rain,rain,rain

It's raining again here. It wasn't supposed to rain yesterday, but it poured. I just put grass seed down so hopefully it didn't wash it all away. And once again today it's raining.

Stephanie's working today so she doesn't have to take as many vacation hours this week when we go to the Dells.

I worked last night. I have to work every other Saturday night now. They're behind at work so we have to work more to make it up.

TJ

date

On Friday evening Stephanie and I went on a date. It's been a long time since just us two have gone on a date. We went to Mankato and ate at Red Lobster. Then we went shopping. It was fun. Stephanie had her usual chicken cause she doesn't like seafood at all. I had a lobster tail, crab legs, and shrimp. Mmmm. Now Stephanie is making Chicken Alfredo Lasagna! Mmmmm!

TJ

piano

Last night some friends from church were moving. They needed somewhere to store their piano so we offered to take it. And of course this is one of those 3 million pound upright pianos. The front door to our basement is really not that far. But when your lifting a 3 million pound piano-even with 7 or 8 guys- it seems like an eternity. But we made it. All I can think of is when they want it back! I can wait to lift it up the stairs. Hopefully, that's not for a long time. Now I have to get a "Teach Yourself To Play Piano" book.

TJ

The Office

Tonight is the season premiere of my favorite show, "The Office". It's starts at 8 and is an hour long. I've heard the first three episodes are an hour long.

Our only real movie store in Owatonna, "Hollywood Video" is closing. I thought that was strange. We have 2 grocery stores that rent movies and the McDonald's Redbox, but no real movie stores. They're just so expensive and not as popular as they used to be. I'm going over there today to see what kind of deals they have on movies for sale.

TJ

good weekend

We had a good weekend in Iowa. The concert on Friday was great as always. I prefer the stage in the middle instead of the end but it was still good. We had a birthday party on Saturday for my nephew Cole. We played some more Liar's Dice too. Sunday, we went to church in Slater and then went to Hickory Park Restaurant. Mmmmm. We sat with my sister, Melissa, and her husband, Will. Will wasn't too happy with the waitress. She refilled his drink and moved the straw from his old glass to his new one with her fingers. Will didn't like that. He asked her for a new straw and she came back with a new one holding it with her fingers and stuck it in his glass. It was pretty funny... cause it didn't happen to me.

Good news everyone, Jamie has updated her blog.

TJ

Headed to Iowa

We're going down to Iowa today. The Gaither concert in Des Moines is tonight. Woohoo! This will be my 14th Gaither concert. And we've been to 2 video tapings. My dad just called to inform me he was driving by the arena and saw Guy Penrod, Marshall Hall, Bill Gaither, Kevin Williams and a cop car. I think they're all being arrested. I told him he should take em out for lunch. I've seen some of the singers out and about at different cities. I never say anything to them though. Stephanie always says, "Go say something." What am I supposed to say? "Uh, I enjoy your music. Looking forward to the concert." I don't think so. I like to give em some privacy cause I know what it's like. Being a member of a wildly popular group, we had people surrounding us everywhere. The paparazzi wouldn't leave us alone. I can relate.

TJ

CMT

You all know I love music. All kinds. One of those genres of music is Country. I like country music. There, I admitted it. It feels good to get that out there in the open. Some of it is trash and drives me nuts. But I like a lot of it. Classic and new. I like to watch(or have it playing in the background) CMT- Country Music Television- when they are showing music videos. Although, most of the time they are showing some stupid reality show or something. Well for around 5 hours in the morning they play videos. So I flipped it on this morning to see what was playing. I was hoping to see Reba's new song, "Because Of You". I like it. It was Carrie Underwood's new video for her song, "So Small". Good song. The video was good too, the first time. Then they showed it again, and again, and again, etc. That's the only video they are showing. Over and over and over. They play it twice then go to commercial and so on. I like Carrie and her music, but seriously, come on. Now I'm sick of it. There, now I feel better.

TJ

Arrrrrrrrg!

Today is "National Talk Like A Pirate Day". ARrrrrr.

So a pirate walks into a bar. The bartender asks the pirate why he has a steering wheel in his pants? The pirate says, "Arrrrgh! It's driving me nuts!"

That was courtesy of Assistant Pastor, Jeremy Arends.

TJ

The sad weekend continues

It's over folks. Yes, it's a sad day. The "Consecutive Working Days Without Breaking Glass" is done. I hit 43 days. I was holding a piece of glass in my hands and it shattered. It wasn't a huge piece, but it was a good size piece. My partner(only a working partner) Will, said he didn't see it hit anything. He thought it just broke. But I'm wondering if I might have nicked a piece of metal, cause that will do it. So, yes folks, I broke my 43 day streak last night at work. So sad.

TJ

iowa lost.

