Brilliant!

You know those Guinness commercials with the 2 guys that say "Brilliant!" all the time? Yeah, I love those too. Especially the new ones with the limburger cheese hats, haha.

Anyway, I read an article yesterday about this kid in Great Britain who was struggling to find a way to pay for college (and of course, it was 1 month till he was supposed to start, nothing like waiting till the last minute). So, one night, lying awake, trying to think of some way to get the money, he had a stroke of guinness, ooops, genius. "What if I made a web page and sold the individual pixels on it for $1 each (1,000,000 pixels total)?" Now, why would anyone think that? It's silly, right?

Yeah, so silly that after 3 months he's just finished his first term in college with a paltry $936,700 (it was $912,000 when I read the article yesterday so while I was sleeping he made another $24,000) in his bank account. He started by putting up the site (side comment to balderdash: note correct use of site) on a Friday and then spent all weekend trying to convince his friends to tell their friends to find their rich friends to get them to buy squares from him. Minimum purchase was $100 or a 10x10 square (about the size of a pencil eraser). You get your image in that space with a link to your website or whatever. No adult links allowed though (or he would have made $1 million in about 20 minutes).

By Monday he had a friend of a friend of a friend purchase a 20x20 square for $400 and he was on his way. Over the next week and a half he made another $800. Then the press caught wind of what he was doing in the UK and wrote about it. The next day he sold $2,500 and then he was really off. By the time he left for school 3 weeks later he had about $40,000. He's been all over the US doing interviews for tv, radio and newspapers.

And that, my friends, is Brilliant!

Visit the Million Dollar Homepage

Be sure to read his blog, it tells the whole story. I think he said to date that there were 350 or so copycat websites (which is what I thought about doing immediately after reading it).

Have a million dollar weekend all.

It must be the shoes

Last night was my first time in the new bowling shoes with the flames emblazened on them. One key difference in these shoes from other cheapo ones I've had is that they are made just for a right handed bowler. The left shoe is made to slide and the right shoe is not, it has tread on it.
So, my first practice ball, I quickly realized that I usually shuffle my feet on my approach. I realized this because I damn near fell on my face as my right foot stuck on my 2nd step and I stumbled the rest of the way before regaining my balance. Yikes, how the heck am I going to bowl when I've got to change my approach 5 minutes before starting?

I threw another 10 practice shots and found a new way to walk without shuffling my feet. It didn't feel natural but I wasn't falling so I figured that was the way to go. First game I leave a 10 pin, throw 3 strikes in a row and leave a split in the 5th that I missed. Then I proceeded to throw the last 7 strikes for a 254. Ok, that wasn't too bad. 2nd game I struck out in the 10th for a 225. Needed 221 in the 3rd for 700 and when I chopped a spare in the 5th frame (my only open besides the split in the 1st game) it didn't look good, but it came down to the 10th frame. Needed to get the first 2 strikes but left a 10 pin on the first ball. Ended up with 214 for a 693. Not bad for the first time in those shoes, they must be lucky!

We won the first 2 games pretty easily but somehow lost the 3rd. We still went 5-2 and have started the 2nd half at 12-2. I can live with that!

Afterwards we played Euchre in the bar for a little while. I hadn't played that in years. Forgot how much fun it was. KS and I lost the first game but won the 2nd over MC (the cheater who says he never reads my blog) and JD. :)

Have a great Thursday.

Packers could get Bush, but it’s a long shot

From the Green Bay Press-Gazette

Ryan Moede of Algoma, a freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside majoring in sports management, spent hours calculating the Packers’ chances of getting the No. 1 overall pick in April’s draft.
The Houston Texans (2-13) have the worst record in the NFL going into the final week, but the Saints, Jets, 49ers and Packers are 3-12 and have a chance to tie the Texans.
Strength of schedule is used to break ties, with the team having the easiest schedule getting to pick first. According to Moede’s research, seven games must go the Packers’ way in order for them to have a chance at the top pick: Indianapolis over Arizona; New York Jets over Buffalo; Pittsburgh over Detroit; New Orleans over Tampa Bay; Seattle over Green Bay; Houston over San Francisco; St. Louis over Dallas.
The Packers, Texans and 49ers then would finish in a tie for the worst record at 3-13. Opponents of the Packers and Texans would have the same .535 winning percentage, with the 49ers trailing at .539.
A coin flip would determine whether the Packers or Texans get the top pick.

I AM Sean Connery, damnit!

Bond... James Bond.
Cdubya got me a new PS2 game for Christmas, From Russia with Love starring Sean Connery. I've played the last couple Bond games and the previous one had Pierce Brosnan as Bond. I thought EA did an excellent job with that one. Now we go old school with Connery and I'm digging it. It follows the movie fairly well and has all the gadgets (the jet pack is cool). He even has the dorky little sayings that made Bond famous. So far I've gotten through 6 levels, only 66 more to go!

