the WU reborn

holidays in riverwest

photos to be posted soon.

lately, i'm the worst at updating this thing.  i've been pretty busy doing minor projects around the house and finally have it almost how we want it.  as we're getting hammered with an inordinate amount of snow lately, shoveling is in the mix of weekly activities.  i've forgotten how much i actually like how i feel after shoveling.  generally i think about all the people around the city probably having heart attacks, and am thankful that i'm not one of them.  then i go inside, sweaty and tired, and take a shower.

we haven't gotten out for any showboarding yet, but plan to in the next few weeks, perhaps after the holidays.  i'm working christmas eve, but am off christmas and new years.  as i'm away from the folks for christmas for the first time ever, we're heading to her family's place for christmas eve, and then to the bussler's on christmas day.  should be enjoyable.

i was able to get off for the week of chyi's wedding in may, so a trip to paris is in the near future.  most likely, we'll be going to prague with lih-jen for a few days before that, then finish the trip in paris.  i'm excited for chyi and jonas.  if all goes well, we'll be able to hit singapore in december of 2008.

all of my christmas shopping is done and 90% of the presents are wrapped.  that's a record for me. generally by this time, i've not started shopping yet.  yay me! 

my car's driver side front window decided to cause problems for me the other day.  as i was trying to roll it down, the power window groaned then i heard a crack, then the window dropped down inside the door.  it was 15 degrees out and the wind was blowing.  i was late to work, much to my dismay.  i taped up the window with a plastic bag and lived that way for 48 hours or so, including driving (dressed up) to a holiday party for maggie's work.  eventually, i had a guy who was recommended to me by my normal mechanic look at it and he said that he could get it to the point where it was up but could not roll down.  it only set me back $60 and he's looking into the piece i need.  can't say i'm a big fan of ye olde jetta.  it's one thing after another.

in poker news, our monthly league is going well.  this month we had the biggest turnout ever: 27 people.  that's 26 boys and 1 girl, maggie.  guess who won?  well, i took 5th and of course, my ultra-cool superspy secret ninja girl took 1st.  when asked what happened, she said "it's because we watched rounders the night before."  can't argue with that.  she took great joy in telling all the boys they'd been beaten by a girl.  oh wait that was me who said that.  in any case, i'm 1st overall, and maggie has catapulted up to 5th place overall out of 35 people.  congrats, mags!

tyan managed to maintain her position at work was 10th place overall in the state for sales AND got a promotion.  congrats tyan!

more soon, i promise.  love you all, and happy holidays to you and your families.

home improvement

new photos in the september-october album!  they encompass our trip to eau claire and minnesota to visit regi and go to maggie's family reunion, and also some pre-halloween fun.

well, i'm a homeowner again.  i closed on a duplex in riverwest late last month.  maggie and i moved into the upper, and there's a tenant named larry in the lower.  he's been there for a few years and seems like a pretty solid guy.

the house is about a hundred years old with a big fenced in back yard and no garage or slab.  my heat is baseboards and seems fine.  the cats are loving the extra space and their cat door (which was already here when we got here).

maggie's folks have been really helpful as they are handy.  they, (bill and karen),  came over the other night and had dinner with us, and then helped us hang some hooks and paintings and a mirror from ikea.  next week our cabinets from menards arrive, and bill's gonna help with that as well.  tuesday and wednesday, maggie and i are going to paint the living room, which is a putrid peach-salmon color right now.  every time i look at the wall, it reminds me of bile.  i think we're going to go with an off white.

other acquisitions: two bookshelves from ikea, a sofa and chair from evans, and a king size bed through the bill hookup. thanks bill!  also, random bathroom stuff. 

what else is new?  we went to a pumpkin patch/petting zoo (don't ask) in east troy with erin, indigo, and pinky (don't ask).  everyone got their fill of ooh's and ah's, and we each got a pumpkin.  they sat on our porch for about a week, and last night, mags and i decided to put 'em under the knife.  the last time i carved a pumpkin, i think i was in grade school.  maggie, on the other hand, has carved one every year of her life, as long as she's been able to clutch a sharp blade.  needless to say, i was pretty intimidated.  she traced a cool wolf we found online, and a deceptacon icon for me, and drew them on our pumpkins.  we carved them up, and got some photos on the porch.  i'll post those asap.

