Allegiances

I received a comment about my sporting allegiances earlier this week, so I thought I would fill the void and address this incredibly serious issue. Growing up in Minnesota, moving to Colorado at age 10, and having family in Wisconsin has muddled my views on fandom in general. Some of the information listed below may be difficult to view. Please refrain from showing this post to people with heart issues, pregnant women, and small children. And now, a sport by sport look at the mind of a Flick Fanatic.

NHL:
Background: Let's start with the easiest explanation of the bunch. I grew up in Minnesota and I had a pulse, so I was naturally a North Stars fan. However, the team moved from hockey heaven to, simply put, hell (Dallas) in 1993 and I immediately lost all connection to the Minnesota professional hockey scene. Although I still pull for Mikey Modano (one of, in not the last, remaining North Star), I cannot fathom cheering for a hockey team from Dallas that was stolen from my home state. Thankfully, after moving to Colorado in 1991, the Quebec Nordiques moved to Denver in 1995 to become the Avalanche.

Verdict: I am an Avs fan through and through.
NBA:
Background: I was a Timberwolves fan until after I moved to Colorado. I remember going to Nuggets games with my Wolves gear on. After a few years, the glimmer faded and the Wolves apparel was gone from my closet.

Verdict: The NBA sucks. I do cheer for the Nuggets, but I find it hard to watch too many of their games without throwing up.
COLLEGE:
Background: My father attended the University of Minnesota. My mother attended the College of Saint Catherine. Take a stab at which of those two has Division I athletics. If you guessed College of Saint Catherine, please refrain from ever reading my blog again. You are too dumb to qualify for readership. I am the second of four siblings. I am also the second of four siblings to attend Colorado State University. This is where my Wisconsin relatives enter into the picture. They are all Marquette fans and University of Wisconsin-Madison fans. They have made sure that I had several Badger sweatshirts in my collection.

Verdict: I am a Ram Fan through and through. I bleed Green and Gold. However, I am still a big supporter of the University of Minnesota. I don't follow them as closely as CSU, but I pay pretty close attention during football and hockey seasons. I have a slight bias towards Marquette and UW-Madison, but the roots aren't deep.

MLB:
Background: Baseball is my favorite sport so it would make sense that my strongest allegiances are in this sport. Again, I grew up in Minnesota. I like the Twins. It happens. But when it was announced in 1993 that the Rockies were coming to Denver, I couldn't have been more excited. Finally, I once again had a local team I could follow closely.

Verdict: My Wisconsin relatives are all Brewers fans. Although I don't root for them, I don't root against them either. But my allegiances are strong - Twins and Rockies. They are in different leagues, so this makes this much easier. They play each other in the regular season once every three years or so. And they would only meet in the playoffs in the World Series. One day, that should happen. You would find me drooling all over myself for that week of games.NFL:
Background: I saved the most muddled for last. My dad's family is from Minnesota, my mom's family is from Wisconsin. One likes the Vikings, one likes the Packers. Packers and Vikings fans don't get along. Throw in a move to Colorado, and you have yourself one big mess.

Verdict: As strange at this may seem, I am a Vikings, Packers, and Broncos fan. The Broncos are the only AFC team, so that makes following them the easy part. The Vikings and Packers are not only both in the the NFC, but also hated rivals. Can I really say that I like one over the other? I would probably have to say the Vikings, because I have never lived in Wisconsin. But it would kill my mom's parents to hear me say that.

NLL, AFL, MLS, WNBA:
Background: Who cares?

Verdict: No one.

Funny little story about my mom's family. My mother is the oldest of 3 girls. They grew up in Mequon, Wisconsin, which is about 45 minutes or so north of Milwaukee. They are Packers fans. My mom married my dad, a Vikings fan. My Aunt Patty married a Gary. Gary is a Bears fan. My Aunt Mary married my Uncle Mike, who hails from Detroit and is a bum (meaning Lions/Redwings/Pistons/Tigers fan). When our family gets together, we have the entire NFC North taken care of. Let's just say we don't tend to agree on things sports related!

To the next post,
Mikey

Firefox Update

Everything seems to be working fine today. I don't know what the problem was (maybe Google's problem? maybe Mozilla's problem?) but I have had zero issues today. Weird stuff.

Good news story of the day - my boy Harry is finally back in Denver after living in Vegas for a while now. Lucky for him, he's been able to experience all four seasons in the few days he has been back!

Maggiano's leftovers are incredible. I support garlic bread and gnocchi!

Lastly, happy birthday to Kellie O!

Complaints

I received a complaint from Dagger himself that I wasn't updating my blog enough. So here is a new post with a couple points.

