Why I hate terrorists: reason #678 - http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?seriesId=99&id=3180745&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines
This really makes me upset. My boy Robby Gordon has been planning for this race for months. The support vehicles were already over there; the two Team Dakar USA Hummer H3's were probably on their way. This sucks. I was really looking forward to this year's race. This was potentially the year that Robby Gordon could win the whole thing. He has a few Dakars under his belt, he has a teammate this time around, he had things going his way. Now there will be no race. Damn. Stupid terrorists.
Friday, January 04, 2008
Thursday, January 03, 2008
The Explanation
The more that I have sat around wasting time between posts, the more I realize that I have mislead all six of my readers. The story behind "the other 95%" is not so much a story, but an explanation. And it probably isn't that interesting to anyone besides me and Mary. But I figured I would clear the air so that people don't think I am completely ridiculous. . .
The term "The Other 95%" derives from conversations held between myself and a friend and colleague at work, Mary. She sits in the cube adjacent to mine and we get along great. As a result, there are are countless episodes of intellectual (and nonintellectual) conversation between the two of us. When you throw in a couple trips to the local tavern for a pint and the fact that I have a big mouth, you come up with a lot of chats among coworkers and friends. For those of you who know me, I tend to be a tad bit off. I like to sit on that fine line between "Normal" and "What the $#@%?!!" Because of this, there have been times where things have shot out of my mouth that even make me wonder where the hell I thought of that. They are just not things that normal people say. I guess Mary has noticed this diarrhea of the mouth and one day she pointed it out to me. I honestly cannot remember what I said. I do know that it was far enough out there to get a response that was probably something like, "Flick, I have no idea where you come up with some of that stuff." My response, instead of agreeing, was to tell Mary that she only hears about 5% of what is going on in my brain. (Imagine corny pointing gestures towards head.) And thus, we have "The Other 95%". "The Other 95%" consists of all those thoughts and ideas that teeter over the edge of normality and how they form a collection of bizarre and random words that spill out of my mouth.
See? I told you the "story" (if you can call it that) was less spectacular than I had made it out to be. I apologize for that. However, I think the idea is important enough for me to highlight it. You all know me. You all know how I can and have acted around each one of you. Sometimes, I ain't the sharpest knife in the drawer and it shows. Sometimes my randomness could not be explained. Until the year 2007, the absurd nature of the Flick was undefined. Now we have a name for it. "The Other 95%".
As for the blog. . . last night I made the mistake of drinking large quantities of iced tea with dinner. Because of this, I spent several hours in bed trying to sleep, but instead staring at the green dot on my phone that let me know that it was charging. I do this far more than I would like to admit. Iced tea = highly caffeinated. Caffeine = good way to stay awake. Therefore, iced tea late at night = terrible idea. But I do it anyways. But as I was laying in bed, I was brainstorming ideas for this blog. I have not been very excited about the lack of posts in the last few months and it is my goal to change that for this year. My night of iced tea induced restlessness has at least given me enough ideas to get this thing rolling. Let's see how this goes!
To the next post,
Mike
The term "The Other 95%" derives from conversations held between myself and a friend and colleague at work, Mary. She sits in the cube adjacent to mine and we get along great. As a result, there are are countless episodes of intellectual (and nonintellectual) conversation between the two of us. When you throw in a couple trips to the local tavern for a pint and the fact that I have a big mouth, you come up with a lot of chats among coworkers and friends. For those of you who know me, I tend to be a tad bit off. I like to sit on that fine line between "Normal" and "What the $#@%?!!" Because of this, there have been times where things have shot out of my mouth that even make me wonder where the hell I thought of that. They are just not things that normal people say. I guess Mary has noticed this diarrhea of the mouth and one day she pointed it out to me. I honestly cannot remember what I said. I do know that it was far enough out there to get a response that was probably something like, "Flick, I have no idea where you come up with some of that stuff." My response, instead of agreeing, was to tell Mary that she only hears about 5% of what is going on in my brain. (Imagine corny pointing gestures towards head.) And thus, we have "The Other 95%". "The Other 95%" consists of all those thoughts and ideas that teeter over the edge of normality and how they form a collection of bizarre and random words that spill out of my mouth.
