wow

This weekend exceeded my expectations. It was a blast. I got to see/catch up with a lot of people I haven't seen in a long time.

Friday everyone was in town by about 7. Then we went out for Chinese. After supper, we came back and started the festivities. Highlight: I learned how to blow fire. It was cool.

Saturday started at about 5:30 when I got a text message...thanks Krispy. :) So I was up and ready to roll for kegs and eggs at 7. There's nothing quite like a screwdriver at 7 in the morning to set the mood for the day. Breakfast was great. Then we went to watch Canada's 5k race. He finished 11th out of a field of what I would guess to be around 200. I saw a couple more people I hadn't seen in a long time at the race. The parade started at 9:30 and we had some really good hot chocolate with mint chocolate bailey's and peppermint schnapps to keep us warm. The parade was good, but quite lengthy. It didn't get over until about 11. Then it was back to the apartment for pizza and beer. We left for the football game at 12:30. From the game I directed Sarah to the nearest Woodchuck distribution center and talked to my brother. Post-game we headed to Perkins for some food and headed back to the apartment for some down time. One viewing of Sorority Boys and a short nap later, we were ready to go again. We played some games and then headed downtown around 11. Mass chaos was a good way to explain the atmosphere. There were so many people it was hard to get anywhere. During the long wait for drinks at the bar, I got to witness my first bar fight. Many drinks and 4 hours later, we made our way home. The bars were open until 3 am due to the time change. Highlight: Cat tail fight on the walk back from the football game.

Sunday was pretty calm. I was woken up by another text message...but this one wasn't until 9:15. So I got up and laid around the living room. We got together for lunch at Perkins and afterwards, everyone headed out. The rest of the day was spent being lazy. Highlight: Butter explosion at Perkins.

Photos will be posted later.

hoboween savings rodeo weekend

+++ = Hoboween Savings Rodeo Weekend!

I haven't been this excited in a long time. This weekend is Hobo Days, which is my school's homecoming. For 2 days, Brookings will be the home of the biggest party in the midwest. And just for fun they decided that it would be fun to have Hobo Day and Halloween in the same weekend. Don't forget to set your clocks back on Saturday...the extra sleep will be great. There is also a rodeo in town which attracts a lot of people. Plus, Whiplash the Cowboy Monkey will be there. He's the monkey from all of the Taco Johns ads.

Hobo Days pack all of the hotels in town...there are people everywhere. All of my college friends will be back for the weekend and it's going to be a stellar time. The fun starts tonight when the car from Rochester gets here. yay! I'm sure we'll probably all drink more than we should but it'll be great.

Tomorrow starts bright and early. Skinner's is having "kegs and eggs" starting at 7. We'll be there for that. Then there's the parade at 10 am. All we have to do is walk out the door of Skinners and we'll be on the parade route. The football game is at 2, so we'll have to get back to campus by 12:30 for that otherwise we'll get super crappy seats. Then we'll probaby head to the bars for more drinking. Due to the time change, some of them are open for an extra hour.

Sunday will be spent recovering.

I'm ready to roll. My party shoes are on and work can't get over fast enough.

eta: I almost forgot! My sister called last night to tell me that we got a pair of Twins tickets that we wanted from a charity auction. They are 4 rows behind the Twins dugout and are for a game against the White Sox next season. It's going to be frickin' awesome!

The Prestige

Go see it. It's fantastic.

The plot was great. It was complex, but you don't get lost. In a way, that's surprising given all of the mind numbing things you see on TV and at the theater these days. There are a lot of twists and turns and when you think you've got something figured out, it changes again. It is visually and intellectually stimulating. I was still thinking about it all when I left the theater and once I got home. That hasn't happened in a long time. When the Oscars roll around, I'm pretty sure we'll see this one on the list of nominees. Several times.

Overall, the acting was great. Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale and Sir Michael Caine were amazing. They became the characters, which I realize is their job but this seemed to be acting on a different level. I saw Rupert Angier and Alfred Borden, not Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale. And if that isn't enough, David Bowie is in the movie too!

Christopher Nolan's directing pulls you into the Victorian Era. The movie is about magic, rivalry and obsession. For me, it was like being a little kid at the circus, minus the clowns. I was entertained, mystified, shocked, confused and intrigued. Mostly it can just be described as magical.

Seriously. It's worth your $8.

someday I hope to take a picture this awesome

This is one of National Geographic's best wildlife photos of 2006. There are 5 photos in different categories. You can see them here. Turtle dude and fish associates won the category for Animal Behavior.

Public Service Announcement

This, my friends, is why you're supposed to be careful when cooking with/around hot objects:

ouch.

"A bargain is anything a customer thinks a store is losing money on"

-Kin Hubbard

Ace and I went to Movie Gallery to rent a couple of movies yesterday. We ended up walking out with 10. And we rented "Over the Hedge" for my Gamecube. The 10 movies we walked out with, we now own. It turns out that the video store was having a stellar deal on previously viewed movies. These are the five I ended up with:

Oceans Twelve
The Island
Red Eye
The Day After Tomorrow
Around the Bend

The beautiful part? It ended up costing me a grand total of $21.20

boring

Not much is going on with me right now. Last weekend I went to Sioux Falls for some fun. Other than that, I'm not fun at all. I'm just working on papers and projects and anything else involved with school.

Mostly I'm just counting the days until I'm done with work and school. Less than two months until it's all over and I go onto "bigger and better" things.

root beer mystery revealed

The reason the question was asked in my previous post is because Jess and I are trying to plan a graduation party. Because we're nerds, we wanted a theme. We picked root beer (we're getting a keg!).

Our plan right now is to have root beer pork sandwiches, root beer floats (instead of cake) and root beer barrels (instead of mints). In regard to the sandwiches, the root beer is in the sauce (which is spicy). Since not everyone can do spicy, the sauce will be on the side and there will also be BBQ sauce available. I'm sure we'll also have chips and salad so everything isn't root beer.

Consider this your unofficial invitation(they'll be coming in the mail sometime later - provided I have your address). The party is on December 9th, early to mid afternoon (time TBA). I understand that the majority of my loyal readers would have to drive a fair amount to get here, but if you'd like to make the trip, you're more than welcome. Without a doubt, we'll be going out that night for drinks. Of course, everyone is welcome take part in that portion of celebration as well.

If Sarah makes the venture up, I'll have some Coke on hand so she can have a Coke float. If there's any way to accomodate others with concerns about the menu, I'm sure there's something that can be done. For example, my mom doesn't like pork so I suppose I'll have to figure out something for her to eat.

Ok, enough rambling for now.

root beer

What are your feelings on the subject?

friends and football, who could ask for more?

Ok, so maybe I could ask for friends and baseball but this is as close as it gets until next April.

On a happier note, here's me and Ike at the football game last night:Nifty picture, eh?

as much as Dawn likes shoes....

I'm never going to run a shoe company. I'm preparing for a long afternoon of reading reports on financial data and take an online, 20 question, 90 minute quiz. I might be done by 7. I already had to go buy a new printer cartridge because printing out all of the reports killed the old one. Time to break out the calculator.

Maybe I'm just bitter...

Update: It's almost 5 hours later and I'm done. I printed out 42 pages of information to take a 20 question quiz. That's 2.1 pages of information per question. The darn thing took me 65 minutes, and I got 18/20 correct. Good enough for this kid. Now to spend the third day of my fabulous 3-day weekend studying for a test in the same class. Boourns.

ah, the playoffs

GO TWINS!!!