Ahoy-hoy! A little less exciting have been my last 24 hours. Last night, I wasn't going to go out, but then Corey called me and I asked if I wanted to go out. He sounded like he really need a break from homework and the like, so I agreed to meet him at Jekyll's. It was the quietest night I've experienced in there well over a week. As Ron even told me, sure, the business is nice, but it's also nice to have a slow night on occasion to relax a bit. It picked up a bit later when a group of Lawrence students came in, but they weren't too bad.

Of course, Nate didn't make his way out of Florida until this morning, so I ended up having to work 10-2. The company's V.P. for maintenance flew up from Memphis to give a presentation to us at abou 12:45. He ended up cruising through a presentation on his laptop for the 4 of us on the clock and the 4 waiting to fly out for GSC training in about 20 minutes, and then we all ditched out on him. I got out right at 2, drove home to change, and then went to get my hair cut. It's short - that's probably the best way to put it. I think I'm already regretting telling him to cut it so short, but it's a little late now.

Today is also pay day, so I guess I should get around to mailing out some checks. I've been hanging onto my phone bill for probably close to two weeks now. I have close to 10 days before my latest tuition loan repayment needs to be made, but they take so long to process that stuff that it probably wouldn't hurt to drop that in the mail sometime soon also.

I got a little color today - namely red - while out playing tennis. We played doubles: Peter and I against Zak and Issac. Peter and I won in three sets 8-6, 1-6, 6-4. Yes, if you're as good at math as I am, they actually won more games, but as Peter pointed out, we just won the ones that counted.

Later this afternoon I went down to city hall and acquired my list of Class B liquor licenses. I'm going to have to do a little homework with some of them, as the licensee name is not always the same as the name of the bar or restaurant. I will be helped though by the fact that the addresses are all listed also. I'm also going to have to make some phone calls, because I'm not sure that I can even get into some of the places, such as the Elks Club, the Moose Lodge, and the Yacht Club. There also appear to be less names on the list than the Post-Crescent reported. The license numbers only go up to 106, and I think there are still 1 or 2 numbers missing out of that. I've also decided today that I won't make the schedule quite as rigid as first planned. I might come up with a list of intended targets for the week, but there's no way that I can make out a schedule in May and be certain that I'll still be exactly on schedule come September. If nothing else, I have my list.

I'm supposed to have an appointment to get my hair cut tomorrow morning, but then Nate called, mentioned that he's still in Florida, and reminded me that I'd said I'l work for him tomorrow if he isn't back. So, unless Nate calls tonight (which I doubt he will), I'm working for him 10-2 tomorrow. The good news is that I called Dennis this afternoon, filled him in on my situation, and he said that he has a couple openings tomorrow afternoon also into which I could fit.

I'm pooped now. That tennis really wiped me out. I feel like I need a nap.

Huge thanks to everyone who has responded so far to the two questions I have posted, but now I want to mention something completely new. I have a big announcement to make concerning my plans for this summer. I've been stewing over this idea for a few weeks, I've run it past a few people, and now, after getting lots of input from various sources, I'd like to make an announcement of my intentions to the world. This summer I plan to embark upon Tavern Tour 2003. Here in Appleton, I read several months ago in our very own Post-Crescent that there are 108 Class B liquor licenses in the city of Appleton. For anyone not up on their Wisconsin trivia, a Class B liquor license is for establishments capable of selling liquor for consumption both on and off premises. This, of course, refers places like bars and restaurants. The reason the Post-Crescent mentioned this is because certain alderpersons in the city say they think we should cap the number of Class B liquor establishments in city - and especially downtown. While I think this is simply a ploy to get their names in the paper in preparation for a bid for mayor, I also see it as a disturbing concept. Our downtown, like many downtowns, survives on specialty and niche shops and its nightlife. There's no way that our downtown could compete for stores with the mall area in Grand Chute, yet some moron alderpersons are convinced that bars are taking away from the available space for retail outlets downtown. The truth of the matter is that if the bars weren't there, we'd just have empty storefronts downtown. Our mayor, Tim Hanna, with whom I have disagreed on numerous topics (including the way he was originally elected - it's a similar story as Bush-Gore 2000, yet actually criminal), has finally said something I can agree with - and tavern owners downtown agree with us. That is that we should just allow a "survival of the fittest" concept. In other words, if we really have too many bars downtown, or if the bars are less than satisfactory, then the lesser ones will go out of business leaving only worthy bars. Hell, why chase away tax dollars in favor of the temperance movement which was defeated decades ago?

