Day 55

Unlike Sammy Hagar, I can blog fifty-fiiiive.

Don't worry if you didn't get that, it was pretty dumb.

Well, the picture you see is of a tired, just awakened, slightly sick, amazed Olympic viewer. That's right, todays awesomeness is the Games of the XXIX (29th) Olympiad. (I still am not sure how they arrived at that number, but they keep saying it, and we all know that everything on tv is absolutely true right?)

These Olympic games have robbed me of more sleep, but have provided me with great entertainment and conversation. When I get home at night, I just can't help but watch whatever is on free NBC. I have seen everything from water polo to women's decathalon to team synchronized swimming (what I'm watching now).

Of course I watched all 8 gold medal races for Michael Phelps (like the cartoon? {thanks Mike Pearson!}) but I think my favorite event I saw was the mens 100 and 200 sprints. I'm generally not a fan of track and field, except of course the pole vault and hammer throw, but these races were just amazing. Usain Bolt (could you make a better sprinter name?) just blew away the competition. In the 100, he was so far ahead, he began celebrating before even crossing the finish line! And he still set a world record! In the 200, there was no one even in the picture (literally, there was no one else in the camera angle) when he crossed the line, setting another world record.

Is it just me, or were a ridiculous number of world records broken this year?

As usual, I am just enthralled with whatever sport I am watching, in this case, synchronized swimming, so I'm gonna get back to that, the defending champs, Russia, is up now.

See you tomorrow!

Day 54

'54. Ah, now that was a good year.

You know what else is good about 54? Eating the most important meal of the day. No, not 4th meal, like Taco Bell would have you believe, but breakfast, more like Jack in the Box would have you believe. Fortunately, the awesomeness comes from niether of these fine dining establishments.

The awesomosity today is courtesy of my good friends Jim and Alisha Barnard, who suggested Uncle Bill's Pancake House. There really is nothing quite like a 24 hour breakfast joint. And not the wannabe 2nd location in Manchester, the real deal off Kingshighway.

This morning I got their specialty, the 4-D. 2 eggs, 2 bacon strips, 2 sausage links, and 2 pancakes. I have never understood how they got 4-D out of that, but when you're eating that much awesomeness, who cares, really?

Of course, if you also get hashbrowns, you can turn it into a slinger.

Enjoy the pictures of the original Uncle Bill's and me waiting for Jim and Alisha there. Thanks for reading! See you tomorrow!

Day 53

Yeah, yeah, 53 days, thats amazing, woohoo, woot, and all that. What ya'll really need to do is click on some of those ads to your right, and make me some money.

So today's awesomosity comes from my family. Like the whole family. You see, my mother has done a bang-up job trying to get the whole family (that lives in town) together once a week for family dinner. Due to my ridiculous schedule, there are a lot of times that I cannot make it. Last night was not one of those times.

We get Big and Little Grandma (I've called them that my entire life. Big Grandma is about 5'10" and Little Grandma is maybe 5'0", so it fits. They even sign birthday cards like that, so no comments on thinking the Big and Little are derogatory to them or anything), along with my own momma and dad, and my brother, his wife and their three children usually. It was quite fun last night when my 2 nieces and nephew arrived, they had apparently been asking if I would be there and were quite happy to see that I was. Even though Ahren still thinks I look silly. Last time I saw him I was wearing coaches short and had a phenomenal stache. This time, no hair at all. Kids are brutally honest, you gotta love it. Here are the most recent pics of them:

Ahren (3 1/2) pretending the couch is a firetruck

Lydia (2 1/2) modeling her swimwear

Annie (10 mos.) being Annie

And what of the dinner itself, you ask? Delicious as always. When you get 4 mothers (3 of them grandmothers and 2 of them GREATgrandmothers) you know the food is kickin'. Last night we had one of my mother's great specialties, Caesar Salad. She makes the dressing from scratch and no other Caesar salad I have ever had even holds a candle to it (partially because you could kill a vampire with it there is so much garlic. YUMMY!). And of course there was plenty of dessert, including, but not limited to, oatmeal raisin cookies, rice krispie treats with Karo syrup and chocolate butterscotch stuff on top, ice cream and fruit. I love family dinner.

