From the misty shores of Terre Haute

It's Monday, and we're back. Dan, Beckie and I trekked down to Terre Haute to visit Jessica and celebrate her birthday.

I have these observations. Terre Haute is far. Indiana is weird. Trivial Pursuit takes forever.

We watched Ants, a late 70s horror movie, which was not scary nor terrifying nor any of the other adjectives used to describe it on the box. As suspected, I looked it up and it was a TV movie, Suzanne Somers (at the time not even the top billed star) was probably just starting/started Three's Company, and most everybody else were has-beens or nobodies. It was pretty terrible, saved only by the prodigious drinking we did whenever somebody said "ants" or we saw ants.

Still, we had a good time. It was good to see Jessica.

Shut up, Dawn!

Weekend was movie-tastic.

Backing up to Thursday, when I got home, I ended up actually going down to Cityfest to see Weird Al. He put on a pretty good show, much longer than I expected.

Friday, Dan and I went out to Novi to have dinner at Happy Sushi with Jenn and Jenn's friend (Work)Andy. After dinner, Dan and I went to Royal Oak to catch the midnight showing of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once More With Feeling (The Sing-a-long). We got there probably more than an hour early, but the show was nearly sold out, so it was probably better that we had. The show was a lot of fun, there were props, and karaoke lyrics for the songs, and lots of yelling "Shut up, Dawn!" whenever she said, well, pretty much anything.

Saturday, I went to Noble Fish for some shopping of Japanese food items. Yummm... delicious udon. Austin came over later for dinner, where I grilled up some hamburgers left over from camping. Austin left to see Buffy with Jordan, and I ended up staying home and watching TV.

Sunday, I mowed the lawn and then went to join my parents at IKEA. I bought some big soup bowls and another bin for returnables. It was a while later at home that I realized that my A/C had quit working. It started to get really warm in my house. Eventually I joined Dan in air-conditioned comfort at the movie theater where we watched Transformers. It was, um, very Michael Bay-y. It was kind of a mess, though the effects were pretty cool.

I've got a call into the HVAC company, hopefully they'll be out today to fix my A/C. In the meantime, I'll just be sweating.

Knocked

I saw Knocked Up this weekend. It was vulgar, crude, heartfelt, touching and hilarious. It really gives all us normal guys the hope that we too can hook-up with drunk hot chicks, get them pregnant and make them fall in love with us. Maybe that wasn't the moral of the movie, but nonetheless, it was really funny. If you loved The 40-Year-Old Virgin, you're likely to like this.

That was Saturday, actually Gerry and Melissa came over and Austin and I and them went to dinner at Pasquale's before the movie. We had a crazy waitress. She was old and feisty. Gerry's friend Josh ended up meeting us at the movie also.

Saturday during the day, my dad came over with Sydney and Bentley, and so the dogs played alot. I was actually watching Scooter this last weekend, as "Mike" was in New Jersey looking for housing. I may have mentioned that before, but I'm too lazy to look at my previous post. He was supposed to be with Beckie for the actual weekend, but she ended having to housesit and catsit for her cousin... or something along those lines.

Friday night Austin, Kevin and I had a few beers at my house and then went over to the Berkley Front. Austin and I had gone for dinner at Rexy's earlier. Rice is so my nemesis.

Dropping like flies

Well, diet, week 4 has come. I didn't weigh in last week because of my sickness, but this week I weighed in and had lost 8.2 pounds for the last 2 weeks. That's a total of 13.8lbs. I'm in the 250s. Crazy. I weigh less than 2 Austins. It really hasn't been that hard, aside from forgoing a lot of my favorite things, at least sushi is pretty good, relatively.

I'm mostly recovered from my illness. I'm still coughing a bit, but my throat is ok.

Thursday I had to rearrange my garage so I could get the trailer out so my sister could borrow it, then my Dad borrowed my Saturn and Lani's car stayed at my house the weekend so she could use my Dad's truck to tow the trailer. There was also some minor drama with trying to get the lights on the trailer to work.

Dan came home for the weekend. Nice.

