Sunday, May 31, 2009

Goodbye Seth

So, I wrote part of this post on Sunday morning and finished it Tuesday morning. See if you can tell where the split is (it's not too difficult).

My friend Seth still has two weeks remaining in Chicago before he heads to India, but because of various scheduling constraints, his girlfriend Steph (together they make the celeb nickname Sethanie) organized a trolley ride last night all over the city with all his friends to see him off. In addition, Seth and I had been talking about doing a beer tasting for months. This also came to fruition yesterday at my place. Needless to say, it was an eventful day and evening. This morning, as I am massively hungover, I'm thinking of that thing they do on the Today show and in magazines...."Instead of eating this, eat this."

Instead of tasting 10 beers, taste 5 (these beers were sweet though).
Instead of drinking 4,536 beers during the ensuing 7 hours, just have a couple. Instead of staying out until 4 am, stay out until 1 am. Instead of eating a massive slab of pig and macaroni and cheese at 4:30, just go to bed. You get the picture.
Then there's Brad....instead of riding some poor kid's tricycle, leave it where you found it. Actually, forget everything I just said. That would mean we're adults and based on these pictures, we're clearly not ready for such a drastic step at age 26.
Now I'm faced with a 1 pm tee time that I thought was a safe time when I scheduled it. Wrong. It's 11 am and I'm still only on the verge of being a member of team vertical. Now I'm going to get a croissanwich.

I missed my tee time. Ended up getting on an hour later. In what was an otherwise awful yet hilarious round, on the 9th hole, I hit one of those blissful 3-irons that goes about 225 yards and trickles right up onto the green. Now I have to go back and play again....damn.
Bottom line - incredible weekend. Not coincidentally, I joined a new gym yesterday and am now in the process of working off some of the 143,292 calories consumed between Wednesday and Saturday.

# of NEW edible fruits/vegetables in the garden - 1 (a single strawberry)

Friday, May 29, 2009

Vegas Baby

Finally, a blog post. I'm not sure where the time is going but I sure as hell haven't had time to do a post lately. I also haven't been particularly inspired. Writers block maybe.

I was in Vegas last weekend, which should have provided some inspiration, but fortunately and unfortunately, we did a classy Vegas trip, which meant no debauchery, a limited number of weirdos, and thus, no hilarious stories that are worth telling. The only funny moment I can think of was when I made a last ditch effort to win my money back at 8:30 am on the morning we left. For the record, this was a successful effort. When I showed up to the blackjack table, a girl at the table said hello. I asked her how things were going. She said, "drunk." At 8:30 am! I understand this is par for the course in Vegas but still, I laughed.


As you can see in the picture below, Carrie is kissing a skull. This skull is filled with liquor. Vodka. Vodka made by Dan Aykroyd. It's called Crystal Skull. Good name.



On night two, Carrie's dad broke a glass at Japonais, and publicly blamed me. We spent the remainder of the dinner staging fake glass breaks. Needless to say, they didn't love us at Japonais.


Wednesday was my birthday. I got out of work early and went to a great dinner at Mia Francesca with Carrie and her mom. Eating the leftovers today. Last night, I went to Smoke Daddy BBQ with a few friends. That place is incredible. Just straight up good BBQ, nothing complicated, which is actually really hard to find. After gorging ourselves, we went to a few bars, including the Happy Village, which is a hole-in-the-wall neighborhood bar that also happens to be the underground headquarters of the city's table tennis playing community. Seth and I played there occasionally so showed up to take in a beer and perhaps a game. We ended up just watching this Asian guy (I think he was Thai) just maul people, one after the other, most notably a snotty Purdue kid with a big head that would childishly flick him off behind his back shortly before taking a ping pong ball in the eye. The best part about the Bangkok Baller was that he was not only toying with every opponent he played, but he was doing it with a roughly 3-inch diameter paddle, smaller than a hand. This is so advanced that I can't even find it online to give a link to what this looks like. Talk about degrading. I loved every minute of it.

