Easy like a Sunday morning (I think I finally know what that means)

(For some more frequent updates from me, be sure to keep an eye on Chris Goes Hoggin', and check out this newer blog from a group of miscreants, the Bare Knuckle Writers. I know I've said this plenty of times, but I'm going to try to do a better job around these parts.)

Football is here. Baseball playoffs are about a month away. Cooler weather is starting to creep in. I love it all. This is my time of the year. Soon Woodyard Bar-B-Que will have their burnt ends chili. Pumpkin flavors will be appearing everywhere. The stout beers are going to sound more appealing (really, you can't drink one on a hot night). What's not to love?

My last few weeks have been, eh, uneventful. I did go to Vegas for a weekend, for a buddy's bachelor party. It was awesome, but the Friday-Monday I spent there was probably enough. My liver couldn't take much more, neither could my wallet. I actually didn't lose much in the casinos, but everything else added up. We did all of the usual Vegas stuff, short of seeing a show. Bellagio fountains? Check. Downtown/old strip? Check. $4.99 steak and eggs at 5 am? Check. Strip club? Check. What more do you need? Oh yeah, I could have cashed in the chips that were in my pocket. So if anyone's heading out that way, I have $22 between the Monte Carlo and the Fremont, I'll sell it to you for $20. You're already up for your trip! One of my favorite parts of the whole weekend? No open container laws. Getting a gin and tonic to go was exhilarating. Oh yeah, and I drank beer out of a boot.

The boot adds a second chin. I swear.

So that was a good time. Since then, I've been taking it easy, saving money, and playing video games. Yeah, I'm basically awesome. I really wish I could come back here with tales of exciting nights out on the town, or to tell you about the romance of the century, anything! I'm not saying that I haven't had awesome nights, because I have, they just don't make for good blog posts. "Hey, went out, had some drinks, did a little dancing, went to some apartment and drank some more!" Yeah. One thing that has been consistently excellent, however, has been brunch.

Sunday mornings are brunch mornings. Some friends and I have been trying to go to as many brunch places around town as we can. It's a nice little tradition we have. Our meal is usually followed by a movie and/or drinks, sometimes just strolling around the Plaza or hitting a park (occasionally with some wine). Sundays have become nearly perfect days. This last Sunday was one of the best. (having Monday off for Labor Day might have swayed this, but still, Sunday was DAMN good.)

I met up with my friends Blake and Maggie at a newer place in town, Westport Cafe and Bar. I'm pretty sure it became my favorite place to go in Westport. Sure, it's a little pricey, but holy cow. I got a couple brunch cocktails (a pink peppercorn and a Tom Collins - both FANTASTIC), and the Eggs Norwegian - english muffins, 2 poached eggs, smoked salmon, hollandaise. OH. MY. Unbelievable. My total was just over $20, not too bad. Worth it, for sure. Maybe not a place for every day, but wow.

Next, we headed to the Plaza to catch an early showing of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. Yes, it was my third time seeing it. Yes, I still loved it. I'll try to write something up about it soon. But go see it now. SO GOOD. Anyways, we had a little time before the show, so Blake and I stopped at Blanc Burgers + Bottles to get another drink, while Maggie shopped. An excellent deal. Another excellent deal - after the movie, Maggie did a little more shopping, so Blake and I headed to another bar, and got a few $2 gin and tonics. Oh me oh my. That is how you spend a Sunday afternoon.

But wait, it got even better. Some other friends o' mine were having a little get together at their place, for some drinking and board games. Yes, I needed to have some more gin, it was the middle of a long weekend! So we played a few games, had a few drinks, and had an awesome night.

Good gaming, good drinks, good food, and excellent friends? Really, do I need anything better?

Reflections on 23

I've been going back through some of my older posts, just checking stuff out, reading stuff from a time when I would somehow write kind of decently, years and years ago. I might have been funny at one point. No idea where that came from. Anyways, I realized that while I've gone over the drunkest I've ever been, I don't think that I've discussed the first time I imbibed to the point of intoxication.

It was the halcyon days in the year of 2004. I was... in college, the second time around. I was a little bit of a late bloomer, which is just a nice way of saying a loser. My 23rd birthday was approaching, and I had never had a drop of alcohol. Not for any real reason, just didn't want to. (At first I thought I was straight edge, because why not? Then I saw Ian MacKaye speak, the man usually credited with coining the term "straight edge," and he said that he didn't want it to turn into a movement, so to speak, and that he didn't consider himself "straight edge." Not that this was the reason I eventually started to have drinks, but it was something that stuck with me. ANYWAYS, that's neither here nor there, just an aside.) This all changed, as many things did, my first year in Iowa City.

So, for my birthday, I decided to go out, and break my seal, so to speak. The bar is long since gone, being shut down multiple times for serving minors. Ahh, every Iowa City bar. My first drink? A Long Island Iced Tea. I heard it was a good "bang for your buck" drink, and had it in my mind that it tasted like iced tea. Damn, was I disappointed when I found out it tasted like fucking lighter fluid. I powered through like a champ, and had others order drinks for me all night. People were too nice, I only did one shot the whole night, and it was something like "oatmeal cream pie." It was delicious, I'm sure.

Most of the night is sort of a blur, if you can imagine. But for the first time in my life, I was drunk. I can remember the moment I realized it. I was sitting at the table, had gone through a few drinks, and was sort of let down that I wasn't feeling anything. Then, I got up to use the facilities. It hit me. It was awesome.

Of the drinks I had, I can only recall a few. The Long Island. Something called "The One" (I asked the waitress if it was The One as in Keanu in the Matrix or Jet Li's The One. I am hilarious.) An amaretto sour. The oatmeal cream pie shot. And an Alabama Slammer. (There were other drinks, I swear. But, early off, I'm afraid that I was a girl drink drunk.)

