Back from Chi-Town

Aimee & I got back from Chicago last night. It was a fun time! We got to spend time with our nieces and nephew along with my brother, sister and her new husband. We also were able to drive down to Michigan City, IN to see my Grandfather who is not doing so well but he seemed to know who everyone was. Santa dropped off a few gifts which included a 30GB video iPod, MSR MiniWorks EX water filter & some REI gift cards. We will be heading over to the Nordmeyers family x-mas on Saturday for some fun filled action.

Go to hell in style TshirtHell.com

I gave blood this morning for the first time. I enjoyed a large delicious Fig Newton afterwards.
Memorial Blood Centers

Top 5

Since this is my blog I'm going to do whatever the hell I want. And I want to express my thoughts on the Top 5 music ablums of the year 2005.

System of a Down - Mezmerize


Beck - Guero


The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan


Gorillaz - Demon Days


Audioslave - Out Of Exile

First X-Mas Tree

Aimee & I braved the cold last night and headed over to Cub foods to purchase our first Christmas tree. We bought a Scotch Pine...since they are the most popular tree of the season. And yes Mike we bought it from a Boy Scout Troop.

Christmas List

Darwin Award Winner...

So I was sitting here reading through the StarTrib online and I come accross this story, 'Rapper Accidentally Kills Himself With Pen Gun
'. "Steven Zorn had put the pen gun to his head and clicked before, apparently thinking it was jammed and would not work. But on the third try, the tiny silver pistol went off as the 22-year-old budding rap artist was drinking to celebrate an impending record deal. He died at a hospital." "Gee wizz George...this gun will not work. Let me aim it at my head and pull the trigger just to check."

Just for reference lets take a look at what a Pen Gun looks like. (note: The hand model in this fabulous picture is not me but a professional hand model. Please do not try this at home kids.)

B.A.M.F.

If you get a chance go buy the new Dane Cook comedy album called "Retaliation". You will die laughing so hard, I'm not exaggerating. This album debuted on the Billboard charts at #4. Not since the classic Steve Martin album, "A Wild and Crazy Guy" reached No. 2 in 1979 has The Billboard 200 seen a comedy album break the top 5. If you have a high speed 'interweb' machine you can check out his website HERE. There are a bunch of videos of his performances and interviews on the site.

R.I.P.

Noriyuki 'Pat' Morita
6/28/32 - 11/25/05

Walk The Line

If you get a chance go see Walk The Line. This is a phenomenal movie that chronicles Johnny Cash's life starting out on an Arkansas cotton farm to his rise to fame with Sun Records in Memphis, where he recorded alongside Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins. Joaquin Phoenix plays Cash beautifully and along side Cash is his true love (2nd wife) June Carter played by Reese Witherspoon. I've never really listened to Johnny Cash or known about his life story but after this movie you really understand what it was like to become one of the first true rock stars. Joaquin & Reese also recorded their own music for the movie & Reese even sounded better than the real June Carter. This is a must see for any music fan.

Christmas List

I put together a little X-mas wish list for Santa. I also have some stuff Aimee would like. I've been pretty good this year so I hope Santa notices. If I think of more I will update the list so check back.
Christmas Wish List

A Sign From God

I was just doing a google search and came accross this site called Church Sign Generator where you can make your own church signs. Enjoy going to hell in style.

Edit: Also click here to see real church signs...amen.

Snow Job

The first snow of the year finally arrived. The rainy mess of a day yesterday turning into a nice frozen snowy slop overnight. I froze my ass off walking to the transit station today and then the bus was 10 minutes late because they could not get the emergency brake to disengage. Luckily I got my new puffy jacket last week to keep me warm. I must say Mountain Hardwear makes some pretty good gear. My upper body stayed toasty warm because of my jacket while my legs and face turned into popsicles. I don't mind the cold but when that wind is whipping at me at 25mph it's a bit chilly. I know it sounds lazy but I might drive to the transit station and sit in my Jeep until the bus arrives. I stay warm and the Jeep gets started more during the winter.

Fingers are forever....

Thought this was pretty damn funny. This ad was in the DC/Baltimore newpaper.

Busy

Well this next couple weeks will be very busy at work because of the green friday ad. So you may not seen many posts on here during this time and if you don't like it I don't care :) Go check out FatWallet.com if youare bored.

Foiled

My Manager is on vacation in Mexico so we decided to aluminum foil her whole cube. It took 4 of us about 1.5hrs to do & 350sq ft of foil. We will be enlarging the picture to a 8x10 and framing it for her.

