|
|
|
Ramble Archive: 01.01.05 - 06.30.05
...from the cobwebs of my mindSELECT A DATE BELOW TO JUMP DIRECTLY TO THAT RAMBLE |
|
|
| TUESDAY, JUNE 28, 2005 |
 Wedding Dinner Party. |
| |
We had an excellent time at the dinner party thrown by my in-laws over the weekend. Man, that was fun. They had the room all decked out. Anita made this great sign and Suzie had this awesome cake made up with a photo from the wedding in the icing. I'd never seen that before - where they take a photo and make the icing in that image. It was really neat.
We took some nice photos, which I should hopefully have online soon. I still need to get our wedding photos online, too. I'm close to getting that done as well.
|
| Cubs tied it up with White Sox. |
| |
The Cubs managed to win two of three at Sox park over the weekend, which ties up the tally for the 2005 interleague play. Thank god, too, as those insufferable Sox fans are just terrible to deal with when they beat the Cubs.
Mark Prior started Sunday's game - his first since coming back from the disabled list - and he pitched six scoreless, 1-hit innings on the way to a 2-0 win. It's good to have him back.
The great news is, Kerry Wood is back as well, starting Wednesday's game against the Brewers. This brings the Cubs pitching rotation back up to full strength. They have half a season left to suck it up and spank the Cardinals, who are currently 8.5 games ahead in first place. The Cubs need to start and keep winning, and the Cards need to start losing.
Zambrano is on the mound tonite, at home versus the Brewers. The Cubs went 2-4 at Milwaukee last week, so hopefully Zambrano will do better than his last two outtings and get the Cubs off to a good sweep this time around. We need a good sweep of the Brewers to put them further back in the standings. They're inching uncomfortably close to the Cubs, a mere 3.5 games back, with the Astros and Pirates right behind, 4 games back. This would be a great time for the Cards to start losing, too.
|
| Ramble Archiving. |
| |
Just a warning that it's nearly time for the 6-month archiving of the rambles on this front page. I know there are only a handful of rambles currently up, but I need to stick with the schedule. So, beginning July 1, this page will go blank and I'll start again. All the rambles that you see here will be accessible via the ramble archive page for the period 1/1/05 - 6/30/05.
|
|
|
| MONDAY, JUNE 20, 2005 |
| Women Brain-dead? Can't be! |
| |
It appears that, yes, women truly are brain-dead - at least during orgasm. New research shows that part of women's brains actually shut down during orgasm. Seriously. I'm not making this up.
|
When women genuinely achieved an orgasm, areas of the brain involved in fear and emotion were deactivated. Those areas stayed alert however when women were faking it.
The researchers also found that the cortex, which is linked with consciousness, is active during a fake orgasm but not during the real thing.
|
You can check out the story here
Now, how do these scientists explain the apparent lack of brain activity when women get behind the wheel of a car?
|
| Dinner Party! |
| |
The wedding dinner party Kim's parents are throwing us is this weekend. Turns out it's going to be a little more formal than I originally thought. It's not black-tie, or anything, but then again, it's not exactly a backyard barbecue, either. It'll be a nice, sit-down dinner with lots of alcohol consumption.
My parents are coming up and they'll get a chance to meet more of Kim's family, which will be nice. Kim and I are both really looking forward to this!
|
| Cubs Spanked by Yankees. |
| |
So, uhm... the Cubs got spanked pretty bad by the Yankees over the weekend. They got swept up like a dirty basement, and they deserved it too. The pitching was terrible - what's up with Zambrano all of a sudden? - and they couldn't score a run to save their lives. Granted, Maddux getting shelled was a rare event, but Zambrano has pitched poorly his last two outtings. I know two bad outtings does not a crappy pitcher make, but if he doesn't turn it around, the Cubs could be in real trouble as they continue to struggle and try to stay within sight of the Cardinals until they get Prior and Wood back.