: (

laughing

Stephanie likes to laugh at me when I "injure" myself. I bump my finger or hurt my leg or do something that involves hurting myself and she thinks it's the funniest thing in the world. Today she was laughing so hard she about peed her pants. I can't say I ever feel like peeing my pants when I'm laughing really hard. When I laugh real hard my face will hurt and I don't want to laugh anymore, then it's even more funny. I've also never had anything come out of my nose while I laugh. My mother has though. Eating supper at the table, she found something super-funny and milk came out her nose. The weird thing was that she wasn't drinking any milk. I just find things funny at the wrong time, normally during something serious, like church. Then I can't stop laughing and you've got to hold it in too. If I'm with Jeremy then it gets REALLY bad. You know what else is funny, the word "laughing". hmm

TJ

Brrr.

Boy, was it chilly last night. It was nice. Not sure exactly how cold it got, but I had to turn on the rear defrost when I left work this morning cause there was a thin layer of ice on the back windshield. Maybe this will kill some of the bugs off. Friday's low is supposed to be around freezing. The high in the low-50's.


I also found out on Dish Network I have the "Vs Network" as a free preview channel this month. So Woohoo!, I can watch the Iowa vs. Iowa State game.

TJ

Stephanie's hair

<-- Remember this picture of Stephanie's "new" hair-do. On Saturday evening we went to our awesome new friend's house. Keith and Amy Kramer are their names. Pretty nice people. A little strange. : ) Anyway, Amy reads this blog. Before we went to their door I told Stephanie she should do her hair like the picture to see what they would say. After some twisting of her arm I finally got her to do it. We went it and they didn't really say anything. Well, we found out later, Amy was hiding her head behind the fridge, laughing and wondering if she was really doing her hair that way. I guess she didn't know what kind of friends she was really getting. We keep up with the latest hair fads. So NO, Stephanie is not really doing her hair that way. But it sure was pretty funny. We were laughing so hard when we took that picture. I don't know why I found it so funny. Oh by the way, here's a picture of our new friends, Keith and Amy Kramer and their son Carsen. I don't have an actual picture of them, so here's a drawing. They're pretty skinny.

woohoo!

Just found out that Dish Network is carrying the Big Ten Network now. Now I can watch the Iowa game on Saturday! And others. Woohoo!

What a beautiful day. It's nice and cool and no humidity! Now it finally feels like fall. I'm ready for it. I like every season, but I'm always ready for the next season to begin. Especially fall cause it just gets so hot at work in the summer. I'm ready for the relief.

TJ

It's football time/Redbox

My Hawkeyes are off to a 1-0 start! Maybe they should just end the season while they're ahead. They play Syracuse, whom they barely beat last year, this Saturday evening. I'm hoping for a better season this year. The good news is they don't have to play Ohio State or Michigan this year. Hopefully they won't end up in the .Com/-gov.edu.insight/capitalone.visa Bowl.

For those of you that live in Iowa and are deprived of the Redbox DVD rental stations, your wait is over. They are now located all over at McDonalds locations in the Des Moines area, including Ankeny and Norwalk. If you don't know about them, it's just a touch-screen DVD rental station. You pick what movies you want to rent, slide your card, and go. They are a dollar a night. So if you only keep it for one night, they are dollar rentals. That's a pretty good deal, since they have brand new releases, every Tuesday that new releases come out. If they are out of a movie it just doesn't show up on the screen. If you go to their website, you can reserve movies to pick up at a certain Redbox location you pick. Also, you can get a free movie rental by going here. Just enter your email address. They don't send garbage email either. I've done this twice with 2 different email addresses and each time it was the same password - breakroom. Let me know if it's the same everywhere. It's way cheaper than a movie store. This is the only time we ever go to McDonalds. You don't have to go to the McDonalds counter either. It's off to the side. It's great.

TJ

Liar's Dice Rules/Glass Breakage

Here's the rules for Liar's Dice. There's a few variations. Instead of saying "Dudo" we just say "I Call You". The tricky part is increasing the bid.

Here's an update on my Consecutive Days Without Breaking Glass. Right now I'm at 38 working days! I can't believe how well I've done. It's amazing.

TJ

Camping

We spent the Labor Day weekend camping here at the campground in Owatonna. It was perfect weather. No rain at all. It was a lot of fun. The game of the year this year was Liar's Dice. I won't explain it cause I had a hard time catching on like everyone else. But once you figure it out it's very addicting. I kept getting knocked out but would keep coming back for more. It's like I was on drugs. I just couldn't stop. I also made my return to Karaoke on Sunday evening at the campground. I sang "To All The Girls I've Loved Before" by Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias with my dad and "Superstar" by the Carpenters with Stephanie. I spent a lot of time sitting around the fire. I never did get a nap in but that's alright.

TJ