Weekend at home

Good Monday to you all. I hope things are well.

This weekend I was home alone. Jill went to Madison with Shonda to visit their "friend" for her birthday. Friend is in quotations because I'm reserving judgement on whether or not a friend would act the way she did. I was not there and the events that took place did not happen to me, so it's really not my place to tell the story. But, believe you me, if it had happened to me, I would have made a much bigger scene that my peace-loving wife. The downside for me in the story is that while Jill was out with the "friend," she was shunted to another table by herself and was texting me for support and love. I thought myself funny and suggested a number of things she could do for instant payback at being ignored. NOT what the Dr. Ordered. Lesson learned? When someone you care about is in a crappy situation and is asking for some love and attention; give them love and attention, not a number of ways they could make an ass of themselves.

Anyway, I spent my weekend in the most uninteresting way possible: I cleaned and played video games. Admittedly, I felt like crap through most of the weekend, but I still could have been a bit more entertaining. I did manage to meet up with Shonda's boyfriend to watch the miserable packer game yesterday, but that was about as exciting as it got for me. I have to say thought that I did a pretty sweet job of cleaning. AND it wasn't even my typical shove it in a corner cleaning. It was the full out vacuum, floor washing, cloths folding clean-a-thon that happens once a blue moon from me. The kitties don't know what to do with all the new clean space. well, that's not entirely true, they know what to do: run around and pull toys out to fill the space. Well that's all for me. Hopefully your weekends were a bit more entertaining than my own.

Sleep, San Antonio, and The Alamoe

Good morning everybody!

It is 6:00 am cst and I am wide awake. Did any of you read tat blog I wrote at 2:00 this morning? Yeah, I've been up since, well, since before then. Why might you ask? A great question, I have no idea! Sometimes when I travel this happens. I'll fall aslpee for a little while and then I'll wake up and be up forever. Unfortunately, today is looking to be one of those days. I'll survive, no need to worry. So what's new with Tim? Well I'm once again in the field. This week brings me to San Antonio (Monday/Tuesday), Austin (Tuesday/Wednesday), and Houston (Wednesday/Thursday), TX.

Ah, my alarm clock to wake me up to go for a run has just gone off. Fortunately I've been up for so long already I thought to go for a run!

Back to Texas....ah yes, San Antonio. Well, the first portion of my trip was occupied by one of the two cities in Texas everyone told me I HAD to visit before I passed judgment on Texas. My first thoughts about the city were that it's no cleaner than any of the other cities in Texas. That's a bit unfair as that was right around the airport, which typically, though not always, are bad neighborhoods. Once we drove around the outskirts of the city I became aware of something that I hadn't realized about this area of the Lone Star state. There are actual ills here. In fact, there are alot of hills here, and that makes the scenery down right pretty. However, the crown jewel of this city is the downtown area, otherwise known as the Riverwalk. Imagine an entire downtown built along a river with shops, restaurants, and businesses located on either side with river-front walkways along the entire expanse. To those of you who know Milwaukee well, it is similar to the Riverwest area, only with a cleaner river, more sunlight, and less beer. Upon my departure from San Antonio, I realized that I don't really have enough time logged in the city to really give it positive or negative marks, but at the very least I have now seen it.

Next stop on the trip was Austin, well I guess I should say IS Austin. That's right, right now I'm coming to you from the capitol of Texas. It's a very lively city with a lot of traffic, and interesting downtown area called 6th & Lamar St. I haven't had a lot of time here, yet, but my impression is that if you were to live in Texas, this is where you would want to work.

Well, that's all for me, I'm going to catch a quick nap before I have to be up for the day.

Election Night in Austin

So it is 2:00 am on the morning following the general election of 2008. I find myself hopeful about the future of the country. While I know that the election of a new President, even one with a majorities in both houses of congress, can not completely change the course of a nation on a dime. I think, or rather hope, that what we as of a country have done tonight is a sign of a new stage of maturity for the country. What I mean by this is that I hope, finally, that our country has learned to see beyond the color of our skin. It is my greatest hope that we as a nation are finally willing to look for the best person for the job, for the times. Ultimately, history will decide the correctness of our decision, but at a minimum history will see that in these difficult times we chose a leader with a steady, calm demeanor. A leader who would choose to help where he can and to calm peoples fear without pretending things are not as they are. At least that is my hope.

I may be a bit of a dreamer, but I believe that this is a great country with a lot of potential to help each other and the rest of the world. If only we could get out of our own way. I guess we'll see what happens, but I hope for all our sakes that we made the right decision tonight.

Election Day Blues

Yes I am aware that it is not actually election day. I am not so completely lost that I think it's 5 days from now...what day is it by the way. Hmmm, the Office is on tonight, so it must be Thursday. Isn't it strange how many people will actually know the day of the week by the TV show that's on. Anyway, that's not what I came here to blog about. As this years election season draws to a close I have started to feel the excitement I always get at being a minuscule piece of the power that is this country. I was getting all ready to dress up in my finest and head out to the polls next Tuesday. And suddenly I had a realization that shook me: I'm going to be in Houston on election day. Not only will I be in the heart of Republican territory, but I'll be there on the day that I'm supposed to be voting!!!! So, this year I'm attempting to vote via absentee ballot. I don't know if I'll make it in time, but I certainly hope so.

In any case, for those of you smart enough not to leave your state on election day, don't forget to vote. No matter how small you think your part is, the important thing is that you have a part. the fact that every one of us in this country has a say in what happens is pretty sweet.

