Best day eva?!

Today was absolutely gorgeous. low 80's all day and sunny. I didn't really do too much, I hung out around the house most of the day. This morning I cruised down to the Toledo Farmers Market. I grabbed some gas at Meijer (2.14 a gallon!), I put $15 in the beastly bronco. That got me a whopping quarter of a tank. Heck with filling that sucker up!
I picked up 3 different kinds of hot peppers, 2 egg plants, 8 zucchini's and 4 onions ( two hot and two sweet). I cruised over to my sisters house, talked with Tim and my nephew Taylor, then got home in time to cruise back out to Milan and pick up the civic. The little red car did great coming back to Monroe.

We decided later on in the evening that we should go golfing. We tee'd off at Old Town Golf Course (par 3 tiny course) at 8pm. The first shot, Jen got the ball on the green, probably about 5 ft. from the hole. The rest of the game, both of us had our ups and downs. But, all in all it was a really nice time. The final hole it was getting pretty dark, but we finished out at 9:30pm - Rob: 42 - Jen: 57. I guess both of us did pretty bad. I need to find a cheaper course. Old Town is $10 each, plus $3 each for the cart. And it's a real small course - all irons. We had a good time though, and learned as we went. Our last lesson is Monday. After that, we're heading to the PGA tryouts.

Oh yeah! I shaved my dog Henry today. He requested a blue mohawk too, so I obliged. Looks pretty snappy doesn't he?! We realized after shaving him that he's gained a lot of weight. So.. I think we're going to move him back down to 2 scoops in the morning, 2 scoops in the evening. The dog would eat a whole bag of food in one sitting if you let him.. yeah, he has an eating problem. I need to get out and play ball with him more too.. keep him moving. I'd take him jogging with me, but I don't have time to stop and smell everything along the way.

Tomorrow's my dads birthday. I'm not even sure how old he's going to be, but I think its about 53ish. We're taking him to the Texas Roadhouse, which I've never been there, but I heard Patrick Swayze is the manager, and don't piss him off - or he'll karate your ass right out of there. Seriously.

Ok. Time to get back to chillin. We'll fix the web cam in the morning, and I'll post it when it goes live. Apparently, the problem is - at some point in the evening, the lady that runs the barn feels she has to shut the power down. The fans that are in the barn, are turned on by plugging them in. So, when she wants to turn the fans off, she thinks that if she just unplugged them, she'd create an arc, and sparks could possibly shoot out into the hay. So, by shutting the power down, she can walk around and unplug them all without crazy sparks shooting all over. #1. Get some new fans lady. If they are sparking, they must be pretty freakin old. #2. What kind of electricity is in that dang barn?! Is it bare wire from 1879?! (yeah, history lesson - that's when good ol' T.E. figured out electricity).
So - we're going to have to figure out what the heck to do with this thing. A final, last resort solution would be to stick it in the companies booth, and cam people that walk by. I like the mid-way idea where it is now, I think we'll get a bunch of action out there. Anyhow, I'll report back tomorrow on its status.

I leave you with The Eyeliners, a band I heard this morning on The Rock and Roll Geek Show. I actually ate dinner with these chicks one night in Detroit, when they first got started. I interviewed them for the magazine I was publishing at the time. Great gals, very down to earth - the funny thing was, if I remember right - all three of them are sisters - maybe that's why they've stuck it out all this time!
'Think of Me' from their new album - 'No Apologies'.

The Fair Cam!

This isn't set to launch until Sunday when the Monroe County Fair opens, but because your a reader of this blog, you get a special pre screening of the one and only... Fair Cam!!
I didn't have too much to do with this, Bryan, Dave and Aaron (all from the newspaper), worked diligently on this project. Why? Just because. I am really glad these guys threw all this together in such a short amount of time, I can see this idea going places... Front st. cam, Jazz fest cam.. etc. We're going to see how many hits it brings to the site.. I hear some promotion is in the works for it too, so - it should be a real hit. Hollar at me if the cam stops at some point over the weekend, or if a kid throws a sno-cone on it. What?! yes of course I expect you to watch it all weekend long.. what else do you have to do?!

Alright, I have a date with a growler of American Pale Ale from Grizzly Peak Brewing Company in Ann Arbor. First glass was amazing. :)

The car, the show and good korean food.

