Saturday, August 20, 2011

Hello Again

Hi. My name is Mike, in case you forgot. I know I did.

  • I saw Jonny X at Keith and Corrie's wedding. He didn't mention that my blog sucks. I am assuming that he had forgotten about it since the level of sucktitude has reached the Pittsburgh Pirates zone.
  • The NFL lockout is over. Thankfully, we will have football this year because the Rockies and Twins suck. Oh wait, the Broncos and Vikings will too? Fantastic. 
  • The political crap is starting up again. Gag. I have an idea that no one has considered when running for office - what if we did what's best for the country and not what's best to retain your voters? 
  • That probably won't happen.
  • Michelle Bachmann is crazy if she thinks that gas prices are dependent solely on the President of the United States. 
  • The Republicans did a terrific job of handing the White House to the Democrats last election. There was no way they could have botched it up worse. However, they are trying to do just that this election. 
  • Caveat - I am a centrist, a capitalist, and a center-leaning libertarian. I care about the future, the success, and the state of this country. Neither of the majority parties believe in this, which is why both majority parties disgust me. 
  • Perfection is seeing my two girls curled up on the bed, sleeping the morning away. 
  • Has the creation of Peanut Butter M&M's hurt the sales of Peanut M&M's?
  • We are looking into selling our house next year. When we were looking for our starter home, we knew of its short-term life, so we were not as picky as we could have been. Now that we are looking for a 'forever' (or damn near) home, locking down location and amenities is WAY more stressful. 
  • I am being cautiously optimistic about the firing of Bob Bradley and the hiring of Jurgen Klinsmann. I don't know enough about soccer to talk technically, but everything I read seemed to say that Bob Bradley's counterattack style was like the Billy Beane approach to baseball - good enough to be good, but not good enough to be great. I have heard that Klinsmann might be a lot of talk. I guess we shall see. 
  • A while back, I took some time at lunch and wandered around downtown with my N80. I happened to wander over to Union Station and snapped some shots of the tunnel that had all the old rail connections. I found out a couple months later that the Union Station redesign had actually wiped that entire area out. All that history - gone. I'm so thankful that I got over there before it disappeared forever. 
  • I developed a roll of B&W film that I have been sitting on for a while now. While there were some ok shots in there, I definitely could see that I have a long way to go to become a skilled photographer. If I didn't have any potential for improvements, what would be the point of doing it?
  • We braved the crowds and the Swedish meatballs and went to IKEA the other day with John, Vicki, and Riley. It was amazing how much stuff was in that building and how cheap everything was. I don't think I would ever buy furniture from them (maybe for my kid's dorm), but their accessories and stuff were incredible. It was my first adventure in an IKEA and with my wife and a potential new house next year, it won't be my last.
  • I should be working right now, but motivation is tough to find on a Saturday morning when your wife and daughter are sleeping, you have a laptop and a cup of coffee, and it is dark and quiet in the house.
  •  I am running the Warrior Dash up in Copper Mountain tomorrow. Deuce, Keith, Ninja, Jonny X, and Kristin are all running it as well. It should be a fun time. 
  • Every time I check the website, the number and type of obstacles change. Is this normal? 
  • I am not physically ready to run a 5k with a bunch of obstacles. I'm planning on adrenaline to power me through. And I don't plan on setting any land speed records. 
  • I have decided that I hate running. This might be an issue since I semi-trained for a running race. 
  • The Town is a really enjoyable movie. 
Life for the Flicks have been crazy, as one could expect with hectic work schedules and a 14 month old. Mackenzie is still in her brace at night and during naps, but her hips seem to be improving greatly. We go back to see the doctor in October. She is so close to walking on her own. She will go all over the place if you hold her hands or if she can support herself on a table or chair. I keep trying to let go, but she immediately plops down on her diaper butt. Sometime soon she will be all over the place on her own two feet instead of her current situation of being all over the place on all fours. 

My work is keeping me extremely busy. The time spent in the office just flies by because so much stuff is going on and so much is required of everyone. The team is fantastic, though, and I have been enjoying it immensely. It still is below retirement in my 2012 depth chart. Come on, Powerball!! 

This year, my softball team decided we needed a change of pace. We have been playing on Mondays and against the same group of teams for years and years now. So we moved from D-Rec Mondays to D-Rec Tuesdays. Nobody expected the level of talent to drop that much, but it did. We finished the summer league tournament while having a 19-0 record overall (spring and summer). We have 10-run-ruled probably 80% of our games. Needless to say, we are moving up a division for fall. At least we got two shirts this year before we start getting throttled by some good comp teams. 

Only a few more months until I get Mackenzie up on the slopes. Right, Sarah?

Until the next post in 2014,
Mike