Last night in the sack

Well, Hackensack, it's been real. It's been fun. And it's been real fun - but now I sit in my lone chair in my bare-1,800 sq ft of wood floor apartment, watching an MTV2 rerun of Rob & Big ... for the last time :)

Allllllllrighty - I'm gonna go pack a little more

Huaaaaa - last day in NJ tomorrow - sheesh - where'd all the time go?

Well ... I'm also looking for a new car since my poor baby is on her last leg. 183,000 miles strong. She deserves an honorable discharge

tru dat

I GOT A PLACE!!!

2 bedroom... + attic for storing shtuff
Great Barrington, MA
2 blocks from the center of town (pretty touristy being in the Berkshires)
the Housatonic river runs through the back yard
10 minutes from 2 ski slopes
minutes from hiking trails
tons of cycling cuz all the highways are 45 mph and twisty-turney
can launch a kayak from my backyard
and only 15 minutes from work in Canaan, CT

...basically SWEET! praise the Lord!

So, me and Dennis Nelson (fellow UNL grad) are gonna be roomies for the next year and many adventures will be had.

This was the landlord's winter lodge for his family but he decided to rent it out this year... so he's leaving it furnished except for the bedrooms. cozy cozy.

View from the livingroom and from the kitchen too = river :)

kitchen

This isn't our deck... but if we get in good with the first floor folks, we may just get some deck time!

Kittle is moving out of our apartment tomorrow ... and all his stuff already got picked up by the movers yesterday so, I'm living the lonely in my 1800 ft2 of bare wood floors till next wednesday when i close things up here and move up to my outdoorsey paradise!

So here's a fun update...

remember that lakehouse me and 2 of my BD friends were going to get in Connecticut? Yah - gone.

We had a signed lease with the owner of the condo, paid the sec deposity, rent, etc. - and the first roommate was supposed to move in THIS Saturday - and I just hear Monday night that the gated community "board" rejected us at the last minute because they didn't want tenants who were not related occupying a single residence. New news to the owners, the leasing agent, and to us.

snooty punks.

So, I'm running around all crazy-like trying to find a backup plan. I'm starting to look for a place in Great Barrington, MA - cuz i've heard good stuff about it ... so in the end it might look up for us.

Especially since there were so many headaches to deal with in the lakehouse situation = small rooms, long commute, community fees ...

blessing in disguise? maybe.
gotta hand it to 'em though - it's a pretty good disguise.

aallllllrrriiiiiight - cali's comin' to town

that's right, the tan-man is hoppin the redeye from cali to jersey and i'm gonna wake up at the buttcrack o' dawn to pick him up.

oh wait -
just checked the flight status and looks like they're delayed an hour "awaiting inbound aircraft." well that means more sleep for me - that is, if i ever go to bed - dang-o allergies are kickin my tail! GAH! seriously ... never had allergies like this before. and i think it all started once i went back to the braska a couple weekends ago... man. totally worth it by the way - gotta spend alllll weekend with the fam - and it was AWESOME! but i got back to the dirty jers with red red eyes, incessant sneezies, and a nose that had broken from a light jog into a full run. buh. not my favorite.

oh good news on the camera-front though - i actually found a place that fixes digital cameras! i know ... i was surprised too. but the lady took one look at it, heard the noises it made as the lense extended and said "yep - you need a new lense - that's $150." ... sure beats buying a new one for $350! (and my boss being the standup guy he is offered to pay for the repair since he was the one who had an acute case of the dropsies and, well, y'know... dropped it)

so, check this video out - it's kinda cool. these guys are from nyc and i'm bummed i won't be able to make it to their show may 29th cuz i'll be outta town for work - but it's fun seein young bands starting to make it big. i get to live vicariously through them :) ...oh yah, they're called jupiter one

in the description of the video on youtube it says the band directed the entire video themselves ... not too shabby!