1. Ask and you shall receive, Dagger.
2. Check out www.crujonessociety.com. I really think you will enjoy it.
3. Today is May 12th and it snowed in Denver this morning. Unreal.
4. Gmail is not really working with Firefox these days. Don't really get it.
5. The next week or so is going to be pretty hectic at work for me. Not real excited about it, but anything is better than the thumb twiddling I have done in the recent past.
6. It is hard to believe that we are in May of 2008 already. This year has been the fastest I have seen.
7. I am ready for a camping weekend. Who's in?
8. Not a lot to talk about on the Jeep repairs. I haven't had a lot of time to work on it lately.
9. The Twins come into town next weekend. I can't wait!

Are there really any other choices?

Baseball is the greatest sport, ever. Don't agree?

Join the discussion: http://crujonessociety.com/2008/04/23/why-i-love-baseball/

Time for a bleg

No, that is not a typo - this post is a bleg, not a blog. A bleg is a weblog that is begging for something (at least that's what the Freakonomics blog states). In this case, I'm begging for a name.

Here is a picture of my new baby:

She is a 1957 Jeep/Willys CJ5. Sarah's grandparents have owned her from sometime in the 80's. Grandpa used to take her when they went hunting and fishing and they used her to get around the woods. Since his bout with cancer, she has sat idle on the side of Grandma's house, waiting to play again. When Grandma started talking about finally selling it, Sarah put a bug in her ear that I would be interested. A quick discussion with the wife and I became the proud owner of she-who-is-not-yet-named.





Now that she is mine, I need a name for her. Sarah's grandfather loved this Jeep and he and I had many conversations about it before he passed. Because he regaled me with countless stories of him and the Jeep, I was thinking about somehow making the name a reference to him in some way. His name was Paul. Hopefully, we can come up with a great name for her. Thanks for the help!

To the next post!

Mikey

Interesting. . .

I'd love to have you all read this and tell me what you think. . .

http://www.slate.com/id/2187811

Weekend Recap

Great, great weekend. Here's the recap:

Thursday:
Augie comes over for the night. He was planning on staying at our house all weekend to watch the dogs, anyways.

Friday:
6:45 - Wake up, get ready for day, load car with Phoenix luggage
7:30 - Drop Sarah off at her work. Silly girl didn't take the whole day off!
7:45 - Get to Las D's, not open, head across street to coffee house
8:00 - Las D's opens, deliciousness ensues! (Funny side story, the lady spoke to us exclusively in Spanish, although neither Augie nor I know a lick of Spanish!)
8:00 to 8:30 - Watch various coworkers walk to work. Suckers!! What a great feeling.
8:45 - Arrive at Greyhound Station to park car
9:00 - Stand outside of Sports Column, angry that they are not already open
9:30 - After walking around for a while, notice Tavern Downtown is open. Go inside. Run into a high school friend of mine and his dad. Have a beer, talk about things.
10:00 - Head back over to the SC. Definitely open at this point.
10:00 to 1:30 - Pitcher after pitcher after pitcher of Coors Light. And a Jagerbomb.
2:05 - Gametime. Too bad the Rockies played like ass.
4:45ish - Sarah and I head out of Coors Field to run home and get the camera we forgot. Then it is a quick turnaround and we are off to the airport.
8:00 - Flight takes off for Phoenix.
9:00 (Phoenix time) - land in Phoenix, get picked up by Jaime, head to her apartment.

Saturday:
Sometime in the morning - Wake up, lounge around, get ready, EAT IN-N-OUT BURGER (the capitals signify the most important piece of the puzzle)
12:00ish - Start the journey to Tubac, AZ (30 miles north of Nogales and the Mexican border)
3:00 - Jason and Sara's wedding ceremony - very nice, pretty short, very warm.
After this point, time becomes a blur. The wedding was at Tubac Golf Resort, as was the reception and our room. We went from the wedding to the reception, drank some beer, some wine, some champagne, did some dancing, had some dinner, the usual stuff. At some point, we headed back to the room and crashed. Good day.

Sunday:
Woke up somewhat early.
Had brunch with the bride, groom, and family.
11:00 - Left Tubac for Tucson
12:00 - Met Ninja Jamie for lunch right outside the University of Arizona main gate. The little Old Town looking place was hopping and very reminiscent of Fort Collins. Very cool place. Sat with the Ninja for a couple hours before he had to go home to go to bed and we had to head back up to Phoenix to catch our flight.
4:30 - Get to the Phoenix airport. Jaime has to work at 7:00 and she lives on the west side of the metro area right by her work. It was pointless and a waste of time to go all the way back to her place, so we just had her drop us off at the airport early. Sarah and I walked and walked and walked and I did the Tulo chant in every corner of the airport. Sarah loved it.
8:45 - We finally take off for Denver. Phew.
12:30 - Get home, unload the car, get into bed and try to get some sleep before work on Monday.

