The title has absolutely nothing to do with this post; honestly, I just wanted to work the word “chorizo” in there somehow.

So it’s State Fair weekend, and this means a couple things—
1.Time to get an early start on that “winter insulation layer,” ala cream puff
2.Summer is winding down
3.School is ramping up

I’ve had a really busy week of work after the vacation here. I think next year, I’ll do the summer break a little bit earlier; maybe late June instead of late July, so as to avoid hitting the ground running so hard afterwards.

If you are the parent of a student who attend college for the first time this year, please please PLEASE read the stuff that all those offices all over campus are sending you. 97.5% of all your questions are answered in there. I know it’s a lot of reading, but hey—how bout make the college kid do it?

(related topic) I had a convo with one of my work colleagues a couple days ago to see if we could pinpoint when parents stopped thinking their kids were kids (people who are absent-minded, insecure, and frankly, prone to lying in order to avoid “getting in trouble,”) and started to think they were androids, incapable of lying/misleading, and moreover, forgetting or misunderstanding anything.

Because let me tell you, if I had a kid who told me one thing, and then I called, for example, MY office, and I got contradictory info, I know the kid’s a “lyin’ sack,” to borrow a euphemism from Big Andy S. Not the case any longer with these parents, boy; I (the person they’re talking to) must be just that vindictive, because of course what I have time for at work is cooking up all sorts of crazy mind games to play with you and your kid, telling them one thing and then telling you something else. That’s what I love to do. No really.

And just let me say that that is the most stressful and infuriating aspect of my job. It almost makes me apprehensive about teaching these kids anything, because what if there are parents that call professors, too? There have to be some that are just that nuts, right?

So enjoy your weekend and if you’re in Milwaukee, eat some Fried Whatever. Maybe I’ll see you. I haven’t really decided yet.

Oh, and if you’re in Eagle River drinking and carousing in honor of the 10th year since you graduated from HS, please come back to me with a report on who got the fattest.

Sorry to waste your time with another really short post, but I thought this was kinda strange:

Had a dream last night in which I was helping Cesar Millan shop for a shotgun.

That’s all.

(shrugs)

Now my phone just finished charging. *sigh* I don’t get it.

I’m up watching the History channel half the night again. This is a problem for me nearly on par with Schneider’s MySpace? obsession.

I started out with the Brewers earlier, but when it got to 5-0, I decided to switch over. Right now, there’s a show on History about the development of ice cream. I wonder if some earlier incarnation of myself would kick the current me in the face for being such a TV-watchin hump.

Damn TV.

So then I had this other problem on my trip, and, I guess if I think about it, a little earlier, too, where my phone won’t hold a damn charge. I took Mundschau’s advice and checked the Internets for a recall on the battery, but didn’t find one.

I went ahead and found a new one on ebay for 9 bucks. I guess 9 bucks isn’t terrible. But still. The funny part is that the battery I have isn’t even the original one. I swapped batteries with Jen once behind her back when hers was charged up and mine wasn’t, and I needed to make a call. That was like, eh, more than a year ago. I think it was at the rehearsal dinner for their wedding, actually…

But that’s something I did this evening.

I can’t even flipping imagine what my electric bill is going to look like this month. Can you BELIEVE how hot it’s been? Damn. Damn, damn, damn. How can a person even enjoy the fair when it’s so hot?

It’s 8-2 now. What a crock. 2 freaking runs. The Crew is gonna get killed over the weekend in Saint Louis. Mark my words. Killed.

I really don’t like this Kevin Mench chump. I mean, if they’re gonna get rid of Carlos AND Nelson Cruz, at least put Corey Hart or Tony Gwynn out there every day or something. If JJ Hardy was healthy, shit– I’d say Billy Hall could play every day in the outfield.

Anyway, the Crew’s down to their last out, and I should probably get to bed.

Hope you enjoyed the vacation pics.

Thanks to those of you who were keeping up with the trip… nice to know that one’s life is interesting enough for other people to wonder about it.

And in that case, sorry that I was out of internet range for so much of the vacation.

But Michelle and I got back to Waukesha late last night (Monday), and then I drove up to my apartment early on Tuesday AM to get to work. It was a long day, but it’ll probably be a longer week with unpacking, laundry, and then going back to the “settling” into my new (now 1 month old) home.

I’ll have more to recap on the trip tomorrow or so, but today I am pretty tired. I put up the pictures. There are a LOT of them. We took about 11 or 12 hundred, and I posted about 860. There are a bunch that look really similar. I didn’t want to take the time to look at a group of 3 or 5 or 6 similar shots and pick one, so you’ll probably be thumbing through them and saying, “Hey, I already saw this one,” or something like that.