Other happenings from the night that were pieced together:

• Our waitress may have been hitting on me. She also may have been in her 40s
• I offered to prove to my ride home that I wasn't gay. She was pregnant.
• I made my first drunk dial ever, to Bob Ley. Outside the Lines was on at the bar, I called and left a message, saying that Dennis Erickson was going to return the 49ers to glory, and would join Barry Switzer and Jimmy Johnson as the only coaches to win an NCAA championship and Super Bowl (what can I say, I was drunk)
• I blamed society for driving me to drink
• I vomited. It was red, because of that damn Alabama Slammer. I was really theatrical about it, loud, since some roommates were watching a movie within earshot
• I cleaned up said vomit immediately, laughing the whole time
• Came out of the bathroom and said "Never again. Never drinking again."
• That lasted less than 24 hours.

Obviously, it was a GREAT time. The best part was not being hungover at all the next morning, even when I had to wake up around 8 to head to my mom's and celebrate my birthday with her. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if I had been introduced to my first liquor crush that night - whiskey. But alas, that's probably another story for another day.

HAHAHAHA

Forget you. It's 12:04 am, it's been a rough night, I've had a bottle of wine, this is HILARIOUS

I'm proud of my knock-off Photoshop work. And I'm quite clever, I must admit.

And since I'm a little tipsy, I can forgive myself for doing this "facebook album cover" thing

This post brought to you by the band Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players, the planes of Midwest Airlines, and the letters NIN

First off, if you're a fan of Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor has made his latest album available as a free download, just go to this link:

http://theslip.nin.com/

I'm giving it my first listen-through right now, and am liking it a lot. And you can't beat the price.

This past weekend was a quick, but very fun, time spent in Minneapolis. And while my camera sucks, (not to mention I forgot to put in fresh batteries), H and Whiskey snapped off a few. Check out their blogs to see some of the action, and check out H's post at Three Pints for more about Kate Nash.

The Kate Nash show was great, I really enjoyed the opening band, the Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players. The family (dad Jason on guitar/keyboard/vocals, mom Tina on the slide projector, and 14-year-old daughter Rachel on drums) basically goes to estate sales, buy old slide photography, and write songs based around them. A lot of bands use a video aspect to their live shows to supplement their sound, (like the Faint, the previously mentioned NIN, Project Jenny, Project Jan, to name a few I've seen in concert), but this is the first instance I'm aware of where the band uses the audio and video in such an intertwined level. To get the full enjoyment out of their performance, here's a couple of their videos

Look at Me (from Conan, with a few slides removed for network TV purposes. I'm not sure if it's better or not. . . )


Don't You Know What I Mean?


Now these videos are a few years old, so Rachel is a few years older now. And Jim still didn't want me to go get her number for him.

These videos don't really do them justice, I was blown away by them, it was awesome. At first I didn't think I'd buy their schtick, but damn if they didn't win me over.

I flew (yes, flew) to Minneapolis, after finding tickets that were cheaper than it would have been for me to drive, and saved me about 13 hours driving (round trip), and a lot of wear and tear on my car. Rudy can't put up with too much more, so I gotta take it easy on him while I can, until I find a new ride. But don't tell him about that.

Anyways, I flew on Midwest Airlines. Holy crap. It was amazing. When I got on the plane for my first flight of the day (Midwest is based out of Milwaukee, so I had a stop there each way), there was classical music playing on the speakers, and (relatively) large leather seats as far as the eye could see. They were incredibly comfortable for plane seats, and even left me with a couple of inches on either side. Plus a middle armrest that was about 5 inches wide. No elbow fights with the neighbor for space! And plenty of legroom.

My favorite part, though, was getting freshly baked cookies. Not just one, but two on each flight! And on my first flight, an older lady was sitting next to me, didn't want her cookies, so she gave them to me! AND everyone got a little bag of pretzels. And drink service. C'est incroyable! I would definitely recommend this airline to anyone if it's available (and comparably priced to other airlines). Lucky for me, KC is one of their hubs. Rock.

So it was an awesome weekend, all around. Played some Wii (Mario Kart is lots and lots of fun) and some XBox 360 (NCAA Football still rules, and the new Grand Theft Auto game is kind of fun), saw a good concert (even if Kate Nash got everyone to say they hated me and I'm pretty sure called me a dickhead), at somewhere near my body weight in pizza (Old World Pizza's buffet is delicious), had some cocktails (most gin and tonics, with a free Jameson and something thrown in for good measure), had a wonderful time meeting and chatting with WhiskeyMarie (however nonsensical and incoherent it may have been), and just really enjoyed myself. If only every weekend could be so fun-filled! Now I'm waiting for visitors to come to KC. There's plenty of room, everyone's welcome! And of course, I can make the airport pick-up, so check out Midwest. It's worth it!

Stuffed like a . . . well, you know

I hope everyone had a great past few days, I know I did! My Thanksgiving was very filling, and spent with some good company. But, there were tinges of homesickness, when I was on the phone with everyone at my mom's place (mom, uncle, aunt, grandpa, sister, mom, brother, step-dad, mom - in that order), they had already broken out the wine (it was 1 in the afternoon, what can I say, my family knows how to celebrate!) and I think they were feeling it a little. My mom made me promise that I'd never be away for another holiday, that she had too much food and I needed to eat some of it. Then she made a rule that none of her children could ever move away from her again. I'm not sure if I'm grandfathered in under that one yet, I'm still checking. And a comment was made about me moving closer to home when grandchildren are on the way, so I thought for a minute that she had forgotten that she was talking with me. Any of her grandchildren coming from this Flenker are (hopefully) a ways off. A long ways off. I'm pretty sure you have to have another interested party to do that, so a long, long ways off.

I didn't quite feel like Thanksgiving, though, partially because it's my first away from home, but mainly because I had no mashed potatoes, and no pumpkin pie. I will give my hosts credit, though. They're Italian, so this isn't exactly their gig. And they had other extremely delicious food, and plenty of wine. I felt I needed to do my part for my family, and did some catching up. I'm pretty sure some text messages were sent to H at the height of my celebrating. And for the first time, I had chestnuts that were roasted on an open fire. Since this is the subject of my favorite Christmas song ever, I thought it was a travesty for it to have taken so long for me to experience this tradition. They were excellent. I'm not even joking. Big Texas and I were even sent home with leftovers, which are already gone. It was a nice diversion from beans and rice while it lasted.

