The Merge

Everyone is out for themselves now, so that may mean the end for Judd unless Jamie can pull off his little plan of taking him to the final two. What perfect timing for Danni though. It was a great idea on her part to share the chocolate with everyone for he birthday. I think that will win her some points.

I just want to say that making those cards was a neat idea, but man, could he have been any more dainty about it. "We got all these little leaves together and painted numbers on them. We got all the suits for a full deck of card, including the jokers." Guess you had to be there.

I have decided to stop watching the previews for next week. I am tired of how they build something up and mislead you. Last week the preview showed that Amy figured out Gary's little secret and confronted him about it. Then this week they were just joking around. Every week somethign like this happens. I suppose they are trying to get you to return next week. Well, new flash, I will return next week you don't have to lie to me. If the show is good enough, that should be enough.

Regular Customer

I have been in my new building for some time now and I continue to frequent the local Quiznoes sub shop. I still enjoy the freshly toasted wonder that they produce so my visits per week remain quite high. There is an employee there who has flagged me as a "regular customer". I knew this was inevitable, so I had already prepared myself for it, or so I thought. The past few times I have gone in, she says to me, "Oh hi. The usual today?". To keep myself interested in eating there so often, I make it a point to never have the same sub twice in a row, nor the same sub within the same week. I have found about 5 subs that I enjoy and I rotate through them pretty equally. Now somehow this employee was able to calculate my "usual" apparently using some complex algorithm that it unknown to me, since I don't even know my usual. So I have been kindly replying, "No, I think I'll go with the whatever sub today". I have been wondering if I have said no to my usual but then ordered it anyway. Well, today I felt a little courageous and decided to find out what my usual is. She grabs a white sub, good so far, and then just started piling stuff on. I wasn't really sure what she was making. Then as she placed the sub into the oven, she shouted Cabo Chicken. Hum, I thought. Well, that is interesting; I guess my usual is a sub I have never tried before. It turns out it was pretty good, so I can now add that to my rotation. I wonder what my usual will be tomorrow......

Firefly

I finally got a chance to figure out what all this fuss about Serenity is. I missed the privilege of seeing firefly on television, but thanks to invention of DVDs, I was able to see it. I have only finished 2 episodes and I am already a huge fan! This show is great! It is one of the more unique shows I have seen in a long time. The show is setup like a Sci-fi Western. The music, laws, costumes, and feel of the movie are all western, but they fly around in space ships. It sounds a little goofy, but it is put together so well, you will love it if you ever get the chance to see it. The main characters are a group of guns for hire/salvage crew. They take what jobs they can, but try to keep a moral stance. The main focus is on these characters and the situations rather than just mindless blasting. The ship they fly is "Firefly" class and the name of it is Serenity; hence the name of the show and movie. There was only one season made of the series and then it was canceled. The geniuses who aired the show really screwed the puch on this one. They didn't air the episodes in order, it was on at odd times, and had poor advertisement. However, even with only one season, it had already formed a huge fan base. These fans pushed for more seasons only to fail again and again. Then, they finally got something out of it, and a movie was created. I am hoping to finish the first season quick, so I can catch the movie while it is still in the theaters. Be sure to visit my picture archive to meet the crew.

Double Loss

Two people out in one episode. Hum, they really want to limit the season to 14 episodes I guess. I suppose you have to if you want to have 2 seasons a year. Anyway, sorry about the late survivor reaction. I was internetless this weekend, so I had to wait until today. I must say I am happy to see Mr. Smiley go. He was totally blindsided:) I didn't really care either way with Margaret, she wasn't really a part of the show. Now Judd, on the other hand, makes sure his is part of the show. I would hate to be there with him. He really has a temper. I wonder if the extra beers had anything to do with it? I was actually nervous during tribal council. He isn't going to win if he keeps that up. Speaking of tempers, what is with Bobby Jon? Crazy man! Jamie could take him down in a second.

R.E.M.

