12-year reunion

Bill, my (David’s) old high school classmate was in town last weekend (and the weekend before it). Andy attempted to coordinate a poorly timed meet up with the three of us on the first weekend, but it didn’t work out. Then Saturday afternoon, Andy called again and announced Bill was here again. Surprised to learn he returned from his home in Chicago after only a week (it turns out he had actually gone upstate for some fishing), I decided to cancel my plans for a Saturday night bike ride, and meet up with the old posse.

So I went over to Andy’s and the three of us, along with Ed (another Chi-towner) went to the Spot. Before long, Earnest, Matt, Shorty and selected spouses/significant others were there too. Darts were thrown, beer was drunk, Busch league was watched, and Andy & I were made fun of for being NASCAR fans. All in all, a good time was had.

With both Heather and I having to work on the holiday, Sunday was spent busily taking care of chores and other tasks during the caution flags of both the 500, and the Nextel cup. Even though it was the same track as the exhibition race last week, Martin wasn’t able to pull another win. He could have had a great chance to, but between the excessive cautions (which hinder his strength of performing well during long green flag runs), and one pit stop just as one of these cautions occurred, his window of opportunity was missed.

On Monday, I did have a little bit of free time, so I decided to check of the bat in the attic. Unfortunately it was nowhere to be found. I suspect that I am going to have to vacuum up the dung piles keep tabs on how they reappear. If it is hiding in one of those nooks that I can’t see into, then I may have to simply board it up and let it learn its lesson the hard way.

Happy Friday

Enjoy!

Na na na na na na na na bat man

The roosting rodents are back in the attic. Last year, we went up there one day to find little piles of black turds all over our back up carpet for the living room. After some deliberation, we decided the best course of action would be to grab the little winged bugger and bring it to a cave at Battle Creek park. The rest of the summer we went bat free.

Well now it is (or they are) back. And like another bad superhero sequel, it is full of all sorts of crappy material. If the thing wanted to sleep in the garage, or under an eave, then it could poop all it wanted and we wouldn’t care. It would still be doing us a great service in controlling the bug population. However, stinky-poo on the rug may qualify as a capitol crime for all those not cat, dog, tiny human, or drunken human. Or at least, given that I (David) am too lazy to repeat last year’s humane extraction service, I think this year’s attempt may include a harsh lesson such as: “If you want to roost here, then you have to know how to fly on a bright sunshiny day after you’ve just been dropped off the side of the Wabasha street bridge.” And of course, if the bat fails the lesson, then it wouldn’t be allowed back in the attic.

------------------segue line--------------------

Martin won! We don’t have cable, but half of us have the foresight to track down someone with cable and have the race recorded. We haven’t had a chance to pick up the tape yet, but mom (Jan) gave us a play by play over the phone of the last couple laps of the race as they occurred. It wasn’t quite as intense as actually watching it happen (nor will it be when we actually get to watch it), but it was still thrilling to hear. The lack of intensity will be more than made up for as his winning streak continues. Hopefully we’ll be all caught up on watching before the next race. We should have time for it provided that the bats don’t start reproducing.

30-års Jiggen

Väsen's Thirty Year Jig

So here is another late entry. This time however, I (David) wasn’t waiting for someone else to mention something first. Rather, I was waiting for visual aids. Heather and I purchased a new (non Fisher Price) digital camera recently, and rather than say that I’ve been too busy watching TV or listening to music to upload the camera’s photos, I’ll just say the new technologically advanced camera scares me.

So you might be wondering what was photo worthy, no? Well, last Friday was my 30th birthday party. No bigfoots or UFOs were there, but since we snapped a couple of shots of the celebrations, I thought it’d be nice to share. So yeah, I’m 30 now. And as I sit here typing this at work, it’s a bit frightening to realize that I have spent nearly one third of my life working at this institution. One would think that with loyalty like that, I’d have nothing but good things to say about the place. It would make sense. Of course, as we like to say here, “If it makes sense, we’re not doin’ it”.

The next photo worthy event was the SHSK concert. Prior to the concert, Heather and I visited grandma Ruthie, but I’m not sure she would have appreciated being photographed while in her hospital bed. The concert that night went well. The venue and patrons weren’t quite what I expected, but it all made for a good show nonetheless. Heather and I both managed to forget our various digital cameras. Fortunately, Sis’ Dad brought his analog SLR. Of course, the downside of this is that the photos have to be developed before they can be scanned and uploaded. So, again, no visual aid (yet).

Sunday was the combined brothers’ birthday/mother’s day celebration. Again, no camera. But in looking through photo archives, it would appear that there have been several similar types of celebrations, and the photos wouldn’t have been all that much different. Peter managed to light the BBQ without incident, so there were no missed photo opportunities there.

