I'm really not a crotchety old man yet. I promise.

Yeah, it's been 2+ weeks since I last wrote posted. And I'm ok with that. You know why? Because no one wants to read about me sitting on my behind. There hasn't been much action in the past few weeks (not like there was really much action in the weeks/months preceding that, but I digress), though there has been some plans made for action in the future. Like a January visitor to help celebrate 28, and possibly a springtime trip to New York City. oh, and I'll be getting a dog in a few days.

But I'm still trying to figure out what, if anything, I'll be doing on New Years. Part of me wants to just sit at my place alone, struggle to make it until midnight, and fall asleep. (in actuality, I give this the highest odds of happening.) I'd like to make a trip somewhere, since I now have the 2nd off of work, but don't know where to go. Maybe Tampa for the Outback Bowl, or Chicago to see some friends, or elsewhere. who knows?!

Otherwise, things are quiet here. I have yet to do any Christmas shopping, but have an outline of what I want to get for most people on my list. It will just be a matter of getting the items in an orderly fashion, without inflicting bodily harm upon myself or others during the act of acquiring said items. I would consider doing my shopping online, but I'm getting to the point where I'd have to pay more to get the packages in time.

In sports news, Iowa's Shonn Greene received the Doak Walker award, given to the best running back in the NCAA. I was hoping he'd be invited to the Heisman presentation, but knew he'd have about a 0.3% of winning, since he's not a QB that plays in a league that barely plays defense (I'm looking at you, Bradford and McCoy). The Royals signed Kyle Farnsworth. great. awesome. He can throw 97 mph. And tackle dudes (see video below). That's about it.



Umm, what else. . . Oh, the weather is kind of ridiculous. Monday, it was 60 degrees. Tuesday, we got an inch or two of snow in a decent-sized snowstorm. Last night it was raining, this morning I had a layer of ice on my car (and some on the parking lot, which I found and promptly slipped on), and then the temperature got into the mid-40's. Now there's this forecast for the weekend/early next week


Taken from wunderground.com. Yes, the high is supposed to be 61 on Sunday. And the high on Monday is forecasted to be 16. That's gonna be hell on my joints.

Move over Flying Burrito, there's a new (airline-themed restaurant) sheriff in town

Sweet sassy molassey, I think I had one of the best lunches in a long time today. I met up with my brother and went to Flying Weenie, a hot dog place that also sells gyros and ribs and some sandwiches. I'm so so sorry that I hadn't eaten here yet. It seems like a good place to go eat every day, the people at the counter were so extremely nice, the food was freaking delicious, and the atmosphere was incredible. My brother's been there a number of times, to the point where the lady at the counter knows his name. I'm jealous of him. I want to reach that status.

I had today's lunch special: the "double play," two dogs, with everything on them (onions, sweet relish, kraut, ketchup, mustard, pickle spear, peppers, and tomatoes) with fries and a drink. Holy crap. It was amazing. Travis got the gyro, which looked mighty delicious. I may have to get that next time. There will be a next time.

The decor is awesome, with an airplane sitting on top of the building, and all sorts of flight paraphernalia inside, including an engine block from a plane, some planes made out of soda pop cans, some arcade games, posters, and even a few Beanie Babies that were for sale. The only thing I can complain about is the distance from me. It's not like it's very far from home, only a couple of miles. So really, there's no problem with it.

Except on days like today, where the temperature is hovering right around 32 degrees, the rain is falling, and things are getting icy. But hey, at least the temperature is supposed to continue dropping, and then 5-8 inches of snow fallows! I imagine we may get an inch or two, but 8? I'm skeptical. Nevertheless, I prepared myself to be confined to the house for a day or two. On the way back from lunch, I stopped at the store to get some essential survival goods. Beer and cookie dough. I should be set.

Post about girls

First off, today's music!



The Flying Machines (site | myspace) are a band of Fender-wielding lads from New York City. To me, they sound like if ELO and Queen's illegitimate daughter hooked up with Rivers Cuomo. They've been tearing it up on XM, and have a great, catchy sound that gets your head a-bobbin'. A great band to listen to during a winter that would have had Les Stroud saying "fuck this!" at least twice a week. (note: Les Stroud deserves, and will get, his on post sometime in the near future. That guy is the fucking man. I wish I had a page on Wikipedia that said my occupation was "musician/survivalist.")

I still have no idea how I have yet to totally wipe out, to have my ass hit the ice while I'm walking around. Of course you know now that it'll happen sometime in the next 36 minutes. But I don't know what a tenant is supposed to do to the sidewalks. Shoveling the snow off is nice, but if it's done too well, then there's just a sheet of ice that requires a blade to cross, as opposed to the traditional rubber tread. If no snow is shoveled, then you're up to your balls in snow. Believe me. Over the past week, I've walked in/on/through it all.

On sidewalks where nothing is done, I glance at the house, and shake my head. Places that have been shoveled down to the ice layer, well, I spend too much time trying not to bust my ass to worry too much about it. There were many times when my foot slipped and I let out a high-pitch "woo!" as I regain my balance, and then chuckled to myself as I imagined what I looked/sounded like. A lot of places had some snow still dusted on the ice patches. Those actually were the best places to walk, there was at least some traction, and not enough snow to coat the cuff of my pants. Somehow, I still haven't figured it out, there were a couple of places that had the sidewalks totally cleared! I wanted to go knock on the doors and shake the person's hand that was responsible, maybe even a hug. And, if they had an attractive daughter around my age, I would probably try to court her, because she comes from a good family.