See? I told you the "story" (if you can call it that) was less spectacular than I had made it out to be. I apologize for that. However, I think the idea is important enough for me to highlight it. You all know me. You all know how I can and have acted around each one of you. Sometimes, I ain't the sharpest knife in the drawer and it shows. Sometimes my randomness could not be explained. Until the year 2007, the absurd nature of the Flick was undefined. Now we have a name for it. "The Other 95%".
As for the blog. . . last night I made the mistake of drinking large quantities of iced tea with dinner. Because of this, I spent several hours in bed trying to sleep, but instead staring at the green dot on my phone that let me know that it was charging. I do this far more than I would like to admit. Iced tea = highly caffeinated. Caffeine = good way to stay awake. Therefore, iced tea late at night = terrible idea. But I do it anyways. But as I was laying in bed, I was brainstorming ideas for this blog. I have not been very excited about the lack of posts in the last few months and it is my goal to change that for this year. My night of iced tea induced restlessness has at least given me enough ideas to get this thing rolling. Let's see how this goes!
To the next post,
Mike
Friday, December 14, 2007
The other 95%
I have just recently updated the title of this blog to reflect me as a person. There is a story behind the title that I will explain at a later date. For now, just act confused (except for Mary) and wait for the story with bated breath!
Monday, November 19, 2007
Curling Review
Curling: potentially the second greatest sport ever (behind baseball). John, Robert and I did the curling thing on Friday. The result? A couple hours of heaven followed by a day of tight hamstrings. The evening started out with a short video on the history, rules, and scoring of curling. Since we had all watched the Olympic curling religiously, this was mostly old news for us. After applying a giant strip of tape to the bottom of our left shoes, we made our way to the ice, grabbing our brooms on the way. The instructors were kind enough to remind us that we should step onto the ice with our gripping foot and not the sliding foot. Despite the reminder, a few people in the class almost went down. The first thing to address was the throwing motion. We lined up along the boards on one knee with the brooms laid on the ice in front of us. We then pushed off the wall to learn the curling throw form. After a couple tries, we replaced the broom with a rock in each hand and again pushed ourselves off the wall. Again, after a couple tries, we moved on to the next activity. The next step was using the actual curling blocks (called hacks) instead of the boards. The first attempt at this was using a rock in the shooting hand and a "training wheel" of sorts (basically a plastic handle to lean on). After one attempt with the training wheel, we replaced it with the broom and we were curling.
After a few trial runs, they let us start throwing rocks the length of the sheet. All three of us left the first toss short. In fact, we didn't even make it to the hog line, which is the line that you must pass in order to leave the rock in play (either as a score or as a block). Of course, our second throws all went straight through the house as we all managed to over correct our weak first throws! After that, we started to put rocks in play with more consistancy. John was the first to place a rock in the house and Robert and I followed with house shots later in the night.
I can't begin to explain how fun it actually was. I would highly recommend the introductory class for anyone who is looking to fill a couple hours for one night. It was $20 and completely worth getting a glimpse into a completely new sports experience. We had so much fun, we are looking into joining a league. The problem is the expense of the league. The league costs $225 per person (with 4 people on a team) for a 10 week season. That is the nature of ice time in Colorado. Expensive. However, we are going to look for a sponsor to pick up half of the registration fees and team shirts. That might make it more reasonable for all of us. As always, I will keep you posted on the progress of our Olympic curling team!!
After reading Dunham's blog, I, too, realized that I have been blogging for over 2 years now. Time has truly flown by the last couple years and I am glad I have been able to throw some thoughts, observations, etc. down for other people to see. Hopefully you have enjoyed it as much as I have.
To the next post!
Mike
After a few trial runs, they let us start throwing rocks the length of the sheet. All three of us left the first toss short. In fact, we didn't even make it to the hog line, which is the line that you must pass in order to leave the rock in play (either as a score or as a block). Of course, our second throws all went straight through the house as we all managed to over correct our weak first throws! After that, we started to put rocks in play with more consistancy. John was the first to place a rock in the house and Robert and I followed with house shots later in the night.
