A Week Worth Blogging About

Hooray, I actually did something this week that is blog-worthy. So I won't have to fill this one with junk just to say that I posted for the week.....

Burns' Supper

This friday was the annual Robert Burns' Supper formal event. This is an event orchestrated by the British guys stationed here, as a sort of token of appreciation for us hosting them and working closely on various projects. The other event they have is the British Open Golf Scramble, held the friday of the actual British Open tournament. Sadly that friday isn't coming up anytime soon as I look out the window at all the stupid snow that's back on the ground today....


Anyway, if you aren't aware, Robert Burns was a Scottish poet in the 18th century. The event is to celebrate his birthday, which was January 25th. I'd never heard of him before I got invited to my first party in his honor 5 years ago, but I'm sure you've heard some of his work - he wrote Auld Lang Syne. And since it was written by a Scot and read first by Scots, it now makes sense to me why people just mumble through it, swaying back and forth looking drunk - that's the authentic replication of how Scots do it! :-)


This event is really just a prom for adults, which probably can be used to describe just about any event that requires a tuxedo. Burns Supper is the lone reason for me to own a tuxedo, and this is the 4th time I've worn it. Happily, this is the 1st time that I have truly grasped the black magic / art of tying a bowtie. That is no small task, and for the last 3 years I've probably stood in front of the mirror for over 2 hours trying to get that stupid thing to look reasonably close to normal. This year I unlocked a magical extra step that makes it work out in the end. I jokingly said that I might start wearing bowties to work just so I can stay in practice for next year.


My 'date' this year was Kacy, who has been a close friend since before high school, and lived over here in dayton for over a year (but is back in Illinois now). She came over thursday night, and we've goofed off all weekend, mostly playing Guitar Hero 4 (the one that's just like Rock Band2). It's amazing how much fun those dumb games are - they are real life-suckers. You'll look up and realize you've been playing for 4 hours. The Guitar Hero - like video games are probably the least advanced games that have come out in 15 years (from a graphics / technology standpoint), but no one had the awesome idea to make a guitar and drum-set into a video game at the time.

The only bad thing that happened this weekend occured early saturday morning. Following the LATE night (3 a.m.-ish before we got home) that always happens the night of Burns' Supper, I struggled out of bed before 7 a.m. to take my truck to get it's windshield replaced. Sadly, the guy who was supposed to do the work came back out of the shop after I sat in the waiting room for about 10 minutes and told me they had ordered the wrong seal. So I get to take it in next saturday for another 8 a.m. appointment. Bummer......but if that's the worst thing that happens in a weekend, then I'm doing OK.

My authentic Scottish friend in his authentic Scottish kilt

We pretended to act presentable and mature.....

...but then cleavage jokes ensued.

One Day Late - That's no SO Bad.....

OK, so I'm getting closer to this whole 'weekly' (-ish) blogging. It's been a very uneventful week. I really don't have much of anything to report. I didn't have to work today, and got lots of routine, boring crap done - called All-State to schedule for a new windshield to be installed in my truck, did the paperwork to get my transcripts from Rose-Hulman sent to Colorado State from my master's program, vacuumed my carpet and cleaned all the salt (from the sidewalks/roads) off of my hardwood floor. Yep, some readers are no doubt finding their eyes losing focus as I put them to sleep with random lame tasks.

So instead of talking about anything people legitimately care about, I'm going to make a couple of random commercial observations.

1. The latest Dodge truck commercials reach a new low
Really all the recent commercials from the main truck makers have gotten absurd. I'm ready for them to take Denis Leary (Ford), Howie Long (Chevy), and the dude with the stupidly deep voice (Toyota), and somehow make them part of these ridiculous tests. Maybe something will go wrong. Here's part of the Dodge commercial series, where four teams (identified as FIREMEN, MILITARY, COWBOYS, and CONTRACTORS - very tough, indeed) do stupid things with trucks and pretend that it's a good idea.



2. SlapChop - If you've been watching the national geographic channel you've probably seen the SlapChop commercial. If the guy doing the commercial wasn't such a terd I probably would've already bought one of these do-dads. It's safe to say I'm very intrigued.....I know, they never work like the commercial shows.

www.slapchop.com

Other Items to Fill my Blog

(whoa, my keyboard just went into 'Chinese' mode due to hitting Ctrl+something. I recovered....)

My 8th grade basketball team got beaten badly again this week - 28-7

I bowled quite poorly this week - 146/162/154. That'll hurt the ol' handicap

The Fightin' Illini basketball team looks WAY better than expected this year. I think this is a classic 'addition by subtraction' situation. It's amazing how much better we are NOT throwing the ball to Shaun Pruitt or watching Brian Randle turn the ball over.

Work has been very hectic the last 2 weeks. I'm hoping it slows down, but deep down I know it's going to be a hectic couple of months.

To keep this post from being a total stinker, I'll post the family pictures from Xmas. I'll try to be less boring next week.

Back to Business

Yeah, so it's been almost 2 months since I updated my supposed weekly blog. I'm going to get back to these sunday updates. Here it goes.....

First, the boring stuff. I completed my first stock transaction this week. I bought Ford stock in November for $1.27/share, and luckily sold it for $2.66/share. Probably the most successful trade I'll ever make. I also refinanced my mortgage. I got 5.0% (had 6.25% before), and didn't pay any 'points' (whatever those really are).

My 8th grade team is struggling. We were behind 18-0 after the 1st quarter today. We are now 1-6. There are 3 games left, and I think they are ready for it to be over. In the end, there's only so much you can do. We are shorter, slower, and have less basketball skills than the other teams. I'd be ecstatic if we won one of these last 3.

I had my 1st week in the 'pizza and beer' bowling league (i.e., not a serious league at all). Even though I didn't get any practice in before the 1st week, I managed to bowl 212, 146, and 202. That's probably better than I will do most weeks, and is going to kill my handicap. Maybe I'll manage a 600 series this year....

Work was particularly busy last week. I'm 'the boss' for the next couple of months, and there is a lot to get done. I may get a crack to do this more permanently later this year, but we'll see if it's something I actually want to do before I get too wrapped up in that possibility.

Yep, I just read through this post, and it's pretty boring. I'll try to get more exciting next week. Thanks to everybody for the Birthday and Xmas cards!

This is probably most entertaining for dad, but anybody that wants to watch guys do silly things to silly cars will enjoy these british guys trying to see if british cars were any good in the 70's.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf7q8lWEd-o