I've officially had enough of Corey First-Pitch-Swinging Patterson. He seems to be one of those players with great potential that remains unrealized while he's wearing a Cubs uniform. If the little shit would take some pitches and get a feel for the pitcher instead of swinging at everything that comes in his direction, he might get somewhere. Oh, and how about maybe even try bunting (gasp!) once in a while just to get on base. He rarely uses his speed, so why not try legging out a bunt once in a while as either a means of getting on base or advancing the runner? Ugh... he's so damned frustrating sometimes.
|
| Mmmmm... Icemaker Good. |
| |
The new frig and gas range were delivered this weekend. It's nice to have the new frig with the icemaker and filtered water dispenser on the door, though running and hooking up the water line wasn't exactly as quick-n-easy as people made it out to be. It's not like it was rocket science running the line, but getting the compression nuts and seals on the line itself was a total pain in the butt. It's like the kit was designed to do one thing well: piss me off! Granted, I'm not exactly Bob Villa, but I was told a monkey could install one of these lines, and I'm damned sure I'm smarter than a monkey. Maybe not that monkey that can do sign language, because I can't do sign language, but I'm definately smarter than your average monkey found in the jungle flinging its poo. I mean, I stopped flinging my poo years ago.
In the end, I got the line installed and everything is working fine, so the lack of ice is no longer a sore point between Kim and I. You'd think two adults would have been able to work out a system where the one who empties the ice refills it, but nooooooo... not us.
Anyway, that's one sore point down, several more to go (*cough*litterbox*cough*).
We're really digging the new gas stove, as well. It has one of those "power burners" that brings a pot of water up to a full boil in like 2.5 seconds. We haven't actually tested it out yet, so that number remains an estimate, but we think we're in the ballpark.
|
|
|
| FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 2005 |
| Website Migration |
| |
I received notification, all last-minute like, that my website hosting provider is going to migrate my site over to a new and improved server today. The migration is supposed to take place this afternoon, between 1:00pm - 4:00pm. No idea how long it'll actually take, and while it's happening my site will be down. Theoretically, once it's done, there should be no difference you to, the visitor. Hopefully it'll be a quick process and not run into a bunch of snags keeping my site offline for days. Guess we'll find out soon.
|
|
|
| TUESDAY, JUNE 07, 2005 |
| New Appliances |
| |
So, we broke down and bought some new appliances for the house. The stove had to go - for several reasons - the dishwasher is crap and we really wanted an ice-maker in the frig. Seriously, we have more fights over ice cubes than you'd think possible. So, we figured, to give this new marriage a chance at success, we'd get a frig with an ice-maker.
This all leads me to my next two "home improvement" chores. While these may be on the light side for someone with mad skillz, my skillz could best be categorized as crap, so there you go.
I get to install the water line for the frig, and then connect up the new dishwasher, all without chopping off a finger or blowing up the house. Don't laugh... with me, both are not only possible but highly probable.
Oh, and we finally bought a dining room table, too. And we actually used it the other day. It was kind of strange not sitting on the couch with TV trays eating dinner. I suppose we'll get used to it eventually.
The new appliances are due to be delivered next weekend and we're pretty excited. I mean, come on... an ice-maker!
|
| Dinner Party |
| |
My new in-laws are throwing Kim and I a dinner party later this month to celebrate our marriage. My parents are coming up from down-state Illinois to attend and we're really looking forward to it. There will be much beer and polish sausage consumed during the evening, let me tell you. This is gonna be a hoot! A hoot, I tells ya, a hoot!
|
| Wedding Registry |
| |
Okay, so this is obviously a shameless plug, but oh well. We've had several people ask where we registered for the wedding, so here's the info...
We registered at Bed Bath & Beyond, and you can click here to go directly to the registry page. Feel free to check it out or don't. While we will certainly appreciate any gifts sent our way, please don't feel obligated to purchase anything.
|
| Go Cubbies! |
| |
The Cubs were on a bit of a roll there for a while. They won something like seven straight, before dropping one to San Diego and then another last night to Toronto. They really needed this spurt to keep in the hunt behind St. Louis.
This weekend should be an exciting series with the Red Sox in town. It'll be interesting to see how the Cubs fare against the World Series Champs. The Cubs have been playing well lately, so I'm hopeful they'll do well against Boston. I really don't want to see them get spanked like they did against the White Sox not too long ago. Yeah, the Cubs won one game of that White Sox series, but the Sox really out-played them by a wide margin.
|
|
|
| THURSDAY, JUNE 02, 2005 |
| Site Revamp |
| |
As you can see, not only have I finally brought my site back online, but I've done a bit of a revamp. Looks like I had the public part of CRIDER.COM offline for over a year. Guess I have a few things to catch up on, eh? Okay, I'll give it a try.