Weekend was low-key for the most part. Friday I stayed home and watched TV so I could rest, Saturday, Jessica, Dan, Austin and I went to see Spiderman 3. It was decent but sort of a mess plotwise. Sunday I went with my parents to visit my Grandma for Mother's Day. Lani also came by to drop off the trailer and get her car.

Monday, Dan and I met up with Austin and Beckie at Augie's for dinner and drinks. Augie's also had Guitar Hero set up. We of course played a bit.
Tuesday a big group met up at Xochimilco's for dinner. I had some delicious chicken fajitas. Dan and I split a liter of Margarita. There was a pretty good storm going on all night, and when I got back home, Dan had come along also, we went to watch Veronica Mars, which I had recorded, but about 10 minutes in, the signal cut out, and recovered only in the last 5 minutes. My cable was intermitently out for a couple hours so, internet and TV were all screwy. I ended having to download a torrent of Veronica Mars.

I sent in a hard drive for warranty a couple weeks ago, and I got it back yesterday. I had sent in a 160GB drive and awesomely they sent me back a 250GB drive. I think I'll replace the 120GB drive that's currently in my computer. It's getting pretty full.

In The Great T-Shirt Adventure Quest 2007 news, I loaded in my latest batch of photos, bring the total to 92. I think there are maybe 8 shirts still left in my drawer, so I just might break 100. That would be awesome. I expect to make the animation sometime soon.

Kiwis, cake and skates

A little bit of a weekend recap.

Michelle (Chellee) came into town from San Diego for her birthday this weekend. I haven't seen her, for, um, about 4 years. So, it was pretty cool. Of course, Michigan decided to reward her homecoming by sending us some of the crappiest April weather that I can remember.

Friday, I took the day off and went shopping and cleaned. I went to Sam's Club, and Kroger. I returned $24 worth of cans to the store, although I still have about the same amount left to return. They're sitting in the back of the Saturn still.

Speaking of the Saturn, I've been driving it the last week or so, because the weather has been so cold and lousy, and I had already put my summer tires on my Subaru. The summer tires don't work so good when the temperature is below 40 degrees. I was too lazy to put the all-seasons back on the Subaru.

Anyway, back to Friday, after starting my cooking for the party, I ended up going to see Blades of Glory with Beckie and Michelle. It was pretty funny. I give a B. (mostly because it was ridiculous, but not terribly smart) After the movie, we went back to Beckie's apartment where we had drinks, and played video games. Michelle and Beckie decided that my hair needed to be straightened. See Pic.

Also, Beckie and I somehow managed to statically shock and kill one of her Guitar Hero controllers. After Guitar Hero, Beckie and Michelle played Mendels Palace. It was a kind of weird game. I headed home and did some more stuff to get ready.

Saturday, I busied myself with party preparations. Unfortunately the weather refused to cooperate. I took the Skip for a walk, and waited for people to arrive. They eventually did. John and Julie brought pierogis, and a salad. I made delicous ribs and chili. Julie also brought a cake.

Beckie and Michelle showed up a little bit after them and then other people started to filter in. Jackie and El Dave, Jessica, Austin, Lani, Michelle's friend Eugen (Yugin?), and Beckie's friend Colleen. We eventually played a drinking game to Spaceballs. It was pretty brutal, the most brutal rule was drinking whenever Dark Helmet's visor went up or down. We also played "Don't Quote Me" which is a game I got somewhere for Christmas.

The party eventually wound down and people headed home. I cleaned up a little and headed to bed.

Sunday, I went to my parent's house for dinner and then over to the Mitchell's house to help MaryBeth with her computer. The hard drive died. I tried to recover whatever files she had not backed up. I ended up staying there for a couple hours trying different things. She was probably buying a new hard drive today and then reinstalling and restoring everything. Major bummer.

Oh, and I still have a ton leftovers from Saturday. Anyone is welcome to come by and chow down. I had leftovers for lunch today. And for dinner. I still have almost half the cake too. Ugh, gonna go into sugarshock.

The resemblance is uncanny...

How is it that I meet people who look so much like me?