I have been a huge slacker this week on blogging, so I'm going to try and make up for it. I'm home for lunch, and only have a few minutes, so this is going to be sloppy and quick!
I never reported back on the brewing beer demonstration I had all intentions of going to on Wednesday night. I hopped in the little red civic (formerly Val's), and started for Ann Arbor. I lit up a tasty cigar that I got from the beer festival last weekend. All was going good, the sun was shining, I had the sun roof open, jamming to tunes - that's when i noticed the temperature gauge was rising fast. I had just missed the first Milan exit, so I headed for the next. I cranked the heat on full blast, and exited at Plank Rd. (I think). The heat on full blast was working great, so I figured I'd just head for home and take the back roads. Pretty soon, I had no heat, and cold air was blowing on me.. the gauge was red lining now, so I figured it'd be best to stop. I spent a good hour or more at a little carry out just south of the Milan drag-way. First just finishing my cigar and thinking about how I missed the beer demo. The rest of the time was spent calling AAA, getting a ride from Jen, waiting for the tow truck, and watching the shady characters go in and out of this carry out. Tow truck arrived, brought the car to a place in Milan. I tipped the tow truck driver $7 (all I had in my pocket), which he turned and walked in and bought a pack of smokes with the money. Turns out, the radiator had a big hole in it, and needed to be replaced. They also fixed the brake lights for me, so I no longer have to feel like I'm going to get rear ended - my friends will be happy to hear, I've opted out of driving many times because of those brake lights. Anyhow, I pick it up tonight - I'm trading $375 in cash for my car back. Good deal eh?! :)

I'm feeling pretty good today, after pretending I was 20 yrs old last night. The night started off hanging out at a mom and pops Korean/Japanese restaurant in Ann Arbor. You'd think i would remember the name of the place, but.. i don't. It was a white building, on the corner of Williams and Division. Anyone?! We had a GREAT meal!

At first, I was a little apprehensive, but the food came out, and dang it was good. I got a kimchee/pork dish, and Jen got bee-bim-bop.

We headed over to Leopolds bros. brewery after, and had a few beers. I had a Pale Ale (very light, not much of a bite to it, a bit sweet), a Weizenbock (7.5% - the strongest of their beers - big bite, fruity smell and taste) and a Porter (thick, malty and yummo bitter). I smoked a Puros 'Indios' cigar, and think I found a new favorite!

We headed over to the Blind Pig for the Evan Dando show, and got there just in time to hear the last 4 or 5 songs of the opening act. $1.75 bud lights we're on special. I indulged. We met up with a huge Dando fan, who we met at the last concert in Detroit. Lacey I believe her name is - and her boyfriend, I forgot as soon as he told me - but he was a really cool guy. They are both from Traverse City. We talked about getting together on our next vacation. He suggested going to the restaurant he works at called the Apache Trout Grill. Lacey suggested Christmas Cove - it was too loud to hear what it was, but my google search says its an apple tree farm.

Evan quickly walked through the crowd with his guitar strapped around his neck and hopped up on stage. He tuned, sound checked, and jumped right into a song without really saying anything. The next 5 or 6 songs we're the same way. One right after another. He played great - if you've never heard this dude play acoustic, you can really tell he plays straight from his heart. He broke his low E string and while someone got him more strings, he told a joke. 'Why did the chicken cross the road? - because of the egg'.. Deep eh? I don't get it. He got going again with the songs, jammed about 6 more, took his guitar off dropped it from about a foot off the ground, said thanks and left. It was harsh, but, I suppose his style.
Definitely an influence on my guitar playing, but I don't think i'd like to meet him. I think i'll settle on just listening to his music. But, it was a great show - we got home around 2am. I'm on about 4 hours sleep right now, and doing pretty good.

Alright, back to the grind. Have a good weekend ya'll.

Evan

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Originally uploaded by robg2251.

Well folks. Here's Evan. My all time favorite singer songwriter.
Evan Dando appeared at the Blind Pig on Thursday, July 28, 2005. He played a fairly quick set (45 mins), and didn't speak (barely) the entire time. The only thing that got him talking was when he broke his low E string, and replaced it with an A string.. (it still sounded awesome). He played all his hits and more - even played an MC-5 song.
I'm going to blog more on this later.. it's 230am, and wow am I tired.. so, here you go for now. Check out the flickr site for more pictures. Jen and I hit up some Japanese joint before hand, then hung out at the well known Leopold Bros. brewery before the Blind Pig. GREAT evening.. too bad it's a school night... ugh.

Jam session #1

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Originally uploaded by robg2251.

