and evaluating whether or not Afrocentric first names harm the child's future in terms of limited opportunities (the authors conclude they do not). Much more interesting is the writing on match-fixing in Sumo, the inner business workings of a crack dealing operation and the link between Roe v Wade and the drop in crime rate. Readers here will likely appreciate the section on real estate agents and the difference between how they sell their own homes vs their client homes. Required reading for anyone using a realtor to sell a home. This book is very well-written, very interesting and highly recommended. I hope there is a sequel - the authors set up a blog to continue discussing the issues in the book and others they feel like bringing up. I'll have to check it out.

The other was a baseball book that I was highly anticipating reading. It's called Getting In the Game: Inside Baseball's Winter Meetings by baseball play by play voice Josh Lewin. As loyal readers know, I'm a big baseball fan and at one time even pursued broadcasting as a career. So I was very interested in hearing about the process of people trying to break through and land in the bigs. The book purports to follow the trek of three job-seekers as they attempt to land a job. While it does that to some degree, it is also muddled with a large amount of diversions, including history of the names of minor league teams, a whole chapter on mascots and other completely unrelated topics such as bat manufacturers, etc. These topics are quite interesting but are really off topic and dilute the ability to tell the story. Additionally, it's about people trying to break into Minor League Baseball, not the majors. Beyond this, Lewin's writing is just awful. He needed to find a co-author, someone with the ability to smooth out the story. Instead, we are left with a number of cliche'd comments and Lewin's attempt at delivering witty one-liners that almost always come across as forced and ultra-cheesy. It's too bad, because this topic had great potential. This is not recommended reading. The good news is it only took me about 3 hours to chew through it.

Next up is an extremely lengthy bio on Neil Young. In the early going, it's really good. I'm looking forward to finishing it.

Song lyric of the day: "She's super-freaking, yow!" Rick James, beotch!

Until next time.

Ace

Leaving on a Jet Plane

2008-07-14T11:19:00.002-05:00

First things first, a big happy bday to my mom. She turned 29 again last week and is celebrating in fine style in lovely central Illinois.

I am pleased to report that I finished up my final project over the weekend for my class. Tonight I will make the presentation, which should be a piece of cake. The topic of the presentation is bullying in schools. I spent a lot of time reading up on the kid who the song Jeremy by Pearl Jam is based on as well as the Columbine attacks. Chilling reading, friends. I have to tell you, while most of us took for granted the impact of bullying in school, it really is something that can cause significant problems. Research has shown effects ranging from higher drug/alcohol use, teenage pregnancy, dropout rates, crime rates, etc. for both the bully and the victim. As a future teacher, I'm glad I learned of this now so that I can effectively address this in my classroom when the time comes. I finish up class Wednesday night by watching some other people present their final projects - sweet!

I'm also doing a touch of travelling this week, heading back to scenic northern California for a client trip. Sucks that I lost my premier status on the airline since I don't travel too much - they've got me stuck way in the back in the eat-your-kneecap seats. This is one of those times where it does not pay to be tall. I'm strongly considering a visit to the In-N-Out Burger while on my trip since those opportunities are few and far between. Hopefully I can find one while travelling. And it appears my hope for some visiting during the trip have been sabotaged by a client dinner scheduled for tomorrow night. Bummer. Oh well, hopefully it can be done another time.

Musically speaking, I'm excited to announce upcoming shows with Smashing Pumpkins and Eddie Vedder solo(two separate shows). The Pumpkins are playing at a new casino theatre in the area, which should be fun. And Eddie is having Liam Finn open for him. I wrote of Liam and his exploits in this post . That should be fun. And I even managed to score some tickets to take the kids to see the characters from one of their favorite TV shows, the Backyardigans. I actually got really good (but expensive) seats. Should be a great 2nd bday gift for the youngest monkey in our family.

Song lyric of the day: "Clearly I remember / picking on the boy / seemed a harmless little $*&%" Pearl Jam

Until next time.

Ace

Sprint to the finish / Slummin'

2008-07-09T09:31:00.002-05:00

Class is almost done! Three more sessions, including a group presentation tonight. Then my final project is due Monday, despite not having started it yet. Looks like Sunday is going to be a long day! But I'm sure it will be fine, I'm just glad to actually be caught up finally. Next step will be to apply for the graduate program.

Did I mention I'm a slumlord? Most of you already know this about me but the better half and I co-own several rental properties with our friends Tom & Trish. As it turns out, we are in the midst of purchasing a monster home, a gargantuan $35,000 home. Anyhow, that's adding to the madness that is occurring right now. But the good news is, we're taking out a 10 year mortgage so it'll be taken care of fairly quickly.

And the eldest turned six on Monday. Wow, we are getting really old. A big party will ensue as dozens of friends descend on our house this weekend. Hopefully it doesn't go the way of Gulliver's travels, with me tied up and carried around by the munchkins.

Have to run for now.

Song lyric of the day "Our house - in the middle of our street" - Madness (appropriately named)

Until next time.

Ace

Trip report: Seven Mary Three weekend 6/27 & 6/28

2008-07-01T10:06:00.002-05:00

This weekend saw a fun-filled journey to visit one of my very favorite bands.

Friday night was a trip to Rockford, aka Little Nashville. Never mind why, it's a stupid story but I enjoy calling it that nonetheless. I gathered up 3 of the fellas, Joe, Duch and Q, and off we went. After a fun filled trip to our old greasy food hangout Nicky's for gyros (what a horrible idea with four people on a roadtrip), we were on our way. Thx to Q's iPhone, we were able to peruse hotchickswithDbags dot com on our way (great site that lives up to its name) and even actually figure out where we were supposed to go for the show.

After a $174 drive, we finally arrived at JTs or TJs or whatever the place was called. As far as Rockford goes, it actually wasn't too bad. The place was decently sized, with a bunch of different areas, including a stage with a dance floor type area. Strangely, the band had to walk through the crowd to get onto the stage, thus no encore type scenario, which I actually kind of liked. Unfortunately, the crowd was abysmally small despite a pretty staunch showing from area band diehards. There were roughly fourteen opening bands (actually 3) so the fellas didn't come on until about midnight. The setlist was filled mostly with greatest hits but had four songs from the new record and a sweet cover the band has been playing lately called Big Bird, although I can't for the life of me remember the name of the original artist. During some of the hits, the people who know one or two songs gravitated towards the front and I made new buddies with some high-fiving mother f'ers.