Now, of course, I'm in the Christmas mood. I even think I saw a few flurries this morning! So, I'll leave you with Mr. Nat King Cole, and The Christmas Song. (His is the best version of this song, there's no discussion. And, one of the best Christmas songs of all-time. This is something that I will eventually get to.)

ARG! I've been tagged

Well a couple of days ago, the lovely Heather from Slightly Dramatic tagged me! (not to be confused with my Heather from As the Coffee Brews, which is finally being updated again. I'm pretty sure she will have something to say tomorrow. I promise) Here are the basic rules:

A). Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog...
B). Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself...
C). Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs...
D). Let each person know that they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
**You get it?? --- You got it?? --- [GOOD] --- So here goes:*

1. Believe it or not, I never tasted a drop of alcohol until my 23rd birthday. Not for any particular reason, I just never wanted to. I blame my friend Travis for ruining me. Apparently that night I called him and also blamed society for making me drunk. That damn society.

1b. OK, so that first one was sort of a lie. I did ingest some alcohol in high school, but not the normal, fun kind. For about a week, a friend of mine and I thought we'd be cool if we DRANK Listerine. Not for the alcohol or anything, but mainly because it told us not to, and we thought we'd be tough for doing it. Instead, we were just really, really stupid. And I know if I didn't list this here, KP would call me on it.

2. The most-prized items of sports memorabilia in my collection are (in no particular order): a personalized Roger Craig autographed 5X7 photo saying "To Chris, Be Good," (he's from Davenport, IA, and my uncle knew him and his mom, I've met him a couple times), an autographed Willie Mays baseball card, and a Buck O'Neil autographed baseball.

3. I have a strong desire to someday live in Boise, Idaho.

4. One of (if not THE) earliest memory that I have is from when I was about 3-years-old, being on the beach in Oregon, and getting knocked over by a wave. I can remember crying "The ocean got me!" to my mom, and seeing lots of gulls.

5. My favorite actress of all-time is probably Audrey Hepburn. There was a while there when I had a HUGE crush on her. It was kind of weird.

6. The reason I started playing the saxophone was Lisa Simpson.

7. The first movie that I can remember seeing was a showing of The Jungle Book at a drive-in movie theater. Be jealous.

now, for people that I myself will tag. . .

Of course H is there
As is Lucy
And WhiskeyMarie
Next is Christina
Then Nicole
Errr. . . and anyone else that wants to. I just needed to get my ladies out there first (I feel like some sort of blog pimp now.)

***

Also! Last chance to tell me you're interested in the Great Blogger Mix CD Exchange! I'll be sending out an email soon with more details, so if you want to join in, let me know!

Nothing like getting drunk with Pops

Like I had mentioned before, I went to Wal-Mart a little before midnight on Monday to get the new Madden game for the Wii. I went probably 15 minutes early, and showed up with a line of 8 people already waiting. So I joined them, and made some idle chit-chat with the other members of the line as it grew. When 12 rolled around (it was actually more like 12:03 or 12:04), the employees started handing out the games. I asked for one for the Wii. The guy said "huh?" And I repeated that I wanted the Wii version of Madden '08. He looked around, then said, "uhh, we don't have it."

I replied, "what? Why not?"

"I don't know. It's supposed to be here right now, but we can't find it."

"Well when do you expect to get it?"

"I don't know. . . Either today or tomorrow."

And with that I walked off. I did pick up a copy of Zelda: The Twilight Princess (after waiting about 20 minutes for someone to find the keys to open the case) and a movie for my mom. I'm hoping that those will be my last purchases ever at a Wal-Mart. I try to avoid them as much as possible, but living in Muscatine for the time being doesn't give me much options. For a town of around 23,000 people could have something else. Guess not. Anyways, I'll go someplace next time I'm in Iowa City or Cedar Rapids and get Madden eventually. But I'm having an awesome time with Zelda.

***

Last night was spent at a going away party for a girl that I used to work with here in town, who was currently a pharmacy tech at Hy-Vee with my dad. (the Hy-Vee I worked at in Muscatine, not to be confused with the Hy-Vee I worked at in Iowa City.) My dad was all excited since the place where the party was held had $3 pitchers of beer until 6, so we had to hurry down, and made it just in time. He ordered two, handed one to me, and took one for himself. Now, a pitcher of beer is no problem for me, but it's probably more beer than I've seen my dad drink, ever. He's not a huge drinker, as far as I know. He'll have the occasional glass of wine, sometimes a cocktail, and a wine cooler every now and then, but I don't know if I've ever seen a can of beer in his fridge. So I finish mine up, and he's a little less than 1/3 of the way through his. So, like any good son would do, I helped him out. I was feeling a little buzz, and I'm pretty sure my dad was too. What a lightweight. It was a good time, I met a guy that's going golfing with a few guys that I used to work and occasionally hang out with here in town, so I may join them. Then I was looking forward to making a drunk post here, but by the time I got home (my dad put off leaving for a little while, I'm pretty sure so he could sober up. But we were having a good time, so why leave?), I was basically sober, but tired. And I needed to play Zelda. So sorry about that. Maybe next time.

Hopefully today it won't rain so I can move my stuff up to my bro's place for storing. If I do go, I'll try to take some pictures of my brother's place, or maybe some more of "Chico", or maybe an updated "Brothers Flenker" photo. Until then, I need to go save Hyrule. (And yes, there will be a post in the future about how much the Legend of Zelda video game franchise means to me.)

A trip to Cedar Rapids!