I figure on days when I have nothing else to post, I can post some of my favorite bands or tunes I run across.
Back in the days that I was totally immersed in punk rock music, I found this band on Mutant Pop Records called After School Special. They were a three piece, and played this bubble gum punk with a real edge to it. You could totally tell they had some Bad Religion, Pennywise and Decendents in them. The band actually never did anything, they recorded songs when the three of them got together on college breaks. They actually released some albums, but never really even did any shows.
David Jones was the singer/songwriter for After School Special. After the band sort of went their own ways, David eventually found some musicians and started up the band Enemy You.
This band is a little less pop, and a lot more driving, straight forward punk rock with an even bigger edge. Enemy You spent a brief time on Panic Button Records a spin off of Lookout Records and released 'Where No One Knows My Name' in 1999. Things didn't go so well with Lookout, and the band moved on. Red Scare Records put out their most recent album in 2004 called 'Stories Never Told'.
Enemy you has done a few other things along the way including a tune that was apparently used for the previews of the movie Boy in a Bubble.. although, I watched all the previews and never heard it.
Anyhow, the band has finally settled with Nitro Records and should be releasing an album by the end of this year. For as hard as this band has worked, I really give David a lot of credit, he's really stuck it out. Keep on rocking guys.



Boy In A Bubble - Four on the Floor
(Panic Button) - this was a four band promotional cd. Four bands, four songs each. Screeching Weasel, Moral Crux, Enemy You and the Teen Idols.

Hopes and Dreams - Where No One Knows My Name
(Panic Button) - This is the closing song on their debut album.

The Only One - Stories Never Told
(Red Scare Records) - Great tune from their latest album.

Check out their website to read more about them. Let me know what you think!

Happy Birthday Collin!

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Originally uploaded by robg2251.

This is my nephew Collin - he turns the big 01 today.
29 more years, he'll be my age!!

Michigan Summer Beer Festival

The Michigan Brewers Guild 8th annual Summer Beer Festival was once again a great event. Check out my flickr site for more pictures . Pretty much, the festival goes like this: You pay $25 for a ticket, which gets you 12 wooden tokens. Each token is good for a sample of beer. The sample sizes are generally about a 1/4 to a 1/2 of a small sized plastic cup. Some of the brewers are quite generous with their samples - usually the ones that aren't doing so well! Anyhow, Jen and I had a great time. We met a ton of cool people, talked with our favorite brewing companies and even managed to save a few tokens for next years festival.
Here is a list of the beer we tried. Rather then trying to come up with a full review, I am including links to the other peoples reviews found on my favorite beer site: BeerAdvocate.com , and if the company does have a website, I'll try and link that up to.

Traverse City Brewing Company (Traverse City): I've always been a big fan of their Stout. I haven't had it in years, so I grabbed a sample and its tastier then I remember. Jen tried the Manitou Amber Ale which she enjoyed. We did chat with them and found out they are located north of Traverse City. We'll pay them a visit on our next vacation for sure!

King Brewing Company (Pontiac) was the next one we tried. I had the Two Fisted Old Ale, and Jen had the cherry beer. She really dug this one.

Dark Horse Brewing Company (Marshall), had a huge long line, but we waited because typically, the longer the line, the better the beer. I tried the Sapient Trip ale , which was a powerful 9% alc. content, and Jen had the Raspberry Ale . Both were really good.

We moved on to Motor City Brewing Works (Detroit) and tried their Nut Brown and Pale Ale .
Next, Saugatuk Brewing Company(Douglas) I tried a Singaport. Can't tell you much about it, because I don't remember, also not much was found on the net or their website.

Jen ventured over to Big Buck Brewery and tried one of their Raspberry Wheat beers, which I remember now that the brewers always filled her cup, and chinced me. Girls!...

We we're standing in a big crowd of people and this guy comes walking through with a big black box on his back. Turns out he had beer in that big box, cold beer, and was serving it from a hand held spout connected to a hose. I'm so going to invite this guy to my next party! The beer was a smooth Doppelbock from Stoney Creek, or previously known as Atwater Block (Detroit).

We took a break by the river and people watched for a bit. You wouldn't believe the lengths some of these people go to in celebration of beer! I especially liked the two beer monks.

After the break, we headed over to Arcadia Brewing (Battle Creek). Jen tried one of their IPA's .

We stood in a long line for Grizzly Peak Brewing (Ann Arbor). I had been wanting to try the beer for a while, because I'm not a huge fan of Ann Arbor's staple brewery, Arbor Brewing (beer flavored soda water, but one of the BEST menu's in a2).
We met some really nice guys while standing in line. Both were beer connoisseur's. One of them brews his own beer, and said brewing can be done any time of the year, and is best to fill kegs with the batches, rather then going through the bottling process.. Something to keep in mind.
Once we made it up to the beer pourers, we tried the Grizzlegator Dobblebok and Draconus. Both were VERY good. The beer was very full bodied and rich tasting. I get the feeling that they experiment with their brewing, because I couldn't find anything about the beers we tried here, but I did find a huge list of others with names just as interesting as these.

