For my Canadian homies...

It's a video clip, so it'll take a few minutes to load. Hope you enjoy.

Click here.

Take that, bitches.

I've moved up another step in the Ecosystem. I'm now a Silthering Reptile.

I'm also a real, certified smart guy:

Your IQ Is 105

Your Logical Intelligence is Average Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius Your Mathematical Intelligence is Above Average Your General Knowledge is Above Average

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

Sunday Sightseeing.

Gee honey, I'm not sure which boat we should take out today.



The smaller one is so much easier to handle..



But the bigger one is so pretty!



These boats aren't owned by the same person, in fact since they are still tied up in the canal, it pretty much means the owners haven't taken delivery yet. The bigger boat will probably take the St. Lawerence Seaway to the Atlantic, or take the Illinios River to the Mississippi River with a final destination somewhere in the Caribbean. You can see some more information about this boat here and more about the company that builds them here.

It sure would be nice to have to make choices like that, wouldn't it?

Drunk Post, O' Dark Thirty.

Yay, I'm drunk!

I'm utterly and competely wasted at the moment. I see about 6 computer screens. Last night was a 2.X I got drunk, but didn't score. I didn't even try, there was nothing worth chasing. Tonight was different, but ended with the same result. More to follow when I'm sober, but it'll still suck.

Adios

It's Raining, It's Pouring

And I'm going out whoring.

Well, I'm gonna go drink some beer anyway. There are three possible outcomes to this evening:

1. Nothing is going on, I get bored and come home within 2 hours.

2. Things go well, I get really drunk, and treat you all to a drunk-post.

3. Things go great, and I don't even make it home until at least noon tomorrow.

If I were a betting man (which I am) I'd place my money on options 1 or 2. Option 3 would be guaranteed if I wanted to go home with someone manlier than me.

Popular Hangout.

I took a ride to Frank Murphy Park today, it's a spot that's pretty popular in the summer time around here because the water is fairly shallow so that kids can safely play on the beach, plus their is a pier one can tie their jetski or boat up to.

Here's a picture of the place:




But here's the real reason you go to the park:



(Image quality kinda sucks, I had to use digital zoom to get close enough)

It can be short.

Tonight I met my Dad over at my Uncle's house, he was doing some work on the snowmobiles because the racing season is almost upon on us. (More on that later whether you like it or not) As Dad and I were wrenching, I saw my Uncle come out of the house all dressed up. You never, ever see him dressed up. If he's going out to eat he'll put on a clean shirt, but never a dress shirt and khakis as he was tonight.

So I asked him what was up and as it turns out, this guy that we were hanging out with while camping last weekend died in his sleep the other day, and he was going to the wake. I'm not ever sure what his name was as I had only met him twice while already drunk, but I do know that he was 27, worked hard on a farm, was married, and has a daughter that's less than a year old. All that anyone really knows so far is that he passed away in his sleep. I'm guessing a blood clot or aneurism but it'll probably be a few more days before anyone knows anything for certain.

It's stuff like that that lets you know that life is indeed short.

Sort of like a shout-out.

So I'm a little bored, and decided I'd do the "next blog" thing for a change. I hadn't done it in a while. As usual I came across 40 blogs I couldn't read, 19 or so that sucked, and a handful of potentials.

In no particular order, here goes:

The Shorter The Skirt, The Higher The Kick, it's got some girl half naked on her blog, which always gets you some bonus points. There seem to be some other interesting stuff going on there, but my mind was tied up, thinking about the things I cannot see.

Jessica. Seems like a normal blog that gets updated quite a bit. That's always a good start. Seems like a nice person.

Josephs Blog. Total class, a must read. No explanation is necessary.

Those Quiz Things.

So I took some of those quiz things, here are the results:


You are Kip Dynamite and you love technology.


Which Napoleon Dynamite character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla


You are The Oracle, from "The Matrix."
Wise, kind, honest- is there anything slightly
negative about you? You are genuinely
supportive of others. Careful not to let people
take advantage of you, though.


What Matrix Persona Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

What a slacker.

Me, that is. Sorry to the 2 or 3 people that read my blog on a daily basis. My laziness has been unacceptable, but to be truthful I haven't had much to blog about lately.

Most of my motivation came from work or things I saw or read aboot in the news. Since I've been back in Wisconsin, I haven't seen a single news broadcast, I'm obviously not working, and I've been catching up on a lot of beer drinking since I have no responsibilities. In fact, I saw an advertisement for a job that I want to apply for and there was a deadline for submitting applications (which is tomorrow by the way) and I had to check the computer to make sure of that because I didn't even know what date today was, that's how far from reality I've been.