Funny story after the show, it was about 1:45 and the bar must close at 2. So, several of us were standing around chatting with a couple of the guys from the band when the waitress starts trying to hustle everyone out of the joint. I asked if she was going to kick the band out and she replied "Oh no, they're all downstairs". With 2 of them standing right next to us talking. It was worth a chuckle but I couldn't argue with her logic, could I? Trust me, in little Nashville, you don't argue with the waitresses. So, off we went and the band members actually did wind up going downstairs. Long drive back, with lots of inebriated and horrible singing and I rolled home about 4 am.

After some recovery time and way too much homework, it was off to beautiful Round Lake, IL for the village festival, where 7m3 was headlining the affair. This place was a haul from the homefront, much further than I expected. I was excited because it was an outdoor show that started early in the evening so I was going to bring the 2 oldest kids (6 & 4). As we're pulling out of the neighborhood, the oldest says she's not feeling well and wants to go home. She was up super late the night before and spent all day swimming at the neighbor's pool party so she was just physically wiped out. Fortunately she wasn't really sick, just tired but it knocked her out of the trip. That left me and the four year old for her first concert experience.

After the lengthy drive, and nearly being run over by some numbskull walking over to the stage area, we met up with Wudchuk and were ready for action. The stage was quite large and like most of the area village festivals, was set up in a parking lot area, surrounded by beer tents and food booths, etc. The weather was really perfect, about 75 degrees or so. However, the mosquitoes were crazy!!!! Fortunately, one of the big fans of the band was willing to share his bug repellent and it was very helpful.

This was a free show so there were a LOT of people, probably 500 to 1000 people overall, with 100 to 200 around the stage once the music started. Again, a nice turnout from the band faithful with a few different faces than the previous night. The setlist was quite similar to the evening before with a couple of differences, including favorite Southwestern State and swapping cover songs. Instead of Big Bird, the band finished the set with Neil Young's Rockin in the Free World. Always a great performance, this was enhanced by the fireworks display beginning while the song was being played. Very cool, they should do that at every show!

The four year old did pretty well at the show although she was wiped out by the time the show actually she started. The music was too loud so we moved WAYYYY back by the sound booth. She stayed on my lap for the remainder of the show and nearly fell asleep. We crept back up towards the front at the end of the show and she seemed to really enjoy it (or so she tells me!). All in all, it was a great time.

This concludes today's lengthy broadcast.

Song lyric of the day "You've got no taste in music and you really love our band" Local H

Until next time.

Ace

Dancing Bears and First Dances

2008-06-26T09:04:00.004-05:00

First off, a big congrats to M&J for the birth of their 11 pound baby boy. I'm still confirming reports that he immediately signed a contract with the Denver Broncos. And to J & B on their nuptials.

Last week I went to a major hippie wedding (see above!). The better half and I have a friend who is probably around 30 or so. We have known her for many years and is one of the most energetic and positive people I've ever met. So we were very happy to learn that she was to wed to an equally energetic fella. They moved to Michigan about a year ago so we really hadn't seen them or had any idea what to expect with the wedding.

It was scheduled to take place at Starved Rock, which is a state park in north central Illinois. For those of you unfamiliar with Ill (or even those that are), the park is on the bank of the Illinois River and actually has some significant cliffs (at least a couple hundred feet deep). Given the image of flat cornfields that can be found throughout much of Illinois, it can be a bit of a surprise to learn there actually are some hills! The wedding ceremony took place outdoors and was set up overlooking a beautiful bluff - great scenery. The view in the pic above is very similar to the overlook where the ceremony occurred.

So, just an overview of the hippie elements in the wedding. 1 - all the guys were wearing shorts, sandals and a normal button down short sleeve shirt. 2 - Jack Johnson played (on the PA system, not live, although that would have really been cool!) as the bridesmaids and groomsmen came down the aisle. 3 - All the flowers were sunflowers 4 - Bride and her mom made all the dresses, including her own 5 - Grateful Dead music played as the couple exited the ceremony and all throughout the reception dinner 6 - Cake topper was 2 dancing bears with stuff that each person associated with (chef's hat for one, cubs hat for the other!) 7 - The officiant was a minister but he was wearing this sash that he was sure to point out had religious symbols from various faiths meant to demonstrate respect for all people 8 - The honeymoon will be in Sedona, AZ

OK, I'm sure there was other stuff too but I'm old and I forget a lot of things. A great time was had by all. A personal highlight for me was the inclusion of Dr. Seuss in the bride's vows. Never seen that at a wedding before. Unfortunately we didn't last long at the reception as the better half was struggling with a cold so we called it an early night. But all in all, it was fun and a big congrats to the happy couple again.

I'm already halfway done with summer semester. I'm still running as fast as I can to catch up from the missed two weeks but I did manage to get the first paper done with the second one due Monday. Once I finish that, I just have a little more reading to do and some quick summaries of the reading assignments. Not bad! So, four more weeks of nonsense and all finished.

A little bummed that the family's trip to NY has to be rescheduled until August due to class schedule. Sucks but we'll get it done. And looking forward to one, and perhaps two dates to see my favs Seven Mary Three this weekend. Enough for now!

Song lyric of the day: "It's always better when we're together" Jack Johnson

Until next time.

Ace

First you cook, then you chill

2008-06-19T13:09:00.002-05:00

A couple of things I did during my recently completed semester break was manage to waste a lot of time. And part of how I did so was by watching movies and reading a book I've been meaning to read.

First, the movie. Another Will Ferrell joint, this time Blades of Glory, also featuring Napoleon Dynamite, aka Jon Heder. This movie looked ridiculous in the previews but the better half and I were in a comedy sort of mood and decided to check it out. Turns out, it was actually pretty good (and ridiculous!). Ferrell plays the sex addict / skating superstar who rumbles with arch enemy and nancy boy Heder, leading to their ban from singles figure skating. But, thanks to a loophole discovered by a stalker 3 years later (I'm not making this up), they find they are eligible to return to doubles skating. Lo and behold, there is no rule forbidding a same sex skating team. As you might guess, hilarity ensues, full of pseudo-homo-risquee scenes and other general nonsense. Of course the team wins the gold and everyone has a happy ending. Glad I didn't drop 10 bucks to see this in the theater but it was a good, fun, throwaway movie.

Secondly, I finally got to a book loaned to me by my boy Q called Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich. No, this is not the basis of the kinda funny Steve Martin / Queen Latifah movie. Rather, it is the basis of the recently released 21, which is based on a true story of a blackjack team that originated at MIT and went on to win millions of dollars from various casinos in Vegas and other places around the world. The story is told from the perspective of one of the team members and details how he was recruited, trained and the exploits of the team as they won all the money and started living the high life, courtesy of the casinos. And the cat and mouse game between the team and the casinos is riveting and suspenseful. Mezrich is definitely an able writer and spins the tale in a way that feels much more like fiction than a real-life account. I'm sure he takes some creative license but overall, this is a really good and quick read. I recommend it to anyone interested in gaming or likes espionage and that sort of thing. I finished the book in about 3 hours so it's not a major time commitment either.

