nadal

Well, another quick 3-day weekend has come and gone. My goal for this weekend was to not spend a lot of money and not to do much, just relax. I did my best on the relaxing part, but somehow managed to spend a lot of money. So much for that. I found myself without much to do on friday, so i decided to build a coffee table. 

So i drove over to the Home Depot and found a few things to use to build with. Then i went over to Big Lots and found a few more things to use. I ended up buying some small trash cans and 3 pieces of wood. I glued everything together, making 3 separate small tables that come together to form a coffee table. I also painted them to give it some character, which didn’t turn out so great. But, it gave me something to do and made me feel productive, which is what i was going for. I’m pretty sure they are already falling apart, but hopefully will make it 2 more months until we move out of the house. 

I took a bike ride today, tried pushing myself pretty hard to get a solid work out. I took off around 4pm, when it was still super hot outside. I definitely pushed myself about as far as i needed to with how hot it was. 

Just watched a movie about Steve Prefontane. That just got me in the spirit to go out and become a better runner.

I normally wouldn’t wake myself up early on a sunday morning to watch a tennis match, but i had a feeling that the Wimbledon final between Nadal and Federer was going to be a douzy. Little did i know that the match was going to last 5 hours(the longest in history), so i could of slept in a bit longer. It was a great match though and one of the better sporting events i have ever seen. It makes you wonder how they haven’t figured out a way to make tennis more popular, as far as getting more people to watch. It’s actually a fun sport to watch if you have a rooting interest for one of the players.

make you sweat

More reason why San Francisco seems to be a more desirable place for me to live than Phoenix. I hate sweating unless i am working out, and yet i chose to live in americas sweatiest city! Here’s the top 10 and bottom 10 sweatiest cities according to msnbc .

top 10 sweatiest

1.   Phoenix, Ariz.
    2.   Las Vegas, Nev.
    3.   Tallahassee, Fla.
    4.   Tucson, Ariz.
    5.   Memphis, Tenn.
    6.   Miami, Fla.
    7.   Houston, Texas
    8.   Tampa, Fla.
    9.   Baton Rouge, La.
    10.  Fort Myers, Fla.

Least Sweatiest

90.  Flint, Mich.
    91.  Syracuse, N.Y.
    92.  San Diego, Calif.
    93.  Youngstown, Ohio
    94.  Green Bay, Wis.
    95.  Burlington, Vt.
    96.  Spokane, Wash.
    97.  Portland, Maine
    98.  Portland, Ore.
    99.  Seattle, Wash.
    100. San Francisco, Calif.

my kind of town

Top 5 places in the continental United States i would like to reside…. that i haven’t lived in yet… for at least 1 year and in no particular order. (indiana excluded)

-San Francisco
-Maine
-Charleston, SC
-Seattle
-Chicago 
Runners up (salt lake city, new york city, Austin, Vancouver)

One of my favorite parts of having the MLB.com package to watch all of the cubs games on the computer is listening to all of the other teams commentators. Some are really lousy and are difficult to listen to. But some are really good and it’s cool to hear a different perspective of what other announcers think of my favorite squad, the Cubbies. Tonight i am sitting here listening to the guys who are the Giants announcers. In years past, i used to not really be a big fan of them, mainly because of how much they talked about Barry Bonds. But now that he isn’t around, i really have enjoyed listening to them tonight. Maybe it’s also due to the fact that the cubs are pounding the Giants tonight, but the 2 announcers have been enjoyable. They are really laid back, don’t talk to much, and have a little humor to mix in. 

Announcers i have learned this year i don’t really enjoy are the Dbacks announcers because they seem to just like to hear themselves talk. And also the Reds announcers, because they just seemed to spite the cubs and never had anything good to say. Anyway, we’ll see if i enjoy them again tomorrow.

Chunky Monkey is for sure my new favorite ice cream flavor, which is made by Ben and Jerry’s. Going to be tough to beat.

 

 

 

 

mr. jones strikes up a conversation

Have had a busy week at work this week. I rarely ever work much past closing, but this week i have just about every day, and not by just a few minutes. Getting more difficult to get work done.

I’ve been dying to see the movie “the strangers”. It came out a few weeks ago, so you might be asking yourself “why doesn’t he just go see it then?” Well, to answer that, it’s because all of my friends are afraid of a scary movie. I just don’t get that…it’s just a movie. It’s not like they are going to jump out of the screen or anything. But of everybody I even remotely hang out with in AZ, also including Ferrell when he visited last weekend, nobody will go see this movie with me. I may of talked Dani into it, but i know she totally doesn’t want to go, so i won’t make her. So i am debating on going to the theater this weekend by myself, for what will be the first time in my life i will have ever done that. We’ll see what happens. Too bad i have a bunch of girly men for friends!

