Hello Moto

After what seemed like an eternity, my new Motorola Cliq finally showed up today!

The ceremonial unboxing:

Since I got a new SIM card with it, I got the joy of calling T-Mobile tech support to activate it. I always end up getting the ambiguously ghetto chick who is trying so hard to follow her script, but just can't hide who she really is. I know she doesn't really appreciate how I was able to provide the last 4 digits of my SSN, and she doesn't really care that I've been a loyal customer for 10 years. I fuckin' love it!
Anyway, the first boot-up:
After spending a couple hours getting used to the Android OS, I think I've got my 5 (yes 5!) home pages set up close to how I want them.
I'm iffy on Motorola's MotoBlur skin (which integrates all the popular social media networks), but I bet teenagers would love it. I've essentially deactivated it so I've pretty much got the core Android OS. I've downloaded about 15 apps, with plenty more to go. I haven't had enough time with the phone to really form an opinion on it, but so far it seems to kick major ass. I'll give a full review after a week or so.

In the meantime, here are some highlights:
*Android OS
*5 megapixel camera w/autofocus and video
*GPS with Google Maps
*WiFi (but no UMA, boooo!)
*Slide-out QWERTY keyboard
*3G network
*BlueTooth

If Bandit Could Talk...

...he'd probably threaten to eat me in my sleep.

But his wittle shirts are just soooo pwecious!

How Kristin Helps With Homework

Everything's more fun when yer drunk.

Dammit!

I just broke the resealing mechanism on my fucking trail mix. Now how will I keep my raisins fresh? Huh?

Perhaps I should consider being more gentle.

Hulk Smash!

If you're going to put socks in a resealable bag, the bag should probably be as strong or stronger than the bond between the resealable zipper thingies. I ripped the shit out of this bag trying to open it, yet the resealable part stayed sealed.

But, really, who the hell wants to reseal their sock bag?

Turkey Loaf

Not my favorite type of loaf.

Brain Says I Need To Go Tubeless

Brain, Franz, and I met at Monticello yesterday morning for some mountain biking. I didn't realize how out of shape I had gotten until I actually had to ride with other people. It was super weak.

This was my first time riding Monti since ~8 miles of new trail had been added. Some of it was great, but some of it didn't flow together very well. I did, however, appreciate that the trail was very well-marked. I can't count how many times I've gotten lost out there. The best part was the long, winding downhill with berms on the edges.

OK, back to how much I sucked. I really sucked. That's all there is to it. Moving on...

We had ridden for about 90 minutes when my rear tire went flat. None of us had the foresight to bring a spare tube on the trail, so we walked out to the road and sent poor Ted back to the car to get a tube and pump. He got back about 10 minutes later and I proceeded to replace the tube slowly. Because I'm slow at doing things like that. After spending 10 minutes pumping up a high-volume tire with the world's smallest hand pump, I got on the bike and clipped in, at which point my tire promptly went flat again. Son of a bitch!

I told the other two to finish their ride and I would just walk back on the road. As it turns out, walking is really boring. I found a 4-wheeler trail in the ditch and decided to ride, flat tire and all. The trail was was nice and soft, so I was convinced that I wasn't doing any damage to my rim. After a mile or so, the trail ended.

I figured I couldn't have my fat ass riding a flat tire on asphalt without destroying the wheel, but had another idea. Remember the Idea Box from that Best Buy ads several years ago? That's how I felt. Like a fuckin' Idea box. I switched my good tube from the front tire to the rear, thinking I could keep my weight over the rear wheel and ride back to the parking lot.

It kind of worked, but the flat front tire got really really sketchy, even at slow speeds. So I went down into the ditch and shoved a bunch of dead grass into my front tire to protect the rim a bit. Just as I was finishing, Ted showed up with the car.

In hindsight, it probably would have been faster to just walk.

All that unfortunate luck was forgotten when we got to McDonald's. Totally worth the trip.

Brain says I need to go tubeless, so I'll have to look into that. Now, if I could just get my ass in shape...

OMFG, I Did Bike Maintenance!

Ready to rock the shit out of Monticello at a moderate pace tomorrow. Go mediocrity!

Cold-Ass Fishing

Last week I went up to Leech Lake with my Father-in-Law for one last fishing outing before winter. The weather forecast looked good, so we made the drive.

When we first got out on the lake, the water looked like this:
Not bad at all. We were marking fish on the sonar like crazy, so figured we were in for a killer day of fishing. Then the wind started picking up. Then it started raining. Then the temperature dropped into the 30's. It got so windy that we were drifting at over 2mph. To top it off, we weren't catching any fish.

Well, except for this one.
After about an hour we had to give up and head back to shore because the boat was taking on water in the 5-foot swells.
So we went to the local bar and drank, which is always enjoyable.

I guess fishing season is over.

Windows 7 Installed

I'm kinda scared.

Eh.

So I'm working from home today because Max is sick. He came home from school with a fever of 103.9, so he's been pretty miserable.

We shipped Addi off to stay with Grandma until all the germ-bugs are out of the house. Sick kids make me sad.