The way cool T-shirts we spotted led us over to the Royal Oak Brewery (Detroit). This company actually owns Rochester mills Beer Co., and Detroit Beer Co. It was a little confusing, because they had them all lumped together, so I don't really know which IPA I tried, but it was wonderful. They had just tapped into a special stout, that the guy filling beers said he needed to 'approve'. He tasted it, and I guess that's all it took, because he filled my cup! The stout was pretty good, and a whopping 8%. I wish now that I would have spent more time getting the names and beers right with these samples, they both were amazing.

Frog Island (Detroit) had a decent Amber Ale. Looks like Stoney Creek Brewing Co. is brewing this beer.. a little confusing.
New Holland Brewing Company (Holland) had a Zoomer Wit that was pretty good. I'm a HUGE fan of their Mad Hatter IPA , which can be found at the Whole Foods Market in Ann Arbor. I think its safe to say that all of their beers are top notch. They really go all out on the label design, very trippy.

We took another break and stood in some shade. A guy was walking by with a Brewers Guild glass, and I asked him what it was. He had me hold my cup up, and poured me a half cup. The beer was a Strong Ale Wit from Traffic Jam Brewery (Detroit). , I wasn't able to find out any more information on this particular brand, but from what I read, a true Wit beer must be made of at least 25% wheat malt in combination with barley malt. It was very good.
It turns out this guys brother works for Traffic Jam, so he drank for free all day. He sold us on becoming a member of the Michigan Brewers Guild. One of the benefits include a VIP pass to the festival, which gets you in to the festival before it opens to the public.

Founders (Grand Rapids) line had finally gone down some, so we headed over there where we tried the Centennial IPA and the Dirty Bastard . Jen was particularly fond of the Dirty Bastard.. well, for a few sips anyhow. The Dirty Bastard is a Scotch Ale, also known as "Wee Heavy". Scotch Ales are sweet, a deep copper in color, and of course best served in a thistle glass.. who'd of thunk?!

At some point in our ventures, we headed over to Creole Cigar Factory and watched a guy hand roll cigars. I was fascinated that this guy could roll such a perfect cigar every time. I settled on a couple of $3 flavored cigars. I'm not a huge fan of flavored cigars, but all that was left were $10 cigars. I picked up a coffee flavor for myself and a cinnamon flavored for Aaron. They must be pretty powerful, the cigars are in a bag next to me, and I aroma is pretty powerful. Beats Henry's gas!

At this point in the festival, the samples were starting to have a slight affect on me. I managed to lose the pen I was taking notes with. The time was about 5:50 p.m., and the festival ended at 6 p.m. We had pockets full of tokens still (someone at Founders Brewing was throwing the wooden tokens out to the crowd, and people were diving for them like it was $50 bills - of course, Jen and I did too). We made our way over to Kuhnhenn Brewing Co. (Warren) where Jen sampled a Tootsie Roll flavored beer. I couldn't find a review on it, but they have a HUGE list of beers on the review board - I think we might have to venture up to this one.

Our last stop was the Michigan Brewing Company (Webberville). This place is probably my favorite brewery in Michigan. We travel up north quite a bit, and always find time to stop there on the way up, and the way back. They have an amazing IPA, and a good Porter , which used to be my favorite until I was turned onto the world of American India Pale Ale's .
They didn't have much left, so we sampled the Nut Brown and the Celis White.

That was that. Another year, another Michigan Summer Beer festival. We had a blast, as usual, and are looking forward to next years. Sorry to everyone I called on the way home and made plans to hang out that evening, my brain was full of liquid energy, but my body decided it was done for around 7 p.m. :)

Yay Friday

Well, we just tried the first habanaro of the year. I'm still tearing up and having trouble speaking, and it's been 10 minutes. This one was a green one, not even oranged up yet. There are a TON of them growing.. anyone need some peppers?!

I've heard about a few of beers this past week, that I'm going to have to try out. We're installing a new system at work, and the trainer was in from Florida. I got a chance to talk with him Thursday afternoon at Steve's Tavern. He's originally from Australia, and had a really cool accent. Anyhow, he told us about a couple of beers from his homeland. One of them, known as VB, or Victorian Bitter. He mentioned another one called Coopers. Oh yeah, and when he says 'mate', I think he's saying meet. I thought he was saying mate girls.. I was corrected later on, he was saying meet girls.
Another one I heard about is Stella Artois, which was said to be on the same basis as Heineken, but much better. I heard in some states its hard to get.. anyone know about this?
This week, my Wisconsin connection came through with 2 cases of Leinenkugel's original. If you haven't tried it, its a creamy smooth pilsner, very refreshing and best ice cold! If your in the neighborhood, stop in before their gone! Thanks Val!!

This morning, in all my geekness, downloaded and listened to Maccast, a podcast about all things Macintosh. A really good show, chock full of great info for us Mac geeks. Todays episode included a link for an RSS tutorial, something very important to podcasters!
Wow.. Dan just sent me another RSS feed site - check out RSSgov.com.
Hey look, my girlfriend is a geek too! She sent me a link for an mp3 FM modulator. What will they think of next?!