Which brings me to a different topic altogether. Why is it that there are so many girls my age that are married? Sure, 27 isn't "young" young, it's not like I'm 22 anymore. But still, I hate that I'm to a point in my life where I have to glance at someone's hand for a ring. Like today, the cute girl at the mall who sold me a vanilla cream Italian soda. She was really cute, and really nice. And had a wedding ring on her finger. But, it's not like it would have changed anything if she didn't. I still wouldn't have really talked with her. I'm pretty sure she was being nice because she's a nice girl, and because I was the only customer at the time. For a second, though, I thought there was a connection. I mean, I've been looking good lately, the hair is rockin' out pretty hard, and I had even sort of recently shaved. Is it too much to think that a girl is interested? Besides, she may have gotten a better tip if her household didn't have a second income.

I did get hit on last night, though! I got gas, and stopped inside the station for a Diet Dr Pepper, and decided to get a Whatchamacallit bar. The girl at the counter said "ooh, I love these!" I said, "yeah, they're good." She said, "I try to stay away from them, though, they're not really good for you. It doesn't look like you need to worry about that, though," and smiled at me in a strange way. I laughed uncomfortably and left. She might have been kind of cute if she were a few years older and not working at a gas station. And maybe lost like 10 pounds. And if I had about 7 beers in me. She may have had a chance if all those things happened. (Not that I'm picky or anything. I'm not really desperate either, though.) But still, it was a little confidence boost. Though, I could be reading too much into it, she probably just really likes the peanut flavor crisps, along with the caramel and rich chocolately coating.

Well, that's not exactly where I was planning on this post going today, but hey, that works. I feel good about it. And I"m listening to my music recommendation for tomorrow. Also tomorrow, look for an open letter to J.J. Abrams.

This post took 2 days to write. And it still sucks

We're in the midst of a record-setting winter here in Eastern Iowa, over 60 inches of snow, good enough to crack the top-10 all-time winters. This weekend added in anywhere from 5-8 inches, on top of about an inch of ice. Good good times! Which meant that this Saturday, some of us took part in the age-old sport of drunken ice walking to the bars in the freezing rain. Surprisingly, I was one of the few that didn't totally wipe out, just a few close calls. I'm amazing at that game, I guess. I need to try out for the Drunk Winter Olympics.

So I've been working for the past week, just a temp job at the University hospital in Iowa City. I open boxes, connect devices to computers and check them in. For a long time every day. It's extremely mindless and repetitive, but I get paid extremely well to do it, so it's very easy to tolerate. Especially when I can basically wear whatever I'd like (unfortunately, pants are required, I'm still looking for the perfect job where they aren't), and I can listen to my mp3 player. Alas, the job is drawing to a close soon, so gravy train will be pulling to a stop. I should be finding out the KC job soon, within the next couple of weeks. Here's to hoping everything will come up Flenker!! (edit: I started this post a couple of nights ago, but quit to go to sleep. Turns out we finished everything today, so the job is over. It's nice that I'm home now and can sleep in, but it would've been more than $350 for me if we had stayed until we were supposed to be done. Oh well.)

Anyways, with this recent job, I've been staying at a friend's place, who happens to live just under a mile away from the hospital, so I've been walking. I'd like to think it's because of the exercise I'm getting, but really, it's because I don't want to pay the outrageous $14 a day to park at the ramps. The sidewalks were, you guessed it, covered with ice! There were some parts where it was over an inch thick. Yikes! And the snow on the side is probably up to my knees, but there are some spots where the shoveled snow is over my head. Not in parking lots, either, but just the driveways to people's homes. So we've gotten some snow.

Now that I'm back in CR, there will be some real blog posting coming up. The first one will be later today, sometime. Today being Wednesday. Yeah. That was one nice thing about doing a mindless job, I got to sit around and think about stupid stuff all day. Then you guys get to hear about it! O joy of joys!

I definitely need to get myself a new cape

It's snowing. Again. I'm supposed to go to Iowa City to start a job (just a temporary thing for just over a week), but I'm not sure if I should try the roads or not. I already had to help my brother get his car out of the driveway, so we'll see. . . Although, I am looking forward to being in the IC again for a little while, I can go get my falafel on and stop by the Java House. Should be good times!

Today's music suggestion is MGMT!! (I think it's pronounced "management," but then again, when talking about them on XM Radio, one of the DJ's said that it wasn't an abbreviation for anything. So who knows!)



I saw that performance when it first aired, was really into it, then started noticing them more and more on XM. They're awesome. They've kind of got a "retro" feel to them, while still putting out their own style. The version of "Time to Pretend" they played on Letterman is different from the studio version in instrumentation - live it was more guitar-driven, the synth is more prevalent in the recorded version. Both are great, though. There's a video for the song, but for some reason, they turned off embedding for it, so I'll put the link to it here. Be sure to check out all of their songs on their myspace page, and if you like, go buy the album!

Like I said, I'll be working the next few days, but I'm going to do my darndest to get posts up in a timely manner, especially tomorrow. It's a special day around these parts!

Unburied, not in a ditch, ready to go

Eastern Iowa was pounded by a snowstorm for the past day or two, leaving upwards of 16 inches of snow. My brother's vehicular situation is not a good one at the moment (his car is in Iowa City with a bad transmission), so I've been giving him rides to work in the morning. Yesterday morning, that was not happening. We tried, but the snow was up to the doors, the streets were unplowed, and my car was handling like a brick. He decided he could do some work from home. Good choice.




Once the snow finally stopped, sometime in the afternoon, we got out the shovels and attacked before we got too lazy. We both realized how out of shape we are when we both felt like vomiting after about 10 minutes into the shoveling. We finished, but it took a lot of bitching, and a lot of breaks. The rest of the day was spent playing Advanced Wars: Days of Ruin on my DS. It's a freaking awesome game. Everyone should go buy it if they have a DS, if they don't have a DS, they should go buy one of those, and then buy the game.