*Job Update* - I have no job. But I have one real promising lead and a couple other possible options that are being considered. I'll get into those options in another blog entry perhaps.

*Fun Update* - As I mentioned in comments on Dani's blog, even though I am surrounded by water, I have yet to actually get out in a boat, go swimming, tubing, etc. It's starting to piss me off and I'll have to do something about that soon. Last night I sat at a local bar, ate some fried cheese curds and tossed back about 9 beers or so while watching my Detroit Piston's win game 6 of the NBA Finals. Go Detroit!

*Love Update* - Ha! That's a good one. I've been single for about 2 1/2 years now, and the tea leaves don't indicate anything different in the near future. I don't think I could get laid in a whore house these days. My mojo's off, probably because I'm not working and I'm still adapting to the home settings, plus "Wanna go back to my mom's house?" doesn't usually play well with the ladies.

Anywho, that's probably a good enough update for the moment, I'm sure it'll keep my one or two readers happy for a day. Maybe.

Cannonball Run

Alrighty, it's been a while since I've put up an entry.. sorry for the delay folks but I have been busy and without internet access.

My trip back down to Texas was uneventful. I had a portable DVD player that my uncle had loaned to me, and my kids were glued to it for the whole trip. If you recall when I left, I said that my plan was to drive to Little Rock, AR before stopping. Well, I ended up stopping about 100 miles west of Little Rock. I could've made it all the way, but I knew family members were waiting for a call so I decided just to stop. So, to recap, I drove from Sturgeon Bay, WI to about Forrest City, AR in 14 hours. Not too shabby.

I got up the next morning and hit the road around 7:30A.M. and got to Killeen, TX at 4:30P.M. I dropped the kids off with their mother, and headed to a friends house to drink a few beers and watch the NASCAR race. The next day I picked up my kids around noon and took them out to eat. I took the kids to IHOP because it's their favorite place, we ate, then I dropped them off. I decided somewhere during the trip that I wasn't going to make a big production out of the farewell because I thought it would make it harder on all of us. My son knew that something was up, but I kept it all lowkey. I said my goodbyes to them, dropped them off, and that was that. It took me about 45 minutes to fight the urge to cry. Not that crying is a big deal, but it's hard to get your car packed up when you can't see.

Around 5:30P.M. I got bored and decided I was ready to leave Texas for good. I headed out for St. Louis and arrived in southwestern Missouri by 2:30A.M. I took a nap for a few hours in Joplin, MO then I gave Derek a call to see if he was going to be home. At that point I was about 4 hours from his house. It turned out that he was scheduled to work that day, so I killed a lot of time on the trip, and stretched the drive out to about 7 hours. I stopped at nearly every rest stop along the way, I stopped at Fort Leonard Wood, MO (I used to be stationed there) for a haircut, and hit up probably the best Army Surplus store in the world, in Doolittle, MO.

I arrived in Washington, MO around 7P.M. and went to Derek's place of employment only to find out they let him off of work 3 hours ago since I was coming into town.. So, I hooked up with Derek and he grilled up some grub and we had a few beers. We kept it pretty low key since it was a Tuesday and he had to work the next day. No crazyness or silly stories, perhaps next time we get together. Before I could leave Missouri the next day, I had to pick up a new tire for the car, one of the tires managed to develop a bulge in the sidewall. That's not a good thing to have happen on a 700 mile trip, so I got that fixed up pretty quickly. I left MO at 1:30 P.M. and arrived in Sturgeon Bay, WI at 11:30P.M.

I was back home for a day and I had to pack up again because I was going camping with my Uncle. We were only "camping" 20 minutes from the house, but it was fun get together with family members and friends, eat some good food, and drink some cold beer.

quick update

I made it to Texas without any troubles, dropped off the kids and all that, and I've made it to St. Louis to hang out with Derek. I'll have a couple of comments and additional stories when I get back to Wisconsin.

Talk to you soon.

Moving on up.

I'm all excited.. I've moved up to Crawly Amphibian!

In other news, I'm heading for Texas tomorrow around 8am (CST), so I'm not sure when my next post will be. I'll end up stopping wherever I end up, but I'm hoping to make it from my place to Little Rock, AR in one day. That's about 900 miles. It's an optomistic goal, but if I manage to get that far, I'll be happy. The whole trip, one way, is about 1,379 miles.

Hope everyone has a great weekend, I'll probably be back to blogging around..

Wednesday.

Birthday Boy

It's my birthday folks, I expect a lot of presents, and I don't want to hear any excuses. Not sure if I'm going to go out tonight since I'm getting ready to head back to Texas. Might sneak out for a beer or 10, who knows.

Pictures from home.

Coast Guard boat issuing a warning for violating wake laws.



