I feel introspective (don't know why--football usually doesn't do that to me), yet talkative at the same time. (Wait, when do I NOT feel talkative?) I hate when that happens and there's no one around to talk to. It sucks. :) What also sucks is that I'm completely and totally addicted to these damned blogs...I check like, constantly. I'm such a freakin' tool.

I need to email my friends from Missouri again and find out what's up with them. I tried emailing my buddy Randy a while ago, but he didn't email me back. I'll email him again as well as his girlfriend (and my friend) Michelle...I haven't talked to them in a few months...

I'm about to cut up my credit cards, especially after one was declined at Edelweiss last night. It wasn't over its limit, I don't think...but it could be--who knows? It's so much money, I don't even want to know, really...just tell me what my minimum payment is so I can send a check for more than that and I'll go from there. Anyway, I think the payment was just late, so they cut it off. That's fine...maybe I'll cut it up. I hate debt. I wish I would have been wiser about spending money on things I thought I needed (such as that stupid gym membership that went to waste) or wanted (such as the PS2, which I bought before the price decrease). Things like the car loan and the student loans I can live with, but why did I have to be so damned spend-freaky on other crap? Damned fun quotient.

So, if I tell you guys I'm not going out, don't be stunned. I'll do my best, I promise, but that's about all I can do.

Oh yeah, and sad news...no softball tomorrow...it starts next week. Oh well...I guess I can wait a week, as I slowly creep back out of the fine shape I put myself in over the summer. :)

OK...here's an interesting Yahoo search that came up.

"basia, restaurant ,jacksonville"

Hmmm.

In other news...I love the positive spin this article has. As though Best Buy, Circuit City and all those assholes won't leave retail prices where they are simply to make even more money. Bunch of dumbasses. All of them. The gasoline companies and stations can jump in the lake with them too.

Ahhhh...football. :)

Aw, man...what a letdown. No anger, really. I even tried to rile folks up a bit by pretending my coworker who was in the room was making things difficult. To no avail. Damn...I'm such an antagonist. :)

Laz, for you and whoever else gives a crap about fantasy football, here is a link to the rosters of my five fantasy teams.

Also, for those of you who ever cared to listen to me on the radio can hear me on the PFW radio show this weekend. You'll have to click on that link to find out if it's offered where you're at and what day and time. I think it's early Sundays in most markets...I've never even listened. :) i'm on this weekend, so it would be a good time to check it out.

Here's a current event: Right now, I'm sitting here waiting to tape our radio show. They are expected to call any minute. Meanwhile, a fellow editor is in the room we typically do the radio show, doing his own little radio show.

Now, I don't know if the person who calls us knows about this guy's radio show. But he's gonna call that phone, and probably while the guy is on the air. This is going to cause a conflagration. And it's about to start. I'm excited. :)

Ah yes...had a successful (that I can remember) draft after work, given I was wedged in the middle of the draft. I like my team...at least that's what I thought when I got done drafting.

And I got done in enough time to head to Edelweiss, a German restaurant in Norridge, to meet the "Starbux gals" plus Julia plus Hopper. Food was great, beer was better, times were even better. Talked movies, which I haven't in a while, actresses (because the girls, though they wanted to, seemed to forget to talk about actors...silly girls. :) ), parties, get-togethers, drunken stupidity, etc. It was a good time, as it was expected to be. I'm just glad I made it.

So now I'm going to take this rare opportunity for an "early" bedtime and go to sleep. It's the best for everyone involved. :)

Well, today was pretty busy. I told myself, until I talked to Barb online until 2am, that I was going to get up at 8am and call a few apartments. Well, that failed miserably, as I didn't get up until 8:30 and had barely enough time to shower. Then, of course, I was busy all day at work.

But that's OK. I'll get the stuff done soon enough. At worst, I'll call on Monday, my day off. I bet I could fly through them then. But I'm going to try to get some of this done ahead of time.