In my last post, I had mentioned something about using the New York Giants' season as a metaphor for my year so far. You see, the Giants, like myself, had a rough start to their year, losing the first two games in spectacular fashion, and seemingly in total disarray. Much like the way my year has started out (I didn't lose any games per se, but still, I think an almost total disarray is pretty apt). Their third game was looking the same, down 17-3, but then they came back in the second half, and kept the Redskins out of the endzone when they had 1st-and-goal from the 1-yard line. For me, things started to look bad (with the tire and all), but since then, I feel like they've turned around a little bit, I can feel the momentum shifting. From there, the Giants went on a 6-game winning streak, pulling them back into the playoff picture. That obviously means that I will get a great job and meet the love of my life and all will be well. Sure, there might be a rocky spot or two (the Giants were 4-4 over their last 8 regular season games, including a real stinker vs the Vikings), but that happens. And once that passes, it'll make things that much better. Although I think it means that I'll find eternal bliss with less than a minute remaining in 2008. But hey, it might be worth the wait.

Bust out the champagne -or- You got no fear of the underdog, that's why you will not survive

I just made it back to Cedar Rapids after a pretty intense drive from Davenport. I went to D-port to watch a football game with my dad, and while I was there, a blizzard sprung up and dumped about 6 inches of snow, 8 inches in Iowa City. So, I thought it'd be best if I stayed the night and left early enough the next morning to miss freezing rain that was supposed to come today. As luck would have it, I left just in time to be driving through the worst of it. Nothing like going 30 on the interstate during a thunderstorm, lightning and all, with rain, sleet, and snow falling concurrently. Falling very hard. Add in semis passing, doing about 70 and throwing even more shit onto the windshield, and you have an adventure. I understand that they're getting paid to get stuff to its destination on time, but when there's a nasty-ass storm, and EVERY CAR ON THE ROAD is going about 40 mph below the posted limit, I think you gotta be a little more mindful of others. Then there are the SUV drivers that think their vehicles can ignore the road conditions. It's strange how those types of vehicles were the ones I most frequently saw in the ditch (I counted around 34 cars in ditches. Although I gave 2 pointsfor a semi I saw, and another 2 points for watching an SUV that had just passed me go in). I made it, though, for all the troubles my car has given me, it's never had any problems in the

As some of you may have heard, there was a little bit of a football game last night. I may go as far as to say it was one of the greatest NFL games I've ever seen that didn't involve the 49ers (the All-Time #1 football game of any level for me is still, and always will be, Iowa's 30-25 victory over LSU in the 2005 Outback Bowl). The only way it would have been better is if I actually liked the Giants. But, my dislike of the Patriots was enough to overcome that.

It was a defensive game, I loved seeing Tom "There's no Way We're Scoring Less Than 17 Points" Brady getting leveled time and time again, and then missing wide open receivers. But, what I liked even more was watching former ISU Cyclone defensive back Ellis Hobbs getting absolutely torched on the game-winning touchdown by a Big-10 player, Plaxico Burress, who had made a prediction that the Giants would win 23-17. Brady had laughed at that, saying that he wasn't giving the Patriots enough credit, that he should've said something like 45-42. Look who's laughing now! (I've always liked Plax, from when he basically single-handedly beat Florida in the Citrus Bowl, then I got him on my fantasy team his rookie season). Plus, it was great to see Eli Manning outplay Brady. His play on 3rd and 5 on the last drive will go down as one of the biggest plays in NFL history, and will probably have its own nickname (like The Immaculate Reception, The Catch, The Catch II, The Music City Miracle, and 4th and 26, to name a few). Maybe The Escape. That's what I'm going to push for. If you missed it, turn to ESPN any time this week, you'll probably see the play within 45 seconds.

I'm sorry Charczuk, I know this is all probably pretty painful for you. I wouldn't really know, since my team has never lost in a Super Bowl. And the year they went 18-1, they won the Super Bowl. I did think it was hilarious that in ESPN's crawl across the bottom of the screen, it said something like "Patriots - 3rd team in NFL history to finish 18-1 (49ers 1984, Bears 1985)." I wish it would've said something like "49ers and Bears both won the Super Bowl." Last night just proved my thinking that this year's Patriots weren't the best team in NFL history. I still give that to either of the other 18-1 teams, but I would say the 9ers team was the best. They lost one game (by 3) and DESTROYED the Dolphins in the Super Bowl. Plus, they had the real best-QB and best-WR ever, Joe Montana and Jerry Rice.

One last quick thing, my interview went well this past week, I'll find out in the coming weeks if I'm hired or not. I'm excited about things, I even thought of a good metaphor using the Giants' season this year, but I'll save that for the next post. Until then, stay safe in this winter weather Midwesterners! And hey, why not everyone else stay safe, too!

Here we are, as in olden days

It was almost feeling fall-like around Texas the past few days, the lows overnight were below freezing, and the highs only into the lower 50's! Of course now it's going to warm back up and stay in the 70's for the next week, so Austin's streak of non-white Christmases will extend. Since records have been kept in 1926, there has never been a white Christmas here.

I will be having a some snow on my Christmas, though. I'll be heading back north to Iowa one week from today, and sticking around for a week. I'm really looking forward to it, to see family and friends, and to sleep on an actual bed. I've even almost got some Christmas shopping done! I'm having a couple issues, though. I've been looking in used book stores for a few books, obviously, but can't seem to find any that I want, at a price I'd want to pay. I mean, it's awesome to find a first edition copy of Vonnegut's God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, but if I'm at a discount book store, chances are I'm not wanting to spend $25 on a single book. Although, I was able to overhear some guy telling a girl the differences between Eastern and Western vampires, their eating habits, how they slept and hunted, and all sorts of stuff. That was pretty awesome. As well as informational! Then, at another store, I saw a kid carrying a handful of books by the author I was looking up, effectively cleaning out the store of his books. Thanks a lot jerkoff! I hope you get a paper cut.