The next several days will be spent immersing myself in the ever-inspiring theories of Piaget, Plato and others as I get caught up on my class reading. I hope to be completely caught up by the end of the weekend. Perhaps that is ambitious, we shall see.

Song lyric of the day "Money/it's a crime/share it fairly/but don't take a slice of my pie" Pink Floyd

Until next time.

Ace

Brain dead and squeezed!

2008-06-17T08:02:00.003-05:00

I never cease to amaze myself with the heights of stupidity that I can reach.

Case in point: Class started last night. Or so I thought.

I was running a little late so I walked into class about 10 minutes after start time. The class was very quiet, working in small groups, which seemed unusual since things are usually pretty hectic on the first day of class.

So I walk up to the teacher's desk and she asks who I am. Turns out,..... wait for it, ........wait for it, class actually started 2 weeks ago! For some reason, this particular class was working off a different, departmental schedule that is not the same as the rest of the university. I was looking at the regular schedule, which is what threw me off. Unreal!

There is an upside to all of this. Amazingly, the teacher is still letting me take the class. This, despite it only being an 8 week class. So, instead of slogging through 8 weeks of class I only have to slog through 6 weeks! The downside, of course, is that I have to squeeze 8 weeks worth of work into 6 weeks. Not really the ideal scenario but I think I actually prefer it this way.

I think I'm going to go bask in my idiocy.

Song lyric of the day "You stupid dumb-sh*t God da** mother f*er" Offspring

Until next time.

Ace

Trip report: Milwaukee Brewers at Houston Astros Wed June 11 - PUMA SIGHTING!

2008-06-11T22:15:00.005-05:00

With a free night in Houston after a spectacular performance at a meeting today, I decided to check out a ball game at Minute Maid Park (seriously?). It was a beautiful and record breaking 95 degrees in temperate Texas today so the roof was closed on this beauty of a ballpark.

Built in 2000, this stadium was another in the well conceived line of throwback stadiums that have all the modern amenities but still keep a lot of the charm of older baseball homes. The aesthetics are really striking with dark green and maroon throughout, with a lot of brick throughout. Above the left field wall and running out past center field is a railroad track with a train that moves and blows a whistle when the 'Stros make a big play. Pretty fun.

The sitelines are great also and the field level seats feel very close to the action. I was 6 rows back down the third base line and the view was fantastic. A couple of strange items I noticed. First, out in left field beyond the seats there are huge windows which allow sunlight to still come in when the roof is closed. The only problem is, for an evening game, this puts the sun directly in the eyes of most of the fans down the first base line. That would be very annoying! Also, I've heard a lot of hullabaloo around the Crawford boxes, which are essentially seat backed bleacher seats down the left field line. I arrived early and hung out in the boxes for batting practice and didn't think they were anything special. Also, the seat prices throughout the stadium seemed very exorbitant in comparison to the prices I'm used to seeing in Chicago, where I've seen the majority of my games. And the food sucked.

Batting practice was fun, although I only got to see the Brewers hit. My impressions of the players were interesting:

Player who just shows off in BP without working on his game - Prince Fielder
Player with the most prodigious power - Corey Hart
Player who looks like he should be a lot better than he really is - Mike Cameron
Player who is specifically working on his game and hitting line drives to all fields - Ryan Braun (and this guy can absolutely mash)
Player who is a jackass to the fans - Guillermo Mota (so glad the Mets dealt him!)
Player who seems like a nice guy - Salomon Torres

Once the game started, I made a lot of interesting observations. First, because this ballpark is so small, it seemed like many of the players were swinging for the fences. Apparently this was justified as there were a total of 8 home runs, including 2 by Hart, cashing in on the power showcased during BP. But it also lead to a lot of lazy flyball outs. Very interesting to observe. And just to give some perspective, Jason Kendall hit a home run and almost hit another. This is the same guy who has 4 homers in the last 488 games over 5 seasons! Strangely, the two catchers in this game, who are among the worst hitters in all of baseball (Kendall and Brad Ausmus), combined to go for 4 for 8 with 4 RBI. Sick.

Other player observations:

Ty Wigginton is quite slow afoot, especially in the field.
Carlos Lee is fat, slow and lazy but the man can hit some bombs.
Miguel Tejada still has some lightning left in his bat.
Russell Branyan = lightning in a bottle for the Brew Crew, with 6 HR in 40 at bats, a Ruth-ian pace.
Ausmus is a major fan favorite, getting the largest applause of the evening, especially when he got ejected for arguing a call that went his team's way in the sixth inning. It was quite bizarre. Manager Cecil Cooper got run out of the game shortly thereafter.

And then there were the fans. Ah, the fans. Well, we all enjoyed the two toothed 90 year old woman barking out to us all to buy cracker jacks. I almost bought some just to shut her up - but that's not how I roll. These Texans, they REALLY seem to enjoy doing the wave. It was attempted several times, finally gaining success right around the time that Coop got tossed. Stay classy, Houston! It was pretty quiet for a lot of the game. I'm not sure if it's because the home team was getting spanked or because the roof closure made it an indoor game. I've always found the indoor sporting events to have a little less ambience and this was no exception.

And I would be remiss if I failed to point out the overwhelming enthusiasm during the 7th inning stretch. In New York, they go pure patriotism and start with God Bless America before hitting Take Me Out to The Ballgame. But not here in the People's Republic of Texas. Oh no! Instead, it's a very heartily joined rendition of Deep in the Heart of Texas. I haven't heard so many people clapping their hands and singing along since the last cheesy Baptist church scene in an Eddie Murphy movie.
Crikey!

And last but not least, I must address the topic of Lance Berkman. Berkman, you see, is the fat man pictured up at the beginning of the post. Apparently his nickname has been Fat Elvis. Now, I'm no Elvis historian, but if you're being called a fat version of Elvis, that's sort of like being called a deep version of the Grand Canyon. Anyhow, the lithe Berkman apparently has taken umbrage with the Fat Elvis moniker and dubbed himself the Big Puma. Insert wide-eyed smiley icon here.

Look people, no one loves a good nickname more than this trusty blogger. Believe me, I've given an unhealthy number of them out in my day. But the number one rule of nicknames is that they cannot be self-appointed. Okay, maybe this is the number two rule, number one is that you really are not supposed to tell people how you got your nickname, you had to be there. Anyhow, let's stop quibbling over the order of the rules and focus on Berkman's self-appellation. I hereby refuse to refer to him as the big puma. However, I might be able to be convinced and call him something like the Cougar. I'll have to think about that. Check back later for the final ruling.