I can't begin to explain how fun it actually was. I would highly recommend the introductory class for anyone who is looking to fill a couple hours for one night. It was $20 and completely worth getting a glimpse into a completely new sports experience. We had so much fun, we are looking into joining a league. The problem is the expense of the league. The league costs $225 per person (with 4 people on a team) for a 10 week season. That is the nature of ice time in Colorado. Expensive. However, we are going to look for a sponsor to pick up half of the registration fees and team shirts. That might make it more reasonable for all of us. As always, I will keep you posted on the progress of our Olympic curling team!!
After reading Dunham's blog, I, too, realized that I have been blogging for over 2 years now. Time has truly flown by the last couple years and I am glad I have been able to throw some thoughts, observations, etc. down for other people to see. Hopefully you have enjoyed it as much as I have.
To the next post!
Mike
Friday, November 16, 2007
Curling. Need I say more?
Tonight, I am going to step into the awesome world of curling. Robert, John, and myself watched the Olympic curling religiously when we lived together on Lee Ct. About two months ago, I was bored and I went looking for curling locations in Denver. I found the Ice Ranch, near my parent's house. They had ice for curling and they had a mailing list, so I got on it. Last week, I got an email from the Ice Ranch that was advertising curling lessons. Obviously, we could not pass this up. So tonight, the three of us will be learning how to curl. This takes me one step closer to my Olympic dreams!!
I'll definitely have a post after the curling lesson. This is going to be sweet!
I'll definitely have a post after the curling lesson. This is going to be sweet!
Friday, November 09, 2007
Married Life Pretty Much Mirrors Fiance Life
I think the title pretty much sums it all up. There are a few differences, obviously, but for the most part, married life is pretty much the same as pre-married life. The good thing is that married life is still pretty dang good!
There have been two specific things that have been the hardest for me to get used to. The first is calling Sarah my wife instead of my girlfriend or fiancee. You would not believe how hard it is to get that right the first few weeks after the wedding. In fact, after getting back from my honeymoon, I went to the Rockies' play-in game at Coors Field. As we were sitting there, the guy next to me and I were conversing about Jamie Carroll. I said, "My girlfriend thinks it is funny that he could fit in her clothes." Then after realizing what I had said, I said, "I mean my wife." He may or may not have given me a strange look. I told him, "It has been pretty recent." I'm not sure he was quite on board with my excuse!
The other thing that is a weird transition is the complete combining of our finances. Now granted, we had been very aware of each other's financial situations. We did just pay for a wedding and we had a joint "wedding" account. However, when it came time to buy Sarah's birthday present, it became painfully obvious that I was using her money (technically) to buy her present. It was a weird feeling. I can't really describe it more than that. It was just bizarre to realize something like that. It is a feeling you can't prepare yourself for. Weird.
Since the wedding and honeymoon, life has pretty much returned to normal (without the stress from the wedding planning). The last couple weeks of work have dominated my schedule. Both projects that I am working on have deliverables due the same week. This makes for lots of work with little time for Mikey. So I have been making myself comfortable in my little cube way more than I would like to be there. Thankfully, I have cooled out this afternoon so I can coast into the weekend!
By the way, my wife is the greatest wife ever. For multiple reasons. But one of the more recent reasons involves her buying me a Wii for my birthday/Christmas/Valentine's Day/Flag Day. The Wii is such an incredible gaming experience. The normal button pushing is still there, it is just combine with arm motions and craziness! I am a huge fan of all the games I have played so far (Mario Party 8, Metroid Prime: Corruption, Wii Sports, Madden '08, The Bigs, Tiger Woods '08). I think the next ones to try will be Guitar Hero and one of the Tony Hawk games. I'll let you know how it goes.
"Remember, remember, the 5th of November, the gunpowder, treason, and plot.
I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot."