I got invited to do something that has been at the top of my Arizona outdoors list ever since i found out about it. It’s to hike to a place called Havasupai Falls, which sits in the western part of the Grand Canyon. It’s not near any civilization other than a small indian village. So to get there you have to drive to a remote area where they have created a parking lot, and then hike 1.5 miles down (about 5000 ft) into the grand canyon, and then another 9 miles to the Falls. So about a 10 mile hike. To do the hike you actually have to make reservations, as they only allow about 200 people at a time near the Falls. And from what i hear, the wait can be up to a few years long. But a work acquaintance of mine said he had a few people cancel on him, so he was looking for a few other people to go. So i am jumping at the opportunity to go. We will be camping out near the falls all weekend, doing most of the hiking in the wee hours of the mornings before the sun gets too hot. Hopefully it works out. 

sunday night

Ferrell arrived on Thursday and hopefully has enjoyed his time. He leaves on tuesday. We took him up to the Grand Canyon yesterday and also to Sedona. It was a really nice day, not nearly as hot up there. We spent most of the day in the car, but it was still a fun day. Too lots of good pictures. 

The pool is in the best shape it has been in since we moved here. Crystal clear and warm, so i spent much of my day in it today. Went and watched the Maxwell Smart movie tonight. It had some funny parts, but overall was pretty lackluster. I enjoyed the old TV show better. I think if you could put Steve Carrell in the tv show back in the day, it would of been great. 

Found out my buddy is expecting his 2nd kid, and i haven’t even met his first yet. I feel pretty bad about that one. 

Where did the weekend go?

eternal cycle of the hottest kind

I’m excited about the possibility of having a family vacation this summer in Florida. I’m really hoping i am able to get down there. 

The NBA is the worst professional sport of all the major sports by far. I just hope the way players wine and act, as well as how horrible officiating is in the NBA, that it doesn’t trickle down too much into college and high school. Unfortunately, i think it already has way too much. It’s like watching rec league basketball with officials who don’t know what they are doing so the players argue every single call just because they know that the officials will make up for it the next time. Hate it.

It’s so damn hot here in AZ, about 114 today. Our house is too big, as well as too old for the air conditioning to work well. Therefore, i lay awake many hours of the night too hot and uncomfortable to sleep. This forces me to drink lots gas station cappuccino’s every morning, so i am not half asleep at work. And drinking cappuccino’s causes me to lose my appetite for lunch, which annoys me because lunch is the best part of my work day. Which means after i eat a big lunch when i wasn’t hungry in the first place, i then feel sick the rest of the day until i work out after work. Then i get home and it’s hot in my house, and the cycle starts all over again. I think i should by a swamp cooler and call it a day.

My buddy Ferrell, or F-dog as he likes to call himself, will be making his way out to AZ for the first time thursday. He’s actually never been west of the mississippi so this should be a treat for him. I think he will like it out here, even though it’s a tad bit on the warm side. I give a pretty darn good tour of Arizona, so he is in for a nice vacation. Maybe I can find him a girl while he is here.

I never thought that the most anticipated series of the Cubs season i would look forward to would be the Devil Rays. But it is, and todays game was very good even though the cubs blew it. I think they will rebound for the next 2 though and get it done. 

air guitarget

Just finished watching a documentary called “air guitar nation”. Thought it was pretty fascinating stuff, and quite hilarious. 

It was extremely hot today, so i spent half of my day in the pool. It was quite refreshing. I’m not really excited about the heat, but not much i can really do about it. I went to Target today as well, not really for any particular reason. I just love going to Target, and it’s usually my store of choice when i feel like i need to purchase something. So $26 dollars later, i walked away with a shirt, some 409 cleaner, and some vitamin water. I always want to buy home decorations when i go there, but then i realize I don’t own a home, so it would be a big waste of money. Not too mention the next time i move, it would just be more stuff to move. 

I started watching “the notebook”  tonight because it was on cbs and there wasn’t much else on. My roommates were not happy about that, but once they started watching they got sucked in and ended up watching the entire movie. 

My productivity of the day came when i pulled all the weeds in our front rocks. They were getting pretty bad, and i hate to think that people in our neighborhood might associate me with the house with the unkept front yard. So i was pretty satisfied after completing that. Apparently (it just took me 3 minutes to try and figure out the correct way to spell apparently) palm trees need trimmed every year. This is something i did not know, but learned today. We had 9 different palm tree trimmers stop by our house today to drop off their business cards. I guess our palm trees desperately need trimmed. So we need to get that done. And when we do, it will be nice because all of the little seedlings from the palm trees will no longer fall into our pool. Too little too late on that.