I had a very detailed and creepy dream last night. I usually dream every night, but this one, for some reason, I remember every detail. Just shows you how much I am waking up during the night:) I've heard that some people dream in black and white, but this one was ever livin' lovin' color. Alot of times I dream in third person, but last night was first person. Anyway, here is my dream:

I was myself and my sister and friend Mark was with me. It was about mid-day and we were walking down a street. We stopped at this bar because they were giving out free shots of vodka. (Yuck, but it sounded good to me in the dream). My sister didn't want one, but Mark and I did so we went in. Mark and my sister sat down, and I got my shot. The bartender ask me what kind I would like. I looked way up at the top of his shelves and got the lemon Grey Goose Vodka. He smirked knowing that I knew what the most expensive was and just choose that for that reason. He was nice about it though and poured me my free shot and gave me a half full glass of some red punch as a chaser. I took the shot and walked over to where Mark and my sister we sitting. It was a high round table for four with bar stools. (I don't recognize the bar, though in my dream I had gone there many times for lunch). We sat there and all of a sudden my sister hurls. This was no ordinary up-chuck, it was pure ketchup. I would say about a half gallon of it spewed out of her onto the floor. Then she stood up and shouted, "my ear"! She grabbed her ear and ran to the restroom. The rest of the bar/restaurant became totally silent and was staring at us. The place was half full, but all I remember was an old guy with glasses, he was eating something with a fork. While my sister was in the bathroom, I walked into the kitchen to get some rags to wipe up the ketchup. The owner caught me heading in to the kitchen. I wasn't sure if he knew me or not. I knew who he was, but he isn't usually there when I come for lunch. So I explained that I needed to get some rags to wipe up the mess. He said ok and told me there was some on the counter. I continued into the kitchen, which was very dark by the way like it was closed, and grabbed two rags. The rags were white with blue stripes on one side. When I came back to the table my sister was there. She was upset, holding a rag on her bleeding ear. I asked what happened. She said, worriedly, that she was at a firing range and someone shot a hand-gun right next to her ear. (My dream suddenly jumped to third person and I was watching the incident happen in slow motion. Just like they do flashbacks in CSI. That must be where that part of the dream came from). Once the flashback was done, I returned to first person. I told my sister that it was normal for that to happen and it will go away. She asked me how long, it had been two months already. I said it will be less and less a problem and go away soon. Then I woke up.

What the hell? I don't know what Mark was doing there, but my advice to my sister is, Don't go to a firing range.

Game on!

All you need is a couple of computers, two guys, a bunch of cable, 50 gallons of Mountian Dew, 3 bags of chips and 48 hours. Then you have an ultimate gaming weekend. We have been given the gift of time and we plan to sit on our asses for 2 days to play some LAN games. What's on the agenda? We got some WWII sniping in Medal of Honor, a holy quest to free the world from Hellish minions in Diablo 2, and some antitank missiles to fire in Act of War. We may even get a chance to eradicate the evil zerglings in Starcraft or save the city of Neverwinter from a deadly plague in Neverwinter nights. In any case, we will definitely be enjoying our time in an alternate reality.

Maze Craze

All my life I have loved mazes. I used to draw them as a kid and always wanted to be rich enough to have one of those hedge mazes in my back yard. Not much luck there with the rich part, but living in Wisconsin I do get to go through corn mazes every now and then. Well, I got this idea in my head that I think there might be a way for me to build a maze in my backyard. All I would need is some PVC and blue tarp. I drew up a plan and found out that I would need at least 100 points to make a worthy maze. Well, PVC comes in 10 foot lengths. So if I bought 100 of those and cut them to 6 feet, then I would have a 6 foot maze with 4 feet between each point. Well, I went over to the Home Depot and found out that even though PVC is really cheap, it isn't when you want to buy 1000 feet of it. It was somewhere around $270; and that didn't include the blue tarp. Ok, there goes my dream. But then, I was mowing the lawn yesterday, and saw my Christmas lights still up from the 4th of July. (Yeah, that made sense). Anyway, I know I have at least 400 feet of lights. I could make a maze out of Christmas lights! All I would need is 100 plastic garden stakes. No problem they are super cheap. The downside is they are only 3 feet tall, so for this maze you would be able to see the entire maze. I think it might be ok though since it will be dark and the different color lights may help confuse the average maze walker. What do you all think, am I just crazy? I need some support here before my wife will let me pound out a giant plinko board on our lawn.

DD

"Yea, my girlfriend is like a D cup. Yea, and then she took these birth control pills, and now she's like a double D, man". Wow, Blake, that's great. Glad to know. Yesterday's survivor show was the worst episode I have ever seen. First of all, just listening to this group CBS picked out for the show gives me a headache. The IQ of everyone must have been lowered by too much heat and too little food. Secondly, could they make the show any more obvious? We haven't seen anything of Blake for 4 shows and then all of a sudden they dedicate the show to him. Hum, who is getting kicked off I wonder?

Now, finally Steph gets to win a challenge. I thought that I would be happier, but now I'm just glad I don't have to listen to her whine and pout about being such a loser. Maybe we will get to see her better side again now that they have a win under their belt.