If your family isn't in town, or doesn't have a family dinner, let me know, I'll reserve a spot for you at ours.

Continuing with the comparisons, someone this morning at a business meeting suggested I look like Kojak, what do you think? Anyone else I might look like?

Kojak circa 1973

Me, circa 10:30 this morning

Thanks ya'll, see you tomorrow!

Day 52

52 days, I'm serious, watch out Cal Ripken Jr., I'm coming for ya!

Today's awesomosity comes from my cousin, Matt Marting Jr. You see, I have a head cold, and have for the past few days. Nothing serious, it happens, but it sucks. Turns out Matt is in Pharmacy School and has some experience with this sort of thing. He asks me what I am taking for it. I say, three things, Zicam, Vitamin C, and Aspirin. To which he replied, "Well, 2 of those aren't doing anything for you."

I said, well thats a bummer, what should I take. His reply? Lots of water. Or Gatorade, that stuff is better than most medicines on the market. Aspirin will work for your head, but the Zinc and Vitamin C aren't doing anything for you.

Apparently that stuff has to be in the right form for your body to be able to put it to use. Those forms aren't condusive to helping with a cold. Besides, I found out that Zicam makers have had their problems with lawsuits. Apparently, some people were losing their sense of smell from taking it. Their defense? The cold was causing it. $12 Million later, they are still hawking their product. Read the Safety Concerns portion of this site here. Interesting.

Either way, Aspirin is the awesomosity for the day. It always works for me on headaches, and, it turns out, there are a ton of other uses besides pain relief and stopping heart attacks. Read about them here. I mean, who knew you could get rid of perspiration stains with a little aspirin. Of course, some of the more serious possible side effects include black, bloody, or tarry stools. (Take the Bloody Stool Quiz Here! For real!)Yeah, that is a possibility. Read about those and other horrific side effects here.

But in the end, we all know and love Aspirin. Great stuff.

Before I go to the pictures, I have to say that Jim Barnard (ha ha Jim, no link today!) wondered if I was trying to look like the guy from the Shield (Michael Chiklis, who'll always be "The Commish" to me). I said that people thought I looked more like Moby. But to put Jim at ease, here is a comparison photograph with the guy from the Shield:

The guy from the Shield

Me looking not really at all like the guy from the Shield

So, what do you all think? Anyone else think I look like someone famous? I should have a new poll up sometime soon.

Thanks for reading, see you tomorrow!

Day 51

I'm just going to get straight to the awesomosity today. I have told you all how much my baseball team sucks, right? Well, not anymore!

We played a game last night at Jackee Joyner-Kersee center in East St. Louis (not the REAL bad part though, its actually a pretty nice facility, though I don't think anyone has ever even tried to care for the field, it is a bad baseball field, but I digress). We were supposed to play at 6, but the game got moved to 8, I'm not sure why.

We were 2-1 at one point in the season with a bright outlook for the future. Then we lost 17 straight. But last night we played a team that is not a whole lot better, they are 5-15. Our main problem has been hitting the ball. We hit ok, but it always goes right at an opposing player, not good if you want to get on base. I think Babe Ruth said something like, "Hit 'em where they aint." We haven't been doing that so well. Until last night that is.

We were stringing together multiple hits and running the bases well for the first time all season. I was even 2 for 2 with a walk, 1 RBI and a run scored. Not bad, eh? The Million $ Men managed to put up 17 runs to break our 17 game losing streak. We still gave up 6, which is too many, but when you're scoring, it doesn't matter so much.

