Day 13

Lucky day 13! I am as shocked as you that I'm still going. Today's post is a little late, I know, but that's where the above pictures come in to today's amwesomosity.

My bed. My bed is awesome today because I was in it until after 3 o'clock. Well, there's a few catches in there.

First, I didn't get to bed until almost 4 (am). I worked late at Lly, and there was quite a bit of drama there. (If you wanna know what happened, just ask, but I will tell you that the big GM had to come in and several cops are involved.)

The other thing that factors into my bed and the wonderful sleep I got this morning and afternoon, was my baseball game. Or it would have been if it hadn't been rained out. Of course, for some reason, my league felt that the rainout line, which consists of an answering machine updated daily, was either an unnecessary expense or too big a hassle. They are now updating the rainouts on the website, which I can't access at my home.

All that to say we were supposed to have a game today at 10. I was supposed to be the starting pitcher. So, I got myself up after about 4 hours of sleeping, got dresses, called the rainout line to make sure but got no answer, then drove myself to the game. At the field, I ran into a teammate who delivered the bad news. So, I came home and went back to my very comfortable bed, only to arrise just a short while ago.

I hope you have enjoyed today's awesomeness and the picture that goes with it.

Make sure to vote in my poll (you can vote for more than one option) and come back tomorrow for more awesomosity!!!

The 12th Day

I have written a song to celebrate 12 straight days of my Awesome blog. It is to be sung to the tune of "The 12 days of Christmas". (I know all the words don't fit right rythmically, but I am sure you can deal with that). ((Oh, and I'll start with the last verse)).

On the 12th day of Awesomeness, my friend Kenny gave to me;

a rainbow-colored, heart-shaped slinky
On the 11th day of Awesomeness, some vandal gave to me;

11 minutes of silence in my car
On the 10th day of Awesomeness, my manager Sean gave to me;

10 games of Golden Tee
On the 9th day of Aweseomeness, the Water Company gave to me;

9 minutes in a very cold, yet equally refreshing shower
On the 8th day of Awesomeness, my mother gave to me;

8 hours of brush-burning

On the 7th day of Awesomeness, Joe Elder gave to me;

7 reasons to use Google Maps on Sean's phone

On the 6th day of Awesomeness, the Mexican Government gave to me;

6 baskets of chips and salsa

On the 5th day of Awesomeness, Mr. Coffee gave to me;

5 pots of coffee

On the 4th day of Awesomeness, my dad and brother and some other folks who helped out gave to me;

4 times as much concrete as we need in a driveway

On the 3rd day of Awesomeness, my iPod on shuffle gave to me;

3 verses and a chorus to a really sweet song

On the 2nd day of Awesomeness, Llywelyns gave to me;

2 pieces of hamburger bun with some delicious pork in between

On the 1st day of Awesomeness, my friend Brian gave to me;

1 ticket to a very sweet Rush concert

I hope you all have enjoyed my little ditty. There will be more awesomosity and less writing of songs tomorrow.

Here is a picture of me with my super-awesome, rainbow-colored, heart-shaped slinky. See ya tomorrow!!


Oh, and vote in my poll, please?

Day 11

11 Days! I, like Jim, hope I can keep this up forever! We'll see.

So, those of you that know me know that I am an optimist. I always try to look for the good in almost every situation. Having a positive outlook in life can help you cope with life's hardships, plus, it can help with indigestion. (That's totally just a guess).

So, that leads me to today's awesomosity: Silence. Specifically silence in the car while you are driving. Here are a few of the good things I can think of regarding driving in silence:

• You can listen to how your car sounds
• You can focus on the day ahead
• You can pray
• You don't have to worry about finding a good song
• No pesky commercials
• You won't look like a fool jamming out to a great song
• You won't be screaming you favorite song with the windows down for everyone to hear
• I am sure there are way more benefits

So, I guess I should let you know why all the talk about being optimistic and silence in the car. When I walked out to my car this morning, here is what I saw:


That's right, someone stole my stereo in the wee hours of the morning last night. Dangit. I guess I was a little upset, but there are so many upsides. Many of which I just mentioned. Others include:

• Now I don't have to unlock the door from the outside for any passengers I may have (because I can't).
  
• I have also learned that I should take my faceplate off when I get home, not just in Soulard.
  
• Now I don't have to worry about my car being broken into to steal my car stereo.
  
• They didn't break the window.
  
• Now I have something to spend all that money I've been saving up on.
• They didn't take my iPod (I wouldn't either, it has a busted screen)
• They didn't take my bluetooth headset.
  

All kidding aside, it kinda sucks to have your car broken into, but as you can see there are a ton of positives to get out of this.

So, here is today's picture, taken in front of the Green Monster:

Day 10

Double-digit awesomensity! Hooray for beans!

So, here is a short summary of my life last night. I go to this meeting that I go to every Tuesday of like-minded individuals. Good stuff, always is. Anyway, I have this grand plan for after the meeting. I need gas and I have money, so I go get gas. Then I am going to go home and finish watching the Aviator, which I started like a week and a half ago (its a really long movie). I also plan on finishing the spaghetti I made the other night, even though I don't have any cheese to go on it. So I get home, its about 9:45, the plan is going great. I unlock my door and turn on the stairwell light. Click. Click. Click. Nothing. I turn on the outside light. Nothing. I am quickly realizing that I have no power. This is amazing because a few years back when St. Louis had those awful storms and hundreds of thousands of people were without power, my power never even blinked. I thought my power lines were invincible. But alas, they are not.