Even the Squad must come to an end

today, i have two words to share that can inspire even the most stoic of manly manly men to scream like little nancies and wave their arms in the air like a pair of wind socks: Six Flags.

that's right. that's how we play hookie out here in the dirty jers. right in the middle of the week - me and the roomies are bouncing on outta here and taking the flags by storm.

it's the beginning of the last chapter of the MDP Squad = conor moves out to utah on sunday. boooo. so no more UFC fight nights at hooters, no more "rock of love" with bret michaels or "how i met your mother," no more squad hikes in the "mountains," no more running the tables at general poore's tavern, no more squad lunches at work, no more yelling at the mets for not pulling santana. it's all coming to a close, and i don't know if kittle and i have enough moxy to keep the squad mojo alive just the two of us. so, it's one last hurrah at Six Flags.

let it be told that the Squad rocked it hard and all the way to the end. i'm going out in a barrage of popcorn and motion-sick-upchucky.

i feel like stuff has gotten pretty routine lately - and then today we had brown water. there was a sign posted and everything, right in the hallway as i was coming home. "when you turn on the hot water and it is brown, let it run for a while before using it." nevermind that it's brown - but why does it KEEP coming out brown... it'd be one thing if you flushed it and got the brown-town out of its system. but you leave the sink or shower alone for a while , come back and try it: brown. i was taking a shower and decided that feeling wet was the best i was going to do - cleanliness is a bit of a lofty goal today.

and then i got a facebook note from my good buddy and long-lost drummer joe heider and he told me his next band was going to be named "meatier shower." that, of course, or "sugar-tipped arrows never kill" (S.T.A.N.K. for short).

i miss that guy. now, i need to go take another meatier shower before i go to bed.

Well I'd say it's been long enough

I'm gonna be honest, my break from blogging was somewhat intentional - mostly when I realized that the visibility was a bit higher than I was comfortable with... :) It's weird having people from work commenting on your latest adventures.

But it's okay - we're in the clear. I tracked em all down and locked them in the storage closet of my apartment and I'm keeping them alive with table scraps I squish through the mail slot.

Don't ask me how a mail slot made its way onto the storage closet door. You can never plan far enough ahead.

Had a sweet time in Puerto Rico for the weekend ... just got back today. Now I need some rest from my vacation.

That's how I like it - go hard all the way through! ...but I'm flying out tomorrow morning for Miami so it's back on the road for me! Me and my new friend the sunburn. Splotchy, burny, red, nasty sunburn. He's not so much my friend so much as an acquaintance that follows me wherever I go. I'll chalk it up to the fact that I've never been to the beach in a tropical place before ... so I'm used to little-to-no spf in the Midwest and a little pink that'll turn to tan in a day or two.

Not so here. 45 minutes at 10:30 in the morning with no sunscreen and my back feels like a plastic sheet full of needles.

And the real bitch of it is - I can't get any aloe back there! I mean, me and the roomies are close - but not that close.

I'm gaining weight!!!

WOOOOHOOOOO!

My diabolical plan to gain weight has finally come to fruition! At the end of January I was holding steady around 150 lb ... then, I changed my diet. I started buying lots of red meat, eating breakfast, mid-breakfast, lunch, afternoon lunch, and dinner along with a higher-quality whey protein supplement ... and BOOM - this week I'm holding steady at 159 lb!

It's like I stepped into a time-machine ... or, more like ... a weight machine and came out the other side 9 lb heavier!

But don't get too excited. No spare tire around me belly yet ... I think a bunch of it has been muscle gain - My bench max is by far higher than its ever been and I can actually do excercises like wide-grip pullups that I never could have done 3 months ago. So I'm gonna keep eatin'

All woodland creatures beware - GIT IN MAH BELLEH!

Now I should clarify before my Mom is reduced to tears ... my new diet consists of large quantities of "colorful" fruits and veggies in addition to the flesh of animals ... so it's not really the twinky-spandex diet that I threatened a month ago :)

Off to Beantown

Had a great night last night ... saw Army of Me and Kris Roe of the Ataris in an unplugged set in Hoboken. Army of Me was weeeeeaaaaak sauce - sounded like bad Bob Dylan covers the whole time. But Kris Roe brought all his teenage-rage punk attitude and took it out on his Guild acoustic. Pretty good way to end the night :)

