Gas Prices

HAHA, saw this today. It's awesome.

Lights, Camera, Action!

The Steven Soderburgh film The Informant (2009) is shooting in the St. Louis/Marion, IL area right now. Today, they were on location at my office shooting infront of our building and in the main lobby. The film is starring Matt Damon. Check it out! I took this photo from the bridge where they were letting us all stand.

Discovery Channel

I love the discovery channel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at_f98qOGY0

Asinine Airlines

I was sent an article today from my friend Carrie about how American Airlines will now be charging for the first checked bag for all flights. What the hell? First they get rid of the peanuts because of allergies, then the pretzels, now you can pay for a "snack pack" chocked full of sweaty cheese. The pillows and blankets are gone. What's next? Paying to use the bathroom? Paying for the "insurance" of having an available oxygen mask or a floating seat cushion in the even the aircraft actually survives a water landing? Talk about a slippery slope we are on.

So, by having to pay the airlines for the opportunity to send your luggage to the Congo instead of your actual destination, our fellow passengers will only try with more effort to cram as much crap as possible into already over sized "carry-on" bags. Which there is never enough space on an airplane for those bags as it is. They won't let you hold any bags on your lap...they must go under the seat in front of you, or overhead. This is another point I find amusing: the FAA says you can't hold a bag in your lap for fear of it becoming a projectile, but you can hold your infant child. Gotta love government logic.

Puerto Girardeau

Carrie, James, Nick T., Andy and I had our first annual (maybe?) Escape to Cape this past weekend. We all headed into the sticks on Friday around 6:30 p.m. for a weekend of relaxation. My parents were out of town camping with my niece so we decided to take over their house. We stopped in Festus for dinner at Fizzoli's and then White Castle so James could get his first hit of ice cream for the weekend...a very large milkshake.

It was a VERY busy time. Heh. Everyone woke up when they felt like it as there was no set schedule. We went swimming in my parent's pool, lounged in the sun soaking up lots of Vitamin D and basically just hanging out all day Saturday.

Saturday evening we drove even further into the "bush" to Lamberts Cafe in Sikeston for some down home cookin' and an overdose of artery clogging greese. I, however, failed to read the memo on wearing a green shirt, but ce'est la vie. We, of course, ate until we were stupid. Nick must have ate half is weight in food, or at least attempted. It was quite funny! James made the comment after dinner that he felt pregnant and Andy looked as if he was going to hurl! Don't do it Andy!

We then drove back to Cape all the while letting our food settle then went swimming again until 2 a.m.! When we left for dinner, I bumped the pool heater up to a nice bath-waterish 100 degrees. It was awesome. We all swore we wouldn't eat ever again.

On Sunday Andy and I went over a couple points on the will he's drawing up for me while most everyone was still asleep. We then headed to my brother's house to drop off the remaining beer and pick up his trailer. I had yard work to do...see next posting.

It was a wonderful weekend and I got to hang out with some of my awesome friends. Thank you all for an awesome time!

Cardinals and Friends

Yesterday was a long day at work. It started off with an exceedingly boring meeting at work. One of those "employee communications" meetings where they tell us how the company is doing, where we are headed, etc. Then they show some commercial. It was a requirement to attend, and I was trying my damnedness to stay awake. I mean, I already knew all of this stuff AND I made the DVD of commercials we were watching. Sigh.

The bright part of the day was Carrie was coming in from Columbia for a few days and I took her, Nick F. and Jimmy to the Cardinal's game. The seats were pretty good...about 20 rows behind home plate. It was a good game, and we had a good time...especially picking on Carrie. Those ushers should never have given Jimmy and I those All Star game ballots. Nothing good came from that, and I'm sure Carrie hasn't checked her car yet. LOL!

After the game, we all went back to my house and hung out briefly before Nick and Jimmy left. Carrie and I crashed on the couch and watched Boston Legal...we she watched it...I kept falling asleep as she was playing with my hair.

Terraforming & Mother Nature

This weekend, Mom, Dad, Rhett, Jennifer and Madeline came into town. Friday night Rhett, Jennifer and I went to see Carmina Burana at the Symphony. One of the best performances I have ever attended for this piece.

On Saturday, Rhett and I proceeded to tear into my yard. Our main goal was to remove the sidewalk that ran down the side of my house, to no where and turn it into flowerbeds. The sidewalk was acting as a nice damn to keep water next to the house and thus, in my basement through the stone foundation.

We used a rented backhoe from Home Depot to assist us in this feat. It was decided the best disposal option was to inter the broken pieces of concrete in the yard, so we used the backhoe to not only, dig up a stump, but to dispose of the sidewalk. Talk about fun! Heh.

Some additional pictures are available at http://picasaweb.google.com/rhynoh/yardwork/ if you care to take a gander.

Work stopped around 5pm when mother nature decided to be a whore and rained. We were outside in 75 degree weather, raining, and cleaning up the backhoe. It you return it dirty, Home Depot charges you $200. I was out there spraying it off with the hose when mom came out. She was all upset that I was out there in the rain, soaked to the bone. It was a lot of fun and it's going to look awesome when I'm finished.

The basement remodel is also coming along fine. It's ready to paint, then carpet, then buy a big ass television!

Gas Tax Holiday

In Tuesday's class we were discussing things that the government could do to help everyone through these tough economic times.

Someone piped up and proclaimed how awesome it was that Hillary wants to have a gas tax holiday this summer. Wow, that's awesome; a whole $.18/gallon!