Good news...I think. I'm playing softball on Fridays again! I think it starts this week, which is awesome. :) I'm excited...I love softball. Have I ever mentioned that here? I especially love 16-inch softball, which is what I'm playing. I am a little perturbed though that we're changing our jersey color YET AGAIN! Now we'll be maroon with gold lettering. In two years we've been orange with navy lettering (and I bought orange soccer socks for it), then green with white lettering over the summer (and I still wore my orange socks, and they kind of matched, what with the Miami Hurricanes wearing green and orange), and now maroon. I'll probably still wear the orange socks, or maybe I'll foot the bill and buy maroon ones. I don't want to, but what else can I do?

Does anyone else want to see "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" or whatever it's actually called? It doesn't come out for a couple of weeks, but I know I want to see it, and I'm not sure Luis wants to...even though we saw "Desperado" and were going to dress up like the gun-slinging mariachis for Halloween last year...actually, now that I remember, Luis wants to rent "El Mariachi" and "Desperado," watch them and then go see "Once Upon a Time in Mexico." So...yeah...if anyone wants to join us...think about it. :)

Finally, I have a fantasy football draft for work here in about half an hour. Hopefully I get out of it early enough to meet "the Starbux gals" for dinner...we shall see. I'm not too hopeful that I'll get out of there in time, but you never know. Hope the draft flies though.

Talk to all y'all later...blade 'em up.

Hmmm...blogger's been up and down today. I got pretty busy at work, what with two 45-minute long radio shows taking up my time in the afternoon as well as our assignments meeting taking much of the rest of the afternoon.

I didn't get to post about how nice it was that Chipotle picked up the tab on my burrito and small drink after I was forced to order a vegetarian burrito though I wanted a chicken burrito, because they had run out of chicken for the moment. Strange, since I'd have thought they'd simply make me wait. So my lunch was free. Woohoo! Then I had ramen and crackers for dinner, so I didn't spend a dime on food today. That's the kind of work that will save me money if I could only do it more frequently.

Tomorrow should be relatively busy at work again, and then the work fantasy football league drafts around 5pm. This league is my fifth, but it is mandatory, since our draft results go in the paper and it would probably look funny if I didn't have a team...to my legions of dedicated readers, ha ha.

Otherwise, though, I'm not 100 percent sure what I have to do at work tomorrow, other than knowing there will be plenty to do. I also don't know what's going on after work since I don't even know when I'm getting out of there...but we shall see. Hopefully the draft won't take long and then I'll have some free time. That would be nice.

How the hell's everyone out there doing?

Well, here I am back at work. You know what I've done so far? Returned a few phone calls to appear on radio shows today (one in Jacksonville and one in Des Moines, both of which I do every week), and then there's on in Ontario that called. I haven't called them back yet, but will. I also checked email and paid some bills, and now I'm typing this out.

The weekend was a success, I can't complain one bit. A very fun four-day weekend for me; I nailed down apartment-living plans somewhat (no potheads), cleaned my apartment (mostly--sorry it wasn't as clean as it has been in the past, people), drafted a couple fantasy football teams, hung out with the NU folks, my friends from home and "the guys," re-met Christine and didn't suffer Noverini overexposure throughout the weekend. ;) That's a good thing.

We had a few good laughs at home on Monday, especially when I asked about the stress tests my dad had taken during the week (they still don't know what ailed him two weeks ago) and he soon after sat there struggling with a hot dog bun that wasn't sliced...Tim immediately brought up that Dad wasn't done with the stress tests and that the doctors had come by and put that bun in the bag to test him. He failed. :) It was really funny...it's amazing the dynamic my family has taken on now that all of us kids are out of the house. Even the way Eddie is treated is very different.

I also decided that Ukrainian Village/Wicker Park seems like a great place to be after parking a block or so from Bar 13 and walking down Damen to Division. What a nice neighborhood! I want to live there (just in time for Barb and Pete to move to Grayslake :( )

I know I said that I was going to make a major apartment push this week, but now I'm trying to figure out when. Maybe this evening? I don't know. Do landlords like you calling in the evenings? Do they realize we work too? Ah well, we shall see. I have a month...but that's a bad attitude to take, I know. The sooner I get things done, the better, really. That gives me time to prepare to move if we go in October. But we'll see.