Getting back to my initial point, there's nothing wrong with going out and drinking if all things are kept in moderation and nothing in excess? With that idea in mind, I intend to visit all 108 Class B liquor establishments in the city this summer. I actually plan on beginning at or around June 1st. From June 1st until the autumnal equinox on September 23rd there are 115 days. I figure I should actually then end on September 22nd - the last night of summer - which still leaves 114 days. 108 bars and restaurants in 114 days even leaves me 6 days off (in case I fall ill, have to work late, the bars aren't open, or, heaven forbid, I just don't feel like drinking). With a population of 70,000 we have 1 bar for every 648 people, which may sound rather high per capita, but I want to prove that there is nothing wrong with drinking in all of these establishments. At the same time, I want to get to know what all of them are like and establish some sort of rating system. I mean, if I'm going to visit them all, at least I'll be able to make real judgments and comparisons. I intend to establish a constant - one drink which I have at every bar - in addition to sampling things like the house specialty. There's no need to get drunk every night; I just want to see the town.

Making this declaration is the easy part - the hard part is following through. Although I have big plans, I hope I follow it all through. While my first job has to be to acquire a list of these establishments from city hall, that's only the beginning. For one, I want to get t-shirts. I want shirts that proudly proclaim what I'm doing (Tavern Tour 2003), where I'm going (an established schedule would be good), and why I'm doing it. For two, I want to document it all on a website which would follow my progress and give me assessment of each place. And for three, I might try to get another party to follow me with film or a video camera and document the whole experience visually. Others have suggested possibilities like getting exposure in the Post-Crescent or at UW-Fox Valley. Should that happen, I'll leave those possibilities upto my friends and acquaintances.

So that's my plan. That's my big announcement. If I have to spend a whole summer in Appleton, I might as well make the best of it, right? I'll keep you all updated as time approaches closer to June 1st on my progress toward actually carrying out my idea.

I have something else I've been grappling with here which is semi-related to the last question. The other day on TSS they asked the question whether blogging dilutes the quality of your writing (or something to that effect). While I don't believe that the writing I've done here for nearly three years has diluted my writing ability, I have started to wonder whether some of my frivolous posts dilute the quality of my blog. If you're a regular here, then you know the ones I'm talking about - the days when I have nothing better to do, so I sat at my computer surfing around and posting any two-sentence thought or frustration that comes to mind. I guess those ones are hardly worth reading, so nobody cares anyway, but it would still interest me to know if any of you agree with this assessment. Thanks again.

I haven't worked on further updating those archives for two days now. I wouldn't say I gave up altogether, but rather that I'm debating doing something else. A comment by Molly 2 days ago got me thinking: why hang onto my old archives? I mean, really, what's the point? Most of the entries are really stupid anyway, so it's not like anyone, even myself, carries to ever read them again. So, my question for all of you is: what do I do with my old archives? Keep them? Delete them all? Keep them for a certain amount of time and then delete them? Keep only entries that I find interesting/funny and delete the rest? I have ideas for an answer to this question, but I would really like the input of others. BTW, if this makes a difference in anyone's response, remember that I don't really need blog archives for nostalgic purposes, as I already keep a handwritten journal - the archives are there more for others than they are for me. Although I only write about topics that interest me, this blog is written for all of you, which is why I don't write anything personal here. That all goes in my journal. Thanks!

Yes, this process of converting every one of my posts individually is not the most exciting endeavor, but at the same time, it can sometimes be interesting to see what sorts of things I wrote in the past. There are plenty of really stupid entries about not sleeping, having problems with Crosswinds, and cheering on Liverpool three days after the fact, but then there are some more fascinating entries like this one, made at a time when I must have been quite loopy.

Yes, I'm now a quarter done. And I'm going to bed. I haven't been working on this steadily, as I met Corey at Jim's about midnight for a couple drinks, and then returned home at 2 to get back to work. Damn Jim's - they can't make a White Russian because they don't stock cream. What the hell kind of bar is that?

Can anyone please explain to me why I currently have "Soulfinger" by the Bar-Kays stuck in my head?

Man, this is some long, boring, tedious work. I'm taking and converting all of my old entries made with Blogger to Movable Type. I know there is a mechanism and process in place with MT to do all that for me, but I tried that once several months back and it didn't work. So, here I am, entering every single post individually. I have to not only enter the posts, but also enter the times and dates in also. When I first started doing this, the list I was taking the times off of was feeding me incorrect times, so I had to go back and fix over a month's worth of times. Now I'm double-checking them as I go along to ensure I don't have to do that all over again. What a pain in the ass.

Did you know that the Packers have used more first round picks on players from the University of Minnesota than from any other school? It's true - the Packers have drafted Golden Gophers seven times in the first round. The only other schools the Packers have drafted from more than three times in the first round are Florida State (five times) and Notre Dame (four times). Rah! Rah! Rah! for Ski-U-Mah!