I also listened to an enhanced podcast today. An enhanced podcast has chapters that you can skip through. So, on this particular one (which I swore I wouldn't mention again, so instead I'm putting a link up for it under links), the guy plays a song, then talks for a while, then plays another song - well, you can skip through the song if you don't like it. Pretty cool eh? Here's a great article at Makezine.com that explains how to make an enhanced podcast. very cool!!

Next week is a busy week. Aaron and I signed up for a pizza taste test in Ann Arbor. Jen works with someone who has a relative that works at a marketing firm that does taste testing every once in a while. You walk in, you fill out a form, you taste test something, you fill out another form, and you get handed a check for $25 on the way out. How cool is that?!
Wednesday, July 27th is a presentation at the Ann Arbor District Library on how beer is made. The two founders of Ypsilanti Brewing Company demonstrate the brewing process and will have samples of freshly brewed root beer. 7-8:30 p.m. I found the info through eCurrent.
And of course, Thursday is Evan Dando! woohoo.

Here's a good story on the Michigan Summer beer festival Jen just sent me, and the Smoking Gun article i talked about with friends last night - read this , it's hilarious! Be sure to click on the other links to check out the pictures of the guys that got arrested.

Have a good weekend ya'll.

Elvis

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Originally uploaded by robg2251.

I was jonesin' for a coffee this morning, so Dan and I walked down to the local coffee shop. The sweetheart Dan is, bought me my iced cappuccino, which today's flavor of the day is 'The Elvis'. Peanut butter and banana. It's actually pretty tasty. I figured I'd have something in this post to do with Elvis, so I run a google picture search, and look what comes up! Elvis, Jesus and Robert E. Lee - a painting by an artist named Frodisi. I'm not quite sure of the story behind it, or even if there is one - but, it's definitely different!

I'm hooked on The Rock and Roll Geek Show.. I'll stop mentioning it every day, but it's just a really cool podcast. Today there is a new cast where they have clips of the new Rock Star INXS show and a Motley Crue interview that turns out to be hilarious. They throw in the usual tunes that come with each show. It's rough, recorded live and has its glitches - but the whole concept just intrigues me. I keep thinking, if this guy can do it.. why can't i?! Watch out.. you might start hearing my blog, rather then reading it. :)

This weekend is the Michigan Brewers Guild Summer Beer Festival! Has a nice ring to it doesn't it?! Two of my favorite things.. Beer and Michigan! Tickets are $25, which gets you a bunch of wooden tokens to use for samples. I went about two years ago, and had a blast. It's not really a drunk fest, it's more of a hippy wine tasting event. Beer connoiseurs mainly. I think the $25 ticket weeds out the frat kids looking for a place to get plowed. My favorite breweries: Michigan Brewing Company, Holland Brewing Company and of course, Bells. I'm sure I'll have more after the festival.. stay tuned.
Anyhow, that's what my weekend looks like thus far. I really have no other plans, and I should keep it that way. I hear that Michigan corn has hit the markets.. a trip to the Toledo Farmers Market might be a good Saturday morning venture.. !

One last thing - check out what you can do with a little free time and 13 pounds of gummy bears.

I'm a geek aren't I?

So my morning routine now consists of plugging my ipod into my laptop, and updating all of my subscribed podcasts. I have my itunes set to download to my ipod the latest update for each podcast. I'm subscribed to a few of them right now, probably more in the future. Adam Curry's Podfinder is a pretty cool podcast. Adam, if you remember was a VJ on MTV way back in the days of 'Freeze Frame'.. remember that video?!.. Anyhow, I think he's claiming to be one of the leading pioneers in podcasting. His Podfinder cast, takes you through some of his top podcast picks of the week. He named so many of them, and gave audio snips of each - it was hard to remember all of them. The one I did remember, which I downloaded and listed to today was the Rock and Roll Geek Show.. which, is going to be my new fav. Michael Butler hosts the show, which is more like a radio show. It features up and coming and past punk rock and indie bands. He'll play entire songs from the bands, as well as interviews. Very cool.
I also subscribed to a Macintosh cast called The Mac Observer's Mac Geek Gab. AWFUL. The main guy, Dave Hamilton, has a good radio voice, but his partner, John Braun sounds like he's sleeping through the show, and pipes in with his soft spoken sleepy voice every so often and rattles in an arrogant fashion proving that he truly is a Mac Geek. This most recent recent cast was about Johns home electricity went out, and, he pretty much rambled about that the whole show.
I think what I'm getting at here - there is a whole new world out there in web radio/audio. Some good, some bad. But its there, and it's at your fingertips to explore. You have instant access to the latest in health, movie reviews, gardening, comedy, food, news, travel.. the list goes on. It's like tv cable for your ipod. And its all FREE. Even if you don't have an ipod, you can subscribe and listen on your computer. Even PC users too! :)
Anyhow, if your not on itunes version 4.9 , go there.. download it, and check out the newest feature. Podcasts.

