I kissed taping good-bye

I have come to learn a lot of things since purchasing a house: energy costs money, when things break you have to fix them, cereal is an acceptable substitute for a meal when you live alone, etc. However, since the previous owners were the ones who built the place 50 some years ago, and their tastes in decoration did not change during that time, I have become most familiar with painting walls.

I do not paint walls well. However, I have come to the conclusion that taping off areas of wall/border/whatnot is not only not very helpful, but a waste of time. I had some friends help me paint one of the rooms and we had one person dedicated to taping off areas with the blue painter’s tape (which is expensive). Not only is taping difficult, but it didn’t completely prevent paint from getting on the areas in question. We only discovered the paint had seeped into wrong places after we removed the tape and the paint had a chance to dry.

I think the time saved not taping outweighs the accidents of spills. I am not a crazy homeowner. I understand that people are going to spill things on my carpet, walk with nasty bare feet that have not seen soap, and drop Cool Ranch Doritos deep down into the fibers of my house’s being. I put drop clothes down when I paint. If paint gets on the carpet somehow, I wipe it up the best I can. If paint gets on the wrong part of the wall, I wipe it up the best I can. In every instance, it has not been worth the extra 50% of time it takes to tape an area. The only time it may help is on corners when two painted walls meet. However, I have found that using a small craft size brush eliminates the need for tape; it does require some patience and confidence in your anti-shaking skills, but I prefer it.

The Beatitudes of softball

And our scripture verse for today comes from the Sermon on the Mount:
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Matthew 5:7 (New International Version)

I had two softball games today and we won by the 20 run mercy rule in the first game only to be beaten 20-0 in the second game after 3 innings. I was hitting fourth in our batting order and I got to hit once.

Who said the Bible doesn’t apply to everyday life?!

The worst food I have ever eaten in my life

So we had a going away lunch for our friend from Sweden ( she was moving to Maryland, duh). My roommate made a great brunch of breakfast burritos and chocolate banana bread. Our Swedish friend announces “I brought dessert”. Rock! Swedish stuff! Supposedly it was black licorice.

WRONG.

It was black licorice coated in the nastiest thing ever invented: ammonium chloride. Look it up.

I spit out my candy. It tastes like rancid fishy salt butt. AWFUL.

This is the worst thing I have ever eaten.

She had 3 different kinds of this stuff; each one held the nasty goods in a different place.

Worst tasting thing ever.

My crazy prop bet weekend

So if Michigan State wins the NCAA basketball tourney Monday night, I win our pool of $70. So the one guy who is not from the state of Michigan picks MSU to win… I have hope for the state and a dream for it’s future. I am running for Governor in 2030.

Ok so we had some buddies over to watch the final four. My roommate was visiting a friend (lady) in Lansing during the games, and my other roommate says “there is no way (he) is watching basketball right now!” To that I say “my good man, he most certainly is!” So we bet a Qdoba burrito on whether he was watching the game. So it turns out he was (duh) and now I am up a burrito.

So I am feeling my oats up about $6.50 before tax.

During the MSU game, when the Spartans were ahead, I tell the guys, “hey they should throw the ball really high in the air so UConn can’t foul them.” My other buddy says “you can’t throw a ball in the air for very long”.

And so it begins. We end up settling on a $5 bet to see if I can throw a basketball in the air for 3 seconds. I got 2 tries. We had two timers. I could only find a soccer ball so I used that. For my first try I used the world’s strongest man keg toss between the legs move and got a time of 2.9s and 3.1s. So I did it again but this time with a one arm bowling huck type motion. I hit 3.0s exactly on both clocks to win the bet. But then my buddy said the bet was with a basketball. SO NOW I AM PISSED. We go into the house, INFLATE A BASKETBALL, and do it again. This time I have some juice flowing because it is cold and this is ridiculous. I tried to stand on higher ground to give myself more air time, but he called me out on it. So to make this story end, I threw it for a clean 3.2 seconds and made 5 bucks. I am not sure if I could ever clear the 4s barrier, but I haven’t been doing targeted weight training either…

Good meal and a good game with good friends. We bought some ice cream and also went and highjacked a grill from a co-worker friend who said I could have her grill since she is moving.

Sports, wings, competition, prop bets, petty larceny, gambling, ice cream, beer, beans, brats, beets, bears, Battlestar Galactica.

Easter is my new favorite holiday

4th of July. LAME. Christmas  has become more about tradition than the birth of Christ.
Easter is the real winner in my eyes:

1) Spiritually, you cannot beat this. As a Christian, Easter basically sums it all up. Celebrating and remembering not only Christ’s death on a cross as a sacrifice for the sins of his followers, but his conquering of death by resurrection… GAME ON. The importance of this cannot be overstated.

2) Warm weather. Easter is usually during the start of Spring.