we finally got internet hooked up.  yay!  if only i could find my router now.  somehow it got lost in the move from eric's.  i'm crossing my fingers.

maggie's been doing another indexing project, and seems to be getting even better at it.  i'm really impressed, and might check into it myself as it seems kind of fun.

congrats to brad and katie on the birth of their son, mason!

that's all for now; miss you all.

wk

how lucky

so i got the temporary "nesting" shift that i wanted, t-sat 8-5.  this allowed me to have a 3 day weekend in eau claire and minnesota with regi and at maggie's relatives place, and is also going to allow me to go see rush!  le cheer! 

so this "job tour" will end in a week and a half now, so i'm bidding for the next tour.  it's all based on seniority, and i am 100 out of 125 currently.  thankfully there are three more classes starting every three weeks for the next little while, so my seniority should shoot up as a few drop off, and more people join.  hopefully i will be say, 95 out of 280 by year end. who knows.

i'm pretty pumped about rush.  obviously.

played in a 10 person tournament at regi's while in eau claire.  we got to use his sexy-ass paulson chips and his custom poker table.  i'm very jealous.  good news though, i won. woot!

went to roger's house and found he had the 80s version of guitar hero.  got to play asia's heat of the moment, and winger's 17.  pretty funny.

over labor day weekend, we went to one of maggie's pal's aunt's house on genesse lake.  it was a fun relaxing time with vino, funny music, and swimming.

saw jet li's new movie, war.  it's horrible. absolutely terrible.  i almost cried. 

today i'm back to the grind.  making curry tonite.  life is good.

my american dream?

so, i'm working these days for a fortune 100 company.  next week is my last week of training, and then i'll go into kind of a probationary/continued training period for two weeks called 'nesting'.  after that, i'll officially be a corporate slave.  by the way, we're hiring more slaves, so if you want a job, get a hold of me and i'll try to get you in.  that way, we can sit next to each other while being whipped.

i'm buying a duplex in river west.  it's looking a lot like i'll be moving into the upper; i prefer the layout to the lower.  with any luck, i'll be able to use this as the genesis of my real estate empire.  unless something horrible shows up on the inspection, i'm in.

i have plans to get a dog, finally.

i made a new pal at work.  yesterday, she came down from fond du lac with her husband, and with maggie, we all went to phan's for pho.  it's getting to be pho weather: rainy, cooler; come winter, i'll be eating it at least once a week.  mmm.

bourne ultimatum was pretty good.  if you liked the previous two, you'll enjoy this one.

sunshine was great.  it's a sci-fi thriller from director danny boyle, of trainspotting and 28 days later fame.

i might miss rush for the first time in 22 years.  needs of the business and what not.  sigh.  crossing my fingers.

i'm in a monthly poker league.  you get points for how well you do, which gives you chips for the year end tournament as well.  so far in 3 months, i've taken 4th, 4th and 2nd in fields of 30, 20, and 19.  not too bad.  i'm pleased.  next year i hope to get in a league that the year end tournament sends someone to the WSOP.  maggie plays in it too.  she's the only girl, and last month she made the final table.  this month she would have probably been in the top 3, but she got sucked out on horribly with 55 vs 33, all in pre-flop, when she was a 4-1 favorite.  the guy flopped a set and rivered quads.  how lucky.

still digging her lots.

next weekend, we're going to minnesota for her family reunion, and staying with my pal regi and his family in eau claire.  i'm really looking forward to that.

any new snacky snacks?

tons of photos coming soon, i promise, like everything from the last year.

so what's new?

i guess i'm staying.  it looks pretty good on the at&t job that i applied and tested for.  they're taking their time with all the background checks and what not, but i've been given a conditional job offer, which will probably only go bad if either they mistake me for a mass murderer, or if the drug test fails on account of some random contact exposure.  so, yay me... almost back in corporate america.

i'm currently looking at duplexes (east side, riverwest).  i figure that with the real estate market as brutally depressed as it is, i may as well try to get a little something-something while the gettin's good.  beats pissing away rent money methinks.  so, i've called upon the usual suspects, dave and chuck. 

friday, i went down to chicago and had korean bbq with karl and shannon.  they're recent homeowners (grats kids)! 