OK, not sure how that just happened, but this seems like an appropriate point to end this post.

Song lyric of the day "I've been dazed and confused for so long it's not true" Led Zeppelin

Until next time.

Ace

Musical notes

2008-06-06T12:54:00.002-05:00

Get it, musical notes? I slay me.

So, as you can see from my nifty little reptilious picture to the left, the fellas from 7m3 are going to be back in the northern Illinois region. I am officially pimping this show, last time I saw the boys in lil Nashville, a good time was had by all, including the many female bartenders dancing on the bar during the show. Good times people! This will be a nice opportunity to check out material from the new album, Day&nightdriving, which you have undoubtedly already checked out. The boys will also be playing an outdoor show the next night in Crystal Lake.

While on the topic of music, a nod to JP, who provided this ridiculous link of the most bizarre album covers you can imagine. And somehow, with a nod to Duch, it leads to an even more bizarre link. WTF????

Well, I hope that leaves you with some fun heading into the weekend. Have a good one folks.

Song lyric of the day: "I'm your private dancer / A dancer for money / And any old music will do" Tina Turner

Until next time.

Ace

On the Road Again

2008-06-05T10:04:00.002-05:00

A big congrats to a former colleague JR. He and his wife gave birth to a beautiful baby girl a few days ago. Welcome to the madness, sir, I'm sure you'll thrive! Also wishing a speedy recovery to my older sister on some minor surgery last week, just don't drop the painkillers into the shot glass!

I'm heading to Houston for work next week. I'm kind of excited as I've never been there. In fact, I've only been to Texas once, for a weekend vacation to San Antonio. That is a beautiful and fun city, I definitely recommend a visit. And I also recommend checking out the IMAX movie of the Alamo before going to visit the place, it definitely helps to put the significance of the place in perspective.

Anyhow, I'm going for a couple days of meetings with a client. The way it is set up, I believe there is a very strong chance that I'll be able to check out a game at Minute Maid Park, where the Astros will be playing Milwaukee. I've been wanting to get to this stadium since it opened and I've heard that it's beautiful. I hope to be able to report back next week with more.

Yesterday we attended a kindergarten graduation ceremony for #1. Crazy how quickly time has gone and how quickly the kids are growing. There was borderline teary-eyed activity on the part of many of the parents. I guess I'll get to go through this one a couple more times so I'm not quite there yet.

Now the kids are out of school for the summer and our little nuclear unit faces some additional challenges. As a result of a lot of things, including a terrible homebuilding economy and insolent siblings, we are looking at changing babysitters in the next week or two. It doesn't really sound like a big deal but the better half and I are concerned about shuffling the kids around to a bunch of different places. The new sitter is only available until the fall, so we'll have to figure something else out then. I hope the transition isn't too much for the monkeys, I'm sure they'll adjust. In addition, the cost for us is going to go up fairly significantly (although still way below what daycare would cost us). Sheesh, how in the world do people do this?

Off to listen to some corporate babble about a bonus I'll likely never see!

Song lyric of the day: "Shuffle it all / Keep movin along / Pack up your life again" Izzy Stradlin and the Juju Hounds

Until next time.

Ace

Enjoying it while it lasts

2008-06-03T10:31:00.002-05:00

2 weeks from today I'm back in the saddle with class, taking a single class that meets twice a week for 3 hours a pop. 8 weeks. It's very busy but it's nice knocking out a class so quickly.

Tomorrow is #1's last day of kindergarten. Wow. That has gone so fast and it has been amazing to see how much progress has occurred. It is exciting.

The better half went to check out a concert last night, The Kooks. Sounds like it was good although there hasn't been much time to debrief on it. I also saw Seven Mary Three Friday night. I would write a detailed review but it was a pretty standard setlist. Highlights of the evening include a phony ski hill, hanging out with some fans that I've only met briefly before and the scantily clad waitress who decided she needed to take her shirt half off and dance on top of one of the stacks of speakers. I'm not sure why she took it only half off. To quote my friend JTB, "If you're going to be a skank, BE A SKANK!"

I'll leave with a joke that is pretty much exactly the opposite of the skank incident above.

The golf course was haunted by a malicious, evil leprechaun who exploited the ambitions of the poorer players.

He popped up beside one unfortunate man who was participating in a club competition. "Look," he said, "if you agree never to court a woman, flirt with a girl or marry, I'll help you win." "Done," shouted the young golfer.

The leprechaun was very pleased with conniving ways, and chuckled merrily. When the golfer was in the clubhouse being praised by the other members, the leprechaun popped up on the shelf of the locker.

"Hey," said the little elf, "I have to have your name for my records. What is it?"

"Father Murphy," grinned the golfer as he adjusted his Roman collar.

Song lyric of the day "Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping, into the future" Steve Miller Band

Until next time.

Ace

Running for office - would you vote for me?

2008-05-27T15:16:00.003-05:00

Disclaimer: The boy depicted in the drawing is actually not me. But I did get a little sunburnt over the long weekend, spending virtually all day outside each day. If you're bored and want to be grossed out, go to Yahoo or Google images and search for sunburn. Yikes!

As part of my platform for my fictional run for office, I will promote the 4 day work week. And none of this draconian 4 - 10 hour day nonsense, I'm talking 4 - 8 or 8.5 hour days. Seriously, that' s enough time to get all our work done. I guess that's not going to do much to win me the support of big business. Bummer. But combined with my required 4 weeks of vacation, elimination of ATM fees and banning of road tolls, I figure to be the populist choice. Maybe I can pander to the crowd by offering some nonsensical gas tax holiday too!

I'm realizing that the last few weeks very little has happened that has been blog-worthy. Oh well. I get to head into the office tomorrow for the first time in about a month. That sounds about right to me! Paying one of my clients a visit tomorrow and then a visit to a prospective client Monday. Those are always dog and pony shows but I kind of like them for some reason. And then I get to go to another client in Houston in a couple weeks. Then class starts back up again. Time flies.

I'm happy to report knocking out a couple of big items on my to do list over the weekend. To be honest, I'm kind of surprised at how much I've gotten done. And I even got to do a few extra things as well. I'm going to try and knock out the GRE practice test this weekend to figure out how much work I need to do to prepare for this thing, ugh.

OK, enough for now, I'll try to check back a time or two this week.

Song lyric of the day "Rover, wanderer, nomad, vagabond, call me what you will" Where I May Roam, Metallica.

Until next time.

