Blogging about Life, Love, Having Twins, Boise State Football and lots of other crap.
Anyone out there who is a Seinfeld fan probably holds the holiday of Festivus close to their heart. I know I do. “As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be a better way.” And that better way includes the “Airing of Grievances”.
Now, you can get your very own Festivus pole!
http://www.festivuspoles.com/pages/Festivuspoles.htm
It’s now time for the Feats of Strength…
Originally, I wasn’t going to go to Billy Joel. The $100+ price (not including all the associated fees and whatnot) was simply too much. I mean, I like Billy Joel, but dropping over two bills for Jess and I to go simply didn’t seem worth it.
After making that decision, I would have random pangs of guilt. I’ve always wanted to see him live, and I was passing on the option because it’s too expensive?
Eventually, however, my procrastination paid off. The arena released a number of cheap tickets in the nose-bleed section of the building for a scant $27 (again, plus fees) a piece. Well, now you’re talking my language. I jumped on the tickets without delay.
I’m sure the ticket prices had to do with the piss pour turnout at the show. The Statesman said there was 7,000 there and I think that would be a stretch. Kinda sad, really. This is a fickle town and won’t just shell out whatever it takes to see these performers. Hell, I’m one of those people. Without the cheap tix, I wouldn’t have been there either.
The show was last night. And it was a pretty damn good show.
Tuesday night the Schwab Institutional IMPACT conference held their gala. Jess and I spent the afternoon wandering around seeing more Vegas, having another drink, and getting trapped in the M&M World, but thats a different story. We chilled out in the room for about 2 hours before we had to head down for the shuttle bus to the MGM where the gala was to be held.
I’m spending today watching football and packing for Vegas, so I don’t have a chance to properly recognize Halloween. We won’t be back in town until Halloween afternoon, but I wanted to say a little something about the season…
Jess refers to Halloween as the start of the “Eating Season” which lasts from now until Valentines Day. I hadn’t thought of it, but she’s right. Halloween candy, thanksgiving dinner and pumpkin pie, Christmas gorging, super bowl parties, and Valentines candy. By the looks of it, we’re looking at a couple of hundred thousand extra calories. God, isn’t it glorious?
Please read my Halloween thoughts from last year (And the silken sad uncertain rustling…) I talked about childhood, costumes, trick-or-treating and candy. It still stands up. However, the Simpsons clips have been removed from Youtube. Lot can happen in a year…
And just because, here are some huge images of my Boise State pumpkin from 2004. Pic 1, Pic 2.
If you don’t hear from me from Las Vegas, you’ll hear from me after.
Happy Halloween, everybody.
There are guys in the world that I am amazed by. I love their work, their personalities, everything. Jess calls them “Man Crushes” (click for Urban Dictionary definitions). Now, before you go getting the wrong ideas, let me make one thing perfectly clear… this does NOT mean I love these men in a unnatural sense. Absolutely not. By definition, “Man Crush” means if you could sit in a bar and have beers with a guy and shoot the shit for 4 hours, that would be a great time. All of these guys have personalties such that if they were normal guys who lived around me, I would think that I would definitely be their friends.
Without further ado, here are my man crushes.
We made it. It is finally August and I couldn’t be happier.
I barely survived the smoking, sun-scarred moonscape that was existence here in July. In case you’re not from here or didn’t leave your house for a full month (in either case, I envy you) but July was officially the hottest month on record here in Boise. The Statesman said that there were 14 days of 100+ temps. Well, if you look at this pdf you will see that in addition to those “official” triple digit temps, there were 8 additional days that were 97-99. As I see it, if you’re driving around and its 97 or above ‘officially’ you will find somewhere in some parking lot or whatever is over 100. I think that should count. Just because where they took the measurement didn’t hit 100 doesn’t mean that somewhere you were didn’t.
That makes 22 out of 31 days that were WAY too friggin hot. Not to mention, it’s not like those other 9 days were cool and breezy. They were still hotter than hell.