3) Fridays off. At my current job, we get every-other-Friday off (we work an extra hour every day stop whining). But because we get Good Friday off of work, it means most people get three Fridays in a row off of work. MmmHmmm holla back boo!

4) During the season of lent, many Catholic and other Christians forego eating meat on Fridays. This may sound like a bad thing, but not for the frozen fish industry! Fish Stix baby baby!

5) Start of softball season.
6) Tank tops
7) Marshmellow peep battles in the microwave.
The one day of the year that men can wear a pink shirt to church and the big winner…
9) The one day of the year women can wear crazy hats to church. It’s like “hey we are all so happy it is Easter, everyone gets a free pass on what you wear today!”
10)People really bring it during worship on Easter too. No one really whoops it up on Christmas, but people go carazy on Easter.

This is why I love Michigan

http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2009/03/27/twenty-bucks-may-seem-like-a-lot-to-pay-for-a-burger-but/

Get at me all other states? 

My buger just ate your state’s best food. Crabcakes, deep dish pizza,  freshly caught fish, yeah they are simply feeding this hamburger’s appetite.

You may have employment, but we have engorgement.

You may have warm weather, but we have beef fractions.

Our health care industry is booming though…

Chicago Trip

Subway

Chipotle

Roast Beef from  Northwestern

Fried Chicken at Tommy Nevin’s

Blackened Chicken burger with guacamole at Gulliver’s

Chicken Shack

Steak n Shake

Hot dog at Stadium

BARNYARD PLATTER from Merle’s

Giordano’s

McDonalds

Carrots and apples for dinner on Sunday!

This is from 1999…..

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE7DB153EF933A0575AC0A96F958260

Oh Qdoba how I love thee, let me count the ways….

1. You make a big fat tasty burrito at a reasonable price.

Midland is now on the map with a Qdoba (to open soon…probably in 4 months).  Take that Saginaw.  No longer will Saginaw hold the upper hand in the middle class fast food Mexican demographic.  Now you are tied!

The presidential election is really starting to take its toll on everyone.  My father mentioned the other night about how crazy it would be if everyone in Congress got voted out, not necessarily for the other party, but just got voted out.  I think that actually may be a good idea. Sometimes I think that we should never have people who make careers out of politics.  At some point it becomes too self-sustaining.  How many politicians would make the right choice on a matter if it meant they would have to quit their jobs…. honestly?  Not that politicians are any different than most anyone else, they probably face those tough questions way more often than any of us.  Maybe they shouldn’t have to face them their whole lives though. 

 

I have come to understand one of my shortcomings, and maybe one of the fundamental truths to life:

If someone is doing something and it is not harming anyone (and I will add as a Christian is not sin/sinning),  I need to just let them do it, and maybe try to enjoy that they enjoy doing whatever they are doing.  More directly, I think sometimes what other people do for fun bothers me because I don’t like doing it.  This usually means I am viewing things through my own eyes/filters instead of seeing it through other people’s eyes.  I guess basically I am saying that I think I get caught up in others people’s actions too much.

 

So I bought ~15 new sets of guitar strings last week.  I couldn’t pass up the chance to get 6 packs of D’Addario accoustic and electric strings with a free pint glass.  This brings my guitar affiliated alcohol glass total to three: two pints and a scotch glass/tumbler of some kind.  I don’t know what it is about drinking and playing guitar that go together so well,

oh wait, bars.  Bars and taverns.

Now I guess I just need to buy some Purple Haze beer to chase a shot of Cabo Wabo Tequila and play some Hendrix while singing like Sammy Hagar. …. AND AND Play church music too!

So we made some really bad smelling stuff at work this week.  I mean we actually made the bad smelling gas that comes out of you when you eat too much sauerkraut (I know I know, there is no such thing as TOO MUCH sauerkraut).  The only solace to that is that everyone can just let it rip when we are working in the lab; we just blame it on the chemistry.  Chemistry saves social embarrassment. Robots could not be stopped by chemical warfare though. Robots wouldn’t cave to peer pressure either. Maybe we should just tell our teenagers to act more like robots.

I guess whenever you get on the topic of robots, its probably time to call it quits for the night.

Pool Etiquette, I don’t swim in your toilet….

Hey…

…

naked guy in the locker room.

….

yeah I’m talking to you.

I don’t mind if you lose your towel when you need to dry off and get dressed, but me seeing you walk the whole length of the locker room with your towel ON YOUR SHOULDER is not cool.  Adam and Eve knew they were naked and clothes weren’t even invented yet. 

Creepy guy who sits in the hot tub by himself,  don’t think you are free from my menacing glare!

And don’t even get me started Mr. I invented my own swimming stroke the does both arms backstroking at the same time so if you share a lane with me you get poked every time you swim past me guy!

On an unrelated note, the sermon at church last week was how we need to show love and take an interest in the folks who drive us nuts, especially at the gym.