All in all, it was a great weekend. Congratulations, Sara and Jason.

I expect this will be crazy

By this, I mean this weekend. It starts tomorrow with Opening Day here in Denver. I am NOT working tomorrow, but I will not be home either. Augie (http://augieworld.blogspot.com) and I will be taking Sarah to work in the morning and then grabbing some breakfast before we hit the bars. With all the festivities going on around Coors Field, we should have plenty of entertainment before the game. Right after the game, Sarah and I are off to the airport to catch our flight to Phoenix. We are going to Sara and Jason's wedding outside of Tucson. Late flight on Friday, wedding on Saturday, meeting up with our favorite Border Patrol agent on Sunday. Should be a good weekend.

On to some random things:

• A few of my buddies have started a website that is fairly entertaining. It is called The Cru Jones Society and so far it has been a pleasure to read. The posts are fairly constant and I plan on disagreeing with them at all times. Check it out.
• The Rockies dropped their first series in St. Louis. Not cool, guys, not cool. What happened to the Rockies having the most potent lineup in the NL?
• The Twins have also started their season in a sucky way, dropping 3 of 4 against the Angels. I do miss Torii Hunter, but Carlos Gomez has a chance to be really, really good.
• Since baseball started, I have had this ridiculously large craving for baseball movies. I just want to take a day off and watch Bull Durham (lollygaggers!), Major League, 61*, Eight Men Out, The Sandlot ("You play ball like a GIRL!"), The Natural, For Love of the Game, A League of Their Own, and any other baseball movie I can get my hands on.
• I Am Legend is a disturbing and great movie.
• The Denver Auto Show was fantastic as always. The Nissan GT-R was the highlight of the show.
  
• The Avs are in, the Nuggets are in (right now). Let's hope it stays that way and they can do something once the playoffs start.
• As unhappy as I am that the economic stimulus package passed, it will be nice to get that check in the next month or so. How can our lawmakers completely disregard the future of this country each and every time they vote on something?
  
• The liquor law that would legalize Sunday sales of alcohol has reached a stopping point at the governor's desk. Looks like the supermarkets are not happy about the deal and they want to be allowed to sell regular strength beer, not just 3.2. I say let them all sell everything (including hard alcohol) every day. Whatever happened to economic competition?
  
• The Sin City graphic novels are an incredible read. I use the word "read" lightly considering a majority of my "reading" time is spent marveling at the artwork. Frank Miller does incredible work using a very hard artistic concept (especially for an analytical engineer like myself). His drawings are created by drawing the negative space, not the object. To me, it is a completely backward concept and I love looking at the effectiveness of his style.
• It is a sad state that we are in when every single political discussion that occurs around me ends up with me being angry or depressed. With all the crap out there, is there a bright spot anywhere? Someone please tell me if there is. I'd love to check it out!
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl is an incredible game. The one player game is actually playable (unlike the N64 version).
  
• Green tea has become my staple caffeine at work. I'm getting in the habit of grabbing a cup or two of that every morning at work. Great stuff.
• This website is a bit of a time waster, but it will challenge your brain. Check it out. The periodic table of elements kicked my ass. I think I ended up with only 28 elements. Terrible.

I can't wait for tomorrow. The first baseball game of the year is always a good time. It's even better when you are missing work for it!

To the next post,
Mikey

March Madness?

Yes, March is flying by. We are halfway through the month and I still think it is only February. . .

The last few weeks have been pretty busy. I've still been doing the normal stuff (working, sleeping, etc.), but a few more activities have popped up.

• The weather has been glorious in Denver, so Sarah and I have been trying hard to get outside as much as possible. One afternoon, we spent a little bit of time working out the kinks in our softball arms. Needless to say, Sarah had to run after my off-target throws more than once! Hopefully the kinks are slightly more gone by Sunday. Our first game is Sunday night, so hopefully it won't be as bad!! Good news is that the softball pro threw pretty well for the first time of the season! Another afternoon, we took advantage of our neighborhood park. We ran to the park, then Sarah ran and I played some basketball. Let me tell you, my basketball skills have diminished over the past few years of not playing basketball!! However, it was great to get outside and play a little ball.
• Katie and Jorge are in the process of buying a house and moving into it. Sarah and I have been helping them out here and there this week. I had Robert's truck all week, so we moved a mattress and box spring up to Jorge's mom's house. We also moved a refrigerator and a full size freezer down from Jorge's mom's house. Lots of moving. Big thanks to Katie and Sarah for all the help lifting the two fridges (nope). The official move day is Saturday, but I was over at their place helping them move the washer and dryer into the house and the fridge and freezer into the garage. We also installed new doorknobs and deadbolts, so the house is all set to go. Good times. I remember my first house like it was last year. . .
  