On the 5th of November, Ron Paul's raised $4.2 million for his presidential campaign. That value is a GOP record for fundraising in a 24 hour period. His campaign staff used Guy Fawkes Day (November 5th), as a basis for their fundraising efforts. They wanted to raise awareness for the libertarian cause as they raised money for their candidate. Let's hope that Ron Paul's presence in the Republican primary opens a lot of eyes about the ridiculousness of our current government state.
The Colorado Rockies will be hosting a series against the AL Central Minnesota Twins the 16th through the 18th of May. Needless to say, I am quite excited for this weekend. I plan on being at all three games. Let me know if you are interested in doing the same.
Once again, I apologize for the delay between posts. With the wedding over and the work chaos dying down a little bit, I hope to be on top of this little blog thing.
Talk to you all soon,
Mikey
There have been two specific things that have been the hardest for me to get used to. The first is calling Sarah my wife instead of my girlfriend or fiancee. You would not believe how hard it is to get that right the first few weeks after the wedding. In fact, after getting back from my honeymoon, I went to the Rockies' play-in game at Coors Field. As we were sitting there, the guy next to me and I were conversing about Jamie Carroll. I said, "My girlfriend thinks it is funny that he could fit in her clothes." Then after realizing what I had said, I said, "I mean my wife." He may or may not have given me a strange look. I told him, "It has been pretty recent." I'm not sure he was quite on board with my excuse!
The other thing that is a weird transition is the complete combining of our finances. Now granted, we had been very aware of each other's financial situations. We did just pay for a wedding and we had a joint "wedding" account. However, when it came time to buy Sarah's birthday present, it became painfully obvious that I was using her money (technically) to buy her present. It was a weird feeling. I can't really describe it more than that. It was just bizarre to realize something like that. It is a feeling you can't prepare yourself for. Weird.
Since the wedding and honeymoon, life has pretty much returned to normal (without the stress from the wedding planning). The last couple weeks of work have dominated my schedule. Both projects that I am working on have deliverables due the same week. This makes for lots of work with little time for Mikey. So I have been making myself comfortable in my little cube way more than I would like to be there. Thankfully, I have cooled out this afternoon so I can coast into the weekend!
By the way, my wife is the greatest wife ever. For multiple reasons. But one of the more recent reasons involves her buying me a Wii for my birthday/Christmas/Valentine's Day/Flag Day. The Wii is such an incredible gaming experience. The normal button pushing is still there, it is just combine with arm motions and craziness! I am a huge fan of all the games I have played so far (Mario Party 8, Metroid Prime: Corruption, Wii Sports, Madden '08, The Bigs, Tiger Woods '08). I think the next ones to try will be Guitar Hero and one of the Tony Hawk games. I'll let you know how it goes.
"Remember, remember, the 5th of November, the gunpowder, treason, and plot.
I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot."
On the 5th of November, Ron Paul's raised $4.2 million for his presidential campaign. That value is a GOP record for fundraising in a 24 hour period. His campaign staff used Guy Fawkes Day (November 5th), as a basis for their fundraising efforts. They wanted to raise awareness for the libertarian cause as they raised money for their candidate. Let's hope that Ron Paul's presence in the Republican primary opens a lot of eyes about the ridiculousness of our current government state.
The Colorado Rockies will be hosting a series against the AL Central Minnesota Twins the 16th through the 18th of May. Needless to say, I am quite excited for this weekend. I plan on being at all three games. Let me know if you are interested in doing the same.
Once again, I apologize for the delay between posts. With the wedding over and the work chaos dying down a little bit, I hope to be on top of this little blog thing.
Talk to you all soon,
Mikey
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Waning Freedom
Here I sit just a few days away from being an old married man. The random thoughts as the day edges closer. . .
- For all of you single men out there, here is my advice to you. Find a girl that is not a girly-girl. Find a girl who doesn't stress out about little things and just goes with the flow. The last two weeks, when most brides crank up the bitch-o-meter, Sarah has stayed calm and composed. I am a lucky, lucky man!
- Working the week before your wedding is a joke. I normally lack focus from time to time, but this week has been absurb. Not much getting done here.
