I was listening to WTMJ on my way to work on Friday, as is my custom, and I recall Rob Hart of Wisconsin’s Morning News (whom I worked with on Saturdays while I was there) lamenting the perennially poor weather on Memorial Days (please note the lack of an apostrophe). At first I thought to myself that he was just bitching needlessly, but, well… here we are, Memorial Day and the weather’s crap (please note the appropriate use of an apostrophe). So, yeah, I dunno if Rob is qualified in saying the weather’s *always* lousy, but whatever, this year he’s on the money.

Dad and I got up around 7 this morning to get back and cracking again on the deck; we want to try to have the joists all in place before I leave, since that’s the “heavy lifting” part of the process. As far as I can tell, once they’re in place, Dad will be able to secure the decking on top at his leisure. It’s actually a fortunate circumstance that he built another deck at a neighbor’s house fairly recently, and the process is fairly fresh in his mind. So far, everything seems to be going well (with the exception of some unforeseen sanding yesterday).

Last night I ended up helping Mom with her cleaning jobs in Minoqua and at Custom Components in Eagle River. We were working for speed, speed, speed, and the whole business only took us about 3 hours, from leaving home to returning, and that includes a 1-hour round trip commute to Minoqua.

After that, I showered and went out to Sweetwater for the karaoke, which wasn’t bad, but I’ve seen much better. There were some new lyrics for “Just a Gigalo” that Joe and I had never seen before, and on “You’re Nobody ‘Til Somebody Loves You,” the ball wasn’t bouncing nearly fast enough. Good thing I know that one by heart, too.

I did see Brian Achuff and the McDonald? girls, neither of which I had seen in quite some time, and it was an enjoyable visit. Ayuyu sang “I Will Survive” and tore the roof off the joint.

I best get back to work now, Dad wants to finish this stuff before I head out around mid-day.

TOP V LIST FOR THE DAY: Top V Songs I Would’ve Sang If the Karaoke People Had Them
V. Money for Nothing – Dire Straits
IV. Scenes from an Italian Restaurant – Billy Joel
III. Folsum Prison Blues – Johnny Cash
II. 867-5309 (Jenny) – Tommy Tutone
I. Luck Be a Lady – Frank Sinatra

So I’m up north for the Memorial Day weekend. This is one of the times I was thinking of when I bought this laptop, saying “I really need something that I can computify with when I’m away from the home base,” so I feel pretty good about blogging in spite of being in Eagle River.

The town is mobbed, by the way. I was laughing at the tourists with Dad yesterday, because they all drive up here to get away from the city, but the thing is, EVERY DAMN ONE OF THEM drives up from Milwaukee, Chicago, etc, so what the hell’s the point? It was an obvious, but still funny observation.

With some help from Dad & Mom, I performed a slight tune-up on Willy yesterday. I replaced spark plugs & wires, as well as the ignition rotor and distributor cap. I hope that these new parts help alleviate the problem whereby I was nearly stranded in Milton last Sunday. The thing is, the car was only giving me problems with starting when it’s really wet, and since last Monday (when I had just a little trouble with it) it’s been fairly dry in Oshkosh. It rained here last night, but I haven’t been out to use the car yet today, and I probably won’t until everything is dried up, so… Anyway, we’ll see.

I also helped Dad with some of the deck building yesterday. I’ll see if I can’t get a scanned copy of the ‘plans’ (think R2-D2? and the DEATH STAR) and show those of you who know the house exactly what’s being built. At this moment, Dad is going over the plans once again and making some adjustments and/or additions before we get to work today. Probably a good idea, as this process yielded good success yesterday. I hope the weather holds up.

Last night Knitt stopped by and we took a ride down Rangeline Road to visit with Scotty Ayuyu; neither one of us had seen him for quite a while, so it was nice to get an update on things. He let us know about kareoke at Sweetwater tonight, and Joe & I agreed that we should probably go, see if ‘Tom Reynolds’ shows up. After the event on Scattering Rice Lake there, Joe & I came back to the house here and watched some National Geographic documentary on Lord of the Rings that’s on the Return of the King DVD. I dunno about Joe, but I fell asleep part way through, then woke up at the end in time to say to Joe, “yeah, I’m gonna go to bed now.”

