Tis the season for a show
Lots of good concerts coming up:
Alkaline Trio @ the Intersection - April 27th
New Order @ the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago - May 5th
Green Day @ Van Andel Arena - May 7th
I’ll definately be going to the Alkaline Trio show at the Intersection. Been listening to them for a few years now and havenlt had a chance to see them live. Should be a fun show. I really want to see New Order too. Ryan talked about getting a few people together to make the road trip. Marie really wants to go but being pregnant in a smoked filled venue with people packed in like sardines doesnlt sound like her idea of fun.
Three more weeks till Marie & I get to find out if we are having a boy or a girl. Ilm getting really excited! If we bring in a blank video tape, they will record the ultrasound for us. Illl be encoding it and putting it up on my website the weekend after the visit. Speaking of which, I still need to purchase a miniDV camera soon. Anybody got suggestions on what model I should get?
Blackjack
Last night, Ryan, Josh, Melanie and I went to the GR Museum and watched The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. It was an actual print which was cool to see, although the colors were really washed out. The audio system at the Museum isn’t that great and everything sounded like it was coming out of the right channel. It was nice to see the movie again as I haven’t seen it since the 80’s when FOX would play those movies on Saturday afternoons. After that we decided it would be a good idea to drive up to Soaring Eagle and try to sit at a blackjack table. The place was packed and all the tables were full. Josh managed to sit down at a blackjack table and played for a bit. Ryan switched with him after awhile. This was his first time at a blackjack table and he had some major beginner’s luck. At one point he hit 21 three times in a row and was up about $100. Unfortunately he managed to lose it all before we left.
After awhle he switched with me so I could get a chance to sit down since nobody else from the table was getting up. This was also my first time at a blackjack table. The minimum bet was $5. I bought in for $40. I ended up playing for over an hour. The highest I was up was about $25. I ended up cashing out at $45, making a whole $5. It was good experience at a table and I didn’t lose anything so I was happy. We left the casion around 3am and got home around 4:30am.
Today I managed to get all the drawers sanded in the knotty pine room. Last weekend I got all 12 of the doors done. Now i just need to sand the inbetween parts on the walls, which is going to take some time. I’m hoping to be done with all the sanding by early April. I’m finally feeling like I’m making some real progress in that room.
Work has been insanely busy. Things are moving forward with Wealthy Theatre. The next couple of weeks are going to be even busier. Makes the days go by fast tho. I’m gonna need a vacation after all of this.
Marie & I’s next visit to the doctor is on April 15th. On this visit we get to find out the sex of the baby. We are both really excited to know! Marie has already started buying outfits for the baby. She just can’t help herself. The new furniture for the baby’s room should be arriving soon. I still gotta move my 720 arcade game and clean out the closet in the baby’s room before the furniture arrives. That damn 720 is one heavy and ackward to move machine. I’m not looking forward to going down my stairs with it. Just thinking about it hurts my back.
Episode 3 trailer has got me freakin'
I suffered thru an hour of the O.C. to see the Star Wars Episode 3 trailer on my 42″ Widescreen HDTV, only for them to show it AFTER the show ended! But man oh man was it worth the wait. I managed to download a copy of the trailer that someone encoded in mpeg format from the tv broadcast and I’ve been watching it non-stop. I made a few screen grabs from the trailer and put them in my photo gallery. I’ve already seen bittorrents of it floating around. Crazy bandwidth is going to be used downloading that sucker all over the world tonight.
update - here is a bittorrent link for the trailer]]>
Million Dollar Baby
Just finished watching Million Dollar Baby while I worked out tonight. Boy did that movie get me PISSED! Here’s a girl who has had absolutely nothing her whole life and works her ass off to become a boxer. She finally get’s her chance for the title fight and what happens??? The other fighter throws a cheap shot while she’s not looking and lands her face first on the edge of a chair, paralyzing her for the rest of her life. I just wanted to jump in the ring and kill that bitch! And to make matters worse, her white trash family who has never gave a damn about her, visits her in the hospital after many months only to try and swindle her out of her money. I love movies that really get to you like that. Hillary Swank and Clint Eastwood had great performances and I can see why they both won Oscars this year.
So far I’ve been sticking with my workout every night. Althought I admit I didn’t work out Saturday night. I spent the afternoon at Ann Leatherman’s funeral and the luncheon afterwards. Ryan, Rick, Eric, Sue, Josh, Megan, Erin, Katie,Marie, my sister & I attended. After that we went home and just kinda vegged out. Later that night I went to Eric’s house and a few of us played cards until 4:30am. I wasn’t in the mood to work out for an hour at 5am so I skipped it. Tonight I worked out on the bike for 40 minutes and for 20 minutes on the AB-DOer. I don’t really notice any physical changes yet but I do seem to have more energy. Riding the bike for 40 minutes at a time is getting easier also. I don’t think I’m going to see much, if any, weight loss in the next couple of weeks. If anything, I’ll probably gain a little bit as muscle weights more than fat. Exchanging fat for muscle would be just fine with me.
Got a busy day ahead of me tomorrow (or techincally today). I have to meet a contractor out at Wealthy Theatre at 9:45am. After that I head over to CBC for a couple of hours, take a little break to get something to eat and then it’s off to Fair Housing Center for a couple of hours. Speaking of Wealthy Theatre, we officially closed on it today so it’s all ours. Now I can finally start getting some things done over there. I put in the order for the point to point T1 connection with SBC this afternoon, which will be used to connect the CMC to the Wealthy Theatre. I’m also working with 3 different vendors on a new phone system for the CMC and Wealthy Theatre. Busy busy.
Marie & I go to the doctor Friday morning at 8am (ugh!) for her checkup. She will be 4 months along on Friday. I still can’t believe that in 5 months I’m going to be a father. What a life changing experience I’m sure that’s going to be. I can’t wait! This weekend I want to buy a miniDV camera so that we can document everything, including filming the birth (and for you who must know, we did not film the conception). Some of you probably think I’m a sick bastard for wanting to film the birth. What I wouldn’t give to see myself being born! I think the whole concept of birth is just absolutely amazing. I want to keep a video archive for our son or daughter so that when they are older they can see everything from being a bulge in mommy’s belly to current day. I so wish my parents would have did something like this for me.
Werk it fat boy
Over the past 5 years I’ve managed to pack on 40 pounds. Right now I’m just under 200 pounds, which is a weight I never thought I would come close to. Growing up I was always a stick. I couldn’t gain a pound to save my life. After a couple of years working at CMC, I started to pack on the pounds. Alot of this was due to me not being nearly as active as I was at my previous jobs. Insteading of being on my feet all day and lifting heavy boxes, I was sitting in front of a computer for 8 hours a day.
Starting at the beginning of the week, I told myself I’m going to spend at least 30 minutes a night working out. Tonight I spent 30 minutes straight on my exercise bike, burning 380 calories (at least that’s what the electronic display said). My legs were really feeling that workout. After that I spent 15 minutes working on my AB-DOer, while watching OZ on DVD (that show has got me sucked in - no pun intended). Buying that AB-DOer is a pretty embarrassing story. I got sucked into one of those damn hour long infomercials and called up the 1-800 # and bought it with my credit card. After it arrived I used it for about two weeks and then it sat in the garage for quite some time. I’m sure everybody has a story about purchasing some type of exercise equipment only to use it a couple of times and there it sits, collecting dust. That’s mine.
So far I’ve stuck to the routine every night. It will be interesting to see if I manage to lose any weight or build up some muscle tone after a month. Wish me luck. My fat ass is gonna need it.