Some shopping was accomplished, though. I won't list the gifts I've purchased on here, since I'm not sure who will or won't be reading between now and the unwrapping, but I'm pretty happy with how things are going so far. If I could only figure out what to get a 19 or 20 year-old girl, I'd be set. It was a while ago since I was that age, and when I was that age, I didn't talk to girls, so I don't remember, and probably never even knew what they liked back then, let alone these days. I'm sure I'll come up with something, even if it's a bottle of barbecue sauce, straight from Texas!

I'm going to try to do something this week, being the week before Christmas and all. I'll put up one of my favorite Christmas songs each day, since I love Christmas music (those of you in the Great Blogger Mix CD Exchange should be finding that out!). I've already had a couple up, first Nat King Cole's "The Christmas Song," then "O Holy Night," as featured on Studio 60. The song I'm putting up today comes from the Midwest, Omaha specifically, from Conner Oberst and crew.

Bright Eyes - "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"

Enjoy it, and check back for tomorrow's song!

Yep, seems about right.

Today started off innocuously enough, I was able to sleep in, then lounge around a little while before I had a job interview. I made it there on time, missed the turn the first time but had enough time to loop around and find the place. I was looking like the money, wearing a decent button-down shirt and tie, some slacks and nice shoes. The interview was fine, just the preliminary stage of their hiring process. I'm not sure it's a job that I want, but it would be a start. And who knows, I may not get hired anyways, so whatever.

Anyways, I turned in a couple applications, changing from the shirt and tie to a sweater over the shirt, sans tie. A little more casual, if you will. This fits in later.

I decided to stop by a bookstore, both to turn in an application (because I think working in a bookstore would be amazing), and to buy a new crossword puzzle book. After the transaction, I headed to my car, making plans to stop and get some sushi, kind of enjoying the dapper look I was sporting. Then, much to my chagrin, I realized that my keys were not in my pocket. They were sitting on the passenger's seat. I called everyone that I knew in Austin, and when she didn't answer (get it? I only have one friend here! Ha!), I started walking. Luckily, this place is only about 2 miles from my apartment, so it wasn't too bad. And also, it was a beautiful day, around 77 degrees. Stupidly, I left my sweater on for most of the walk, not realizing that I could take it off and carry it with me. I guess I was too engrossed with my Jamba Juice that I got to cool myself off (with the energy boost, of course) and the copy of The Onion that I had picked up. When a couple drops of sweat hit the paper, I wiped my brow with the sleeve of my sweater, the one I was still wearing, not connecting the two at all.

I made it back to the apartment, got a spare key from the office and got my spare car keys that I miraculously remembered to bring with me to Austin, and made it to the bus stop with perfect timing to catch a ride to the Arboretum, where my car was parked. Why didn't I take the bus to the apartment in the first place? I'm pretty sure it would've taken about the same amount of time, since the bus would have to make almost an entire loop before getting back to my apartment, it just seemed really inefficient to me. Plus, the exercise was nice.

So, this just adds to the past month I've been having: with my bank screwing up one check deposit - not once, but twice; working at a job that I don't really like, not being able to find a job that I do like, having computer issues, and just being in a generally grumpy mood.

As stupid as it sounds, I think the weather is having an adverse effect on me, it's too nice. I see the weather back home getting snowy, and I miss it. I want big flakes of snow to fall here. I want the ice storms. I miss them. And ever since I've gotten here, Austin has had unseasonably warm temperatures. When I first got here, everyone was saying that it was such a mild summer, it never reached 100 degrees. But then, there have been record highs each month that I've been here. And I can't find it now, but I thought that I heard the average temperature for each of the past 3 months (September, October, and November) have all been record highs. Guess when I moved? Yep, early September. I bring the hotness. On the news, they always say how a "huge cold front" is going to be coming through, then the temperatures drop to the mid-60's. Which is almost perfect for me, but people here freak out. Or it misses us entirely. (we have another "front" coming through this weekend) I know all three of my readers, who all happen to be extremely, extremely far north of me, are cursing my audacity to be pissed about warm weather. H has many times, each time that I bitch to her about it being too warm here, when she's wearing gloves while she's inside her office, working.

Wow. Sorry, I didn't mean to make this a diatribe on the weather. But be sure to tune in next week when I bitch about how the Dr Pepper here tastes too good.

Quick edit/addition:

I almost forgot the best part to the whole story!! While I was walking home to get the spare set of keys, I got a call from a place to which I had applied earlier in the week! I explained that she had caught me "out on a walk," but talked with her a little while. It was for an elementary music "permanent sub" position (I think covering maternity leave), which would've been fun. By the time I had gotten home, I had already received an email from her, saying that she had found someone else with more experience. I thought I should throw this in, just to add to the mood.

Shed a tear for the baseball season

There's still time for people to join up in the Great Blogger Mix CD Exchange: Round 2! Leave a comment or email me if interested. And if anyone else out there with a blog wants to promote the exchange, feel free! I'll probably give it another week or so, then I'll contact everyone who responded.