Doesn’t look like I’ll make it back to Oshkosh or Milwaukee tomorrow in time to meet up with the Mahoneys and a young woman whom I’ve never met. Ah well, maybe next week (I’m hoping).

In the meantime here, Dad just put out the call to head back outside and get to work on the deck again. Back in a while (or tomorrow).

Might have the inside track on some new digs. Put in an application for this place right here, it’s in downtown Oshkosh (as the 460 Main St. address would indicate). Yeah, so if you look at the link, and find your way to floor plans, I’ve applied for apartment ‘E.’ I guess I hope to hear early next week, but the building manager wasn’t very specific about a timetable. I gave them money this afternoon I hear that they called some of my references, but other than that, I can’t tell. So we’ll wait and see.

Going up north for the weekend. Dad has summer projects aplenty, and it’s time to get rolling on those. The traffic sucks somethin’ fierce this weekend, so I’m not looking forward to that. At least it’s a nice evening. When the weather’s good and you can roll with the windows down, it’s not so bad. Also, I like to try finding an “off-the-beaten-path” route on these busy weekends to avoid traffic.

I bought a poppy from the veterans outside Pick n’ Save at lunch today.

The office is dead today so I’ve had lots of bloggable time. Unfortunately, my brain is on the weekend already and I have the bare minimum of thought invested in other things at this point.

Anyway, I’ll probably be back after the long weekend.

This is awfully easy, though; I should write on the weekend as well.

TOP V LIST FOR THE DAY: Top V Items on my Calendar for June
V. Spiderman 2 on June 30
IV. FAO staff meeting, 3-4:30 on June 15
III. Harry Potter 3 on June 4
II. John Mayer show @ the Marcus on July 2
I. payday, June 18

I forgot to even mention it yesterday (just wasn’t on the brain) but I came up with an idea for a new 80’s show that would work on WRST. Instead of playing all the “best pop hits,” it would be an album-oriented show, where each week a record from the 80’s would be featured, played, talked about, etc. This would be a lot more work that the old 80’s Rewind, but certainly would be fun, and interesting, I think. I want to plan out a few shows and then pitch it to the new station manager, whoever that kid is.

One of the things I’m working on a bit here and there (and a year late) is quieting down my fingers on the ol’ keyboard. I have a long and storied history of pounding too hard which I attribute to my childhood borrowing of Grandma’s typewriter. Them old typewriters, man, you had to pound the crap outta them keys. But anyway, I’m making a conscious effort to tap lighter, and I’m not noticing much of a problem with keying too lightly, y’know? You really don’t have to hit these buttons that hard to make them go. I probably should’ve done this a while back, then Jen and Joe wouldn’t have been pissed at me if I stayed up late a’typin.

So my two big projects that I want to complete before the first of June are revamping the site, and filing all the appropriate materials to get my credits from MSU transferred to Oshkosh. The first promises to be decidedly more simple. I guess I didn’t think about it, but of course it makes sense that the grad school doesn’t transfer the *grades* in, but rather just indicates which courses you completed at another institution. This is a good and bad thing, I suppose. It means that my A’s from MT won’t help my GPA here, but it also means that I won’t have that B+ to hurt it. I did some figuring, and with my current UWO GPA at 3.66667, if I get an A over the summer, BOOM: I’m up to 3.75. If I get that same A, AND if I had the grades included from MSU, I’d be at 3.79. After the fall, if I get two more A’s here, well, then I’ll be at 3.83, and if I had those MSU numbers as well, same thing: 3.83. So what I’ve got to do is never get anything less than an A. I should probably have tried to avoid those B’s altogether, then this discussion would be moo.

OK, maybe more later on, maybe not.

TOP V LIST FOR THE DAY: Top V Titles I Thought About for the New 80’s Show
V. The 80’s Rewind brings you 80’s Records
IV. 80’s A.O.R.
III. A.O.R. 80’s
II. The 80’s Rewind: On the Record
I. The 80’s Rewind: For the Record*

• ultimately chose this one

P.S. – Wow, I’m hungry. And yet I’m so damned fat; it’s amazing how the body works.