We had big plans for the weekend, too. We were going to take the kids to see the play Willy Wonka at the Paramount, but that's out now. We were also going to to a Halloween party at a friend's house, but it's hard to find babysitters for sickly wee ones.

Not much else going on. T-Mobile is apparently unable to tell me when my new phone will show up. I'm way too excited about this phone. Clearly, this means I don't have much else going on in life.

My Hangover Is Finally Gone

I spent the weekend down in Rochester for my cousin's wedding. It was his 2nd wedding in 6 years, but his wife's first. Not sure what the rules are on that, but they had a big wedding anyway, which I thought a bit strange. Same groomsmen, same church, different wife. Anyway...

It took us for-fucking-ever to get there because we had to make several stops on the way, then we tried a GPS-suggested shortcut which put in right into 6 miles of bumper-to-bumper traffic with stoplights on ever block. FAIL.

The reception was a lot of fun. I don't get down to see that side of my family as often as I should, so it was nice to spend some time with them. We just found out the terrible news that my grandpa's cancer has returned, so that was incredibly depressing. He's on some experimental drugs that will hopefully put the cancer into remission without chemo. We'll see.

The kids were crazy dancing fools, but had to head up to the hotel room and go to bed at around 9 because they were having melt-downs on the dance floor. Kristin was nice enough to take them to bed and let me hang with my fam.

Aside from my grandparents, hanging with that side of the family is a bit awkward. I don't really think most of them care for me very much, so it's a bit weird. In fact, at this particular cousin's first wedding, they did family pictures without us. Then gave out those family pictures at Christmas.

At the reception, I faced a conundrum. I don't like cheap beer, but they had kegs of free Miller Light. Mixed drinks were $5. My cheapness outweighed my disdain for gut-rot and I compromised by alternating beer-drink-beer-drink. I didn't feel like I drank that much, but I must have because I sure didn't feel well Sunday morning!

Lots of bad health-related news in my family recently. As I mentioned, my grandpa's cancer is back. My uncle's new wife is currently undergoing tests for what they believe to be Lou Gehrig's disease. One of my niece's good friends just died of cancer. It's all very depressing.

My health screen at work revealed that I may be predisposed to hypoglycemia, which explains my heart palpitations and feelings of lightheadedness lately. So much for cutting sugar out of my diet!

We took the kids for flu shots on Sunday. What a cluster-fuck. Max was flipping his shit, and Addi sobbed for like 45 minutes afterwards. 25% of Max's class is out sick this week, so we're hoping those damn shots work fast!

I'm just a big downer today I guess. There's gotta be something good happening, right? Oh yeah, I'm going to go get a new phone, the Motorola Cliq. It better rock my socks off.
I've been putting off getting a new phone because there always seems to be a better one just around the corner. I think that's just going to be the reality. No matter what phone I get there will always be a better one in a couple months. My Blackberry has been dropping calls like crazy lately, so it's time to upgrade.

Franz = Local Celebrity

From the St. Cloud Times.

Where's Nemo?

We had kind of a sad/funny experience at our house last weekend. I got up early to go out hunting and left before anyone in my family was awake. While I was getting ready, I found a dried-up minnow on the floor. I couldn't figure out where the hell it had come from, but figured it must have somehow gotten wrapped up in a jacket or something while I was out fishing a few days prior.

Anyway, I had places to be and people to see. I threw it in the garbage and forgot about it.

While we were out hunting, I got a text:

"How r u guys doing? Addi's fish is MIA"

Apparently Addi had noticed her fish missing, and was adamant that it had been stolen.

Then it clicked. We had cleaned Addi's fish bowl the night before, and left it sitting on the counter in the kitchen. Sometime during the night, the Betta decided that life wasn't worth living and jumped out of her bowl. She then flopped off the counter and onto the floor, where I found her the following morning.

That afternoon, we bought Addi a goldfish. Hopefully this one has a more positive outlook on life.

Wild Turkeys Mingling With Domestic Geese

I LOOOOOOOVE Furniture Shopping. Psych!

Why yes, I did just say "Psych!". Eat it.

For the last 8 years or so we've had this entertainment center:

We bought it on sale for $45 at Media Play. Despite the fact that we've moved and replaced almost all the furniture in our house, we still had this entertainment center. I looked out of place. We had talked about doing a built-in fireplace, but didn't want to drop that much money.

We spent all of Sunday afternoon over in Becker checking out their selection...or lack thereof. There wasn't much to look at and it was all overpriced, even with their 50% off sale.

I had Monday off for Columbus Day (you go, Christopher!), so we checked out Hennen's in St. Cloud. They had a huge selection and good prices. We picked one out right away, but had to bring Addi to her dance class. We then went out to lunch at RJ's (slowest service EVER) and headed back to the store to pick it up.

On our way out, we saw these:
We liked them, but couldn't decide if electric fireplaces are cheesy. Kristin had to leave to pick Max up from school, so I got to sit at the furniture store by myself for 45 minutes. Awesome. When she got back, we stared at our different options for about an hour, stressed about it a bit, then decided to just stick with what we had already picked out.
I think it looks killer. When we got it home and set it up, both kids started bawling because they miss our old entertainment center. Are you fucking kidding me? Bedtime.

