In The World…

Yes, I know I haven’t blogged in a while.  And yes, I do realize it is Boise State v Idaho week and I have yet to say a word.  If you were in my shoes, you’d be well advised to keep it shut too.  I’ll let my team do my talking for me tomorrow.

Anyway, in bigger news, George and I are heading to legendary Lambeau field tomorrow morning.  Not only that, but we are going to see one of the tried and true NFL rivalries, Bears v Packers.  In November.  In Green Bay.  How cool is that?

George, a big GB fan, is hyped beyond belief, even going to say he’s going to have to “roofie” himself Friday night so he can fall asleep.  I am a little less excited than that, but I have never been to a “classic” stadium in any sport.   Well, I guess you could say Dodger Stadium is a classic, and I’ve been there, but since most of the bigtime stadiums are back east, and I’ve never been east of North Dakota, I’ve never seen them.

We fly out to Milwaukee early Saturday and return late Monday.  In between will be copious amounts of Shlitz, brats, and football.   I bet even some cheese might be consumed, but I can’t be sure.  We’ll both have our fancy cameras with us, so expect a lot of pictures.

At least the BSU game is on the ESPN gameplan service, meaning there is a chance that George and I can find a sports bar in GB and catch some, if not most, of the game.  Of course, I’ll be recording it for a more intensive viewing upon my return.

So, until my return, may I leave you with a hearty “Go Broncos” and “Go Pack” and we’ll catch up next week.

Happy Halloween!  Here is your illustrious host, rocking the hockey jersey and mullet for the office costume deal today.  FYI, since I’m a hockey player, it is pronounced “moo-lay”…  Although, I did have someone ask me if I was dressed up as Todd Palin… LOL.  I actually think I look quite a lot like Jaromir Jagr.  I was going to black out a few teeth and or give myself a black eye, but I just didn’t get there.

You also get to see the beard progress here.  I worked that into the costume you see, since there is a tradition in hockey called the “playoff beard“.  So, all in all, it was a fairly easy costume.  Just a little something today.  I will say, however, that this hair is getting stuck in my beard and is becoming quite annoying.  But, it is the price you pay, right?

If you would like to see the rest of the costumes from our local Boise office, you can see them here: Wirestone Boise Costumes

Also, if you would like to partake in the costumes of our Chicago office, you can do that here: Wirestone Chicago Costumes

If any more links from any more of our offices pop up, I’ll be sure to post them.

Some Fort Collins office pics.

Halloween can sure be fun.

And away we go!

The beard has thrown off the shackles of regular shavings and is progressing nicely.  Read the good cause behind it here.  As of yesterday (Monday the 13th) the captain has turned off the “please shave” light and I am now free to roam around the cabin of manliness.

If you would like to follow all 33 of my fellow Wirestoners who have embarked on the same endeavour, you can find us here, complete with photos: http://itchyface.blogspot.com/

I don’t have a “start” picture yet but there is one on the itchy face site.  Generally, I don’t shave but every 2 or three days so most of you won’t notice any change for the next few days.  Come next week, however, I could really be miserable.  Let’s see how this rolls.

Grizzly Adams, here I come!

No sooner did I get done complaining about 5-blade razors and their advertising when I receive the following notice in my inbox at work.

Be a Man 08

Yes.  That’s right.  Finally, a reason to eschew shaving for a whole 2 months.  It’s kismet, right?  I have never actually attempted to grow a beard at any time in my life… mainly because I’m facial-folliclely challenged.  I’ve always wanted to be able to have the whole Magnum PI ’stache or maybe even the Sonny Crockett 5 o’clock shadow, but since each hair on my face has a mortal fear of all the other hairs, they only grow singularly.  Thus, instead of looking tough and cool or even manly, I look patchy.

I did mention this was for a good cause.  Well, a co-worker and buddy here in the office was in a car vs. motorcycle accident last week.  Worse than that, while he was on his motorcycle, he was hit by a drunk driving ex-con who was running from the police (and also hit a pregnant woman’s car as well).  News story here and here.  The good news is he is going to be ok.  The bad news is he is in bad shape and has a tough road ahead of him to get back.  Here is a short list of what he’s fighting right now:

Broken Scapula (shoulder)
Broken Collar Bone
Broken Mandible (jaw)
Several teeth were damaged
10 Broken Ribs and punctured lung
3 broken vertebrae  - but thank God - no spinal cord damage
Extensive abrasions and bruising

He has been in the ICU for the past 4 days and probably has a couple more.  Then the long road to recovery begins.