It’s been some time since my last report. If you haven’t been privvy to information about me in that time, please allow the following summary:

– I returned from an absolutely splendid spring vacation in San Francisco and Los Angeles on March 22. Wordy and Matt graciously hosted me for the duration of my L.A. stay, and it was much appreciated. The week after I got back, I started looking up all the colleges and universities on the west coast of California to see if there’s someplace I could work (teach) one day.
– The following weekend, I took a trip to LaCrosse? to visit Grandma Bock, at that time just recently returned home from an extended stay in assisted living after her heart surgery last fall. Glad to report that as of now, Grandma’s health continues to improve.
– Went up to Eagle River for Easter and Mom’s 50th birthday.
– Worked hard, toiled through a tough 2nd half of the spring semester.
– Had a visit from Kyle and Knitt the first weekend of May.
– Barely slept during the last week or so of classes. Got all the work done, earned 2 A’s and a B.
– Took a “week off” from May 17 thru May 21; used this time to work 8 hours a day @ the Financial Aid Office and make a large, all-encompassing list of “Things to Accomplish Over the Summer.”
– Just last weekend, visited Kyle & Robin in Milton, along with Dave and the Kiefers.
– This week, began a search in earnest for a new apartment.

Right now, I’m thoughtfully considering the fact that everything I’ve done in 69 days can effectively be summed up in less than 250 words.

The semester was really busy, though, really tough. Forgive me if you’ve heard the story already, but for the benefit of others, I made two critical errors: 1) took 9 credits (three classes), 2) with that course load, also worked 20 hours per week. As the term wore on, it became clear that it was more work than I could handle; I was so busy just trying to keep up all semester, I wasn’t able to do any particularly interesting or unique work. I was disappointed about that, but now I know what the game plan should be for the future. I suppose there’s an extent to which any new school you attend requires a “feeling out” period; I’m glad in this case that I didn’t have to feel out a town as well.

I’ve got a pretty sweet setup with work for the summer. I’m going to work @ the office 40 hours a week while class is not in session, and I hope to continue learning some new things in that time. As you probably know, I’ve worked in Financial Aid before, but I’ve just realized this week that it’s taken me this long to reprogram my brain; now it does certain FinAid? stuff automatically. I’m not sure if that makes a lot of sense.

With regard to the “transitional-ness” of this new-looking site, my ultimate goal is creating something that’s conducive to quick and easy blogging, while still storing all the old stuff that people like (pictures, videos, writings, etc.). I hope that the change will simultaneously keep me in better contact with the site and make it easier for dial-uppers in particular to view it.

More to come soon; thanks for stopping by…

TOP V LIST FOR THE DAY: Top V Items on the Summer To-Do? List Not Likely to Be Finished
V. Do an install of Linux and actually try to use it
IV. Try to see Knuetson and/or Konsmo in Seattle
III. Make time to listen to all the music I got from Bryan and Kyle
II. Get a digital camera
I. Read instead of watch TV

Jen made a comment yesterday as we walked down Hollywood Blvd, something to the effect that people in this town seem to do a lot of loafing; walking slowly, and purposelessly? I’d have to agree, I guess that’s part of the charm.

Yeah, so today we did the Walk of Fame walk, and we saw things like the Kodak Theatre and El Capitan, and we took some more shots of Harry Zimm’s office and the Hollywood sign from a distance.

Later in the evening, Jen and I walked the 30 or 40 blocks (it’s more like 30) from Wordy & Matt’s apartment down to the beach. We sat and watched the water for a bit. As we sat there (since it had been a very long walk, my feet were into sitting) we saw a young couple (M & F) some 50 or so yards down the beach. He was on one knee, holding her hand, and at first, I said to Jen, “I think we’re witnessing a marriage proposal.” This theory stood up just fine until after he rose and there didn’t seem to be much in the way of excitement or jubilation at a new engagement; in fact, their body language seemed to suggest just the opposite.

We talked a little more about it and decided that she probably dumped him and he was begging her not to go: “Please baby, please; I can make it all better again, just don’t leave me, baby.” That idea led us to agreement that she was kind of a bitch for dragging it along like that. Jen said that she probably enjoyed all the attention. I said, “bitch.” Then they seemed to kiss rather passionately, and clearly he wanted something that she wouldn’t give, and then, what the hell, he’s back on his knees again, this time he’s got his armed wrapped around her leg.