Happy Birthday Aaron!

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Originally uploaded by robg2251.

Aaron's b-day bash went great. 2 pony kegs, 330am. Needless to say, I'm not too talkative today. It's been a HOT relaxing day, havent' done much at all.
When I first got my flickr account, I uploaded all of my Memorial Day camping pictures. Out of like 50 pictures, this one was the most viewed.. who'd of thought, Aaron eating a mustard covered braut would be so popular!

G-Ride

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Originally uploaded by robg2251.

This has been the week to see pals I haven't seen in ages. This is Dan and his G-Ride. It's a 1959 Impala. No seatbelts, cool break pedal, naked chick hubcaps, super low in the back and a HUGE trunk. We took a ride up and down Monroe St. cruising like gangsters. The car sounds great and rides nice and smooth.
The 'Steve's Tavern Cam!' isn't looking so great today, it looks pretty good at night. We all stood in front of it late last night waving.. did you see us?! I didn't think so. The sun really blows it out, it needs to be adjusted, but I don't feel like driving up to work right now.. maybe later on.
We went to Steve's last night, had a cigar, went up to Dino's so Aaron and Alice could eat dinner, then back to Steve's. Dan and Molly were there singing Karaoke. We went home fairly early - maybe around midnight-ish.
I got up early this morning and went to the driving range. I'm getting pretty decent at my swing - i'm not trying to clobber the ball anymore. It sprinkled a bit while I was there, and I could hear thunder off in the background. I spent about an hour there, it was so relaxing out there.
Picked up the keg for tonight, stuffed it in the beer fridge, cleaned the garage, went to the farmers market and bought some insanely hot banana then went to lunch at China Express.
For now, I'm going to finish watching the British Open. So far it looks like Tiger is doing pretty good as usual. More later...

Steve's Tavern Cam!

So, at work, we're testing out a web cam that we're going to try setting up at the county fair. For the weekend, you get the first official'Steve's Tavern Cam!' We just saw a guy get handcuffed, but let go. Great excitement.. I can't wait til about midnight. Actually, watch around 1am, you might just get to see Aaron strolling out of Steve's.

Friday.

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Originally uploaded by robg2251.

I used to say Friday's are so great, because Monday is only 2 days away! I don't joke like that anymore. I don't have too much to blog today. This weekend is the Wyandotte Art Fair. I used to ride my cycle up to it every year. I haven't been there in a couple years, it's always been a good time. I'm hoping to be able to head up to it tonight..we'll see how the day goes.
I got up at 5am, and squeezed out a 5 mile run. I made it through the first side of Pink Floyd the Wall and a few songs on the second side. I feel pretty good, last time I did 5 miles in the morning, I wanted to lay down in my office and sleep. The funny thing, Daisy, Jen's dog, stood at the fence the whole time and watched me every time I ran by the house.. probably wondering what the heck I was doing.
So this weekend is Aaron's Bday. The big 25 right?! We're getting a pony keg of Michelobe Light. I figured it out, thanks to the fine folks at Beverage Factory there is about 83 - 12 oz beers in a pony keg. We'll try and keep count and report back on that one.
This photo is from the famous alley in Ann Arbor off Liberty. Usually you see the dude break dancing to Michael Jackson.. he must have had the day off this day.
Back to the grind. Happy Friday.

Just-a good ol' boys...

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Originally uploaded by robg2251.

So, the Dukes of Hazard made CNN today.. Apparently, Cooter must not be getting much of a kick back from the new movie. Check out his site though, it's pretty cool. I was a HUGE Dukes of Hazard fan. Every Friday night, my cousin and I would sit in front of the tv and watch the Duke boys get in and out of trouble, and they ALWAYS kicked the bad guys asses, and always looked great in the end. I hated it when they'd pause right in the middle of the action scene and that voice over dude would come on and say something like "oh no, looks like the Dukes got themselves in a real mess this time".. then it would go to a commercial. AHH!!

Also, Jen and I were up late watching tv the other night, and saw this chubby kid on mtv that had his own show.. we watched the first 10 minutes of it, and I was in tears laughing so hard. It's so stupid, it'll make you laugh. Andy Milonakis is his name. Check out the site, I think there are some videos posted.. BOO MTV for not supporting Macintosh platform video. I remember last time I ran into that about a year ago, I wrote them a letter. I guess it didn't do any good. Anyhow, lunch break is over. Time to head back to work!