With only 2 days until the NFL draft, it's time to temporarily forget about baseball (the Twins are in another slump anyway) and focus on football. Don't worry - I'll be back to baseball come Monday. Or Tuesday. Anyway, I already pointed out earlier the difficulty of Green Bay's 2003 schedule, but what about their roster? Thankfully, the offense has stayed intact. I know everyone wants to think about picking one of this year's QB studs to replace Brett Favre, but what of the defense? The Packers have lost to free agency Vonnie Holliday (KC), Tyrone Williams (Atl), Tod McBride (Atl), Matt Bowen (Was), Billy Lyon (Min), and Nate Wayne (Phl), while only resigning KGB, Na'il Diggs, and Cletidus Hunt. Although the team has signed a couple defensive free agents themselves, one could hardly say that the likes of Al Harris and Chukie Nwokorie will sufficiently fill the shoes of the players lost. This is why, depending upon those available, I think the Packers should look into filling a defensive hole with their first round pick instead of blowing it on Rex Grossman or Kyle Boller. While no Favre (but really, who is?), the Packers aren't hurting for QBs to compete for back up spots right now either. In addition to Craig Nall and Zak Kustok, the Packers also got the rights to Eric Crouch from the Rams and, if nothing else, I'm sure there aren't a lot of teams banging on Doug Peterson's door. If nothing else, it couldn't hurt to draft defense in the first round, and then evaluate the remaining quarterbacks by the time they pick again.

I went on down to Jekyll's after work last night and grabbed an open stool at the bar. The place started clearing out slowly the later the hour got, but then about 1, two young ladies walked in and sat next to me at the bar. They had just come from the Firefly and had been doing an unknown amount of drinking, although they were most definitely inebriated. Curious why Corey hadn't joined me yet, I called him, but he didn't answer. About a minute later he called me back, which touched off a conversation with the two ladies. They went on about people not calling them back, shows on MTV, abusive, drug-using boyfriends, and more. They were also drinking $8+ bottles of beer. Then they begged me to buy them another bottle, insisting that they were broke. Sorry ladies: a woman drinking a beer is a woman after my heart, but I don't buy $8 beers for anyone. When 2 o'clock came, they scurried out the door, one of them vomited on the sidewalk about 100 feet west of the bar, and then they disappeared into the night.

"Continued Pearle: 'I slept with a guy who, at some point in his life, walked into a store and said to the cashier, 'Hi, I would like to purchase this copy of The Legend Of Bagger Vance.''"

Here's the one I've been looking for: Twins versus Angels September 1st, 1:05pm at the Metrodome.

Going fulltime at Northwest, my days off are going to be Monday and Tuesday. I figured that meant I could fly out to Minneapolis for a Monday afternoon game and fly back Monday night. The combined cost of the flight, the bus downtown, the ticket to the game, the bus back to the airport, and the flight back to Appleton would run me about $8.50. The problem is that the Twins have most Mondays off, let alone playing Monday matinees. Well, if I'm still working there come September, I guess that's the one game I'll be able to do that for.

Ugh. Mom just called. She said they're setting out dinner at my aunt and uncle's. It had better not just be leftovers from lunch, or else I'm going to be forced to leave so I can find my own dinner. No more ham!

Having to work at 5:30 this morning, I didn't get much sleep once again last night. On top of that, I attempted to take a nap this afternoon, but just couldn't fall asleep. I think I need to get out and do something so I can really wear myself out and fall asleep. Or maybe I just need 7 o'clock to roll around so I can watch Harold Lloyd movies again. They're jumping back to silent films again this week! Yay! Don't get me wrong, the talkies shown last week were okay, but I just definitely prefer his silent work better, as is the case with Chaplin and Keaton.

I know this fall's NFL schedule has been out for several weeks now, but this is the first opportunity I've gotten to see it, and the only thing I can say about Green Bay's schedule this fall is, "Damn."

It must be pretty much concensus that the Packers have perhaps the toughest schedule of any team this year. Of course, the Packers would do themselves a huge service by starting in 5-0 against the cakewalk teams (Minnesota and Detrout at home, at Arizona and Chicago, and then at home for Seattle). I really don't envy the rest of the schedule. Over the next seven weeks, the Packers come home for the Chiefs, travel to St. Louis, have their bye week, play at Minnesota, come home for the Eagles, travel to Tampa and then come home for the 49ers. The next two weeks should be easier, playing at Detroit and at home against the Bears, but then they close the season by traveling to San Diego and Oakland and coming home for Denver. Ouch.

I think the set up of home and away games is extremely biased against the Packers this year also. Excluding division games, the Packers have to travel to Arizona, St. Louis, Tampa Bay, San Diego, and Oakland, while Seattle, Kansas City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Denver have to come to Green Bay.

Take note also of when the games are, because the league is obviously trying to make it so Green Bay doesn't have an advantage by having home games. Minnesota and Detroit - both dome teams - play in Green Bay the first two weeks of the season. The Packers have to go to Arizona in September. Seattle and Kansas City both travel to Green Bay in early October. San Francisco, the only other non-cold weather team to travel to Green Bay, plays here the week before Thanksgiving, but they're so used to still playing in January that playing in Green Bay in November is hardly a handicap. Come December, cold weather teams Chicago and Denver travel to Green Bay, while warm weather teams San Diego and Oakland get to play Green Bay at home.