So who is next to go:

Bobby Jon, duh.
Guy smiley, Brian.
Mrs. Elvis Lydia.
Deliverance Brandon.
I like crafts, Rafe.

Take your pick.

Lions and Tigers and Natalie

Look out Tiger Woods, we got a golf pro in the works here. We went mini golfing last weekend. This was Natalie's first real game. I say that because she had her own custom club and made it all the way through 18 holes. She is either really lucky or I am going to patent her new golf stroke. I would think that straddling the ball and swinging the club between your legs would generally be a bad idea, but after she got a hole in 1, I stopped questioning it. Especially when I got a 6 on the same hole.

Rooftop cookin'

A few weeks ago I went for a walk near my work. I wandered over to the new parking ramp they built and thought I would go in and check it out. I walked around and around and around and finally got to the top. It is about 5 stories up. I noticed that only the first two levels had cars and the rest was completely empty. It was a very nice parking ramp and was very clean since it was so new. I saw a nice big flat area on the top and then it hit me. We should tailgate up here. So yesterday a couple of us drove up to the top of the ramp. We got out a grill, some brats, lawn chairs, chips, and one of those pink flamingos. We fired up the grill and relaxed while looking at the nice view from the top. We put a couple extra brats on the grill in case security or the fire department came because of the smoke coming off the roof of the parking ramp. Nobody came though, too bad for them. I must say this is one of the best ideas I've had yet.

Freedom

Well, I must say that I am pretty proud of Natalie. She has been using a binky for close to 3 years now. She started, I think around 6 months old and used it throughout the day until she was a little older than 2. We used to call it her "friend" until a funny little thing happened at the store. Natalie needed a new binky, so Mom and her went to go get one. Amy let Natalie hold the binkies in the package as she rode up to the checkout in her cart. Then Amy said, "Ok Natalie, we have to pay for your friends". Just as she said it, she realized what that sounded like.

Anyway, after a while we decided that since Natalie could walk and talk, she didn't need to have the binky during the day. We came up with the Night-night binky. That worked great. She only used the binky at night. Lately though, she would want to take naps all day just to be able to use her binky. She wouldn't nap, just go in her room and put in her binky. Well, a couple weeks ago, Natalie got sick. She got her binky all dirty, so we decided to go cold turkey and end the binky usage. She seem to break the habit pretty fast. She doesn't even ask for it any more.

Now, since there is nothing blocking her voice at night. She likes to talk in her sleep; sort of. She wakes up, says a few things, and then goes back to sleep. Below is a list of her wakeup announcements. Now remember, she sits up, shouts out the phrase, and then goes back to sleep.

1. I want pancakes!
2. I'm twisted!
3. There's a cricket in my blanket! (I turned on the lights, stripped the bed, no cricket)
4. There's a lobster in the water!

Run Brooke Run

Wow, only the fourth show and Jeff has mixed up the teams. I think he was starting to feel sorry for Steph too for loosing and he thought another new team would help. Nope, she is cursed to be on the loosing team. At least she is not a quitter and stays in high spirits. I wonder if they are going to mix the team twice this season since they have done it so early?

So now Danni and Gary are on the same team. He must have turned green when that happened. How long is everyone else going to believe that he was not a quarterback? Speaking of Danni, I think they understated that she is in need of nourishment. She is not going to be able to make it at the rate she is deteriorating.

I think I have picked a favorite for this season; Steph doesn't count, she is already my favorite from last season. It would have to be Judd. Pretty funny guy. I hope at least he make it farther than Mr. Smiley Brian.

What is happening?

So the Packers loose to the Lions on their first game of the 2005 season. That sucked, but it happens. I though, next week it is a home game they will do better. The Browns came in and crapped all over our lawn. Well, now we are 0 and 2, and we haven't been 0 and 3 since like 1984. I wasn't worried then the following week with another home game. Again, another loss. Then this week, I was praying for something good to happen. I sleeplessly turned on my TV at 8:00pm on a Monday night to watch a 3 hour game knowing that I would have to get up all night with the new baby. They had better not waste my time. Then I sat there and watched hour after hour the packers make mistakes, miss tackles, and not get touchdowns. Finally, after half their team was out of the game due to injuries, they started to play some football and catch up. 1 minute left in the game and I though this might be worthwhile after all. What a come back that would be. But it didn't happen and the Packers continue to be in dead last. One good thing though is that the rest of the NFC North also sucks, so we are still only a game and a half from first place and still on the road to the play-offs.