Oh, totally unconnected occurrence. Kwame Killpatrick, the former mayor of Detroit, is heading to Jail for lying under oath in court about his elicit sex text message scandal with his former staff members. First of all TEXT MESSAGES?!?!?! Ok, so he was probably being naughty on the side, but why not just say, you know what yeah I did it, but she's hot and I'm important. Why would you need to lie about that and then try to keep it quiet by paying off three cops to the tune of $9 Million and STILL have it break. How ridiculous. Your city is not-so-slowly dying and your messing around with the staff and spending valuable city resources to cover it up. Good job A-hole, I hope you make some new friends in prison.

Hello from Baltimore

Hello everyone,

As you may have guessed from the title I'm in Baltimore, Maryland. And I know what your thinking Hanni, "Why didn't I come to visit?" Well I thought about it, but by the time I would have made it out there after working it would have been pretty late, and I would not have had time to enjoy your company. On the flip side, I've decided that Jill and I need to take real vacations, not just ones tagged on to my work trips. So that's a trip that I'd like to set up with Jill, a nice little trip to Frederick to visit Hanni, and of course Gettysburg. Which reminds me, tonight they are doing the most haunted live from Gettysburg. I could have gone there and personally met the Most Haunted crew! That would have made them my second "ghost" crew I had visited. Sadly I didn't think about that soon enough or I may have taken a drive out there last night! Or at the very least tried to stay another night. Alas, foiled again.

Instead, Jill and I are going to be making a trip to Stevens Point for Homecoming. It should be a fun weekend. I'm not entirely sure what we'll be doing since neither one of us really drinks a whole bunch anymore, but I'm sure there will be plenty of visiting and fun to be had. Plus, walks through Schmeikle and the river front are always enjoyable. Anyway, my trip here is almost over and I should start to make my way to the airport. But I wanted to give a should out to the wonderful state of Maryland.

It's 7:00 AM do you know where your baby is?

Weird title right? Well, it's not if you have a baby in you apartment for the first time ever! No, it is obviously not mine, but that doesn't mean it's not adorable, especially because I'm not the one who has to change her diaper!

Our wonderful friend Katie is here for a couple of days because we have a wedding to go to this weekend. Her baby Quinn is absolutely adorable, and unlike every other baby in the world, sees to like me :) Well anyway, it's 7:00 in the morning and I'm about to go wake up Jill who has to work at 9:00. The girls were up earlier to play with and change Quinn, but they've both gone back to bed. It was quite funny actually, I went to go work out with them hanging out and changing the baby, then when I got back (expecting TV and chit chat to greet me when I opened the door) everything was dark and the apartment was silent. Even the cats seemed to realize now was not the time to make noise. Speaking of the cats, they seem to be handling the baby decently well. Shelly is afraid of her because even though Quinn seems to love Shelly, she displays that love by making loud noises and fast hand movements, something Shelly cat DEFINITELY does not care for. Shelly does seem to like quinn when she's sleeping though. She spent most of last night hanging out outside of her playpen just watching her sleep. Shaky on the other hand just seems jealous that mommy's attention is now focused on the baby, so I get his mad pleas for cuddles. So all in all I can't say it's too bad a situation. Well, I should get moving to work. Till next time.

Cats, Tires, and the Crew.

First and foremost I'd like to say congratulations to the Brewers, who, for the first time since 1982, have made it into the play-offs. Sporting a big "up yours" to the larger market teams such as the Mets and Yankees. Normally, I don't get too excited about baseball, but when my hometown team finally makes it to the play-offs after such a drought, it notes some attention. Now for a small rant on why I don't care for Baseball...

It's a fun sport to watch....at the stadium, where hours of beer, brats, and parking lot football take care of any desire for needing action before you enter the stadium. To me watching a baseball game on TV is about as entertaining as watching golf. It's great if you're a student of the game, but for everyone else, it's deadsville. It's also an unfair sport. Unfair in terms of team equality. Teams stack their teams with superstars by offering $100 million salaries. There are "rules" in place to keep this from happening, but the biggest teams don't care because they can afford to pay any "fines" the league may impose on them. This one sidedness breeds greed amongst the leagues top players who obviously want to get paid as much as possible. There are, of course, a few players who stick to teams out of loyalty and love for the game, but they are few and far between. What I love the most about the NFL (which does have a salary cap that means something), is that any team can go from terrible to amazing in a short amount of time, and vice verse. It makes every year an amazing ride that plays on fans' heartstrings in ways akin to Europe's soccer leagues. Well, that's enough of a rant, on to current events.

So anyone who has ridden in my car in the last, oh say year, may have noticed a slight, for lack of a better term, wobble. Well the wobble has recently gotten worse, and with it the wear on my tires. Now, I'm convinced that the wobble was caused by the terrible condition of Michigan roads on which I drove for so long. Anyway, the tires on the front of my car had worn the edges down so much that there was some beading appearing. With a long trip to Green Bay for a wedding this weekend, I decided it was finally time to replace the tires and fix the alignment. The whole thing cost me about what it cost to replace Jill's tires at a different tire company, but I think I have cheaper tires also. Anyway, it was a bit expensive, but incredibly necessary. The only problem, is that now the car feels like it drives funny because it ISN'T wobbling. What a cruel world!

In my final update of the day, our cats went in for their yearly check up last night also. In the past they have been pretty good about the vet, but got a little squirmy when it came to the shots. One time, Shaky damn near jumped off the table because he was so upset about the needle. Last night, I'm happy to say they both sat through their exam like champs. Neither moved nor even whined at all for the shots. On the downside, my cat (Shelly) is a bit overweight. Much like her daddy. So Shelly is now on a bit of a restricted diet, and we'll be exercising her a bit more regularly as well. Well, that's enough for one day. Hope everyone is well.....

Oh and by the way, two days in a row? Watch out blogging world!!!!