I think I'll go to Boston today. Conor's family is having a bday party today for his mom and then we're gonna spend the rest of the time with his college friends. Last time I went to an old-people party with Conor's family it was in NYC and we had a blast - flirted with the old ladies, danced in the living room, and engorged myself from the catered cuisine. I'm expecting more of the same :)

it's coooooo-ooo-ooo--ooold outside ... like 8F and windy. i just feel like cozyin' up with a cup o hot chocolate and a will ferrell film-marathon. i'm flying to miami tomorrow morning - some respite from the cold - and hopefully i'll get some work done too :)

i've been reading cs lewis a lot lately - and i'll take him with me too ... maybe read 'miracles' or 'the abolition of man' . my boss says i need to start reading for enjoyment. but i don't think i'll ever quite understand the phrase 'easy reading.' i feel like i should be accomplishing something with everything i'm doing.

The Biggest Winner

Well, it's been a few days ... and I made it back from PR just fine. But I picked a bad day to blog - I don't have much to say. I did laundry, worked out quick, and ate some pork.

Yes, that's right - I "grilled" some pork on my Foreman the other night... despite the fact that it is a conduction-cooking process ... so, it'll cook the stuff that's touching the burner but not the other stuff. So, it makes for some interesting pork. A little rare - a little "piggy" flavored ... but nutritious. Sure gives the ol' stomach a workout.

Speaking of a workout - my roommate Andy and I are competing to see who can gain the most weight.

My approach has been to increase my diet and workouts:
So far, I've have restricted myself to a strict diet of pork rhinds, marshmallow fluff, Little Debbie snack cakes, and Burger King 1/3 lb. Angus burgers. The workouts primarily involve sleep - at least 2 naps before bedtime - and a heavy dose of reality TV. To really get into the experience, I DVR daytime talkshows and try to keep up with at least 2 of my soaps and have been known to slip into a nice pair of stretch pants from time to time. I'm also trying to avoid shaving and other unnecessary forms of personal hygiene as they only cut into my dieting and workout times.

The winner is the first person to have someone say to them, "WOW [insert name], you've really let yourself go"

Before and after pictures to follow shortly. I'm gonna win that fool ribbon -

... OK ... so the weight competition part is true.

I'm Baaaa-aaaaaack from Puerto Rico...

And something interesting happened while I was there. I found out that I was rather famous -

We had some design meetings with the members of our contracted Architectural Engineering firm based in San Juan and one of their engineers told me that he googled the name of our mfg. site in Cayey and the 3rd result on his list was MY BLOG from July 2007 when I took a couple pictures and posted them up!

So, I guess I underestimated the power of this here inter-net ... much respect. And I'm guessing some friends from Puerto Rico might be reading-in from time to time!

New Years Resolutions

I wanted to make some reasonable New Years Resolutions for 2008 - so I did.
1 - Wear tighter pants
2 - Go see some live bands in NYC for goodness sakes - it's NEW YORK!

Well, you'll all be pleased to know that I hit a sale at Express for Men last Saturday - and bought 3 pairs of tight dress pants for work. (So, not THAT tight - but tight enough to make progress on the resolution)

And tonight I hit my first local show - at Maxwell's in Hoboken. Sure - it's not NYC - but I wanted to wade slowly into the crazy world of indie-rock at the center of the artistic universe. A couple of friends from BD lived in Hoboken for a while and said this would be a good start.

There couldn't have been more than 25 people there for "Makout Party" ... but these guys were pretty dang good. I'd YouTube a bootleg video for you, but I'm afraid of the search results I'll get if I query their name. Oh well - you'll just have to imagine.

The lyrics are pretty weak - like you'd expect from a just-out-of-highschool band... but they had a pretty developed emo-indie-punk sound that melodic layering that reminded me of Jimmy Eat World, hollering vocals that sounded like every punk band (but reminded me of the Almost), and delay-heavy guitar riffs like Explosions in the Sky (More like Mr. 1986 for you Joe Heider fans out there!). Melancholy and intense. I like it!

So - I'm really doin it! I'm hoping to get at least another half-dozen shows in before my rotation here ends in June. BooooYAHAHAHAaaaaaaaa ...