So, we’re growing our facial hair company wide and the entry fee goes to help Jeff get back.  How can I decline that?  In case you’re interested, here are the contest rules.  Also on the Jeff benefit front, there has been scuttlebutt around here about a benefit party with all proceeds going to his recovery.  If there is one thing the Wirestone really knows how to do, it is good parties for even better causes.  I will post the information on whatever we come up with here, so if any of you dear readers want to come out and have a drink for a good cause, you’ll know where to go.

Anyway, you’ll see some updates from this thing as we go along.  And yes, I did get Jess’s OK to embark on this adventure before I agreed to do it.

From Monday on, just refer to me as Patchy McGee.  Who knew facial hair could be so exciting?  Well, except for the well coifed gentleman in the above picture, that is.

They really really do.

I have had nothing but a stuffed up, runny, itchy nose with the frequent sneezing.  Lemme tell you, I’m a real treat to be around.  Hopped up on allergy meds all day that don’t seem to do all that much.  Can’t sleep worth a damn at night.    Lather, rinse, repeat.

Weed pollen count in our area via The Weather Channel.

I think the only answer at this point is to seal my sinuses with rubber cement.  I’m about another day or two away from actually trying this.

Howdy folks.

Just wanted to let y’all know that I’ve finally gotten pictures of the honeymoon to Maui posted to the web, including the crappy waterproof camera pictures taken whilst snorkeling.  Most have at least a descriptive title so you can know what you’re looking at.

Honeymoon in Maui via Flickr.com

Enjoy!

Yes, I am planning on detailing out our Maui adventure at some point… I just haven’t gotten to it yet.  I will soon, however!

Speaking of Flickr, I believe there are still some of you who have not uploaded your wedding photos to the flickr account.  We REALLY would like you to share them.  Please contact me if you need assistance.

The cliché is absolutely true. The is no worse wait than at the DMV. Holy crap. This is torture.

See here is the story.

Jess’ drivers licence expired a month before the wedding and instead of renewing it just to change her name later she just waited until post wedding.

I, being the good husband, told her that I would go with her to get mine updted at the same time, seeing as it’s 4 years and four addresses ago.

Now we’re stuck here. Could be for a looooong time. Been here 10 minutes already and 4 only numbers have been called. “Now serving 103″. Well shit. I’m 129.

Ugh. This sucks hard. If we don’t make it out of here alive someone send a search party.

Posted from my iPhone

I’m finally getting to writing about the big day from my point of view.  It’s still mostly fresh in my memory, but we’ll see.  For the record, this post is probably a bit short on jokes, and long on a straight rehash of what actually went down.  Mainly, this is for me to remember in 20 years what actually went down the big day.

My best man John stayed the night with me (as Jess was staying at the Red Lion Hotel).  We had stayed up late playing video golf on the xbox and I rolled out of bed about 9am or so.  We sat around and watched a little TV and talked a bit, but then he headed off to his brother’s house (in our neighborhood) to prepare for the day.  So, I was on my own.

I can tell you this now… I was very anxious.  I wasn’t nervous, but I couldn’t sit still and couldn’t focus on anything.  I basically wandered around the empty house wondering why time was going so s-l-o-w-l-y.  Ugh, that was the worst.  After about an our of that, which felt like 5 hours, I finally decided that it was time to hit it.  I started to get ready about 10:30am and jumped in the shower.

I wasn’t in the shower 5 minutes before I heard a door close and someone shout.  Thinking it might be John, I didn’t worry about it… Until I heard doors opening and closing multiple times.  Since John would come in and park it on the couch, I knew something else was up.  So, I rush through my shower to see what was going on.  When I get out and walk into the living room I find Jess’ uncles Tom and Ron in the kitchen whipping up a storm for the brunch that was to happen on Sunday morning.