Speaking of Electronic Arts (EA), I read some where that they are having financial troubles. I wonder if it's because most of their games they have to hire either a pro athlete (Tiger Woods, pro baseball players, etc) or now they've taken to hiring Connery, Brosnan and the like to add realism to the games. That can't be cheap and the price of the games haven't gone up.

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Now that we've officially entered Winter, it's gotten warm. Makes sense, right? I keep feeling like I'm back in Seattle. Cdubya said the same thing. 4 days in a row of drizzle, fog and upper 30's. Supposed to be mid to upper 30's for at least the next 7 days. Goodbye snow.

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I had to take Sazi (on the right) to the vet last night. She had a big liquid filled sack on her elbow. Doc said it was from falling on it. She does that all the time, not a big surprise there. He drained out 4cc of blood from it. We'll have to watch it for the next week or two. If it gets worse he'll have to put a drain in.
She was such a good girl. I left Delaney at home (man was she upset!) and it was just daddy and Sazi time, she really enjoys the extra attention.


Bowling night tonight! Gotta remember the new shoes...

Peace out

The Camera Incident

Greetings all, hope the holiday was pleasant.

On Christmas day I took Cdubya to her first Packer game. I took my digital camera so we could get some pictures as a reminder, etc. CB was nice enough to take a picture outside Lambeau of us and I took some other pictures from inside during the game. Yesterday I uploaded them to the computer and deleted them off the camera. Then while I was attempting to delete ONE picture I had some how selected ALL the pictures and in one moment all was lost... and no, they didn't go to the recycle bin, they just went bye bye... bummer.

As for the game. It was fun, got to insult tons of Bears fans, got to see Brett throw 4 interceptions, got to see Longwell miss two easy field goals and got to see the Packers lose their 12th game of the season.

Prior to the game we went to Anduzzi's bar for cocktails and lunch. Nice place and they have Guinness on tap so I was instantly a fan. While we were there 4 Mike Ditka look alikes came through. One of them was wearing a coconut bra and grass skirt, ala Chris Farley and the SNL "da Bears" skits.

Highlights of Christmas...

My nephew letting everyone know he got the BIGGEST present out of everyone (the Roboraptor we bought him). That thing was a pain in the ass. Took us about a half hour to get it out of the box and my fingers got sliced up on the plastic packaging. They actually screwed the bottom of it down in the box. It was pretty cool but he didn't really let any of us mess with it. I had the controller for about 10 seconds before he noticed and yanked it away. Ah, 6 year olds, aren't they fun? Makes me want to have 10 of them.

My mom got us this Texas Hold'em electronic game that hooks up to the tv. Gotta try that out, might be fun for our little new years party.

Cdubya got me the Golf Launchpad simulator for my PS2. It's fun but a couple things. First, you need a lot of room to swing a club indoors. Second, it's not all that accurate for putting and chipping. I played it in the living room and was very nervous about swinging a club 100 mph 2 feet from my 55" big screen tv! I can just see the head fly off and smash! There goes the tv...

She also got me these new bowling shoes... can't wait to hear the reaction Wednesday.

Basement update

I've posted some before pictures in my basement finishing blog for those following along.

It's beginning to taste a lot like Christmas

I sure hope it's over soon or I won't be able to button my pants...

I can't resist the cookies, fudge, candy, pies, beer, ham, etc that comes with this time of year and I find myself eating and eating and eating... One of my new year's resolutions (I don't normally do those) will be to knock that off and not be a fatty... more on that when the time is right.

We went to R&R Kelly's last night for dinner. Nice atmosphere but anyone over 40 bring a magnifying glass and a flashlight. I could not read the menu for the life of me. Is it even possible that there is a 4 pt font? Of course, no reading glasses so I had to rely on Cdubya and Dr. Mike to help me read the menu. And that of course, just feeds into his "you're old" comments. Dinner was decent though. And Dr. Mike also popped for the whole thing, very nice of him. Must have gotten a big bonus. I guess that's what going to school till you're 30 gets ya.

We then had a little gift exchange back at their house. Very nice sauces and rubs from William-Sonoma. They do know how we like to eat... :)

I did a lot of wrapping before dinner last night. No matter how much time I take I can't make them look like Cdubya can. I'm happy if the bow doesn't fall off...

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Taking a page from the Grinder handbook, I've decided to post some charts! :)

One of the most perplexing things about bowling for me this season is my 3rd game average on Wednesdays. I just can't figure out the cause of it. Take a look at my per game average for Wednesday night.

Now look at my per game average on Saturday nights. I have just as much to drink on Saturdays as I do on Wednesdays. CB suggests that he and my teamates on Wednesdays can get into my head and cause me to collapse in the 3rd. That makes no sense only because they try to do that all three games, not just the last one.

Oh well, maybe it's just a coincidence and things will turn around and average out by the end of the season.

This will be my last post before Christmas. Everyone have a safe and memorable holiday.