- Although it was nice to have the Rockies playing meaningful games in September, their success was very bittersweet to me. I love the Rockies, so I enjoy having them succeed. However, they were successful despite the fact that Clint Hurdle was their manager. Now because of the success, the Monforts can keep Hurdle around, screw the fans and prepare to unload all their awesome young talent. I hate those brothers.
- I hope the first two games of the season are not an indication of how the Broncos will play all year. We barely got by against two mediocre teams.
- I wish that Focus on the Family would crawl in a hole and never be heard from again. That is seriously one of the most annoying organizations ever created. I do enjoy those bumper stickers you see every once in a while that say "Focus On Your Own Damn Family".
- Speaking of bumper stickers, I have seen this one lately that cracks me up. It says, "Don't Steal: The Government Hates Competition".
- I, too, think that I should sue God. http://www.denverpost.com/ci_6926550
- One week from now, I will be relaxing in Mexico. Life is rough.
- Is it too early to predict a Stanley Cup for the Avs?
- Last night, on my way to my softball game, I followed an older (at least 70's or 80's) driver down Jamison St. from my parent's house. If I ever drive 10 below the speed limit, regardless of my age, please come club me in the face.
- California, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Florida, Georgia, New York, Maryland, District of Columbia, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota - Sarah and I have people coming in from each of these states for our wedding. We are lucky to have such incredible friends and family.
- I went golfing once this summer. Once. And it completely jacked up my softball swing. After a few games of either popping out or having weak grounders, I hit the cages for a half an hour or so last week. The average is on its way back up, thank goodness.
- The best thing about this wedding is the fact that we will get to spend some time with all the important people in our lives. Unfortunately, it is not going to be a lot of time. A lot of people will be in and out of Colorado fairly quickly.
- I am praying that we snap our 9 game losing streak this week.
- On that note, sorry to Adam Finney for making him miss the game! (He lives in Houston. This weekend may have been his only chance to see the Rams in person all year. Oops!)
- Sarah and I will have been engaged 18 months to the day on our wedding day. How about that for timing?
That is about it for me. I can't wait for all the festivities to begin! Next post: post Mexico, I would imagine!
Monday, August 27, 2007
Less than a month
Time flies by fast, but it speeds up more when a wedding is approaching. I can't believe I am less than three months away from being an old married man. Crazy. However, time does tick by ever so slowly when I have a terrible case of ADD at work like is happening right now. I swear it has been 3:30 for 3 hours now.
We are getting to the home stretch now. Last month of being the wild and crazy bachelor that I am now! We have started to write the last checks and make the last preparations. I will not be sad to see the planning process disappear. But enough about the wedding. Let's focus on some more interesting topics.
Restaurant Review:
Fortune City (Chinese and Vietnamese)
Located at Jewell and Wadsworth, Fortune City offers sit down, take out, and delivery Chinese food. Sarah and I have had food delivered from this place in the past and it was good, so we decided to stop in for dinner this past weekend. Sarah had sesame chicken, I had Mongolian beef, and we split an order of crab cheese wontons. Sarah's chicken was good but not spectacular. The wontons (with spicy mustard and sweet and sour sauce) were great. But the Mongolian beef was excellent. I would definitely recommend this little joint. For the money, it was good stuff.
Movie Review:
Superbad
I can review this movie with one word: superawesome. But why use one word when you can use many? This movie is hilarious. I was laughing beginning to end. When I say beginning, I mean beginning. The 70's style silouette dancing got the movie off to a great start. The jokes were dirty and immature, but when even Sarah is laughing, you have yourself a winner! The bad part is that I was laughing so hard at certain points during the movie, I missed the next punchline. I guess I will have to watch it again to catch the rest of the zingers. However, I was a little worried about the girl in the theater that sat next to Augie. Despite the fact that everyone in the theater was laughing (including all her girlfriends) she remained stone-faced the entire movie. Either she hates the world or she is a communist. Or both. All in all, I enjoyed this movie more than Knocked Up, which was written by the same people. Go and check it out.