By this time, we were entertaining the notion that maybe *he* really screwed up and he was groveling for forgiveness; the leg-clutching seemed to indicate a grovel. I said that he probably had sex with her sister or something and he was telling her it didn’t mean anything and he was very sorry. We went on to agree that he was kind of an asshole, I mean, to get into bed with her sister, he was lucky she’d even talk to him again. And what’s with her sister, too?? Most likely, there was a beach trip planned for her in the near future as well.

It was around this time (and he was still groveling) that we got up and kept walking.

We went back to the 3rd St Promenade to find something for dinner, but first Jen found some things at the Gap. I found some things at the Gap, too, but I don’t really have the money or the belly for them right now. I should get on some kind of a program…

Ultimately, we ate at place called “Yankee Doodle’s.” We settled on that after glancing at a number of menus that I was luke-warm about, but when we got there, I think we were both just tired (again) of walking. Our waitress was abysmal. In a restaurant that had definitely gotten past its “busy time” for the evening, it took no less than eight minutes for her to take a drink order, another seven to bring said drinks back to the table, and we sat (I’m not exaggerating) for over twenty minutes waiting for the food to show up. A meal that easily should’ve taken 35-40 minutes lasted an hour. After a thorough conversation with Wordell the night before, we tipped 15%.

Time to go back home, and Jen, being a mass transit veteran from her college days, said “let’s just get on the bus,” so we did, and that was sooo much better than walking! We only had a five when the bus showed up, so the driver let us on for free.

Holy crap did driving down Hwy 1 take a long time. We were literally in the car for 12 hours. Well, I guess we weren’t in the car the whole time, but that’s how long the drive took, with the frequent stops for photographs and whatnot.

I told Jen several times during the winding up and down the mountains, this drive was kind of like drives you can take in Montana, except that things here are green, and there’s a large damn ocean on your right (when you’re traveling south).

Really, I feel like the whole day is better expressed visually, so go click that link for the pictures. I reorgamanized them to be dial-up friendly.

What else? Oh — when we were driving through Santa Cruz, I saw someone with a bumper sticker that said, “Keep Santa Cruz Weird,” and I thought that was sort of funny. Then later I saw someone else with the same bumper sticker, and it lost some of the magic for me.

Enjoy the photos, though, and will try to talk tomorrow.

Today Jen and I got up at around 7 AM to drive to San Francisco. We were out the door from Wordy and Matt’s at about 8:05. The drive was super-easy, it was a nice day, there was a lot of “fresh air,” and we made it to the city by the bay in roughly 5.5 hours (that’s like, door-to-door, their place to the hotel).

We wasted no time in commencing the vacationery activities. We realized that there were only two short days available to be spent in SF, and we had to get to business in a hurry. Our hotel (Club Quarters) is quite conveniently located just east of Chinatown in the financial district. We parked the car in a structure that’s nearby and walked for the rest of the day. Lunch was at “Jeanty at Jack’s,” and between the two of us, we only spent EIGHTY TWO DOLLARS WITH TIP. We explored Chinatown quite thoroughly, thanks to the help of Fodor’s 04 guide to San Fran, and then took a stroll down to Union Square. Jen tried, but ultimately couldn’t resist a bit o’ shopping, and we returned later to go to Macy’s.

After the investment at lunch, we decided on a cheaper dinner, and found a Vietnamese place that only accepted cash and had extremely reasonable pricing. Jen brought most of her sweet and sour pork home.

After dinner, we popped over to the comedy club that’s just around the corner from our hotel, but the show wasn’t going to start until 11, and we were both waaaaaaay too tired to be up that long. I mean, check it out; 10 to 11 and I’m gonna crash almost immediately.

Tomorrow we go to Alcatraz and Fisherman’s Wharf, and whatever else suits our fancy. Take a look at the pictures; thanks to Joe for the camera, it’s workin out great.

I got to Waukesha and Jen was crying. Or she was within a few minutes. I met up with Joe, Raul, Jen and Christy at Ambassador around 8:40 (but Jen couldn’t have told you that) on the eve of my flight to Los Angeles for the second spring break in a row. So my big sis was most of the way through her first bottle of wine (after a pitcher of Leinie’s) and I was met with the startling revelation that SHE HADN’T PACKED YET. It was an entertaining evening out, anyway, and a fine send off to springtime debauchery.

All things on the flight went well; we watched Friends on the laptop and Jen took a slight nap. The surprising thing was that neither one of us suffered any ill alcohol effects. Or if we did, we were just sitting there and it wasn’t that big of a deal.