We even played decent defense last night. Catching fly balls, getting grounders, and not making too many errors. It was a lot of fun for the first time in a while. Totally awesome, hopefully were going to get hot for the playoffs which are coming soon. If you want to see us play, we have a game this Sunday at 3:30 at Ozzie's Sports Complex in St. Peters. Let me know if you want directions to watch us continue our winning streak.

One of the players told me not to mention this, but I am an honest guy. The other team last night only had eight players, but we still hit the ball a bunch and played well, and I'm sure we still would have won, so don't hold it against us, we really needed a win and were going to take it any way we could.

Over the weekend, someone compared my new hairstyle to that of Moby. Jim Barnard not only didn't win the awesome poll, but doesn't believe me. So here is a comparison photo with Moby. Whaddya think? Oh, and here is a funny video of Moby, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and Eminem at the VMA's a few years back. Pretty Funny. Now the pics:

Moby
Me trying to look like Moby

See you tomorrow!

Day 50

The Big 5-0! Who's throwing the surprise party? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Monday. I do not like Mondays. You have a great weekend, then back to the same old stuff. Boo. Yes, I have a case of the Mondays.

It was a wonderful weekend, and weather-wise, it looks like it will continue. But, I have to always keep looking forward. So, three cool things coming up still today. Going to meet with my friend Jeff Viers, who will be the next president of my networking group in BNI. We will discuss and pick out the rest of the leadership team. Then, after a quick Wal-Mart (read this letter someone sent to Wal-Mart, quite entertaining) trip, its off to the library.

I know I have discussed the awesome qualities of libraries, but today will be a little different. I am going there for the peace and quiet and lack of distractions. Why do I need that? I am going to do a SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat) analysis of myself, then set some long term and short term goals. Whoa. Serious.

After that, it is off to the awesomeosity of the day. Goodwill. They are a great organization that takes any and all of my junk, and then does great stuff with it. Today, for me, they are taking all the clothes that either: don't fit or I shouldn't be wearing anyway. You see, a few months ago, I had a meeting at my house with my wardrobe consultant, Gina Manual. She went through my closet piece by piece and made me try on a whole bunch of stuff. Some of it wasn't even worth trying on, I wasn't allowed to wear it anyway. For a guy like me, that is very helpful to have someone with a good fashion sense tell me what to wear and what not to wear. I can only imagine the field day about 5 different reality shows would have had with me.

So now I have 3 trash bags full of perfectly good clothes that Goodwill can do great things with.

Also, Goodwill is a great place to shop. Cheap stuff, sometimes it pretty good stuff too.

Then I have a baseball game at 8 tonight. Woohoo. Maybe we'll win one, I mean stranger things have happened (just not very often).

Here's the picture, have a great day!!


See you tomorrow!

Day 49

49 days, that seems like a good number, don't you think?

I'm pretty tired today, so I'm gonna keep it short and sweet today. We got slammed last night at Llywelyns, so I didn't get home until almost 4 and then I sat and iced my arm because it hurt a bunch. In fact I'm getting ready to do some more ice on it right after this.

I got up around 930 and got ready to go to church, but by the time I was ready, I was just to beat and runing late. So I slept for another 45 minutes, then off to my baseball game.

After the game (we shockingly lost 17-2) my church service, Quest, was having a baptism service. Pretty awesome. 11 people got baptized in a pool, then fellowship and dinner. Great stuff.

But not the awesomosity.

The awesomosity occured rather early in my day. You see, to go to my game, I had to get on 170. the easiest way for me to get there is to take Kingshighway to 64/40 to 170. To do that, you have to go through the intersection of Kingshighway and 40 (obviously, right). Well, unbeknowst to me prior to today is they have finished (mostly) that intersection!

I know, like 90 percent of you don't even care and weren't aware it was being redone, but now it is one big lighted intersection and traffic should move better through there. That also gets me excited about them being closer to done with the rest of the highway.

So, the picture of the day was taken while walking back from the baptism service. I thought it was pretty cool.

Thanks for reading, see you tomorrow!