I really don't like the way this all works out.

I returned a couple hours ago from my little trip to Minneapolis. If success is measured by achieving one's objectives, then I guess this was a successful trip. I talked to both Al and Prof. Polakiewicz, and both of them agreed to write letters of recommendation for me, meaning that I now have my three. I guess next up I should find out what information I need to supply them with and think about taking the GRE.

But you actually want to hear all the juicy details about the trip, don't you? Good, I thought so. By the time I had gone to the gas station, quit forgetting things, and finally got on the road to Minnesota it was about 11:45 Wednesday morning. It was rainy and windy the entire drive, but the worst stretch was driving down 29 between Shawano and Wausau. That area was being hit by sleet/freezing rain, which made driving very difficult on the slick roads. I was pretty much stuck following the slowpokes in front of me, lest I end up in the ditch like several other cars. Including stops, it was a little after 5 when I arrived at the hotel and checked in. I spent the first several hours just sitting in my room watching tv, including the first 5 innings of the Twins-Tigers game, which I had thought about attending before I got cheap and lazy. I left the room finally about 8:45 and walked down to the Bell in hopes of encountering someone I would know. I first went upstairs to the projection booth, where I found Bob and Adam running the European shorts. After talking to Adam for a few minutes, I headed downstairs and sat at the bottom of the stairs. That's where I ran into Daryoush. He had with him Mic, star of After Freedom. I accompanied the two of them back to Espresso 22, where I talked to Mic for a while, during which time Daryoush restocked damn near everything in the place. Then the three of us - along with one of Daryoush's dozens of lady friends - went over to the Kitty Kat Club for a beer. It was my first time in there, but I still noticed instantly that the place screams Jason McLean. Anyway... Mic was picked up by a couple of sisters, Daryoush went home, and I walked over to the Oak to see if anyone was there. Andy and Joe were trying to close up and Dave was picking a few things up, so I got Dave's attention, he opened the door for me, and we ended up standing outside talking for quite some time. I finally had to cut him off so I could leave and find some food, as it was about 12:30 by that point. I walked back to my hotel room, gave Market Bar-B-Que a ring, and then headed over there for some late night eats. After that I was finally able to sleep, so I headed back to the hotel and hit the bed.

Yeah, and that was just Wednesday. I got climbed out of bed about 9:30 Thursday morning so I could get the free continental breakfast at the hotel before it closed at 10. Then I went back in my room and sat watching tv. About 1 the cable went out, so I finally decided to shower, dress, and head out. I stopped by the film society office, but once again Al wasn't there. I then walked down to Coffman to check that out. I wasn't exactly impressed, but I'll get back to Coffman later. It took a lot of work, but I eventually found the Whole. Joe, who now apparently works full time doing a/v stuff for the U, was doing the sound for the show, so I stood around talking to him until about 4:45, when I left to go meet with Prof. Polakiewicz. I talked to him at 5, and he agreed to write a letter for me. I then headed over to Oak, but there was nobody there I knew, so I started walking toward the hotel when I noticed Al's car in the parking lot outside U Film's office. Since he was finally there, I stopped in and talked to him for a few minutes. He was sort of busy, but he handed me a couple free passes to get into movies last night. I left and went over to Oak, where Edi was playing at 5:30. I was only able to stick around for the first hour, because then I left to drive down to the Riverview to see Mr. and Mrs. Iyer. I got there just in time to see the movie. After that movie got out, I was able to look around and see that just about everyone who volunteers at or generally hangs around the film society was at that movie. I talked to a few of them before the next movie, Jylama, started. With nothing better to do, I decided to stick around for that one too, which turned out to be an unwise decision, for it was too slow of a movie to be watching at 9:30. Yes, I fell asleep during part of it. The movie was out by 11. I noticed Penfield waiting for the bus, so I gave him a ride home, and then I drove back to the hotel. Still having not eaten anything since lunch, I went across the street to Leaning Tower. The service sucked and the atmosphere is way cooler at the one on Lynndale, but I got 10% off by showing my room key from the hotel. Then I went back and must have fallen asleep pretty quickly, but I really don't remember. In fact, I was quite surprised when I woke up this morning and found all the lights and the tv off, because I don't remember turning any of them off.