Below are several items of interest that have happened over the past year or so. I'm sure I'll miss a few things and will add them later. Enjoy!
|
| Maui'd |
| |
Kim and I eloped to Maui early this month. The ceremony took place at the Maui Tropical Gardens on May 8, 2005. You can check out the generic web page here. We'll be posting photos online soon.
We stayed at the Maui Sheraton for the following week, and had an absolutely wonderful time. Again, photos and more detail are forthcoming.
I won't even try to go into all the detail of the wedding and honeymoon right now, otherwise it'd take me forever to get this initial post done. Suffice it to say we had a great time, and I'll leave you with these few thoughts, in no particular order, which I'll expand upon at a later date...
- coach sucks
- Maui airport landing: 200mph-to-Zero in a liquify-your-organs .3 seconds
- bad directions suck
- convertible in Maui good
- Sheraton pretty
- jet lag bad
- not having call-waiting bad
- need more Kleenex
- champagne good
- new favorite food: ahi ahi sashimi
- beautiful sunset dinner
- new favorite food: baby-butt tender, rare filet mignon w/ garlic butter sauce
- sleeping in good
- road to winery: fun
- winery itself: boring
- three words: Bubba Gump Shrimp
- snorkeling: Steve
- sink-like-a-rock: Kim
- sunburn: Steve
- at fault: Kim
- big baby: Steve
- new favorite food: ahi ahi barely seared
- Maui gas prices: holy crap!
- Maui Sheraton Webcam
- three more words: Bubba Gump Shrimp
- free broadband internet access
- 400+ photos
- shopping, shopping, shopping
- Maui airport takeoff: "We're going ballistic Mav, go get him!"
- iPod Mini cool
- iPod Mini headbuds: ouch!
- mile-high club membership: uh, no
- limo ride home: can we go back to Maui?
- threshold
- hey! the cat's still alive!
- damn! the cat's still alive!
- Revenge of the Jet Lag
- new favorite food: seriously, it's ahi ahi sashimi... it's freakin' great!
|
| New Job |
| |
I finally found a new job, with a company called FONA International based in Geneva, IL. Just an FYI... I'm not responsible for the current state of the FONA website (as of this date, it's under revamp by a third pary).
Anyway, I started the week of Thanksgiving 2004 and was quickly thrust into the deep end of the pool planning and managing the IT portion of a corporate move. The overall move planning had been underway for over a year, but no one had bothered to start the IT planning. So, what normally takes a solid twelve months to plan, I was given five.
Thankfully, with the hard work and dedication of my staff, we pulled it off and celebrated a successful move the weekend of April 25, 2004. Kim and I were off to Maui two weeks later.
Everything is going well with the new job and I'll have tons more to say as I take time to get caught up here on the site.
|
| New House |
| |
Kim and I bought our first home back in September 2004. So, you can imagine the pleasant surprise when I found a job two months later.
We're really enjoying the new digs out here in Algonquin, IL. I've been moving further away from the city since I moved out of the place in Bucktown back in 1999, but I really couldn't be happier. Yeah, I liked the city, but really only when I lived two blocks off the lake in Wrigleyville. Once I moved to Bucktown, it wasn't so great.
Being new home-owners, Kim and I are having the occassional minor freak-out about appliances, a pain-in-the-arse garage door opener replacement, south-facing floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors that let enough sun into the living room to boil the cat, and other oh-so-fun issues that go along with owning a home. We're coping thus far, but that garage door opener replacement really had me spitting nails at one point.
To date, I have performed three official "home improvement" operations...
1. Replaced a leaky garbage disposal
2. Installed a new, programmable thermostat
3. Added additional electrical capacity in the basement (with the help of my dad and father-in-law)
We have lots left to do, and I'm just SO much looking forward to it all. Yeah, right. ugh
We'll keep you posted as we go along.
|
| Future Site Changes |
| |
So, it occured to me, after a rather flippant comment from Kim tonite, that maybe this site should be more of a "Kim & Steve" site. After throwing a cat toy at her and running off downstairs, I'm assuming she meant that this site should be written more from a "we" aspect rather than an "I" - Steven - aspect. pfffffft Yeah, hold yer breath on that one, honey.
I need to go hide the cat toys now.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Attention Criders!
|
Are you a CRIDER?
Click
to send
me an email.
|
| YIM Status:
|
|
|