Ace

Clock watching and top o' the class

2008-05-23T15:38:00.004-05:00

Wow, is it time for the long weekend yet? This has been a LONG week. Work has been quite busy and even though I'm out of school, it seems like this has been a grueling one.

But I'm looking forward to the long weekend and the completion of several outstanding projects. A full report will be given soon on the sheer excitement of suburban bliss.

One positive note entering the weekend, I checked out my grades from the spring semester and Aced both classes with A's. Makes me a little disappointed in the standards at my school as I didn't work particularly hard to achieve the A's. But I guess I shouldn't complain. I am ticked though that my very first grad class inexplicably scored me a B, ruining my attempt at global domination and 4.0 GPA. A 4.0 does give you access to the global domination program, right?

Short post so I'll leave you all with something that made me laugh. From ComedyCentral.com:

One day, three boys were walking over a bridge when they heard a guy yelling for help. It was President Bush. He was drowning, and the three boys rescued him. He thanked them dearly and promised them whatever they wanted as a reward. The first boy wanted $10,000, so Bush gave him the money. The second boy wanted a Ferrari, so Bush gave the boy a Ferrari. The third boy wanted a wheelchair, Bush said, "Why do you want one of those, son, you're not handicapped."The boy replied, "I will be when my dad finds out whose life I saved."

Song lyric of the day: "Go state the overstated / Keep it complicated /The over educated /That hope you'll never make it /Can you take the final blow and know they won't be shutting up" What Would You Have Me Do, Local H

Until next time.

Ace

Not much, really

2008-05-19T14:30:00.003-05:00

It was a busy weekend although not a lot really happened.

Friday afternoon/evening saw the arrival at our humble abode of friend K and her hubby M and baby A we had never met. Many of our friends came over to the homestead to enjoy a cookout and other very typical activities. It was fun catching up with everyone and seeing all of our friends with their new kids. It was kind of funny listening to the discussions about having kids for the first time and all the discovery we went through almost six years ago.

Saturday was the final day of soccer. Our 3-5 year olds were particularly difficult to deal with, I am not sorry to be finished with them. How do you motivate a three year old to get off the ground and out of the goal so they don't get drilled by a ball? Not easily, that's for sure! Our kindergartners had their best game of the season and won by something in the neighborhood of about 20 - 6. It was good to see the success and a great final note to the season. I will say that I learned a lot in coaching them and am eagerly looking forward to coaching again in the fall. My monkey finished with 2 goals, giving a total of 4 in the 5 game season. Not bad, a definite improvement over the 1 goal total in the previous season.

Saturday night saw the demolition of our aging and dilapidated death trap, er, swingset. My main man Mike and I cut the thing down much to the delight of the half dozen kindergarten age kids observing and wildly cheering. We finished the task Sunday by spending most of the day removing the mulch and railroad ties that served to house the swingset. We'll finish up by re-sodding the area this weekend. Not the most exciting thing in the world but a project I'll be glad to have marked off the list! We finished up the weekend by cooking out again with a bunch of the neighbors - more suburban bliss!

Without much to report today, I'll end with a limerick:

A certain old maid in Cohoes
In despair taught her bird to propose;
But the parrot, dejected
At being accepted,
Spoke some lines too profane to disclose.

Song lyric of the day - "Bird, bird, bird is the word" by The Trashmen

Death Cab for Cutie, Flight of the Conchords Trip Report 5-15-08

2008-05-15T08:31:00.003-05:00

I posted recently about an upcoming doubleheader. Well, it was last night.

I won tickets from a local radio station to see a small club show with Death Cab for Cutie. I really don't know much about this band but I had heard a couple of songs on XM and really liked the songs. But, I hadn't gone out of my way to track them down any further than that. When the contest came up, I decided "What the heck, I like what I've heard". Now I feel a little bad for winning because I'm sure there are some huge fans that didn't get a chance to go because I won tickets. But, I can't give the things away so the better half and I were going!

Leading up to the show, I received a copy of their platinum record Plans. That was this past weekend. I listened to it a few times and it just so happens that the band performed on Letterman Monday night, so I checked that out too. On Letterman, they performed the first release from the CD just out this week. The song is called I Will Possess Your Heart and the CD is Narrow Stairs. So, with that little backdrop, I wasn't quite sure what we were getting ourselves into.

I would first like to point out that without really knowing exactly where we were going, we were able to find street parking less than a half block from the venue. This was of course due to my superior navigational and strategic driving talents, or perhaps dumb luck. Woohoo! It helps that it was a very early show, with doors at 5 and the show starting about 5:20. There was a VERY long line to get into the place but it moved quick once they started letting people in.

Surprisingly, once the doors opened, not that many people went up close to the stage, choosing to hang back by the bar instead. However, the place was pretty small, maybe holding 200 people at most. So everyone was pretty close. But we were right in the center and one person from the front, very nice! The band came out and did 3 songs. The first song I didn't know, the second song was a new one called Talking Bird and then they did Soul Meets Body (one of the few songs I knew, probably the band's biggest hit, and a great, great song). They then paused for a short interview with the local radio station DJ. This show will later be broadcast on the station, WXRT in Chicago. The interview kind of sucked, the DJ knew a lot about the band but didn't know much about asking meaningful questions. Anyhow, they played two more songs, Brothers on a Hotel Bed and I Will Possess Your Heart.

Overall, these guys sounded great live. I sincerely doubt that I will ever get a chance to see them again in such an intimate setting or so close to the stage. In some ways, that's a little sad since I don't know much of their music and probably didn't have a full appreciation of what I was experiencing. But, I know that I'm definitely going to check out a lot more of their music. This is definitely one of those bands the hipsters love, which kind of sucks, but whatever, I can't let that keep me from enjoying the music if I think it's good.

Shortly after the set, we were off, heading south on Lake Shore Drive, driving into town. We were off to see Flight of the Conchords. I've raved about them before so I won't bother with the superlatives to set the show up. But I will say that there was great anticipation on our part headed over to the show. After once again finding street parking (yes, I am a rock star), we cruised to the venue, Chicago Theatre, which is a great place to see a show. On the way, we stopped by for a delicioso visit to Potbelly's. Right across from the theater, the place was packed! It took a bit to get our food. But more interestingly, we had a great view of the crowd swelling around the venue. There was a line that was so long you couldn't see the end of it and a throng of people around the front entrance. People were all over the place and they were really excited. There was the cliche couple getting their picture taken with the marquee sign in the background and the better half swears that the dude jumping out of one of the cabs was comedian Eddie Izzard. We have not received positive confirmation of this.