Round 2 Under way

Last night began the 2nd half of our bowling season. After a miserable first half we were itching to get off to a good start. And we did! We won all 3 games for a 7-0 victory. Neither the first or second games were in doubt but the third was tense. It came down to me of course... I could put the nail in the coffin with a big 10th frame. And knowing that I obviously threw it right through the head pin for a big 5 split (that is the 4-6-7-9-10 for those playing at home). Beautiful... I did manage to pick up four of the five (left the 4 pin). It was then sit and wait for their anchor bowler. He just needed a spare to win. But, he left a baby split (3-10) and only got the 10 pin so we held on to win by 2 pins! Phew... let me off the hook there.

For some reason I just couldn't pick up spares last night. I had a ton of strikes but was 4-9 in spares (3 were splits). In the first game I had a 5-2 in the 2nd frame (big washout) and then struck until the 10th and had a 243. The 2nd game I started strong and then made some spares and finished with a 225. Just needing a 232 for 700 I came out with the first 4 strikes to start the 3rd but then managed to miss a bunch of spares when all of a sudden I couldn't carry anymore. Ended up only shooting a 180 for 648. I was really hoping to back up the 700 I shot Saturday with another... Oh well. At least we won. And I was 5 for 5 in hanging my teamates, won 2 card games and didn't lose beer frame for the 2nd week in a row.

Watched Deal or No Deal when I got home but I can't really remember what happened. I think a woman from Utah won a couple hundred grand but don't remember the exact amount. I enjoyed a few too many Capital Winter Skal's at bowling I guess.

We're going out to R & R Kelly's tonight with some friends for dinner.

Speed Shopping with Beer

4 days till the 25th...

Last night I started doing my shopping for Cdubya. I pretty much knew 80% of what I was getting her and no, a purse was not one of them. I hope she's not too disappointed but there were other things I wanted to get her that weren't on the official list. There's something about finding a gift that they weren't thinking about that they really like. I try to find that one thing each year but it's not easy.

So, I started off my shopping trip by heading to R&R Kelly's in Fitchburg for some free beer. It was high tech happy hour night (excuse for programmers to drink). After polishing off a Capital Winter Skal and a Guinness I headed off for the mall in the proper frame of mind.

First step at the mall was to get some food so I stopped at the Taco Bell for a Chipotle stuffed chicken burrito, mmmm. Then I'm off!

A lovely girl named Amy helped me find everything I needed at William-Sonoma and packed it all away in the back so I could pick it up on my way out. 20 minutes.

Next was a trip to the Boston Store. After begging for someone to help me I got what I needed and was out of there. 20 minutes more.

Then I was off to find a couple special things that I wasn't quite sure about. Headed to Eddie Bauer first. Took a little too long to decide on a couple more items. 30 minutes.

Last step was to Pottery Barn where I know I can always find something she likes. In fact, I think she'd like to live there. I managed to find a couple little things right away and off I went. 15 minutes.

Back to William-Sonoma and I'm out of there. 6 bags in hand, about 90 minutes total, I'm on the way to the car. Home 30 minutes later. Not bad. Just have stocking stuffers left to do. Oh, and wrapping of course. I hate that part, I really suck at it and Cdubya is the queen of wrapping. Luckily 2 of the W-S items were already wrapped! Sweet...

Watched Deal or No Deal again last night after I got home. That show is fun, no wonder it's such a big hit in Europe. The contestant last night passed on $240,000! What a nimrod... He ended up hitting a big number after that and the offer dropped to $189,000, which he took. His greed cost him $51,000. The game is similar to playing Hold'em as you are constantly having to calculate your outs and the odds. The difference is in deciding when the offer is high enough that the odds are no longer worth continuing with.

Deal or No Deal?

Ah, my Green Bay Packers... what can you say? That was horrible. I'm just glad I recognized it early and turned it off at 14-3. We are going to the game against da Bears on Christmas day, I sure hope it's out of their system. Of course they lost Samkon Gado to a torn MCL so we're now down to the team bus driver at RB.

Prior to the game I watched a new game show called "Deal or No Deal", hosted by Howie Mandel. I was skeptical but I really got into it. Here's the premise. There are 26 briefcases held by 26 lovely ladies. Each one has a dollar value in it, ranging from 1 penny to $1 million. The contestant selects one case which is brought down to them (left closed of course). The goal is for that case to have a high dollar amount. But, before you get to that, you need to first pick 6 cases to be opened. Each value in them is crossed off the board. The goal is to eliminate all the low numbers, greatly increasing your odds of having a big $ amount. After the 6 are opened the mystery banker will make you an offer to buy you out, based on the odds of you having a big number. The first offer he made last night was for only $21,000. After the offer you have to say deal or no deal. No deal and you continue on, opening 1 less case the next time. So, she opened 5 cases and the banker makes another offer. It gets pretty stressful as the offers go up and the number of cases dwindle. The contestant messed up by listening to her family (the family is down by them and is consulted all the time). When it was down to 4 cases and there was only 1 that was above the offer of $138,000 (it was $500,000) they told her to do one more and to pick case 8 (cuz 8 is great). She didn't want to do it but gave in. Case 8 contained $500,000 so she was left with 3 cases that contained $50,000, $75 and $500. The offer dropped to $17,000. She said no and got rid of the $75 case. The next offer was $25,000 and she took it. Good move because her case was only $500. Still, I would have never passed up the $138,000. They started another game at the end of the show and that constestant lost a bunch of high values in the first round so his opening offer was only $7,000. Ouch. It's on all week, tune in!

