Keri's Visit

Keri came last weekend thankfully, since I was starting to miss her immensely. It was a really good visit. Unfortunately, I had to work two days that she was here, but I was able to minimize time at work, so that was a plus. She was also able to stay busy while I was away by studying for the GRE and taking care of some other errands.

On Friday afternoon, we left for North Conway, NH. It's a beautiful area even with overcast skies. We stayed at a nice little B&B called Mount Cranmore Lodge. It's a small place right off the main drag of the village. It was actually previously owned by the daughter of Babe Ruth. They stuck us in the Babe Ruth Suite which had all sorts of memorabilia. It was kind of cheesy, but pretty cool at the same time. It's wierd how that works.

So on Saturday morning, we tried to go kayaking down the Saco River. No dice. Turns out the guy who was working at the kayak rental shop pinched a nerve in his neck and was unable to drive comfortable enough to drive us to and from the river. So we decided to push it off until Sunday. Miniature golfing turned out to be the replacement. Keri was a fierce opponent, but I was able to hold her off in the end after two sweet holes-in-one.

After golfing, we went to get some food and then went back to the hotel. The hot tub sucked us in for some relaxation but I had to get back to the room to watch the Badgers. We ended up going to get some food at a terrible, overpriced restaurant, but then went to Applebee's to get a drink and watch the end of the game. Badgers 14, UNC 5.

On Sunday morning, we checked out of the room and went kayaking. It was awesome. I have never been kayaking, but Keri is an experienced veteran at this point. We were only able to go for a short hour trip down the river, but I definitely recommend it to anyone. It was very peaceful on the river, but it had some fun little sections that got you moving at a decent clip. Keri and I both wanted to stay on the river longer, but we couldn't because the pinched nerve guy screwed up scheduling at the rental place all weekend. Oh well. When I get out to Cali, Keri and I will be able to do this sort of thing a lot more often. I can't wait.

After kayaking, it was back onto the road for us to the rent's house for some relaxation and football . . . only after stopping at the Yankee Smokehouse for some delicioius BBQ. Mmm, mmm, good.

It was quite astounding that I was able to photograph the rare and always eluvise "happy drunk" Travis. Observe carefully because you may never see it again. 

What's Amata witchu?!?! 

Here's the picture that Travis and Joe demanded that I put on here. If you want a little background about the pic look at the comments from the NYC Trip post. Trav has throughly explained what he deems important information. However, he didn't explain why Josh and Karl are fondling him and I can't answer that either. Use your imaginations. Maybe they were trying to reach through him to fondle "What's her name?". That's my guess. 

NYC Trip

Joe, Karl, and I went down to NYC this weekend to visit Trav. I expect it will be my last time down there for a while due to my eventual move to Cali in the upcoming weeks. It was a quick trip, but it was damn fun nonetheless as you will be able to see from the pictures.

We rented a new '06 Mustang for the drive down since I'm now the big 25. It was a pretty damn smooth ride (even at 100 mph) with just a few nuances that Karl managed to bring up every 15 minutes while we were in the car. Aside from that, the road trip itself went well and we got down to NYC at about 10 pm. We proceeded to booze at the apartment for a more affordable buzz and then headed to Brother Jimmy's at about midnight. It was a damn good time. 80's music aplenty, dancing, arm wrestling on the tables, and lively conversation. What more could you ask for? Only one problem: I left the camera in the apartment, so no pics from that night.

On Saturday, we woke up hurting. Joe and Karl swiped Trav's bed while I slept on the mini couch. Chris Lovejoy (another alum from UW) slept on the bigger couch. At one point during the night, I was attempted to move him from that couch for no reason that I know of. Might I add that he's a pretty big boy. I think I just wanted to steal his couch, since it had an extra 2 feet in length. That would have been key to my comfort. Anyway, we got up only to go booze again. Badger game's on, people!!! You gotta do what you gotta do.

After watching the Badgers whoop up on Temple, 65-0, and witnessing the Big Ten choke in every other non-conference game, we rolled back to Trav's for some rest. We decided to leave the apartment at about 7 pm to see what was going down in the Big Apple.