By the time we finished eating, the line had moved and we were able to walk right in. The seats were really good, a little left of center but on the aisle and quite close. A pleasant surprise was the brief opening stand up of Arj Barker. He plays the role of Dave on the HBO series Flight of the Conchords and was quite funny. After his short opener, Bret and Jemaine came out and did a great set. They played many of the favorite songs from the show. That was ok but to me the highlights of the show included a few new songs, including one so new that Jemaine forgot the words and they had to start over. The "banter" between songs was also quite good, including a five minute reverie of Jemaine's discussing time travel acid and a discussion he had with 1970's Tina Turner and 2008 Tina Turner and Jemaine's relationship advice to the forlorn '70s version of the singer. High quality! And the guys actually stayed on stage for about 2 hours, which I suppose is pretty long for a comedy act. Wish they would have played Boom King but you can't always get what you want. As a little frame of reference for our song lyric of the day below, I will never think of rain in the same way again.

By night's end, I think I actually enjoyed the Death Cab portion of the evening even better than FOTC, which is saying something. A fun time was had by all. In closing, I will leave you with some deep and meaningful lyrics from FOTC in their final song of the evening.

Song lyric of the day: "There are angels / In the clouds / Doin' it" Angels, Flight of the Conchords

Until next time.

Ace

Speaking from the Backside

2008-05-14T13:27:00.003-05:00

I confess to knowing very little about politics but have a growing interest in the area. I suppose that happens to most of us as we get older. At least for me, I care a lot more about the stuff these folks talk about than I did ten years ago. Although I'm interested, I harbor little hope that my small involvement will result in anything changing. But I suppose that just being part of the process is at least taking a little responsibility. And what could be more American than getting involved in our crazy political game?

Anyhow, this presidential campaign has been really interesting thus far. And while there has been much teeth-gnashing over the drawn out Democratic campaign, it has really been quite fascinating to watch. The Clintons are an undying set of political animals, aren't they? They've really fought to the finish and continue to go at it. It seems as if the end is near though. And Obama has really been intriguing in that his stock has risen so quickly. It was less than four years ago that his speech at the DNC really put his name on the map but I'm kind of shocked at how well he has performed in the campaign. I think this is a bigger statement about the collective frustration in the country at the same old political games. Which is a very interesting dichotomy against the backdrop of the Clintons.

And McCain has also been interesting. I've always liked that he has seemed willing to cross the aisle when he felt that a particular issue dictated that he should. But during this campaign, and especially since he wrapped up the GOP nomination, I have seen an increased effort to appeal to the conservative faction of his party. It feels a lot like pandering to me so I will be keeping a close eye on him as we move into general electioneering to see just what gives here.

Can you tell it's a slow day? I'm talking politics for crying out loud!

Song lyric of the day: "Calling my connection for a party at Camp David / The first lady's not invited" President Forever, Local H (new album out yesterday, pick it up people!!!!)

Until next time.

Ace

Rocking out with grandpa on a stomach full of raw fish

2008-05-12T10:02:00.004-05:00

An action-packed weekend has come and gone. I'm happy to say I actually was moderately productive!

The better half had to work until 8 Friday night so not much went on Friday. Except I was able to do some research on the grad program at my school. I also was able to download some study materials for the GRE, which I'll need to take in order to gain admittance to the program. I expect to tackle the 2 study tests I downloaded in the next couple of weeks.

Saturday brought the soccer doubleheader. My monkey scored a goal again this week, hurray! Unfortunately, everything the team practiced went out the window once the ball went into play. But whatever, they had fun and may have even actually won this week. It was pretty close score wise. I think they are improving! The 3-5 year olds were a real handful this week. They are a tough group to get engaged in doing anything, that's for sure. So, one more week of soccer for both kids. I wouldn't say I'm missing it, Bob! Our finale should be great as we have the 10 am, 4 pm split on game times. Ugh!

To make matters worse, we have friends coming in from overseas Friday. They are here to visit a gazillion friends and are only with us for a day. We'll see how it goes, hope they don't mind lugging their newborn to the soccer field. Sheesh.

Saturday was also the 12th anniversary for the better half and I. Wow, that's kind of a long time . A big thanks to the little sister for baby sitting. We started the evening's festivities at a sweet sushi spot in Chicago called Kamehachi. Very tasty and highly recommended, but make sure you sit upstairs, much better than the sterile downstairs area! Afterwards, out to see one of the better half's favorite bands, Crowded House. You may recall my post of a prior show from August of last year. They sounded great, were really working the crowd. One amazing thing about this band - apparently there's a tradition amongst their fans to write song requests on paper, fold up into a paper airplane and launch it onstage. The band will occasionally play a song or two from the paper airplanes. This is a pretty cool idea. The amazing part was that there were some really obscure requests coming in. In fact, on one song, the lead singer couldn't even remember the words. But once he got started with the words, the band belted out the song and it sounded really good. I'm impressed by the ability to play songs they've probably not played in many years and make it sound great.

But beyond the show, the venue was quite strange. Last time we saw these guys, it was at House of Blues, standing room only. This time we were at a theater that had a standing area downstairs and then an upstairs with general admin seating. The better half wanted to opt for seating. So up we went. I swear, I have never been to a show with so many old people. I think we were the youngest in that area by at least 10 years. Unreal. It was quite disconcerting. I'm sure the downstairs standing area was younger but man, what a trip! Anyhow, the show was fun.

We spent Mother's Day doing typical stuff you do on mother's day. A happy belated MD to all you mothers out there. But one other good thing I was able to accomplish was that after the monkeys went to bed for the night, I was able to get some work done on the room I've been trying to finish in my basement. Woohoo! Another coat of paint tonight I hope will put us in pretty good shape.

I hope to get some more music related posts out shortly as I've checked out the new Panic At The Disco CD, received the last Death Cab for Cutie disc as a gift, will be getting the new Local H tomorrow and have a couple of concerts this week. Turns out I won a pair of tickets to a small club show to see Death Cab for Cutie, a band I know little about but like a few of their songs. Very excited! It's also on the same night as our Flight of The Conchords show but timed so that we can make both - what a great doubleheader!

Enough for now, back to the rock!

Song lyric of the day "So brown eyes I hold you near / Cause you’re the only song I want to hear / A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere" Soul Meets Body by Death Cab for Cutie - awesome, awesome song!

Until next time.

Ace

Fin

2008-05-07T15:18:00.002-05:00

Just finished up my paper and I do believe I am done with everything for this semester. I have to say, I loved my final Monday night - sitting at home working on the computer, eating dinner, watching baseball and playing poker. Now that is multi-tasking folks! Glad it's over. And this paper may not be my finest work but I think it's high B / low A quality. One advantage of being an English major in some of these classes is that I think the teachers are used to some pretty poor writing. Since I majored in English writing, gives me a bit of a leg up. Anyhow, I'm looking at definitely one A this semester and likely 2, unless I get a heavy ding for not turning in the rough draft of my paper. I guess we'll see!

