Month: August 2004

Last night was supposed to be our regular “guys night” but I needed to get a few things done on my house. We’ll be putting the house up on the market this week and there just a few things we need to get done. Around 1998 I installed a garage door opener on my single car garage with the help of my brother and my Dad. I didn’t have the wiring done so I ran an extension cord to the opener. It’s worked that way since. Last night (with my Dad’s guidance and assistance) we finished the wiring in the garage. It looks Fantastic—very professional!

My Dad is so awesome when it comes to helping his sons out. It doesn’t happen as much as it used to I’m sure, but he’s always willing to help out… with a little prodding on the timeline. He also delivered my birthday presents from him and my mom. The first was an Elvis clock that actually plays portions of “Don’t Be Cruel” and “Hound Dog” alternately at the top of the hour. The other present was a little bit of $$ in a home-made card! $$ is always good.

In addition to helping out with the garage, my dad also took the pile of rubble that was sitting in the back yard from when I banged out some sidewalk for a little landscaping. There is a dump up there that will take that sort of stuff. Our garbage man won’t take “building materials”.

I was also able to get the sanding done in the entry-way to the basement and put the light switch cover on. These are things that I should have done months ago—but haven’t. It all looks great now—thanks to more painting skills by Heather.

Later Rob and I ended up meeting Hutch at Quinn’s for some fish and chips. Then we all went back to my place and hung out, listened to music and played some old school Activision classics on the PS2.

I highly recommend the PS2 Activision Anthology disc. It comes with over 40 Atari games (including two never released) and has a great 80s soundtrack (though the soundtrack is only about 10-12 songs). It has a fabulous interface too. Here is a photo of it.

Well it all started with a bang last Friday after a long day at work. Heather, my fiancee, was waiting for me at home with a pile of presents and flowers. She bought me several short-sleeved, bowling-style shirts and the special edition of Escape from New York–which I had asked for on my birthday list. What I didn’t expect to get was Knight Rider the entire first season! The funny part is this–we’d all been talking about Scotty and Star Trek on misterabsurd.com and the subject of Knight Rider came up as James Doohan has a cameo in a little known, b-rated Knight Rider sequel: Knight Rider:2000. Included on the first season set is a copy of that movie! I was floored. I’ve already rifled through 6 or 7 episodes. The acting is horrible, the sets are cheesy and you can clearly see all of the stunt doubles faces–it’s AWESOME! It’s so great to see these all over again. I was 10 when that show came on the air! In some ways it’s lost its mystique–but it’s highly enjoyable. Now if we only had the commercials from 1982 as well!

Later that evening the gang assembled at Rob, Ray and Andy Master’s place for the party that Rob had been working on for the past week. It was to celebrate three August birthdays–Mine, Tom Harty’s and Drew’s. Andy Masters made 3 batches of chili and two kinds of beer, Tom Harty brought two kegs of Tom’s best over and Ben Lundgren brought two 40oz Mickey’s along. Don’t worry, I didn’t drink much of it. The chili was SpIcY! The beers were fantastic. Especially the dark ale that I requested Andy make. He did a great job.

From Rob I received 8 pilsner style beer glasses and two shotglasses from San Diego. He also got me a personal hygiene kit complete with nose trimmer. Thanks Rob! From Adam V and Dena I received a fantastic new party game called FACT or CRAP which was broken in at the party. Thanks Adam and Dena! From Drew I received a mix cd–which I’ve not yet listened to. Included with the CD was a scratch off ticket–I didn’t win. 🙁 Thanks Drew! From Tom and Gwen I received a Michael Jackson book! No. Not that Michael Jackson. That’s right, I’m talking about the foremost expert in Scotch. It’s a book on Scotland and Scotch. Thanks Tom and Gwen! From Heather’s sisters, Audra and Kelly, I received a $20 gift certificate to Best Buy (which bought me Predator the Special Edition) and lot’s of hugs. Thanks Audra and Kelly!

The following day (my actual birthday) was spent mostly watching Knight Rider and doing a little bit of work on our house. My immediate family all called to say, “Happy Birthday”. That was nice. My aunt and uncle, Jan and George, also stopped by and delivered a wine tote complete with two glasses and bottle opener–and wine (Jacob’s Creek Shiraz)! Later we attended Heather’s cousins, Wes’ and Kelly’s wedding. It was a beautiful wedding–tho a bit far away. It was at an apple orchard in Jordan, MN–and the weather held out very nicely for the newlyweds. The entire family seemed to really enjoy it. Heather made sure to prod a few of her family members to wish me happy birthday. Though they happily did it on their own. 🙂 She is the best. Heather’s mom Jackie had a whole party in her friend Mark’s trunk! She bought me a little decorated (and personalized) cake from Lund’s! With candles! Not only that she found me my coveted “knobby bottomed glasses”! For some time I’ve wanted glasses with knobs on the bottom. The kind that don’t stick to coasters! Heather’s mom bought me a set of 8 low-balls and 8 tom-collins. They’re perfect! I also received an “I Love Lucy” talking bottle opener from Deja! Thanks Jackie and Deja!

Yesterday was spent mostly hanging around the house–until 2:00pm. Heather had arranged for all of the “kids” to have one last picture taken in front of her grandma’s home before the upcoming closing. Almost everyone showed up! It was really quite a pleasure to watch everyone come together one last time to get a picture or two snapped off. I played photographer and enjoyed it very much. Heather will be posting the pictures from that session later tonight.

All-in-all the weekend was pretty good–a little busy–but good.

Thanks to all–and a special thanks to Heather.

Why do people buy cooler lunch bags? They don’t use them anyway.

I brought my lunch to work today. I put it into a paper sack–you know, the old standard. So I go to put it in the fridge at work. At least 40 other people have brought their lunches too–in coolers. Now, riddle me this, Batman: Why do you need a COOLER if you’re going to put your lunch in the FRIDGE?

There was no room for my lunch so I took some coolers out and smashed my lunch to the back wall of the fridge. Stupid coolers.

Harumpf.