# of edible plants grown in the garden: 2 (chives, lettuce)

Thursday, May 21, 2009

The Music Post

Before, I head out to Vegas for the long weekend, I've been getting a few requests to post a music-related blog. I figured now is a good time for music post #1 as I just saw a band called People in Planes at Subterranean, a small club in Chicago. I first learned about People in Planes when I saw them open for Stereophonics in Boston last September. They were fantastic, continuing the proud tradition of Welsh bands that totally rock out. As an FYI, going early to see the opening act of a band you are seeing in concert is a great way to find new music you like. This has happened countless times for me.


People in Planes is amazing. They absolutely blew the roof off the place. This was the definition of a rock show, complete with long hair, pouring sweat, between-song commentary that was mumbled and impossible to understand, guitars being held up to and sometimes shoved into amps, and lastly a fantastic rockstar exit. The lead singer, after nearly two hours of mind blowing vocals, belts out two perfect notes at the top of his lungs, pushes the mic, and walks off stage as the rest of the band plays the final closing notes of the show. Just awesome.

Here's some other stuff I'm into right now:

TV on the Radio - you absolutely can't go wrong. Phenomenal.

Republic Tigers - their debut album is fantastic. Check out "Fight Song."

Grizzly Bear - They've got a real folk-pop type of feel. Kind of like The Shins.

Yeasayer - Sunrise. Not a huge fan of their other stuff necessarily but this jam is superb.

Blitzen Trapper - I like to compare them to a new-age Bob Dylan. Listen to "Furr" and tell me I'm wrong. Another cool song is "Black River Killer," where they throw in some of those synth effects that used to be in early 90's west coast hip hop. I dig it.

Thievery Corporation - kind of a weird electronica thing with good beats and influences from all over the world (reggae, african, middle eastern). Hard to describe but great background music for just about anything.

MSTRKRFT - if you're in a dance mood or are prepping to go to a rave.

Loney, Dear - lots of good tunes. Start with "Airport Surroundings." Really unique tune.

Black Gold - their first album "Rush" is fantastic. This is the stuff that should be on radio. It's only $8 on itunes. Great deal.
Girl Talk - Excellent party music.
Delta Spirit - Upbeat indie rock. Give "People C'mon" or "Strange Vine" a try. I imagine them being fantastic live, but have not yet seen them.

We Are Scientists - bringing back the 80's new wave sound with a rock twist. Their debut album is also great from start to finish.


# of edible fruits/vegetables produced by the garden: 0















Wednesday, May 20, 2009

IKEA!


Long time, no blog. This is the first chance I've had to do a blog since my mom visited last weekend. Nothing special to report - still working on settling in to the apartment, eventful weekend. We packed a lot in, culminating in a trip to IKEA after we dropped her off at the airport on Sunday. Plus, on Saturday we bought herbs. Carrie had to go so this left me to get some herbs she wanted like parsley. Well, being forgetful and prone to going overboard, I got a giant rosemary plant, plus stuff that will never grow like strawberries and lavender, and forgot parsley. Par for the course for me.
Sunday was the first time I've ever realized the magic of IKEA. We walked for miles inside that place, searching high and low for a dresser, a bookshelf, a table, and whatever other impulse buys I could make without being caught. Here are some of the results:


I also bought a ficus tree. I believe it is a fig tree without the figs, which seems kind of dumb, but it's still cool to have a tree in the living room for as long as it stays alive.

Along the way, we also saw a number of the toilets shown above. I found this really funny as I immediately had a mental picture of the days before they put plastic coverings over the toilets to indicate that they are off limits. Did people actually walk up to the wide-open public display toilets and just drop trow? Someone had to right?