The French

ahh fuck em'
Paris on fire

How do you like them apples

It's been pretty quiet as of late. We went down to Emma Krumbee's apple farm last weekend with Jason, Suzie, Laynie & Aimee's parents. It was a bit nippy but we seemed to make the best of it while checking out the scarecrows. The cold weather reminded me that I needed a new winter jacket since I haven't bought a nice one in over 8 years (back in high school). I have been eyeing the Mountain Hardware Sub-Zero jacket since I tried it on at Dicks Sporting Goods. I'm going to give it another fitting today and will be purchasing it off of REI.com since I can get an extra $30 discount with an online coupon code. Other than that Aimee & I will be getting ready for Vegas this weekend.

Powerball

Well tonight is the night. The jackpot is up to $340 Million dollars for tonights Powerball drawing. I bought $10 in tickets from a couple gas stations last night and Aimee needs to buy some more tonight. I wouldn't mind just a couple thousand buck-a-roos. I hope some old rich guy doesn't win like the last time the jackpot got over $300 Million. The odds of winning the jackpot are 146.1 million to 1...so your saying there's a chance!

Fall Paintball 2005

We returned today from our fall paintball trip up north at Andy's Land. It was a beautiful weekend with temps in the 60's and not a cloud in the sky. We started out overloading my Cherokee with everything but the kitchen sink. We had a rack in the front & rear hitch to help carry our gear. Because the weather was so great it made the nights a bit chilly because there were no clouds to help keep the temps up. I was getting rather cold in my sleeping bag so I will have to put a REI mummy bag on my x-mas list this year. We all had a fun time although we (PL crew) ran into some issues because we were using some old paintballs & Corey forgot to bring his hopper. I can't wait until the spring paintball & I really want to go up on a Thursday for the spring fling so I can get an extra day to R&R & work on our camp sites. James, Kris & Andy D., you all better be ready for the spring. You can find all the pictures here.

Paintball

Can't wait for paintball this weekend! Should be a great time. The weather is looking really nice with highs in the upper 50's but the lows in the 30's will be a little chilly at night in the tent. I might have to bring the Little Buddy heater along since I could not gather enough funds for the REI mummy bag I want.

BTW Eric James and Kris Bjorklund both suck for bailing on this trip. Dosdall I don't blame you since you just had something come up.

Python vs. Alligator

Found this story a bit strange...Python Bursts After Trying to Eat Gator

Best Place To Live...

Best Place To Live For The Outdoors

Flooding

Here in Apple Valley/Lakeville area were received around 5-7" of rain last night which caused some flash flooding. The picture is just an example of what HWY 42 looked like in some spots. Some people might think to themselves, "ah I better stay in the house.", but not Aimee & I. After watching the 10pm news and seeing all the pictures we decided to take a little joy ride in the Cherokee around Apple Valley. There were a bunch of cars stalled on HWY 42 with a bunch of dumb asses trying to warn on coming traffic. They should be lucky that they were not run over. I would say the deepest spot I could find was around 2-3 feet. I put the Cherokee in 4wd and drove threw the puddles like a hot knife threw butter. With a Jeep Cherokee on 35" tires there wasn't much to worry about unless I decided to drive into a lake.

Congratulations Corey & Mel!!

Wow what a great day for a wedding!! It was great to see our best friends get married yesterday. I was a little nervous about the speech but it seemed to work out good. The reception was awesome & the beer flowed like wine because if it didn't I wouldn't have been dancin' like a crazy man. Well (that's a deep subject) the Bride & Groom are now off on their honeymoon driving out to Colorado Springs, CO. We (Aimee & I) wish them a great & safe trip!

Read

Nothing new so read this

Pink Houses

We are having our 'Fall Fusion' holiday kick off here at work. This year Best Buy has John Mellencamp coming to play live in the south parking lot. Last year we had Lenny Kravitz which kicked some major ass but I guess John Mellencamp will have to do. I will have to snag as many drink tickets as I can and I'm sure 'Cougar' will start to hurt so good. (hahaha did you get that...I made a funny.)


Edit: Back to work this morning...a little tired. Great concert last night. Mellencamp played mostly his hits like Pink Houses, Jack And Diane, Small Town & R.O.C.K. In The U.S.A. then some newer stuff which sounded pretty good.

Blog Spam?

WTF Blog spam in the comments? Ghey...time for some word verification.

"shawngonzo82266839 said...
i thought your blog was cool and i think you may like this cool Website. now just Click Here "

U of M Stadium

Looks like Best Buy will be a sponsor of the new U of M football stadium
StarTrib Link

A fundraising effort to build a new football stadium for the Minnesota Gophers got a boost today when Best Buy Co. pledged $2.5 million.

The money from the Richfield-based electronics retailer is contingent on the Legislature approving a stadium plan by Feb. 15, Best Buy spokeswoman Kelly Groehler said.