We walked around for a little while, then headed back to the apartment for the Ohio State-Texas game. After the debacle in Columbus, the bars were calling. . . so we answered. Only problem was that we were all dead tired, so we headed back to the house at about 2:30 am to get some sleep for our big drive home and the first full day of fantasy football. I could hardly sleep I was so excited . . . or not!!! I slept with ease despite the fact that Joe and Karl stole all the space on Trav's bed. Damn weasels!!!

(Insert music from Saturday Night Fever here)

NICE . . .

This is just a nice picture of the moon and the Empire State Building at dusk. Sweet, huh? 

. . . now MEAN!!! 

I like my beer cold, my TV loud, and my homos FLAMING!!! 

Delicious!!! Wait a minute . . . is this Corona Light?!?! Ugghhh!!! 

This picture says a lot about Joe. He never really knows where he's going and his hat indicates that rather effectively here. 

Look at that little head on Trav. Or maybe mines just enormous . . . 

Who's he waiting for? 

NYC is soooo much more tiring then ManchVegas

B-izz-ack H-izz-ome

So I've been back home in NH for about a week now and everything is going smoothly. It's just as I expected: good dinners, long commutes, and a manipulative little sister. Anyway, I moved everything in and it's pretty much stayed where I put it. I set up a desk for my computer, but that's about it. The rest of my crap is either in my room or in the second stall in the garage. It's a friggin' mess and I cringe everytime I think about it. Oh well.

So I went to the PGA's Deutsche Bank Golf Tournament this past Sunday. Damn, can those guys hit a long, straight ball. I've never seen so many balls go that straight regularly. Hell, I probably haven't even seen that many straight balls in my entire golf career! How sad is it when you can say you've been playing golf for a solid 15 years and you haven't seen as many good looking shots as you saw in one weekend? Ouch!!! Anyway, some of the notables were Tiger Woods, Brad Faxon, Freddie Couples, and Jason Gore (who is only notable because of his run in the US Open this year where he choked on Sunday, just like he did in this tournament). The whole time I was watching these guys I wanted to just go play. No dice. Not only could I not play, but on the back of our tickets it said no cameras were allowed on the course. So being the law abiding citizen that I am, I left my camera in the car. This turned out to be a stupid move considering I could have easily got the camera out there and no one would have said a thing. I saw some people were taking pictures of the players. It would've been nice to snap a couple pictures of Tiger and post them on the blog. Oh well. I'd rather take pictures of Tiger's wife anyway. . . she's purdy!

The Move

It's been almost a week since my last entry and over that last week I have moved out of the apartment in the North End, purchased a digital camera, drafted all of my fantasy football teams, and watched the price of gasoline go above $3 a gallon. Wow!!! Quite a lot has happened since then.

So the move was a friggin' nightmare, but I would first like to give a shout out to my peeps who assisted that disaster. Thank you Dad, Karl, and Joe. I couldn't have done it (as quickly) without you. Anyway, to start the event Joe got stuck in traffic and then managed to get himself lost for about an hour, so I lost out on that hour of his help. Second, there is nowhere to park a Ford Expedition and a trailer in the North End, but my dad and Karl managed to find a spot about a block away that was suitable. That resulted in us having to walk all my crap a block to the trailer. Good times had by all there. Third, it was pouring rain out so that didn't help. Fourth, we did it on Monday so I couldn't put all the trash outside on the sidewalk for pickup. I had to leave it all in a pile in the apartment. I felt a little guilty about that so I left a bottle of Bombay Sapphire and a note, "Sorry about the mess. It's all trash, but I couldn't leave it outside. Get drunk on me." (Anybody know where that last line came from? Ten bonus points if you do.) Lastly, I was in a huge rush because I had to get back to the house for 11:15pm, because that was when my last fantasy draft started. A ridiculous starting time for a draft, but what can you do? In the end, the move was accomplished in time and I was able to draft a nasty team. Nasty in the good sense.

As for the digital camera . . . I have yet to use it at all since I just bought it yesterday afternoon, so no pictures for this post. However, as soon as I get it up and running, I'll be posting pictures regularly, I imagine. Just so everyone knows want kind of equipment I'm rocking, it's a Canon Elph SD300. I was going to get the SD400 but figured the extra 1.0 megapixel wasn't exactly worth the additional $100 for what I intend to use it for. It took a little self restraint to not buy the 400, but I think I made the right choice. Only time will tell.