And now it's on. First things first are the big 12 year anniversary for me and the better half. Celebrating with a couple concerts in the next week, first a return trip to see Crowded House, which is a favorite for the better half. And the other is one we both love, Flight of the Conchords. I know I've raved about them here before but they really are hilarious - I'm greatly looking forward to my first trip to see the fellas.

A big congrats go out to J&B who gave birth to their third little one. Sounds like everyone is healthy. I swear, all my friends and acquaintances are going to be the most sleep deprived people around in about 3 or 4 more months when the rest of these babies are born. Crazy!

Enough for now, I'll try to check back in before the end of the week.

Song lyric of the day: "summer, summer, summertime / Time to sit back and unwind" - Will Smith

Until next time.

Ace

Getting crispy near the finish line

2008-05-05T09:05:00.003-05:00

Wow, after this week, I'm pretty much done with spring semester. I'll have one more week where I can make revisions to my final paper but that's really it. Since I can e-mail the paper to the prof, I won't have to trek back out to campus, which is nice. I can't really report that I finished the paper yet but I'm within a few paragraphs of doing so. I expect that to happen tonight or tomorrow although to be truthful I really should have finished it already. Oh well, I'm a slacker, I've come to accept it.

I am taking one course over the summer and am not yet signed up for any classes for the fall. Once I finish with my stuff this week, I'm going to get started on applying for the graduate program so that I can figure out what I need to do to finish that up. I'm not really sure what the schedule will look or if I'll even be able to complete it by the time I student teach Fall '09. I guess we'll see.

The break between spring and summer semester is going to be cram-packed with a lot of stuff. I've got several projects around the house including tearing out our crumbling swingset and sodding over the area, finishing up a room in the basement I've been working on for roughly infinity, and finishing some exterior painting I started last summer. I also want to get the grad school app done and maybe take the GRE. We'll see how it goes. If that all gets done, I'll be shocked. But I'm aiming high!

Spent a lot of time outside this weekend and got the slight sunburn to prove it. Saturday was 2 frigid hours of soccer, it was stark and windy. I hope everyone doesn't get sick again as a result of it. But yesterday was actually quite beautiful, in the lower 70s and sunny. We had a make-up soccer game, which was pretty fun. Our team seems to be getting better and my kid is actually one of the better ones on the team (although not living up to the self-proclamation that "I am the best player on the team!" Sheesh, the nerve of the kid...). I'd like to work with the kids on some stuff but the other coach doesn't seem all that excited about the idea. Whatever, only 2 more weeks and then we are done.

Heard a new song from the Killers the other day that really struck me called Shadowplay. Only heard it once but seemed like a good one. Also digging the red-hot Finger Eleven song getting played everywhere although I have no idea the name of it. And only eight days until the new Local H record drops (yeah, I got all the cool kid lingo working today baby!).

Song lyric of the day "You can fall in, with the fall out, go ahead and grin, there ain't much to laugh about, you can fall in line, with the cooler heads" Local H

Until next time.

Ace

Gut wrenching accomplishments and make you laugh

2008-05-01T09:42:00.002-05:00

I wanted to offer a big shout out to regular reader BT, who just completed a huge personal accomplishment, running his first marathon in Big Sur in beautiful Northern California. I have to confess that I'm sort of tempted to try something similar. We'll see, I'm not sure I have the time to devote to training. We'll see how my summer running comes. Anyhow, great job BT, an outstanding accomplishment and demonstration of personal resolve.

In closing, I'll leave you with a joke:

A skeleton walks into a bar. The bartender says, "What'll you have?"The skeleton says, "A beer and a mop."

Song lyric of the day - "I feel so alone, gonna end up a big old pile of them bones" - Alice in Chains

Until next time.

Ace

Heroes and Zeroes - Baseball trip report April 22, 2008

2008-04-30T09:40:00.002-05:00

As mentioned in my last post, April 22nd was a great baseball day - 2 Major League games in person on the same day. The crew consisted of Mike, Jason and Q, along with this trusty old blogger. I thought I would relive some of the highlights!

Let's start with game 1 - a 1:20 start at Wrigley Field to see my Mets take on the red hot Cubs. Pre-game festivities included a few frosty beverages and a delicious corned beef sandwich at nearby eatery The Irish Oak. Yummy! The weather was perfect as we mosied over to the shrine at Clark and Addison. We scored as we entered the ballpark and were given free Cubs tshirts. This should make a great dishrag!

We were sitting in the bleachers and managed to avoid shirtless old people and mostly shirtless people in general. The weather was great, even got downright hot at a few points. But, most importantly, the wind was blowing out, which usually means you'll have a lot of runs at Wrigley. Our crew decided to put a little wager down on the game based on total runs scored during the game. We broke it into 4 thresholds, 0-6 runs, 7-9 runs, 10-12 runs and 12+. Two of the fellas were quick to snatch up the 2 highest thresholds, leaving me and the other guy to do paper-rock-scissors to see who would get stuck with 0-6 runs. Of course I lost and was stuck.

The game was fun, there were a few morons in the crowd but less than usual. The park was packed and it was a really good game. And amazingly, headed into the 8th inning, the score was 3-2 Cubs. I had a shot at winning the bet(!), which consisted of having the other 3 buy your dinner at game 2 of the day. And this is where our baseball zeroes come in. Mets reliever Jorge Sosa came in and gave up all kinds of baserunners. But with 1 out, he induces a groundball to shortstop for what should have been an inning-ending double play. But Jose Reyes throws the ball home instead of going to second and then first for the inning-ending (and bet preserving!)double play. Mets only get one out and Sosa loads the bases for Ronny Cedeno. Cedeno deposits the ball in the left field bleachers and there goes the game and the bet! NOOOOOOOOO! So, for the effort, Jose Reyes, Ronny Cedeno and Jorge Sosa, you are today's baseball zeroes!

Off we go to US Cellular Field. First, I'd like to rant a bit about the shysters on the South Side. They have the gall to charge $32 a stub for upper deck ducats for a mid-April chiller. Brutal. But, due to our tricky ways, we bought the cheapest seats because we planned to sit in the bullpen bar area, which is at field level just beyond the right field fence. Highly recommended, it's free to get in and you are right there. Being so low, it's a cool and different view of the field.

The other benefit is that if you get to the game early enough, you can interact with the players who are warming up in the OF, mostly pitchers. During BP, a few zingers came our way, including one screamer that nearly took my head off. Instead, some old guy just gave me a forearm shiver and scavenged near my feet for the ball that just missed skulling me. Whatever.