Hi Everyone. Quick update before we head out of town to McCall for the weekend.
They extended me an official offer! Their initial offer was a little low salary wise, so I countered and asked for a little bit more and they gladly met my requirements. (I agonized over actually sending it, but it worked out.)
All I have left to do is to officially sign it and set up a start date. That will be done on Monday.
I can finally exhale and relax. It’s been a LONG time coming.
Thanks again to all of your for your well wishes over the past month. It is ALL worthwhile.
More on Monday. Hope you enjoy your weekend as much as I will.
Well folks, whatever you all have been doing, has apparently worked.
It is all but official that they are going to make me an offer. The C.O.O had a meeting he had to go to at the end, but everything we discussed basically boiled down to the fact that I fit with them both technically, but what appears more importantly, personally. They put a premium on their hiring people that fit the team. I guess I do just that.
I’m assuming I will hear from them tomorrow as far as an official offer with all the nitty gritty such as pay and whatnot.
The position sounds very cool, and it really sounds like one that will have lots of opportunities to not only use what I already got, but to expand my skill set and learn new stuff.
But really, the selling point for me is the people. I met half a dozen people and they are all very very cool. I can’t tell you how exciting it will be to go to work and actually interact with folks doing the same gig on a daily basis. It has been a long time since that has happened.
I don’t have much more to report at this time. Keep your eyes peeled for further updates. When I know more, you’ll know more.
Thanks again everyone for your thoughts and prayers. I’m sure it made a difference. (Although, the fact that I just plain kick ass might have had something to do with it too.)
One can not describe a trip to California without discussing what is apparently their state animal, the automobile. The number of cars in that state is mind boggling.
Our Rental Car
Upon arriving in San Jose and taking the bus to the rental car park area, we found Hertz and got issued a car. It was a decent looking silver Toyota Camry. We loaded our bags into the trunk, when I noticed there wasn’t any navigation system. I really really wanted one of these things for two reasons actually. One, we were planning on driving all over the bay area and sometimes navigating by traffic signs really sucks hard. And two, I’m a gigantic nerd and wanted to play with it.
Don Herbert, aka Mr. Wizard lost his battle with cancer yesterday at 89. View the intro to his show here. That will really take some of you back!
I LOVED Mr. Wizard. When he came on Nickelodeon in the 80’s, I was hooked. Watched every day. To my young fertile mind, he really was a wizard. To this day, I can remember being truly amazed by what I saw him do with simple household items. He turned me on to science. Maybe that was why I scored in the 98th percentile in science on the Iowa test of basic skills. (and in the 67th for math).
I can vividly remember him teaching us about all kinds of things. Including sight: look through a paper towel tube with one eye, keep your other eye open and hold your other hand up next to the tube… it looks like there’s a hole in your hand!
Or, how to make a volcano (which I did once) with vinegar and baking soda.
Or, how centrifugal force will keep water in the bucket, even over your head, if you spin it fast enough.
Or, how to make a secret message by writing on a a spiral of paper wrapped around a certain sized tube, and in order to read it, you had to have the same sized tube.
Or, how straws actually work not by sucking the liquid out of the glass, but instead by air pressure. And he set up an experiment to see how high they could suck liquid up a straw like tube (using a vacuum pump)
I could go on and on. His show had different ‘topics’ and I loved them all, supermarket science, challenge, how it works, safari. I really think this is why I watch so much History, Discovery, National Geographic, Science Channel shows now. I love them all… all thanks to Mr. Wizard.
So, I just wanted to say Goodbye and Thank You to Don Herbert. You were a serious influence in my young life that echoes even today. Of course, did I find it a little strange, even as a kid, that you always had a gaggle of young kids in your house? Perhaps… If you were anyone else, we might be thinking a Michael Jackson thing. But, at least you never gave any of them wine and porn.
Apparently, his show is available on DVD. I’ll tell you this… if I ever have a kid, he or she WILL be watching Mr. Wizard.