Weenie Wednesday & more..

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Originally uploaded by robg2251.

Wednesday was a good day.

1) It was weenie wednesday at work! A couple times a summer (on wednesdays of course), the ESOP committee grill dogs and we chow down.

2) The NHL and the NHL Players Association have finally come to an agreement! woohoo!!
You figure, these guys all have huge houses to pay for.. I knew they would have to eventually give in.
I still enjoyed a healthy viewing season of hockey in 2004.. I went to Ann Arbor and saw quite a few games (UofM), Bowling Green (which I dug the most - going to BW3's afterwards).. even the Toledo IceDiggers on a few occasions. I have Comcast cable too, and they had this local station and played hockey almost every night.. which was pretty cool. So.. did I miss it? Hmm. Probably.. but will I watch it every night now that it'll be back on? Probably not. I do love hockey though.. there is something even better about going to the games.. which, I'll still never be able to afford an NHL game - I think the fans should strike next!

3) It was grill your own steak night at Steve's Tavern! The occasion was to celebrate Bryan being so good at making babies. We started out at Club 129 with some big ol' stogies, hanging out talking about kids, diapers and planning out our future cigar club meetings. As we were leaving, we got a phone call that one of our buddies crashed his motorcycle and had to have surgery on his arm.. we were all stunned for a while, thanked god he was ok... and continued on down to Steve's Tavern.
At Steve's, I had my usual Red Dog ($1.50) waiting for me.. (I always joke they need to wipe the dust off of it, because they stopped making Red Dog back in the late 80's..but they're cheap!).. and we all sat around waiting for our steaks to arrive. Our friend Koren showed up and bragged about her cool blog, which it is pretty hip - there's a butterfly on it that is supposed to do something cool.. I haven't figured it out yet. Soon, we were led back to the back and all picked out a big fat strip steak.. we walked down these creaky basement stairs and out to the patio/grill area. Photo above features (left to right) Aaron, Bryan and Dan and our wonderful steaks! After we grilled them, we loaded them with mushrooms and onions.. grabbed a baked potato and bread and proceeded to chow down.. it was the BEST! For $11 on Wednesday nights, you can't beat it. Reservations are needed.. before noon if you can! Anyhow, that's that. Need to get my Thursday a.m. run in!

Snow Song

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Originally uploaded by robg2251.

So, we're going to see Evan Dando (Lemonheads singer), on July 28th at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor.

I found an mp3 of Evan I hadn't heard before - check it out:

Evan Dando - Seven Out (Eugene Kelly cover)

The band playing with Evan is called Judd & Maggie
This song is a perfect lead in for the picture I'm posting today..
Snow Song

Guss and Golf

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Originally uploaded by robg2251.

This is Guss. Guss is a St.Bernard pup. He's a relative of the mighty Zeus, which is the first St.Bernard my sister and her hub Tim owned. Zeus has since passed on, and Guss has now taken over their home. He seems to be a cool dog, I haven't spent a lot of time with him - every time i saw him camping he was laying down sleeping.. I'm sure in no time, he'll be drooling all over and knocking things down.
So today was Jen and I's first golfing lesson. I learned about group lessons given at Wolmers Golf on Strausburg Rd. in Monroe, MI. The group lessons are $40 per person, and they charge $5 per bucket of balls.
We showed up and got a bucket and practiced for a while. I was feeling pretty bad for Jen, because she didn't have a clue how to hit the ball. I think she even almost hit me with one she was hitting them so awful. I was thinking - 'welp, I guess we take back those clubs we borrowed.. '..
So, the instructor comes around finally.. He was pretty good.. man he flew through this whole course on golfing.. probably a month's worth of knowledge in 20 minutes. So, we all go back and start practicing hitting. He comes to each of us and tells us what we're doing wrong and we work on it. In no time, I kept hearing him say 'GOOD!' behind me (jen). I turn to see her hit.. she's cranking them further then I'm hitting them! And not just one shot, but every freakin ball!!
After we were done, I walked up to pay for our lessons.. and the instructor kind of knodded toward Jen and said 'hey.. you better watch out, she's good!'.. I told him I am going to talk her into playing scramble golf (where if two are playing, whoever hits the furthest - the other drops their ball there and hits from there) - that way we can just keep on using her hits.. all the guys around got a chuckle.. but, I was sort of serious! I'm getting there.. I can hit, I just have been holding the club way too tight, and need to bend my wrists back on my first swing back.. i'm not quite sure why yet, but I'll learn. My lesson this week: Go in the back yard and swing over and over.. and lighten my grip!! He even said I'm going to be a 'struggler' if I don't loosen my grip. Man. No one wants to be a struggler! So.. I'm going to loosen my grip.. :) I'm going to try and talk Jen into going to the range again this week sometime and hitting some.. we'll see how it goes. I think I'm just going to learn from Jen.. I created a golfing monster.. I'm thinking though, if I keep encouraging her, she can quit her job and go pro.. and then we can live like kings off her golfing salary!! wishful thinking.. :)
The one thing I did pick up today: There are only two things stiff in golf. The drink you have after, and the pencil you write your score with.

