the WU reborn

The Week in News

MILWAUKEE, WI: A few days ago, I discovered that a piece of refuse was either maliciously inserted into the drivers-side keyhole of my car, or mysteriously appeared there. This has resulted in my repeatedly trying to open it, only to remember that I have to walk around to the other side of my car, cursing most of the way there and back.

In other news, the second would-be buyer Condonation(tm) is trying to weasel out of it. It's a great mystery as to why; analysts speculate that the interested party has found another place that they like better, and are now trying to make up excused to welch out of this one.

In sports today, my fantasy football team got wiped out by an inferior team partly due to my idiotic trade with another team. I parted with one Randy Moss for Tiki Barber and a pick in next years draft. Of course, the standard "Soo trade" rules applied, and Mr. "I play when I want to" went OFF for 3 touchdowns and 170 odd yards. Hey Randy, I know you read this, so get bent.

The weather today was blah. At least it didn't rain.

That's the news as I know it.

Chicago

Well, I just got back last night after a weekend of working in Chicago. I was working a trade table for Dan, friend of mine from Madison. It was a huge Magic tournament, and I ended up spending about 15 hours a day on Saturday and Sunday buying and selling cards. For those of you who don't know, I used to be quite the Magic kid, and was even state champion in 1999.

When I got home, I showered, wrote a paper, and hit the sack. Tonight was steak night, which was grand; we all discussed the impending January Whistler trip.

Now I have to write another paper before my 8am journalism class tomorrow. I hope that your weekends were delightful.

Love ya!

Waiken

Smack

I've been flying through that book the last 2 days, and while it fascinates me, I still don't understand what makes people want to try it. I guess I just don't know anyone who was on it who ever got off of it, so it seems like a bad call.

Just got back from the grocery store where I got a bunch of groceries for the week, including some salt and vinegar pork rinds.

Gotta cram in as much homework as possible before the weekend since I have to work all weekend in Chicago.

Update on the cough: Well, I upped my vitamin C dosage to 4000 mg a day, and the echinacea to 8 tabs a day, so if that doesn't bomb it out, I don't know what will. I do feel a bit better; whether there is a direct causal relationship there is up for debate.

I really feel like going on a roller coaster. I think the last time I was at Great America was like 15 years ago, right when the shockwave came out. Who wants to go to Great America?

Steak/Cough

Good Morning~

A few days ago, I had nasal drip, but thought it was just the change in climate. This morning, I am all dry inside, and i started coughing. I assumed it was just dry air, until it yielded the green phlegm thing. What the hell is that and how do I get rid of it? My mom would probably say to gargle salt water, and then scold me that I always get sick, which isn't true (get sick maybe once a year).

Anyway, what the heck is a cough really? Its your body trying to get rid of something right? Like constipation of the lungs?

Now that you're all hungry, I'll make an announcement:

Next Monday Night 9-22-03, I'm going for steak. If you want to join, e-mail me so I can add you to the reservations. Not sure where we are going yet; I guess we can vote.

If anyone can get rid of this cough, I'll buy you a cocktail.

Condonation (tm) Back on the Market

Many of you know the drama that I had to go through to get this far in the process. If not, and you are interested, just ask and I'll be glad to fill you in. Anyway, the long and the short of it is that the buyer's son is a lawyer, and also happens to be, in my opinion, a waste of carbon. He's the kid who always pissed in the swimming pool before he got out. Because of a screw up on their end, he has gone to great lengths to find loopholes in the contract to get his 84 year old mother out of it, much to her disdain.

That leaves me with a mortgage on a place that I'm not even living in. Nice huh? If it wasn't for the quick and decisive actions of my realtor, Dave Herro, I would be in even worse condition. He's already showed the place once, and has two more tonight. Hopefully something happens soon. Thanks Dave for all your help on this. I can't think of anyone else I'd rather have running this show.

In other news, it's the two year anniversary of 9-11. It makes me sad that there is so much hate in the world, but I know that there's little that can be done about it, or rather there is little that will be done about it.