And this is how hardcore I am = I bought a set of "Hearos" to accompany me on my adventure. Earplugs - good for still being able to hear when you're 50, not for street cred.

Cruise Control

I realized this morning that I race to and from work every day ... that I have this urgent need to pass everyone who is in front of me. And I'm getting really bad gas mileage.

So, on my way to work, I kept it at 60'ish on the freeway and found that I arrived at work about the same time I always do, but not quite as tense.

I knew my life-changing breakthrough was already getting noticed when one of my coworkers at lunch said he passed a Honda with a Nebraska license plate on the way to work. That would have never happened last week :)

An Inconvenient Truth

I've been sculpting my eating habits around the wrong premise this whole time...

Thanks Nissa for the info -
For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on nutrition and health. It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting nutritional studies.

1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

3. The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

5. The Germans drink a lot of beers and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

CONCLUSION

Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you

This made me think of my little sis

My little sis is awesome - and she's dropped Imogen Heap, Frou Frou, and Regina Spektor into my music palette over the last couple years... creating an affinity for frail, melancholy female vocalists.

So, one of the guys in the MDP program is in to techno - and I always give him hard time about it. I'm like, "Hey Gregg - who am I? 'N-suh N-suh N-suh N-suh'" and I flail my arms around with pretend glow sticks.

But then he sent me this track by Sia called "Breathe Me" and it reminded me of my little sis --> enjoy!

(Check out the sweet storm trooper helmet she sports in some of the pics)

Federal Hill

I'm in Baltimore this week for training on Planning and Leading Projects! After the first day, I'm pretty happy with it - they chose one of my projects to be one of the case studies for the rest of the time, so I'll get a chance to walk through the project planning and execution steps right away!

The other cool thing about being here this week is that a handful of other MDP's (other engineers in my program) are located here - so, we went down to the inner harbor, grabbed some food and then stopped by a bar at Federal Hill for $2 pints of Blue Moon!!! Yeah - for a minute I thought I was in Nebraska! ...then I remembered it was a Tuesday night - and I didn't feel cool anymore...

Canaan, CT

The Annual Meeting for the MDP (Mfg. Development Program) of which I am a member, concluded this week - and I was officially placed in a manufacturing engineer role in Canaan, CT for my 3rd and final rotation. I'll move to Canaan in June and have a year to finish the program.

After that, I'll probably apply to a number of BD positions as well as looking into other medical device companies for a permanent engineering position.

I'm excited that I'll be able to do more 6 Sigma work and may have a large role in purchasing, installing, and validating a new production area.

Anyha - wanted to give everyone the update - hope you're all doing well!

Insomnia

Well - it seems to happen periodically - and might I say, more often than I would wish... insomnia strikes again. And usually on the night before I have to get up early for something. I lay awake wishing the next day were here and I feel like I don't need to sleep.

I don't even want to look at the time, cuz it just gets me frustrated - past 3am and I have to be up at 5:50 am to get to church on time to set up for music.

I just wish I were tired - at least then I could convince myself to fall asleep.

Oh well - I'm up - not much else to do but YouTube some Colbert Report and Will Ferrell sketches...

Marching Bands of Manhattan

So the church I go to is really cool - they're having me play "Marching Bands of Manhattan" by Death Cab for Cutie at church on Sunday. We just practiced tonight - and since it's one of my most favoritest songs, the sound we produced paled in comparison to the quality of the original track... but I was still stoked that the first song they're having me take total lead on is such a sweet one.

Well - let's see if I can fall asleep by midnight. That'd be nice. G'night :)

Back to the Dirty Jers(ey)

Thanks everybody for an AWESOME time back home in the braska! I have so much to be thankful for and you all are the biggest piece of that.

Well, I'm wearing my new long-coat to fit in with the other corporates tomorrow, just downloaded the latest "Future of Forestry" album with my iTunes gift money, hacked a pesky lock with my Gerber handy-tool, sipped some quenching water from my Camelbak, kept warm with my new scarves, and checked what day it was with my new Nebraska calendar!

It's been a busy day - and I've got band practice for church in NYC tomorrow after work tomorrow - so I better roll to bed and sleep on my new memory-foam pillow.

Merry New Year to all - and good night :)