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.

The weekend recap.

Nothing to really report on Saturday, it was kind of a lazy day. I got a lot programmed for Boys State, but nothing much else. It was a great movie-watching day.

Today (Sun), however, Carrie came back into town as she has a second interview in the morning with a large company. I wish her the best of luck, because after all, I want her to move to St. Louis! But I digress. She came over about 2:30 and we watched a couple of movies until it was time to meet everyone for dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory. In attendance were James+Nick, Jimmy, Dave, Nick T., Carrie and myself. Wes showed up towards the end of dinner when he got done with the event he was attending.

We had an awesome time at dinner, laughed at lot, waited on the slow restaurant to cook our meals, and were amused that our waitress kept returning saying they were out of particular items. Ice cream, fettichini noodles, plates, cups, etc. Very humorous.

I feeling much better today, most of the pain is completely gone.

Anyway, I have to cut this short. I need to be at the AB Tour Center tomorrow morning at 8am for a rehearsal.

The day after yesterday...Yeah, it's still beeping.

Yeah, it's still beeping.

More to come in this posting... ah, screw it, I'll write something now.

Last night I stayed up way to late watching episodes of Six Feet Under. I'm almost done with the entire series. I believe I only have one disk left. Overall, the show has been quiet good. I must admit, however, I got a little bored through middle of the series, but this last season has made up for it.

Work today has been semi productive. I had an edit session most of the morning and now I'm just counting down the minutes until I can go home.

Well, I should get back to work. More later, I'm sure.

March is almost gone.

Here's a recap of this past weekend. Dad came up on Thursday night. He had some kind of continuing education class to attend on Friday at the STL College of Pharmacy. We went out to dinner at Outback, as we tried the last time he was here but the wait was like 90 minutes!

I took a vacation day on Friday to head to Warrensburg. I got there around noon and headed straight for MBS HQ...had lunch with Bettie and Stephanie, then headed to a meeting with the University of Central MO IT people. I got everything I wanted for the computer side of things for Boys State.

That night, the crew that was already in town, went out for dinner and drinks. Lord I hate smokey places.

Saturday we worked through all the issues concerning MBS and got everything ironed out for this upcoming session. It's going to be a great year.

Sunday, I stopped in Columbia to have lunch with Carrie. We went to Shakespears Pizza. God I love that place. We then went back to her house and watched Monster's Inc.. After that, I headed home. She tried to get me to stay, it was cute, but I had to go.

License to...drive

I went out for sushi with Mike and Seema last night. Seema and I have a tradition of going out to eat on the 27th of March...half way between our two birthdays. One year, she and I got insanely drunk at Pasta House. I think that was the start of this tradition in the first place. Anyway, they are recently back from their honeymoon to Taiwan. They always drag me to a place down on Washington Ave called Wasabi...it's not one of my favorite sushi joints, but it will do. Of course, they always like to order spicy tuna, which I don't eat. Grr. McDonalds is usually in my plans on such occasions. Anyway, all the wasabi I downed last night worked wonders on my allergies.

Anyway, we were paying the bill and I noticed my license expired on Monday. FUCK! I was a little panicky that I would have to pay a big fine, or, at worse, retake the tests. I went to the DMV this morning and it only cost me $20. I rule! All is good until 2014 when I have to renew again.

Oh, and btw, my picture is awful. I would post a picture, but I'm not that masochistic.

Awww...birthdays

So today was my birthday. It was a good day, I suppose. One of the best presents I have ever received from Elizabeth. It was a listing of songs and videos that remind us both of events we have shared together. It was very sweet. She also called me from London on my way out of the office. I keep telling her she needs to move back to St. Louis, but I don't think she's listening. Grr!

I treated myself to a massage tonight at Massage Envy. I also signed up for their monthly plan. I need to go have them done on a regular basis. It was very relaxing and worked out most of the muscle pain from helping Rhett this past weekend.

James put together a dinner for me at Casa Guardio. Nick T, Nick F, Dave, Wes, Duane and Carrie (the surprise) were there. It was fun, and low key = perfect. I mean, I guess 28 isn't much to celebrate. Give it a couple years. Then I'm sure all hell will break loose. After dinner, we all went back to James' house. Jimmy R. showed up (he couldn't make it to dinner). James bought me an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen...the second one I have had in as many days. Fortunately most of it was eaten. :-)

Well, 28 years down...lets see what the future holds.

Friends, here and gone.

I've have been fortunate in my life to have some amazing friends. Some of them are no longer here, some are no longer friends, some have drifted away, and some are still here stronger than ever.

I guess the one I miss the most is Brad, my best friend since 3rd grade. He was diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy when he was 6 and lived an amazing life until he died on April 17, 2004. He was such an amazing person who never let his disease get him down....something I try to emulate in my life. I sure miss him dearly.

Laura is still here, but she lives in Richmond, VA. We seem to have a much better relationship when we are not together. I'm not saying we don't get along, but for some reason the long-distance thing makes it easier to manage. I went to visit her last Nov., and that was awesome. I was getting really depressed and just being with her pulled me out of it. It's not explainable, it's just fact.

Elizabeth lives in London with her husband. She's been in my life since 2003 and is a wonderfully strong, dedicated woman. I just wish she didn't live so far away. I can't wait for the day one of her amazing film scripts gets produced and she achieves her dreams.

James has been a very important person in my life over the short year and a half we have known each other. He puts up with my shit, and makes me smile. He's a very strong man and I envy him. Even with his little nurotic behaviors.

I credit James for introducing me to another wonderful person, Carrie. Sure she and I have our differences, but she has always been there for me. Stood up for me, and made it quite clear when she was upset with something I have done. I really admire that about her.

As for those who are in the "gone" list, they aren't really gone. We just arn't friends anymore. But I'm not going to get into that here.