I went to a Cedar Rapids Kernels game last night with Jeff, a newer friend of mine. I met him through H and Bill. They actually met each other (H and B) through Jeff. Jeff met his (now) ex-wife through H. I think Haley got the better end of the deal so far, out of that group. Overall, I got the better end, because I met them all. (Aww Chris, you're such a sweetheart, you're too nice, blah blah blah. I know. I'm awesome.)

Anyways, Jeff and I hit up CiCi's Pizza, a buffet that was cheap and pretty good. They had a macaroni and cheese pizza!! I had to get a slice. It tasted like macaroni and cheese on top of a slice of pizza (there wasn't tomato sauce, I think it was an alfredo-esque sauce). Kind of different, but worth trying. The desserts were the best thing on the buffet: cinnamon rolls, dessert pizza (always a favorite of mine), and brownies. Yum!

After stuffed myself silly, we headed to the game. There was some sort of mix-up with the tickets that Jeff had purchased ahead of time, so we had to stand at the Will-Call desk for a few minutes while the people working tried to figure it out. For those of you not in the Midwest, it's been warm here (mid- to upper-90's), with a ridiculous humidity (80-plus percent). While we were waiting, we were standing directly in the sun at the same time as being sheltered from the breeze. Nothing like sweating profusely while standing still. Eventually it all got sorted out, we found our seats, and thankfully they were in the shade. Still sheltered from the breeze, but out of the blazing sun.

The game went well, the Peoria Chiefs were in town, managed by former Chicago Cub Ryne Sandberg. To us, it seemed like the Kernels should have been getting pounded, the Chiefs were hitting pretty well and getting walked, but a few good plays defensively kept Cedar Rapids in the game. The final score ended up being 4-1 with the Chiefs winning, but it didn't feel that close. It was a fun game, the Kernels' 2nd baseman made a few really nice plays, including throwing a runner out at the plate with a perfectly-thrown ball. It was beautiful. The rest of the team, however, wasn't really making great plays. There was one inning in which two runs were scored without a hit, on a walk and a couple of errors. Single-A baseball, you gotta love it! There was a pretty solid fireworks display after the game, so that was pretty awesome.

Jeff and I had a good time, it was a bonding experience, sharing stories and whatnot. Earlier in the day we had talked about maybe hitting the town and stopping at a bar or two, but we were both too worn out from the day to do too much. I had been up since about 5:45 and worked most of the day, so I really wasn't feeling it. I know, I know, that's weak, I should've drank like a champion. I just didn't have it in me. Besides, I had to save myself for tonight, it's a friend's birthday. Nothing says summer like drinking on a Sunday night!

Quote of the day from Chris Onstad

(This appears as the alt-text for today's Achewood comic strip. I found it humorous.)

Friday Recipe Korner: A spoonful of whiskey for every burden you shouldered in the name of getting the fuck by this week.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Friday, and is getting the fuck by this week.

Downtown Jazz

Well, the weekend was fun. It was Iowa City's annual Jazz Fest, so that along with the beautiful weather we've been having made it a wonderful time.

Saturday was spent at work most of the day, then kicking some ass at tennis in the afternoon. Later, a friend had a party for a good cause, a "Kegger for Cancer", so I felt ok paying $5 to go, even though I'm usually adamantly opposed to that sort of thing. As long as (some of) the money goes towards something like that, I'm alright. After a little bit, my friends and I headed downtown for a little bit, sneaking into a bar to avoid the cover charge, and then getting free drinks for the rest of the night. One of my friends is the manager of a liquor store, so he knows people in all the bars, and drinks for free. So, we do too. Awesome!

Yesterday Jimbo was in the area, so we went out for lunch at El Ranchero. It was an amazing lunch, cheap and delicious. Any time I can go out to eat and get full off of $6, I'm happy.

(note: photo borrowed from the Cedar Rapids Gazette website)

Interspersed throughout the weekend were trips downtown to listen to some live jazz and to eat some wonderful food. Oasis had a stand setup, but I didn't stop there... They were doing plenty of business, and I wanted to eat something that I couldn't get on any normal day. So Friday night I stopped at a place that had gumbo, and was glad I did. With a little hotsauce, it was tasty. Yesterday I opted for some ice cream. Sitting on the grass of the Old Capitol building, eating an ice cream cone, and listening to some excellent free music is something that I will always love. It's also something that I will really miss about Iowa City. (not that Austin won't have plenty of this, I'm sure I could probably do something similar every weekend of the year. But still...)

Another thing I will miss is running into people that I know everywhere. Iowa City's small enough that I can see someone I know almost everywhere I go. Just ask Captain Crab, I think at some point in our adventures he asked me if I knew everyone in town. Almost, Cap'n, almost.

You will thank me for having the song stuck in your head for the rest of the day

So going out and drinking with Captain Crab last night was a blast. Unfortunately, it left me a little brain-mushed today. Not hungover, just unable to think. It was most likely the second vodka martini. Or the second carafe of sake. Or the big beer. Or the Jack and Coke followed by the fruity drink, I don't even remember what it was now. Either way, there were some epic amounts of alcohol drank by a couple of piratin' fools. We even fit sushi in. It was delicious. The Crab told many stories, none of which I could do justice trying to tell myself. He needs to write more often over there at H's blog. Or create his own! I'd read it.

I had a great, great time last night, even if I went undrafted. I'm really happy for Adam Haluska, maybe I'll try to catch a Hornets/Spurs game when I'm in Texas. I'm definitely going to try to go to a Sonics/Spurs game, to see Kevin Durant. Although, that may be the hardest ticket to find, seeing as how Durant was a stud at Texas, I'm sure plenty of people would like to go see him play. I'll have to use my talents at getting into places.

The end of this post is sponsored by Bill Simmons, The Sports Guy, writer at espn.com, on Page 2. This week, his articles have been outta the park, seriously funny stuff. Starting off with a running diary of the NHL Draft, then a chat on Tuesday, and ending with last night's NBA Draft running diary. Anyways, I was reading the chat, and Simmons and the readers sending in questions had an ongoing thing where they tried to come up with the worst possible song to watch a stripper dance/get a lapdance to. Funny enough in itself, right? Some of the songs suggested were great. But my favorite part of the whole chat is as follows:

Mike (Chicago): I would like a lap dance to Rick Astley's "Never gonna give you up".