chyi visited for a week or so.  didn't get to hang out as much as i'd like (she's got a lot of people to see in a short time), but managed to have dinner and get in some bowling.  i'm pretty much the nut-low at bowling, but i still try.

earlier in the month, i flew to vancouver to visit the folks.  ironically, i criss-crossed with dad for a few days, as he was back in milwaukee for a memorial service for his deceased mentor, ray headlee.  overall, it was lovely to visit vancouver again, and meet up with friends and family.  it was one of the most relaxing vacations i've ever had as it boasted near-perfect weather, good company, outstanding food, and little to no schedule.

well that's about it.  not much else to tell...

hmm... or is there?

yeah i guess there is.  after finally finding peace with being single, and swearing women off on the general principle of being "more trouble than they're worth," i've randomly found an absolutely amazing girl.  i can't say that i've ever been happier with any other lady in my life; it's really refreshing to be able to have continual conversations about things that don't bore me, and be able to do things together that we both actually enjoy.  every day, it astounds me how many core beliefs we have in common, and how well we complement one another.  additionally, she seems to get me, has a job, an apartment, friends, and isn't an emotional vampire.  what the hell is wrong with this picture?  oh, did i mention she plays poker?

so yeah, a week into dating, we decided to take a trip together, and that trip ended up being to vancouver.  crazy, no?   i figured (and heard) that travelling is a real test, because of all the random stressors, but the vacation proved to be pretty much the opposite of that: completely relaxing, and seemingly the "right" thing for us.  we both had a ton of fun, and my family seems to like her. 

that's maggie and me in my parents' north vancouver condo.  thanks dad for the photo.

ok, that's really everything.  i'll try to be better about posting, now that life's gotten a bit more interesting.  thanks for reading.

love,

wk

***update*** i just received confirmation that i got the job, so i start training in pewaukee monday 6 august.  also, as promised, big disorganized photo album from the last year or so here.  more photos from vancouver and such on the way.

six months back

currently listening to: joni mitchell - court and spark

i haven't posted in a while, mostly because there's not that much to tell.  i've stayed in milwaukee, and decided to try to acquire a job, mostly for benefits.  i qualified for preliminary testing for a tech job at a local telecom provider, and passed the tests.  so now i'm sitting in a pool of qualified candidates until the powers that be decide to harvest enough of us from the livewell to form a training class. 

the thought of re-entering corporate america after a nearly five year hiatus coupled with hours of conversations with multiple friends has birthed an idea, a goal, and motivation.  i want to get involved with real estate.  i'm taking steps to further that plan.  we'll see what happens.

i've taken up disk golf.  there are several parks in the area, and a few of my pals play. 

*begin rant* so many people i run into are such horrible pet (in particular dog) owners.  when the fuck are people going to realize that never walking your dogs isn't cool?  they're not there so that you can feel less fat and pathetic about your worthless lives, people.  dogs are similar to children.  they need a lot of attention, care, and exercise vs. cats who could generally care less if you're live or dead, so long as they have reign of the house, food to eat, and somewhere to shit.  just because dogs can't bitch about it to you like kids can doesn't mean that you don't suck.  *end rant*

i have wanted a dog for a few years now, but want to make sure i can give it a good home.  to that end, i'm helping to care for a few dogs: shelby, who lives with us, and ike, billy's lab-doberman mix.  there's a dog park up in mequon, and they love the opportunity to run free, smudge up my windows, and sniff foreign turds.

i've finally caught up on a bunch of "good" tv that i've blown off for years.  my hatred for commercials and waiting has paid off.  i've recently watched all of the sopranos, deadwood s.1, dexter s.1, the wire s.1, six feet under s.1-2, all the family guys, and all the no reservations.  w00t.  thanks to jeremy and mininova!

city of heroes is boring as hell.  i probably log in 3x a month, and then it's hit or miss.  PvE makes me want to die in a fire, and sadly, none of my pals PvP.  so, i pretty much don't play.

my parents' global tour has taken a temporary hiatus, as they are in vancouver until september.  then i think it's off to asia where they'll be until year end.

been playing some home poker games and leagues, and doing ok.  if nothing else, it's helped me adjust to players who don't care about the money.  the stakes we play are so low that nobody cares much.  it's making me a better player.