Okay, so I woke up at 9:30 again this morning and went to have my free breakfast. Then I went back, showered, got dressed, and packed up everything to leave, because I had to check out by 11. Just made it. Then I walked over to the film society, but Al still wasn't there. I sat around talking to Adam for a while, we walked over to Harvard Market so Adam could get donuts and the Strib, and by the time we got back to the office Al was there. I talked to Al again and then asked him if he'd write a letter for me also, which he agreed to do. Okay, good, so my major goals for the trip having been accomplished, I could head back to Appleton. I was making pretty good time with the exception of taking nearly a half an hour to make it through Menominee (thanks to some poorly marked road construction that had traffic backed up on 94 east for miles). I was finally getting a little hungry by the time I reached Abbotsford, so I stopped there at the Hardee's - big mistake. Apparently Hardee's has decided to revamp their entire menu. Pretty much anything that was on the menu a couple days ago is no longer on the menu. The burger that I did have was okay, but it wasn't the Hardee's burger I had gone there to eat. I'm not sure if I'll be back any time soon now that they fucked up their food. I made good time getting back again after that and made it home by 5:15.

And now back to Coffman. Man, they fucked that place up big time! While I appreciate what they were trying to do, the whole place is just an awful fucking mess. To begin with, we were told that the remodeling job would open the place back up again after spaces were chopped up and made more confined back in the 70's. Mission failed. Horribly. In fact, the rooms are smaller and the building is more compartmentalized than ever. The biggest problem is that too many things are now packed into too little space in the union, they don't fit in well with the shape of the building (apparently the architects have never put puzzles together before), and now there are weird hallways leading in all directions. The worst is trying to find the Whole. The Whole is in the same location that it has always been, but getting there is now a lesson in determination, perseverance, and sign reading. Because they promised everyone, his brother, and his brother's girlfriend's extensive relatives space in the union, they filled in all the space in basement, leaving just a labyrinth to wander through in attempt to find the Whole. After finding the Whole, a couple things become quickly apparent. They ripped out the wall with all the old show posters plastered to it and placed a concession stand there. They didn't place a set of doors to seperate the Whole from the rest of the basement like they were supposed to so shows could go on when the rest of the union is closed. The old light booth is now an s&m cage with the mixers and stuff in it. The ticket booth is in definite need of being broken in. The actual Whole is in even more need of being broken in. Other than the concession stand, the bathrooms, and the sound system, the Whole is largely unchanged, with the exception of a thick layer of paint that covered everything up. The place looks too new and sterile now to be a music venue. Back to the rest of Coffman, about the only thing I can say that they didn't fuck up was the book store - it's HUGE - especially the textbook section. In fact, they have room in the textbook section for about twice as many books as they have in there now. I missed out on seeing Mike Nelson doing a booksigning there Wednesday afternoon because I wasn't in town yet. The area on the ground floor with all of the dining options isn't nearly as tacky as the original designs appeared, but now it's just confusing. I really wanted to see the theater too, as I'm told it's actually kind of cool, but it was locked, so I missed out. I didn't walk all the way down to the river, but I did walk out on the patio in back and look down, and what I saw of that was pretty decent. Of course, they told us that we'd be able to stand in front of Northrop and look through Coffman to see the river, and that's about as far from the truth as possible. Hell, it was probably more possible with the old Coffman. I didn't go check it out, but I'm told that the computer lab in Coffman isn't open 24 hours as promised either. Basically, we threw $70 million dollars away on a piece of shit building that was better left as it was (even though that sucked also). I could have designed a better remodeling job with zero architectural experience than these jokers did. I know they're really trying to trumpet this design-build concept through this job, but the Coffman redesign looks more like they did it build-design.

Okay, that's enough... I'll shut up now.

Right after I get dressed I'll be hitting the road for Minneapolis. I see I'll have wind, rain, and cold all the way there - great. The storm knocked power out at some time this morning. I see it came back on about 7, but I have no idea when it went out. I'm getting kind of hungry already, so I'd better get a move on.