Stadium backers have been pushing Gov. Tim Pawlenty to call lawmakers back to the Capitol this year to vote on the Gophers arena, which would include state dollars covering 40 percent of the total $235 million price tag. Without a special session, lawmakers won't reconvene until March 1.

"Best Buy just gave another two and a half million reasons why we need a special session this fall to get the job done,'' University of Minnesota President Bob Bruininks said in a news release.

Best Buy's contribution is for "sponsorship opportunities,'' the release said, without providing further details. Those would be spelled out in negotiations over the next few months.

Earlier this year, TCF Bank pledged $35 million to hang its name on the stadium. That agreement expires at the end of the year.

New Tent

The Gander Mountain in Bloomington is closing and they have some great deals right now. I picked up a MSR Zoid 2 tent for solo camping at Gilbert and Paintball weekends up north. Yes Nordy I need to come over and check out those tents you have for sale too :)

A spacious, ultralight, 2-person tent. The 4-pound Zoid 2 features 2 huge side entry doors and 2 vestibules, so each person has an entrance plus room for gear. The peak vent and kickstand provide great ventilation, while the fly, poles, and footprint can be set up independently to save weight and increase versatility.

Features:
Ultralight:
Minimum weight is less than 2 lbs. per person.
Versatile:
Fly, poles, and footprint (sold separately) can be set up independently to save weight.
Huge Side Door & Vestibule:
Spacious side-entry door and vestibule for the ultimate in livability.
Great Ventilation:
Excellent high/low venting through a peak vent with kickstand support.

Specifications:
Capacity: 2 People
Floor + Vestibule Area: 30.3 + 11 ft² / 2.7 + 1 m²
Interior Peak Height: 39 in. / 100 cm
Fly w/ Footprint Weight: 2 lbs 13 oz / 1.3 kg
Minimum Weight: 4 lbs 1 oz/ 1.8 kg
Packaged Weight: 4 lbs 10 oz/ 2.1 kg

Wal-Mart

Fun Wal-Mart sites.
Wakeupwalmart.com
Walmartwatch.com

Wisconsin Dells

As promised here are the Wisconsin Dells pictures from last weekend.

Case of the Mon...Tuesdays

Labor day is now in the past which means the kiddies are back in school & winter will be here soon. We(Aimee & I) got back on Sunday from a little camping trip to the Wisconsin Dells. Yeah...the Dells is not a good place to go if you are looking for some peace & quiet. Ghetto trailer trash families that let their kids go off and do whatever they want while mommy & daddy get drunk. Dogs barking because they have been tied up all day & the smell of raw sewage drifting from the restrooms. Other than that it was a good time. We got spend time with the Nordmeyers & baby Nordy and with the Irwins. I'll have to post some pictures later tonight.

Prices Rise Again

Wow gas prices hit über high today at $3.10 a gallon in the Twin Cities! Prices down the road from my house were around the $2.72 - $2.79 mark. You can check out what the prices are in your neighborhood at Twincitiesgasprices.com. I guess I started to take the bus to work just in time. These high gas prices are just in time for our trip to the Wisconsin Dells this weekend. With the Cherokee getting around 14mpg on the hwy this should be fun. It will be nice to relax this weekend. Work has been really busy the last couple weeks and should continue until at least January because of the mail-in rebate test & holiday season coming up. All that is going on in the world today, the war, hurricanes, gas prices, tsunamis, bombings & all the violence in the world it almost makes you want to just leave everything behind and live in seclusion up in Alaska away from everything. I only mention this because I was watching TPT about 1 year ago and saw a story about a man named Dick Proenneke who set out to live in a pristine land unchanged by man. He built his own cabin in Alaska, hunted & fished for food & lived there for over 30 years. You can check out his video at Dickproenneke.com.

Katrina

Nothing new as of late. Hurricane Katrina has been kicking the crap out of New Orleans. That should be a fun clean up since New Orleans is practically at sea level. Reason #3 of why I live in Minnesota; NO HURRICANES which comes in at a close 2nd to Reason #4; No Earthquakes. Yeah it may get cold in the winter & you will develop the annoying Minnesotan accent but hey it's worth the risk...eh?

White Stripes

Good article in StarTrib today on the White Stripes. And NO Jack & Meg are not siblings. They were once married and Jack took Megs last name.

WhiteStripes.com

Tour De Lance

Why can't they just leave the guy alone. Stoopid media..
Lance Armstrong

iPod

After 2 days of riding the bus to work I have confirmed that I need an iPod. I am currently ripping my CDs to MP3s and I have roughly another 300 CDs to go. I am already up to 9,200 songs & just over 32GB of music. As much as I would love to have the 60GB iPod, I think I am going to get the 20GB version. I thought about it today and I am going to cancel my XM Radio service and then sell my Pioneer car deck with the XM tuner then buy a new car deck that is iPod compatible. So for those long road trips I will have most of my music library with me!

