The Little Red Trolley has Reached the End of the Track

A moment of silence today to mark the passing of Mr. Rogers.

Funk This

Question for the masses: When a store advertises 2 for $3, can you just buy one for $1.50, or do you have to buy both to get the deal? Does this vary by store, or is it universal?

I spent the majority of last night doing more consulting work. Replaced a hard drive for a client as well as restoring all of his old files. Not my favorite way to spend the evening, but in this case it was acceptable because it will pay for my trip to Vegas this weekend. I'm heading out tomorrow night with a bunch of my hockey buddies. We're playing in a tournament up there this weekend. It should be even more fun than the past couple tournaments, because I'm going with people I normally play with and are better friends with.

In a way, I'm hoping that this vacation serves as a means of breaking up my current routine. I really feel as though I'm in a funk lately. I haven't been going to the gym, haven't been eating as healthy as I used to (yes, I still support balance, but these days, I think I'm on the wrong side of the scale), and overall, I just haven't felt like myself. My excuse for not getting into the gym? Fear of sickness, or, more accurately, too tired, which leads to getting sick, which I hate more than anything. Well, no more. Next week, sleep gets bumped up on the priority totem pole and I'm getting back in the gym. It's a good time for transition because my weekday hockey league is between seasons, which will allow me a consistent weeknight schedule. It feels much better to be an inspiration to people, to have a sense of accomplishment and to know that I'm taking care of my body then to go through each day, tired, withering, and fueled by junk.

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

This past weekend marked a milestone in my relationship with Michelle. It's been a full year since our first date! To celebrate, we went out on Friday night to one of our favorite Italian places, Parioli in Solana Beach. Although we had to wait a short while for a table, the meal was still wonderful. It's hard to believe that we've been together for an entire year now. The time has definitely flown by, which I will take as a good sign.

Saturday, Michelle, Kevin and I went kayaking around Paradise Point. It was a beautiful day and the water wasn't too choppy. After coming ashore, Michelle and I went back to her place for a bit where I tried to get her Palm Pilot to work with her computer. Not making any headway, we took a break and got a quick bite to eat at World Curry. After eating, I continued to try to get her electronics working. Eventually, I was successful and everything synch'd up. I had a hockey game in the evening. Nothing too eventful, except that we were able to squeak out a win. After the game, I hung out with Michelle for a bit and then went to bed.

Sunday was another full day. Al and I met up in the morning for some bowling action. Then, in the afternoon, Kevin, Michelle, Damen and I made the trek over to LA to celebrate Akos' 30th birthday. Susan (Akos' girlfriend) rented out a banquet room at a golf course in Ranchos Palos Verdes. The room looked out over the water and we were able to watch what little of the sunset was not obscured by clouds. The party was a lot of fun. There were pictures of Akos printed out from every age. As an added bonus, we also got to see Garrett and Julie.

After the party, I had a floor hockey game up at UCSD. The game went well, with the exception of a really bad goal (one of our guys accidentally kicked the ball into our own net). But, in the end, we ended up coming out on top.

This week's been pretty quiet so far, I decided to play some extra hockey last night and had a blast (and a really pretty goal). Surprisingly, I'm not as tired today as I thought I'd be.

The Airplane Ride
Two strangers are sitting in an adjacent seats in airplane. One guy says to the other, "Let's talk. I hear that the flight will go faster if you strike up a conversation with your fellow passenger."

The other guy, who had just opened a good book, closes it slowly, takes off his glasses and asks, "What would you like to discuss?"

The first guy says, "Oh, I don't know; how about Nuclear Power?"

The other guy says, "OK, that could make for some pretty interesting conversation. But let me ask you a question first: A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat the same stuff, but the deer excretes pellets; the cow, big patties; and the horse, clumps of dried grass. Why is that?"

The first guy says, "I don't know."

The other guy says, "Oh? Well then, do you really think you're qualified to discuss Nuclear Power when you don't know shit?"

***

Way too much time on their hands

I want to be the next Joe Millionare

Valentine’s Day was a complete success. I picked Michelle up around 7:30 and we drove over to Coronado to dine at Il Fornaio. The restaurant was pretty crowded when we arrived, so we had to wait for about 10-15 minutes for our table. When we were finally seated, we were placed in a room towards the back of the restaurant. The nice part of this was that we were in a private room, shared with one other table. The downside was that the view wasn’t quite as spectacular as it was from the main dining area. Dinner was good and we ended up with so much food that both Michelle and I were forced to leave with doggy bags. To Il Fornaio’s credit, unlike many other restaurants, they did not raise their prices for Valentine’s Day, which I thought was to be commended.