Anyways, I've been in a little funk lately. I don't know why exactly. . . Things on the job front are coming along, I've had a few interviews, one offer, and a couple more prospects. So this time next week, at the latest, I will have a job. The weather has been damn near perfect, in the 70's with little to no wind, no clouds, just sunny, beautiful days to enjoy. I've been sitting outside and reading, but, unfortunately, I don't really have any destination to which I can walk. Unless I wanted to go to Joe's Crab Shack (which I will sometime, I've never been to one, but it can wait, I'm sure). I've made some friends, been hanging out with a couple of people, so that's going well. But there's still some sort of nagging feeling that just won't go away, not quite an unhappiness, but not exactly a contented feeling. I think I have a case of the blahs. Maybe it's from sleeping on an air mattress. I think that'll do it. I'm looking forward to going home for Christmas, mostly because I'll be able to sleep on a bed.

I've decided on a Halloween costume! It may be a little too late, a lot of people went out and hit the town in their costumes this past weekend, but I think the biggest night will be Wednesday. And I'm not really planning on going out and getting wild that night, but I may meet up with some friends just to people watch. And, if I hand out candy, it'd be fun to be in costume. I won't say here what I'll be yet, you'll have to wait for the pictures. . . I'll just say I picked up my main components today, a suit (from Goodwill) and some hairspray. Stay tuned.

I suppose I should mention something about the World Series. . . I was able to watch (most of) every game, keeping my streak of catching at least one inning of every Series game for as far back as I remember. I'm disappointed that the Rockies lost, more so that they were swept. Plus, I didn't want to see the Red Sox win again. The good news is that everyone in the country gets a free taco from Taco Bell. (Whether or not that is actually good news is debatable. I'm pretty sure that the "meat" they use is also used as an anti-tank weapon. But hey, from 2pm-5pm on the 30th, you can get one free taco! If you think I'm not going to eat one, you don't know me very well.) Then there was the not-so-subtle commercial for Taco Bell, in the Red Sox's dugout.



Why in the hell would Royce Clayton be miked-up? Was he being payed by Taco Bell to go around and talk to all the players about the deal? And why would he tell Ellsbury that he had to steal a base, and then he conveniently did in the next game. . . I'm sure there's some sort of conspiracy here, and I'll get to the bottom of it.

There are also some people upset at Alex Rodriguez for announcing that he'll opt out of his contract with the Yankees during the World Series, but I really don't blame him. I blame his jerkass of an agent Scott Boras. Boras is a major contributing factor to the problems in Major League Baseball. I can't blame a player for taking a $30 million a year deal. I'd do it in a second. It's a business, after all. But I think that agents like Boras are driving the salaries up. The other side of the problem is that the owners are willing to pay the price. It should make for an interesting off-season, though. Especially with the Mitchell Report looming. . . (for those who may not know, that is the report that supposedly names a huge number of players implicated for using steroids or HGH. Honestly, I don't think it will do too much. Sure, it'll be huge in the beginning, but by the time the season rolls around, it will have died down. It'll be interesting, though, to see how people react. I can't wait for all of the people who have publicly slammed Barry Bonds to try to backtrack and defend their favorite player. Or to see if people think that the World Series titles won by the Red Sox should have an asterisk next to them if someone like David Ortiz or Manny Ramirez appears on the list. Or the Cardinals with Pujols.)

Man, I just thought of something. My 3 least-favorite teams have all won the last 4 World Series - Red Sox (twice), Cardinals, and the White Sox. damn

Well, that's enough of a rant from me! I should be heading to bed anyways. Of course, I don't know if I'll be able to sleep, I may be too excited about getting that taco!

Soup's on! (the latest Flenker Photo Story)

The weather finally took a trip down the thermometer here in Texas! Instead of approaching the 90's as we had been over the weekend, Monday it barely got into the 60's! Today it was a little warmer, but windy as hell. I would venture to say that if it weren't for the wind, today would have been a perfect day, weather-wise. Although, I must admit, I did love the almost chilly weather we had Monday. It was hilarious to see what people where wearing here. I donned my trusty brown jacket (featured in a few photos here, as well as off to the right, in that little picture up there) and jeans. Other people looked like they were preparing to go on an expedition with Sir Robert Shackleton. ([yay for Antarctic explorer references! Though to be fair, he is my favorite explorer of Antarctica. Way better than Robert Scott.) Any time I can wear my jacket, I'm happy. Some people call it a "track jacket." I call it an attractive jacket. (Damn, I was hoping that'd work better. Maybe if I said it aloud. nope. not any better. Now Big Texas will wonder why I'm talking to myself.)

Since the weather had gotten colder, I thought it would be the perfect time to try out a new recipe, from a brand-new recipe book Marin sent me from New Orleans! And while this wasn't a very Cajun-style recipe, it was damn delicious, and great for a cool day. Since no one could sample it, I figured I'd do the next best thing: take a bunch of pictures of me preparing it, then post them to my blog! So, without further ado, here is the latest photo story, Flenker-touille.

The star of the show, Marty "nobody calls me a" Chicken! (yes, I named the chicken. And I may have made voices for my different ingredients, including a homophobic can of corn named Rodney, and Steven the onion.)

I chop a mean garlic

Steven never stood a chance. (yes, I know the garlic is un-chopped here. An editor has been fired for this continuity error.)

Steven's remains are unceremoniously tossed into the pit

This looks like an artistic shot, but really, I'm just looking for something to add to the soup. And yes, I occasionally wear a hat while I cook.

And a Miller Lite shirt. At least I found the pepper grinder.

Marty is feeling like he's had better days. He doesn't even know the half of it. . .

Oh no! He shouldn't have been snooping around, trying to find out what happened to Steven. And he was only 2 days away from retiring!

The final resting place.

Dished up

That's right

I was pleased with how the soup turned out. As you can tell by the final picture. Not bad for my first effort, and it leaves me with LOTS left over for the rest of the week. Awesome! And in case you missed the other photo stories, you can find the first one here, and the second one here!