I may miss it though, I haven't done any Christmas shopping for Cdubya yet (though I know exactly what I'm getting). Tonight is the night. Any of you planning to be at the mall stay the hell out of my way!

I Love Christmas Shopping!

Not...

Since Sunday was our get together at my dad's place and we hadn't started shopping yet, we figured Saturday was a good time to go to the mall and other places for shopping. Yeah, brilliant as the Guinness guys say. We only had to stop one time to take a time out after we both lost it a little and there were some harsh words exchanged. Mostly my fault of course...

We got home in time to sit down for 20 minutes before rushing off to bowling. I managed my first 700 series (706) of the year. Blew another chance at a 300 game. Had the first 7 strikes in the 3rd game but couldn't finish it off and ended up with a 268. We lost 4-3 to Grinder's team though... the humiliation is almost more than I can bare.

Sunday we rush up to my dad's for a quick lunch and gift exchange. Checked out the work my brother did on my dad's basement. Very nice. Rushed back home, grabbed my hockey gear and took off again. By the time I got there I was pretty tired. Didn't play overly well but we won 9-0.

Looking at my calendar I see I have 3 meetings covering 6 hours today. Not exactly how I like to start a Monday...

Apprentice Winner Screws Runner Up

Not literally of course, but Trump had every intention of hiring Rebecca after he named Randal as his new Apprentice. That is, until he asked Randal for advice. The selfish bastard said that there should only be one apprentice and that he shouldn't hire her too. Man, the look on her face. You could definitely tell what she was thinking... "you rat bastard sonofabitch, I will kill you in your sleep." So Trump says (paraphrasing here) "oh, I could have been talked into hiring her but since you said no, I won't."

It looked to me from the beginning of the 2 hour show that he intended to hire both of them. It was totally set up the whole way. He even had them pick which job they would want and they picked opposite ones. He was like "oh, that's great, makes it easier." At that point I thought it was a done deal. He would pick Randal and then after the dust settled tell Rebecca that she was hired too. Randal ruined the surprise. Why Trump is listening to him is beyond me... Of course he may end up hiring her anyway, after all the excitement is over. Randal just didn't want to share the limelight with anyone else.

One thing I do not like about the Apprentice, or some other "reality" shows as well, is the constant attempt to make people into enemies. Trump does it all the time. Why is this person bad? Or why is this person worse than you? What stupid thing did they do? He manages to take two people that are very friendly towards each other and respect each other and make them say horrible things about the other. It gets so ugly. That part I do not enjoy. I say, focus on yourself. Why are you great? Why would I hire you? I don't go into a job interview and say shit about the other candidates. Maybe that's something new I could try next time.

I'm about to begin my serious Christmas shopping so I thought I would start with one present for my 2 balding friends first. Merry Christmas boys!

Snow Plows Suck

You work your ass off getting your driveway cleared and it's perfect... and go to bed only to wake up and find the snow plow has come by and deposited 3 feet of snow at the end of your driveway. To make things even sweeter is the snow we had was that wet stuff that packs really tight and weighs a ton! I swear there were boulders in there that weighed 50 lbs. I spent 45 minutes this morning digging it out. Plus you have to get by the mailbox too or you get a nasty note from the mailman. Oh joy...

Last night was position round at bowling. Didn't really mean much to us though. We were in 7th place bowling the 8th place team. We did manage to win 5-2 to cement ourselves in 7th. :)
I had a rough night carrying anything. Lots of 10 pins and 7 pins and just for fun I left two pocket 7-10 splits. Brilliant... Third game I lost it again, 3 splits, a washout and a missed 10 pin and I ended up with a 162. Funny part is Captain Jim had me by 3 pins going into the last game (429-426) so I got him to bet me on series and we both shot 162 so I lost. And I just needed a spare in the 10th to beat him. My 5 count washout and 3 on the 2nd ball just didn't cut it.

Also found out that we are most likely are losing Korey starting in January due to a change in his work schedule. We've struggled at times to get 5 guys who want to show up, this will make it that much worse. I've got a couple guys to call to replace him, we'll see how that goes.

Oh, I'm going to do a basement finishing project so I created another blog that I'll use to track the progress with pictures, etc. You can get to it through a link in my profile or by clicking here.

Amazing Race Finale

Finally. It's over. I no longer have to spend my Tuesdays yelling at the tv screen at the Weavers to shut the fuck up. The Amazing Race Family Edition came to an end last night. The Linz siblings outraced the Bransons to the finish line to capture the $1 million prize. The Weavers came in 3rd but not without a lot of whining first. "It's not faaaaairrrrr." Grrr, I think even the Weaver boy wanted to kill the other 3...