Okay, so let me tell you about my day a work. It actually started before I even left for work when - as mentioned previously - Harry called and offered me the fulltime spot. After arriving at work at 2, I talked to Harry, whom I saw for the first time in over a month, and signed off on my tardy from over the weekend. He also gave me a cap. Apparently the prize that Team RamRod received for winning our little friendly competition was a Pinnacle Airlines cap, which wouldn't be so bad if we were allowed to wear it at work, but apparently we're not. Today was also payday, so I grabbed my check stub (because I get direct deposit) and checked that out. Then I went outside and worked my first flight of the day. The day started off innocent enough. Everything was normal, and it was 84 degrees outside, but there was a nice, constant southwesterly breeze. About 4 o'clock that all changed. Corey and I were awaiting the arrival of the flight from Detroit when the wind instantly changed from the southwest to the east. This wind from the east was cold and strong. Within minutes the cloud cover had changed from thin and white to thick, gray, and menacing, and the temperature had dropped about 25 degrees. Oh, but it only gets better.... About 6:50, just as we're getting everyone onboard the next flight to Minneapolis and we're about to pull the jetbridge we get a message that that flight is being put on a ground stop for almost an hour. The captain decides to deplane everyone and we moved them back to the gate area. About 7:10 we reboarded the plane and sent it off. Then it sat out on ramp. And it sat. And it sat. Finally about 8:25, just as the next flight from Detroit is also coming in, the flight that was supposed to leave for Minneapolis radios back and says that they're experiencing mechanical problems, can't take off, and are going to return to the gate. Oh shit. So, I hauled ass outside to park the Minneapolis plane at gate 7 when I realized that Midwest had once again parked their little shit plane there, even though we're the one's paying thousands of dollars a month to rent that gate. Too bad our manager apparently doesn't have the guts to either tell off Midwest or get Big Northwest on their asses (that gets stuff done - believe me - having Big Northwest as your parent is like having the mafia for relatives). Not having a radio on me, I ran inside quickly to call ops and tell them 7 is unusable and ask them if we should use 6. That's what we ended up doing. We parked Minneapolis at 5 and Detroit at 6. Then we pulled the bags from Detroit and dumped them, cleaned Detroit, moved the bags from Minneapolis to Detroit, and sent Detroit out as Minneapolis. By the time Minneapolis finally left they had been delayed for over 2-1/2 hours. Okay, so that was one problem averted (sort of). We still had one more plane to wait on. As the plane used on the previous Minneapolis flight was supposed to be the one that came back for the next one, they couldn't send that flight out until the one that had been delayed for 2-1/2 hours arrived, was cleaned, and made ready to go. Combined with the weather problems, it was 11:50 before that plane ever even left Minneapolis (it's scheduled to arrive in Appleton at 10:30). They were then supposed to land at abour 12:45, but they had to abort a landing attempt when they hit really bad turbulence. They circled the airport for quite sometime. The wind was awful, the rain was coming down quite heavily, and there were spurts of heavy lightning as well. Finally they hit the point where they either had to land or would have to divert to Madison. Had that happened, we would have had to sit around waiting for the bus to come up from Madison, which probably wouldn't have arrived until well after 4. A little after 1:30 they made a final attempt at landing and were able to do it. We got them on the ground, Amy and Krista started cleaning the plane, and I pulled bags and dumped them. Then, as I was tossing garbage bags in the Dumpster, the wind blew the gate shut and I was trapped in the garbage area. The fences in there are over 6 feet high and topped by multiple layers of barbed wire. Thankfully, there was a nice security weakness and the gate to the outside was broken. Actually, this pretty much only means 2 things: 1) people can steal garbage, and 2) I could escape - yay! I ran out, used my badge to open the security door, and got back inside. Whew. By the time I finished shit outside and they finished cleaning the plane it was damn near 2:30. It was about 3 by the time I got home. It's been a long day. I'm ready for bed. It was 84 at 4 o'clock, 60 by 4:30, and it's down to the mid-30s by now. Good night.

While not the most exciting or eventful of birthdays, yesterday was still a pretty good birthday. To top it off, Matt, Carrie, and Corey all came out drinking with me at Jekyll's, and I ran into Zak and Trixie there also. Overall, definitely pretty good.

I just got off the phone with Harry. He called to offer me the fulltime spot which will be vacated when Max quits. I, of course, accepted.

Not having a good way to know at which hotels I receive an airline employee discount, I decided to just forget it and pay full price at the Days Inn on campus. It's costing me $60 per night (I had hoped to pay much less), but at least I'll be right near everything I want to be near.

Oh, it just occured to me that I should explain. Amy called me on Saturday and asked if I could trade days with her. I worked yesterday for her and she's working Wednesday for me. Now I have Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off of work, so I'm going to drive out to Minneapolis and try to drum up a few letters of recommendation. I'm also planning on checking out a night or two of the film festival since it runs through Saturday night. I can't stick around that long though, because I have to work again Saturday morning.

The U wins another men's hockey national championship and the students riot again. What do you know?

Of course, the intelligence level of those involved becomes more obvious after reading quotes from several students in the article....

“'People were just going insane,' University first-year student Laura Swenson said. 'I went crowd surfing, which was completely awesome.'”

Explaining why he rolled three trash bins from sorority houses into the bonfire, third year student Seth had to say, "'I'm not doing it to be destructive, I just can’t stand police brutality.'"

And perhaps the top two quotes come from senior/moron Mark McSherry: "'People burn stuff because the cops keep chasing us and they keep Macing us. We’re going break stuff until they quit chasing us.'" and "'Riots are some of the top three memorable college times of my life. When else do you see all these students come together to do one thing?'"

I'm proud of my school, and I'm happy for the men's hockey team, but the rioting is among the stupidest things the students do all year long. They won't come together to protest rising tuition costs, less funding from the state legislature, or any other important matter, but the moment the hockey team wins a championship they're out there trashing campus and the surrounding businesses. Seeing all the cars they overturned and burned this year, I was lucky to get away with just a broken driver's-side mirror last year.

