My Virus From The South

This weekend we went to Orland Park just outside of Chicago to spend Jocelyn's birthday at her mother's place. Saturday afternoon we made our way down south. We left Milwaukee just before noon and the weather was 45 and cloudy. By the time we got to the 'burbs of Chicago the temp was in the high 60s and sunny. It was a beautiful spring day and what better way to spend the day than removing viruses and repairing computers. It seems Jocelyn's mother's boyfriend's (sister's, cousin's, acquaintance's) computer had some nasty viruses that needed eradicating. Never fear, Rautech (which has been redesigned) to the rescue. I thought this was going to be your everyday run of the mill removal but this was the worst virus I have ever come across. Many of the discussion boards suggested nuking the hard drive and starting from scratch. I didn't want to take the easy way out so I spent hours plugging away at the darn thing. I really tried everything. At about three I took a break and we went over to see the new house a couple miles away that they're moving into June. It's very nice and has a Frank Lloyd Wright feel to it. After that we went back to the other house and I continued to plug away at the virus. I took another hour break for some spaghetti bake and vino but when that was done back to the dungeon I went. I spent the rest of the night working away and at midnight, almost twelve hours later I finally fixed the problem! I could've have done the reformat but this was definitely a personal/pride thing and I kicked that virus' butt! Sunday was another beautiful day and I had no viruses to remove, only a wireless network card to install. So I worked on that a bit and then went to the park with the Picl girls and enjoyed the 80 degree weather. The park had these rickety busted up concrete stairs that are used to climb the hill of a toboggan run. I did these stairs about five times and I had enough. I shouldn't have run them but that is no excuse, I'm just plain weak. I had enough and went and sat on the picnic table and waited for the others to finish up. J and her sister stopped and we played aerobie/Frisbee. I found out how a dog feels when he's playing fetch with his owner because the aerobie never really flew at me but more above and to the left of me. The problem was my legs didn't work from those steps so getting the stupid thing was a chore. After J's mom finish doing the steps 20 times we headed back and showered up for dinner. Before we went to dinner we stopped at a really nice restaurant/bar called The Canoe Club. We stopped there for a beer and to see the very large and very cool shark tank that they…

I Want To Ride My Bicycle

I finally bought something that I wanted in a long time. This weekend there was a large bike expo at the state fairgrounds. Friday after work J and I went to the grounds to get me a mountain bike. I shopped around and eventually settled on a last years model Giant. It's a nice bike with shocks and disc brakes, just what I was looking for. This bike expo was pretty big and while we were standing in line they had a stunt bike rider doing tricks on his mountain bike. This guy was pretty nuts and he was hopping all around on his bike. He hopped on some platforms, some skinny stands, and rode up and down some extremely steep ramps. He was ok but that'll be nothing compared to what I'll be able to do by summer's end. What better way is there to break in a new bike than to get out and ride it. So I got up Saturday morning and biked to Sheboygan. J didn't want to go on the ride this time, and I needed a way to get back, so she drove up. I left at eightish. The ride was actually easier than it was the last time. It was a bit chillier outside than I had expected and should have brought a coat but the workout kept my blood pumping and kept me warm. I stopped at the same little hardware store in Belgium for some a beef sticks and Power Aid lunch. On the ride I saw a blue bird, a cardinal, and a hawk. I thought god had sent the frogs to cover the earth again because I saw and heard thousands of frogs in the marsh areas on the sides of the bike path. The frogs were so loud I could hear them through my sound isolating headphones. Being one with nature, and getting a good sunburn was great but getting to my brother's was once again a relief. I knocked an hour off my last ride to 'boygan. It took me 4:45 to go the 66.1 miles. I actually had a couple things to do up der in 'boygan. I sold my brother Randy my computer (I built a new one hence the iRau outage) so I had to drop that off and I needed my brother Rich to check J's brakes which are need to be replaced. So I got both of those out of the way and I was also able to pick up my Christmas presents at Randy's. The real reason I was up there was to take my mom (4/1) and dad (4/5) out for their birthdays. We went to Schwarz's in St. Ann's. I've ranted and raved about this place already so the only thing I can say is my porterhouse was delicious as usual. We ran into my cousin Bobby there who said that there is actually a better steak house down the road. I find it very unlikely that not only…

Mountaineering Is Not As Fun As Spelunking

This weekend actually involved some travel. Friday night we didn't do anything because on Saturday morning we caught a flight to Tucson for Jocelyn's grandmother's eightieth birthday. Our flight Saturday morning was delayed an hour due to the fact that our fresh water supply on the plane had frozen. They were unable to fix the problem so our flight wasn't able to server hot coffee or tea and there was no water in the bathroom. Before we took off we also had to stop or a fifteen minute deicing, thank heavens we were going to AZ to escape this miserable cold. We flew Frontier airlines and it was pretty sweet because each seat gets their own LCD screen with twenty-six channels of DirectTV. This was very cool and made the flight go fast. We switched planes at Denver and literally sprinted to our connecting flight and made the flight with less than thirty seconds to spare. It was amazing that something actually worked out while traveling. The second flight was smooth and we arrived at about eleven to the 85 degrees of Tucson goodness. J's mom was there to pick us up and drive us to her grandparents' house. We stopped at Subway on the way and also at a grocery store to pick up some delicious Fat Tire Ale (great beer which you can only seem to find in the West). From there we arrived at the house and I greeted all the relatives and inhaled my sandwich. Our plan for the day was to meet Jeff DeBruin and his lady Kelly and go to a Brewers' spring training game. So I called J&K, who were already on their way, with the directions to where we were. They picked us up and we drove to the Rockies' training facility. It took us a little longer to get there than we wanted but we found a place to park and went to the game. On our way in I heard a "heads up" and looked up to see a ball. The ball was bouncing in the parking lot and I ran to pick it up. This was actually turning out to be a great day. The day really was perfect. I got to see a spring game where Brewers killed the Rockies, tickets were $2, we talked to some folk from WI who were sitting in front of us, had a couple Fat Tires from the tap at the game, I got to hang with my boy Jeff, and we enjoyed the high 80 heat. We couldn't stay the whole game and had to leave in the fifth inning to go back to the hotel to change for dinner. J&K dropped us off and headed back to Phoenix. It was great to see them and I'm very glad they came down to see us. That night we went to dinner at a Mexican place. Before dinner we had a pitcher of strawberry margaritas and some fresh table made guacamole, the…

