New Pictures

It's been forever since I actually uploaded new pictures here, but I finally managed to wrestle the photos out of my phone and onto the internet. There's a bunch of them in the photo gallery (top left up there), but here are a few to whet your appetite.

This is just a neat picture of the Capitol in Madison.

This is where I sit in our new office (which isn't that new any more). I took this the day we moved in - there's a lot more junk around now.

I've recently begun parking in a different part of the garage, and apparently it's where the super-wealthy people park. I've started taking pictures of the fanciest cars I see.

The only time the Saab and the truck met. Gotta love tan cars!

2003 Saab 9-5

Joe and Pat at the end of a long night in Minneapolis.

Beaming with Pride

It has recently come to my attention that if you search for Nerf Sniper Rifle on Google Images my website comes up twice on the first page of results.

There is no greater honor.

The first glimpse of hope for Transformers 2

I didn't really have any problem with Michael Bay until what he did to me beloved Transformers. I still don't mind if he makes other moves I don't care about, but I want him to stay far, far away from Transformers 2. Thus, allow me to be the first to say: HOORAY! HOORAY FOR PARAMOUNT'S LOVE OF HD-DVD! HOORAY!!!!

The Contents of my Safe

I really want to get a safe. My friend Rory has one, and it's like the coolest thing I've ever seen. I'll probably start with a little lock box thing, one of those fire-proof cases that responsible people have. The contents of this box are basically designed such that if everything else I own is destroyed I could have this box and still be alright. In the future this will evolve into a safe at home and a secret storage garage somewhere. In the secret garage I will keep a car, my papers, a packed suitcase, and everything else I need to go on the lam at a moment's notice. I will keep the location of this garage a secret from everyone but one trusted party, who I will turn to for assistance if needed. As I drive off into the Canadian wilderness, the KGB miles behind, I'll look back with a grin on the days when all I had was a small box containing:

-Passport
-Car Title
-Apartment Lease
-Social Security Card
-Whatever other papers you always need to know the location of
-Maria's copies of all these things
-Bottle of 20 year-old scotch
-Bar of silver (Rory has one - and he's cool)
-Wad of cash
-Fake moustache

Additional contents ten years from now:
-1994 Saab 900 turbo convertible
-2017 BMW M5
-Much, much larger wad of cash (in a titanium suitcase)
-Several priceless works of art
-Whatever type of non-lethal, highly-effective weaponry is available at the time
-A half empty bottle of now 30 year-old scotch
-Deed to my house
-Deed to my secret house in the Canadian wilderness
-A pair of really expensive sunglasses
-Several pounds of C-4 (to destroy any evidence of my existance left behind)

Fall TV

It's time for that annual tradition where I give you a little glimpse into my living room and leave you wondering how I have so much free time and also lower your opinion of me just a little bit more.

I'm starting to compile my list of shows to check out this fall. I always start off with a million shows that I record, then whittle that down to several hundred thousand after things like The Nine turn out to be soooo boring. I make no apologies for any of these choices, and if you can't recognize the genius in GREEK then you're just no good. Below are lists of new shows to check out, shows I'll return to and shows that I'm currently watching (and will probably end their seasons relatively soon).

I am undoubtly missing some great shows here - some because I just forgot and some because I haven't heard of them. Please add to these lists in the comments. I'll release the full schedule spreadsheet later (one can only record two things at a time, so choices have to be made).

New to Check Out
Heroes: Origins - Heroes Jr.
Chuck - computer programmer becomes super spy
Kid Nation - kids run a town by themselves; probably cry a lot
The Bionic Woman - you know the scoop
The IT Crowd - the Office exclusively with nerds, I guess
Pushing Up Dasies - guy can bring things back to life
The Carpoolers - four guys carpool daily, talk about stuff

Returning
Weeds
Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Lost
The Office
My Name is Earl
30 Rock
Scrubs
Friday Night Lights
Heroes
24
Andy Barker, P.I. (if it comes back - I'm not clear just how cancelled this one is)
Grey's Anatomy
How I Met Your Mother


Currently Watching
GREEK
Mad Men (may kill this one)
Rescue Me
Psych
Knights of Prosperity

The Impending End of Summer

My life still very much follows the school calendar; instead of New Years, I still see the end of summer as the beginning of another year. I find this still works in the working world - even if I wasn't tied to the school year by outside factors, everyone sort of buckles down for another season of serious work in the fall, and relaxes a bit in the summer. With that annual cycle coming to a close, I feel compelled to take stock.