Funny, I don't feel a year older today than I did yesterday.

The saddest part is that I feel like I've completely wasted the last year of my life. Being twenty-three is being one year removed from university. In that time I haven't accomplished a thing. I got laid off from my job, I had to move back in with my parents, I sat around unemployed for months working the occasional shitty temp job, and now I work an even shittier semi-permanent job for low pay and no respect. Not only have I wasted a year, but I think there was a bit of regression involved.

Well, tonight I forget all that. I have to work 3-7 this afternoon. After that, I'll come home, eat dinner, and my aunt and uncle might come over for some cake. Then the night really begins, because then I go out and hit the bars. This will be me first year hitting really hitting the bars on my birthday. Needless to say, I secured the services of Corey to be my designated driver.

First it was the evil death rays, and now it's peeing in my suitcase. Link has taken to peeing on anything and everything downstairs. I don't know if he's just finally decided to start marking his territory now in his old age or if he just can't find any of the litterboxes fast enough. At any rate, I had left my suitcase downstairs since I returned home last Friday because I hadn't gotten around to cleaning out the broken glass. My mom got on my case when she came home from work today about cleaning it and getting it put away. I went down there to clean it, opened it up, and realized that Link had decided to mark his territory there also. So, after scrubbing the shit out of that thing and dousing it in practically a full bottle of Febreeze, I left open and airing out, but in a position much harder for him to pee in again. That damn cat....

I went to Burger King today and saw something that rather confused me. On the paper wrappings for their sandwiches, there are little pictures of select toppings available on the sandwich which the kitchen staff uses to mark what is on each sandwich. I noticed that on the wrapper for a BK Veggie there is a little drawing of two pieces of bacon. Bacon! On a veggie burger! Who gets bacon on a veggie burger?!

I fell asleep and missed most of the game, but I see now that Minnesota came back to beat Michigan in overtime to advance to Saturday's NCAA men's hockey championship game. I only work 4:30-7:30 Saturday morning, have off Sunday, and don't work until 3 on Monday, so I just might have to squeeze a road trip to Minneapolis into my schedule to take part in the post-victory drunken riots on campus Saturday night.

Name for me please one person in the country (other than "THAT" guy) who seriously would have thought that the Kansas City Royals would be the last undefeated team in baseball this year.

Name for me one other person who thought that at this point the Twins would have only one more win than the Brewers, and all three of those came at the expense of baseball's only winless team, the Tigers.

Man, I'm tired. It's been a hell of a last few days. After sitting up Tuesday night until 6 a.m., I finally forced myself to sleep, only to have my grandma wake me up 4 hours later to tell me there was a message on the answering machine for me from work. Yes, they wanted me to come in early. Yes, I'm broke. Yes, I agreed to do it because I'm broke. I worked from noon to close, which didn't end up being until damn near 1:30 this morning. That happened because of a scheduling SNAFU and a lot of incompetence on the part of people in the company who make a hell of a lot more money than I do. Those same people didn't have to sit around waiting for a dirty plane to show up from Memphis at midnight. After finally getting out at 1:30, I met Corey at the bar. I headed straight home at closing time, climbed into bed, and proceeded to sleep right through my alarm. I finally woke up at 8:05, twenty-five minutes before I needed to be at work. I threw on clothes and drove as quickly as possible to work, only to clock in late anyway, as our timeclock at work is on fairyland time (it runs really far ahead). I was supposed to be done then at 3, but the 2:55 flight sat out on ramp for damn near an hour discussing maintenance problems on the phone, so I didn't get out of work until 4. I don't work tomorrow, and fuck any bastard who tries to get me to work for them, because the answer is "No."

I have this feeling that my grandma is going to wake me up in the morning instead of letting me sleep, and if that happens, I'm going to be a cranky son-of-a-bitch the rest of the day.

I get paid again on Tuesday. Woo-woo!

I also received my license plate renewal notice in the mail today. That means that car and life insurance bills are right around the corner also.

Republican leaders are already screaming "I told you so!" at anti-war protestors as if the protestors were protesting in favor of the Hussein regime in Iraq. Apparently these morons think all is over. Nobody ever doubted the U.S. military's ability to steamroll over just about any other country in the world and nobody (save for a few quacks) was protesting in favor of Saddam. The real battle will come later when the Iraqis tire of Dubya forcing Americanism and Western culture on them and they decide to fight back instead of embracing American marines and soldiers. The real battle will take place when terrorists and jihad guerilla warriors have time to carry out attacks on Americans and American interests. I can't believe the naivete of these conservative television pundits who see American media footage of Iraqis dancing in the streets as tanks roll by and think that those people represent all the people of Iraq. These are the same people who watched that looped footage of 10 Palestinian kids and old women celebrating on September 11th and declared that all of Palestine was against the U.S. These are the same people whose followers amount to the "Jerry Springer" set, yet won't agree that complete idiots account for 99% of the people who find their way onto tv. It's not over yet, you damn fools.