• The Wii is now hooked up to the internet. A few months ago, I tried setting all that up and I failed miserably. The instructions were confusing and convoluted and I couldn't make any sense of what needed to be done. This week, I tried again. It was simple and I have no idea what drugs I was on when I tried the first time. The two setups were completely different. I don't get it at all. Either way, we are up and running.
  
• Sarah and I purchased a new computer a little while back and I've been messing with it from time to time. It has Microsoft Vista on it and I have yet to get a good grasp on how I feel about it. There are some positives and some negatives, just nothing to sway me either way.
  
• AM 950 The Fan has now switched to FM104.3. It's not too often that a sports talk radio channel is found on the FM dial, but I do enjoy the improved reception. Especially when I'm driving down Sheridan where the power lines run right next to the road the entire way.
• Every holiday season, my group at work goes out to lunch and we do a gift thing where everyone draws numbers and we select gifts in order. The people with higher numbers can steal the already unwrapped gifts until everyone has stolen all the good stuff and someone is hosed and stuck with the lame gift. Our group does it with the 365 day flip calendars. This year, I ended up with 365 Dumb Dares for the Office. So far, so good. A large number of the dares are stupid, but there is a gem dare hidden every once in a while. The best one so far was to page yourself over the intercom without disguising your voice. One day, I did just that. I do have to admit, it was pretty funny. And I never called myself back. . .

Again, I wish I would contribute to this blog more often than once every couple weeks. I'm sure the number of posts will rise dramatically when the baseball season starts for real!

To the next post!
Mike

New Year, Same Results

After a couple weeks of not posting, I decided it was time for an update. . .

Before I say anything else, I need to send some congratulations out. First to Tim and Amanda - Shyler Elizabeth was born on Monday, March 3rd. Next to Adam and Michelle - Addison Marie was born on Tuesday, March 4th. It kind of blows my mind that friends from college are now having kids. Amazing! And before you can ask - Sarah and I are not ready yet. So hold your horses.

This is a great time of year. Our softball season starts this Sunday, March 9th. Spring training has been going for a while and opening day is just around the corner. Sara and Jason's wedding is next month. As is the NFL draft. Same with the first 2 of our 12 Guy's Night Out Rockies games. Love me some spring. . .

As for news on the home front, we've been pretty busy. I spent 2 weeks in February (the 4th - 8th and the 25th - 29th) up in Boise, Idaho. Nice little town. Fun little place. Don't like being there for 2 weeks. First off, living in a hotel is not a great experience. The only REALLY good thing about the situation is the fresh cooked breakfast every morning. And that kind of gets old after a while. But the thing that really gets to me (besides the obvious of missing the wife) is the eating out every single day for both lunch and dinner. That is a pain in the ass. Seriously. The reason for my travels was work. Our Boise office is busy. The Denver office is less than busy. So I went up to (a) help out the Boise office and (b) kill some time.
The first week was pretty lame. I didn't really know anyone up there, so I spent the evenings either driving around town or in my hotel room. The second week, I knew some people, so I managed to entertain myself with the help of the HDR employees up there. I had a couple nights out in downtown Boise and I went skiing at Bogus Basin, a local ski resort that has night skiing. It is only 45 minutes away from Boise. Tuesday evening after work, I went up for a few runs. The first run was solid ice, but after realizing that I was on the wrong side of the mountain, I found the softer snow on the other side. It was not even close to Colorado skiing, but compared to sitting in the hotel room, it was a great night.
The way home was a different story. For Valentine's Day, I bought Sarah some cooking classes for her and I to attend. The first one was Friday, February 29th. I knew of this well in advance of booking my trip to Boise. So I was scheduled to leave Boise early afternoon on Friday (1:00). Turns out the plane coming in to Boise to go to Denver was late. By four hours. So instead of making it to Denver with plenty of time to spare, I was left in the cold as Sarah and Jorge went to the class. Luckily, I will be in Denver this Friday for the second class. Come hell or high water, I will be there.

There is definitely more to my life than a couple trips to Boise and a missed cooking class. But I need to save something for the next post!

To the next post,
Mike