Hmmm.. how to end this on a positive note? Let's see, I returned my cable modem, since I am plugged into another one now, and got credit for that. I forgot the power cord, but the lady took it back anyway. Also, my e-mail was down for an hour or so, but I called roadrunner, pretended I was my dad, and got my e-mail set up as a subaccount on theirs. So that was good. The clerk was from Ottowa, and his name was Rajeed.

I've got a hankering for Jerry's Old Town Inn ribs. Too bad the sugar in the sauce would ruin my Atkins diet that I just started. Anyone want to go get crab legs next week?

Happy 500 Visits Day!

Well, it's not that many, but it's only been two weeks, so I thought it would be a good reason to celebrate.

Finally made it through Persuasion, and now get to catch up on other classes.

Mom and Dad left for Vancouver today for nine days, leaving me to care for the house. Must be nice; what I could do if I could stop time for nine days.

Today I rescued a Red Baron pepperoni pizza from the depths of the Soo Manor dungeons. I carbon dated it to February of 1999. The resulting layer on top formed a pseudo-glacier of sorts, which required several tools, and careful excavation to confirm that indeed, pepperoni still lay underneath. Upon coming out of cryogenics, the pizza was badly wounded, and along with the ice, came off all of the cheese. I added some freshly cut mushrooms, and some canned parmesan cheese.

Into the oven it went, and the resulting product was not quite pizza, not quite inedible. It reminded me a bit of the movie The Fly where two things go into a transporter, and something not quite right came out on the other end. I hacked it into pieces, and took a few bites. Chewy, and crunchy. Not chewy in a good way though. Oh well, no time to make anything good for dinner, so this will have to do.

Tyan managed to sell her futon, and her friends came to pick it up today, so that should yield a space for me to be able to set up my TV. Thanks Tyan! Love ya!

That's it for now; I'm off to sink into The Chocolate War.

Operation Dumptruck: Campaign 1 Mission 2 (The Post Office)

Last night was spent in the dining room packing things into boxes and taping them up. Monday Night Football promised to be interesting, and featured my team, the Philadelphia Eagles. Alas, I could not watch, as there were auctions that had finished, and people needed their junk, my junk, their new junk, well whatever.

I cranked the kitchen TV up to "obnoxious" so that I could hear it and bore down. It wouldn't have been so bad, had I not had to pack up 60+ pieces of china.

Anyway, the Eagles lost like girls, and I went to bed.

This morning, I went to my 8 a.m. class, and following discussion, which is seriously the most classic case of read-regurgitate I have ever seen. Arriving home, I loaded up the sled and was off to ye olde post office. $70 later, I was free: free of the burden, free of boxes, free of the clutter, free of that crap. Good thing the post office takes credit cards. It's all about earning miles while you send unwanted crap all over ther country.

I was gonna have a rummage sale this weekend, but seriously have no time. Sad as it may sound, my only leisure activity is posting to this blog. That's because I love all of you, dammit! Oh well, the sale will have to wait a little while.

Back to the last few torturous chapters of Jane Austen.

Blissful Ignorance

My English professor went as far as to say, not allude to, mind you, that "...intelligent people will like Jane Austen, because she respects intelligence and writes for the intelligent reader. People who don't like her work are likely not as intelligent, and are far more likely to be drawn towards - what's that author who's books are in drugstores now - the romance author..." Someone pipes in "Danielle Steele".

Well, I have now plodded arduously through the first 22 chapters of Persuasion, and I can tell you that I'm not a big fan. I do understand it, and can appreciate the plot twists and intricate layers; however, it's just not doing it for me at all. I'd rather watch paint dry than have to read it again. Ironically, I would dare to compare this classic novel to a Steele novel with a little bit more meat on its bones.

Clearly this means that I am unintelligent, and will likely suffer the fate of a homeless street person, or if I'm lucky, a carnie. How tragic to find this out at such a late age. To think that all these years, I've been existing for no reason.