Exhibit A

This is from the LAN party Austin and I went to on Saturday. That is Taiki. He's 3/4 Japanese. We played Wolfenstein ET and Unreal Tournament. I also played a bit of Guitar Hero as seen here.

Friday night I went to see 300 with Austin, Beckie, Jim and Jennifer. I was called last minute. We were going to see the an 8:15, but it was sold out so we went to The Shamrock for a beer or two until it was time for the show. The movie was decent. A lot of waxed up dudes in thongs. But it was just like a comic book. Visually awesome.

Thursday night I had dinner with John and then went to see Steve's band play at the Berkley Front.

I just finished watching a new show on F/X called The Riches, which stars Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver. It was pretty good though a lot darker than I expected.

Blow Me

I used my snowblower last night to clear my driveway. Unfortunately, I ran out of gas with about 10 feet of the driveway still covered in snow, which meant I had to finish it by hand. Hello back pain. What's worse is my shoulder hurts, and I have no idea how I hurt it. I blame the dog. He's a convenient scapegoat.

Hm, I'm trying to think what else has happened recently. There was a lot of snow. I started a subscription for the Buffy Season 8 comicbook at the local comic book shop. I had dim sum last Saturday morning. I went to Beckie's housewarming, where Skippy did do something bad.

No real plans for this weekend, though I still want to see Music and Lyrics, which got a surprisingly decent review in the paper.

Oh, yes, it gets much worse.

Relating to my previous post, I just saw the commercial for Music and Lyrics which has 2 of the romantic-comedy standard bearers, Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore. I want to see it also. Geez, the fact that all these rom-coms come out around Valentine's Day makes it that much worse, considering my perpetually single status, leaving me with noone with which to camoflauge my girlish obsessions.

I have a secret...

I have a strange predilection for romantic comedies. I kind of really want to see Catch and Release and Because I Said So. Ehh. I don't know why. Catch and Release maybe because it's got Jennifer Garner and Kevin Smith. Because I Said So maybe because of Lauren Graham and Mandy Moore. I know it's horrible. I'm such a girl.

Not a lot to say, but I'm going to put something here anyway

Got Dan sent back to New York. Went to Coney with Austin. Watched Dragonslayer with Austin and Beckie. Played Guitar Hero. Walked dog. Went shopping. Went to Sam's Club. Tess and her friend Paul came over. We watched Beerfest. I played more Guitar Hero. Had dinner at Red Robin with Austin, Beckie and Jackie. Watched more TV. Made eggs, hashbrowns, bacon and toast for dinner Monday. Watched 24 season premiere. Saw Jack Bauer have a Lost Boys flashback.

*Added later...

Ok, so here's were things get interesting. Or interesting-er.

I was headed out to dinner with Beckie and Austin (no overly cute conjunction of their names as of yet) and as I was literally less than a 1/4 mile away, sitting at a stop light, I got rearended. Actually the car behind me got rear-ended and that guy hit me. We all pulled over into a parking lot and waited for the cops. I then got nearly simultaneous text messages from both Beckie and Austin asking where I was. I called Austin and explained the situation.

Us three that were involved in the accident walked around and inspected the damage. Fortunately, all that was damaged on my car was my license plate and the frame were a bit bent. The guy that got hit harder, his car had the rear bumper cracked, and I think there might have been a crease in his front bumper. The lady who hit him, well, her car was wrecked up. Her whole radiator was pushed in and leaking, headlights smashed, and her airbags even went off.

The police were called (not by me) and we sat and waited for the police to come. We waited for more than 1/2 an hour before the guy took off, and I left shortly after that. The lady stayed and waited for the police.

I traveled the little bit further to Papa Vino's where Beckie and Austin were already eating. The waiter was very nice and put in a rush order for my food, so I got it fairly quickly. Tasty.

Today, my neck is a bit sore. I was trying to think why, and then I remembered the accident. Since there wasn't any real damage I kind of put it out of my mind. It's kind of ridiculous, because this is the second time I've been rearended while stopped at a stoplight. Maybe it's karma from when I rearended a Comcast van in High School. When, oh when, are we finally going to perfect beaming technology?