Oh, but wait! Now we need new end tables to match. This ain't over yet. FML.

Blood Draw

They're doing health screenings at work this week. For some reason, I really enjoy getting blood drawn. Maybe I'm a vampire and don't know it?

We also got free breakfast at work today.

I have a feeling this is all related to the fact that our insurance benefits are changing next year.

Bird Season Is Upon Us

I wrote about this already on my hunting blog, but I just can't contain my excitement that Fall (well, a very wintery Fall) is finally here!

I'm actually going out hunting this afternoon with a new friend. I met him on the internet, and he has a dog. I have no shame.

Maybe A Little Fatter In The Face

Since I turned 29 this year, I got the pleasure of renewing my drivers license. The visit to the DMV was actually pretty uneventful, which was a nice change.

Here's what I looked like 5 years ago:

And here's what I look like now:

Bath Tub Baby

I don't know why she wanted to sleep there, but it's cute as shit.

Cosmic Bowling

They just played "Motown Philly". Super awesome.

Wow

There is a lot of shit in that car

My Brotha

There's a good interview with Chris Hoy, who suffered the same injury as me, here.

He, however, seems a lot more optimistic about his return.

I like how he talks.

Happenin's

I've been kind of a busy li'l beaver lately. Friday, obviously, was my birthday. The kids loaded me up with lures:
I also went to Cabela's and spent some of my b-day cash on a new trolling rod...
...and reel with a line-counter...
...only to find out that my father-in-law had already bought me the same thing. Oops.

We then went shopping for new new clothes. I actually was able to find about 8 shirts, which was awesomely expensive.

Then we went out to eat at Chino Latino, followed by dessert at Reno Zeno. I guess I like places that rhyme.

Saturday was pretty low-key. I woke up at around 9 kinda dehydrated, then went mountain biking with Franz and Mrs. Franz at Quarry Park. We wanted to hit up North Loop, but figured it would be way too wet.

I kicked it with the kids for a while, then we had family movie night with Journey To The Center Of The Earth. It was OK.

Sunday morning we took the kids to the Humane Society because, apparently, our life was not complicated enough without the kids obsessing about getting a kitten.

Sunday we had some friends over with their kids and we went to the punkin patch.
I've decided I want to cross-breed these two squashes...

...and make Nut-Cup Squash.

The kids really wanted to buy a hay bale. Stupid kids, if you want hay, you can pick it yourself.There were some ugly-ass pumpkins. This is the Super-Freak.
We had a small issue Sunday night. If you look closely at this Rapala, you'll notice that a couple of the barbs have been cut off.

That's because I had to cut it out of Kristin's finger. She came upstairs kind of laugh-crying and told me "we have a small problem". Somehow, Addi had gotten a lure stuck in her sock, and when Kristin tried to remove it Addi kicked her foot, lodging the hook deep into Kristin's middle finger.

She was displeased to learn that you can't really just pull it out, due to the barbs on the hook. Nope, ya gotta push it aaaaaaaaaaaaall the way back through, then cut the barb off with a wire cutter.

I'm tellin' ya, my bitch is a stud. She just grabbed the hook and shoved it back through her finger. I cut the barb off and she yanked it out. Hardcore.

Put Your Damn Video Games Away...

...or the dog will shit on it.

Is it wrong that I find this hilarious?

Giant Chair

Gotta love Gopher Bargain Center!

Custom Menu At Chino Latino For Ma Birfday

I is important.

Sunny Says Happy Birthday

This photo came in a "Happy Birthday" text from my mom this morning.

Before I head off on my awesome birthday adventure, I just wanted to show off my presents. The kids got me some new Rapalas.

And Kristin got me a new cappuccino maker.

So damn good...

Now it's time for shopping, food, and girly drinks. Life doesn't get much better.

I'm Alive!

I'm pretty tired, but I managed to make it in to work today. I figured I should probably try to get something done since I'll be leaving at noon tomorrow for my birthday celebration. This is the last birthday I get to celebrate while I'm in my 20's, so I gotta make it count. Really, I just want the presents.

This has been a good week for me. Monday night I wasn't able to make the night MTB ride, though I'll try to make it in the near future. Instead, I took Bandit out for a 60-minute ride at Plum Creek.
It turns out, the best way to get Bandit in shape is also the best way to get myself in shape! I did 2 laps the normal direction, then 1 lap backwards. Even though it was windy and cold, it was perfect back in the woods. I need to do more mountain biking this fall.

I've also discovered live streaming video of Elite Track Nationals here.

Kruse is the only representative from Blaine, and he wanted to make sure he got there without picking up Swine Flu.
So, back to the wine tasting. That place had the coolest damn bathroom eva! Check out "The King". It was like pissing into heaven.

Not sure if you can read this, and honestly, I don't really care.
So now that I'm a connoisseur of fine wines and urinals, I'll probably be too cool to talk to any of you anymore. No hard feelings?