You'd think I'd learn. Here it is nearly 6 o'clock in the morning and I'm still up. I didn't even realize it was this late in the night until I heard my parents getting up to get ready for work. Last night I went to bed around 3:30 and still slept until 1 (which almost had me late for work). I don't work today until 7 tonight, but I'm almost thinking I'll have to set my alarm anyway. I really should just force myself to bed though. Sheesh.

Go ahead: ask me why I'm pissed off. Don't care? Then you'd better quit reading, because otherwise I'm going to tell you anyway.

Okay, so when I was hired by Northwest, I was passed over for full time in favor of much less qualified applicants. Well, now one of them is quitting already, as a friend of his offered him a job with much better pay down in North Carolina. He's quitting at the end of this month, which means his full time slot will open up at the end of the month. I found out about this just before I left for training for two weeks down in Memphis. I figured I'd talk to the manager about wanting that spot when I came back. I haven't seen the manager yet (he left before I came into work today), but I've learned from several coworkers that he already offered the spot to another guy with less seniority than me! That's my spot! This other guy had previously worked for the company, but quit on them and left them severely short handed back in December for a job with Delta. When he realized he wasn't getting the hours he wanted there, he came crawling back to us and we rehired. Apparently the argument for giving him the spot over me is that even though I have more seniority than him, he has more overall experience than I do. What does he know that I haven't learned in the 2+ months since I started? How to operate the jetbridge? Hey, I'm just waiting for them to officially show me how (I already know how, but would be fired if I was caught operating it without official training). Other than that, there isn't much that he knows how to do that I don't. This is bull shit. Not only that, but he may bail on the company again in another month if his brother hires him like he thinks might happen. I, on the other hand, can't afford to wait around and see if he leaves the company up a creek again. If I get passed over for this spot, it pretty much means that I have to quit the job just so I can take a full time spot somewhere else like a gas station or something. Sure, I'd rather stick around at Northwest (even though the pay sucks), but I can't afford to at all working 20 hours a week. I just want to punch somebody right now.

Today is a good day to be lazy. It's cold and windy outside and I don't have to work. Mom and Dad are at work, Grandma is at therapy, and I can relax without anyone around giving me hell. I also can't think of anything better to do today than sit around anyway. I watched a little tv earlier, but I've mostly just been screwing around with the computer or chasing the cats. Next up, I need to find a place in one of the fridges to put my beer and get it cold.

With so many hits while I was gone from people looking for Nicole Kidman's Oscar acceptance speech, it's too bad I couldn't be here to fill their minds with my own useless commentary. Even so, I'll get around to commenting on that night when I get a change. As for now, Harold Lloyd movies are starting on TCM, so I have to go.

I don't think I could sit down at my computer without making at least one baseball related entry. The Twins may have dominated the Tigers in the first three, but now they seem to have hit their first stumble of the year against Toronto. Here the Twins are, playing their home series with the Blue Jays, and I'm missing my opportunity to hear "Oh Canada" because I'm stuck in Appleton. Grrr.... I wish I still lived in Minneapolis, because you'd better believe that I would be all over the $200 deal for season tickets in Upper GA. Forgetting the Twinkies for a moment, what's up with Kansas City?! The red-hot Royals start the season 5-0? Back to the Twins - swept in the opening home series of the season - now they have to travel to New York to be offered up for a meal for the Yankees. Now that Monday's game has been postponed until Tuesday, hopefully it'll give the team a chance to regroup again before heading into the series at Yankee Stadium. It's not often that one sees Brad Radke taken for 8 runs in an outing. Ouch.

Hey everyone! I'm back from my two-week trip to Memphis for training. I actually got back Friday night, but this is the first opportunity I got to get online. Usually I love getting away from home for an extended period of time, but this trip was most definitely the exception. There's something about being held prisoner in a shitty hotel for two weeks that actually makes me long for home.

I've had many people ask me, of course, how it went. Well, I have to split my answer between the class and the rest of the experience. I found the class to be rather helpful, if not a little slow. On the other hand, time spent outside of class was nothing short of awful. There were only a couple of occasions when I actually escaped from the confines of the hotel, but I eventually had to come back anyway. On one occasion, I checked out the only restaurant within walking distance: New Super Buffet. A+ for name, A for food variety, and C+ for food quality. There was an episode with trying to get my per diem check cashed, multiple stories about trips to Wal-Mart in Mississippi, and then there was the excursion down to Beale Street one night with random businessman that I met in the hotel lobby. Although I could bore you with all the intricate details of the trip, and even more so, details about the guy I had to room with, I won't - mostly because I'm lazy.