A yacht getting ready to pass through the draw-bridge.



A sailboat after passing through the bridge.



A view of Lake Michigan looking to the north.



Another shot of Lake Michigan from the north.



Looking to the south.



Another view of south.



Here is where I took the shorline pictures. You can barely make out a boat on the horizon.

Politico

For the one or two people out there that care, I've added a new post on the Politics blog. I've been slacking on that blog for quite a while because I just haven't been in the mood.

To be fair, my latest post is short and it sucks, but that's Standard Operating Procedure for me.

Russell, Russell, Russell

Is anyone else getting tired of this idiot?

It's one thing to have a temper, and get in the occasional fist fight, or to toss someone through a glass window a la Charles Barkley, but to chuck a phone at someone? That's just silly.

He was good in Gladiator, but has basically sucked in everything else. I wish he's crawl back under what ever rock Hollywood found him under.

How about a little stroll through the country?

Bill Holden is walking 1800 miles from Arizona to Chicago to catch a Cubs game. He's doing it to raise awareness and money for juvenile diabetes.

Now Bill isn't a fiesty young guy, he's a 56 year old with bad knees who has postponed an operation in order to make the walk. Check out this link to read his story.

Pretty inspirational. If I wasn't so damn broke I'd make a donation.

Maybe I can walk from Wisconsin to California to raise awareness and money for beer?

Where in the world is Ms. Holloway?

I was just reading a story on CNN.com about this missing girl from Alabama. If you haven't heard about it yet, you will soon because the girl is pretty hot, and the media likes missing pretty girls.

The police (publicly) don't have any idea what happened to her, and have issued three theories:

1. She was taken and harmed or killed.

2. She was kidnapped

3. She left on her own accord.

The police have also said that if she did disappear on her own free will, anyone who has harbored her will face criminal charges. She disappeared in Aruba, so I'm not entirely sure about their laws, but does anyone else see a problem with this? The girl is 18 years old, and if she decided to run off with someone after graduation, what crime has been committed? Of course that all changes if it were to become a fake kidnapping, but that's not what the police said:

"Even if Natalee Holloway did disappear on her own, whoever has harbored her will face criminal charges, authorities said."

The likelihood that Ms. Holloway ran off on her own is almost slim to none, but hopefully they will find her alive. I just have a problem with that last part, regardless if it's illegal in Aruba or not.

I think I have liver damage.

But I'm not sure if it's from the alcohol or the handful of motrin I took this morning...

yikes

I see about 4 computer screens right now. I'm loaded!


I thikn that's aboutenough of an u[date for now.

Toddles..

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

So I hear that Gwen Stefani song Ain't No Holla-back Girl song about every 8 minutes, thanks to corporate controlled radio broadcasting. I've never considered myself cutting-edge, but I'm usually up on the latest slang. Sadly, I didn't have a clue what the hell she was talking about.

Now that I know what it means, I know that I need one.

All applications will be considered.

The good old days.

I stopped by and saw my friend Sam today. I make it a point to stop in anytime I'm home to let him know I'm around.

I've known Sam since I was in the 3rd grade. We were closer friends in elementary school, when we were both in Boy Scouts, but we still stayed in touch through middle school and high school. Sam and I both had the ability to mingle with different social groups in high school. That is to say that even though I was mostly affiliated with the "jocks" because I played sports, I was still able to hang out with other groups because I didn't judge. I could just as easily hang out with the smoking crowd if I wanted to. That came in handy my senior year, but it's a story for another time. Sam was the same way. He didn't participate in many sports, but he also was the type of guy that work in between the different groups. When I look back on it, I think it took his parents by surprise. We eventually were drawn back together by a common interest: We both had planned to join the U.S. Army out of highschool. Once we found out that we were both going, we started working on leaving at the same time and being in the "buddy program".

My visits with Sam are usually pretty short because it starts to feel weird if I linger long. You see, Sam is dead. He was killed in an accident our senior year. He had on some dark clothing in a poorly lit part of town, and he was hit by a car. He held on for a day before he passed.

I was asked by Sam's Pastor to speak on behalf of the student body at his funeral. Partially because Sam and I were friends, but also because I was the Student Representative to the School Board. It was the most surreal and nerve racking thing I've done in my life. I didn't want to sell Sam short, I didn't want to babble on, and I didn't want to embarrass myself. When I took the stage, there were probably 600 people in attendance. My speech lasted about 10 minutes, some parts were funny, some were sad, and at the end Sam's mother smiled, gave me a hug, and said "thank you".

Mission Accomplished.

Even before that day, but especially since, I've felt almost an obligation to Sam. I stop by and say hello, give a quick update on my situation, and tell him I hope things are going well where ever he might be.