Time to finish that stiff drink!

Weekends RULE!

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Originally uploaded by robg2251.

So, I forgot to take an after picture of the ribs. oops. They turned out great. My dad and Geri came up, and we ate and had a couple bottles of wine, cigars.. beers, food.. it was great fun. Later on, Dan, Molly and Aaron came over and chowed down on some of the food, and Aaron kindly helped me polish off a case of beer. We started a little fire in the porch pit, and chilled til about 1am.
Saturday, I did the routine i discussed a blog or so back.. Ann Arbor, Hippy hashbrowns.. etc. I smoked a cigar - a Padron. Kicked my butt. Some cigars do that, we were just talking the night before.. and sure enough, this one made me woozy and almost sick feeling. Anyhow, we headed home (bipassed the Elvis fest - had i been feeling better....), that evening we did absolutly nothing. I took a 3 hour dap, woke up.. and stayed up late flipping channels.
Today is like 91 out. Hurricane Dennis is pounding the coast of Florida. The picture you see is for Aaron's birthday next Saturday. I'm a little late at getting the flyers out, but I'm sure we'll get a crowd.. especially since i put 'Keg' on the flyer.. people flock to kegs.
Welp.. that's all for now. Time to enjoy what weekend i have left....

Ribs!

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Originally uploaded by robg2251.

I went home on lunch and tossed some ribs in the roasting oven. Here's the recipe the lady at the meat store gave me (word for word):
Throw the ribs in the roasting oven, don't matter if they're on top of eachother or not - coat them in this rub (she holds up a bottle of hickory rib-rub) one bottle will do. Next, cook them on Two Fifty, for Three Fifty.. (later I find out she meant 250 degrees for 3 1/2 hours - but, i got it). It don't matter how long you cook them actually, cuz one time i cooked them, and was out running around, and my mom called - she broke her ankle - so I had to run her to the emergency room. 8 hours later, the ribs were still excellent! Next - take them out and put bbq sauce on them, and either broil them in the oven or grill them up. The meat should fall off the bones.

Podcast and more!

So, today is Friday July 8th. It's been a while since I posted - I need to get in the habit of doing this.
This week has been pretty eventful. Last weekend was the fourth of July.. Jen, myself, Aaron and my sisters and their fams all went to Angola, Indiana camping for the weekend. As soon as I get some time, I'm going to post some to my flickr site.
It was a pretty good time.. We played guitars, had campfires.. cooked, drank a ton of beer and saw some great fireworks. The last night there, Aaron and I stayed up until about 4am.. we took a long walk around the campground, came back to the site and cooked up some burgers.

While I'm thinking of it, I need to blog this link.. I keep forgetting how to make an html link:
< a href="insert link here">Name of link< /a> (minus the spaces before the a's)

Got it?! Ok then.

The rest of the week has gone by pretty quick. We found out our friends Bryan and Lynne are going to have a baby! Great news - she's due in February of 2006. They'll make great parents for sure.
I managed to squeeze out another 5 mile run this week. I'm going to have to take it easy doing that in the mornings, i was physically exhausted that day.. Maybe I'll get used to it, but it really drained me.. i felt like jello all day.
Yesterday after work, I drove down to Lee Williams House of Meats in Point Place (toledo). I picked up 2 large racks of ribs (about 8lbs). I'm having my dad and Geri (his lady friend) up for dinner tonight. I picked up a case of beer, and Jen bought, from the Westborn Market in Dearborn , some cole slaw, baked beans and two different kinds of potato salad - oh yeah, and a watermelon. Should be a good time. I have some bbq sauce from a restaraunt in toledo called Shorty's - Gene in our Classified department at work gave me a jar. She told me about the place, so I ventured down there and had a magnificent meal.. and fell in love with their spicey hot bbq sauce. I'll try to get some pictures of the ribs after I cook them.
Other then that, I think Saturday, we're going to venture to Ann Arbor for some Hippy Hashbrowns at the Fleetwood Diner (they are the absolute BEST!). Then check out the Kiwanis sale, which is like a giant Goodwill thrift store, but only open on Saturdays from like 8 to noon. Other then that, i have no plans for the weekend.. except to work on Sunday (helping change over IP addresses or something along those lines).

Heck, I almost forgot - we did another podcast!! Here you go:
DanPodcast70705