Bill Simmons: I'm glad you brought this up. When I was in college, we used to go to Papa Gino's for All You Can Eat Pasta night, which was fantastic. Anyway, right when we got there one night, I put $5 into the jukebox and just selected that same Rick Astley song over and over again so that it would play for the entire time we were there. The reactions from the diners were priceless. Every time the song ended, you could see people praying that it wouldn't start again, and then it would. I miss college.

That made me laugh out loud, really hard. Of course I had to look up the video. And so, to finish up, here is the wonderfully amazing video for "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley. Enjoy.

Picture this

I figured that no celebration is whole until pictures are broken out, so this post will be dedicated to a random collection of photos of me throughout the years. Unfortunately the site on which I had a lot of my photos went down, so I'm left with whatever is saved on my computer or other spots online. Sorry. Honestly I'm sorry.

This first set of photos I like to call "Drinking Flenker".

This is me and my friend Travis, obviously drinking in moderation.

And this is the obvious extension of said moderate drinking

Bill and I sipping wine, watching the same program on different television sets

This next set is called "The Scene Stealer"

Showing off the guns (and self-inflicted cigarette burn)
This was the first night that I met Haley. Bill and Jeff also pictured
I don't know more than 3 people in this picture, and don't really recall it being taken

And to show I'm not an alcoholic, some non-drinking photos

The "Shots from Behind"
In Minneapolis with the gang

Walkin' in Memphis with Marin


The "Jim and I Would Make a Good Gay Couple" series

The "I Just Ate an Entire Little Canister's Worth of Nutmeg" photo

Now this last photo may be a little shocking. It was taken over 10 years ago, so just be warned.











You ready for it?

I give you, "Young Flenker"

Milwaukee's Best

Well I made it back from Wisconsin all in one piece, in spite of my best efforts. Actually, there were only a few shenanigans, my only injury came from laying awkwardly on my arm while sleeping on a hotel room floor, causing my wrist and arm to feel just a little off.

KP and I left the rainy weather of Iowa and trekked north to the warm, sunny skies of Milwaukee, our directions ready to lead us. At least, they were supposed to lead us, but a combination of me being confused and hell of construction on a major interstate interchange led to a slight detour and missed turns. Luckily, we were able to find our way and made it to Miller Park. Little did we know that this would just be a microcosm of the whole trip. More on this later.

The game was fun, it was a night honoring the Negro Leagues, so hats from the Milwaukee Bears (not to be confused with the Milwaukee Beers of Baseketball fame) were given away, about 4 or 5 former Negro League players were in attendance, which was pretty awesome, and a traveling exhibit from the Negro League Baseball Hall of Fame was at the park. Unfortunately the line was too long, so we didn't check it out.

Once we got in and settled, we headed to the food stands to accomplish one of our goals: to eat a chorizo sausage. Of course, this couldn't be a simply task. We went to one of the main concession stands and noticed chorizo wasn't listed on their menu, so we asked a lady at the counter where this elusive meat could be found. After a little runaround (at one point someone told us that it was not sold at the park), we found the stand, about 30 feet from where we were standing. We ate a chorizo. I thought it was delicious.

A few innings and a few beers later, we decide to walk around a little, to hit the john and check out the park (the Royals were not playing well, and were on their way to a 7-1 defeat). On our walk, we noticed an intoxicated girl who was in the middle of saying something to her friends, but was looking right at KP and me, and all we heard was "Oh fuck me." We didn't know what that meant, or how it was intended, but we both heard the same thing. Later, while we were walking, we saw the same girl, KP mentioned something to me, the girl heard, and then started following us around, asking me what KP said. I was not sure how to respond at all, but I'm pretty sure I made something up, and then walked away from her. We headed back to our seats, a little confused, and upset that we missed Bill Hall hitting a home run. I was not going to miss the sausage race, though. I was sticking with chorizo, since his cousins had tasted so delicious. Bratwurst had other plans, though, and my chorizo came in a distant 4th, only beating Italian sausage. Pretty soon after that, we decided to hit the road to beat traffic and to head to the wedding reception. But let me tell you one thing: if you ever get the opportunity, go to a baseball game at Miller Park in Milwaukee. The park is beautiful, almost as nice as Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. More importantly, you can watch the sausage race. It's just something you have to witness first-hand.



Our next misadventure was going to the reception. KP had planned ahead and printed out directions from the ballpark to the hotel. Yet again, the construction foiled our plans. We were looking for exit 1H, but there was not a 1H to be found. We took some random exit, and then started driving towards downtown. After driving for a while, we parked in a ramp and asked the attendant for directions to the Hilton. Miraculously, we were only about 2 blocks away.

The reception was a usual reception, but was still a good time. Any time that I can get free beer is a good time. Especially if it leads to me doing a feet-first baseball "pop-up" slide across the dance floor. Twice. And playing a piano in the lobby a little bit. I was able to talk to some friends, and got me and KP a place to sleep, on the floor of one of the rooms that my friends were renting. It was a little uncomfortable, but the price was right.

Today we got up and about, went to the local casino for a few minutes (I ended up winning $5) and decided that we were both too wiped out to go to the game. It wouldn't have been worth it, we were both a little hungover, and just exhausted. So we headed back for Muscatine, listening to the Royals/Brewers game and flipping to the Cubs/White Sox game on occasion.

And then I found $20.

I'm leaving a ton out right now, but really, I need to get to bed. It was a long few days, and I'm feeling like I may pass out on the computer. I'll tell more of the story in a day or two. but for now, I'll leave you with what I have. And, tomorrow is a special day here, it will bring my 200th post, and a week-long celebration. What could I possibly have in mind??? Just wait and see.