One last thing, be sure to check back in the next day or so. It will be the return of a couple of Big Ideas. . .

A bit of wind

2 tornado warnings in the past 3 days were fun, especially since I was at work. We herded all of the customers to the back room, and handed out cookies and water while we waited for everything to pass over. A friend of mine and I just kind of wandered around the empty store checking things out. Monday was nothing really, just some strong winds and a reported touch-down somewhere, but not much threatening Iowa City. Yesterday, however, was some pretty intense weather, I was outside watching and saw a huge wall cloud come through, and felt the much cooler temperatures and strong winds that came with it. I didn't see any funnel cloud or rotation or anything, but some friends said that they did, but no reports of anything touching down. Still a kind of exciting time. Today, finally, the weather is beautiful, so I'm going to enjoy it tonight as much as I can.

Other than that, nothing has been going on around here of any note. I've been playing a lot of the new NCAA football game, and love it. I had some wonderful sushi today, and have been running/walking almost daily (when I can between the raindrops). This weekend I'm heading to a party I'm co-hosting at my brother's place here in town, but other than that, nothing exciting on the horizon until the Bix on the 28th. I need to get my ass in shape, or at least to a point where I won't want to vomit after running 7 miles.

Anyways, that's about it for now. Just thought I'd let everyone know that I'm still kicking it in Iowa City, just livin the dream.

I'm pretty sure this post cements my "dork" status

Rain today and yesterday prevented my morning runs, much to my chagrin. Yesterday it was a thunderstorm, today just a normal rain shower, so I probably could have gone out today. I just don't want to get my new shoes soaking wet in the first week of owning them. Plus it gives me an easy excuse to not go out and run. Plus, I'm in day 6 of 7 in a row of work, so I'm feeling a little lazy when I'm at hom.

NCAA Football 2008 came out last night at midnight, and of course my brother and his roommates went and picked it up. (This was all after the storm died down a little bit. There was a point last night when I was questioning whether we'd get together for it or not, since I'm pretty sure my oxen weren't going to be able to ford the river that sprang up where Gilbert Street used to be. Luckily for me, we persevered.) I stayed back at the house with a few other guys while they ran out to the store, so we were sitting around and talking when we notice a vehicle get pulled over right in front of the house. I say "there's no way that's them." Apparently, there was a way that was them. We tried to think of a way to get the game from the car while they were waiting for their ticket (for running a yellow light. . . come on!) to be written, but didn't really come up with anything that didn't end in someone getting tasered or tackled by the cop. So we just sat and the porch and made comments to ourselves. Which was really just a way to hide our concern of everyone in the car getting arrested, everything getting confiscated, including the game. I don't know if we could've handled a loss like that. Fortunately, everything worked out for the best (well, except for Jake, who was driving. This is going to be one of the most expensive video game purchases for him.), and we got to play the game. At least sort of. We've only done the recruiting before the season, so we haven't actually played a game yet. Or I should say I haven't played a game yet, I left around 2 am, I'm sure at least two people stayed up to play.

In entertainment news, I saw Transformers this past Sunday. It was freaking sweet. Now Transformers were a large part of my childhood, both the toys and the cartoon, so this was a nod to that time. But seriously, there were gigantic robots fighting! How could that be bad? And Megan Fox is pretty hot. (Insert joke here about last name being Fox.) Plus, I really wanted to buy a new Camaro. There's like a 30-minute section that's basically a commercial for it, which I was fine with. It's a sweet looking car, even if it doesn't really exist yet (from what I've gathered, it was the body of an '09 Camaro, but it was grafted over a new GTO. Let it be known that GTO's are also freaking amazing cars). I can't remember the last time I really had to fight the urge to stand up and cheer during a movie, like when Optimus Prime first appeared in the form of a semi. The action was pretty good, I could've done with less humans and more robots beating the crap out of each other, but it's fine. Good times. This movie gets 4 Flenker Thumbs-Up!

It's a celebration bitches!

Happy 4th of July, my fellow Americans! I hope everyone's weather is as beautiful in their cities as it is here. I just finished up grilling some sweet corn and a few Johnsonville brats (hot and spicy ones, if you're a fan of food you should try them), and have the whole afternoon ahead of me. I'm really looking forward to the fireworks tonight. I don't know why, but I love me some fireworks. I'm like a little kid when it comes to these sort of things. Last year, I was in Washington DC for the 4th, and, as you may imagine, they put on a pretty decent show. Watching the fireworks from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial as they are being shot off over the Washington Monument is almost overwhelming. Especially with an estimated 500,000 people watching in the Mall. It's quite the scene, if you ever have the chance to go, do it!

(this is footage from last year's fireworks in DC. Not taken by me, this guy's a little closer than we were, but it was still impressive)

Apologies to my Canadian readers for not wishing them a joyous Canada Day, I hope all went well!

Speaking of Canadians, congratulations to Jad for surpassing 10,000 hits! I know I've supplied my fair share of those ticks on the counter, but that is a rather impressive stat! Keep it up man, and everyone keep his counter rolling!

And also a hearty congrats to Joey Chestnut, winner of this year's Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Competition. Chestnut ate an astounding 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes. 66! He takes the crown from Takeru Kobayashi, who had won the past 6 years' competitions. Mad props Joey, mad props.

Well, that's it for me! I hope everyone has a fun and safe celebration, we don't need any missing fingers or eyes put out or parts of thumbs cut off, and we don't want anyone to try to tackle 67 hot dogs in 12 minutes. That would not end well.

Happy 4th everybody!

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.