i've seen so many movies in the last few months, most of them terrible.  the last great movie i saw was namesake.  i also enjoyed the danish after the wedding.

summerfest is coming up.  i'll do my best to avoid it unless someone dumps a pair of roger waters tickets in my lap.  the only other artist who'll be there that i could be coerced into going to see is talib kweli.

congratulations:

blotto for opening a comic book store in stevens point.

tyan for your divorce.

sanjay and anna for your marriage and new life together in arizona.

jim & sarah burns for the birth of their daughter, amelia quinn burns.

moo and todd for your promotions at work.

lisa for bagging john.

eric for your drastic weight loss.

james for having the courage to teach english in korea for a year.

lih-jen for escaping the clutches of singapore for the u.k.

fin

snow slush snow cold nyahghh

life in the midwest can be charming.  however, the majority of us would argue this as an untruth in late february.  there are those few, however, who revel in the bitter cold, for whatever sick reasons.  i'm of the belief that just as the battered woman tragically tells herself that she's living her only reality, these poor souls have convinced themselves that not only do they not have any other choices, but that they love it!  bring on the salt trucks!  three cheers for moon boots!  huzzah!

one such person is my roommate jayme.  we had a discussion on the porch the other day, she enjoying a some smoky air, and i enjoying some clean air, that involved my general disdain and her apparent love for deep, bitter, cold ass winter.  her comment was "i love it when it's really cold!"  and then she giggled.  i responded "i'm going inside."

another is my pal jeremy.  jeremy's love for winter stems from his hatred of heat.  few things are more evil in his eyes than the baleful gaze of the lifegiving sun peeking over the horizon to make his life miserable for twelve hours.  jeremy enjoys air conditioning, and if his wife heidi would allow it, would probably have the windows wide open in winter.

for me, winter provides the chance to snowboard, although admittedly i haven't been this season.  part of the reason is that it's been so damned cold!  it doesn't have to be, and shouldn't be that cold when you are willfully exposing yourself to the elements, intent on experiencing joy.  this brings me back to square one, which led me to comprise a list of things to do to distract yourself from the cold. 

1. pretend you're a bear in hibernation.  yes that's it, sleep as much as possible.  even when you wake up, go back to sleep, or at least lie in your bed for a good 30 minutes, and much of the time, you'll probably pass out for another 15 minutes or so.  rinse, repeat, until you can't stand it.  with any luck you'll wake up next week and have lost five pounds.

2. do some spring cleaning.  having a clean environment will make you cheer up a bit, and might make you feel more healthy, and less depressed.  just don't leave the doors and windows open to let the fresh air in for too long.

3. pantry rotation.  once a year or so, i try to blow through all the crap in my pantry.  winter is a great time to do this, because then you don't have to go out and shop as much.  also, it brings that can of beets to the front of your mind so you can finally eat it or give it away a food pantry, where someone else will get it and also not eat it.

4. look at photos of sunny places on the internet.  this works for some, and for others, it makes them want to grab the nearest bottle of mad dog.  use with caution.

i got nothing else.  i'm off to bed, again.

snowy in midwest

i know i know, long time.  if you haven't heard, i made it home ok.  the holidays were blissfully uneventful.  chyi was home from paris, and tyan is already living with mom and dad, so we were all together.  it wasn't much of a white christmas, but quiet, with a lot of time spent hanging around the house.  even our christmas is getting more minimalistic, thankfully.  dinner and presents on xmas eve, then church xmas morn, and then head to the busslers.  it's the same routine every year in milwaukee, and in some ways, the familiarity is comforting.

as the house is up for sale, we all hope this will be the last xmas on lake drive.  with the market being the way it is though, who knows.  it's certainly a buyers market in milwaukee.

mom and dad left shortly after chyi went home.  they're in florida for a couple months, basking in the heat.  meanwhile we're in the cold.  it's good to be home though.  i've managed to touch base with a lot of the old gang, and spent some time with a good chunk of them.

i got a storage locker.  i thought it would be shit, since it's in a crap area of town, but it's actually in a real nice warehouse with a guarded locked lobby, freight elevators, etc.  so damn near everything i own in the world is in a 2' x 5' x 8 ' locker.  it's costing me $20 per month, with the 2nd and 6th month free, thanks to tyan hearing about a special on google.  sweet.