The weekend

My weekend started with a visit from Team Dilldahl, aka Bill and Haley (H prefers Bailey Hill, but I'm sticking with this one) on Friday night. They were heading to Chicago, so they drove about halfway and stayed with me, in order to cut down on the consecutive hours on the road. They pulled in a little after 11, and we were all pretty tired, Haley basically walked in the door and immediately sprawled out on my futon, so there were no drunken parties that night. Besides, I had to be at work at 7, and those two wanted to be on the road early, so we just sat around and chatted and eventually went to bed. It was a good time, but could have been better if A) they could've hung out for the weekend and B) if I didn't have to work at 7 the next morning. But any visit is good, I can't really complain.

Saturday was a long day, but fun. Any day that starts at 6 and ends with me passing out on a friend's couch at 2 am is long but fun. My friend Dan from work (you may remember him from this post, he's the other guy pictured with me in the last photo) and I decided that we'd play some tennis after work, then hang out as his place to play some beer pong, and then head downtown for a friend's birthday celebration. We both were at work early, he was there at 6 and I came in at 7, and both planned on taking naps (not together, we're not at that point of the relationship) before tennis. And neither of us napped, yet we still played some good tennis. I won the first set of our best-of-three match 6-3, then lost the next 4-6, but won the third 4-0 (we decided that we needed to cut the match short so the third set was only going to be to 4). We went to our respective houses and showered, then met up at his place. Something that we both forgot to eat something, so our drinks hit us pretty hard, and pretty quickly. It was a fun night. Nothing especially exciting happened, but that's not always a bad thing.

Today was mostly spent bumming around, eating McDonald's twice (which shows how absolutely lazy and disgusting I was feeling today) and not doing much else. My boy Federer lost today, so that always leaves me in a funk. One of these years, he'll win the French Open. He just may have to take out Nadal's knee first. Federer may end up being the greatest all-around players in history if he continues his dominance (this was his 8th straight Grand Slam event final, winning 6 of those, and 10 Slam titles overall), but he'll need to win the French at least once to cement that status. It's unfortunate for him that Nadal is one of the best clay-court players of all time.

That's basically my weekend. Nothing that exciting, but a fun time. Oh, before I forget, for those of you in the first Great Blogger Mix CD Exchange, Marin has sent her mix out, and Heinricy will be very soon. They both want me to thank everyone for their patience. So keep an eye on your mailboxes, there should be a few more tunes heading your way.

Tired

It's been a long day. Last night was spent celebrating my brother's girlfriend's 21st birthday and later me inadvertently nearly destroying my desk. And somehow getting a HUGE bruise on my knee, a pain in my left hand, a scratch across my chest, and just overall soreness. I really have no idea how that happened. I wasn't that drunk, just tired. I'd been up since 8, and had taken some allergy medicine early on in the day, so that probably didn't help. But really, I could have been mistaken for drunk before I left, I was getting words wrong in phone conversations and misspelling everything in emails.

I think just my overall loopiness affected me more than anything. Bill got a couple of drunken calls, so I'll have to hear his report on those before I come to any conclusions on how I was faring. I will say that I was more coherent than anyone else at the party. Which isn't really saying much. (It was rather ominous when I was going up the stairs to this bar only to see another fellow, who had also been celebrating his birthday, being carried down the stairs by a group of his friends. Once they reached the sidewalk, the dude was promptly dropped. Nice guys.) Bill also apparently was the recipient of a text message sent by myself, asking "Why does my thumb smell like teen spirit?" I have no idea what that means, but I vaguely remember waking up and sending it. Again, that was more of an out-of-it thing than a drunken message. Like the times that I've called people in my sleep. Or when others have woken me from my slumbers, and I cannot recall a single part of the conversation. Once I saw the message I had sent, though, I was almost in tears laughing. I can be a funny guy when in a daze, I guess.

Today was mostly spent bumming around again, going to the park and finishing up the mix CD's (they will be in the mail tomorrow!) and reading. Work tonight, though, was hell. Postal rates increased today, and of course we ran out of the 2-cent stamps that make up the difference in the hike. And people were not pleased by that fact. Then I literally got a small garbage sack filled with disposable cameras and rolls of film to be developed. Doing one-hour can be fun, but when it gets boring and tedious, it can make for a long night. Especially when the pictures are from a funeral (I seriously had two separate orders that had casket photos.), it doesn't improve my outlook on the day. Although, I did have some photos of a newborn baby, taken at the hospital. This kid was bringing a strong sack, that's for sure.

Ok, I don't really know if that last paragraph really made any sense. Especially near the end. But once again, I'm having a hard time typing, and my eyelids are having a hard time staying open. I will leave you with a bedtime story that someone suggested that I write, incorporating a mustache, whipped cream, and handcuffs. So here is "Ordinary Nights." (note: this has no basis in any real-life events. This is just me rambling on about a pretty ridiculous premise. Just let me go with it, I'll be finished soon enough.)

It was a Saturday night, and I was sitting at the kitchen table when she jumped me. It was a sneak attack that I didn't see coming, made with such litheness that a cat burglar would have been green with envy. First she handcuffed my arms behind my back, and then secured my legs to those of the chair, rendering me helpless. Then came the whipped cream. She knew right where to put it to annoy the piss out of me: above my lips and below my nose. Yes, I was given a Redi-Whip mustache. Now I love dairy products as much as the next guy, but I have a little trouble when it comes to anything edible coming out of a squeeeze can. And, to add to the embarrassement, I could do nothing about it. Not that I really would have, I was kind of curious as to where this was going, and I really wanted to know what I would look like with a mustache. I gotta say, it wasn't bad. If only I could grow one as full as the whipped cream had been. That is, until it started to melt and run down my face. Once I got a taste of it, I realized that my hatred of all things aerosol may have been unfounded, the deliciousness of it was too much for me to handle. In an epic display of power, I burst through my shackles, leapt up, and grabbed the can. After applying a mustache to my assailant that would have made Magnum P.I. proud, I emptied the rest of the contents into my mouth. Ironically, the whipped cream ended up coming out my nose, giving me another mustache. With our matching mustaches, I grabbed her arm, ran to the window and said "Look at all those stars. It's a beautiful night. . . to sleep! I'm tired. goodnight." And I ran to bed, buried myself under the covers and waited for my mustachioed friend.