This is always a time of change, and there's plenty going on right now. Happily, much of it is good, though some of these things suck:

Maria's New Job: Maria graduated with her MFA in creative writing last spring, and she's just about to start her first full time writing job at a cool little shop that produces "e-learning" materials. Ask her for details - it sounds like an interesting place to work and a will hopefully prove to be a nice environment. Another good thing about this is that she's solidifying her talent in writing for online materials - a valuable and flexible skill to be sure.

People Moving: Our good friends Ted and Caroline are leaving Chicago for sunnier climes - Indiana! (Hilarious joke alert) They are leaving just as a couple of people from Madison move into town and Harry moves back to America. On top of all that, we just moved ourselves about a month ago. Leases also follow the school year.

Last Hurrahs: Fall and Winter are always times when I work hard, save money and generally keep my head down. There are basically two big last hurrahs this year: The first just happened when several friends from Brookfield visited town, and the true end of Summer will come on September 8th, at Jennifer's wedding. By then the weather will be cooling off, and everybody will be coming together for one last party on Calhoun ave before we disperse to our separate corners and hunker down for the cold.


Looking back on the 2006-2007 year, some really great stuff happened. Much of it has already been mentioned - Maria graduated, got a job, is working on her book, and is generally doing well. My career is going the way I want it to, and I feel like I'm where I want to be in that regard. But there's a lot more to be thankful for. I'm particularly happy that Pat and I have reinvigorated our friendships with the Minneapolis crew (Chris, Joe, Mark, Erin, Chad, Bridgette, etc). It's funny to think that we saw Chris and Joe so rarely for a few years, but now we're back to seeing them every few weeks. I really hope that as time goes on friends who have moved farther away cluster back up.

I also had a great year with my friends in Chicago - the usual gang has taken a few hits, but Ellery, Paul, Ted, and Ben will always be the people I think of as the friends I met in Chicago. Even with Ellery and Ted gone and Ben buried under seven miles of law school, I hope we still get the band back together once in a while.


Looking forward, 2007-2008 should be a good year. The basics (Maria, work, home) are all good, and there are some big events planned that will help pass the time. Thus far I'm looking forward to taking trips around the country with Pat and Joe as well as monthly visits from Joe, the December 30th game at Lambeau, getting to Madison and Minneapolis now and again, and perhaps a long-time-coming trip with Maria. I'm also really excited about the prospect of having Harry around - everybody keep your fingers crossed that he stays in the Midwest!

We must all be getting to the point where we've had our first jobs out of school and are now taking stock of what we really want to do, because there's a lot of talk of people moving. It'll be interesting to see what's going on a couple of years from now. If anybody wants to make some sort of ridiculous pact like "anybody who doesn't have kids has to move to [enter cool mid-sized city here] in 2010" let me know, because I'd be game.

Packers and Saabs: One Good, one Bad

First the thing that sucks: my car is going into the garage again. I bought the 9-5 on May 30th, almost exactly two months ago, and I've already had several little problems with it. I know the previous owner did not take care of it, and I'm hoping that after an initial wave of small repairs I'll have a few generally trouble-free years.

My first bout with the garage took care of a faulty sender unit (which controls the fuel gauge) and dead key batteries. (Both very minor problems.) This trip I'm having them fix my ABS control unit which just died, perform a safety recall on the fuel lines and also fix my compass, which is displaying random directions. Of all these, only the ABS failure will affect driving, but it's annoying to have so many things come up so shortly after buying it. Thank goodness everything is covered by warranty, and hopefully this will be the last round of problems for quite a while.

It's worth noting that even with these annoyances, I still absolutely love the car. It's a joy to drive (especially when everything works!).

Now the good thing: I'm going to a Packers game in Green Bay this season with Pat, Joe and Dan! Tickets are expensive and it's going to be freezing (we're going to the Lions game on December 30th), but I can not wait. It's the last game of the year and against a conference opponent, so who knows, maybe it'll mean something! We'll be freezing our asses of, drinking overpriced beer and cheering on the Packers in person - what a great way to ring in the New Year.