Oh but wait! CBS.com has another challenge to show between the Bransons and the Weavers for a GMC Yukon XL. Let's see who won that one, shall we (playing video now). Well, ok CBS, your video doesn't work. Nice... I don't really care anyway.

On the snow front, the weather people didn't lie this time. We had some good snow to start the day off and it's still coming down hard. 4-7" by the end of the day is the estimate at this point. I'm going to drive Cdubya to work this morning. Despite driving a Yukon the snow scares her. She is from San Diego so she didn't grow up with it (but we have lived here for 7 years now). Many of the smaller schools are closed today. Madison never closes, ever. I just hope the bowling alley stays open for tonight. :)

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MILWAUKEE/SULLIVAN WI
1030 AM CST TUE DEC 13 2005

...HEAVY SNOWFALL POTENTIAL ON WEDNESDAY AND WEDNESDAY NIGHT...

.SNOW IS EXPECTED TO OVERSPREAD SOUTH CENTRAL AND SOUTHEASTWISCONSIN WEDNESDAY MORNING. PERIODS OF SNOW WILL CONTINUE INTOWEDNESDAY EVENING BEFORE TAPERING OFF DURING THE NIGHT. THE SNOW IS EXPECTED TO BE HEAVY AT TIMES...POSSIBLY RESULTING IN ACCUMULATIONS GREATER THAN 6 INCHES BY MIDNIGHT WEDNESDAY NIGHT. HENCE A WINTER STORM WATCH IS BEING ISSUED FOR WEDNESDAY AND WEDNESDAY NIGHT FOR ALL OF SOUTH CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST WISCONSIN.

A LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM IS EXPECTED TO MOVE INTO THE PLAINS TODAY. INCREASING SOUTHERLY WINDS AHEAD OF THIS SYSTEM WILL PULL DEEPER MOISTURE FROM THE GULF NORTHWARD INTO THE UPPER MIDWEST TONIGHT
AND WEDNESDAY. TEMPERATURES WILL REMAIN COLD ENOUGH TO PRODUCE MAINLY SNOW ACROSS SOUTH CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST WISCONSIN. THE LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM IS EXPECTED TO SLOW DOWN AND DEEPEN AS IT MOVES
INTO WISCONSIN FROM MINNESOTA WEDNESDAY NIGHT AND THURSDAY.

ALL INTERESTS SHOULD MONITOR THE LATEST FORECASTS AND STATEMENTS CONCERNING THIS DEVELOPING WINTER WEATHER SITUATION. MARQUETTE-GREEN LAKE-FOND DU LAC-SHEBOYGAN-SAUK-COLUMBIA-DODGE-WASHINGTON-OZAUKEE-IOWA-DANE-JEFFERSON-WAUKESHA-MILWAUKEE-LAFAYETTE-GREEN-ROCK-WALWORTH-RACINE-KENOSHA-INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...MONTELLO...BERLIN...FOND DU LAC...SHEBOYGAN...BARABOO...PORTAGE...WISCONSIN DELLS...BEAVER DAM...WEST BEND...PORT WASHINGTON...DODGEVILLE...MADISON...JEFFERSON...LAKE MILLS...WAUKESHA...BROOKFIELD...MILWAUKEE...DARLINGTON...MONROE... JANESVILLE...BELOIT...ELKHORN...LAKE GENEVA...RACINE...KENOSHA

1030 AM CST TUE DEC 13 2005
...WINTER STORM WATCH IN EFFECT FROM WEDNESDAY MORNING THROUGH LATE WEDNESDAY NIGHT...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MILWAUKEE HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WATCH...WHICH IS IN EFFECT WEDNESDAY AND WEDNESDAY NIGHT. SNOW IS EXPECTED TO OVERSPREAD SOUTH CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST
WISCONSIN WEDNESDAY MORNING...AND CONTINUE INTO WEDNESDAY EVENING BEFORE BEGINNING TO TAPER OFF. SNOWFALL OF 4 TO 6 INCHES IS LIKELY...WITH THE POTENTIAL FOR GREATER THAN 6 INCHES OF SNOWFALL.

CITIES INCLUDED IN THE WATCH ARE MILWAUKEE...MADISON...JANESVILLE...FOND DU LAC...KENOSHA AND THE WISCONSIN DELLS.

A WINTER STORM WATCH IS ISSUED WHEN HEAVY SNOW...SLEET...OR FREEZING RAIN IS EXPECTED TO ACCUMULATE TO LEVELS THAT WILL CAUSE MAJOR IMPACTS TO COMMERCE AND SOCIETY. CONTINUE TO MONITOR THE
LATEST FORECASTS FOR UPDATES AND POSSIBLE WARNINGS. TRAVEL CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED TO RAPIDLY DETERIORATE DURING THE DAY WEDNESDAY.

Can Static Electricity Blow up your House?

I'm not even sure why I'm posting today. That was about as boring a Monday night as you can get. I got a hair cut, ordered Glass Nickle pizza and tried to watch Shark Tale. Fell asleep about 9 in the middle of it.