Softball Review:
Taboma (Sunday night co-ed)
We ended the season in first place, which meant we all got hoodies that say "badass" across the chest. This particular park has one central tournament for all the leagues throughout the week. Since we won our Sunday league, we had a first round bye in a double elimination tournament. Unfortunately, four of our girls were unable to make the Saturday tournament. Two of these four girls are Sarah (college softball player) and Tina (solid softball player). They are also our two best girl hitters on the team. Kind of a big hole to fill. The girls we had play with us for the tournament were a huge, huge, HUGE step down. Couple that with the fact that our team couldn't hit the ball if it were on a tee, we lost our first game to the eventual second place team. So we moved to the losers bracket and proceeded to lose to a far inferior team that just annihilated our right fielder (a late add-on to the team). All in all, it was a pathetic attempt at softball from a good softball team. At least we got the sweatshirts, right? And for those of you who are interested, Taboma (the name of our team) comes from ancient Greek mythology. Taboma was a Greek god of anger and his name was derived from the phrase "Take A Bite Outta My Ass".
We are getting to the home stretch now. Last month of being the wild and crazy bachelor that I am now! We have started to write the last checks and make the last preparations. I will not be sad to see the planning process disappear. But enough about the wedding. Let's focus on some more interesting topics.
Restaurant Review:
Fortune City (Chinese and Vietnamese)
Located at Jewell and Wadsworth, Fortune City offers sit down, take out, and delivery Chinese food. Sarah and I have had food delivered from this place in the past and it was good, so we decided to stop in for dinner this past weekend. Sarah had sesame chicken, I had Mongolian beef, and we split an order of crab cheese wontons. Sarah's chicken was good but not spectacular. The wontons (with spicy mustard and sweet and sour sauce) were great. But the Mongolian beef was excellent. I would definitely recommend this little joint. For the money, it was good stuff.
Movie Review:
Superbad
I can review this movie with one word: superawesome. But why use one word when you can use many? This movie is hilarious. I was laughing beginning to end. When I say beginning, I mean beginning. The 70's style silouette dancing got the movie off to a great start. The jokes were dirty and immature, but when even Sarah is laughing, you have yourself a winner! The bad part is that I was laughing so hard at certain points during the movie, I missed the next punchline. I guess I will have to watch it again to catch the rest of the zingers. However, I was a little worried about the girl in the theater that sat next to Augie. Despite the fact that everyone in the theater was laughing (including all her girlfriends) she remained stone-faced the entire movie. Either she hates the world or she is a communist. Or both. All in all, I enjoyed this movie more than Knocked Up, which was written by the same people. Go and check it out.
Softball Review:
Taboma (Sunday night co-ed)
We ended the season in first place, which meant we all got hoodies that say "badass" across the chest. This particular park has one central tournament for all the leagues throughout the week. Since we won our Sunday league, we had a first round bye in a double elimination tournament. Unfortunately, four of our girls were unable to make the Saturday tournament. Two of these four girls are Sarah (college softball player) and Tina (solid softball player). They are also our two best girl hitters on the team. Kind of a big hole to fill. The girls we had play with us for the tournament were a huge, huge, HUGE step down. Couple that with the fact that our team couldn't hit the ball if it were on a tee, we lost our first game to the eventual second place team. So we moved to the losers bracket and proceeded to lose to a far inferior team that just annihilated our right fielder (a late add-on to the team). All in all, it was a pathetic attempt at softball from a good softball team. At least we got the sweatshirts, right? And for those of you who are interested, Taboma (the name of our team) comes from ancient Greek mythology. Taboma was a Greek god of anger and his name was derived from the phrase "Take A Bite Outta My Ass".
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Over a month? Damn!
It has been over a month since my last blog. I'm probably not going to get any offers to blog for ESPN.com at this rate! So here is what has been going on.