You Take The Good You Take The Bad

These past couple weeks haven't had that much going on. Last weekend I didn't go out all weekend and just lounged, rested, and worked on my new Media Center PC (which kicks butt by the way). Saturday Jocelyn's mom came up for a visit. She took us out to a late lunch at the Ale House. I had a couple of my favs, Sheepshead Stout, and delicious mushroom burger. The burger really hit the spot because I don't get my weekly Friday lunch burger fix anymore due to lent. The Ale House trip is pretty much the only thing that happened last weekend. This weekend didn't start out so hot. The week in general was pretty crappy. My aunt Joanie died. The funeral was Friday morning so that is a downer way to start out a weekend. I was close with my aunt Joanie. My mom and I did a lot with her on the weekends when I was growing up. So Friday morning we headed to Sheboygan. The funeral was obviously sad and after the funeral we had lunch with the family and headed back to Milwaukee. I wasn't planning on doing much that night but it was Matzek's birthday so I headed out to Mo's to meet up with the clan. J had stuff to do on Saturday so she stayed home. I went out at ten which seemed like two days later in this long day. I stayed at Mo's and then went to My Office with the newly engaged Adam and Stacey. We closed that place down and I went to Mykano's for a gyro and headed home. Saturday Jocelyn's dad came into town and we went to Joey Buona's to over eat. If you plan on doing anything Saturday night, do not eat here. Whenever I eat here it puts me into satisfied, deep sleep mode and I just lay. So I laid the rest of the night and did nothing but watch a movie. Sunday J's dad came over to watch his beloved Illini lose to the Buckeyes to ruin their undefeated season. After that we went to brunch with Jocelyn's dad at the Pfister. After we finished eating J went to show her dad her office so I went home. It was a beautiful day so I decided to go for a run. The lakefront was packed with people enjoying the rare 50 degree weather. It turns out Mother Nature was just teasing us because this week has been cold and snowy. A very big positive event is going to happen this Friday. After years of struggling to get my credit cards paid off this week will be the week. This week's check will officially put me credit card debt free. I will have paid off Spring Break '98, '00, and '01 as well as countless other frivolous items I purchased when I was given the financial power of plastic. What a joy this is and a word to the kiddies getting credit…

The Nightmare After Christmas

My Christmas could have been better. Thursday after work J and I drove to Peoria. We got into town just in time to eat at a Chinese restaurant with her family. After the buffet we went to her uncle's house and had some dessert. The whole family was there in preparation for Christmas. After we were done we went to J's house for the night. The afternoon of Christmas Eve we had lunch with Jocelyn's grandparents from her dad's side. After that was over we went back to her house to get ready for the big Christmas dinner at her other grandparents house. We went to dinner and I must say the food was excellent. J's uncle had made some unbelievably good, perfectly cooked, tenderloins. With that we had some twice baked potatoes and countless other goodies. After dinner we relaxed, the family exchanged a couple gifts, and we drank a little wine and enjoyed the night and the holidays. After we finished at her grandparent's we made a stop at her dad's house so the family could exchange gifts while Marissa was still around (she had to fly back to St. Thomas in the morning). Mr. P got me a cool mountable bottle opener and some ZipZap mini remote control cars to race, awesome. When we finished we headed home and waited for Santa. Christmas day we woke up and J, her sister Arianne and her mom exchanged gifts. Marissa had left for her tropical home and I guess had quite the adventure in the process but still made it back. Arianne bought me a Lambeau Field glass and some "Ryan's Bar" items. J bought me a Swiss Army card and a moosh pillow. J's mom bought J and I a Miracle Blade knife set, more on this later. After we finished opening our gifts we headed to her grandparent's/mom house to exchange some more gifts. J's grandparents bought me some very cool salt and pepper mills and I got a travel kit from her aunt and uncle. After we were done exchanging gifts we took our booty and went to J's dad's house for Christmas dinner. We had the best store bought shrimp I've ever had and some dips as apps. For the main course we had the usual ham with some tater salad. When we finished eating we enjoyed the Christmas spirit with some spirits. Every beer I drank had something to do with the holidays. One was had noel in the name, one had a picture of Santa on the label and one had holiday in the name. The rest of the night we watched movies and I played with my ZipZaps. The day after Christmas, a day that will live in infamy. We gathered up all our stuff, said our goodbyes and headed back to Milwaukee. We ended up getting back about seven at night. We unloaded the car and unpacked our suitcases. Then we started to put all our presents away. I started to…