My house is so dry that I keep shocking the dogs when I try to pet them. Can static electricity build up enough to blow up your house? Good thing we have 2 giant gas lines running at the back of our property. Boom booms are so pretty...

I've got this little portable humidifier that I filled up and turned on before I left this morning. I doubt it's going to help at all. My brother has Aprilaire in his place. I wonder how hard that is to hook up. I'll have to do some research today on that.

Today begins advance planning for tomorrow's blizzard. The snow is supposed to start some time in the early morning hours tomorrow and snow on into Thursday. I'm hearing 4-7" from most of the forecasters. This is going to be one long winter...

I see the Badger hoopsters beat UNC Wilmington on a 3 pointer at the buzzer by Chris Rock, er, Kameron Taylor. He's off to a really good start this season. It wasn't on tv. :(

Cdubya gave me some Christmas (yes, Christmas, not "Holiday") ideas yesterday. One of them was a purse for $210. She has a serious handbag issue. She already has about a dozen, most of them costing between $200 and $300. Does she really need another? I just can't see buying it but they make her so happy (for about 5 minutes till she sees another one). I have to physically redirect her around the purse sections of stores so she won't be sucked in. Then every time we go out some place and I ask her if she has something (checkbook, cell phone), she answers that she didn't bring her purse! What the fuck people...

Happy Tuesday...

Who needs Bush?

The Packers are killing me... when it finally is looking like they might have an inside track to Reggie Bush after the Jets manage to win a game (granted, Houston is better at figuring out how to lose a close game), the Pack manages to beat Detroit behind the 170 something yards of rookie Samkon Gado. Perhaps they don't need Bush after all.

Spent Saturday night in Kohler at the Inn on Woodlake. Nothing really special about that hotel but it's the only one other than the American Club. We had lunch at a little italian bistro and then drove out to see Whistling Straits. Cdubya was quite impressed with the buildings and the amount of hills that they built. Driving out to it is completely flat farmland all around. Quite a shock to find all the hills when you get to the course. The buildings definitely give it that Scottish feel. The best part is she's all over letting me go there and play now! We also visited Blackwolf Run and while nice, just isn't the same feel. After doing some shopping we had dinner at the Wisconsin Room at the American Club. One word describes the American Club... class. We were greated at the front door by the bellman who asked if we needed assistance. I told him why we were there and he said "follow me, sir" and led us through the hotel all the way back to the restaurant. I kept waiting for him to point me in the right direction but he took us all the way there, then took our coats, asked if we would like cocktails and told us to go ahead and have a seat anywhere (they have a huge waiting area with sofa's, chairs, shelves of books, windows looking out to the courtyard, etc). He then checked us in at the restaurant and had a waitress over to see us immediately. Dinner at the Wisconsin Room can also be described in one word... slow. It took us 2 hours. Most of that just waiting for the waitress to come around. She was mostly non-existent to us. The food was good but I grew very frustrated with the lack of service.

I had a hockey game after we got home yesterday and we won again. This time 5-3. I managed a goal and an assist while playing defense. Fairly good game in between coughing fits. Still haven't gotten rid of that cold yet.

Warning: Survivor spoiler ahead if you haven't watched it yet.

We had tivo'd Survivor so we started it around 8 after I got home and showered. Rafe won the first immunity challenge in a very close race with Steph and Danni. In a surprise move they voted out Lydia who was no threat to any of them. Personally, I would have voted out Danni, but Rafe had an alliance with her to get her to the final 3. If I'm Rafe though, I get rid of her since he would win easily against either Steph or Lydia in the final 2. This would be his biggest mistake and cost him the million bucks.

The final challenge is, as usual, an endurance special. They had to stand on unstable platforms hanging on to ropes. After an hour they had to let go of one of the two ropes. I didn't think this would throw them but first Steph, then Danni, then Rafe all lost their balance and were dangling from their ropes trying not to touch the ground. They all managed to hang on and balance themselves with their backs against a post and their feet on the platform. First to go out was Rafe when he had a mental lapse and touched his hand to the post (after Jeff told them they could not do that). Steph held on as long as she could but Danni's height made it so much easier for her to keep balanced. Danni won immunity and went against Rafe (after he told her it was ok to do that... dufus) and picked Steph to go with her to the final 2. Steph had no chance to win as she'd already alienated over half the jury. Danni won the million easily (though I never did see a final vote total as she got her 4th after the 5th vote was read, but I think it was probably 5-2 with Rafe and Lydia voting for Stephanie).

Oh, I played in a 3 table hold 'em tournament Friday afternoon ($2 buy in). Made it to the final table and was in the top 5 of chip leaders for almost the entire time but made one mistake getting suckered into a bet I didn't want to make and ended up getting short stacked. I tried to make a stand but lost and ended up 9th out of 30. I was upset about that one hand getting to me because I had been so patient the entire time and really was playing a very smart game. I went in big on 3 hands and won all 3 and then sat back to let the others knock each other off. I just had a mental lapse and it cost me.

Oh well, have a great week.

Curse of the Car

I thought I'd seen everything there was to see in Survivor, until last night.