Wii Like to Play

Shoulder's still a bit sore. Went to Jim and Jennifer's on Sunday to play Nintendo Wii. It's a lot of fun and more athletic than you would think. Wii Sports bowling was really fun. I think I might get a Wii next year. We also played Guitar Hero. Jim is now addicted too.

Last night (Monday) Dan and I met at the AMC Forum to see The Departed. Excellent movie. Jack Nicholson skirted the edge of over-the-top-scenery-chewing but other than that, I really enjoyed it.

Saturday went down to Toledo to Ryan's and played games. Apple to Apples, Cranium, Dukes of Hazzard card game, Phase 10... I thought there was something else, but maybe I'm wrong. I once again bought 6 tall-boys of Beast Ice for $3. Ohio beer prices are amazing.

Friday went to Jenn's for the Fry Party. Fried cheesecake, pizza rolls, mini-corndogs, all delicious. Jenn's work friends Andy, Laura and Troy were there. We also went to Gus O'Connor's where Jenn stared a guy out of the corner booth. After Gus's we went over to 5th Ave. where there was a '90s cover band. Based on the few songs we heard I could basically extrapolate their entire setlist. Ryan actually stopped by after the Necto to hang out for a bit too.

I'm kind of hoping this next weekend will be kind of quiet. Too much stuff been going on recently.

Hold on, this is gonna take a while...

Well. I'm back to work after a seemingly too short vacation. I'm still a bit sick.

I started to feel a bit sick on Saturday, but on New Year's Eve, I was deep in the midst of a cold. I figured I could drink it off. Alcohol kills germs, right? You can kill them on the inside, correct? I asked Sam, 'cause he's a doctor, to confirm that quinine (an ingredient in tonic water) would fight a cold. He couldn't confirm that as he had passed out. I still proceeded to drink like a fish.

I realize it's been a bit since I last updated. I just didn't have any compunction to sit in front of my computer and procrastinate.

So, in the days following Christmas, I was up to a bunch of stuff. Tuesday, Austin and I drove out to East Lansing to pick up my Fraternity brother, Jared, who was in town to visit with us and also his roommate out in L.A.'s family. We had dinner there in enemy territory with Jared and Aaron Travis, another frat buddy. We drove back home and Jared crashed at Austin's.

Wednesday we went to lunch at the Redcoat, and that night, played poker. I came in 3rd, winning back my money.

Thursday, Austin and I drove Jared to Ann Arbor, where we had lunch, wandered about campus and left Jared with his roommate. That evening, Dan, Tess and I went to Casino Royale, which was really good.

Friday night, I met Tess and Dan for karaoke at Grissom's on the east side. I ran into Jim (Beckie's cousin's boyfriend) there. I sang a couple songs. It was good times.

Saturday John and Julie called and invited me and Dan to see a movie at the Emagine. We saw The Holiday, very cute and charming, surprisingly good. Then Dan and I headed down to Tess's for bad movie night. I started to feel a little sick by this point. Bad movies included the end of Deep Blue Sea, Ghost Ship, and I only stayed for the beginning of The Fog (2006). I said several times while we were watching the movies, that I could write a better movie. Maybe some day I should try. Anyways, I was getting tired, and the Benadryl was making me sleepier, so I went home early-ish.

Sunday I felt much more sick. I was still determined to party. Dan, Austin and Sam came to my house and then we headed off to Jordan's house where we hung out for a while and then went to Beckii's for the remainder of the evening. We played Scattergories, and High/Low, Sam did not do so well at this game, I was a bit better. Many Jello shots were consumed, and Austin, Dan and I played the fastest game of darts I think we ever have, because we were trying to finish before midnight. We almost did, but when we resumed post-countdown, I managed to win. There was also the afore-mentioned Sam passing-out, and various others puking. We left there somewhere around 3:30 and when we got back to my place, Sam crashed on my couch to sleep it off.

New Year's day, Monday, I eventually made it over to John and Julie's for the Rose Bowl, which sucked. I was also feeling a bit hungover and still sick, which didn't help any. I did also watch on my computer, the Christmas Special episode of Doctor Who. It was excellent.

I think that about wraps up my last week or so... I still need more sleep and TV watching time.