On the upside, my feeble mind is entertained by the fact that I have won my first week of fantasy football.

Happy Birthday to Eddie Jurken!

Two Weddings

Congratulations to my cousin Leow Peng Boon and his bride Han Li June on their recent wedding!

Congratulations also to my friend Sean Metcalf and his bride Marian Chamberlain on their recent wedding! Good luck Marian; you'll need it!

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend Boon's as it was in Singapore. However, my father was there, and reports that it was very nice. It was a Chinese wedding.

I was able to attend Sean's, which was yesterday in Cottage Grove, WI. It was an Irish wedding, with the men in the wedding party wearing kilts!

I will post photos when I get them in. Anyone else get married in the last week that I need to know about?

The Circle of Life

This is another chapter on practicing my newly adopted philosophy of only owning things that are disposable.

As you know, if you are a loyal reader, I have to acquire and read over 30 books this semester. One of my classes requires a lot of novels. Mom recommended checking into Half Price Books, and I cringed at the idea. My vision of this place was a dark, dusty room with smoke, and a gigantic pile of books here and there, and a bunch of people milling about digging for the "hot deals". However, I figured I would go into it with an open mind.

Upon calling one of their locations this morning, I was delighted to find that they had the first three books on my list. So, I decided I would make the journey. The location is down on the south side, near two used CD stores, so I figured I'd mise two birds with one stone and bring all that crap down there too. Then I thought there might be the off chance that they might take VHS stuff, so I grabbed all that crap too.

Into the car tumbles 4 milk crates full of crap and me.

First stop: Atomic Records. I figured that I had a lot of alternative and hard to find import stuff, much of which was purchased from them. If anyone was going to take it, it would be them. Sure enough the total came to $99, and the owner rounded up to $100. I felt like the kid in that commercial who goes to the bank with a buttload of change and the manager rounds it up 1 penny to make a perfect $100. Those of you reading this in another country have no idea what the heck I am talking about, but well dammit it's supposed to be a touching commercial, so pretend you have some compassion...or something. ok whatever. Crap for cash count: $100

Next stop: Disc-go-round. I walked in, and they told me that they need people to buy things, not sell things today since they had no money. I asked them if there was a competitor nearby, and they pointed across the street. heh

Next stop: Take 2. As soon as I opened the door, I recognized the manager as a guy named Dan, who I worked with at Funcoland 10 years before. He remembered me, and it made me feel old. He looks the same, except a little heavier, some random anime tattoos, and he's married with kids. He told me he got married the same day as Blotto. Anyway, they gave me $165. Then Dan said that if I wanted to ditch the rest of the junk they wouldn't buy, I should head to Half Price Books, although they would take it to me prison-style. How lucky! I was going there anyway.... Crap for cash count: $265.

Next stop: Half Price Books. Well, this place ended up being clean and organized, smashing my prejudices into a half million pieces. I found all but one of the books I wanted, and a cheap Neruda compilation of love poems, all for $15.32. Naturally, that was after they gave me $88 for most of the rest of my crap. Crap for cash count: $353.

Next stop: Asian Mart. I needed some groceries for the dinner I was preparing tonight for the moving kids.

Next stop: Sendiks Grocery Store. see above.

Next stop: Home. I spent about 3 hours cooking and it was pretty good. Shipman, AP, and his girl Rachel showed up and we had a pretty good time. On the menu was:

panfried potstickers

potato-leek soup with crabmeat puff

baked salmon with lemon, butter, and herbs

saffron basmati rice

stir-fried napa cabbage with fish sauce

almond dofo dessert with fruit cocktail

white wine

So, I converted four milkcrates full of stuff into a meal for my friends who helped me out, and some cash which will hopefully be spent on other disposable things in the future. As I ate, I started to think back to physics and kinetic energy, and felt funny converting cd's and videos into salmon. Oh well, I feel good about having less stuff to move next time...but most importantly: the evil empire (UWM BOOKSTORE) didn't get any more of my freaking money today!