The cool part here was Yankee youngster Joba Chamberlain. I've got a predisposition to like the hefty hurler for a few reasons but hadn't really seen much on him to make up my mind for sure. When we first get there, he's acting like a hyper junior high kid on the field, really hamming it up. Pretty annoying but the dude is actually in his younger 20s so I guess I get it. But after a while, he comes over near where we are and autographs a couple balls for some Yankee fans who are wearing his #62 jersey. Once that happens, the vultures descend and he proceeds to autograph several balls for people. One dude walks up in a White Sox jersey and hands him a ball over the fence to autograph. JC just stares at the guy, looks at his jersey, back at the guy, at his jersey, back at the guy and then turns and walks away, putting the dude's baseball in his back pocket, he's not going to sign it for the White Sox fan! After about ten steps he turns around and signs the ball and gives it to the dude. Pretty funny and Joba really did a good job of working the crowd. I'm definitely a fan of this fella, keep up the good work Joba, hope you sign with the Mets when you become a FA!

The game was also pretty good although we did not place any wagers. Interestingly, this game also featured a grand slam, this one by Bobby Abreu. I will say this - two games in one day is too much for this guy. I love baseball, but being at the park is something that I guess I can only do one game per day. My 2nd ever doubleheader and both times I've not really enjoyed it that much. But all in all we had a good time.

The bad news was that after getting home, the better half proceeded to contract the flu about midnight and was up all night. #1 got a strong dose of it at 4 am. #3 got it in the am. And #2 got it at about 4 pm. Man, what a horrible day! Luckily, I wasn't able to get it until Friday and it was a much milder version. Thankfully we're all back at full speed. Sheesh, that was not fun.

Done with one class except for an in class final! And only have a paper to finish for another class. It's due today but no way I'm going to make that. I think I can get it by tomorrow though, so we'll be ok. Hopefully the teacher won't think I'm too much of a slacker! Still have to figure out my summer and fall schedule, that will be up very shortly.

Soccer, wow, what an experience. I'll talk about that more later. And plans to get into some races this year. Looking forward to some summer stuff very soon.

Song lyric of the day: "Hey, everything's gonna be all right" - Seven Mary Three, Dreaming Against Me"

Until next time.

Ace

Demolition and the demise of childhood

2008-04-21T14:27:00.004-05:00

Happy B-day to Kid #2, who turns 4 today. Lots of big smiles, especially when the little one jumped out of bed with a big smile and said "Look how tall I am now!" Got a little misty eyed at a couple points. However, none of those points came during the chaos that ensued at the local Chuck E. Cheese this weekend. Ah, vermin, greasy pizza and 400 kids running around, can't beat it. Thank goodness they serve beer!

This weekend was the first soccer game for both kids. First was the preschool group. I was coaching with a woman who, like your trusty blogger Ace, has never coached before. The good news is that they don't actually play soccer, they just practice and run little drills and stuff that we instruct them on. The other good news is that there are 3 coaches for 10 kids. The bad news is that one coach didn't show. The other bad news is that these are freaking preschoolers and they do not listen well. Crikey, what a trip. I think next time we'll let them spend a lot more time just running around and kicking the ball. Organized drills might be a bit ambitious. I especially enjoyed the kid who wouldn't come anywhere near the rest of the team and every time I asked him to do something quickly yelled "No!". If I get a repeat performance next Saturday, that kid is giving me 20 push-ups.

Next came the kindergarten group. Kids at this age actually have some soccer skills. Unfortunately, the guy I'm coaching with informed me at practice last week that he wouldn't be there for the game. Sweet! There are also 10 kids on this team. By gametime, we had only 5 kids there. They play 3 on 3 so there were going to be some exhausted munchkins by the end of this one. Fortunately, 2 more showed up right after the game started.

Due to rainouts, we only had 1 practice. And due to my utter lack of knowledge, we just worked on some basic drills. Well, the team we played against actually had plays and organized instruction, including leaving one kid back on defense who served as a de facto goalie. Uh-oh. We got utterly annihilated. Although score isn't kept, it was pretty easy to keep track of our team's amount - 1 goal (by my kid, woohoo!). Let's just say the other team scored a multiple of 1. The kids were exhausted but I think they had fun. I will definitely be making some adjustments in practice this week so we are more organized for our next game. I don't think the kids minded too much but it wasn't much fun having them get smoked. At least a couple of them knew what was up. Fortunately, we were able to quickly forget it when friends J&J and their kids showed up towards the end of the game. We were able to cash in on part of an old bet for a tasty dinner with both families, a good time was had by all, especially the ever-giggling gaggle of girls (that's alliteration folks!).

I'm greatly looking forward to tomorrow, my annual trip to see the Mets take on the Cubbies. Should be fun as the weather promises to be spectacular if we can keep the rain away. Regardless it should be warm. If you remember the post from last year, hopefully I can avoid shirtless old dudes out in the bleachers and ejection from the park. We'll see. We've decided to add another component to the trip, taking in the White Sox v Yankees tomorrow night. Yup, doing a doubleheader, how sweet! I hope I'm up to it, I went to a doubleheader once a long time ago and thought it really sucked sitting around for so long. We'll see how it goes.

Well, off to class shortly. Only 2 more weeks after tonight. It's going to be quite a race to get to the finish!

Song lyric of the day "Sunny day, everything's A-ok" - Sesame Street theme song

Until next time.

Ace

Vote for Pedro

2008-04-17T13:59:00.004-05:00

Better half found a hilarious quote for me on one of those quote a day calendars. As I've said before, I'm a huge baseball fan and one of my all time favorites is a player named Pedro Martinez. Now old Petey is a little flamboyant (see jerry curl for evidence) and he really showed it during this quote when he discussed his difficulty in finding his groove on the mound during a game:

"I'll find it eventually. I do things differently. I play with myself up there and eventually I'll find it..."

I love me some Pedro!

For the first time ever, I actually got up and left class during the middle of a session last night (it was actually at a break). It wasn't that I stormed out or anything. It was just that I don't believe I have ever been more bored in my entire life. A complete waste of time. Our instructor is a passionate teacher but he cannot manage a discussion for the life of him. As a result, some of the more verbose members of the class take discussions in pointless and rambling directions, completely off topic. And so it went last night. On. And on. And on. Finally, after deciding we would break about 20 minutes late, I decided I couldn't sit through the last hour and told the teacher I wasn't feeling well and left. Ugh! Only 3 weeks left, thank goodness.

Song lyric of the day "I touch myself" The Divinyls

Until next time.

Ace