The siblings graduated within a week of each other in May. As always, the graduation ceremonies were enlightening and wonderful. Get real. We started with Kato's at CSU. Her commencement speaker was THE WORST commencement speaker I have ever experienced. And I have been to several college and high school graduations. The guy was a hippie, liberal, hermit, retired psychology professor that lived in the woods west of Fort Collins. He was old, he mumbled a lot, and he took WAY, WAY too long. It was so bad that at some point, you couldn't hear him in Moby even if you wanted too. Everyone had completely tuned him out and were having side conversations. Terrible, terrible speaker. I can never figure out why they don't have better commencement speakers. They always go for the "elite" alumni and former staff that are out of touch, don't have a clue, and can't annunciate. My goal is to get connected to the people who select commencement speakers so that I can give the commencement speech at my brothers graduation (which will be 4-8 years from now). I could burp and fart into the microphone for 10 minutes and it would still be more rewarding to the graduates than some of the other speeches I have heard. Speaking of my brother. . .
Mullen's graduation was the following Thursday. Chew's graduation was much better. It is a full Mass at Boecher (that spelling doesn't look right) Concert Hall. It is the usual pomp and circumstance, but much more bearable. And we didn't have to sit through a horrendous commencement speech! In August, Chew heads off to CSU. I think my family has a slight love affair with Fort Collins! He's going to live in Braiden Hall and he's hoping to get a degree in Biomedical Science. He is excited (as expected) and my parents are looking forward to being empty nesters for good. I'm guessing some traveling will be in their future. They might just take off right after dropping him off at the dorms!
Now back to me and Sarah. . . apparently, we are getting married in a couple months. Two months and 5 days, to be exact. Things are moving along, but there are so many little details that you just don't think about. Last night, we stuffed most of our invitations, so they are almost ready to go. We only had a couple typos and one address that we forgot to change. One of Sarah's former coworkers printed all the addresses for us. It was a huge help and one less thing for us to worry about. Other than that, things are moving forward. We have a long laundry list of things that we need to get done this week. We are to the point where we have to start writing all the remaining checks for the church, the flowers, the photographer, the DJ, stuff like that. Thankfully, we have been really good about budgeting, and we will be good to go on the financial end. I know I have said this before, but I am continually amazed at how much cold hard cash goes into a wedding. It doesn't help that Sarah and I both have pretty large families! But we want them to be there, so that makes the financial burden a little easier.
The rest of my time has been one of four things: working, softball, sleeping, and eating. Not much else.
Work is going well. I am fortunate in that my company is getting a ton of work right now. I (until just recently) was basically booked full time on three separate projects. Since we just hired another lower-level engineer, I'm only booked full time on two projects! As a result, I have been working a fair amount and I have been busy when I am in the office. I don't care what anybody says, being busy at work is 100 times better than not having anything to do. It makes the time go that much quicker.
I'm still playing softball 4 nights a week. I have two games left in my HDR league, so that will open up my Tuesday nights after next week. Our Friday league is starting to wind down, so I will be down to just Sundays and Mondays pretty soon. It is a blast, like always, but it will be nice to open up some extra time to just relax (meaning work on the wedding).
And this is for you Timmay:
Rockies: 46-46, 6.5 games back in the NL West
After losing a series in Milwaukee, the Rockies took the first game against the Pirates to bring their record back to .500. They almost lost a 9-1 lead, but pulled out a 10-8 win. The late relievers (Hawkins, Julio, Corpas) pitched 3 2/3 scoreless innings to put a stop to the Pirates late rally. Tonight, Josh Fogg takes the mound for the Rox as they try to win that elusive road series victory.
Twins: 49-43, 6.0 games back in the AL Central
The Twins swept the A's in Minnesota to start the second half of the season. After a inconsistant and streaky first half, the Twinkies look to find some consistancy in the second half. They started off on the right foot with good pitching across the board and a productive offense through the whole series. Up next is a three game set with the AL Central leading Tigers.
Maybe if I used this blog thing more often, the posts wouldn't be so long. I'll work on it. And I still owe you all some pictures of the house and Sarah's car. We did just get new furniture, so I think now is a good time to take some pictures of the pad! Hope everything is well with all of you.