Eat fresh (assuming fresh means soaked in vinegar and on kind of stale bread)

Some pretty intense thunderstorms came through Iowa City last night, and showers continued until sometime this morning, so tennis was not played. Which was fine with me, we were going for a 9 AM start time, and I'm not sure if I would've been functioning that well at that time. I was up way too late watching/listening to the storms, so I didn't get much sleep. Sleeping in until 10:30 definitely helped that out, though.

I've been trying to eat more at home instead of going out for food, both to save money and eat healthier foods. Not that falafel is unhealthy, but double cheeseburgers are. So for the past few days I've cooked up some ground turkey that I had in the freezer, and made various dishes with it. With the first pound, I just put it on sandwiches (toasted Jewish Rye bread is AMAZING) with some sauteed mushrooms and a little bit of mayo. These were surprisingly good, and very filling. Today I made some noodles, tossed them in olive oil, and then added the ground turkey with some more sauteed mushrooms. (I've been going through kind of a mushroom kick, too.) I feel that these are at least semi-healthy, granted the mushrooms are cooked in butter, but the turkey is lean, and noodles are always good for you, unless you're on some stupid low-carb diet. (disclaimer: low-carb diets are not necessarily stupid. If you're on one, good for you!) So that's basically what I've been eating lately, and I feel pretty good about it.

Dinner last night was Subway with my dad. One of the worst Subway experiences I've ever had, neither of the girls working gave the impression that they knew what they were doing, and seemed less "Sandwich Artists" than "sorta dumb girls handling my food". I asked for a little vinegar and oil on my sandwich. The girl putting it together did ok with the oil, but paused for a split second in one spot while applying the vinegar, so I had a rather strong-tasting spot. Not really a great surprise. For both our order and the guy's order before us, there was a lot of confusion at the register as to how to properly ring up the food. Don't they have buttons for these things? (Although I will admit that we just got new registers at my job, and I'm struggling to catch on. All of the numbers changed and everything, and they have touch-screens now that are hyper-sensitive so it sometimes registers a button when the finger is hovering above it. Kind of a neat trick to do sometimes, but it gets frustrating when you don't intend to do it. One guy, an 82-year-old who had been the longest-tenured employee in the whole company, worked at our store, but quit this week expressly because of the new registers. These Subway registers, however, were your standard generic cash registers.)

Now, I'm going off to say hi to my mom since she's working today. I don't think I've seen her since Mother's Day, even though she works here in town about 3 days a week. So I'm off, probably for the weekend. Hope everyone has a good one.

Yay for videos!

It just rained here for about 5 minutes, pretty hard, but right now the sun is out. Iowa weather, you gotta love it!

Most of this past weekend that I spent at my place was spent on YouTube, watching all sorts of videos. So this week, I'll share some with you, maybe one or two a day or every other day or something. I won't stop the normal posts, so you'll be able to get the side-splitting and sometimes introspective writing that you've come to know and love. I just wanted to share videos that I've come to really like with everyone else.

The first video is from the late 60's/early 70's, from the band Vanilla Fudge, and their song "You Keep Me Hanging On." These guys are so rad, the lead vocalist/keyboard player is really into it, the drummer is a stick-twirling machine, the guitarist has a sweet jacket and an even sweeter white-fro, and their bass player is just kind of ridiculous (I think he's got sort of an Alton Brown look going for some reason). They're all impeccable dressers. I really appreciate how much they put into their performance, just laying it all out on the line. Plus, the break-down at the end of the song is pretty epic. I dig it, and I hope you do too.



That's it for this video post. The next one will be a very special treat for Hawkeye fans, or for those of you who aren't yet Hawkeye fans but want to be, or for those who associate me with the Hawkeyes (I'm looking at you Lucy!) or just fans of really awesome stuff. So look forward to it!

More like "Awesome Blog Advisory", amiright?

Naps are awesome. I had been up since 6 this morning, after not sleeping very well at all last night, mainly thanks to Jim calling me at 2:45 a.m. to explain to me the phenomena of cell phones, and how they work. I didn't answer, and was a little curious why my voice mail notification didn't sound right away. Then, 3 minutes later, right was I was starting to drift off again, it beeped at me. I thought something must've just gone a little screwy with the phone and caused a delay but no, it was a 3-minute long message. It was well worth being woken up to hear a message in the morning about towers and being able to walk around or even drive while you're on the phone. I love my friends.

So, as I was saying, naps are awesome. I laid down around 4 and started falling asleep, when it suddenly started raining, kind of out of the blue. I guess maybe out of the gray would be more appropriate. There was no rain in the forecast whatsoever, only the token 10% chance of precipitation. It was shocking, and made me want to lay there and watch it come down. But after a few minutes, sleepiness won out and I was in dreamland. And it was marvelous. Until I woke up and saw it was 5:30, and was totally disoriented and not sure whether it was AM or PM. I took a few moments to kind of come to my senses more, and gather my wits (not that there's really much there to gather).

We in Eastern Iowa are currently under a "Air Stagnation Advisory." I don't really know what that means, but I don't like the sounds of it at all. According to the National Weather Service (and I quote)

THE IOWA DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES HAS ISSUED AN AIR QUALITY ADVISORY FOR THE STATE OF IOWA. OZONE AND FINE PARTICULATE LEVELS APPROACHING ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY HEALTH STANDARDS WERE PRESENT OVER MOST OF IOWA EARLY SATURDAY MORNING. WINDS ARE FORECAST TO INCREASE SUNDAY WHICH WILL CAUSE ELEVATED AIR POLLUTANT LEVELS TO DISSIPATE.

THE DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES RECOMMENDS THAT IOWANS WITH RESPIRATORY OR HEART DISEASE...AND ELDERLY AND CHILDREN LIMIT PROLONGED EXERTION UNTIL AIR QUALITY CONDITIONS IMPROVE.