as the house needs to be stage-show-anal-clean all the time, i've taken refuge with eric and jayme and their infinite pets.  i've really enjoyed my time here...lots of good chats, reminiscing, and cooking.  it's nice to have people to cook for again, and in addition to the residents, there are commonly others hanging around who partake in my culinary experiments.  no complaints so far...if only they knew that my secret ingredient is always SOILENT GREEN!

perfect apartment - beach - walking everywhere in my neighborhood - amazing cheap food - asian women - laramies - coles - suhs - loong & eliz - this is what i miss about vancouver.  will i go back to live?  unknown.  at the very least, a yearly pilgrimage.  if all my friends from here were there, there would be no question.

i've played poker a few times at potowotomi.  i've come to the conclusion that the players are just generally worse here than in vancouver, if that's possible.  the one big difference is aggression.  the vancouver drug, sex-trade, and other gangbanging revenue, and the legendary asian "gambool-gambool" defective gene gives birth to hyper-aggressive, loose play, and while a good chunk of them are donkeys, they cannot compete with the armies of loose passive players who frequent milwaukee's poker room.  unfortunately, it's the only game in town, but fortunately, it's pretty juicy.  there are a few good and/or hyper-aggressive players, but it's easy enough to avoid them.  the main thing is that few people here know how to handle a big stack, and there is no 1-2 NL proving ground.  the game is either limit, or 3-5 200-600 buyin NL, which for a lot of people is very high.  in any case, i'm happy to be doing well in that game, at least for now.

most fun hand so far in milwaukee:

me 72c in the big blind, with $800 or so stack
4 limpers, the small blind completes, i check, 6 people to the flop, pot $30
flop 2h 2d Qh
i check, it checks around to MP guy, who bets 25, 2 other callers, i call
turn Ac
i check, bettor bets 100, 1 guy calls, i check their stacks, both of them have like 250 or so left, i checkraise to 400, first guy mucks (he later claimed he had AQ), and the other guy who just called 100 calls the all in.  he tables Ah Th
river 2s

woot quads!

i still need to post photos.  it's not going to happen in this post.  next one.  perhaps?

COH/COV is still around, but i've been taking it easy lately.  funny how when you have friends around, you have more things to do.

i want a dog.  probably either a boston terrier, or a chocolate lab. 

if i haven't talked to you yet, call me, or shoot me an email.

god's country

ok i duno who said that but someone did.  i've got a few points that related to montana and god.

1. country music revisited:  today, i left missoula, mt (think "a river runs through it")  for miles city, mt. (think "billy bobs banjo hits vol.1").  my car is chock full of stuff, and the passenger side seat is crammed way forward to make room for the boxes on the back seat floor.  sadly, my iPod adaptor cable is stuck in that seat.  enter...the radio.  the only channel that i could get about 40 miles out of missoula was a country one.  when faced with the choice between country, and nothing, it's an easy vote, nothing.  so i turned it off.  an hour later, i turned it back on, just to see if i could deal with "god's country".  twenty minutes later, i nearly drove my car off the road on purpose, so i figured it would be a good time to turn it back off, which i did.  in short, nothing really IS better than country, although not in the way that hillbillys would have you take the meaning.

2. i've got a habit of seeing cop lights in my rear view window, and clenching the steering wheel, and hoping they pass by, which they usually do.  "thank god," i'll say.  well, today, a mere 70 miles out of miles city, my little prayer wasn't answered, as a cop pulled me over for doing a mere 91 in a 75, forever dispelling the age-old myth that "there's no speed limit in montana."  or is it a myth?  let's break it down:

the ticket isn't going to be reported so my insurance rates won't go up

the ticket has been paid, a mere $40

i average 15 mph over the speed limit

the entire trip is 2163 miles, which at an average speed limit of 70 mph would take 30.9 hours.

at an average (speeding) speed of 85 mph, the trip will take 25.44 hours.

those of you who know me know that these numbers are modest.  i'm glad i wasn't pulled over today on a montata straightaway going 110.  anywho......