# of edible fruits/vegetables produced by the garden: 0


Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Your local dry cleaner

Caption: (Insert stereotype concerning ownership of dry cleaning businesses)

Moved into the new apartment with Carrie last Saturday. Pictures to come when stuff isn't strewn about. Gearing up for Three Floyds beer pairing dinner tomorrow, assuming I can get out of work, and that's a big if. Fingers crossed. Mom is coming into town this weekend. Look out single 60-something men in Chicago.....I mean 50-something, sorry mom.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Biography Day

Yesterday, I was told that I needed to create a biography to go on our website. This was quite an exciting moment for me. Stepping up to the big time - getting a bio on the website. Somehow, having never written my own biography before, without even thinking, I instinctively knew how I had to approach this. Names have been blurred out to protect my employment in the event of an errant google search.
Sean Tracy joined ********* in April 2009 as an Associate for the ***********. Sean comes to ********** straight from the golf course, where he spent many weekdays trying to improve his handicap to no avail. Prior to his time on the golf course, Sean got really good at guitar hero. Like expert level good. Boy band good even. Wait, that’s bad. Never mind. In the two years leading up to his unemployment stint, Sean spent a block of time at ************** where his soul was consistently beaten like a drum in a Maori tribal ritual dance. After nearly four years in finance, Sean is a master of the “wall street vernacular” also known as “b-school vernacular.” At the end of the day, to the extent that you don’t know what this is, he is willing to circle back at any time to get you up to speed.

Sean is nearly six feet tall, weighs approximately 175 pounds, can bench press a lot and can run a really fast 40 yard dash time. He went to Harvard, and as a result, is entitled to look down upon just about anyone while putting forth a dismissive backhand wave of the hand, followed by a curt “ha!” He is uber-muscular, in-shape, and bronzed like whoa and expects the same out of the ladies….err the job. His interests…err qualifications include movies, music, going out, good food, fun talkative people, long walks on the beach, and texting…LOL. No room for haterz tho. If u don’t like me, I don’t care!!! Don’t hate the playa, hate the game!!! T Money out!

Monday, May 4, 2009

Swine Flu for Life and the Significance of the Unborn

In a weekend shadowed by a grotesque, hideous, unthinkable plague that may make a few Americans experience flu-like symptoms for a slightly longer period of time than a typical flu, a number of brave, hardy souls made the difficult trek to State College, Pennsylvania to see our friend Rick Williamson marry long-time girlfriend Rachel Senior (now Williamson obvi).  Before I get into shenanigans, congrats guys and best of luck in Phoenix, even though I said that twenty times on Saturday and Sunday.  

Even though we're all grown up now, it's pretty clear we ungrew up this weekend.  I can honestly say, it never got more ridiculous than the below, but that's not saying a whole lot, as you will quickly see.



Apologies for the poor camera work here.  My very audible laughing rendered me incapable of filming properly.   

Another funny happening was a continuing theme of the weekend.  Part of me thinks I should tread lightly while discussing this but a bigger part of me thinks God has a sense of humor.  One gentleman noticed that there was none other than a basket of plastic fetuses in the back of the church.  Not like a couple, but a very, very large basket of small plastic fetuses.  It said "8-12 weeks pre-born" on its back, which clearly isn't a marking real fetuses have on their backs at 8-12 weeks, but I forgive them for this oversight.  This picture gives you and idea of the relative size of the fetus, which prompts the question, is the fetus really molded to scale?  I don't have enough (or any) fetus experience to know.  
 
In any event, this prompts a lot of other questions too.  Who makes the fetuses?  What's their production cost and sale price per fetus?    Or do they quote it per dozen?  Per ton?   What's that God?  It's not funny anymore?  One more joke and see what happens?  Got it.  Moving on.....

The greatest t-shirt ever for a boy younger than 4 but the creepiest t-shirt ever for anyone else.  We love seeing Brady (and now Tate too).


Late in the weekend, I finally thought to start taking down some notes on what was being said but it was far too late.  The only thing I really got was a quote not fit for print that involved pickles.  I do, however, remember drinking a ton, eating a ton of eggs, meat, and cinnamon stickies, and laughing a ton with a lot of great friends....and lastly, saying hello to Joe Pa.  Apologies to my father and my brother Brian for the outright betrayal shown below.  I can actually say that I like State College.  There I said it.  I like State College.