Also on "the docket" before it gets cold: Reorganizing my gardens, even though I'm potentially moving out. I know, you all are excited about that. That's why I was thinking of asking those of you who might care for help. Maybe one Saturday in the near future you can come out to my place and we'll just dig up stuff and move it all over the place and eat and hang out. With multiple people working on it, we'll get done in no time. Plus, it's good exercise. :) So, if you're interested, hey, drop me an email. Of course, this may never happen, as it's not a real priority...it doesn't HAVE TO happen anyway. The flowers are OK as they are, but they could be better.

All right, I should go back to work for now...more later, I'm sure...

Hey, how about that? Who would have thought that someone would come to my blog after searching Google for "Starbucks Valencia syrup????" I find that to be quite, quite funny. :)

Oh yeah, and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" is now on TBS. Cool...but bad in that I need to get some sleep. But I won't.

Cable is great. FX is, for the second year in a row, showing 24 hours of "24." Of course, this is Season Two they've shown today. I've bounced in and out of it, and now I have the season finale on. It'll be a good refresher for Season Three, which starts "next month," they say.

The draft I went to was very quick and painless. My parents' house also was quick and painless, though it usually is, really. Tim stood out in the rain and grilled the burgers and dogs, what a good guy.

Otherwise, it's been an uneventful day, I guess. Maybe I'll go to bed early for a change. Probably not. I'll just veg out on the couch and watch "24" and eat some of the snacks that are here. :) We shall see...I forgot today is Monday, which means that if Hawkeye's was open (who knows?), it would have been 10-cent wings night. Damn holidays. :)

Despite warnings of God's judgement, I'm posting today. Hee hee!

Barb's birthday party (look Barb, it's linked...see, I'll even link it again. Happy?) was awesome...we went to a bar called "Bar 13" in Ukrainian Village/Wicker Park. It's on Division just east of Damen. It was a cool little spot, though it was pricey. I mean, a bottle of Miller Lite cost $4. But, it at least reaffirmed my hope that I can move to that area. The neighborhood is nice and there's stuff to do there. So we shall see. As I said, major push this week to find an apartment, barring a dump-truck's worth of tasks at work.

Christine, did you ask your buddy about the passion tea yet? ;)

Barb was pretty far gone for a time yesterday, but that's OK. You're "supposed" to be on your birthday, I guess. Though it always seems that I'm not. I guess I usually prepare for it well enough by eating plenty in advance and getting the metabolism moving, so the beer and shots and drinks just flow through me.

Anyway, despite Barb's attempt to smear chicken tender sauce all over my nice shirt, which she thought was gray but was actually powder blue, it was a damn good time. I can't wait to move my happy ass into the city to hang out with "you guys." :)

I was in a dancing mood, but didn't feel comfortable or drunk enough to get up and go dance by myself. Plus, only two of the three DJs we heard played dance music...the middle guy played Rat Pack stuff, which, obviously is not shake-your-money-maker type stuff. Not that I'd be shaking my money maker or anything, because no one wants that. :) I did enough pseudo-dancing while sitting down anyway. Though I was in a dancing mood, really. I've actually been in a dancing mood for a while. That tends to happen when I go to a club and can't find a place to actually dance. So I need to let loose sometimes. Ah well...maybe next time.

In a couple of hours I'll head to my parents house on the South Side for burgers and dogs (whether they're grilled or not depends on the weather), and then later I have yet another fantasy football draft. This time with the guys from the neighborhood who I've known forever. I guess I shouldn't "scold" Laz for his gambling, as I suppose I do enough of it via fantasy football and confidence pools. So, sorry Laz. :)

So, happy Labor Day, I guess. Enjoy your day...holla!

