Up and coming!

Well well. Lots of stuff coming up in the near future.

BUT FIRST!

I'm pretty sure that only 2 of my friends (neither of which read this blog) know that I have a minor infatuation with Dr. Seuss. (My favorite book is If I Ran The Circus, fyi.) While all the rhymes are wonderful and the drawings are whimsical, and we learned that you don't really need a Sneed, I was more interested in Dr. Seuss' contributions to the older audiences - he created a fair amount of propaganda during World War II. A lot of the themes from these drawings actually carried over into characters and messages found in the children's books for which he is most popular.

This has a point, I swear.

I had a book. It was called "The Seuss, The Whole Seuss, And Nothing But The Seuss." It was really quite an interesting book. I lent this book to someone, within about the last 8-12 months, and I cannot for the life of me remember who it was. And I have recently wanted to make reference to said book, but alas, I cannot, because I don't know where said book is!

SO. Since you were all so helpful in offering me sources for couches, I thought I might ask: Did I lend this book to any of you? You can hang on to it for a while, just let me know if you have it so I know that I'm not going insane!

Ok, moving right along. I'm really excited to move! In a little over a month, I'll be in the new place, which is 2x bigger than the current place. Oh, and my bedroom will NOT be the same room as my living room. I cleaned out another drawer yesterday. I'm hoping to have another carload of stuff for Goodwill before I make the move. I've basically been trying to pare down my life for the last year or two, and this moving thing is really helping! (Plus I have one less closet in the new place so I've got to get rid of some of the stuff!)

What else? On May 10, I will have been at my job for a full year. I'm sure I'll write more sappy reflective stuff by then, but it's been a lot for me to think about lately, considering the events of the last 2 years. It's definitely been an interesting ride.

Last weekend was Easter. I went home and saw the whole family and ate WAY TOO MUCH FOOD. My grandma makes these amazing sour-cream-and-chive-twice-baked-potato things that are pretty much the most amazing thing ever done with potatoes. There are no less than 20,000 calories and 900 grams of fat in every helping, but of course, none of this counts when Grandma makes it. Other delicious food from the weekend included cream cheese waffles, fish fry, blueberry oatmeal muffins and beef sticks from the local butcher. (Craig... they DO ship!)

Other upcoming events include the DII and DIII Midwest Rugby Final Four - my brother is playing on Saturday and Sunday. Anybody wanna go to Madison with me on Saturday and watch a bunch of guys tackle each other in the mud? It's really quite entertaining. I'll even drive.

For the last 3 weeks or so, I've been having the absolute craziest dreams. They're different every time. Other than drinking till I pass out, I can't really figure out a way to be tired enough to not remember my dreams. Gosh that sounds weird. I'll figure it out eventually I hope.

Well that's all for now, I suppose I should go lay in bed till the crazy dreams start. Right?

Milwaukee Day!

HOLY CATS! 2 POSTS IN 8 DAYS!!! Who am I and what have I done with the real Lars??

Anyway. Today is 4/14 - Milwaukee Day! A month after Pi day, some creative folks have gotten together to celebrate our great city. It's no secret that I'm a big fan of Milwaukee proper and all good things that come with it, so naturally I was thrilled when this popped up on my Twitter feed last night and today. I spent a fair amount of time at work today checking up on the hash tag for all the reasons to love Milwaukee, and cracked up at plenty of them as well.

Aside from all of the beer and amazing food, one of the things I love the most about this city is the passion that my fellow residents share for the 414. It really does make the November-like weather we've been having lately a lot more bearable when you know that there are hundreds (if not thousands) of peeps out there who don't want to be any place else on the planet.

Fun fact: I was born in the 414, but not in Milwaukee. Up until 1997 my dear hometown of K-hole was covered by the 414 as well. For a history of the 414 area code, click here. For a fun story about a Milwaukee-based Boy Scout computer hacker gang from 1983, click here. You can't make this stuff up! (who knew they had hackers in the 80s??)

So, in other news, I got a couch! Thanks to Brian, who is moving to MN and looking to lighten his moving truck. Now I need a TV.... Where's a good place to buy a TV? As I pointed out to my coworkers today, I'm not a dude, I don't play video games, and the only sport I watch is baseball, so there's really no need for me to have a state-of-the-art super duper thinger with all the bells and whistles. My main requirement is that it has a VGA input so I can plug in my computer and stream The Daily Show on the big screen. Who doesn't want to see Jon Stewart on demand?? No one I can think of. Also, does anyone want my old tube TV? can I donate it to someone somewhere?

Hmmm, what else? I just updated this thing a week ago so I can't really say there's much new. I baked Banana Bars for work tomorrow, with cream cheese buttercream frosting. I'm looking forward to eating at least a third of the pan... yum.

Ok, that's all I've got for now, it's time for bed. I was absolutely spent at work today. I barely made it through the afternoon!

I'm becoming one of THOSE people

I realized today that I'm pretty sure I'm one of THOSE people. I discussed hyper-local elections (alderman, anyone?), I only listen to NPR or occasionally 88.9 in my car, and instead of sitting back and letting my brain turn to mush with another episode of The Middle, I instead choose to watch BBC News followed by Nightly Business Report on PBS. (Of course, I will be switching to Criminal Minds when all of this newsy-nonsense is done.)

I never thought I'd end up here. My mind is absolutely fried every day from work and yet I'd rather watch news and form opinions on it than turn on some stupid sitcom! 10-years-ago Lars would not recognize me.

So... what's new. Opening Day was a glorious shit show. Unfortunately they lost, but really, I'll take the 0-4 start because Yo had an absolutely STELLAR game to bring us our first win last night. I'm looking forward to our first game in our "regular" 9-pack seats on Friday, and to meeting up with the old gang.

After much bothering from a friend, I finally listened to Gayngs. They're... interesting. I think I could actually really get into them. They have a great interesting sound. One song, The Last Prom on Earth sounds like someone revisited their Boyz II Men tapes. I know that actually sounds quite horrible, but give the whole disc a listen, and we can discuss. (I think that's the first music review I've ever done on this blog...)

In other news, I need a couch. Why, do you ask? Cuz I'm moving. 50 feet. That's right, I'm getting a new (bigger) apartment in my same building, starting June 1. So I need a couch. Anybody know of a good place to get a couch? I also seem to recall a discussion of moving (I mean pushing stuff down the hall) and something about bikini tops and mai tai's. That may have been decided at Opening Day. Look for details of a housewarming party.... after I get a couch.