Happy Father's Day!

I wanted to take this chance to wish all of you dads out there a fun Fathers Day! Hopefully you're not getting rained on, for any planned barbecues or outdoor activities that you had planned.

I also wanted to thank my dad, for being such a great dude and putting up with me all these years. For taking me to my first baseball game in '85, my first Hawkeye game earlier than that, for showing me how to really fall in love with a team, following them through every turn, savoring the victories and graciously accepting the losses. Those days so long ago playing football in our yard, my brother versus me, with my dad being the all-time quarterback for both teams, were some of the happiest days I've had. As were the days when he would pitch to us, I would giggle as I "stole" second base, but he'd never pick me off. And for as much as I laughed the time I rocketed the whiffle ball back at his face, knocking off his glasses, I still feel kind of bad for that.

But mostly, I wanted to thank him for being such a great person, the best dad anyone could hope to have, and for showing me how much fun and therapeutic a good catch can be. Thanks dad!

(note: If you watch the follow clip and don't get a little misty-eyed, I don't think we can be friends anymore. And if you haven't seen "Field of Dreams," you may not want to watch this clip yet. You need to go buy the movie ASAP, because it's probably the best movie ever made.)

Music for the jilted lover

The two videos below, from the Airborne Toxic Event, are songs to listen to if you've ever been dumped, or forlorn, or have experienced an unrequited love.





I've heard them quite often on XM, and have grown fond of their stuff. (pardon if my descriptions are brief. I've had a couple gin and tonics, the Royals got killed, I've had a busy day!)

The lineup for Austin City Limits was released today. It's a good one. You can see it here. I'm pretty sure I'm going to go. Plane tickets to Austin are supercheap from KC, and I've got a place to stay. I'll make a post about it as the event draws nearer, but I'm excited.

Speaking of excited, I'm way pumped, tomorrow I move to my own place! I put the deposit down on Monday, but didn't hear back 100% sure until today. So yeah. It'll be a week before the stuff I left in Iowa makes it down, so in the meantime, my furniture will consist of an air mattress and a clothes hamper. So much for the house-warming party. Thankfully, my wonderful mom and step-dad have offered to use their truck and horse trailer to haul my crap. Then, we're going to a Royals game! That's awesome. My family basically rocks, all around. Post here maybe even more infrequent for the time being, and I'm sorry about that. Until I get my computer set up (or get a new one), I'll only have limited access to the internet, outside of work.

Well, it's sleepy time for Flenker. enjoy the weekend!

It's like the song "Two Of Us," only by myself - or - I'm on my way home

So I'm back. Back in Iowa. Yes, Iowa. Things sort of fell apart in Texas, I ended up unemployed and homeless. Basically the place where I worked didn't let me have the days off that I needed for going home over the holidays, and didn't tell me about it until I had already missed a day, which they took as a no call, no show type of thing. Which was awesome. I went and talked with them and explained things, so they got over it. But then I wasn't going to be able to get the days off for my trip that I took this past weekend, so I had enough and just left. The best part is that I told them about both trips when I was hired, they said it wouldn't be a problem. Good business practices. It's no wonder they constantly have signs up looking for new hires. So, that was a determining factor in my move back north. There were other things, too, but not having a job and being really frustrated with things there anyways made up my mind.

I drove back in a couple of days, with a car full of stuff. Lots and lots of stuff.

I stopped along the way a few times. First, this rest-stop to call Captain Crab and tell him my sails were taking me north:

All I know is that this was somewhere in Kansas. I drove through Oklahoma while it was dark, so I didn't have many opportunities to take pictures. I was afraid I had taken a wrong turn when I came across this watertower:

I walked around a while to try to find Jad, but apparently, there's a different Ottawa!

I made it to Kansas City in the afternoon, where I stayed with Charczuk and Rhiannon. There will soon be video evidence of this. Should be exciting stuff!

The next morning I got back on my way, but not before stopping for a delicious breakfast:

And in case you were wondering, yes, that is my passenger seat, full of stuff. The XM Radio reciever, shown in the bottom right corner of the photo, was a life-saver on this trip. I heard so much good music, but that's a post for another time. It saved me the trouble of digging for CDs every hour, especially since the CD cases were somewhere on the passenger side floor area.

I made good time, made it back to the Iowa City area right in time for my mom's shift meeting (a.k.a. a bunch of paramedics get off of work and go get drunk). I stayed a night or two in Muscatine, before heading up to Cedar Rapids, where I'll be staying with my brother for the time being. I knew it was a good place to be when I saw this off of the front porch the first morning I was there:

Such a pretty sight. Then, later in the day, I was searching for something to eat for lunch, when I came across the ultra-rare cabinet dwelling cat!

I only had a few days at home before I left for my trip out east, but it was definitely a huge improvement in attitude (and lattitude, ha!) for me. And my trip was wonderful, but that'll wait for another day. Or later today. We'll see. I think I'll break it into a few parts: NYC/Conan, DC, and food (which includes the best gin and tonic I've ever had). It was a good time.

don't call it a comeback

Again, sorry for the downtime here, I've been busy with work, a party, some running, and a lot of playing NCAA football. (Plus, my "internet" has been kind of testy lately.) Sunday I played it with a member of the Iowa Hawkeye football team (Bradley Fletcher) and won! It was pretty wild, playing with someone who is actually in the game. (I won on a last-second play, after Fletch had been screwed with fumbles and interceptions dropped by his secondary all game long. I felt bad for beating him, but I had to.)

The party on Saturday went well, there was much drinking, some games played (washers, where you try to throw a washer into a box with a cup in it, kind of similar to horseshoes, and beer pong), grilling done, and some hanging out. Here are a few pictures, courtesy of my new camera. (click on any photo for a [much, much] larger version!)

We threw a football around a little while, Jim is catching the ball here, even though he has perfect form for punting it

Jeff goes for the leaping catch



I admire my perfect spiral



My brother struts around like this a lot (and looks a lot fatter in this picture than he actually is... he's sticking his chest/gut out a little here)

My mom and step-dad



My family. . .




Mom's so proud



My sister, excited about playing washers (we were on a team for one game, which was won with a clutch toss by me, right into the cup)



Me and Kay, in what I think it one of the best photos of me ever taken (and not just because I'm standing next to a pretty girl, I just look like the money here)



Me and Jim (and yes, he did come home with me that night)



I swear this was Angela's idea

I'll leave it at those photos for now, but there are a couple more pretty entertaining ones from afterwards, when Jeff, Jim and I were at my place. And note: these are all obviously pre-haircut, but the hair was lookin' pretty good for the last go-round.

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.)