I may have lost my focus at the end. I'm pretty sure those are my exact thoughts entering my head, so yeah. Anyways, it's still a solid story, I'll be waiting for my bedtime story writing prize.

nighty night every body. I promise I'll try to have a normal post tomorrow.

Hi Mom!

Today was a bum-around day for me, and I accomplished that with flying colors. Aside from 12-2 today, when I actually was doing work, helping my sister move into her new apartment, I didn't really do much of anything. I played some video game football (I won 2 out of 3 games, I'm bringing SMU back) and grilled out on my own. Then I helped my sister get a wireless card for her computer. I also had a vanilla Frosty from Wendy's. It was delicious.

I guess it's not entirely true, I did get something done today. . . All of my mix CD's are almost ready to go out, I just need to trim up the inserts a little bit and put them in the envelopes. So participants of the Great Blogger Mix CD Exchange, be checking your mailboxes this week for To the Beat of Rock & Roll! (a mix cd). Exciting times ahead, I'm really looking forward to getting everyone's mixes, and I'm really proud with how mine turned out. Something for everyone! Yay!

With tomorrow being Mother's Day, I thought I'd use this to share with everyone how great my mom is. She's great! She takes me and my bro and my sis out to eat, will buy me and my bro beers whilst out (sis is too young still, so I'm sure she's never had a drop of alcohol), and will get drunk with us on occasion. She's put up with me for 26.5 years, the changing of my major 3.5 years into college, and with my occasional need for a little help with the phone bill, rent, etc. She rides a Harley, so that's pretty cool, I guess. She's one of my facebook friends. (yes, I have facebook. I'm sorry. I stopped for a while, but got back into it again. Sue me.) So I just want to use this to say thanks Mom. You're pretty awesome. (I don't think she'll ever actually read this, and I kind of hope not because she'd probably kill me for putting that picture up. That's my step-dad, Bruce, with the goofy grin on his face.)

You sleep while I write this all down

I was given a CD the other day by a coworker, a mix he had made of mostly hip hop songs. I dig them very much. However, there was one song on there that really caught my ear, not exactly hip hop, it has more of an "indie" feel to it, but I instantly fell in love. It will be on the CD I send out for the exchange, so I won't ruin the surprise quite yet (the only hint I will give is that the title for today's post comes from the song's lyrics). But this late arrival may throw things off a bit, I thought I had my mix mostly laid out, now I'll just need to do a little adjusting. Luckily, I'm feeling like a lame-o tonight and don't really feel like going out, even though the beer will be flowing like water. It's a friend's girlfriend's birthday, and she decided to go to a bar which gives a pretty good deal on pitchers for birthdays. Unfortunately, this bar sucks. It's probably my least favorite bar in town. So if you're ever in town and want to go to the Fieldhouse, you can go, just don't count me in. I'd much rather be sitting around my place, drinking beer in my underwear. Much like tonight.

Today's been a pretty good day, I got some stuff done around my place, I did some grocery shopping (so I can finally stop eating out for every meal), played some frisbee golf with a buddy, ate a couple grilled hot dogs, hung out downtown for a little while, came home, drank some beers (it is a great night for a Tom Collins, but I'm going with something sort of similar, Leinie's Summer Shandy), and listened to some excellent music. Sounds like a pretty full day to me! I'll cap it off by doing some reading.

I finished up Timequake about a week ago. It was a great book, and became one of my favorite Vonnegut books. Now I'm reading Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, and already love it, only 30 pages deep. If you haven't heard of it, it's basically about pop culture, stuff like "The Real World" and The Sims and John Cusack. I'd strongly recommend it already, even if I've barely started. I really should do more in-depth reviews of the books I've read recently, I feel like I haven't given both Timequake and An Evening of Long Goodbyes their due props. And they each deserve mad props. So that may be coming in the near future. Not tomorrow, it's going to be a busy day of avoiding anything graduation related, then moving my sister, and then probably drinking at a friend's party. A rough life, that is to be sure.

Fight Night

Yesterday was a long, but rather uneventful day for me. I worked 7-3, which is always nice, it goes by so quickly. After work, I went to Muscatine to take care of my mom's dog for a few hours. While in Mtine, I hung out with KP for a while, switching back and forth between baseball, the Bulls' game (ugh) and the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Good times.

I got back up to Iowa City around 9, and had enough time to fix myself a Tom Collins or two before heading out to watch the De La Hoya/Mayweather fight. The fight went pretty much as I expected, a split decision for Mayweather, neither fighter got hurt or knocked down. But it was a good fight, one of the bigger fights of my lifetime, definitely the biggest for close to a decade. Part of me wants this fight to spring boxing back into the mainstream, but another part of me feels like this is kind of a swan song- unless there's a rematch, there probably won't be a fight that gets people this excited again. Unless the Klitschko brothers fight each other, which won't happen. This fight didn't play out like one that would get the casual fan into boxing, though. It was too defensive, there were few big punches that landed, and no knock downs or knockouts. There were some really excellent rounds. But the first round was a slow start, the fighters just feeling each other out, and I think it was the ninth round was a pretty dull one, as well. I didn't really think it was as close as the scoring made it out to be, but I was cheering for Mayweather, so I could've been a little biased. The fight was thoroughly enjoyed by me, though, I had a good time, and was glad I was able to watch. It helped that it was a friend's birthday so the beers were free, but I think I would've liked it better just getting together at someone's house with a large TV and had a bunch of food and what not, making it to be a Super Bowl-like event. Kinda hard to get other people to agree to that at 10:30 on a Saturday night in a college town, though.