Bright and early Saturday morning, I was on my way up to Escondido for our first game in the hockey tournament, while Michelle was getting on a plane and heading to San Antonio for a semi-annual company sales meeting. The tournament was fun, but tiring. I had the first game Saturday morning, which we lost (but at least it was close, unlike the Vegas experience). Then, on Sunday, I felt like I spent the whole day either playing hockey or driving. I had an ice hockey game at 4:00 in Escondido, then a floor hockey game at 7:00 in La Jolla, then another ice hockey game in Escondido at 9:30. By the end of the last game I could barely walk, but I think that was attributable to a groin pull that I suffered during floor hockey. Overall, I wouldn’t say it was a great weekend for hockey, as we only won one ice hockey game and tied the floor hockey game. But, it was nice to know that I could play in three games in one evening and still live to tell about it. My parents and sister were able to make it down to the 4 o’clock game and it was nice to see them (if only for a little bit).

I had the day off on Monday, so I took the opportunity to get caught up on some sleep and ended up rolling out of bed around 11:00 AM. I spent most of the day getting caught up around the house. Then I got a call in the afternoon from one of my clients whom I’ve done a fair amount of computer consultation for in the past. I ended up spending the majority of my afternoon at his house, trying to recover data from a fried hard drive.

I’ve got to say that now that I’m out of college and not in need of any extraneous money, consulting has really become a drag for me to do in my spare time. I refuse to take on any more clients in the future unless it is at some outrageous fee that somehow makes it worth my time.

After the computer saga, it was off to bowling. It was a decent night for us and we took three of the four games.

Tuesday was Al’s birthday (Happy Birthday Al!) and he had a little get-together at the West End in Pacific Beach. Half the fun was just finding the place as I took the wrong street to get there. Once inside, it turned out to be an average dive bar. I was there for a couple hours, shot a little pool, had a beer and caught a heavy-duty guilt trip for not being able to spend today at Disneyland.

Michelle comes back into town tonight, so I hope to get together with her later.

Only one link today: What a couple celebrities look like sans makeup.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Last night, I went over to Michelle’s to kick off our Valentine’s Day celebration. She cooked up a very tasty dinner for the two of us. Tonight I’m taking her out to an undisclosed location; details next week.

As for the weekend, it looks like it’s going to be a busy one! Michelle leaves tomorrow morning for a sales meeting in San Antonio and I kick off the weekend with an early morning hockey game. I’m playing in a tournament that is being held up at the ice rink in Escondido. I have a game on Saturday at 9:00 AM, then 2 more on Sunday (4:00 and 9:30 PM respectively). Add in to the mix another floor hockey game at 7:00 on Sunday, more ice hockey games on Monday (if we’re winning) and I’ll be lucky if I’ll be able to walk next week.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted any good linkage, so here are a few goodies:

Valentine’s Day for Men

If you’ve watched any of the American Idol shows, you may be interested to know that one of the contestants (“Frenchie”) was recently pulled off the show and all trace of her existence removed from the website when the producers found out she posed nude on the internet. Add into the mix that the star of Joe Millionaire posed for underwear ads and that one of the two female finalists on the show made some bound and gagged/foot fetish films, and you can see that Fox certainly has their hands full.

Snowmobile rage.

Looking for a mate? Post a sign on your front lawn.

Note to drunken cooks: Remove eggs from carton when frying.

All you can eat pancakes at IHOP.

Not everything is as it appears…

Back to a world without weather

A week ago today, I was enjoying perfect Utah snow; light, fluffy powder that ran about 2 feet deep. Kevin and I wanted to get up to Utah a day early to get an extra day of skiing/snowboarding in before everyone else joined us. We arrived on Thursday night in Salt Lake City, secured ourselves a Ford Expedition and headed over to Todd’s parent’s house in Park City. On the way over to the house, Kevin and I couldn’t help but be slightly dismayed at the sight of rain falling on the windshield. Even more disconcerting was the fact that the temperature wasn’t dropping down below 40 degrees. We got to the house, unloaded the car and set out to find some dinner. With all of the restaurants in the area closed, we stopped by the supermarket and picked up a frozen pizza for dinner as well as some breakfast supplies.

The next morning, the two of us left the house and headed over to The Canyons for our first day of snow. Sadly, this would be the worst day for snow the entire trip. The ground cover was horrible, and in some places, non-existent. The majority of the afternoon was spent dodging rocks and exposed dirt. Unfortunately, a couple rocks still managed to get the better of my board and I ended the day with a couple good size gashes in the bottom of my board.