In perhaps the dumbest Survivor move ever, Cindy decides that a $25,000 car is worth more than $1 million. See, she wins an award challenge which is a Pontiac Torrent. Ooh, yay, never had a new car before, etc... But, no one, not a single person, who has won a car, has ever won Survivor. Not in 10 years. Does this bother her? No.... of course not, she's beaten the odds, whatever the hell that means.

Jeff gives her a chance to get out of it, a chance I would have jumped on in about a half second. You can give up the car you won and give the other remaining 4 people each their own car. Now, how stupid do you have to be to know that if you decide to keep the car and not give the other 4 a car, that you WILL be going home?!?!?! I don't care how much they say, "oh, you made the right choice, that's what I would have done", inside they are thinking "you little bitch, how could you screw us like that".

So, fittingly, she doesn't win the immunity challenge (a sobbing Steph wins that, give me a freakin' break), so she gets sent home. DUH! Didn't see that coming? And what was with Judd doing the fist pump when she got voted out? She was the only person that DIDN'T vote for him last time. What a dumbass...

I find it amazing how stupid people really are. Are we regressing in human intellect? Is TV causing us to become idiots? Or is there some other cause? Too much pollution? Something poisoning our food supply? Every day I see something that makes me think "good god, are you really that stupid?" Makes me want to move to a deserted island with Ginger and Mary Ann...

In other news, it snowed yesterday. About 3" worth. I'll be heading home at lunch today (my half day) to start shoveling. At least it has warmed up into double digits! We are going to Kohler for an overnight getaway tomorrow.

See you on Monday, have a not dumb weekend!

Bowling frustration

Bowling is continuing to be a source of frustration for all of us. Just when it looks like we've turned the corner, we regress and get our asses handed to us. We won the first game and came unglued the second game, losing by 154 pins. Lost the third as well to end up 2-5 on the night. On a positive note I did have my most consistent night, shooting 645 with games of 215, 219 and 211, grinding the Grinder into pulp with a 155 pin thumping. I finally didn't miss any spares and only had one open which was a giant split. Of course, I lost beer frame in the first game, which was the 10th week out of 12 that I have lost a beer frame. It's getting ridiculous now. I've lost the most by far despite having the highest average on the team. Guess I'm just a big choker. I did win 2 card games to take over the lead in that category.

Watched Alias when I got home. Julian Sark is back but seems much less sinister now. The previews for next week left me confused. They said Michael Vaughn is back. How can he be back? We watched him take about 15 bullets in the chest, die, and get buried. Does he come back as a zombie? Is it just a dream? Maybe Jennifer Garner realized that losing him from the show is what is getting them cancelled and she's desparate to try to get the show back.

Tonight is the last regular Survivor prior to Sunday's finale! My pick to win is Rafe. What about you?

There are convicted sex offenders in your neighborhood!

Want to know where those child molestors and rapists are in your neighborhood? Wisconsin is now one of the states that will publish the addresses of these convicted mo fo's. I've got 2 within a half mile of my house.
Click here to see for yourself. Thanks to Gerks for that one.

Boston Legal was pretty funny last night. I'm not sure which part was funnier though, the chopping off of the priests fingers with an axe or the shooting of the homeless guy in the forehead with a paintball gun. Shatner is classic... then he goes on Larry King to pontificate about how the poor are the cause of all the problems in this country and they should just get off their fat asses and get a job. I loved it...

Watched March of the Penguins yesterday. Those little guys are amazing creatures. How they survive temps of -80 (yes, minus 80) with 100 mph winds is just incredible. And the little baby ones are so cute, you just want to squeeeeeeeze them.... haha. I highly recommend this for everyone. Be warned, like any nature documentary, not everything is happy, some of them don't survive.

Pity for Philly

Day 6 of this damn cold. I took Nyquil last night at 9:45, still awake at 10:45. I thought that stuff was supposed to knock you out? Maybe I need a double dose. Woke up at 3am but was able to get back to sleep. Made it the whole night without coughing but man, when I got up I coughed for a hour straight. Still coughing now. I hate this shit...

We're supposed to go to Kohler this weekend but we may not go if I'm still feeling bad. I have to decide tomorrow because of the 72 hour cancellation policy.

Is it possible for a Packer fan to feel pity for another team's fans this year? That's the way I feel for the Eagles fans. How could they do that on the night they honor Reggie White? That's just wrong and they should all be ashamed of themselves.

Speaking of the Packers, one of my bald friends came through with some tickets for the Christmas day game against the Bears. Probably one of the easiest tickets to get in the history of Packer football considering the way this season has gone. But, Cdubya has never been to Lambeau and I've been promising her a trip. She wants to catch Donald Driver and bring him home but he would have to jump pretty damn high to reach our seats. I don't know where he'd sleep anyway...

I found a cool Christmas present for my brand new niece at the Boston Store. It's a rocking horse but not just any rocking horse. You press on the ears and it makes galloping noises, whinnies, nods his head and wags it's tail. Pretty cool. Another little girl was there and she loved them. On sale for $75. It'll be awhile before she can use it but that should be ok, she can't really do anything at this point, she's new!