That's a whopping $3.42 each tank, for me. That's awesome...oh, wait, that's not even enough to buy a single gallon of gas. !@#$%

Obama vs. Hillary

Random Facts

RULES - Post rules before giving the facts - Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves - People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules - At the end of the your blog you need to tag three people and list their names - Leave them a comment on their blog, telling them they have been tagged and not to forget to read your blog.

1. I can't stand people eating while on the phone with me, chewing with their mouthes open, or talking with their face stuffed full of food. Oh yeah, and smacking their food. It makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and I can feel my blood pressure rising.

2. I'm allergic to mushrooms. That's pretty much it. Well, shrooms and penicillins. These items don't make me stop breathing or anything. I just get some nasty hives from penicillin and a horrible stomach ache from mushrooms. Mom always tries to make her green bean casserole in a way that my brother and I can eat it (he's allergic too), but she forgets that cream of mushroom soup is the same as using regular mushrooms. Sigh.

3. I love movies. At one point in my life I wanted to make them for a living. But, life changed and I needed a job that is much more stable...and has benefits. I've settled on something second best, but maybe not. I don't actually get to do any real editing much anymore. I guess that's a reason I'm in school for my MBA with an emphasis in marketing.

4. I'm terrified of spiders. Well, not terrified of them, they just give me the ebbie-jeebies. Like the other day when I was taking a shower, I saw a spider fall into the bathtub. I was out of that shower so freaking fast, standing there dripping water all over my warm marble floor while I decided what to do next. I can't just let it go down the drain...what if it crawls back up? That damn Itsy Bitsy Spider song ruined me for life.

5. I rarely like going home to my parent's house for any extended period of time. I feel like such an outsider down there. I worry about my mom worrying about me; what's going through her mind.

6. I am not a religious person. I have a hard time believing that there is some higher power out there who is in control of my life, my destiny. Some omnipotent being who created the universe with a thought. Perhaps religion is a human condition brought about to help us feel like we're not alone, like someone is watching out for us and we're not on a run-away train barreling down a mountain; to help us cope with the loss of loved ones by believing that we will see them when our time comes and live out eternity with them in some other place.

7. I stay up way to late for no reason at all and suffer the consequences in the morning when I have to go to work. I say to myself, "why do you do this all the time" but I rarely change. I mean, look, it's past midnight and I'm still writing this post. There just aren't enough hours in the day.

8. I hate leftovers. Except for pizza. Other than that, not a big fan. I think it has to do something with growing up in a house where you were always wondering what was growing in the refrigerator. Haha. But seriously, the mixing of previous meals into a "new" meal is repulsive. Just don't tell me what you did, and I'll be fine.

Here is where I break the rules. There are very few people I know who blog, one of them, Carrie, has already filled out this survey. So I'll tag Nick, but he said himself that he hasn't updated in a long time. I'll also shoot one over on Elizabeth. I'm sure she'll do it (she better!)

Sleepless

Tonight I decided to take a night off from the world and watch Sleepless in Seattle. It has been many years since I last watched this film and I had forgotten how much I liked it. Now I'm not saying it is in my top 10 favorites, but I enjoy it.

It's one of those movies that reminds you that no matter how lonely you feel, how disconnected, there is always someone out there for everyone. Just finding that person is what is the challenge. Sometimes you find them and will live a long life together. Then again, sometimes shit happens and you don't, but one should never give up hope of finding it again. It might never be like it was before, but who knows, you might be surprised.

Now, if only I could live by what I just wrote.

Cardinal's Weekend

I had the pleasure of hanging out with one of my best friends for most of the weekend. On Saturday, I got tickets to the Cards vs. Cubs game from Rob, a fellow boys state staff member, who had two extra tickets and asked if I knew anyone else to take. I took James as he is an avid Cubs fan. We were sitting on the Coca-Cola Deck, good seats but very far from "the action."

It was fun watching him get heckled (hehe) but we were all eating crow when those nasty Cubs won. There were two opportunities for them to hit grand slams. I remember proclaiming, "I have never witnessed a grand slam in person, and I'm gonna be pissed if it's done by a Cub!"

There were these two old ladies, all decked out in Cubs gear holding a sign that said something like, "Two Cubs fans for over 160 years" or something. They were causing a raucous trying to get on television. We were going to turn around to them and ask, "So, what was it like when they built Wrigley Field?" But we refrained.

Sunday, my parents came up and we went to another game. The seats were much better, or at least closer, 14 rows from home plate. Not bad...even with the drunk girl swaying in front of us. The best part, however, was before the game, we had lunch with my parents at Joanie's Pizza. We were sitting there eating when James exclaimed, "I think a bird just shit on me!" Comedy ensued, as you can imagine. Nothing beats watching a Cubs fan get shit on by a bird. Hopefully it was a Cardinal, because that would be fantastic!

Oh, by the way, we won the series. GO CARDS!

RIP Tivo

It all started last night as I was watching television. I noticed that my Tivo hadn't updated itself in a few days so I tried to give it some encouragement. I gave up around midnight. This morning, I continued to diagnose the problem, spent some time on the Tivo website, and then finally, against all normal male characteristics I broke down and called Technical Support.

She had me reboot my router, shut off my tivo completely, etc. After one of these attempts, I think my Tivo decided to follow the white light and cross over. Time of death: 11:45 a.m. CDT. After a few moments of grief, I decided it was time to move on. That and the fact I'm going to two baseball games this weekend and can't afford to miss Brothers & Sisters, etc. Heh.

Thank god for Best Buy! I am now the owner of a new and improved Tivo HD Series2. It's wicked cool because now I can record two programs at the same time. In HD (but I don't have HD cable yet). Baby steps.