Free food, cheap beer...where's the restroom?!?!

A new BW3's was getting ready to open in Savage off of hwy 42 & 13. Before they grand open BW3's has these training events where they invite people from the community to come in for free food & $1 beers then they run everything like the would if they were open just so they can work out all the kinks before the grand opening. Corey got some tickets at work so we went over there yesterday around 11am. We both got some mild boneless buffalo wings and a beer or two. We were there for a couple hours because the video games were free too! After playing some Golden Tee & Bowling I felt like my stomach was about to fall out of my ass. I was just hurting! Remember that scene from Dumb & Dumber when Harry sits on the toilet at Mary's house? Yeah I felt like that. Again all day today my stomach has been gurgling & making fun noises. This little incident made me think of the Plush Microbes you can buy at ThinkGeek.com. Stomach Ache(Shigella) I solute you….

MVTA Here I Come

I checked the Minnesota Valley Transit Authority website and they have a bus leaving Apple Valley (1 block from my house) at 7:01am arriving at Best Buy at 7:42am then a bus leaving Best Buy at 4:52pm and arriving in the Valley at 5:34pm. Because of all the traffic I drive through every morning this will only add another 10-15 minutes to my commute PLUS Best Buy will pay for the MetroPass which will get me on any bus for free including light rail. So what do I do on the bus? Maybe catch up on some sleep or buy a MP3 player to listen too, I dunno….who cares I'm saving money.

Thanks Mr. W(anker)

On my way home from work today I looked off to the right of hwy 77 and see the BP sign with a price of $2.59-2.69 a gallon for gas!! This is just getting dumb! I need to do something because the Jeep is only getting 12-16mpg at best. I'm really considering taking the bus to work now. BBY will pay for the monthly pass as long as I use it so many days out of the week. If I take the bus I could potentially save up to $150 a month just in gas. Downfall to taking the bus is that there are only 2 times in the morning and afternoon where the bus stops at BBY Corp. & instead of 15 minutes to work it would be around 1hr because of all the stops. OR if someone wants to donate a car to me please let me know…I’ll take anything…Kia, Aspire, Echo…

Feel The Orange Inside

mmm...Sunkist is da best soda eva'.

Also thanks to PeteRyan.com I am now informed to what a "Muffin Top" is.

When Spiders Attack

We had a Discovery Channel moment at the Nordmeyer's house tonight when a HUGE barn spider that is growing on the back of their house kicked the crap out of a hornet that took a wrong turn into her web. The spider swooped down and rolled the hornet into a little ball of silk to preserve it for a little snack later. I hate spiders...

Day off

I was off from work today because I worked last Sunday. Since I was off I decided to swap out my 33" BFG M/T tires for the almost brand new 35" BFG A/Ts that have been sitting in my garage for the past month. Discount Tire was packed because they only had 1 person working the sales floor so after 2 hours of waiting and $92 later I now have the tires on my Jeep.

Corey stopped by and so we ran over to Wal-Mart for some 2 for $11 DVD's out of the huge metal bin at the front of the store. You can always find some oldies but goodies in that bin. After picking up a couple DVDs it reminded me I needed to make more shelves for all my DVDs so it was off to Mernards for some supplies. I think it is now time to sit down and relax for awhile.

BTW Congrats to Corey on his new job that he starts Tues!

Sporkkkkkkk........

Learned of a new site today.

Wikipedia

which is an online encyclopedia written/edited by anyone & everyone. Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia is stopping by the Corp. Campus on Wed to talk about the site. Then Robert Stephens, Geek Squad founder and Chief Inspector, will unveil Best Buy’s own online version encyclopedia. YAY! So what does this have to do with a Spork you say...well on this day in 1970 the word "Spork" was trademarked in the US & UK. Altough this eating utensil has been around since the late 1800's. Yes Pete I know Wikipedia was so last year.

Learn more about the spork

Spork

Lunch WTF?

I bought 10 of these Michelina's meals (different flava's) at Cub foods a couple weeks ago for $1 a piece. These meals barely have enough food to feed a rat! Only 8oz each! I had the meatloaf today but I had to bring in 2 of them to nuke in the microwave to feed me. Although they do taste better than some I think I might have to look at the Hungry Man or Lean Cuisine meals. I guess $2 is better than going to Chipotle and spending $7.03 for a burrito and soda everyday for lunch. Yeah you heard me I said S-O-D-A…. stop calling it 'pop' people!!

Cheerio!

I enjoyed a delicious bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios this morning before heading off to work. Now I shall sit in my cube like the robot I am until 4:30pm while listening to Ben Folds 'Live' album working for 'The Man'.