Oh, I did notice that it’s more entertaining to travel with a partner than by yourself. I dunno how long you’ve known me, but if you recall, I flew all over the place last year from Bozeman, always solo. The superior thing about the partner is you can make lots of jokes that only the two of you understand or laugh at. So that was good.

We rented a white Cavalier from Alamo, and the guy at the counter was a quiet mumbler. It was horrifically frustrating. For all I know, I agreed to pay $400/day for this ride. Jen got a little freaked out once we got on the freeway and I told her I had to “start driving like I’m in California,” which I’m fairly certain my cousin Adam can totally appreciate.

Went to lunch at Marina Pastries on Wilshire and it was fairly average as sandwich joints go. The bread was good. Jen and I both accidentally ate some meat.

Later on, there was a shopping trip to the promenade off Santa Monica because I totally forgot to bring sunglasses with me and we also needed a travel guide for San Francisco.

Nice to be in town and see the gang. We had the windows down in the car, the sun was shining, there’s no bloody snow at all.

Follow this link (or the one at the top of the page) for pictures.

See you tomorrow…

You want a reason it’s been so long, I’ll tell you: I was deeply engaged in some empirical research in which I discovered that 53% of all blogging is apologetic in nature.

To hell with that.

I’m finding that these Thursday nights waiting for Dave to get to the Union after class are the best time for this (blogging). The reasons for this conclusion are multi-fold:
— It’s the “end of the week” for me, so I actually feel as though the time is “free.” When it’s mid-week, even if I’m not doing homework, if I feel like I should, I will rarely engage in another “project,” as it were.
— I am an exceedingly more social creature in Wisconsin than I was last year in Montana. Quite frankly, I knew fewer people in Bozetown, we never traveled out of the city much (maybe we would have if I’d stayed, who the hell knows), and so during those times that I wasn’t in class, I was prone to get more web work done. What I’m saying is, the way my time is budgeted in Oshkosh is very different. When I’m “at home,” I don’t stay there as much. (I’m considering it further, and realizing that I could and should have gotten out more in Bozeman, but I got into a pattern of reclusiveness very quickly out there, and I just sort of rolled with it. I enjoyed the year. I really did. Even though I was alone a lot. And even though I ranted a lot about how depressed I was, particularly in the fall. But I digress.)
— My writing voice is more academistrated and universified immediately after class. This is a result of assimilating the text that I’ve been most recently in contact with. If you’ve ever read something I’ve blogged after watching TV for four hours, it sucks ass. That’s why I don’t do it very much.

This (blogging with Mozilla instead of in the webspace of MS Publisher) is working out for me so far. It’s easier for me to work with images around the text, and the whole thing seems to line up nicer when viewed as HTML, unlike the Publisher sites. I’ve decided, though, that there are still times when I’d like to do more artsy, constructive things with graphics or text-as-graphics, and Publisher is good for that. I’m going to be working with the sites in a variety of ways. Might be a good idea, might not.

So have you heard about this Passion of the Christ movie, with the Mel Gibson, and all the blood and the death, and the crucifying? What’s the deal with that? It occurs to me I need to read some reviews to find out…
OK, this might be a good way to look at this, a “reader review” collection from the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/03/readersopinions/03PASS.html?ex=1078981200&en=119a4673233ab7bf&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

But yeah, I haven’t seen it yet, and I also can’t help having overheard all the people at work talking about it early in the week. One of my co-workers in particular loved it to death (pun not intended). She was also a particular sort of upset that anyone would think otherwise… Er, no, that’s not right. Allow me to reflect back there…. yeah, she was upset that people were mad at Mel Gibson for *making it*, and that is a much more rational thing to be upset about. I certainly don’t give a crap; Mel: make whatever you want. Is it a bad thing that Mr. Gibson is going to make 12 asstons of cash (reference to 12 not intentional) by “exploiting” the story of Christ? Different debate, I think, but this much is clear: if you’re a studio exec who said “we won’t make this movie,” you are a big dumb bastard.

This weekend I’m going to go out for fish, play Sheepshead, and do a lot of writing. I have some stuff to turn in for workshopping in my ficition class next Wednesday, and I’d like to have 8-10 pages down.

Damn, I gotta make a phone call. Catch you later in the weekend?