Freedom of speech?

Not in Madison Wisconsin evidently. Kewlhand's Fuck Madison blog has been taken down after he was threatened with legal action from our "liberal" city. I guess it's only ok to speak your mind if it has to do with something they deem ok to talk about, like gay rights or smoking in bars.

I Never Get Sick

Famous last words, told to a couple friends Thursday around noon. By 3:00 I was home sacked out on the couch unable to swallow. By Friday morning it felt like I had attempted to swallow a bunch of rusty nails and I don't mean the drink. Saturday was still terrible only now I've added a cough to it. Sunday the soar throat was gone but now I couldn't breathe. How fun. I gotta quit saying things like that. I'm a firm believer in the self inflicted jinx and I did it to myself.

Still had to bowl Saturday night and did ok, shooting a 640 (218, 229, 193). Kind of ran out of gas and missed a spare the 3rd game. I typically bowl better when I'm sick, I think it helps me slow down.

Sunday I debated all day about playing hockey. I just HATE missing a game and since I was not technically dead I figured I could at least show up. Captain Bill moved me to forward instead of D so I would get a little more rest time and that helped. I was able to play a decent game and we won 6-2.

Let's see, lots of catching up to do. Starting with Survivor. Finally, Judd gets his ass handed to him and got sent home. What an ignorant piece of shit this guy is. And he's calling everyone scumbags for voting him out, what a loser. Go back to opening doors, what a tough skill that must have been to acquire. I can see it taking a month to train him whether the door was a push or pull open type.

On to the weekend where the hockey Badgers took one more step towards a national championship by visiting the Gophers in Minneapolis and sweeping them by 4-3 and 4-0 scores. They had not won a game up there since Feb, 2000, almost 6 years. The only downside was that the 3 goals they gave up Friday was the only time they've given up more than 2 this year.

The Packers... oh good god, why do I keep watching?!?!?! At least this time I only watched the 4th quarter and then actually switched to the Bengals/Steelers game to watch the end of that instead. I'm learning. Now, if only the Texans would quit fucking up and win a couple games. They've thrown away the last 2 when they should have won.

Well, back to work and trying to figure out what I was working on Thursday...
Have a great week.

Opportunity Lost

My bowling struggles continue as once again I was under average and it's slipping steadily away from the 200 line. I don't really get it but I'm still trying. I cost my team a win in the 10th frame of the first game. Needing 2 strikes I got 1 and an 8 count and we lost by 7. We did rebound to win the next two games easily. Fortunately my teamates all bowled over average, lead by the Grinder with a 630 something. Of course, the one time he makes the paper somehow there were no scores listed for our lanes. Haha.

Before bowling I watched The War at Home which I am really loving. It's on Sunday nights between Simpsons and Family Guy and stars Michael Rappaport. This week's episode was all about how parents can't do anything to their kids these days, there's no fear of getting your ass whipped if you screw up. After his kids were blatantly disobeying him, he finally put his foot down and announced that any more disobedience would result in a spanking! Now, his kids are like 12, 15 and 16, a little big for a spanking but he was just trying to scare them. It worked until his 15 year old son Larry broke his putter playing gladiator and his other 2 kids basically demanded that he be spanked or they would know he was bluffing all along. He ends up having to spank Larry, who then packs up his things and moves to his gay friends house (somehow he doesn't know he's gay). Of course, after that child services shows up and wants to know why he's beating his kids. It was pretty funny and right on about the differences between when we were kids and kids today. That fear of an ass beating is gone and with it some level of who's in charge. All my dad had to do was start to take off his belt and I knew I better straighten up. He never actually hit me with it but the fear was there. I say bring back the fear!

When I got home we watched Lost on Tivo. Wow, that was an awesome episode. If you haven't watched it yet, stop reading here unless you want to know what happened.

First, we learn that Kate killed her father, only it's more complicated than that. She learns that who she thought was her real father was not. Her mom divorced him when she was 4 and married her real father, who was a no good, evil bastard who beat her mom. Kate just couldn't take it any more, she said she couldn't live with having part of him within her. So, she created a gas leak and one night when he came home drunk and her mom was out, she blew up the house. She was caught after her mom gave her up but she escaped after a car crash. We don't really know what happened after that yet. She did see a black horse on the island, but I'm not sure what that means and neither does she.

In the mean time they found out that the computer is not to be used for anything other than inputting the numbers and hitting execute and is not to be used for trying to communicate with anyone else, which seems weird. Michael was messing around with the computers when suddenly he hears a beeping from the terminal. He looks at it and the word "Hello?" is there with a blinking cursor. Normally they cannot type until the 4 minute alarm goes off but he is able to type and replies with his own "Hello?". The response is immediate "who is this?". When he responds with "Michael", the reply is simply "Dad?" and the show ends! Is it really Walt on the other side? And where is he? The others had him but he's been seen in the forest too. What the hell is going on???? I can't wait for next week!

Have a great Thursday, it's Survivor day!