speeding saves me 5.46 hours, which at a total cost of 40 dollars, is only $7.32/hour.  i'm quite certain that when i'm 80, whatever cash i have left over, if i could spend $7.32/hour, i'd do it if it would extend my life.  that said, i feel that the 40 dollars was well invested, and i'm happy that montana has given me the opportunity to recoup that lost time, time that i never would have been able to get back, and at such an affordable price to boot. 

cheers, montana!

tomorrow, on to fargo. 

heading home for the holidays

three days ago i lost my cell phone.  i never found it.  first time in 10 years i've lost a cell phone.

yesterday, i left vancouver around 1pm.  the weather was fine.  I5-405 to bypass seattle.  i noticed my gas was getting to about 1/3 tank, so i would pull over at the next stop.  then it started shitting snow.  driving in the snow is no big deal, but it gets dark around 4pm now, so as the snow picked up, i figured i'd just see if i could find a place to stay near the gas station.  too bad for me i was in snoqualmie pass, wa.  as i was getting off the ramp, my gas light went on, letting me know that i have about 60 miles to go, then i'm out of gas.  no problem.

i headed to the gas station, only to find the lights out.  puzzled, i drove to the only hotel around, the summit lodge.  the clerk told me that because of the storm, the power was out in most of western washington, and the gas couldn't pump because of course it ran on electricity.  thankufully, the lodge had a generator.  i asked for a room, and got the last one available, which had no heat.  he gave me a space heater, and i went to my room in a daze.  guy down in the lobby talked about waiting for AAA for 4 hours in his car only to have them not show up.

i guess you never realize how dependent you are on a car until you can't get gas.  tons of people were stranded because many of the nearby towns were out of power, and thus out of gas.  frankly, i was a bit scared, because what the hell to do?  icy snowy ass roads, with no way to go anywhere.  lights flickering on and off as the generator groaned.  i was seriously considering getting back to seattle, if i could acquire gas, flying home and shipping my car, but found that would have cost $950 for the car shipment alone.  needless to say, i was not in a good mood last night. thankfully, i slept for like 10 hours...

i had some crazy, fucked up dreams:

1. joyful: unknown beautiful punky girl and i wandering through record store and she finds a first pressing of led zeppelin II.  she gets down on her knees and weeps tears of joy, and immediately purchases it.

2. scary: i was in charge of watching an old woman's dogs.  for some reason she died.  the dogs kept going to the 2nd floor bedroom and barking.  eventually i went up there and found a bunch more dead dogs, that the live ones were slowly feeding on.

3. unsure: something about hell.  i'm sure this was related to my waking up at 1 am to find the room a sauna as the space heater kicked into overdrive.

this morning, we brainstormed.  there was a guy, probably 21 years old, who had a sister in a town 60 miles away that had power. but his car was out of gas.  there was a woman, probably 60 and her daughter 30.  they had separate cars, full of shit.  however, the 30 yr old woman had performance tires, and needed chains.,  then there's me, with no gas.  so eventually, the 60 yr old woman agreed to take the guy to his sister to get gas for the two of us, and chains for the womans daughter.  i waited a the lodge with the daughter.

meanwhile, the korean lady who owned the gas station decided to start pumping gas by hand.  well, she had her mexican flunkies do it, and charged 5 bucks a gallon.  i duno, im pretty sure that's illegal, since this is the USA and not some war-torn third world nation.  anywa, after checking with the mother to make sure she hadn't already bought my gas, (she hadn't), i coughed up 25 bucks for gas to get me to the next town and was on my way.

after about 80 miles of white knuckled driving, the roads cleared up a bit.  armed with about 5 cups of coffee and a general disdain for careening off cliffs, i made my way all the way to missoula, mt, where i sit typing in a marriot inn.  i room serviced a burger, played a few hours of coh with eric, and now i'm gonna hit the sack.

the loose game plan is:

17 sunday missoula, mt - miles city, mt

18 monday miles city, mt - fargo, nd

19 tuesday fargo, nd - eau claire, wi

20 or 21 eau claire, wi - milwaukee, wi

i have photos as far back as karl's wedding that i need to post. i'm a slacker, i know. 

frankly, i'm just happy to be alive, and not stuck like alot of those other people in WA.  1.1 M people without power.  holy shit.  i literally escaped a disaster zone.