After getting off the slopes, Kevin and I went back to the house to get cleaned up and then we headed back over to Salt Lake City to try to find the REI so that we could purchase some discount lift tickets for the next day. Having zero luck figuring out the layout of the city and its streets, the adventure (which should have only taken about 45 minutes) took us well over a couple hours. But, we finally made it to our destination. We got the tickets, and I was able to pick up some supplies to repair the bottom of my snowboard. With a couple hours remaining before the others were to arrive, we went back to the house to work on the skis/snowboard. While I was fixing my snowboard, I managed to severely burn my finger (doing exactly what the guy at REI warned me not to do), which quickly blistered up.

After the repairs were in order, Kevin and I headed back over to Salt Lake City to pick up everybody but Michelle (she would be coming in the next morning) at the airport. When all was said and done, we were back at the house, in bed, by 2:00 in the morning. After a short night sleep, everyone was up and ready to hit the slopes. All of the skiers went to Alta for the day, while the snowboarders decided to do Park City. Dave, Desiree (Dave’s girlfriend) and I got a late start on the day, but we were on the lift by 11:00. The snow was much better that day (at least it wasn’t as thin), so it was a step up for me. Michelle met up with us around 1:00 and we all snowboarded for the remainder of the day.

Over the next 3 days, the snow got better and better. On Monday, we were at Snowbird, and thanks to all the snow the night before, we were in a couple feet of powder. About midway through the day, I split off with Dave and the skiers to tackle the backside of the mountain (mostly black diamond runs). The scariest moment of the trip came when we were nearing the end of our first run. Michelle K, Jeff and myself were standing on a flat portion, which overlooked a small valley (about 10 feet below us). We watched Kevin come down the hill and, without enough speed to make it out, end up buried in powder at the bottom of the valley. About 30 seconds later a snowboarder came flying out of nowhere and jumped from near where we were standing into the valley, missing Kevin’s head by about a foot. Before any of us could react, a second snowboarder came flying in and missed Kevin’s feet by nearly the same margin. As we all breathed a sigh of relief, we caught a glimpse of a third snowboarder coming in and yelled to him that Kevin was in his path. He was going too fast to change direction and we all watched as he flew through the air and touched down on top of Kevin. As soon as he realized what happened, the snowboarder ripped off his board and came running over to where Kevin was. Evidently, he thought that he’d decapitated Kevin and was completely freaked out over the incident. Fortunately, for everyone involved, Kevin was ok. Although, he did suffer a good size bruise on his leg, as well as a long tear in his ski suit courtesy of the edge of the board.

There were no more incidents for the remainder of the trip and by the end we were all completely exhausted. Luckily, we got to the airport early enough on the final day that I was able to secure an earlier flight (my original flight was supposed to get in at 11:10). I arrived at the airport just ahead of Kevin and Michelle, so the three of us were able to go home together. It also meant that I was able to spend the remaining hours of the night reassembling the rest of my car.

The rest of the week passed quickly and painlessly. Friday night, I went out with Michelle and a couple of her friends to Cuvee in Del Mar to do some wine tasting. The event ran from 5-7 PM and it was “pour your own.” Needless to say, by the end, I was thoroughly intoxicated. Alexis and her friend Sarah met up with us at the end. We all decided to stay at the restaurant for dinner, which turned out to be quite good. Later in the evening, Michelle, Al and myself drove downtown to attend an art show put on by one of her friends. We didn’t stay at the show too long, because it was standing room only and I don’t think any of us were in the right mindset (it was a performance video/music piece).

Saturday was a pretty relaxed day. I spent most of the day taking care of stuff around the house. In the afternoon, Michelle and I went to a birthday party for one of her old roommates. Then, in the evening, I had an ice hockey game over in Mira Mesa. Talk about some good old-fashioned ice hockey! The refs ended up calling the game early because there were too many fights and too much hostility on the ice. Didn’t really matter, as we were already down 5-2 at that point. After hockey, I ended up going downtown to Martini Ranch with Alexis. We all had a good time and the place was totally packed. I wasn’t feeling that great because I was still a bit dehydrated from hockey.

Sunday was pretty much a write-off. I got to bed so late the night before that I was pretty much wiped out for the entire day. Michelle and I got brunch at Las Olas and that was about the only thing I did during the day. As soon as I got back to my place, I fell asleep for the entire afternoon. I woke up in time for my floor hockey game, played until I was completely spent and then went back to bed.

Tonight, I’m back in the bowling alley after a two-week hiatus. I think we’re bowling against our archrivals tonight—a bunch of obnoxious, NASCAR lovin’, Coors Light drinkin’, wife-beater wearin’ SOB’s. Should be an interesting mix up. If I don’t get my fill of violence and hard feelings there, I’m going to go play some hockey afterwards.