Just read an interesting article from the Sun-Times a few days ago, via ESPN's site. Some of the emails are pure stupidity, but most of them are pretty good...the best one: "I don't only complain about the Sox. I complain about everything. I'm a South Sider.'' That about sums it up. :)

Recap time, baby! Boxcutta style. Blade 'em up. Troy came by the house on Friday and helped me clean up some...that was cool of him and it really helped. He brought the first DVD of "Kung Faux" which produced nothing but hilarity and several phrases that will now be used regularly in our lives. Including the above, "blade 'em up," and "That's my word," and the addition of "holla" at the end of many inquisitive sentences. If you don't know what "Kung Faux" is, here's a brief synopsis: They take old, bad kung fu movies and overdub them from a hip-hop (ghetto, urban, whatever you want to call it) perspective. They apparently stay very true to the movie's actual storylines, but they obviously cut it down to a half hour show. It's quite possibly the funniest show no one knows about, because it's on Fuse TV, which is on digital or satellite cable (don't remember which, or if it's both). I can't watch it at my house even...but I might start taping it at work or something...we get Fuse at work, I think.

Yesterday was the Ghetto Bowl draft and BBQ, which didn't have the massive turnout it typically has, but it was still the best draft and BBQ ever, in my opinion. The draft didn't take long at all, because we flew through it, and I didn't have to stand in front of the grill the entire day cooking for a million people. The food was good, the people were better and the times were good as usual. I hope every Ghetto Bowl draft goes this well from now on. Plus, the four folks who had no interest in the draft decided to drive out to Crate & Barrel outlet in Naperville while we drafted. So it all worked out for them, because they didn't have to sit around and stare at the walls for two-plus hours.

After the draft wound down, folks cleared out of here and the last people left around 8pm. I then cleaned up a bit, relaxed a bit and showered and prepared to go to a club called Bacchus on Lincoln north of Webster to see Luis' coworker work the turntables. He did a good job, though I thought he held each part of the song too long. That was my only beef...but he played good stuff. The only problem with the club was that his area (on the ground floor) had no real spot to dance, so no one was dancing, really. Just folks kind of standing around and bouncing to the beat a little. There was a group of folks from a hair salon there, giving away CDs and coupons. Apparently, they have a bar and a DJ spinning all day long at the salon...so you go to get your haircut and you can listen to the tunes and have a drink or something. I don't know exactly how it works, but I might just go check it out. Maybe it will be cool. Maybe it will suck. Then I'll go back to Robert Jeffrey, the place Luis took me to. Who knows? We hung out there until about 2am. I had had enough beer for the day (when I say enough, I don't mean too much...I was just tired of beer), so I switched to Mandarin-7s and put down a bunch of those over the evening. We probably would have stayed longer, but I was just dead tired and worried that I wasn't going to be able to drive home safely because of the tiredness factor. Case in point how tired I was: I just got up about 15 minutes ago.

Today, Barb's birthday party is later on. So I'll be seeing Barb and Christine for the third time in four days and Pete and Bob for the second time in two days. Thank God they don't all hate me. :) Or at least pretend to like me.

Tomorrow it will be nice to have another day off. I have another fantasy football draft in the evening with the guys from the old neighborhood. That's a more expensive league, but it's typically a well-played league in that no one seems to typically run away with it every year. So we'll see how that goes...it's always a good time hanging out with them anyway.

This week, dammit, I plan on making a major push in apartment searching. I talked to Butch briefly, and we both agreed that we probably wouldn't have a third roommate--at least not the dude whom we thought would be our third roommate--he sent on some apartment listings he thought looked good...I have yet to check them out, but I'm guessing we'll start with those and the one Kim and Nick sent my way and go from there. The apartment that had the "yard for planting," I drove by it on Thursday on the way to Hawkeye's, and it was the biggest pile of shit I've ever seen. So, obviously, it's out. :)

Ah well...I should eat something and get some more cleanup done around here. And pay my bills. That's pretty important, even though I can't mail them out until Tuesday. God, I wish I had a secretary or someone to pay my bills for me. I also wish I had more money to pay them with. But everyone does.