That threw me off a bit, just because I wasn’t expecting it and I have a hard time relaxing when people are in the house.  I went back into the bedroom to finish up getting ready.  Later in the day, I realized that in my haste to get dressed and see who was in the house, I neglected to put on any pit-stick.  This will come into play later…

After I was dressed and put together, I started loading up the car with all of the stuff I needed to take down to the Linen Building for the service and reception.  John rolled up and we were on the road.  I needed to find $80 in singles to use for the photo booth at the reception, so I stopped and one bank on the way, but it was closed.  No big deal, but we moved on.

We hit the Linen Building around noon and found Jess’ dad and a few aunts and uncles around.  We put all of the tables together and and got all the various decorations out and ready.  After about 45 minutes that was finished and I needed to go check in to the Modern Hotel across the street (the Bridal Suite).  As I was doing this, my other groomsmen started showing up as we were scheduled for “guy” pictures at 1pm.

I still needed to get that cash, so I bolted out in search of a bank.  The first one I stopped at wasn’t open.  The second one was only open at the drive through and they couldn’t send that much cash through the tube.  I went to the nearby Albertsons and asked the courtesy counter if I could by the singles, and they said they didn’t have that many.  So, I had to jet 20 blocks to the nearest Albertsons with a bank inside.

I get down there and ask for the singles, and the counter lady I’m sure thought I had a stripper party that night or something.  Oh well… I also picked up some beers and cokes for the guys in the room.  I was going to stop and get something to eat along the way, but I was already 10 minutes “late” for the pictures to start in the room, so I just ran back to the suite.

(more…)

It’s well established that I like all things tech.  Thusly, it should not surprise you that when Chris Hillman talked me into getting a Facebook.com account, I originally balked, but soon caved.

Now, I’m enjoying it, especially the little piece where you can update your “status”.  And now, since I have gotten the Facebook App for the iPhone, I can mobilly update my status whenever I feel the urge.

Which made me think… perhaps there would be a way to incorporate that information into my blog…

Well, scan your eyes to the right, just below the picture of your glorious author.  What you will find there is my current facebook status.  Fun right?

What this means for you is even if you don’t have facebook and add me as a friend (or if you do, go here: http://www.facebook.com/people/Jason_Haberman/1300160722) you can still see my status.  Even better, there will often be at least a little something new for you to see on every single visit, as I am tending to update that thing multiple times a day.

Cheers!

Since we have just returned back to the real world, I’m just now getting around to some things about the wedding. Enjoy.

First up, those of you who were there, might recall the infamous “cell phone” moment that occurred just as Jess was saying her vows.  What you might not know, if you didn’t hear the scuttlebutt about it after, is this…  It was my father’s phone.  Wait, it gets better.  See, he handed his phone to my mom to hold in her purse, yet did not remember to shut it off.  Of course, it rings at the most inopportune time.  So, mom is apparently fumbling through her purse to find the damn thing, but not being the most technical person, she can’t turn it off, so she’s gotta hand it to dad to finally get it off.  The whole time, I did not dare to look over at what all the commotion was least I lose my mind.  Little did I know it was my own family in the front row!

Now, it would be one thing if it was just a nice simple ring.  But nooooo… Dad’s gotta have this festive marimba type tune that keeps playing and playing.  Don’t believe me?  See for yourself below… My favorite part is when it gets even louder as mom successfully removes it from her purse.

In other wedding stuff news, I have uploaded a bunch of my own photos to our shared flickr.com account.  I know a few of you have already added your pics to the pool and I thank you graciously.  For those of you who haven’t, I’m going to keep reminding you until you do it.  As always, if you need the login information or help, just post a comment or email me and I’ll get it to you.

You can view all of the latest pics here:

• My Wedding Pics
• My Rehearsal Pics
• Some of my random wedding week pics

Finally, I’m going to leave you with a art series.  I call it “The Decline of John - In Pictures”.  It is a three part series, each one shows the effects of alcohol and emotion on a best man at a wedding.  John, I love you, and I love these pics.  Enjoy!

Part 1, The Decent

Part 2, The Fall

Part 3, The Finale

That’s all for now… there will be much more to come in the near future.