woodbury

I spent the last 2 and a half days at home with my family in Woodbury, Minnesota. It was so beautiful there. It was lush and green and the weather was completely perfectly splendid. I didn't even get one mosquito bite. It was the first time in five years of visits to Minnesota that I didn’t hit up the night life of Minneapolis. Michael (brother) is quasi living at home and The Cunnien Ranch had only one operable vehicle. This meant no trekking to Minneapolis to enjoy one of the most underestimated, cosmopolitan, edgy cities in the Midwest. It was actually quite OK with me to spend my time at home in Woodbury. It was peaceful, relaxing, enjoyable and it was so nice to spend time with my family.

Going home to Woodbury has become bittersweet. I will always love going to my hometown and even more I will always love going to the home were I spent the first 21 years of my life. The place I grew up, Cottage Grove Drive, is not the same anymore. I grew up in the bonafide country. It was technically a suburb and "civilization" (in the form of a convenient store) was a mere 5-7 minute drive but, my childhood home was surrounded by corn fields and trees. It was a young boys paradise. Today, my parent's house is surrounded by $800,000, 3 car garage, two story, cookie cutter, suburban style homes. And I mean surrounded. What was once an enormous field where I spent many a summer day running through corn rows (actual rows of corn not hair) and building tree forts has become Woodbury's newest sub development, Stonemill Farms. It is indeed urban sprawl at its worst. Oh how I long for the Woodbury of my childhood.

myday on myspace

Thursday morning I woke up on Smay's couch. Mornings that start this way are never good! I spent the first few hours watching the first season of Gray's Anatomy. After that grew boring I decided to slum on myspace. I did a search for some old high school friends and I was completely disturbed to find a plethora of Woodbury folk who finally got around to joining the myspace craze. I sent off some reuniting emails to people I haven’t seen for 8+ years. I saw myspace pages for people I forgot existed. It was interesting to hear how people had progressed in their conquest for happiness or fame.

After doing a little digging I came across a rather telling photo which prompted me to call my old high school buddy Marin in Austin, TX. I hate chatting on the phone but the two of us gabbed for an hour and a half about the people in our past. It was most amusing.

Check out this link to Martin's blog: http://www.notethisblog.com/2006/08/past-drags-me-out-of-closet-and-kicks.asp

happy birthday mindy!

Dinner at 9 seventy five.

Ccocktails at DC10. That bar is a complete tragedy on the weekends. Patrick's suggestion... Enjoy happy hour 3-7 every week night or 3-2am on Sundays.

Cruised Broadway looking for a place to wear our dancing heals. No luck! We did get to see the cast of Real World departing Shelter (Denver's newest Chad & Trixie Club)

Took in a night cap and a few karaoke performances at Armida’s.

Worked on our buzz and baked cookies back at the Emerson Plaza.

happy fucking birthday, julie!

Julie turns 28 today. She is clearly obsessed with her Birthday as it is all she has talked about today for fucks sake. Either way:

H A P P Y

F U C K I N G

B I R T H D A Y

J U L I E... we love you, I guess.

weekend bbq a smasing success

What was meant to be a small gathering turned into a reunion of sorts. Michael Mancini and I decided to have a small "nearing the end of summer" soiree. After a few phone calls it turned into a rather healthy gathering. The Emerson Plaza gang (aka my neighbors) showed up in rather impressive amounts. I must admit my timing in the whole barbequing thing was rather off. My meat came later then I would have preferred it to. Although, my mother's broccoli salad was a huge success. And, thank God, because as I mentioned above my meat came out later then I wanted it to.

I also decided to make Sangria. Well, I sort of fucked it up. Well I decided to make my Sangria in one of those big ass bottles that cheap, shitty table wine are housed in. Well, I shoved the fruit through the small bottle neck. In the end 6 peaches, 4 oranges & 4 lemons were stuck in the bottle. What the fuck, Patrick?? Better Sangria next time.

the trouble we're in.

Sometimes I think that the planet Earth and all of her inhabitants are part of a big fat experiment. If my theory is true are we not living up to our experimenters hypotheses? Or are we doing exactly what he or she or it thought we would do, grow paranoid and start killing each other. This planet and its inhabitants are simply out of control.

A few of my Christian friends seem to think that the end is near. Jesus will return. I think they may be partially right. Poor mother Earth simply can't sustain the ever growing virus on her skin, the human race. The damage we are causing to our home, Earth, and to each other is simply outrageous.

I have often thought about how we humans are only around for 80 odd years then we pass this planet on to the next generation, out off spring. Nobody really has a personal stake or a real distinct reason for keeping mother Earth healthy. By the time things get bad enough we will all be dead.

I wonder if mother Earths deteriorate health is the reason everyone is so edgy lately? Or is it the ever presence of "terrorism" around the world? Or is it that we are all so wrapped up in aspiring to make as much money as possible so we can buy as much as possible?

The inhabitants of mother Earth are getting angrier and less tolerant!
Uh-oh!

the nerd that I am.

I purchased this airline simulation game from some company in Australia. I waited two excruciatingly long weeks for the software to arrive. I installed it. It is simply the slowest thing I have ever seen. My IBM PCjr was faster than this thing. A while back I played an earlier version of the same game at it was delightful. Unfortunately I loaned it to a friend who has seemed to have misplaced it. Damn it!

The whole premise of the game is to build an airline empire. You start small with small DC9 aircraft flying from Minneapolis to Fargo and before long (if you play your cards right) you are purchasing 747 aircraft to serve routes like London to Tokyo. It is just that exciting. You can decide the seating configurations and the type of meal service your airline will offer.

I have sent an email to the company in Australia inquiring if there is something I can do to speed the thing up. We will see if they can help.

back in the swing of it!

I don't believe I informed my blog audience but, back in May I started working a new and cruelly unusual shift at work, 4:15am to 12:45pm. I was assigned a similar shift briefly when I worked in Minneapolis, but for almost my entire U** career I have been on a night (swing shift.)

While I was on this shift I would wake up at 2:45am to be in the car by 3:15am to be in the parking lot by 3:45am to catch the bus to be at the required shift start briefing by 4:15am. My social life this summer lacked considerably not that it mattered as I was constantly tired. I certainly don't miss listening to that atrocious alarm clock of mine wail at 2:45 in th a.m.

2 weeks ago I was granted a 12:30pm to 9:00pm. It is considerably much more civil.