So that brings us up to date on any relevant matters that would be best aided by photo links. Yet to put a good spin on this lack of photos, I would like to point out that everyone should be thankful that I am not eligible to participate in the latest photo trend amongst certain members of the bicycling community. As a semi-regular follower of the single speed / fixed gear postings on bikefourms.net, I have witnessed several fourm threads of predominantly male riders seeking to objectify female fixed gear riders by requesting photos of them on their machines. Well apparently one female rider has had enough of such solicitations, and has decided to turn the tables. Fortunately, I don’t ride fixed gear bikes, and thus, am exempted from expectations to participate in the website that features fixed males one their bikes in their underwear. So be glad for that. I also won’t be seeking permission to submit a version of Peter’s famous photo, as he was riding a freewheel bike at the time.

Belated blog

Yes, life hasn’t been completely uneventful; we’ve just been refraining from writing about it. The biggest news is all about my (David’s) brother’s wedding. I have been refraining from mentioning it because I hadn’t seen news of it appear on the internet until yesterday. In addition to my fear that there may have been some odd reason for this lack of news, I also wanted to at least extend the courtesy of not stealing my brother’s opportunity to be the first to break the news. Which is good, because his was a far more enjoyable read than my recount of the event would have been.

There is, however, room for elaboration on the ‘toasting’ and ‘emotions’ which he touched on. I had taken the time to sketch out what I wanted to cover in a toast the day before the family dinner event. After I had some ideas down, I reflected on what my brother had to say at my own wedding. And of course, I couldn’t do such a reflection without also remembering his presentation of what he had to say at the wedding. It was quite memorable. You see, brother John has a tendency to cry at emotional events such as these. Unfortunately, crying can hinder the delivery of an eloquently written speech. So, his speech at my wedding had a bit of a staccato feel to it.

I, on the other hand, am a bit less prone to crying at such events. Yet for some reason, much in the same way some people consider vomiting to be contagious, I will always cry whenever I see my brother cry. My theory is that in sharing the same birthday, we are somehow connected like twins, except the connecting powers aren’t quite paranormally strong seeing as how we’re two years apart. Knowing this contagious trend ahead of time helped me plan my toast. I decided to change my sketched out notations into a full blown, word for word, recitable text. That way, my eyes would be continuously focused on a sheet of paper, and not on my brother (given the odd chance that he might shed a tear). And it worked. Delivering the toast went on without a hitch. Of course, within seconds of looking up from my sheet of paper, I too was in tears.

Another notable occurrence at the family dinner, and one that makes for a good segue, was that Tomo and Bre happened to drive by and shout out congratulations from their car window as we were all standing outside the restaurant. The other blogable news pertains to Tomo’s grandmother. Grandma Ruthie, as she is affectionately known as by all of us younguns she took care of when we were preschoolers, had a couple of strokes last weekend. She is apparently recovering well, but is not quite back to the strong old lady that she has always been (at least, not physically). But according to Tomo’s mom, hearing from family is helping in the recovery process. So Heather and I are going to be looking for a window of opportunity to go visit her in between birthdays, concerts, and other celebrations this weekend. Hopefully after seeing us she’ll be back to her regular ol’ casino hoping, chain smoking self.

May days

snow Originally uploaded by handds.

Well the mayday holiday has come and gone. This year, instead of biking around like crazy trying to get to all the various BBQs (and Tom Taylor's grand finally hotdog eating event), we decided to simply take a holiday from anything remotely resembling work. In hindsight, it was a wise decision, seeing as how we woke up to a genuine Texas blizzard.

Carrying the spirit forward (that's the "anti-work" spirit, not the "in solidarity" spirit), we decided to go out for breakfast rather than cook ourselves. So we sampled the spicy huevos at Café Del Sol. Then it was back home for the Talladega 499 and some fun with the cats. All the inactivity made us a bit sleepy though, so after a couple more hours of kickin' back we decided to turn in early.

Later this month, on May 13th, I (David) will be celebrating my 30th birthday (Here is what the typical May 13th Skelton-turns-30 celebration looks like). So there has to be a party, of course. All are invited; family, friends, band mates, bike mates, and others. We will be hosting it, so if you don’t know where we live, you should contact us (and if you don’t know how to contact us, then you should find a way). Lets say around 6ish for a start time. It could run late, but don’t count on it. I don’t want anyone ringing the doorbell at 2 AM if all the lights are off and you can’t hear any party type noises. Unless only a handful of people show up it will pretty much be BYOB. Similarly, food may run scarce if there are a lot of people, so extra snacks can’t hurt. Gifts are not expected (or wanted really … in fact, guests could probably look over our garage sale shelves and see if there is anything they could take off our hands for us).

I’ll run through that again for those who like things nice and tidy:

David’s 30th B-day party
May 13th starting at 6:00 PM
At Heather and David’s house
BYOB (and snack)

No need to bring gifts