Mike
The siblings graduated within a week of each other in May. As always, the graduation ceremonies were enlightening and wonderful. Get real. We started with Kato's at CSU. Her commencement speaker was THE WORST commencement speaker I have ever experienced. And I have been to several college and high school graduations. The guy was a hippie, liberal, hermit, retired psychology professor that lived in the woods west of Fort Collins. He was old, he mumbled a lot, and he took WAY, WAY too long. It was so bad that at some point, you couldn't hear him in Moby even if you wanted too. Everyone had completely tuned him out and were having side conversations. Terrible, terrible speaker. I can never figure out why they don't have better commencement speakers. They always go for the "elite" alumni and former staff that are out of touch, don't have a clue, and can't annunciate. My goal is to get connected to the people who select commencement speakers so that I can give the commencement speech at my brothers graduation (which will be 4-8 years from now). I could burp and fart into the microphone for 10 minutes and it would still be more rewarding to the graduates than some of the other speeches I have heard. Speaking of my brother. . .
Mullen's graduation was the following Thursday. Chew's graduation was much better. It is a full Mass at Boecher (that spelling doesn't look right) Concert Hall. It is the usual pomp and circumstance, but much more bearable. And we didn't have to sit through a horrendous commencement speech! In August, Chew heads off to CSU. I think my family has a slight love affair with Fort Collins! He's going to live in Braiden Hall and he's hoping to get a degree in Biomedical Science. He is excited (as expected) and my parents are looking forward to being empty nesters for good. I'm guessing some traveling will be in their future. They might just take off right after dropping him off at the dorms!
Now back to me and Sarah. . . apparently, we are getting married in a couple months. Two months and 5 days, to be exact. Things are moving along, but there are so many little details that you just don't think about. Last night, we stuffed most of our invitations, so they are almost ready to go. We only had a couple typos and one address that we forgot to change. One of Sarah's former coworkers printed all the addresses for us. It was a huge help and one less thing for us to worry about. Other than that, things are moving forward. We have a long laundry list of things that we need to get done this week. We are to the point where we have to start writing all the remaining checks for the church, the flowers, the photographer, the DJ, stuff like that. Thankfully, we have been really good about budgeting, and we will be good to go on the financial end. I know I have said this before, but I am continually amazed at how much cold hard cash goes into a wedding. It doesn't help that Sarah and I both have pretty large families! But we want them to be there, so that makes the financial burden a little easier.
The rest of my time has been one of four things: working, softball, sleeping, and eating. Not much else.
Work is going well. I am fortunate in that my company is getting a ton of work right now. I (until just recently) was basically booked full time on three separate projects. Since we just hired another lower-level engineer, I'm only booked full time on two projects! As a result, I have been working a fair amount and I have been busy when I am in the office. I don't care what anybody says, being busy at work is 100 times better than not having anything to do. It makes the time go that much quicker.
I'm still playing softball 4 nights a week. I have two games left in my HDR league, so that will open up my Tuesday nights after next week. Our Friday league is starting to wind down, so I will be down to just Sundays and Mondays pretty soon. It is a blast, like always, but it will be nice to open up some extra time to just relax (meaning work on the wedding).
And this is for you Timmay:
Rockies: 46-46, 6.5 games back in the NL West
After losing a series in Milwaukee, the Rockies took the first game against the Pirates to bring their record back to .500. They almost lost a 9-1 lead, but pulled out a 10-8 win. The late relievers (Hawkins, Julio, Corpas) pitched 3 2/3 scoreless innings to put a stop to the Pirates late rally. Tonight, Josh Fogg takes the mound for the Rox as they try to win that elusive road series victory.
Twins: 49-43, 6.0 games back in the AL Central
The Twins swept the A's in Minnesota to start the second half of the season. After a inconsistant and streaky first half, the Twinkies look to find some consistancy in the second half. They started off on the right foot with good pitching across the board and a productive offense through the whole series. Up next is a three game set with the AL Central leading Tigers.
Maybe if I used this blog thing more often, the posts wouldn't be so long. I'll work on it. And I still owe you all some pictures of the house and Sarah's car. We did just get new furniture, so I think now is a good time to take some pictures of the pad! Hope everything is well with all of you.
Mike
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