Two recommendations for you in that case:
1. “Sort” the gallery by name first
2. You might want to carefully consider whether or not you should really be looking at these with a dial-up connection. Not that you can’t, I just don’t want you to feel like I’m wasting your time…

OK, so that’s all I have for now. Have a good evening. Go Rangers. Err– Brewers…

Nice to be back in ‘Big Sky Country.’ I bought a keychain at the Flying J in Billings, and commented to the cashier, “Ah, yes– prices as marked. I have missed Montana.”

So we got in to our hotel at about 11:15 MDT. The place that we’re staying is called The Imperial Inn. It is in downtown Bozeman. It is cheap, and it looks like it, too. We’ll have to take some photos of the room before we leave tomorrow so you can get a sense of how we’re ‘roughin it.’

Have a bunch of photos from the Badlands that I want to put up on the site. I will probably have time to do that later on. Right now, I’m waiting for Michelle to finish up in the bathroom, then we’re going to get breakfast, do some laundry, go shopping, and mill around the campus at MSU. I still need to call the Wolffs, too.

We’ll be sleeping in Bozeman again tonight, then tomorrow we head out for Yellowstone.

Just getting in a quick note from the Flying J in Rapid City, SD. (I paid 5 bucks to get online, so thought I better make it worthwhile.)

Michelle and I had lots of fun walking around the Badlands yesterday. Today, we decided to skip Mt. Rushmore, cuz we’re a little pressed for time. Still want to make the Little Bighorn battlefield, though.

We sleep in Bozetown tonight, probably will have more of a chance to write then. Time to eat and run…

Had to get a cable for the internet from the front desk, even though there’s wifi in this hotel. So I dunno…

Yesterday, after taking care of some other things in Milwaukee that needed to be done, Michelle and I finally hit the road at about 5:00pm.

We stopped for dinner in Madison, at Applebee’s. It was OK. I had a “Black & Bleu” burger, and Michelle had some sort of chickeny-vegetable-quasi-quesidilla-type-thing, but she liked my burger better. Maybe we’ll go to Burger Bob’s in Bozeman tomorrow.

We made it to Albert Lea, MN just before midnight, and we stayed over at the Country Inn. They have a very good continental breakfast, so considering that the room was 90 bucks, good thing the breakie is free.

Today, we need to make it as far as the Badlands, cuz we’re staying over there tonight. Here’s a link to the accomidations we have booked: Badlands Inn.

There’s wifi at our hotel tonight, so I’m sure I’ll be back later on. Maybe I’ll even put up some pictures that we take during the day.

See ya later…

PS – Michelle says hi to everybody, too. And she says free stuff at hotels is really cool.

And I’m not talkin about bras (or b-a-r’s, depending on how embarassed you are).

Just barely making it in on a blog for Friday here. I am quite primed up for the vacation this coming week, and I did a whole mess of crap at work today to finish up. However, I did need to finish one more thing and didn’t have a chance because the computers went down promptly at 4:30. Like, on the dot. I couldn’t believe it. 4:30:02 the server was down. Kinda wacky.

Anyway, I was all done with the packing last night, and then just needed to leave a note for Dave, who said he would stop by the apartment to check the windows and water the plant this week. I got out of Osh Vegas at about 5:30 or so.

I hung out at Jen and Joe’s for a bit when I got to town, tried to get back on the work server, then realized it was gonna be down for the weekend. I played a little Super Nintendo before making it to Michelle’s house at around 10.

She still needs to finish packing, but it’s been a stressful week. I’ll tell you about it later on, maybe.

One of the things I worried about today was having all my student loans posted as “paid off,” given that my consolidation loan went through last week. Great Lakes has been really, really slow about finishing the paperwork.

Oh, but hey– how bout them apples, they just finished it up today. This is good.

Ummm… OK, so I’m kind of tired and realizing that I’m not making as much sense as I could be. Given that that’s the case, I’m going to get some more of Michelle’s clothes in a suitcase and say “talk to you from the road.”

Being an avid reader of Curly Tales of War Pigs, I got myself subscribed to the ‘Advice of the Day’ RSS feed from the Old Farmers’ Almanac (or is it ‘farmer’s’?) quite some time ago. There’s some good advice in there some days, and some downright hilarious advice some others.

Well, I thought I would just toss together a list of things that you can maybe just chew on, ponder, think about, etc., derived from my own experience or observation.

THINGS THAT IT IS A BAD IDEA TO DO:
Tape a firecracker to it
Throw a firecracker in it
Tell a kid that you’re gonna do something, then not do it
Take a nap at work (when you’re not on lunch)
Make out at work
Stack books higher than you can see over
Assume you dropped the class
Carry a 32″ TV by yourself
Trust the woman on the phone at the cable company
Just charge it
Bleach your jeans with toothpaste
Climb the ladder when it *seems* like it might be safe…
Take the back cover off the TV while you’re watching it
Eat popcorn while your case is open

I’ll try to think of some things that are good to do, too. Or feel free to share your own.

I’m going to keep packing for my trip now.

I love you.

Really.