I started reading my uncles life story that he wrote recently, which is quite hilarious and very good i must say. But it got me thinking that i should write my life story. But then i realized that i am only 28, and maybe it’s too early to write my life’s story. I guess i could start it because i would remember more now about my younger days then i would when i am older. But in saying that, there is a lot i really don’t remember now as it is. We’ll see what happens with that.

Tomorrow is sunday….we’ll see if i can be a little more productive. I doubt it.

Photos from the Flooding

Here is a link to photos from the Indianapolis Star of all of the flooding and tornado damage that has ripped through Indiana in the past week. Pretty crazy to see how many things it has destroyed. Below is a picture of one of the Columbus East High School gym with about 5 feet of water in it. Boggles my mind looking at that having played basketball there many times. 

And so it is…

It’s been a while since i last put some words together on here. I guess i have been somewhat busy. I have spent the last 3 days at home in Indiana with the family, getting to see the nephews and some cousins. Unfortunately south central Indiana was hit with the most rain in over 100 years, so my brother got stranded in a restaurant all night. Basically the city flooded, and everyone who was eating in that restaurant ended up having to spend the night apparantley. He was unable to come up to see me, which was a bummer. I was actually supposed to eat there with him, but because of the flooding, i couldn’t get down there. But i’m sure he had a good time with the free booze that was provided.

Today i was able to see grammy, gretchen and Kellen, and Aunt Sandy. That was a lot of fun. The dynamic of our family get togethers has changed so much now that all the attention is on the babies. Not as much adult conversation between the adults and more running around making sure the kids aren’t sticking things in their mouths they aren’t supposed to. I guess the cycle is starting all over again, from what it probably was like 30 years ago in our family.

I’m not really ready to go back to Phoenix at this point. Seeing everybody here, as well as all the trees and green grass was kinda a nice change. Not too mention relaxing and not having to work. The break in the routine is quite nice, as is the home cooked meals i never cook for myself.

I find it strange that the sky is still light here in Indiana until about 9:30pm every night. That just throws me off, even more so with the 3 hour time difference. In Phoenix it’s dark by about 8pm and I am sometimes ready to be asleep by 10pm. Here it’s just finally getting dark at 10pm. Very odd.

Anyway, it’s been a good weekend. Wish it were longer, but that’s life.

entertain me

I went running today, something i hadn’t done since i got my bike about 3 weeks ago. I quickly realized that riding my bike doesn’t keep me in as good of shape as running does. I can ride 20 hard miles on a bike and not be near as winded as jogging 15 minutes around the block at a decent pace. Looks like i will have to commit to jogging at least once a week now along with biking and lifting weights. I eat way too much junk food to let myself get out of shape.

Ferrell is coming out to visit on the 19th of june. That should be fun. It will probably be 120 degrees by then, but he won’t mind because he likes to be tan. 

I didn’t hear my alarm this morning, which was very odd because i am not a heavy sleeper, nor was i very tired. Luckily i woke up anyway.

I changed my cell phone ringtone to Bob Marley’s “could you be loved”. It had been on Jack Johnson for the past year or so. I’m excited to have more Bob Marley in my life….now if only people would call me so i could hear it, that would help. I haven’t had one phone call in the past 24 hours since changing it. Typical i guess.

My life is so exciting that a new ringtone is the highlight of my day.

I started watching the Bachelorette. I hadn’t planned on it, but a friend watched the first episode and told me i had to watch it. So i did, and now i’m hooked of course. To my amazement, i think watching a bunch of dudes fight it out for a girl might be more fun that watching a bunch of girls fight it out for a guy. I think because i can put myself in one of these guys shoes and try and figure out what i would do in certain situations. I do think on this current show i would finish top 3 easy, mainly because most of the guys she has to choose from are just idiots, or probably not remotely what she is looking for. Not because i am anything special, but i could probably make it that far just by letting everybody else eliminate themselves. Anyway, looking forward to having that to watch on monday nights.

Another show i am happy to see is coming back starting next week on Monday nights is “the mole”. The Mole and the Amazing race would by far be the 2 best reality shows to be on, mainly because they involve a lot of traveling and fun ‘challenges’ or adventure. Maybe one day i’ll submit my application. Of course “Lost” is still the best show on Tv by far…..really looking forward to tomorrow nights 2 hour season finale. 

I was given 2 books today i am excited to start reading. One is about a blind mountain climber and the other about a guy who has had a rough go of it so he takes off on his motorcycle for over a year and travels the country trying to regain his life. Good reads for the plane ride or lounging by the pool.