AN AIR STAGNATION ADVISORY INDICATES THAT DUE TO LIMITED MOVEMENT OF THE ATMOSPHERE ACROSS THE ADVISORY AREA... POLLUTION WILL INCREASE TO DANGEROUS LEVELS. IF YOU HAVE A RESPIRATORY ILLNESS... FOLLOW YOUR PHYSICIANS ADVICE FOR DEALING WITH HIGH LEVELS OF AIR POLLUTION.

so that seems pretty awesome. Dangerous levels of pollutants in the air. Sweet! The only thing I've really noticed has been my allergies being a little more active today, which is always a good time. Not. This could explain why, even though it rained, it is still pretty miserably humid and hot and just uncomfortable to be outside. Oh wait no, that's the status quo for Iowa in the summer. My mistake. But what is this world coming to when there is an Air Stagnation Advisory in freakin Iowa? LA I could understand, I still have the standard-issue oxygen tank I was given by the Visitor's Bureau from when I traveled there a few years ago. But this is the heartland, the amber waves of grain (actually here it's corn, but who's counting) and all of that, we're not supposed to have pollution issues, are we? Or am I just ignorant to the situation? As far as I can remember, we haven't had such an advisory, but then again, I don't always pay attention.

One last thing, here's a link to the article my friend Bill wrote about Paul Shirley that I mentioned the other day. It's a good read, if you can make it through the crappy formatting. I don't know what the deal is with that. He emailed me a copy that was laid out very well, with paragraphs and everything, so I don't know why it's not the same on their website. Oh well, that's Ames for you.

The incredible, edible potato

Today's been rather productive so far, a stark contrast to yesterday. I've already showered, got one load of laundry done, another going, I went to the bookstore and purchased a couple of books (Running With Scissors and Death and the Penguin, at the used book store for a total of $12.05!), went for a bike ride, and have my attempt at some English-style "chips" in the oven. It's barely even noon! I really should have headed to the gym this morning like I was planning, but I still feel ok about how my day has gone so far. I still have a couple of hours until work, so who knows what else could get done! Maybe I'll put my clean clothes away instead of piling them on my bed, only to have them pushed to the floor when I'm ready to sleep. We'll see, I don't want to go overboard.

It's another beautiful day in Iowa City, I think the city is just really making a push for me to stay here in town come fall. A couple of friends of mine are doing the same, and as much as I like them and love this town, I think it's time for me to go either way. I mean, I can't pass up an opportunity like this, I feel like if I do, then I'll never really have another chance. Not that it would be a bad thing to stay here, but there's so much stuff out there that I need to check out. I just need to remember that when I'm constantly second-guessing myself.

Update on the potatoes: first batch is out, and tastes delicious! They're nice and soft inside, with a little bit of a crispy outside. I cut the potatoes into wedges, almost like home fries, then boiled them for about 5 minutes and immediately placed them into cold water. I let them soak in the water for a few minutes, then quickly dipped them into egg whites and stuck them into the cast-iron skillet that I had put a little peanut oil into and preheated to 350 degrees. Into the oven they went for about 10 minutes, then I turned them, tossed on a little salt, put them back in, and waited. After a quick walk to the gas station to redeem my free cap for a 2-liter of DDP, I took out the skillet, and let the wedges rest on a paper bag, to let them cool and to let some of the oil drain. I ate some of them alone, some with balsamic vinegar, and of course a couple with a little ketchup. I can't really say which way I liked them the best, they were all good. Dang, aren't potatoes amazing?

Well, that's about all from me for right now. I think I'm going to just sit around and read until work, I've got quite the queue adding up for my reading. So until next time, have a splendid day.

As long as I know how to love I know I'll be alive

H just called and sang me a wonderful rendition of "I Will Survive," but not quite as lovely as when I sang it to Bill last September. Like I say, two of the best words in the English language are "Open Bar". Maybe not the best words ever, I could think of some more I'd like hearing, but they're definitely up there.


This weekend in Iowa City is the Arts Festival, an event that takes place the first weekend in June (I think. . . I could be making that part up. It's always around then, though), where art vendors from all over the Midwest set up shop outside, on the closed off streets of downtown. Also, a couple of stages are set up, and live music is performed basically all day. Last year the performers included Ben Lee and Nickel Creek. All for free! This year didn't quite have the name-recognition, but that's a-ok, by me.

What wasn't ok with me was that I worked 9-5 yesterday, then had to work 7-3 today. I was a good boy and didn't go out and do anything last night and was in bed rather early, in spite of the beautiful weather at night and music drifting into my window from the festivities. I probably could have gone out for a little while, but I know that I would have had a hard time leaving. So I stayed in, biding my time until I could go today, after work. Of course it rains today, after work. But not until I'm already out walking around. It was a nice rain, though, not unpleasant to walk through, but still put a damper on some of the fun times. On the bright side, I didn't spend any money on food! Instead I made some black beans and rice burritos, with some Monterrey Jack cheese and a little fresh cilantro. They turned out very well, it's amazing how something so simple can be so delicious. I shared them with Daren, who returned from his tour today. We sat around and chatted a little while, but then I needed to go cheer the Cavaliers onto a victory tonight. Mission accomplished.

Really, it doesn't make for that interesting of a read. But that's how my day was, and I'll be darned if it wasn't fine. Maybe tomorrow I'll feel like writing some more. I actually kind of feel like writing more tonight, but can't seem to focus on any one topic, so I'll just pack it in and try again tomorrow. For now, I'm going to eat some ice cream, watch some episodes of The Office, and eventually try to head to bed. Nighty night folks