After the fight, I met up with another friend for a little bit, only a couple of minutes, and then went home for bed. It was a pretty non-social weekend for me so far, I was in bed around 10:30 on Friday and 12:30 last night, went to a movie (Hot Fuzz was hilarious, more to come later) by myself, and played some video games and hung out with a dog. And it was pretty excellent, I'm not going to lie.

(PS - A few people have said they're interested in the Great Blogger Mix CD Exchange but haven't sent me their info yet. . . Hint hint Minty and Adam! Anyone else that wants in should let me know ASAP, so I can get the others the info before they start sending their mixes!)

Damn Good Times

I'm sitting here reflecting on a beautiful day in Iowa City, and also on a perfectly mixed Tom Collins, listening to Rock Plaza Central. Times like this make me feel that life is good. After the constant rain that we had during the week (not that I minded), some days of sun and warmth are welcome. I worked 7-3 today, which is not a bad shift at all. Sure I get up early, but it's nothing I can't handle. And the day goes by quickly. Plus, I was working with some good kids, that's always nice. Afterwards, I followed the NFL Draft a little while, took a short nap, and went for a walk. People were out in full force, soaking in the last rays of light, eating in the recently re-opened outdoor cafes of the local restaurants, and just having a good old time. I stopped by Oasis and had a delicious falafel, then came home to chum it up with my roommates. Daren's band, Raccoo-oo-oon, is playing a show tonight, which I will be heading to shortly. I figured a night like this can only be topped off with a cool drink, and what is more refreshing after a warm day than Mr. Collins?

Tomorrow's looking like it'll be a fine day, temps in the 80's, sunny, and not a lick of work in sight. I may hit up the frisbee golf course with my buddy, do some grilling, and maybe try to catch a matinee of Hot Fuzz. Now I'm really living. If I can fit it in, I'll head to Three Samurai to hit up the all-day sushi happy hour. Damn, that is sounding like a mighty fine day. I hope everyone else is having such good times with their own weekends. If not, I'm sorry. I don't want to rub this in your face. But really, I can't help but gloat. My weekend should be put in the Iowa City Chamber of Commerce's brochures about the city. People would come. Just have a picture of me on the front, all smiling with one hand in the "thumbs up" position and the other holding a cool cocktail (umbrella optional, it can be photoshopped in if warranted).

Happy Jackie Robinson Day!

60 years ago today, Jackie Robinson took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers for opening day, marking the first time an African-American played in the modern era of Major League Baseball. I really don't know why he and Buck O'Neil have had such a huge influence on my life; it's not like I can really relate to them that well, being some white boy from Iowa, but they're still heroes to me. Maybe it's just because they're were such big figures in the history of baseball, and therefore are big figures to me. Robinson's former team, the Dodgers, are playing in the Sunday Night game on ESPN, so I've been watching that, listening to Jackie's beautiful wife Rachel tell stories and cheer for the Dodgers in the booth. For some reason, baseball stuff can make me tear up, and tonight was no exception. It's been just a great ceremony and game.

This weekend was fun, my visitors Bill and Haley made it safely and in time for the Hawkeye's spring practice. The weather was almost perfect, only a light sweatshirt was needed when the sun was out and wind died down. The practice went about how I expected, a tense moment occurred when Dominique Douglas (Doug E Fresh or DD from now on in this blog) started limping around, but he came back a little later and made a few outstanding catches. I liked watching Arvell Nelson, as he has become my favorite quarterback, but I doubt he'll get a whole lot of playing time right away, behind Jake Christensen. We shall see what happens, though. Doug E is still my favorite Hawkeye. Todd Lickliter made an appearance and received a very nice standing ovation from the 20,000 fans that showed up to watch a practice.

After the game I introduced my guests to falafel, which was a great success. I was slightly nervous about this, since I had been building it up to them so much, but I don't think they were let down. It was a good time. Thanks Oasis! We then went to a local used bookstore, where I picked up a couple more books that I probably shouldn't have. I got Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut, The Metamorphosis (and Other Stories) by Franz Kafka, and An Evening of Long Goodbyes by Paul Murray. I got that last one because the blurbs on the cover compared Murray to Nick Hornby, one of my favorite writers, and because the cover reminded me of those "Old Spice" commercials with Bruce Campbell. It seems to have been well-liked by critics, so hopefully it'll be a good find. If not, I only paid half-price for it at a used place, so no big loss.

After the book store, we headed down to the Riverside Casino, because Haley really wanted to see it. And who am I to keep someone from new experiences? It turns out I should've kept her from this one, as I got my ass handed to me by a Walt Disney lookalike at the Blackjack table. With spirits and funds low, we decided to head to Buffalo Wild Wings for some food. I was tempted to try for the "Wall of Flame" by eating 18 of the Blazin' Hot wings in 5 minutes, but didn't really feel like spending that much money on the wings. I did sample the sauce, though, and am confident that I can do this. So sometime in the near future, a Polaroid of The Flenker will be on display. (The sauce is hot, I'll give them that. But not debilitating-ly so. And if my little brother can do it twice, that means it's not going to be a problem for me. The only problems I would have [and did last night] is going to the bathroom with the burning sauce on my hands. Not good times.)

We ended the night at BoJames, had a few drinks and a rather enjoyable time, stumbling (literally for H) home and getting to sleep. The morning brought us breakfast at the Hamburg Inn, and then a rushed goodbye as I was heading for work. More time would've been nice, but a great weekend either way.

Well, I'd love to stay and write more, but I'm dog/house sitting for some friends, and I don't want to leave Tucker by himself for too much longer. He's a sweet dog, a miniature dachshund, we've been hanging out most of the night, just laying around and watching baseball. But there's no internet there, and I needed to grab some things from home anyways, so I figured I'd drop a quick note on this here blog of mine. And I would like to welcome Haley's Dad to the scene, I hope he enjoys everything around. Anyone who is a Hawkeye fan is a friend of mine!