I know what you're thinking, and no, I have never worn biker shorts, they are too constrictive and unattractive. You're also wondering where in the world is this going, especially with that last comment. Well, I'll tell you.

So, my place is roughly 95 degrees and dark. I don't want to stay there. I decide I'm gonna hike on down (and by hike I mean drive) to Llywelyns where I work on weekends. You know, say hey to some friends and just hang out while my power (hopefully) is restored. I got to see one of my old managers who got moved to the West End location (I work in Soulard). She says the West End sucks, at least the clientelle (sp?) does. Then I go say hi to my current manager, since I haven't worked there in a few weeks (traveling all over the place). Sean (my manager) has successfully gotten me hooked on today's awesomosity:


That's right, Golden Tee Golf. Live, if possible. (I was trying to get a picture of my golfer, who has diagonal-checkered pants and a mismathcing shirt with a plaid hat, but couldn't do it) I was completely unaware of what this enterprise has become. Last night, we played a round against 48 other people around the country for prizes, with scores being updated instantly. It is ridiculous. They are having a "World Championships" with a grand prize of $100,000. Crazy, but awesome. I have become quite the fan of the "Tee" even though I am not that good yet.

So, go out and play some Tee. Once you get the hang of it, it is quite addicting and fun. Give me a call or e-mail and I will be happy to play a round with you. By the way, I shot a 13-under at Eagle Crest last night, and was bested by Sean, who shot a 20-under.

So, here's the pic o' the day, taken with a not-so-happy-to-have-my-picture-taken kitty:

See you tomorrow!!

Day 9

9 days already. Man, this is a streak for the ages.

So, on to today's awesomeness. Here is a little about how it came about. As you all know from yesterday, I was burning a fire in something like 90 degree weather. That will make you hot and very sweaty. I also drive a 1992 Ford Ranger (Aqua Green) that has no AC. Combine that with the fact that I am cheap and don't run my AC at home all day while I'm not there and it was 90 degrees inside my house when I got home at 6 last night, and you will know that I was a hot, sweaty, sticky mess. So, I took a shower. But not just any shower, I took a cold shower, which is today's awesomeness, a cold shower when it is really hot outside.

I also have to add that I really like my shower. I have done some traveling the past few weeks and I showered at my friend Pat's place in Chicago, Brian's place in Chicago, Brian's parent's house in Michigan, my folk's house here in St. Louis, and a hotel in Oklahoma City. All those made me just love my shower even more. I don't have a fancy showerhead like this one:

Doesn't she seem to be enjoying this shower a little too much?

But I do have a pretty good shower. And it has a Blues logo in the window. I wish I would have taken a picture of it before I came to work this morning, but I didn't. I'll either try to take a picture someday soon, find a way to make it another day's awesomosity, or, what I would like the most, is to have you come over and take a look for yourself. It'll be fun. I'll make some dinner and we could hang out at my place, or I can show you the awesome neighborhood I live in. Just lemme know when you wanna come over, we'll make it happen.

So, here's today's picture, which by the way, is also being posted on Facebook now. I definitely look a little to excited to be in the office. See ya tomorrow!

Day 8

I bet you all thought I would fall off after a great first week. Well, think again! 8 days and still going strong, not energizer bunny strong, but strong nonetheless.

So, what's awesome today? Fire. That's right, on one of the hottest days of the year, I have been feeding and stoking a fire all day. I know what you're thinking, "Ben, why would you have a fire today of all days?" Well, I'll tell you why. My mother got busy in the backyard taking out a bunch of brush. That means that there is a huge pile of brush out there, just sitting. Well, my parents have a firepit in the backyard (equally awesome) so I have been systematically burning the brush pile all day. Here's what it looks like:

Well, I hope you enjoyed today's awesomosity, check back tomorrow, maybe it'll be something more normal for the middle of July.

In today's picture, you may notice a slight difference from all the other pictures. Yep, you guessed it; I'm not wearing an undershirt!

See ya tomorrow, blogreaderland!

Day 7

Can anyone believe I made it an entire week straight? I am rather proud of myself, I think I may have turned a corner, and quite frankly, I'm excited.

What I'm not excited about is the need for todays awesomosity. You see, I'm driving back from a great weekend in Oklahoma City, riding with my friends Sean, MC Karl and Joe Elder is driving. And by driving, I mean just going, not really paying attention to silly things like speed limits and road signs.

Joe's distaste for following directions led to our need for todays awesomeness. Google Maps. More specifically, Google Maps on Sean's phone that has some sort of locating navigation feature.

Here's how it went down. Were all just riding along, having a good time when Joe says, "I think we might be going the wrong way." we all look up to see us getting on a two-lane highway. There is a rather major road that runs from St.Louis to OK City. Its called HWY 44. Maybe you've heard of it. Major interstate that is never a 2-lane road. Pull over. Google maps. Day saved. We don't think we went that far out of the way, but I suppose we'll never know, since we don't exactly know how we got where we were.

Thank you Google Maps for mobiles. Now we are back on the right track, but there's no Starbucks in Joplin, so I guess we'll have to wait it out.

Here's todays picture, thanks for reading.